MFM Day 4: Cycling in Fast-Forward

September 2nd, 2009, MFM Day 4


Nothing says biking like Kraftwerk!








Song of the Day: Kraftwerk, Tour de France, Étape 1.mp3


Apparently these techno-freaks are or were avid cyclists, go figure. Could the bike be the perfect man-machine?


I had to meet my crazy running friends for a group run across town after work, so I busted out my road bike for the day. Until now the Motor Free Month had been done solely on my single-speed cruiser. I figured this would be a good opportunity to point out the pros and cons of living motor free on one speed vs. several.


First let me introduce the single speed. This old warhorse I bought in 1994. In fact it was one of the first things I bought when I returned to the States from the Peace Corps. This and new stereo speakers. The bike is an old Trek 930 mountain bike, rigid frame (pretty much all of them were rigid frame back then), steel tubing, made in the USA. It was the cheapest Trek I could get that was actually built in the USA, baby. I think it cost me about $500 at the time, but I can't remember really. I never did much actual "Mountain biking" on the thing, but I did get a lot of use out of it over the years. Recently as I started biking to work more frequently, the 930 started to fall apart a bit, to the point where it wasn't shifting and the front hub was pretty much shot. About this time single-speed bikes started becoming all the rage here in the Fort, so I got my friend Dan to help me out and strip off all the gears save one, and convert it into a rockin' single speed bike. Not a fixed-gear bike, mind you. I can coast on this puppy.


It's great for around town riding, very comfortable. I put a pannier on the back to carry groceries and other supplies. It's cruising speed is about 12 mph. Fort Collins is pretty flat in town so it's not necessary to have low gears with which to climb hills. But unless you're coasting downhill, you can't go very fast on this bike. Hey it's a cruiser, what do you expect?

Which brings me to my other bike, the road bike. I purchased a road bike about 6 years ago as a means to improve my fitness. I ended up buying a Novara road bike, which is REI's generic brand bike. I don't think this bike was built in the USA. But I like it nonetheless. Compared to the cruiser, the road bike is much faster around town. I could really tell the difference yesterday when I took it to work and then across town to the group run after work. My cruising speed on the road bike is closer to 17 mph. And more importantly unlike the cruiser, on the road bike I have the option to push the pace and go much faster if desired. This is helpful around town when one is attempting to make that light at Stuart and Lemay, for example.

So why not ride the road bike all the time if it's faster? I don't know, maybe it's not all about speed all the time. The cruiser has a coolness factor that the road bike lacks. And I need all the cool I can get. Also the road bike requires cycling shoes with the little clips, and the cruiser doesn't. And the cruiser is a bit more comfortable. So mostly I'll stick with the cruiser unless I have to go more than 5 miles. Then the time savings on the road bike becomes too great to ignore.

Why is this relevant to you, good reader? If you were thinking about going completely motorless, and only could afford one bicycle, you'd probably need to get a road bike with many gears. You'd be sunk without it. If, however, you just want to ride a bike around town more frequently, and you don't have so far to go or don't have to get there all that quickly, then a cruiser might be right for you. You probably have an old mountain bike in your garage right now! Consider converting it into a sweet single speed cruiser, and breathe new life into that tired old bike. I've seen a lot of "old school" cruisers for sale at the bike shops, and while I admire their style, to a bike they are all quite heavy. Perhaps it's a question of form over function, and I suppose I'm an engineer at heart, but bike weight is an important consideration, so I'd recommend at least considering converting an old bike with a good light frame before purchasing a new cruiser that weighs 10 pounds more.

So anyway, it was a fairly uneventful motor free day on day 4. However on Day 5 we'll be biking over to our CSA produce distribution location to pick up a cornucopia of vegetables after work. I'm hoping the pumpkins have not come in yet.

MFM Day 3: Takin' it all the way to City Hall

MFM Day 3, September 1st



Song of the Day: Cracker, Lonesome Johnny Blues.mp3



Oh God, what am I doing, I didn't even prepare anything to say. Well all the world's a stage, right?



"I am pledging a motor-less month for September. I will not drive or ride in any motorized vehicles the entire month."



Ok, now what? The Mayor and City Council are staring at you, not to mention all the citizens in the room. Is there a point to this or are you simply a self-aggrandizing jerk?



"And I'd like to extend an invitation to the city council, the honorable Mayor, all the people in this room, and the fine people of Fort Collins to do the same."



