The Holstee Manifesto

I just might post this everywhere... definitely blows away our manifesto. Enjoy.

 

first commute

well, it finally snowed here in mpls.

just enough to justify putting away the good ole fixie and pull out the WinterMongoose, an oldish mongoose hybrid bike i pulled out of my father's garage over thanksgiving. now, the WinterMongoose needed some work before it could be ridden, let alone ridden through the snow.

i dropped by the hub at the u of m, had a great chat with ben and figured out what needed to be done, which ended up not being too much, to make the WinterMongoose rideable. now, i'm a novice when it comes to working on bikes and updating and what not, so i let ben take the bars and lead the charge. two new tires [front studded], fenders, a tune up, and a chunk of change later, the WinterMongoose was ready ... to sit my garage for a week and wait for snow.

for a few days, the roads were clear and my fixie did just fine to get from home to work/school, but finally, saturday evening, it snowed. i stood in my kitchen on saturday with a cup of night and day coffee and excitedly watched the snow collect on the ground.

i have been a bicycle commuter for a couple years now, but i have never needed to ride in the winter because of my location in relation to where i needed to go, ie: i lived across the street from school last winter, so you can imagine how excited and nervous i was to ride.

i bundled up [mistake one] and headed out to ride across downtown mpls. with shaky handlebars, i began to pedal, very slowly, out of the alleyway and into the street. i could hear the chickt chickt chickt of the studs hit the occasional concrete. the beginning of my ride was rough, but as i hit downtown, the roads, bikelanes, and pedmall, were clear. i felt a little sheepish, and extremely warm, as i rode with studded tires on the mostly clear roadway, until i hit eat street and strevens ave. both streets made me very glad i had a little tougher traction for my tires. the ride to mcad was great, cool and crisp.

now, what did i learn on my first winter commute? LAYERS; i had too many. i was dressed to take the dog outside, not for physical activity and building body heat. no someways, i am glad i was too warm as opposed to too cold, because i am still very optimist about this evening's ride home. my first "real" winter riding experience was great and i proud to boast the No Drive, Just Ride motto in all seasons. yes, there wasnt a lot of snow, but i'm glad to have some winter-weather-training-wheels to start out on. i am looking forward to more snow and excited that, after graduation in two weeks, i have a studio space that is outside of my little apartment, therefore, another excuse to Just Ride, daily.

From the Weekend

In Grand Rapids this weekend, there was a lot of biking happening. From crits to polo and everything in between. Here's a little video from it all:

spinning wheels & melodies from M|A|Mesa on Vimeo.

I wanna ride... fast.

RHC MILANO from Pietro Malegori on Vimeo.

Some times, You've got to slow it down.

We miss a lot these days, the pace of our lives seem to work against us most of the time - we miss out on the little things. At least, that is what this video reminded me of...

Claymore Challenge - Phantom Flex High Speed Camera - Highland Mtn

from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

Everyone loves Free.

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm jealous of people who can wear earbud's and they stay in their ear. The God above thought it be so that earbud headphones don't stay in. I've tried multiple types and spent way too much money experimenting. I recently had a friend, Peter Beels of Leadout Racing, post this up on Facebook and I couldn't help but get a little intrigued.

Now, I've gone off on a rant or two with friends about wearing earbuds when riding, especially in traffic and partially out of jealousy. Losing one your senses while riding I don't believe is a good thing, since I assume everyone who has them in has their music maxed out. But this One Good Earbud intrigues me, they take the stereo output of your iPod or mp3 player and channel it to just one ear.

Brillant.

Sure, I don't know if it works, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Maybe you would too if the price was right? How does free sound? Yeah, good to me too. Below are the instructions on how to win a free set.

Facebook Giveaway - Monday June 20th

Only one entry per person, please. Multiple tags will likely result in you getting blocked from the Facebook page.

Entry Instructions:

1. Visit http://www.facebook.com/OneGoodEarbud
2. Click 'Like' (if you don't already).
3. Find the Monday June 20th Giveaway Photo post.
4. Click on the image that looks like this:

5. Click on Tag This Photo.
6. Tag yourself on the model of earbud that you want to win.
7. Click Done Tagging.

If you heard about the giveaway from a blog or website, please comment on the photo with the site name or address.

So be a pal and tell them No Drive sent you over!

What is Bike Polo?

It was recently asked by the one and only Captain Bob after the last post on a lesson on marketing - 'what is bike polo? is it a poly blended bike jersey with three buttons and a collar?'

