bike

Bipedal, By Pedal! #2: Confidential Mad Libs

mandy — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Because it’s been about ten years, I forgot how funny mad libs could be, and the ones in Bipedal, By Pedal! #2 have proven to be a fun distraction during lunch breaks and in long grocery store lines. Take, for example, my mad lib from this morning: “On Wednesday, September 29th at 17:30 hours, the so-called 'bananas' are planning a bicycle rally in downtown Portland. From information supplied by C.I.D., their plans...were to gather coffees in the South Park Blocks, group into formations of twelve riders...and gyrate along a predetermined path.” Okay, it’s not the most mature form of entertainment, but that’s a large part of its appeal.

What I was most excited about when Bipedal, By Pedal! #2 came in the mail was seeing the awesome creativity of fellow cyclists. I anticipated seeing the heavy-handed injustice that had fallen upon riders nationwide portrayed through silly rewordings of the Portland police inter-office memorandums. Yet the purpose of the small paperback booklet is presented in an aggravating way. While the information is served up with a strong slant against law enforcement, and in favor of the Portland Critical Mass Bicycle Rally, it doesn’t make cyclists look very good.

Critical Mass rallies are huge (usually monthly) rides that take place in many metropolitan areas around the world. The ride works better in some cities than others. Last year in L.A., for example, the LAPD was asked to join the group in order to protect the cyclists. And riders in Sydney, Australia have long ridden with police officers, who help control car traffic and facilitate the ride.

So, when I read that the group’s mission was to be “as non-confrontational as possible and...try and educate people about the stupidity of -ing verb cars,” I cringed. How can tired motorists trying to get home in rush hour traffic relate to a group of 200 cyclists blocking the intersection they need to cross? How do reports of cyclists “lifting their bikes above their heads and shaking them at police,” help anyone? In short, how will adding another frustration to people’s day win them over?

This is not to say there have not been reports of disturbing police behavior toward cyclists. One report, written by the arresting officer, details a confrontation with a cyclist: “I watch (Rothkoph) ride [eastbound] in the [westbound] lane. [When I] asked for his identification, he replied that he had none with him...I informed him that for his own and my protection I would place him in handcuffs...he looked at me and said ‘I don’t think so.’ I grabbed him by his head and took him to the ground.” Would that have happened to a motorist without I.D.? Unlikely.

We all have an agenda—that’s why many of us choose to write for Elevate Difference—but brandishing bicycles like weapons doesn’t seem like it will help the cause. In response to the antagonistic nature of Critical Mass in Austin, TX, a number of alternative rides have started, check for social cycling groups in your town, or try a Critical Mass to see if it’s right for you. Maybe you can step up and ask both the law enforcement and confrontational cyclists to be on the side of the greater good, no matter when or where or how they ride.

Written by: Tatiana Ryckman, April 3rd 2011

The Chainbreaker Bike Book: A Rough Guide to Bicycle Maintenance

admin — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:55:00 +0000

By Shelley Lynn Jackson, Ethan Clark

Microcosm Publishing

This “rough guide to bicycle maintenance” is really two books in one. The first half is a bike repair manual, with which the authors strive to “serve many people, from the very beginner to a decent mechanic who just likes to geek out.” I found the how-to instructions accessible, written in a way that is easy to understand, not in “high tech or cool dude language.” Although both authors have been professional bike mechanics and stalwart volunteers at the New Orleans Community Bike Project, they come across as real people who just want to help other real people repair and maintain bicycles — no bike snobs here!

The illustrations — by Ethan, Shelley, and Happy, the title page proclaims — are really awesome. They are simple but informative, slightly cartoonish, but factual. For folks who need to know what different styles of bikes or different kinds of tools look like, there are pictures here to help. There are also drawings to assist with adjusting breaks, truing wheels, and replacing cables, as well as other repair and maintenance projects.

The manual ends with two appendices. The first is a directory of community bike programs in the United States and abroad, followed by a helpful glossary of bike terms.

