Tag: bikes

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Bike Nite (on the Fediverse!)

There’s a bike community on Mastodon (and/or parts of the Fediverse that connect with Mastodon) and you can be a part of it.

It happens every Friday 4pm Pacific time. I often forget about it when it happens but read the posts later, and sometimes even reply. It’s a synchronous and asynchronous conversation, and it works fine that way.

Here’s an example of the post you’ll see each Friday:

Our community discussion #BikeNite starts in about an hour, at 4pm Pacific. I post cycle-y questions w/ Q1, Q2, Q3; if you answer w/ A1, A2, A3, etc, it’s easier to match.

Tag #BikeNite if you want your answer to be more discoverable; follow it to see questions & replies in your feed. Boost & reply to replies to keep the discussion going.

(You can follow BikeNiteQ tag so questions are easier to find, but you don’t need to include this in your answers)

And yeah, #BikeTooter is totally a hashtag I follow and use myself.

There are a ton of bike people on Mastodon and all the ones I’ve interacted with so far have been awesome and helpful. Hey there’s even a bot that posts pictures of all the beautiful people who ride bikes in Madison called @cyclists_of_msn (We need one for Milwaukee!)

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Hardware Store Bike Rack

I forgot I never posted the follow up to my Hardware Store Bike Ride post!

I ended up writing a letter to the store letting them know that I was unable to find a place to lock up my bike while shopping there. I mentioned that with the new bike lane on the street their store was located on it might help encourage more people to bike to the store but they’d probably want some bike parking where they could lock up their bikes.

When you write this sort of letter you hope something positive happens, but often nothing happens… but, this time something happened.

A few days after mailing the letter I got a phone call. It was from the store owner! He said he wanted to address the issue right away so he figured he’d give me a call. (I included my address, phone number, and probably an email address as well. I figure make it easy to start the conversation!)

He said that they would consider adding a bike rack but first they still had to pay the city for the cost of the bike lane, which he said all businesses along the route were billed for. He gave me a number, I don’t remember what it was, but I think it was over $10,000 USD.

The call came off as a bit of complaining about the cost to their store in adding the bike lane, but he didn’t seem upset with me, just the City of Wauwatosa. I honestly have no idea how the cost of adding bike lanes work in various areas and certainly don’t know how it works in Wauwatosa. (I’m actually a resident of Milwaukee, not Wauwatosa. A common misconception!)

I mentioned this in a biking group and the best response I got was from someone who said:

If I bike to a store and they don’t have a place to lock up my bike I just bring it in the store with me for my shopping trip. I walk my bike up and down the aisles and do my shopping. If an employee asks me to put my bike outside I just ask them to show me where the secure bike parking is… and I let them know that until they have that I’ll be bringing my bike in with me.

And honestly that’s a brilliant strategy I’ll consider in the future.

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Scrappy Hour Group Bike Ride

Scrappy Hour Group Bike Ride

I started riding more often in 2024 and was riding anywhere from 3 to 6 days a week but always solo. My old pal Matt mentioned a group ride called Scrappy Hour and described it as a “casual slow roll” ride, which sounded right for me because I don’t really go fast, I just cruise around.

So I joined Matt last October for my first real group ride, and it was fun and easy, so I did it again in December and while it was a little cold it wasn’t too bad. Matt couldn’t join in but my old pal Mike was there and I saw Nora (another Milwaukee person I know) again. Otherwise I really don’t know many people on the rides (yet) but that doesn’t really matter, it’s just about getting out and riding in a group.

The most recent ride (this past weekend) saw me and Matt, along with my neighbor Michael, meet up at Rocket Baby in Tosa to do a smaller group ride that meets up with the larger group. We met Meg and Paige there and the five of us biked down to Cathedral Square Park together. The roads are not very busy on a Sunday morning at 9am so it was pretty easy going, and mostly downhill!

I will say that the Tosa leg was not as much of a “slow roll” as the Bay View legs have been… I guess when you let people half your age lead it can go a bit faster. (Disclaimer: I’m not totally sure but I’d guess I’m one of the oldest people on these rides. Not that age matters but I’m not exactly in great shape like some people are.)

I made sure I would not be cold on this ride. I wore my winter boots and wool socks, balaclava, ski goggles, a scarf, and then two long sleeve shirts with two sweatshirts, and long underwear with insulated exercise pants. I also had my medium winter gloves on. From Matt’s advice I threw a jacket and hat and heavier gloves into a backpack and then used those for the “standing around” part of the ride to stay warm when not moving. I also had some USB hand warmers. I did not get cold, unlike my companions. (Sorry, guys!)

The ride back was just me, Matt, and Michael and the hills were killer. As in, they killed my will to live. I was going slower than I’ve ever gone on a ride. Somehow we took a path that seemed to have even more hills and at the end my legs were jelly. The whole trip for me was 5.38 miles there and 6.4 miles back. I’ve done rides that long or longer without issue, but they are at my own pace and avoiding large hills.

Oh, I forgot! The ride has this whole “coffee outside” thing. The idea is you ride to the location (takes about 30 minutes) hang out outside for about an hour drinking coffee, socializing, etc., then head back (another 30 minutes). So it’s like a 1 hour ride with a 1 hour break in the middle. I don’t drink coffee but did bring some hot chai tea in an insulated mug for this one. Sometimes there are snacks as well. Again, it’s all really chill and a nice little community of people who like to ride bikes.

