cross posted

You have some interesting ideas. I have some much more interesting ones I didn't share. For one thing, lightweight and strong materials such as carbon fiber (see www.carb.com,www.carbon-fiber.com) stronger grades and alloys of aluminum (data on strengths of this and other strange materials at http://www.matweb.com/aluminum.htm.).

Carbon fiber is said to get cheaper as people buy more of it, sez a book called "Bike Cult" by Davis Perry, and the Rocky Mountain Institute who promotes cars made of this material. They are expensive. If you want to truly indulge yourself, get a bike made of aluminum or carbon fiber. Just go to a bike shop and lift both the road and the mountain bikes. You can hack it from 40mph on flat ground- and 65 mph if you get titanium for the axels and other high wear parts (normally, steel is used). Titanium is expensive. Thus, you have a massive bike theft problem, which is the other serious reason, aside from homicidal idiots, which is sinking biking. Biking lets you do cool things like boycott big oil (which is the most powerful industry, according to www.corpwatch.org). Big oil is really to blame for climate change. They have also been conveniently forgetting to mention in the corp. press that there won't be any oil that's worth drilling deep down enough for after 2020.

About biking. It's a damn good thing for anyone to our scene to have a bike, at least, whether or not they use it. Lock that bike even if it's in your house. The theft problem is obscene. Not to worry. Confer with bike messengers and do some online digging to counter thieves in creative ways. never lock it with a u-lock, alone. Use at least a thick mesh cable lock with it- makes 'em have to bring along too many tools. Aluminum 6061 and 7000 are durable as all shit, too. I hit a pothole at 15mph- hard enough to break a number of my bones upon hitting the curb- and the wheel only got a little bend in it! Register the bike, engrave some sort of identifying shit on it, to foil the thieves.

You can really kick some ass distance wise on a good road bike. I can do a 40 mile run in about 2.5 hours or less- depending how trained or angst ridden I am. One old guy I met was saying how he and his daughter had a couple of these bikes. They woke up and decided to go to 130 miles one day. One just does not do this, if one is paying for gas. You want to know something else? You feel great afterwards. Only do the first week of intense training do you feel like shit. I had more problems just feeling lethargic. That's cuz your body is building new muscle, blood vessels, etc.

After this, though, you have more energy all the time. My physics teacher biked to teach every day, and this dude was tripping out. He showed up with an electric guitar and sang a song about Newton one day. My first reaction, was to ask, "What is this guy on?"

Back to discussing biking, now. You want to get Kevlar belted tires on it (the stuff that forms the outer layer of a bullet proof vest). Make sure that you get at least 115 psi (pounds/square inch)tires. Keep in mind aerodynamics, too. Skater clothes on a bike don't work. I'd also recommend holding out and not getting a BMX just cuz it's cheaper. The cops here will ticket you sometimes for riding on the sidewalk, and one gets tired of just playing in the dirt. I want my ride to pay my bills. It does. The roads are rife with spare change, lost cell phones and other oddities. There's nothing quite like using one of these things. You travel in total silence. You feel better, you can run very far since your cardiovascular health is improved. Your lungs will hold 2 cups more oxygen.

Blood flow to the brain will improve, thus your mind will become not only sharper, but also more creative. I get clever insights to seemingly unsolvable problems when really straining on a long ride or kick ass hill. My psychology text corroborates this effect on the mind. Cyclists live longer than drivers- with pollution and accidents factored in. Our whole scene should know about this. Don't expect the answers to come from the authorities. We will be sorely disappointed.

If for any other reason, than the costs to them to start up any of these alternative fuel technologies, I have no reason to expect industry to do anything. Read the articles Post Petroleum Paradigm and "The Energetic Limits to Growth." These explain the food crisis resulting from petroleum exhaustion, and the fact that it takes more (petroleum based) energy to make ethanol than you get from it. It explains the problems with hydroelectric power. It also states that to match our present energy usage, we'd have to convert the whole US into a solar panel. See why no ones doing shit. Even hydrogen cells require petroleum to extract the petrol from methane hydrates. The best way to overcome this is thru knowledge and educating the homeboys on the effects of climate change, so they lay the fuck off.

Here's my resource list for the whole bike thing. Be sure to check out your local library. Mine has tons of books on the subject,(incl. one on urban cycling), and a few on bike commuting despite the fact that the cycling community here compares in no way to NYC, San Fran, DC or Chicago. Even Lexington, KY is said to be more bike friendly than my town. Urban sprawl will jack up the aggressive driving rate as more people are striving to reduce travel time irresponsibly, and think the roads they rob the non driving taxpayers for, are their personal property.

In the US, bikes have all the same rights and responsibilities as drivers do. Driving is actually a privilege. Why not make sure it stays that way. Make driving laws stringent. Put speed slowing mounds in the road like they have in some parts of my city.

Here’s a real fun idea. Get everyone in your community hip to the adverse effects of climate change. Get ‘em to sign a petition to demand a commercial operators tags or license for the SUV’s. Maybe require them to show up at highway weigh stations to make ‘em pay for the extra wear and tear on the roads or just to inconvenience them. Put in huge bike lanes everywhere- legally, by showing your local gov’t so many signatures and endorsements by famous locals.

Or else, do ‘em yourself. Use thermite to make a ditch in the asphalt next to the lane to catch car tires-thus keeping them from passing into it (thermite is aluminum and iron filings, heated on a stove for awhile- then you get it extremely hot by lighting it with a magnesium strip. If you can’t find a magnesium strip, magnesium is available just by buying magnesium posted bike brake shoes. I hear it’s hard to find magnesium strips. Gee, surprise. Nonetheless, it’s a metal used in the manufacture of motorcycle and some bike parts (the stuff’s light, but mushier than aluminum. Not to mention, it’s a nutrient in most foods. I’m sure vitamin supplements are available made of the stuff. Basically, thermite will eat thru a car’s engine block- and then keep melting right thru the pavement.

Here's my advocacy/global car-free movement links:

http://www.bclu.org/

General NYC based car-free movement site, w/ great editorials and news section: http://www.self-propelled-city.com

Transportation Alternatives-NYC based-great page w/magazine http://www.transalt.org http://www.nybma.org http://www. http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/ http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~pdorn/Commuting/commuting.html http://www.chainguard.org/

LA based webzine: http://www.living-room.org/bikepeople/

Here's my technique links (vigilante or otherwise) http://adbusters.org/campaigns/urbanspace/3.html

Adbusters Car-free/bike advocacy links: http://adbusters.org/campaigns/urbanspace/websites.html

Read these if the thought crosses your mind, "Well car drivers will probably try to kill me (true)- what the hell do I do?" Spike Bike: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~mjh/spike.html http://danenet.wicip.org/bcp/spike.html (You will see the full advantages of the agility of your machine and hear a great story of how a combination of metallurgist's knowledge and skill can do all sorts of unusual things in the fictional (or not so fictional) hell world in the story). Contact me to distinguish real from fictional things in the story concerning what Spike does-most all of is based upon factual things.

Read the book, Urban Cycling Tricks and Tips- (avail at library)

Critical Mass (a bike protest) Hub http://criticalmasshub.com/ (has great links) http://bicyclesafe.com/

Refer to this site for information on how the auto and oil industries buy out the gov't and do other things not in the public's interest: http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/courses/geog100/CarCulture.htm

A great links page http://www.bikeroute.com//CarFreeMove.html

-- Grunge El Camino (el@camino.net), March 15, 2001

Answers

I like this essay. It's sincere. It has a lot of style, and epitomizes our Young Moderns today.

-- Good essay (sincere@not.phony), March 18, 2001.