more fun with fotobooths...

to follow up on KT's post from yesterday over at velo vogue, here's another one from winterfest's always fun fotobooth.



i love that foto! i like our camera one too over at velo vogue.



here's a fotobooth foto from a couple of years ago. i tell ya, that fotobooth rules!

nyc bicycle balancing act

whoa. i opened up my inbox today to see this glorious photograph taken by stanley kubrick, better known as the director of the shining, a clockwork orange, and full metal jacket, among others.

and you thought you had balance when you ride your bike with no hands. whoaaaaaaa.

also...what composition! amazing.

happy tuesday everyone! SF is expected to get gusts of wind up to 50-70mph (if a certain local news outlet is to be believed). not sure if that means i'll be muni-ing it or braving it out there. get ready for it y'all...

foto via here.

22nd St & Valencia

Domingo En Merida

Just last week an old friend of mine returned from a trip to Mérida, in the most wonderful part of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula. While she was there, she snapped some shots of the locals and their bicycles out for a Sunday ride about town. She knows I love this stuff (both Mexico and bicycles which I would happily combine any day of the week as they are two of my favorite things!).


What a lovely place to just putter around! I would ride all over the place all day long. I wish Guadalajara had been this accommodating when I lived there in 1992. I hear it has really changed since I was last there. Copenhagenize has ranked it on a global scale and it beat out SF! That blew me away! Viva México!!


I wonder if these are part of a bike share? If so, they put Mérida firmly ahead of San Francisco on that front (we still can't get it together here!).

I love those recumbent pedicabs! Power assist, nice seating, comfortable for the operator... I would ride those all over the place instead of a taxi any day! I don't know if they are for rent as they have no signage, but man they are cool!


The city of Mérida closes some of its streets every Sunday for several hours to allow the public to frolic in the peace. Nice for the tourists, but even nicer for the locals who get a regular break from the cars and the fumes.

So now I want to get back to Mexico even more than I did before! How about you? Ever ridden a bicycle along Mexico's cobbled streets? Do you commute in a city of my southern neighbor? Tell us about it!

*Stupid Blogger won't let me upload any more pictures right now, but when I can I will put up the shot she sent of the local plaza wit bicycles lying about waiting for their riders. A truly civilized scene, I assure you.

Bikes Around The World

Knowing full well there is a world outside of San Francisco, I decided to put up some of the recent shots from around the world that have been posted on our Flickr group. We get some fantastic pictures from all over the globe. Every kind of bicycle imaginable, ridden in every conceivable way. Visual proof that there is no one way to ride a bike other than just getting on one and going!

image by RocketDog at A Pic A Ride (UK)

image by Greg Raisman (Portland, OR, USA)

image by rperks1 at Ocean Air Cycles (Ventura, CA, USA)

image by Claudio Olivares Medina (Chile)

image by Iam Sterdam (Netherlands)

image by a.pic.a.day

image by Chris.0917 (Maple Springs, New York, USA)

image by AlainG (Montreal, Canada)

image by y.hayama (Japan)

image by Ian of Slow RPM (Melbourne, Australia)

It's The Weekend

Stop looking at the internet and get out there!

Your bicycle wants to go see something!

Flat, Again! or, I Always Wanted To Carry A Bike In My Basket.

You are riding along. All is well in the world. Suddenly, there is that sound. The sound that comes just before your steering gets wonky. Fsst. Fsst. Fsst. Flat. In the daylight, when it isn't raining and the fact that you left your repair kit at home isn't a big deal because there is a bike shop 5 blocks away, this is just a minor inconvenience. At night, when it is raining and maybe the beer tasting was a little too tasty and you don't have a repair kit... you may just have to lock up your bike and call a cab to get you home. Even when you own your own bike shop. Todd Fahrner of Clever Cycles had just this issue. So after locking his trusty Oma up, and leaving her his rain hat to keep the seat dry, Todd came back the next day with his Brompton to fix the damage and get back on the road.

Now, that rear tire is the flat one. It has a full chain case and internal hub and fenders... so he can't repair it without removing the wheel. Right? Wrong! Not only could he do it, Todd took pictures for all of us to learn from.

