Making riding part of your life

Summer's over, so time to return to blogging.

Being laid up by my ankle break, I missed riding so much, I forced myself back on the bike in May. My ankle continues to hurt at times, but you get used to it and it does seem to hurt less and less. For the first months, I swapped out my cleated pedals for flat ones so I could ride in shoes, and I walk up a lot more hills pushing the bike than I used to.

Currently I'm participating in King County's InMotion program, which rewards local residents with prizes for driving less and doing more by bike, bus and walking.

Challenges like this are fun, and Seattle's 3-month run of unbroken sunshine makes it easy. Because it's not a stretch for me to do errands by bike, I'm deliberately planning complex rides across town. I did two great trips this week. Tuesday, I rode downtown, took the King County Water Taxi to Alki (bikes travel free), took the free shuttle to Alaska Junction in West Seattle, and rode to a cooking class at a natural foods store. The return trip, at 9:30pm, was too late for a return on the water taxi, so I used the new Metro Rapid Ride, "C" and "D" routes, and then rode the last mile home. Not too many drunks on the night bus, and it took about an hour.

Yesterday, I rode through the University district to Montlake station, hoisted the bike down the stairs, and rode Sound Transit across Lake Washington to Bellevue. The return was from Bellevue Transit Center to downtown, finished with a return home by bike.

On both days I used William the Conqueror, the baby bike that draws a lot of interest. Metro buses have bike racks, but they don't fit my bike with tiny wheels. And the folding bike is certainly a lot less hassle to wheel onto escalators and out of the bus tunnel. A Brompton is designed for this sort of travel.

Still, I continue to tour, and did manage one good one. In May I took William for a week long trip in Southern Utah. I flew SW Airlines, so there were no bag fees for the cardboard box I cut to size to transport the bike. With a rental car, I had a great time riding and car camping in Zion and Bryce National Parks. Certain parts of each park are closed to private cars, so cyclists can ride some of the best scenic routes out there. Everyone else is stuck in the mandatory park bus.

Inspired by Anne Mustoe

I recently finished reading Anne Mustoe’s Two Wheels in the Dust: From Kathmandu to Kandy (2001), a book about biking the route of the Ramayana’s major characters Rama, Sita and their divine assistant, Hanuman, the monkey king.

I’d hoped that this adventurous woman, who’d be in her 80s by now, was still going strong. Unfortunately, she died in Syria in 2009, on what turned out to be her last bike ride.

I have a copy of the Ramayana, but found it difficult to read. No superlative is ever too much where this epic is concerned, which makes for hard going. It must work better in song or theatrical form. Now that I’ve seen it through Anne’s eyes, I’ll try to read it again.

Last November, I spent a month in Nepal. While in Kathmandu, I glimpsed a beaten up long distance cyclist pushing his rig through the Thamel neighborhood. He was the dustiest person I’ve ever seen, and had his gear wrapped in torn black garbage bags. He disappeared before I catch up and chat. The fact that I wanted to “catch up” with someone who looked like a dangerous vagrant says a lot about how long distance cycling changes your outlook on life.

Where ever I travel these days, I check the terrain for cycling possibilities. That's what riding long distance in France, followed by long distance in the USA, and  in New Zealand does to you. For now, I won't be broaching the subject of riding from Nepal through India to Sri Lanka with non-riding friends, as they'd think I was crazy. With the right mindset, which solo female cycling in the subcontinent would demand in spades, I think it would be a grand trip.

Thank you Anne Mustoe, former headmistress, and late-to-riding pioneer, for lighting the path for the rest of us.

Saddle wisdom

It’s raining lightly today, and in the upper 50s outside. Just been enjoying a spring catalog from Terry Bicycles, full of fashionably wearable women’s bike clothing, accessories, and equipment.

Terry’s website has some interesting blog posts. Found Georgena Terry’s take on 650 vs. 700 cc wheels “The Wheel Debate Continues” very helpful.