And the answer is... if only. Actually poly blend might be a great way to explain bike polo: one part traditional polo, one part street hockey/lacrosse, add a little mountain bike/bmx bike control, a sprinkle of punk and heckling and you start to get a sport that looks and feels a lot like bike polo.

But in all seriousness since repeatedly watching the video below, which is from a tournament down in Lafayette a few months back, I think it sums up bike polo in a way very few polo videos have. Plus... there's some of the GR Polo/Velocity crew in it and you can't beat that!

Interested in seeing Bike Polo first hand? Check out Leagueofbike.com and the clubs section to find your local bike polo club.

Lafayette Riverside Bike Polo Tournament from Kevin Daly on Vimeo.

A lesson in marketing.

Here is a lesson in marketing. One of things anyone designing ads or promotion hopes for is the head turn or that lasting thought. Simply causing the person interacting with advertisement to want to know more, to explore, to find a website.

I recently added a pin to my backpack, that seems to do just that. I received it from one of my co-workers after they went to a bike polo tournament down in Louisville. The Louisville crew unashamedly claim to be 'the most sinful polo club in America' - which I believe no one dares object or compete with.

The club simply loves to have a good time on and off the court. They also are intentionally or unintentionally brillant marketers of the sport.

The pin on my bag states:

God Hates Bike Polo

I love this pin. Some might be surprised by this being that I serve at a church and am full-time at seminary. Sure, I could go on about on if there was was a sport God loves, it would be bike polo-since I believe in a God who is always with the underdog, the marginalized, and the oppressed. Heck, I even firmly believe that if there is a reason for God, it's the Chicago Cubs or at least for the sake of myself and fellow Cub fans but that's another tangent for another day.

The brillance of this pin lays in the fact that all of us have unfortunately have encountered 'protesters' sporting huge signs and often yelling at bystanders saying things like 'God hates...

this... that... and the other'. These people always leave a bad taste in our mouths, some thing deep inside of all of us knows that there is some thing wrong with what they are saying and we can help but feel as if they have a distorted view of who God is.

These signs and protesters do challenge us to engage. To ask why? Or what?

When I sport this pin at my school, at the church I serve, or simply around... people respond. Often with laughter, but more of the question of what is bike polo?

And that my friend, is brillant marketing.

Water Biking.

Yep.... great way to promote the event.

How bicycling will save the economy (if we let it)

Stumbled onto this post by Elly Blue earlier this morning over at Grist. Well written and said... worth it for me to repost.

How bicycling will save the economy (if we let it) 82

BY ELLY BLUE

This is the first column in a series focusing on the economics of bicycling.

Imagine getting a $3,000 to $12,000 tax rebate this year. Now imagine it coming again and again. Every year it grows by around a thousand dollars.

Imagine how this would change your daily life.

Sounds like a teabagger's wet dream, but it's actually a conservative estimate of how much you'd save by ditching your car, or even just one of your cars -- and getting on a bicycle instead.

Car-centric conditions don't always make it easy to choose the bicycle. Communities designed exclusively for motor vehicles impose a major financial penalty on those who are compelled to take on the expense of driving. But if you're one of those who lives in a bike-friendlier place, you'll be doing your local business community a good turn and padding Uncle Sam's pockets as well as your own if you trade four wheels for two.

In the many North American cities where two-wheeled transportation is taking off, a new bicycle economy is emerging. It's amazing how much money can stay in your community when it isn't being pumped into the gas tank, big insurance, and the auto market.

What will this new bicycle economy look like?

We don't have to guess. It's already emerging along urban, low-traffic bikeway networks nationwide. One thing is guaranteed: it includes a lot of new bike shops like this one on a bikeway in Baltimore -- one of five new bike shops to have opened in the last two years in that city. A 2008 study in Portland clocked bicycle-related industry alone as contributing $90 million to the local economy every year. Bicycle tourism is another huge boon to regions that can attract it -- in 2010, Wisconsin bragged of a yearly $1.5 billion bike economy [PDF].

Less obvious synergies abound as well. People who ride, just like people who drive, buy groceries, visit the doctor, need a new shirt sometimes, and enjoy dinner and a movie. They work. Their kids attend school. Despite the media attention given to mega-mileage supercommuters, for most people who depend on bikes for transportation, life works best with all these necessities in reasonable biking distance -- say, less than five miles -- from their home. Preferably along routes that don't include riding on highways or having to zip anxiously across them.

