What's in YOUR Pannier?

I've got, currently, the following necessities: Extra socks, Moleskine, drawing pen, bike pump, watercolor pencils, post-it note pad (2), kids' pool IDs, stress lozenges, USB memory stick (2), duct-tape pencil case, old container of dental floss, credit card, band aids, old driver's license (to identify me if incapacitated), cash,  tube patch kit, old bottle opener (vintage!), binder clips, colored penciles, USB charge cable, coins, Leatherman.


How do you compare? With my pannier, the credit card, and my bike, I think I could go anywhere.

Harrisburg's Tour de Belt 2012

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of taking my first ride in the annual CAGA Tour de Belt. To my surprise, our Pennsylvania capital has patched together a rather green and traffic free loop of pavement and gravel. The Tour de Belt promotes the Greenbelt itself, and last weekend several hundred cyclists gathered to complete the circumnavigation in fine weather. 

Police and volunteers blocked traffic for participants at several intersections, leaving me with that rare feeling (pipe dream?) that the general public might deem cycling sensible & beneficial enough to alter the paths of cars. Unfortunately, on most other days, I live with the dominant paradigm that leaves cagers gassing, paving, and idling, and pedalers dodging, blinking and whistling.

Wildflowers and Birds...

Fun in Sun

Traveling with much efficiency and speed on this Giant Defy in gorgeous weather outside State College, PA.

State Control

I am recently informed by our township leaders that the likelihood of a bike lane on the Pike is much less likely because it is a state road with heavier traffic. This was not pleasant news, and  seemed somewhat illogical. Big city bike paths are a case in point for me. Take New Yorkers, who pedal parallel to rush hour traffic on Eighth Avenue every day. Their bike lanes are associated with overall declines in bike fatalities since they were developed.


Of course, traffic free bike trails can offer an idyllic experience. There's a fine route from 25th and Market Streets in the Camp Hill Borough that finds its way through calm residential streets, then through a pedestrian tunnel, to Seibert Park.  

I hit about 52 mph on this hill!

I  hopped this bridge in one daring 30' jump!

Halfway north through Seibert Park trees surround the route, where it becomes an unpaved path. A small stream runs adjacent to the path, as it winds downhill toward the Conodoguinet.  I didn't have time to follow the Conodoguinet, but from that point, one can ride with little traffic for several more miles to and along Oyster Mill Rd., via Conodoguinet Drive.  

The Conodoguinet...finally free of sharks.

Unfortunately, none of these tree-lined routes get me to work...

Cyclist Undermined

What is happening here? Who is doing the drilling? What is the cyclist thinking or seeing?

Bikes May Pass!

The other day I was riding toward work, through a construction zone, and all the cars were stopped and waiting for the construction worker to spin the sign from STOP to SLOW.  But then the worker turned to me and said, "Bikes can go..."  while all the cars had to wait!

Your interpretations of this event are welcome...

Mahogany

If bicycles are an antidote to environmental stress, I'm not sure what to make of a mahogany bike rack. I saw this one in Charlottesville, VA, this weekend.  My first reaction was that it was a wonderfully crafty creation, but now I'm wondering if all the carbon offset made possible by this pedaler was just zeroed out by chopping down the tree from which this rack came.  Or maybe this is sustainably harvested mahogany (although I'm not sure given the time it takes to grow a mahogany tree). For this cyclist's sake, he did say the wood pieces were scraps from another's project, so maybe he saved on the shipping charges for bike rack shipped from China.