As one of the 8.2 percent of Washington State residents currently looking for a job, I need to control discretionary spending, so being a bike fashionista is out. The hard plastic and Velcro boot I wear these days to protect my healing left ankle doesn’t really go with much, anyway. I’m not into the snowboarder/astronaut look.

I use Terry saddles. I wore the leather out on a “Liberator” many years ago, and my “Butterfly” is still going strong on my road bike.

Cutout saddles work. Also use chamois butter and teach yourself to hover above, as much as sit on, a saddle while riding. Bingo! That’s how to survive long distance riding.

3rd annual APBP webinar on women and bicycling

I attended the 3rd annual Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, APBP webinar: Empowering Women to Bicycle for Transportation (and Fun) on March 28, 2012. Always an inspiring event.

The slide show is available here.

I was particularly inspired by Kim Cross, founder of Magic City Cycle Chix, a Birmingham, Alabama-based group that puts together women’s local mountain biking trips and group rides that are heavy on encouragement and light on competitiveness. I wished these gals were in my neighborhood.

Having recently “discovered” mountain biking via a few of New Zealand’s Nga Haerenga bike routes, I’m gonna look into what’s available specifically for women like me hereabouts. I know a number of mountain bikers, and 100-percent of them subscribe to the “if your head isn’t bleeding, and you haven’t got a tree branch wedged in your front wheel, well, you’re not trying hard enough” school of thought.

Most riding is out for me currently. Last week, I swapped my non-weight-bearing awkward cloth “boot” for a sturdier, weight-bearing, equally awkward Velcro-and-hard-plastic number that’s the next step (pun) in regaining my ability to flex my left ankle and walk without pain.

While I don’t think I’ll be practicing jumps off elevated wooden platforms anytime soon, my PT just told me I could set up a bike on an indoor trainer, and get back in the saddle.

It won’t be pretty, but it’s a start.

My favorite solo women bike travelers: Louise Sutherland

"In 1945, aged 19, Louise Sullivan pedalled off to discover New Zealand, then spun her way around the globe, winning hearts along the way."

While cooling my heels at the Auckland YHA last month, I read a short biography by Bronwen Wall, Louise Sullivan Spinning the Globe [Kennett Brothers : Wellington, New Zealand, 2010].

It's hard not to like this free-spirited woman. In 1978, Louise, now aged 52, wearing a knee length skirt, rode her Raleigh bicycle solo on the Trans-Amazonian highway across Brazil.

Louise carried a bottle of nail polish as a trip essential, and it's wonderful to see how often she used this item to befriend people, break down barriers, and get out of trouble.

This book is number 6 in a series called "New Zealand Cycling Legends" at Kennett Brothers

Friendlier Bike Events for Women?

What can be done to make bicycle events friendlier to women? I just read this interesting qualitative study from two Australian academics at Griffith University, who studied female participants on the 2010 nine-day Bicycle Queensland supported ride. I’ve ridden several day and week-long events over the past 10 years, and I’m familiar with being an outlier: solo female rider, perfectly happy to ride at the back of the pack so I can enjoy the journey, not the destination, and not having many other women riders around.

Here’s an academic take on what that might mean.

Fullagar, Simone and Adele Pavlidis, “It’s all about the journey: women and cycling events,” International Journal of Event and Festival Management (2012), Vol. 3, Iss. 2
Abstract here:

To read the full article, email Professor Fullagar

Bike maintenance basics for women

I figured out how to get myself, my bike, and my gear back to Seattle. A lot of sitting around airports (Auckland to Sydney, Sydney to San Francisco, San Francisco to Seattle), and experienced first hand the ups and downs of negotiating airports in a wheelchair.

Since getting back on Feb 28, I've been busy with doctors and kneeling on a scooter to get around without crutches.

As riding is OUT for months until I can put weight back on my left foot once more, and learn to walk with pins in my ankles, I'm making the best of it.

Went to the local outdoors store, and attended a free Bike Basics for Women demostration. I know quite a bit about bike maintenance and basic repairs, but I sure don't know everything.

This was a nice time to spend the evening, learning about lubes and things I should be doing, but haven't.