Bicycle parking is the indicator species of this new economy, with a business's enthusiasm for its two-wheeled clientele being easy to gauge by the quantity of bike racks out front. In Portland, businesses impatiently line up to replace their car parking with on-street bike racks. One local grocery store recently opened a location with more parking for bicycles than for cars.

Then there's the food cart boom that's overtaken Portland -- every previously vacant alley and parking lot, many along major bike routes, seems to have spawned a semi-permanent pod of them. As a business model, it's a natural response to a population that craves cheap lunch, prefers not to travel far, and doesn't need a 7' x 20' piece of real estate to park on.

There are many more local benefits of the bike economy, from lowering families' health care costs to reducing a business's need to invest in costly parking spaces for staff and customers. And you can't place a monetary value on happiness.

But as long as our local governments keep hearing strident resistance to rather than support for safe, bikeable and walkable streets, the bicycle economy will continue to be reined in -- by inadequate infrastructure, terrible zoning, and giant road expansion projects of the sort that tie up all transportation funding for decades to come.

The bicycle economy, unlike its fancier cousin transit-oriented development, is not about new development or raising property values. It's about bettering our existing communities. It's about making cities and suburbs that are built on an automotive scale navigable, instead, by human power. It's about providing the basics to everyone, in their neighborhood, now -- and along with that the choice to opt for that $3,000 to $12,000 yearly rebate.

There aren't very many economic scenarios in this country where everyone wins. But if you had to choose one single thing that could pull our neighborhoods, towns, and cities out of this murky pit of a recession, you'd do well to bet on the humble bicycle.

Click for a larger version.Infographic: Mgmt Design, courtesy of the National Building Museum

Next: "Tearing down urban freeways to make room for a new bicycle economy."

Seoul got Soul: Save the Bike Lane

[SEOUL got SOUL] SAVE THE BIKE LANE (Teaser) from David Jongkwon Kim aka DKshop on Vimeo.

Me and my concubines

On Friday, I got a package at work from a little company called DZR. DZR specializes in making SPD compatible shoes with much more everyday feel. I had seen there video for the Concubine model a few months back and since I've been hooked.

I had to have them.

Especially given my struggles with my last pair of casual 'cycling' shoes.

I haven't been able to get these out on a ride yet so this will serve as a first impression after wearing them for the last 4 days.

Walkable? Yes, very. The toebox of the shoe is a bit stiffer but still allows for natural flex to occur when walking around [it will be interesting to see how attribute feels when clipped in]. Initially when walking around in them I could feel that the toebox was slightly higher in elevation compared to the heel. The first thought was I would need to purchase different insole as to not notice this but after having them on for the full day, I no longer notice this.

Cleat Install? I had flashbacks to my shop days and installing countless cleats into Shimano shoes that required cutting out of the sole to expose the plate. Shimano and some of the other bigger names have this dialed. just enough rubber there to hold in place but not enough for you to feel like if the blade slips you might impale yourself. Needless to say, DZR has a little more rubber there requiring a little bit more elbow grease. Which did not bother me, I would only recommend to other to have a flat-head screw driver handy and as soon as you get one side cut to then slip the screwdriver in and pry up a little. Doing so seemed to aid a bit and make this process go much faster.

Click-clack? Nope not our friends over on NPR. But referring to whether you can hear, feel, or sense the cleat in the shoe when walking around. Nope, not at all. It's pretty stellar. Thus making this shoe much more appealing to use as a commuter shoe, not requiring carrying or storing another shoe at work to change into.

Velcro? Yep. I've joked with friends that these are now my adult velcro shoes. They help to firm and settle your foot into place, I haven't experienced any heal slop while walking around in them.

Clipping in? Haven't 'officially' done so yet. I have installed some new Crank Brothers race cleats into them but with the recent dump of snow, I haven't been able to get out on the bike to try them out. I did play around with them on a pedal on a bike in my studio which it had no problem clipping into the normal Eggbeater, my only wonder is how they might respond with some thing with a platform, like the Mallet, which I plan on running on Red 2.0.

Yes, you read that right, Red 2.0. She's in another transition. More on that later.

Overall, I'm supper excited for these shoes. I've even had friends notice the shoes and want the shoes simply like how the look not knowing that they were dual purpose. Some actually thought they were the Puma's that look remarkably similar.

Always where a helmet

Over the last few days, I've received a number of emails with links to these photos from the protests that are happening over in Egypt, the original post is located here. Without diving into the politics of the situation over there and simply attempting to let these photos be simply what they are, it's hard to knock the Egyptians ingenuity on helmets.