Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Bike To Work Day 2009

I'm leading a Bike convoy for WABA on Bike To Work Day (BTWD) from Falls Church, VA to the meet up spot at Freedom Plaza in DC. We're leaving at 6:30am and I'm hoping we can make it there in less than an hour. I have no idea how big the group will be, and whether or not that will slow us down at all, but it's for a good cause! Here's a link to the route we're taking.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

P.U.M.A.

Yet again, American car companies have given us something else we don't need. And it's not even a crappy car this time. The GM PUMA is about as useful as a segway, but bigger, and the jury is still out on whether it looks more stupid.



douchey



I can see this ending up where segways did. Tourist vehicles in DC, at amusement parks, for mall cops, and maybe in SF replacing the three wheeled scooters. They do serve a market, albeit a very niche one. Too big for bike lanes, too slow for traffic, too small for regular roads, these are the bastard children of GM. Our cities are not designed to accept this type of vehicle. We still think too big, and most of the country can't fit their groceries and wal-mart purchases in the back of this.
with a 35 mile range, that means you can get about 17 miles from your house and back, which would fit within the average commute distance but I'm willing to bet not all of those roads would look too kindly on a vehicle that maxes out at 35 mph. I know I wouldn't want to be puttering along the beltway on the shoulder of the road with no doors and a plastic windshield.
Did I mention price? They're saying "one-fourth and one-third of that of the average traditional vehicle" which giving a conservative estimate of the price of a Chevy Cobalt ($15,000). So we've got a range of $3,700-$5,000.

You could get any of these fine (and respectable) looking motorcycles

Kawasaki Ninja - $4,000


Yamaha TW200 - $3,990



Honda Ruckus/Metropolitan - $2,500

Or a hell of a nice bicycle.


DeRosa Corum Road Bike (17 lbs) - $4,400

Or shoot, even by a carbon motobecane bike for $1,200 spend the rest on spandex, and you'll still look like less of an idiot than someone in this two-wheeled golf cart.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Bike Snob

ok, i may be late to the game, but I've been reading

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/

lately, and his writing is pretty funny, a bit reminiscent of dave carnie and big brother. it's good fun for everyone

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

March - 582

That's right, 582 mile mark at the last day in March.  I'm comfortably above the average now, and at this point, I've got nearly a hundred mile buffer.  Here's the numbers:

338 Miles Biked
110% more than last month
29% of yearly goal