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Phoebe Sinclair Writes

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Tag Archives: bike-commuting

What We Talk About When We Talk About Biking

24 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bike-commuting, bike-love

Helmet as spirit-creature

Crashes.

It’s as though bicycles are stout, low-flying airplanes. Crashes follow like shadows, bikes falling from the sky . . .

The first expression that flits across listeners’ faces when I inform them of my strange bike commuting habit is often horror. Aren’t you afraid of cars? Sometimes that initial response is replaced with rueful admiration or wistfulness, sometimes not. Either way, the conversation invariably turns to crashes.

“Bad” behavior.

  • They say: And THEN he ran a red light!
  • Bikes can’t be cars and pedestrians both. You CAN’T have it all.
  • She was going right down the middle of the street (thanks, bikeyface).
  • He wasn’t wearing a helmet . . . and he was texting.
  • I can’t BELIEVE she’d ride with her toddler in the street like that. Get on the SIDEWALK for God’s sake! (Subtext: people are nuts . . . and SHE’S a bad mother!)

Theft.

They say: I had a terrific bike. And then it was STOLEN. (Full disclosure: I’m guilty as charged. All of my bikes until my most recent went the way of carelessness, followed by swift theft.)

What we don’t talk about when we talk about biking.

  • Watching spring bloom, leaf by petal.
  • Winter’s muted beauty.
  • Dinner on the table by seven in homes across the city, scents wafting out.
  • Drivers who smile and wave. Who give you the thumbs-up sign when you’re riding in the rain and they’re safe in their metal boxes, kind of wishing they were you.
  • Childhood trikes and bikes and scooters. Big wheels. Those first moments, that taste. A breeze of your own making. And a freedom like flying.
  • Being content in your own company.
  • Easy, effortless living-in-the-moment.

Buying A New Bike: One Woman’s Journey

19 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bike-commuting, bike-love, cambridge, goals, jamaica-plain

My first step was to wish for a new bike.

Back a number of years I met a lovely woman riding a shiny, well-kept and smooth contoured road bike by a company I’d never heard of. She intrigued me further by explaining how she believed the bike’s particular geometry -specifically the shorter length top tube– was a natural fit for the female body.

My second step was to continue riding my “$60 police auction special” Raleigh for four years. Through sun and rain and snow and one thankfully minor accident on a hill with a car. This step included a continued desire for the bike of my dreams to suddenly appear in my life, as if unbidden, and pretty much for free.

Packin' the bags full of yarn and crochet

The “police auction special”

My third step was to consider my values:

  • Buy used when possible
  • If not used, then go local, independent, neighborhood-based, community-minded
  • Smaller manufacturers first
  • Don’t get seduced by the allure of the Perfect, or the Expensive
  • Don’t go flashy
  • Pay only as much as is comfortable to spend again if the bike gets stolen

My fourth was to make a list, which I presented with flourish (and perhaps a trace amount of geeky embarrassment) to shop attendants.

My fifth was to visit nearby retailers, trying used and new, refining my list, balking at price tags. My original budget was $600, which I thought could bag a more-than-decent mid-range bike. True, had not I been searching for a bike with drop handle bars, which I heard help reduce wrist strain, something I’ve struggled with since becoming a regular commuter with a desk job (typing, typing, typing.)

Finally, as the weather cooled, I reached the point where I feared I’d have to go beyond my budget to purchase something that didn’t have most of the features I wanted. But then one morning (sixth step, but also a first) I happened to glance at the Boston Craiglist bicycle sale ads, typing in the brand I’d discussed with the woman from earlier in this long tale. And lo. Behold.

Desmond the Lemond

The road bike prize

Coming in well below budget ($400), Desmond Puddin’ the LeMond – a prize from 2005, sold by a gentleman who took gentle care of the newest member of my household. Another $150 bought me a rack and fenders (and the labor to install them.)

Here, at the end of my list, is where I express gratitude to the ladies and gents of the many bike shops I haunted, rumpled list in tow, hopeful gleam in my eye:

  • Bikes Not Bombs, Jamaica Plain
  • Broadway Bicycle School, Cambridge
  • Cambridge Bicycle Shop, Cambridge
  • Eastern Mountain Sports, Cambridge
  • Ferris Wheels, Jamaica Plain (my home shop)
  • Quad Bikes, Cambridge
  • Superb Bicycle, Brookline
  • Wheelworks, Somerville and Belmont

‘Til next bike!