Right now if you want to find out about rides check out Scrappy Hour MKE on Instagram. They are in the process of adding a Bluesky account (which I’ve asked them to bridge to the Fediverse) and they’ll be starting a mailing list as well. (Email scrappyhourmke@gmail.com to get added!)

The next ride is Sunday, February 23rd, 2025 and typically the main group leaves from Cactus Club in Bay View at 9am, and then there might be groups leaving from Interval Coffee on the East Side/Riverwest and Rocket Baby in Wauwatosa, but the Bay View is the only “for sure” one and the rest are TBD closer to the date. (At least I think that’s right.)

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I Santa Rampaged 2024

Ho! Ho! Ho! I Santa Rampaged! This was my first time taking part in the largest Santa Bike Ride here in Milwaukee and it was a blast. A blast of cold air for sure, but also a fun blast. Back in October I mentioned it to my neighbor Michael and he said he’d do it too, and little did I know he was a veteran because he’s done the ride in the past, and even tended bar for the very first one over a decade ago, so he had the inside scoop.

There were over 2,000 people who joined in on the ride, with a huge percentage dressed as Santa or Santa-adjacent (Mrs. Claus, etc.) but we also had Grinches, Elves, Reindeer, and all sort of Christmas-themed outfits and costumes. We also had a dude who was shirtless, and then we realized he was also pantless, and just wearing red shorts with white fur trim.

Did I mention it was cold out? It was in the 30s but definitely felt much colder when standing around waiting to get going. I had on three shirts, a sweatshirt, and the (very thin) Santa shirt along with some thermal lined pants and the (thin) Santa pants. The thing is, it seemed fairly warm out near East Tosa before we left but when we got down to Bay View (near the lake) it was much cooler. I made a poor choice on shoes but I think the wool socks saved me. Luckily I brought some heavy gloves, and other cover-up gear so it wasn’t too bad. Next time better shoes through.

Obviously I’m old and I get cold, because the younger folks were not bothered by it. I saw plenty of women in tights with exposed ankles and they seemed to be holding up okay… And of course the shirtless (and pantless) guy were there. Anyway, December… it’s gonna be cold!

The ride itself was great. The last time I did a large group ride was the Black is Beautiful Slow Ride in 2020. This one was twice the size, but very well organized. We were near the front of the pack nearly the whole time so I don’t even know how long the whole thing stretched behind us. There was a car that got in the middle at one point, right in front of me, and they had to drive slow until they could get out of the way for a few blocks. I guess there was one bad crash/injury but the most trouble I saw was when someone would drop a glove and then hit the brakes. Doing that causes near or minor crashes because while we were going slow, we’re also packed in fairly tight. Still all in all, a great ride, a fun time, and I will do it again.

The ride from the Bike Fed to Great Lakes Distillery was 11.17 miles. We ended at the distillery because that’s where we parked to avoid the crowds. (We rode from there to the Bike Fed so that was another 2 miles so in total we rode just over 13 miles.) I also got a slice from STREET-ZA which is the #1 Food Truck in the U.S. according to their web site.

I also had a few drinks (or a few too many) at the distillery and they made them strong because Michael knows a guy and whew I pretty much went home, lost my keys in the garage, and then got in the house and took a nap. All in all, an awesome day with friends.

My daughter asked if I was going to film or photo document it, and while that’s a thing I would have done years ago I decided to just ride and enjoy and let others do that… so I’ve collected a bunch of links to videos and coverage. I know I appear in at least one of the videos below. I’m easy to spot… I’m the one dressed like Santa.

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A 50 Year Old Raleigh Bike

I’ll just admit it, this post is mostly to share photos of an old bike. This is a 1970’s Raleigh 3-speed bicycle. I don’t know the exact year. I rode it today for three miles and I nearly kept my normal pace.

The shifting isn’t perfect but the brakes are good. It feels pretty solid. It’s not as smooth as my Trek 7200 Hybrid but it’s 50 years old and has skinnier tires and no suspension. I just rode around the neighborhood for around 16 minutes. Also, it was 25 degrees F when I was out.

It’s got a three-speed internal hub shifting thing. I tend to ride in low gears a lot, and even in first gear the one hill I went up was a little difficult. (My wonky knee didn’t help.) Still, for tooling around on a fun ride, this thing is just fine.

There are no lights, the reflector is angled all weird, no phone holder, no 3D printed mount for a Meshtastic radio, no top bar bag… just a bike.

There is a bag (appears to be “fake” leather) and a bike rack on the back. The bag is probably also original, and the rack is probably also from the 1970s.

The sticker with info is all scratched up… I tried to identify it when I got it but gave up after some searching. (Feel free to keep looking and let me know!)

Yeah, you know its got fenders! I’d say this bike was well maintained but it may also be that it was just not ridden in the past 20, 30, 40(??) years. I don’t know. I’ll ask around. It was in my mom’s garage so it probably belonged to a family member.

Update: It did not belong to a family member. Years ago my brother helped my mom clear out the garage of someone who passed away and they got the bike at this time.

The shifter works… mostly. It didn’t always shift smoothly and sometimes I was not sure what gear I was in.

It looks like Wares is gone now… Support your LBS!

The Raleigh is from England. Yes, I have a British bike! You should hear its accent. (LOL)

Oh crap! I better renew the bike license… Actually, I should list this on Bike Index and you should list all your bikes on Bike Index!

I am probably the first person in 50 years to take a self portrait (aka “selfie”) using the bell on this bike. I am both proud and ashamed at the same time.

P.S. I put new tires on this bike in 2025!

Keep on pedaling!