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Phoebe Sinclair Writes

Phoebe Sinclair Writes

Tag Archives: bike-love

Meeting A Goal You Didn’t Know You Had

04 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life

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Tags

bike-love, family, goals, gratitude, jersey, somerville

Phoebe & mother on red cruiser bikes, Key West, FL

Mom & Me, Key West, Florida

As an adult, I have enjoyed bike rides with each person in my family-of-origin, independent of one another. This is not a goal I realized I had ’til it was accomplished.

I’m from a project-based family. We like to do things, collect experiences, learn, examine, uncover, understand. And we like bikes!

I remember being a little thing and my paternal grandfather’s adult-sized tricycle. The sound of bike tires bumping over a boardwalk’s wooden slats. Family mythology has it that same tricycle once ran over my mother’s foot, by accident.

I recall the thick, this-might-be-chemical-y-dangerous smell of grease and seeing bikes in bits in my back yard, old chains soaking in a pickle tub, waiting to be scrubbed silver.

Bike tour guide speaks with group

My brother & me on a Princeton, NJ bike tour

My Strawberry Shortcake Big Wheel; the red tricycle belonging to a neighborhood kid that we’d zip around on like it was a scooter ’til our backs ached; the pretty, blue Columbia that was stolen from my front porch, gone possibly a long time before I noticed. Barreling down broke-up concrete sidewalks from 8th Avenue to 7th, back around to 8th, no adult accompanying me because, as long I stuck to the sidewalk, no need. Learning that freedom can be bought at Toys-R-Us and sized up when my legs grew too long.

Place to place, and person to person. Child to sibling to parent.

On bike in Somerville, MA

Dad on Somerville Library Bike Tour

Bikes in Somerville Library parking lot

Fun in a Somerville lot with Dad and Dave

There’s nothing like that early love, or the connections it offers. The relationships it helps sustain.

Wooded road

Phoebe on a winding MA road

Novel Summer

29 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Writing Life

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Tags

bike-love, writing

Dear Wholeheart friends,

I’ve been remiss! This summer, June to September, was spent winding my novel down to a close. Ten years of running towards it/running away/running-in-circles finally culminating in my typing the final words of a strange, difficult, fun, inspiring adventure. Can’t tell you more yet, but soon, I hope.

In the meantime, please enjoy this little snapshot of autumn moving in.

IMG_0455

Lane Change

09 Monday Dec 2013

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

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bike-commuting, bike-love, community, giving

A criticism I’ve heard applied to sea-change efforts/programs, like Teach for America or the Peace Corps, is that the true aim is not to directly impact the people and places served, but to change the person doing the serving. To drive that individual to action beyond the current actions.

Snacks and tunes

In this sequence, it appears that the people and places that should be benefiting are instead being sacrificed for a mere idea of Greater Good; that far-off star we may never touch.

All those young people out there, sweating towards the unreachable.

And the struggle continues

I don’t share that bleak view. Important people in my life, some whom I haven’t yet met (I’m sure), are out there doing that work, systematically affecting change, though what change they may not know. And while they strive, I continue working at the micro-level: one Feminist Culture Club, one pie sorting, one bike ride at a time.

Lane Change is a new Boston-area group uniting cyclists of color. With a few rides under our belt in the warmer months of 2013, we’re looking forward to what 2014 brings. Perhaps not a sea-change, but ripples of fun, joy, and positivity.

Suiting up to ride

Lane Change group 2013

Boston Halloween Bike Ride 2013

01 Friday Nov 2013

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bike-love, events, jamaica-plain

The bad news: Below is the only photo I have from the October 31st ride.

Going up hill on bike

The good news: It was our third year taking part in the ride and I was blown away. Hundreds of people turned out, so many I couldn’t keep up with the costumes. Unicorns and a school of sharks and elephants and a lightning bug and zombies and tigers and several boombox trailers blasting James Brown and Loki and lighthouses and a CFL lightbulb and police officers (not official) and bacon and snack cakes and a harem of zebras and Captain America and a bumblebee riding a lobster bike and . . . wow.

Our group meet up at Green Street MBTA station in Jamaica Plain and traveled into Boston proper, where we met the second group and lit up the streets around Mass. College of Art and the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. Then through Fenway and over to Cambridge; Central Square, Harvard Square; ’round to Allston and through Brookline; back to JP. My favorite moment was riding through the Cambridge Street tunnel in Harvard Square, bikes-only, everyone hooping and hollering and shouting their hearts out in the cavernous, echo-y space.

Even if you don’t ride, you gotta see this thing and cheer us on. Next year, friends!

Two viking ships (on bike helmets)

Handcrafted by my partner, two viking ships off to sail the seas

The Well-Trained City Bike Commuter

21 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

bike-commuting, bike-love, community

IMG_3872

Riding in a city can be tricky stuff. First there’s the cars and how to behave around them. Then there’s the potholes and how not to tumble into them. Finally, and perhaps most challenging, your own naughty self to contend with.

Helmets. Bike lights. One-way streets. Stop signs. Night riding. Relating to fellow commuters who may or may not be running said stop signs as they shoot down one-way streets, sans helmet, in the middle of the night. It’s complicated.