Bikes I Have Seen

22 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life, Boston Moments

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bike-commuting, bike-love, photography

Out-of-car and not-on-foot, one sees a good many curious things. There’s something about the slow-pass on a bicycle that gives the best view, in my opinion. However, there’s a lot to be said for the speed of walking. Truly, there’s where the humor is.

Light reflector and horns

DSC04122

IMG_6055

IMG_6057

DSC04125

Struck in the Face by Bees

10 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bike-commuting

Bee on sunflower in Lowell, MA

It’s a thing. Don’t believe me?

The scene: Riding your bike so innocently down some idyllic street, you notice a fuzzy bumble. It’s, say, forehead-height. Zigging, zagging, buzzing. You think, I’m commuting with nature. How sweet! The bee suddenly swings a left, following a pathway visible only to itself (or perhaps only invisible to humans) and WAP!!! Struck in the face by a bee.

Does it hurt? You ask, remembering your own bad/terrible/not-so-memorable experience with bee stings.

Well. Those velvety looking yellow/black/translucent bodies are more sharp edges, “muscle”, and bristle than they look, but I’d describe the experience as mostly a shock. And you can bet that, when I see those ladies/gents coming, I consider taking a different route.

However, bees are everywhere, pollinating and crunching wood (some of them) . . . head-bashing unsuspecting-city cyclists. All in a day’s work, ma’am.

The Hunt for a New Ride

07 Monday May 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bike-commuting, bike-love

Bike bundle at JP Music Fest

Bike shopping. On one hand, it’s been five years since I shopped for a new bicycle. On the other, I do it every day. Every time I pass a rack-full, I spy sweet rides. Recently, knowing there’s a purchase in my future, I’ve started staring hard at nearly every bike I pass, wondering, Is that the ONE?

My current bike –the tank– was a nervous purchase from the Cambridge Police Auction. Nervous because I hadn’t owned a good bike since the Columbia of my childhood, nervous because I wasn’t really sure I wanted to ride in the city (shooting down Bolyston, center-lane, with a yowling cat perched on your shoulder, anyone?) I told myself that I wouldn’t chance a new bike unless I proved to myself that I was really going to ride. It took a while, but the challenge has been met.

A confirmed maker-of-lists for all purposes and situations, I have taken the opportunity to compose a wish-list that I’ve, so far, given to my favorite bike mechanic/sales-lady for review. I’d like to think she was impressed by my nerd-acity (new word, just made that up.)

Phoebe Needs A New Bike

What I’m looking for:

  • Use: daily commute/weekend rides
  • Light enough to carry up flight of stairs daily
  • Faster than current mountain bike hybrid
  • Rear rack included
  • Preferably includes fenders
  • Interested in drop handlebars (or feature that promotes good wrist posture)
  • Discrete (fade from the eyes of thieves)

What I ride now:

  • Raleigh mountain bike hybrid
  • Heavy!
  • Ugly (a plus!)
  • Bad breaks
  • Rack & fenders

Friday Favorite – Mr. Potato Head Shrine

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life, Boston Moments

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bike-commuting, friday-favorite

I love passing this shrine on my ride to work.  Sometimes the wind blows over the potatoes, and it gets very dramatic.

Potato shrine

Hipster Bike Path

23 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

angry-bike-moments, bike-commuting, bike-love, jamaica-plain

Like many people, I’m of multiple minds about graffiti.

Mind #1: I don’t like it: if it’s not your property, you shouldn’t alter it. If it’s public property, it’s even LESS cool to lay your mark. (Do unto others: I’m almost 100% sure the average graffiti artist would frown the frown to end all frowns if, heading into his/her bathroom in the morning to brush his/her teeth, discovered a pink hippo riding a tricycle spray-painted on the shower door.)

Mind #2: Show me a book on graffiti art world-round, and I’ll spend at least half an hour flipping through.  I won’t deny that there’s something intrinsically attractive about in-your-face art.  And sometimes the graffiti is truly beautiful; the skill of the artist enviable.

Mind #3: Place and context: is the graffiti just tagging (hi! I’m here!  Lookatme!  Lookatme!) or is it social commentary?  Was it skillfully applied or slap-dash?  Is it marring the side window of some little neighborhood coffee shop (you know the owner’s going to have to go out there with gray paint), or interrupting the monotony of a train ride down the Northeast Corridor?

