Bike Culture

And today coming back from the beach I passed Mona Caron's new mural in progress in Noe Valley and saw this cool little detail:

In it, a gym currently at the corner of 24th and Church is replaced by a Pedal Power center, which people pedaling away on energy-harnessing bikes. On the roof of the Pedal Power center, a band jams away, using the power from below. Caron painted her favorite musicians into the mural. You can clearly make out stiltwalkers from La Malamana,

In the new Mattias Johansson video for the Rubies song "I Feel Electric", the three members of the group first appear standing over cruiser bikes tricked out with the Down Low Glow.

 

See also: http://www.rockthebike.com/node/1211

This afternoon in the workshop I got a call from Joel, the drummer from Afrolicious and Pleasure Maker (Thursdays at the Elbo Room). I met Joel when we were on the 2-Mile Challenge tour together. He said,

"Sorry I couldn't make it to your gig last week, I was working."

"Doing what?"

"Moving."

"Moving? Like for cash?

"Yeah."

"How much they paying you?"

"18 an hour."

Why don't 'they' make bike clothing that is more stylish? 'They' do.
Originally uploaded by Rock The Bike

Do you wonder why they don't make clothes for bike commuters with more subtle style, less spandex, and fewer bright logos?

Geoffrey and I headed to Velosport after work to hear Jacquie Phelan, the former women's mountain bike champion, discussing her experiences as a woman in the world of mountain bike racing. Here are a few highlights:

At 15:35: "I am a racer... I'm intensely competitive. I'm more motivated when I can tell the person next to me has an issue with me passing them. It's like getting a caffeine suppository... Maybe it's the testosterone... There's got to be a safe place for that to come out... So you don't actually beat people up..."

At 22:00: A woman in the audience who has worked with Jacquie in the past relates a story of Jacquie pulling her Eldridge Grade (Mount Tam) with a bungie cord.

At 28:00: Jacquie tells a story about Honda sponsoring the Safe Routes to School program in Marin Country. The son of Joe Breeze notices that, in the instructional DVD she was required to play, all the cars are Hondas except for the one that mows down a little kid on a bike.

I heard the sad news that Sheldon Brown, one of the Internet's enthusiastic purveyors of cycling knowledge, has died. If you've ever tried to figure out the difference between 7-speed and 8-speed chain, V-brakes and cantilevers, chances are you ended up in encyclopedic pages of www.sheldonbrown.com .

A friend told me he had used the Rock The Bike web site to help a co-worker understand what bike culture is. That got me thinking, what is bike culture? I looked on Wikipedia and was unsatisfied by the old Bike Culture entry, so I wrote a description and updated the Wikipedia entry. What do you think? Comment here or update the Wikipedia entry.

In Choad Warrior, post-apocalyptic leather clad warriors ride bicycles and fight for their precious fuel, beer.

I was an extra in the movie, and the main character even uses the microphone of the Choprical Fish in one scene. Here are some of the better shots from the day I participated.

Warning: Lots of swearing. And very funny! Thanks to DJ Bento for the tip.