"See how the center double stand holds the rear wheel off the ground? This makes it super easy to work on said wheel. No center stand? Lay the bike on it's side. Insert tire lever under bead to pry tire off. Note dog turd in background: more center stand win."

"Prying off the tire bead."

"Since I didn't find glass/nail/staple/tack or other obvious culprit stuck in the tire casing, I fished out the whole tube. If I had found the culprit, I'd have needed only to remove the underlying section of tube."

"Lightly pumping up the tube creates a hiss whose source I found here. Smaller holes harder to find. Pump more and hold close to sensitive skin/ear."

Abrade well around hole. Idea is to expose clean, black, non-oxidized rubber for the vulcanizing fluid to react with over the whole patch area. Mold seams must go. Lots of people don't abrade enough, then say that patches don't work

"Apply THIN layer of vulcanizing fluid, a little larger than the patch. Tip from Joe Breeze: use the crimped edge of the fluid tube as a squeegee to remove all but a film of the fluid. More fluid is not better. press all the air out of the fluid tube before you re-cap it so it won't dry out. no sniffing!"

"After waiting until the vulcanizing fluid is DRY (about 5 minutes), apply the patch, center to center. The fluid is not a glue (which bonds when wet), but a surface preparation that is complete when dry. Press well. I leave the plastic backing on so the prepped part of the tube won't bind to the tire casing, and so the patch doesn't stretch with the rest of the tube, possibly stressing the repair. And because I'm lazy.

This is the 4th patch on this particular tube. Very serious time and money savings over paying a shop to replace the tube ever dang time! Replace the tube when there's no more room for patches. The Dunlop valve favored in the Netherlands remains popular there because the valve seal can be replaced independently of the tube, again without removing the wheel, so a tube's life can extend to decades."

"The location of the puncture in the tube tipped me off to the location of the hole in the tire. Looks like glass cut, then fell out. It is important always to figure out what caused the puncture and assess whether it's still a problem, or it will likely just go flat again."

"Patched and pumped. Ready to roll"

"Brommie fits in basket. Do you have a bike small enough for your basket, or a basket big enough for your bike?

And then we rode to work."

While it may take a little practice, you too can repair your flat tires! Now, if you want to take the whole thing to the next level and then carry your Brompton home on your front rack, I suggest you talk to Todd. He is the Brompton King.

Thank you so much for letting us share, Todd!! I hope to see you soon!

Happy Trails

My route was a happy place this weekend.

The road was shared,

and there were positive affirmations. Now we can all get on with Monday.

Wednesday

It is Wednesday. The sun is out in San Francisco. Friday is a long way off. Take comfort, the bike life continues and will be there when you return.

Monday Mail

From time to time, my friend Tony sends me things to put out there for your entertainment. He will be in Mexico for quite awhile, coming up soon, and I can't wait to see what he sends our way!

This is Tony most recently-

While adventuring closer to home, Tony came upon an image he felt was evocative of someone close to our hearts, here at the blog, and sent us a little email and some pictures... and here we are!

the other day (umm two weeks ago) I was visiting my friend in Oakland
and we had planned on heading on over to Brown Sugar Kitchen for some
yummy breakfast foods...but on Mondays apparently they are closed
(insert sad face here) and so now we were left to scramble for another
place to eat. But it just happens that my friend has a smarty pants
phone...so he whips it out and does a quick search for other near by
places with yummy eats...wait for it, done. And off we went.
Straight here, a right up there, whoops got lost, turn around, stop,
getting bearing straight again, got it, cross street and there we
were, in Lois The Pie Queens Restaurant. Great food and people by the
way. But the point of this story/email is to let you know that on the
way there I saw an awesome mural and I just wanted to share with you.


Thank you, Tony! Hope the pie was good! We all love a little reminder that life on a bicycle brings so much more to our eye than we ever expect.

The SF Stand

A truly San Francisco kind of posture- bag on back, one foot down. San Franciscans like to keep their stuff with them and be ready to jump. This combination is so ubiquitous I have to actively not shoot it.