Although I wore a helmet from the start, I admit it took me about two years to complete a contract with myself to stop at every red (it’s so easy to just fly through.) Stop signs are fuzzier: I slow significantly but rarely stop (unless it’s a four-way) because of the effort it takes to get started again from a dead halt. Several years and some nasty verbal clashes have convinced me to self-ban screaming at drivers who pull rude or unaware moves (like the dreaded right-hook.)

I do harbor a few guilty cheats. For one, my apartment sits at the bottom of a steep hill, so I ride the wrong way every evening to get home. My other guilty cheat, discovered when I observed another rider take the easy way into Brookline after crossing the BU Bridge and Commonwealth Ave., was recently resolved, much to my delight!

Do not enter sign

Cycle track in Brookline

A peaceful side-street ride just got more legit.

Whole Heart Washington DC

10 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life, Learnin'

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

bike-love, travel

This is what I looked like the first time I wandered Washington, DC as a tourist.

PhoebeinDC

With few visits in between, one where I marched in support of women’s reproductive rights, another devoted to the company of friends, I have had little opportunity to explore the city on my lonesome. DC’s charms have remained -for me- long forgotten, under-appreciated, or elusive.

Exhibit in the National Museum of the American Indian

Exhibit in the National Museum of the American Indian

I was fairly sure I didn’t much appreciate the culture of our nation’s capital.

Broken skateboard in DC

Say DC and I’ll free-associate: khaki, suit jackets, ladder climbing, poverty, gentrification, and blindingly white, granite-smooth buildings. Hot hot heat. Free museums.

Statues in American Indian museum

However, a whirl around the city astride a shiny Capital Bikeshare rental spun my opinion.

Obligatory White House photo

Obligatory White House photo

I had arrived in DC a day ahead of the conference I was to attend on behalf of my “place-based” community agency. Figured to take in a few museums, eat some local fare, visit with my partner’s cousin, and maybe locate an outdoor market. I accomplished some of those, but it was the bike ride that finally won me over.

Coasting down Pennsylvania Avenue in the impressive protected cycle track located smack in the middle of the street, I toured the neighborhoods.

Pennsylvania cycle track

Today, you say DC, I free-associate: charmingly colorful row houses with all manor of quirky embellishments, the sky a blush pink and cottony blue, mural of some of the U.S’s most popular brown faces –Bill Cosby and Barack Obama.

Tower against the blue sky

Sunset beginnings

Dramatic sunset, DC

So . . . this is what I looked like on the most recent occurrence of my wandering DC as a tourist. Notice any differences? :^)

Pho in DC 2013

Sweet Ride Cambridge 2013

04 Tuesday Jun 2013

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

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Tags

bike-love, cambridge, community, events, food-n-cookin, spring

Officially, I gave up my candy habit some time around 2005. Shocking then, right, that I somehow found myself sucking down conversation hearts while listening to a talk on Cambridge’s sugary legacy -that of flat, candy wafers that spark in the dark, figgy cookies, and mints that come in papa, mama, and junior? (Actually, not that shocking . . . )

Mayor Davis helps to kick things off at the start of the Sweet Ride

Cambridge Mayor Henrietta Davis helps to kick things off at the Sweet Ride (photo courtesy Cambridge Bicycle Committee)

Between the riding, listening, and somewhat guilt-free gobbling of complimentary goodies provided by our hosts, I may not have found opportunity to snap photos even if I had bought along my reliable (and admittedly clunky) Canon. Glad I’m not the only person sweet on fond remembrance.

Ride-specific Sweetheart

Cambridge Bikes is a Sweetheart (courtesy of Cambridge Bicycle Committee)

The photos featured here are borrowed courtesy of the fine planners/bike enthusiasts at Cambridge Bicycle Committee.

In addition to being so kind as to let me partake of their photos, I enjoyed that this well-organized tour of Cambridge was split into “sweet” and “savory” with brief, interesting lectures at several resting points.

Two young men on trick bikes

Sweet or savory, bikes in all flavors (photo courtesy of Cambridge Bicycle Committee)

Two men with three bowties

These gents could be on the bow tie ride (photo courtesy of Cambridge Bicycle Committee)

JP Spring Roll Bike Ride

22 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life

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Tags

bike-love, events, jamaica-plain

Annually since we’ve lived in Jamaica Plain, my partner and I have enjoyed taking part in the JP Spring Roll bike ride organized by our local culture and advocacy group, JP Bikes.

Littles getting ready to ride

This year, it rained pre-ride so a lot of folks didn’t come out. David and I had the curious experience of being outnumbered by family groups, toting or accompanied by little ‘uns.

Police officer provides the "cork" for JP Spring Roll

We stood out: kidless in the community bike parade. I was also without a bike bell with which to ring in cheers from spectators along the route. Next year I will have to address one of those issues! ;^) (And by that I mean, the bell.)

Post bike jaunt around the tennis court

Over exposed shot of young riders

Overexposed, but I kind of like it!

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!

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