Redline 925

It's been a couple of months since I got my Redline 925 and suddenly I have received a lot of comments in the last day or so.

I thought a light rain shot of the 925 was most appropriate

I first saw the 925 in '07 when it had the simple black paint scheme and moustache bars. I obsessed over it for a whole month before deciding that maybe I didn't really need the bike. Fast forward to the June Bike Friday ride where a fellow rider was riding the '08 brick red 925. Suddenly, with the new paint job and bullhorns, I was very much interested again.

A bike for girls?

I was actually interested in getting the white version of the 925, but fewer stores seem to carry that version. Also, since it seems to be considered a women's bike the larger framesizes seem to be a little more difficult to find. Nonetheless, I decided a few weeks later that I was definitely getting the bike. I posted a rideshare ad up on craigslist's bike section and drove over to a certain bike shop in Framingham.

Now I won't post a review because there are already plenty of those for the 925. In fact, it seems to be quite the popular bike (well at least in the Cambridge area). I see a couple of locked up 925s every day on my commute to work in addition to seeing one being ridden every few days. It really is a great commuter bike and I've grown to like the color scheme.

As for wanting a white bike with black detailing? That's ok, I'm still eyeing the 2009 Cadenza Solo!

BIXI Bikes & Neighborhood Bike Sharing

I was up in Montreal at the end of July this year and all around the city I saw these:

BIXI Bike Sharing in Montreal

In a short half hour walk around town (in a sad attempt at bar hopping while dead tired) I saw at least 5-6 bike stations. This was no half-baked bike sharing system. In fact, the map of BIXI stations is quite impressive. There are 300 stations setup currently and another 100 in progress (phase 2).


Intrigued, I checked out their website (English) and joined their facebook group once I was back stateside. Little over a week and a half later, I was surprised by an announcement that BIXI was going to roll out a similar bike sharing system in Boston. Seeing how I have my own bike(s), I don't know how much I personally will be using the service, but I think this is a great development for the city in general. There have been many instances where I've had to walk my bicycle solely because I wanted to be able to walk with my friends who were traveling bike-less. And of course, if I ever find myself without my bike, a BIXI bike would probably be my top choice amongst riding the T or walking.


In addition to using the bike share program around here, it would be excellent if they could include rentals in other BIXI cities. Maybe for a nominal fee (say an additional $12/yr on top of a $78/yr membership) include rentals in other cities. For someone like me, that would probably be the most interesting aspect of the service.

BIXI bike sharing will hopefully be in service in Boston in 2010. In the meantime...

Eventually there will be a picture
of all my bikes here

I lend out bikes whenever my friends are visiting from out of town as it's just a very convenient way to get around. I recently had a friend drop by from Chicago and touring the city on bike really allows you to cover a much larger area each day. Additionally, I've also lent out bikes to strangers on craigslist in the past. Of course, most of the time I gave them the bike I cared the least about (it still rides fine, but I won't be heartbroken if it's stolen). That made me wonder though, "Why isn't there a website out there that facilitates the sharing of bikes within a community?"

In my mind, I see this as some sort of hybrid between craigslist, couch surfing, and a forum/BBS. In fact, in the simplest scenario, this could just be built up on a dedicated forum with posts of "rental wanted" and "bike to share." Similar to couch surfing, one could build up a reputation based on other people's experiences with them. Of course, theft is always an issue with something like this. I'd like to think that humankind as a whole is still quite trustworthy, but of course even I'm still not going to lend out a bike with a value much higher than say $50. Even with its kinks, I think something like this is quite feasible, especially in Cambridge.

I don't want to force our local bike shops out of the bike rental business. I would just like to get more people on their bikes, but while there are people who are willing to ride a bike around the city, the rental rates are unconducive to this agenda. At $30/day and $150/wk rental rates, renting a bike for your one week visit puts you halfway to the cost of a decent new commuter bike. People want to ride bikes so bike rentals should be an alluring hook to catch new cyclists.

Park(ing) Day 2009 - Harvard sq.

Park(ing) day is coming Sept. 18th!

http://www.parkingday.org/

I first learned about Park(ing) day about a year ago. Unfortunately, I found out about it a couple weeks after it had past. At the time I had grandiose plans for the subsequent year. Well here we are now, less than 10 days from Park(ing) Day, and unsurprisingly, I have very little to show for it...well almost.

I am collaborating with a group to setup a Park(ing) Day park in Harvard sq. I think they must have a magnificent vision... which I know nothing about yet. Nevertheless, I believe that we will have a great time! We'll be setting up on Mass Ave. somewhere between Harvard Book Store and JP Licks. I think this will actually be the first Cambridge Park(ing) Day park!

Additionally, one of my ideas may actually come to fruition. In addition to the Harvard park, I will also be riding around the square with a miniature "trailer park". I found a bike trailer to rent in the area: Doug's bike trailer place. I will be laying down some sod and hopefully be able to place a small bench or potted plant within the confines of the trailer. While not the trailer park "brigade" that I had envisioned, I am still very excited about this project.


According to Boston's Park(ing) Day group, there are at least 4 other parks in the area. With the inclusion of our Harvard park that's only a meager 5 Parks. Now I'm sure there's an unannounced park here and there, but last year New York had an astonishing 53 parks! Presumably, that number will grow yet again by quite a bit this year. I realize that the population of NYC dwarfs the population of Boston. However, let's naively make a rough calculation comparing population ratio and park ratio. The urban population of Boston is about 1/5 of NYC's. That would still dictate at least 10 Park(ing) Day parks in Boston last year. C'mon people, let's step it up!

So maybe I'm being unfair. After all, you need the exposure in the first place to get people interested. There are plenty of other events in a similar vein that I have no idea about. (If you know of any, be sure to let me know!) For example, a large portion of people have no idea about the infamously rude Critical Mass ride, and likewise, I have no idea about many of these smaller late night rides. (again, let me know!) We'll get there eventually, but let's all do our best to get the word out about these things!

Obligatory First Post

During my first summer in Cambridge I started to bike to my workplace in Charlestown Navy Yard. Since the navy yard isn't T accessible, my daily commute involved:



1 Walking to the red line (8 min)
2 Taking the red line to MGH (7 min)
3 Walk through the hospital to the shuttle (5 min)
3 Inevitably miss the shuttle by only seconds (15 min wait)
4 Ride the shuttle to work (15 min)

Total time: 50 min

Now of course I'm exaggerating a little and on average it would be closer to a 40 min commute. (On the return trip, the shuttle drops off at the red line and you could usually time your departure from your desk to coincide with the shuttle schedule... 25min trip)

Now for most people this is by no means a long commute, however the trip by bike took only 15-20 min.

When the weather started getting cold again I thought to myself, "I wonder if I could ride through the winter and continue all the way until summer arrives again." Before I knew it, summer had arrived. Now, 2 years later, I am still riding to work every day! (although now it only saves me 10 min)

I have quite a backlog of posts that I want to write, but I'll try to spread them out a little bit to delay the inevitable drought of posts later!