Better; we're pulling out of the nose dive now. Now wrap it up nice and sweet and get the hell off this podium.



"To leave your cars in your garages and get on your bicycles this month. Let's show everybody what a bicycle-friendly town this is, what a bicycle-loving town this can be. Thank you."



bicycle-loving? Oh good Lord that was terrible. But Awesome!



I was at the Ft Collins City council meeting on MFM Day 3. By coincidence an advocate for cycling was trying to organize a bunch of cyclists to come to the city council meeting after work. I figured this was just the sort of activity I should be doing during Motor Free Month, so I decided to go. And by the end of it, I was up there on the podium, taking my MFM message to city hall, baby!



Having never been to a city council meeting before I did not realize that the first 30 minutes of the meeting were open to the public for speaking about whatever was on their minds. Our cycling advocate got up first and spoke very professionally and intelligently about the need for more funds to be allocated for bicycle safety in this town.



The issue was on everybody's mind because of the tragic death of a 14-year old cyclist, Urangua "SiSi" Mijiddorj, on August 20, 2009. This actually was the third cyclist death in the past 14 months in Fort Collins. This is in addition to another cyclist seriously injured quite recently as well. All three were killed in bike-car accidents.



So about half of the people got up and talked about the need for better bicycle safety and awareness. The other half blathered on about budgets, utility bills, the chamber of commerce, and other (to me) uninteresting stuff.



Originally I was not going to get up and speak, but after listening to the other speakers (most of whom had prepared statements and had actually, you know, taken this seriously) there was no way I was NOT going to get up there and make a fool of myself!



So when the mayor asked, "any last speakers"? I got up and dove in. I wanted to let them know I was doing a motor free month. Why? Don't know really. It felt good to let people know what I was doing. Maybe the Mayor will get on his bike more this month! At least he knows that I'm doing it. Given the tenor of the day, I could have said that I'm doing this for bicycle safety, for the people killed in town recently. But I didn't really know them (I'd met Rebecca once actually) and to say I was riding for the dearly departed seemed disingenuous, so I left the reasons blank. But they are on my mind, and if I can get drivers to be more aware of cyclists, and get cyclists to ride more safely, then I suppose I've done some good.



Leave it to me to gleefully mix absurdity and pathos in pledging to the city of Ft Collins to go motor free. I believe that Rebecca Allen would approve.

RIP

Urangua "SiSi" Mijiddorj


Erica Forney


Rebecca Allen



The evening wasn't all heavy though; we concluded it by going to our local live music club, The Aggie, to see Cracker! I can inform you that our bikes were properly illuminated, and that we had a lovely time at the concert (they're playing at the Bluebird in Denver tonight for all you Denver-folk, good show!), and a particularly nice moonlight ride back home through deserted streets after the show. MFM at it's finest.



Peace out and Ride/Drive safe.

MFM Day 2: Racing vs. Time

August 31st, 2009, MFM Day 2


Like most working schlubs, I've got an hour for lunch everyday. Today I decided to run a couple of errands at lunch: go to the bank, stop by the running store, have lunch at home. It would have been a tough task to get all of it done in an hour with the aid of a car. On a bike though, it. would. be.

A Race Against Time...

Song of the Day: Missing Persons, Racing Against Time.mp3

(I literally had this totally obscure Missing Persons (!) song stuck in my head during my lunch time adventure. Unless you're a huge Terry Bozzio fan like me, you've probably never even heard this song before, so , uh, enjoy?)



11:35 am.
Leave the office. I'm about 3.5 miles from Foot of the Rockies, where I have to enter a race today. I save $5 if I register today. I could have done this on-line and paid $3 more, but yes I'm that frugal. Besides if I did it on line, it would be just another day. Now, it's an impossible adventure. But not pointless; we're going to see if a man on a bike can run a few errands as quickly as someone in a car. Did I mention I'm on the single -speed cruiser? This is not the right bike for this adventure. One gear. It's very difficult to pedal this thing faster than about 14 or 15 mph. Should have taken the road bike.



11:45 am.
Stop by the bank, get some cash. Time is ticking.



11:55 am.
Arrive at the running store. Had to take the sidewalk alongside College Ave. It was very scary but necessary.



