An update while watching le Tour

For cycling enthusiasts, the day we've been waiting for all year has arrived.  The Tour de France has begun, our DVR's will be busy for the next three weeks, and our spouses will be annoyed by our normally active outdoorsy selves as we watch the Tour and fast forward through Road ID and Michelob Ultra commercials. Spoiler alert, Bob Roll doesn't find a riding partner this year either...

Have any of you been following the controversy surrounding bike share programs and helmet use?  Bike share programs are popping up in cities around the country and they are proving to be very successful.  That sounds like a very good thing right?  Well, it now seems that this is a new front on the culture wars.  Cyclists are now being called Limousine Liberals.  In fact, some folks who call themselves 'conservative' are suddenly feeling all nanny state, big government, getting all up in your private life by noticing that many bike share users don't wear helmets.  Not only that, but they have become very concerned about non-white poor people too!  What's behind this turnabout?  They point out that but bike share users tend to be white and highly educated.  They 'worry' that the program isn't doing enough for non-white uneducated folks.  Wow! isn't it refreshing to hear so much concern for non-white low income folks from this unexpected advocate?  I wonder about the motivation.  Could it be that they are suddenly adopting this attitude because they have somehow linked bicycling with a political ideology, one that they think is opposed to theirs? It does seem that in some circles, usually circles that don't intersect much with cyclists, that people project attitudes onto cyclists as a group that just don't exist in any significant way.  I've personally talked with folks who sincerely believe that all cyclists think that they are smugly saving the environment, and that we all look down on motorists.  That we are all elitest, psychotic environmental warriers because. x Why else, they reason, would we ride our bikes in the rain? There are some eco-warriers among cyclists, but in my experience, even here in liberal Portland, OR, that most cyclists are not eco-warriers.  They cycle for many reasons.  Those include:

1. It's faster than being stuck in traffic.
2. It's time efficient in that you get a great workout during a time you would normally be sitting on your butt.
3. It's enjoyable.  It's certainly more enjoyable than stopping at the same stop sign over and over again while sitting in your car.
4. They are competitive nut jobs, and they are training for competition.
5. Weight loss.  Many folks I know who are by no means eco-warriers have become cycling enthusiasts as a result of achieving life changing weight loss and health benefits.

I admit to certain libertarian leanings, but with a dose of realism as well in that I acknowledge that there is a role for centralized government beyond which pure libertarians believe. My generally sympathetic views towards libertarian ideology make it especially hard to read this article. The video hows the author riding a bike share program bike in figure eights, exclaiming "why should I subsidize figure eights?".  The fallacy here of course is that public roads and highways are heavily subsidized with general fund tax dollars, and that nobody ever uses those roads for recreational driving.  Why should my tax dollars fund rich people driving their Mercedes to the beach?  Why are rich, educated white people using taxpayer subsidized roads to drive their expensive cars?  Why don't they have their own roads?  Why Shouldn't we be outraged by this, just as we should be outraged by rich, college educated whites using bike-share programs?  The arguments here are so sophomoric that, if I hadn't seen it myself, I would not have believed any thinking person falling prey to them. 

It should be obvious to everyone by now, regardless of your political leanings, that communities that are completely car based are ugly, loud, obnoxious, and unpleasant.  Some of us have never known a walkable, bike-able community and know nothing better than four to eight lane suburban boulevards feeding cul-de-sac's miles from the nearest grocery store, restaurant, or coffee shop.  But if you follow the market forces (high housing prices), the places that the market says people really want to live, those places tend to be less car dependent, more walkable, and more bike-able.  Even if all you want to do is go for a walk around your neighborhood or go for a jog (a group of people who don't seem to be tarred with the limousine liberal brush), one would rather live in a less car based place.  What's political about that?

My cycling glasses!

If you're a regular cyclist, you know that eye wear is extremely important.  Well, I finally invested in some real cycling glasses.   The primary barrier for me, in addition to cost, has always been my severe near sightedness.  I'm over -6 in both eyes.  After suffering burning eyes in a near freezing downpour rain last winter, I needed something to keep the water out of my eyes at a minimum and to provide more protection generally.  I was finally motivated to act.  If you have my prescription, you have only two options ; wear contacts or Bolle's prescription inserts.  The prescription inserts were not able to go all the way to my prescription, but they went as far as they could and I can't really tell the difference on the road.  They aren't perfect in their correction but they are more than adequate.  I'm happy with the purchase so far.  Contacts are not a realistic option for me.  I wore contacts for many years in my teenage and early 20's and my eyes eventually developed a sort of allergy to contacts.  Despite all of the advances in contact lens technology, I simply can't get comfortable with them.

New  wheels!

My Rolf Vectors finally wore out.  The braking surface had worn to paper thing levels, and the hubs were so far gone that they could not be rebuilt.   I estimate that they had 25k to 30k miles on them, so I feel I got my money's worth out of the Rolf's. I got a smoking deal from the Beaverton Bike N Hike on a pair of Easton EA 50's.  The wheels were a great value, but I've got to tell you, these are tire stretching, thumb numbing, tire iron snapping wheels.  I spent hours trying to get a used Conti gator skin onto the front wheel, and with numb thumbs, gave up and took it to the closest bike shop.  They mechanic there, with a tire stretcher, was not able to get it on.  Somewhat panicky, I went back to Bike n Hike thinking I would have to return the wheels.  They were able to get the tire on by using a similar tool and ganging up on it.  I'm hoping...HOPING that by switching to a foldable, and the wheel breaking in a bit, and the rim tape compressing, that I will be able to change the tire if needed in the future.  Otherwise I could be stranded.  A search of the web shows this is a somewhat common problem with EA 50's.  It seems like a manufacturing defect to me.