So I haven’t been ignoring my duties to journal about bike commuting. Ok, actually, I have. But the reality is, circumstances have changed recently, as they often do.

Mattk, another Trusera member, recently lost his beautiful daughter to twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. I will not do his family a disservice by trying to summarize their (continuing) journey; rather, I encourage everyone to read it for themselves.When I read it, though, I felt compelled to do something &ndas…[more]

My son convinced me to write this safety note. No, he is not well-versed in State helmet law, and no, he is not a consumer safety advocate. The reason he convinced me to write it is because last Sunday, he managed to ride his bike sans helmet with me standing right next to him.In other words, I, the writer of bicycle safety notes, and author of countless exhortations regarding the benefits of hand signals, extra lighting and traffic awareness, allowed my 2.5 year old son…[more]

In an earlier post (February 15th), I gave a Safety Note and promised more in the future. I think I'm overdue for post #2...

Last time, I spoke briefly about the dangers of the Right Hook and how to avoid them while cycling in traffic. This time, I'd like to briefly touch on a less frequent, but equally risky situation; appropriately, (if not creatively), dubbed the "Left Hook".

As you'll recall, the Right Hook is, in paraphrased form, a situation where a car is making …[more]

Does anyone else have problems motivating themselves on a Wednesday morning? I mean seriously, saving gas, getting exercise, starting the day with a workout, smelling the clean, crisp air as I bike to work all sounds great...on Sunday night. But lately, I have had an OVERWHELMING desire to buy a HUGE SUV, get on my electrically-heated leather seat, turn on the morning commute talk radio, roll up my windows and laugh at everyone outside in the 40 degree rain.

But I don't. At least no…[more]

Last week, I participated in a 5 hour marathon meeting session at work. A co-worker was kind enough to make a teriyaki run for lunch and bring us all back chicken teriyaki plates so we could continue our meeting unabated.

I ate my chicken teriyaki plate, then went back to our planning activities as intended. However, I noticed that there was one unopened chicken teriyaki plate still sitting on the table near me. I whispered to a few people, asking whose it was, and finally I got a consenu…[more]

When I started commuting on the bike, I wasn't familiar with a lot of the terminology, including some of the language used in bike safety posts. Since so many people bring up safety as the main issue when considering whether or not to bike to work, I thought I'd explain one topic at a time, in clear, non-bike-specific terms.

Today's topic (since I encountered the danger yet again on the way into work this morning), is the "Right Hook".

Here in Seattle, bike accidents …[more]

I never intended for this to be a product review site, but it seems that lately every time I sit down to write, I'm talking about another piece of equipment. Be that as it may...When I first started riding on the road regularly, I bought a small $20 light for a headlight. It blinked rather obnoxiously but didn't really light much in areas where there wasn't a strong street light presence. In a random browsing trip through the Performance Bicycle shop on 45th in the U district, I saw the …[more]

The sun made a cameo appearance this morning! When I rolled out of the garage this morning, the sunlight hit my eyes and for a second, I froze in my tracks. I forgot how good that felt. Yes, it was still in the high 30's, low 40's, but just to see the clear blue sky was such a gift on the way in this morning.

I did worry a bit about whether drivers would be able to see me, considering they were being blinded by the same light I was, so I adjusted my position in the lanes a little. I deliberat…[more]

I bit the bullet and spent the entire last week riding the Metro. I didn't ride one day and I damn near went crazy. I tried to spend a few days doing core exercises, per everybody's advice and I suppose that helped, (when is it ever a bad idea to do ab/back exercises)?
On Saturday, I got the nerve to try and take a small jog. I kept it to 3.75 miles and took it very slowly. Feeling no severe after-effects, I took Sunday off again and prepared for today.
The ride this morning was unevent…[more]

So last Thursday, on the morning climb up Capitol Hill, I experienced my first cycling-related "tweak". I was pulling a little over 30lbs up the hill in my Bob Trailer and I got frustrated at the lack of speed I could generate. I was sitting in a fairly upright position, spinning away in the lowest gear. Then I lurched forward in an aggressive attack position and pushed as hard as I could. Suddenly, my lower back became warm and I felt sharp pains in my obliques. Startled, I tried to sit b…[more]