I rode in my second ever cycling race today. My first was just this past Sunday morning. Both were criteriums - riding multiple laps on a short course. Sunday was hard. I expended a lot of energy needlessly chasing riders breaking away from the main pack. These riders always slowed and dropped back into the group. It saps your energy to try to stay out front and gives you little advantage. I promised myself that my second race, the one today, would be different. Well, it was and it wasn’t. Again, I ended up pulling, that is, riding at the very front and taking all the wind. In fact, I pulled for the last three laps. I was pretty annoyed that the pace was so slow and thought I’d just hit a comfortable stride and if everyone else wanted to draft let ‘em. So that’s what I did. I expected a final push from the well-rested riders behind me that would be hard to keep up with. But it didn’t come. I just widened a gap along with one other rider. In the end I came in fourth because, you see, there was a break away group of two that had long left us in the dust. Next time I’m going to be in that group! But pulling the main pack for three laps and then still kicking ass at the end felt great.

http://nbxbikes.com/page.cfm?pageID=37

Students at Bridgewater-Raritan High School in suburban New Jersey raise $2000 for a bike rack. The school refuses.

Offended by the snub, students promptly began planning a response. Yesterday, more than 50 students rode their bikes to school, commuting in pairs and groups. After studying up on state biking laws — and carrying copies with them — the students legally tethered their bikes in conspicuous clusters around lamp posts, trees and other poles dotting the circular drive in front of the school.

It seems the school administration feels that biking to school is not safe. They may be right about that. But then lots of things aren’t safe. Taking a larger view, cars are unsafe on the macro level (?) in terms of accident fatalities and on the micro level (?) through their contribution to global warming. But in the immediate, bikes are, perhaps, a bigger risk then pulling up at the drop off curb in the cage.

I’m a cyclist and a reluctant driver. I’m really, seriously emotionally invested in the idea of riding bikes to save the world. But I don’t ride to school with my daughter because I fear for her safety in morning traffic. So, how’s this? The school is right in the particular but wrong on every other level. Could they do something to make the routes leading to the school safer? Traffic taming, bike paths, traffic lights, speed limits - there are a lot of partial solutions out there. Some combination of these would make it possible for me to feel differently about getting my daughter on her bike every morning.

And then there’s the “suburbs” factor. The way Americans have chosen to live is the biggest obstacle. And that’s not changing. We’ll drive to the mall or stay inside and watch TV. The nearest store will be too far to walk. There will be no sidewalks.

We may save ourselves if we can convert our economy to clean electric power. But it’ll still be difficult to ride a bike to school safely.

Hope the title of this post doesn’t draw any unwarranted attention. What I’m describing is the camera mount for my Flip. It has velcro straps that allow you to attach it to just about anything. The only thing I can think of is a bike, however. And that’s what I bought it for. 

QT version

John Gruber mentioned this on his famous blog. I’ve been waiting for something just like it for years now. It stores an hour of video, connects via USB, Record/Stop. There’s nothing else to it. Oh, except this action mount. I need to go out on the Scituate Reservoir route and record the completely arbitrary bike lane on highway 14 and send it to Slate. One mile long, two painful hills. Not much cost to taxpayers: just put up a sign that says “Bike Route” on one end and another that says “Bike Route Ends” on the other. No road modifications necessary. 

So, is the camera any good? Don’t know. Hasn’t arrived yet. 

My commute. This is before the construction on the Martin St. bridge on the Blackstone Valley Bikeway was completed. When the bike path is covered with ice, as it was all winter, I use this route. Now that spring is kinda here I’ve got an easier ride.