12:01 pm.
Leave Foot of the Rockies. I'm about 5 miles from home via College. College is to be avoided on a bike at all costs, but any other route would waste time, so I race along the sidewalk alongside College. Chain restaurants fly by; Appelbee's (neighborhood grill!). Olive Garden (family style Italian!). Ruby Tuesday's (food Mick Jagger likes!). Chili's (spicy but not too spicy!). Zoom. The sidewalk peters out at the mall. Cut across the mall parking lot (keep your head on a swivel!) to Stover. Ahh Stover. This is a bike friendly street. Bikers know the Fort differently than drivers. Stover is my College on a bike.



12:25 pm.
Arrive at home. In now have 5 minutes to eat lunch, pack my yoga stuff, and get back to work. The crushing impossibility of it all finally hits me. Would have been better off in a car today! NOOOOOOOO. Should have either done fewer errands and picked another time. Cram PB&J sandwich in mouth, pet dog and give biscuit to the same, remove race stuff from backpack, stuff towel and shorts into back back, strap yoga mat to backpack straps, and (12:41 pm) blast out the door. 2 miles from work. I'm already late but I may as well make a show of trying! (12:53 pm) arrive back at office. about 20 minutes overdue. I can make up the time by staying late, but I must admit it is a MFM failure; being motor free negatively impacted my working day. But it was a fun adventure so I can't consider it all bad. And I got about 10.5 miles of riding in, not too shabby!

Lesson learned; it would be hard to be motor free if you had a strict work environment where you couldn't make up some extra time taken at lunch. I feel fortunate there.

Today I'm heading to a city council meeting after work. There have been at least 2 cyclists killed by motorists in the Fort in the past year or so, and we need to raise awareness and see what we can do to make the city safer for cyclists and motorists. Join me there if you like!

Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Time: 5:45pm - 6:45pm
Location: City Council Chambers
Street: 300 Laporte Ave.
City/Town: Fort Collins, CO

And we're going to see a concert at the Aggie tonight!


(not these guys)
























That's more like it...

Motor Free Day 1

Sunday August 30th, MFM Day 1

Really it was quite uneventful, but since it was the first motor free day, I feel it deserves a post on the old blog.

The only bike trip of note was a (approx.) 3 mile trip across town to Blake and Emma's house for a cookout in the evening. C_ and I realized that we only have enough functioning bike lights for one bike, so I put the white headlight on my bike and we put the red tail light on hers, and we caravaned across town using the two-bikes-one-light method. Note to self, go to the bike store and get more lights today! The way home was dark as well, so I got my first of many night rides in today.

Probably the most amusing thing is that somehow we got "Sister Christian" by Night Ranger stuck in our heads, except we substituted the lyric "motorin'" with "motorless"

Song of the Day:

Night Ranger, Sister Christian.mp3

We're motorless,

What's your price for flight?

And Finding Mr. Right?

You'll be all right, tonight.

What the heck does that mean anyway?

Today I'll bike to work and home for lunch, and bike to yoga after work, and then stop by the store on the way home from yoga to pick something up for dinner. Incidentally I now feel like I should be living a more exciting life because I'm blogging about it. The guys from Night Ranger seem to be living an exciting life. Just look at their picture! What's their secret?

And why did all the 80s keyboard players dress up like doctors or scientists?

Motor Free Month begins tomorrow!

And it's really not "motor free" by the most strict definition, nor is it confined to a month exactly, but "MFM" has a nice ring to it so I'm sticking with it. Certainly catchier than "no driving or riding in engine-powered transport for the duration of 5 weeks."

Motor Free can mean many things. What do you define as a motor, anyway? Heck a bicycle itself could be considered motor powered. Yikes. Now the main focus of my MFM is on human-powered transportation, so, no driving or riding in any vehicles that are motor-powered. i.e. no cars, motorcycles, scooters, buses, trains, planes, or automobiles. Wait I already said cars. That goes for both driving and riding, as mentioned. And hybrids and electric trams are great and all, but I'm banning them as well. Not that we have any electric trams in Ft. Collins. but if we did, well, ban city, baby. The avoidance of elevators and escalators is highly encouraged, but it is understood that it may not be possible to avoid.

Also, MFM will include the whole of September 2009, but I will start on August 30th, and plan on continuing through October 3rd, making it 5 full weeks of Motor Free life.

So MFM is both less and more than advertised. I think it balances out.

I must mention that my lifestyle contains several built-in advantages that will allow me to live motor-free more easily than others. These advantages include:

2 mile work commute. But I must admit that the 2 mile commute was and is a factor on my current employment situation. I sought out a job that was close to home. I wasn't always that way!