The second half of the book consists of reprints from past issues of the Chainbreaker _zine. Shelley Lynn Jackson edited and self-published _Chainbreaker from 2001-2005, but was unable to continue after losing her typewriter, clip art, desk, drawing supplies, and home to flooding following Hurricane Katrina. Lucky for readers, she was able to collect some of her favorite parts of the old zines in this compilation.

Shelley’s excitement about bicycles shows in the articles she wrote and collected for her zine. In her introduction to the very first issue of Chainbreaker, in a love letter to bikes, aptly called “For the Love of a Bicycle,” she details all that bikes have to offer. “…[T]he bicycle shows a person that their [sic] are options, that there are other ways of living, new horizons undiscovered.” Romantic? Yes. True? Definitely.

Chainbreaker contains not only Shelley’s voice, but includes the art and writing of other folks too. There are instructions for making a bike tube belt from Spitshine the Eye zine, directions for constructing bucket paniers [sic] from Joe Biel of Microcosm, and art and words from long time zinester Icky Apparatus. Andalusia contributes an account of volunteering at Maya Pedal, a bicycle-recycling center in Guatemala, and Happy explains bicycle delivery New Orleans style. Co-author Ethan Clark has participated in the project from nearly the beginning as a contributor of stories and images to the zine.

This bike repair manual doesn’t just show how to fix things; it provides a lot of encouragement and inspiration as well. Shelley gives several pep talks to women throughout the book, cheering us on to ”stand up and be heard…get to know the tools and language…ask questions and look for guidance, but look to your own sense of logic as well.” That’s good advice, not just for bike repair, but for everything we do in life.

Written by: Chantel C. Guidry, May 8th 2008

B.I.K.E.

admin — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 01:31:00 +0000

Directed by Anthony Howard, Jacob Septimus

Fountainhead Films

In case you thought B.I.K.E. was just a movie about bikes… well, it is, but you might be surprised at the ground it covers. From filmmakers Anthony Howard (Tony) and Jacob Septimus, B.I.K.E. delves into the lives of the members of the Black Label Bike Club in New York City. Access to the Black Label New York subculture is mediated by Tony and his desperate attempts to gain entrance to the elite ranks of Black Label. Both filmmaker and main character, Tony becomes the epicenter of the film. As such, the strongest narrative is about the desire to belong to something in a national culture that stresses both individualism and the proliferation of subcultures.

For Tony, almost nothing is as important as being a member of Black Label, and yet his entrance into the club is consistently withheld. Tony struggles with substance abuse and increasingly erratic behaviors, but his commitment to Black Label seems unquestionably strong – he’s even making a movie. A looming question in the film is why isn’t Tony part of the club? Whatever the reasons may be, it is revealed that even “outlaws” have rules, regulations and serious degrees of exclusivity.

The issues raised in the film run the gamut from class differences to political motives. For example, the New York chapter identifies as being mostly “middle class art school kids”, compared to the original Minneapolis chapter members – some who lived in junkyards. BLBC New York drives to the national Black Label get-together in Minneapolis with their bikes strapped to their Land Rover SUV’s and Mercedes station wagons—a perhaps unintentional irony not explored in the film. Such moments that offer untouched avenues of departure might leave some viewers wanting. Though originally thrown off by the film’s main focus, I found myself caught up in every moment, down to Tony’s tragicomic formation of his own bike club.

If you’re looking for action, B.I.K.E. does have its share of dramatic bicycle screen shots, tall bikes, freak bikes, even jet bikes. I would have gladly appreciated greater digging into some of the more delicate club issues that crop up from time to time, but as it stands, B.I.K.E. provides for both bike enthusiasts and green thumbs a fascinating peak at a distinct and previously unexplored subculture. It doesn’t shy away from intensity, which some might take as melodrama. And for all the difficult questions that can be asked about social systems, it doesn’t attempt to toss out cheap and easy platitudes, instead trusting viewers to mull things over for themselves.

Written by: Lillian B., April 7th 2007