I think it was last year that the Southwest Corridor multi-use path was repaved, making many cyclists, runners, rollerbladers, and rowdy high school students happy to enjoy smoother travel.  Not long after, someone trailed red paint in a erratic line from one end to the other, inciting in me a surprisingly possessive and self-righteous sort of anger (you kids!  get out of my back yard!)  Not long after that, somebody else stenciled the word Bold between Green Street and Stonybrook Stations.  Recently, the erratic line and Bold have been joined by a cyclist wearing a hat.

My first thought: does this mean the bike path has been claimed by hipsters?  How connected is the man in a hat to the JP Music Fest mascot, or perhaps walk signs in East Germany?

My second thought was more a resigned sigh.

What do you think?

DSC03712

Friday Favorite – Apple Tree on Olmstead

30 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Green Life

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bike-commuting, friday-favorite, jamaica-plain, photography, this-moment, trees

Since I started taking the Olmstead Park path through Jamaica Plain into Brookline, over a year ago, I’ve passed this apple tree in its many forms. Decked out with blossoms, in mid-summer greens, full of knobby, misshapen apples that I’ve seen only Canada geese eat, and once with a raccoon perched crookedly on top like a fur hat, I enjoy the sight of the tree in each of its annual moods.  I hope to snap a few more candids as the seasons progress.

Apple tree, pre-spring

Bringing It

26 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

angry-bike-moments, bike-commuting, cambridge

In general, I’m not quick to anger. Sure, like most people, I’ve got my triggers, but I’m much more likely to laugh, shrug, or shake my head and wonder aloud at the mysteries of humans.

Enter bike commuting.

So this morning, riding serenely down Putnam Street in Cambridge (j/k – Putnam, with its constellation of potholes = far from serene), a woman in a large white SUV swerved around me, yelling out her open window, “Move over!”

Putnam Street is, I don’t know, twelve feet wide. It’s a narrow street. The Big Dipper potholes and road patches usually result in my taking the lane (for non-commuters this means = riding in the middle of a travel lane.)  I just don’t feel safe otherwise.

Enter the hollering driver in her SUV that barely fit in the lane. Enter 9:30 AM on a Wednesday. Enter fury.  

I fantasized about chasing her car down and through her open passenger’s side window (that she rolled down to shout at me?), giving that woman a piece of my mind. In a big way.

But you see, I’ve already done this. Multiple times, in multiple situations. It’s not satisfying. It’s never satisfying. Not even perhaps raising a choice finger. Not even mumbling savagely to myself. What happens is I get upset, I look out-of-control, I get exhausted by my own anger-adrenaline. And it’s just not worth my energy to take these situations personally, because they’re not personal.

Still when these situations occur, which is fairly often, a large (loud, panting, spitting) part of me is so ready to bring it; so unwilling to back down.  

Frustration leads to trashed bike?

Full Spectrum City Cycling

07 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life, Boston Moments

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bike-commuting, bike-love, cambridge

Brookline Bike Parade

Majority of my city bike-commuting experiences are positive –interesting, funny, beautiful, and so on. For example, the time when a MBTA bus pulled next to me on Mass. Ave., opened the passenger door and the driver called, “Do you want to race?”

Or the time when a tractor-trailer stopped beside me at a light and the driver honked the horn, pointed to my rainbow legwarmers, and gave me a thumbs-up.

Or spotting tiny frogs on the path while heading up Olmstead along the J-way on a wet, rainy night.

Or the time when a 70-something woman passed in front of me on a crosswalk and exclaimed, “You’re awfully cute!”

And then there are the bike-commuting experiences that can best be encapsulated by the phrase: oh MY (insert favorite sacrilege expletive.)

Like yesterday when I witnessed two cars smash together in the bike lane on Hampshire Street in Cambridge.

Or yesterday when I passed two separate incidents of women weeping (one wearing scrubs and clogs, tucked behind a tree, another on a bench with a friend) along the Muddy River in the Back Bay Fens.

Or last week when I think I saw someone stealing from a car parked near the Riverside Whole Foods, promised myself I’d report it when I got to work, and then of course promptly forgot.

Like the aforementioned Incident Behind Jackson Square Station.

Like when there’s a full moon and everybody gets just a little bit odd –you’ll never seen more mid-road K-turns or multiple-car assorted contortions on tight side-streets, than during a full moon!

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