OK, I get it that this is an attempt at whimsy. But ya gotta wonder about an ad agency that sooooo misunderstands the intended audience. It is not the case that women are going to find getting dirty on a bicycle cute. It is not the case that people are going to choose bicycles over cars if riding bicycles makes their lives more difficult.

This image is also counter-factual. One does not have to get dirty or wet riding a bicycle in work clothes. Just check out any photograph at Copenhagen Cycle Chic. If one rides a proper bicycle (i.e. with a chain guard and fenders) one is not likely to suffer the indignity pictured above — an indignity that absolutely will keep average people — average women — from commuting on a bicycle.

You want women riding bicycles to work? Show them this photo:

(Published by permission of Copenhagen Cycle Chic)

What the offending image represents is designers getting a little too cute while understanding a bit too little about the kinds of things that make people not want to ride bicycles.

Thankfully there’s plenty of time before the 2011 Bike to Work Week to kill this idea and dream up something useful.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle commuting, bicycle culture, bicycle equipment, commuting, cycling

Even fair-weather utility bicyclists will get some good out of these. Fenders and chain cases keep all kinds of gunk off you and your bicycle.

Technorati Tags: bicycle equipment, cycling

A big part of utility bicycling is carrying stuff — the more the better.

When I go to the grocery these days, I use a front basket, panniers, and a trailer. Add a daypack, and I can carry a week’s worth of food for my family of three.

So that’s a bit of a production — attaching all that stuff to carry all  that stuff. Sometimes you just need panniers. One of the keys to a good pannier, in addition to being stout and roomy, is that it is easy to attach and detach from the rack. I dislike wrestling with my equipment in a grocery parking lot. It also helps to be waterproof. Secure closures and rack attachments are also important.

I’d never thought, however, about a pannier being green.

The story of Organic Bikes’ various bags — I tested the saddle bag, which I prefer to call a pannier — is that they are made of re-claimed materials. From the Organic Bikes’ website:

Organic Bikes ReClaimed Cycling Bags are made from un-used agricultural bags from Vietnam. These came from the printer as over-runs/misprints/ and end of run pieces and have been hand crafted into the finest quality cycling bags! This material would have been thrown away or burned, but now it has received another life. We use 3M reflective tape and YKK zippers, and the bags are waterproof. No two bags are the same, and proceeds from these bags go right back into the communities that hand craft them.

If they meet fair-trade standards, Global Fayre downtown may be carrying them soon.

I’ve been using the pannier for a couple of weeks now — mostly for grocery trips. It’s light, strong, roomy, and well suited for carrying bulky and heavy items. It’s easy to attach and detach. The material is a rip-stop fabric. The loops and attachments are made of nylon with plastic and hook-and-loop (Velcro) closures.

The funky look is also kind of charming.

If you’re looking for a strong fuctional pannier with green credentials, I’d say check this one out.

I also tested the bottle cage.

I’m not much of a bottle cage user. I have two on my mountain bike for obvious reasons. And when I first attached this one it looked a little silly. It looked better on my Redline. Looks aside, the bamboo cage functions well. It’s flexible, so it accepts a wide variety of bottles. It was nice having a cage that flexed rather than crunching my bottle. I found it to be strong, too. I stretched it out a few times with various bottles. Nothing cracked or broke.

This thing will look snazzy on a cruiser or town bike.

Technorati Tags: bicycle equipment, cycling

• Betting My Brains
• My Helmet-Wearing Criteria

Two things: I am not engaging in a helmet “boycott,” nor am I suggesting that anyone adopt my criteria for his own.

I had a phone conversation yesterday with a person I work closely with on bicycle advocacy issues. This person was concerned about what I’m up to regarding wearing a bicycle helmet. I basically said the same things I wrote in the posts linked above. But then the conversation took an interesting turn that really struck me because it points out an ethical dilemma. A few premises of this dilemma are that I am person known in the community to be a bicycle advocate, that people read and trust Carbon Trace, and that my actions can influence the actions of others.

Thus, the dilemma: If I choose not to wear a helmet (sometimes), people may see me and think that it is OK not to wear a helmet and thus put themselves in danger (i.e. If an experienced utility bicyclist doesn’t wear a helmet, then I don’t need to). If I choose to wear a helmet, I make bicycling look more dangerous than it is and thus discourage people from using a bicycle as basic transportation (i.e. If bicycling is so dangerous that an experienced utility bicyclist wears a helmet, then it is too dangerous for me).

I usually resist dichotomies because there are nearly always third (and fourth and fifth, etc.) ways to consider an issue. We could also construct other dichotomies from this situation based on differing interpretations of what wearing a helmet means and/or what I mean by wearing one or not (i.e. a rhetoric of bicycle helmets). But I find this dichotomy interesting and perhaps even instructive. Considering that it also involves media, i.e. this blog, I’m thinking of tossing this to my media ethics class for their thoughts.

I believe adults must make the choice to ride and the choice to wear a helmet for themselves. We are individually responsible for our own safety on the road.

That said, I’m doing a lot more wondering about my ethical responsibility here.

At the moment, however, my behavior has not changed. It’s a sunny, mild day. I rode to work without a helmet.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle equipment, Bicycle helmet, bicycle safety, cycling

Now that I have a Burley Nomad, I can carry a lot more stuff — like groceries and such. And when the farmer’s market opens, well, just look out. I’ll be buyin’ some food.

It’s attached to my Marin Pioneer Trails here. And I’ll soon be able to hitch it to my Redline.

The set up you see here will get me from one end of the Katy Trail to the other this May. Stay tuned for that.

Technorati Tags: bicycle equipment, cycling, utility cycling