9-5 while collar cubicle job. I don't have to travel for work. In fact, I sit in a cubicle and write software, it's all rather boring now that I'm writing it down here, but it has advantages when considering a motor-free existence. No trips across town, or across the country. No strange work hours requiring me to be out at all hours.

No Children. Children have special transport needs. What if they get sick? Have sports or other activities? Maybe they don't share your enthusiasm for living motor-free? Could make things difficult.

Close to shopping. I live in the city, and I'm walking distance to a grocery store, and I live less than 2 miles from many dozens of shops and restaurants. It would be tough to live motor-free in the country.

Good Weather. I dare say Ft. Collins has lovely weather, particularly this time of year. Not too hot, not much rain. I'll also point out that September is a better month to go motor free than is, say Janurary. Yes that is on purpose. I don't think I'd survive a motor free Janurary! Also how would I get to Copper Mountain?

Also I'm delighted to see a news article about a German city that was designed from the ground up for auto-free living. Cracking good, Germans!

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/story?id=8440108

Motor-Free in 5 days (MFM-5)

The Motor Free Month starts officially next Tuesday, September 1st. It actually may start as soon as Sunday August 30th, but I'm reserving the right for one final trip through the McDonald's Drive through in the full-size truck. Just to feel, you know, red-blooded American one last time before embarking on this motor free adventure.

I have several activities lined up for September that will tax the viability of living motor free. These I will now list:

September 5th, the New Belgium Tour De Fat. This won't tax anything as it's a celebration of all things motor-free. but it's noteworthy nonetheless.

September 6th, planning a golf outing to a local course. Could be interesting hauling the clubs and bag across town on the bike. A trailer would come in handy here, I'll try to avoid something so practical (and expensive!!!) though.

September 7th, probably a hike at Greyrock trail. The trailhead is about 15 miles from home.

September 12, a CSU football game! How to tailgate without a tailgate?
Sepberber 13, a trip to Longmont to see the 'rents. 30 miles one way. Unless I can convince them to come to the Fort instead?

September 20, a half marathon race in town.

September 25-27. The Great American Beer Festival. In Denver. Will have to cycle down to Denver from the Fort, I suppose, if I want to enjoy samples of tasty fermented goodness.

Not to mention the usual daily activities including work, shopping, visiting friends, group runs, etc.

A Motor-Free Month in a Mechanized World

Mostly I'm starting this blog to chronicle my "motor-free month", in which I will attempt to go an entire month without using any form of motorized transport. No cars, no motorcycles, no airplanes, just "human" power. That goes for riding too, not just driving; no rides in any motorized vehicles either! And electric vehicles are not exempt!

Why do this?

I conceived of this as a social experiment, as a way to get into shape, as a way to raise awareness of bicycle travel, as a way to understand the importance of motorized transport in our society, and just 'cause I'm a little off my rocker. Ironically I expect to obtain a greater appreciation for motorized transport as a result of this experiment.

When is the motor-free month?

As of now, the motor-less month will be September, 2009. I may start it a few days earlier, and I will certainly try to extend it as long as possiblee. A motor-free-month-and-a-half is not out of the question.

What about going to the supermarket?

I'll walk or ride to the store, I'll probably have to make more trips than usual though!

You realize the food you buy came to the store on a truck, and possibly a boat or plane before that?

Understood. I'm not advocating that we abolish motorized transport. Far from it; I think we should appreciate what a miracle of technology is motorized transport, and not take it for granted. Believe me, when the motor-free month is over I will relish sitting behind the wheel of a high-performance automobile and enjoy driving down the freeway at speeds undreamed of of by humans only 100 years ago.

So you're just going to sit around the house all month then?

Far from it! Part of the experiment is to chronicle the hardships that come from a motor-less month. I will attempt to do the things I normally do, including hiking in the mountains, golfing, and visiting friends and family in other towns.

Big deal, billions of people have a motor-free month, every month!

Also true; and not just people in the poor places of the world, like say rural Ghana for example; I imagine it's fairly easy to have a motor-less month in wealthy places like New York City and London. People adapt to motor-free existence out of necessity (Ghana) and even convenience (New York/London). But in Fort Collins, CO, USA (where I live), things aren't necessarily built around a motor-less existence.

OK, then, cool/whatever/you're an idiot

I imagine your response falls into one of those three categories. No matter your response, I hope you will follow along as I prepare for and embark upon this adventure!