Columns

Cycle-centric "lifestyle" attractive to veterans and new recruits alike

Over the past 20 years I have been regularly reading a variety of bicycle periodicals in five languages and I'd say yours is rapidly becoming my favourite. Not only do I find Momentum interesting and entertaining, but I believe it is filling a vital niche in promoting utilitarian cycling in a manner likely accessible to a broad audience. Yours is a rare cycling publication that should be effective at recruiting new members to the cycle-centric lifestyle. The latest style issue in particular should appeal to both sexes, whether they ride already or not... I've never seen so many attractive women in a bike mag! [more...]

Thomas J. DeMarco M.D.
Whistler, BC
PS: On the subject of attractive women, any chance of resurrecting your personal ads? [more...]

Sometimes it's hard not to think of cars as the enemy. In the course of riding around town for about two hours on a recent afternoon, I counted eight drivers deliberately driving through red lights, often speeding up to do so when other lanes of traffic were either slowing or stopped. These were drivers who decided that stopping at a red light was just too inconvenient, so stomped on the gas and blasted on through. I was nearly run over by one, and this was observed by two members of the local police department sitting in their own car, who did nothing.
The problem is that for the last half-century road design has focused almost exclusively on optimizing the movement of cars while marginalizing all other road users. Small wonder some drivers feel they own the road: everything in their driving experience reinforces that notion. [more...]

“In matters of principle, stand like
a rock; in matters of style, swim with the current.”
– Thomas Jefferson [more...]

As we were putting this issue together we talked about why we were publishing a style issue. Tania, our Associate Publisher, said, “When I started biking to work, my first thought was to pull out all my old clothes.” Mia, our Marketing Director added, “I thought I had to go out and buy a bunch of special spandex gear.” This is the story for many of us. We started bike commuting for practical or environmental reasons and we girded ourselves for the physical activity. Over time, and learning from more worldly and experienced riders, we saw that we could wear our street clothes, our dresses, even our good shoes while riding. When we realized we didn’t have to wear special gear on our bikes – that we could look like ourselves and wear what we liked, we felt excited, liberated. [more...]

“What you need,” Christopher murmured, peering into my face, “is a silicone primer.” [more...]

Oddly, he wasn’t talking about bike frames. I had run into a department store to escape the rain, and a handout in the ladies’ room had caught my attention. “Come by the Calvin Klein counter,” it suggested. “Receive a FREE Foundation Consultation and Sample!” [more...]

I wandered the maze of makeup boutiques until a red-haired woman at the Clinique counter with eerily perfect skin asked if she could help me. [more...]

I motioned at my handout. “I’m actually looking for the Calvin Klein counter, but…” I offered, “you could show me what you’ve got, since I’m here.” [more...]

“Well, sure,” she said as she opened a tube of foundation. “We can dab a little on your hand if you like.” I looked down as she spread the flesh-toned liquid on the meat of my thumb. It blended in fine, but bits of lotion stuck in the lines of my skin. It reminded me of women I’d seen (usually in the late-night food and beverage industry) who walked around with tiny channels of makeup dried into their eyelids. [more...]

Where’s my subsidy?

We recently had our Bike to Work Week here in Victoria and there was a noticeable increase in cyclists for a week or so (at least when the weather was good). It got me thinking about other incentives that might be used to encourage more people to ride. It came to me when my father-in-law told me about how much of a tax rebate he got on his $30,000 hybrid car (a reduced emission vehicle): $4,000, between both the Federal and Provincial governments. Cyclists who choose to commute in a zero-emission way, while also reducing their financial burden on the health care system, get... $0. Not only that, but every cyclist on the road reduces the demand for oil and parking and, in an ironic way, helps keep the price of gas and parking as low as it is – we use less and they use more. Is there something wrong with this picture? It may be time that cyclists insist on something more than free T-shirts and some press recognition once a year. [more...]

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Cyrus Farivar [more...]

Victoria, BC [more...]

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The most common type of bicycle tire is known as a clincher, and derives its name from an airtight rubber tube that sits – “clinched” – between the tire and the rim. When a cyclist “gets a flat,” the tube develops a hole, the air escapes, and the tube deflates. Here’s a list and description of all the flats I’ve ever known, and how to avoid and/or repair them. [more...]

Belinda and I are with Colin in his Subaru, heading south into the village. It's a bike village: every time we stop for a light, a stop sign, or a pedestrian crossing, bikes swirl around and in front of us. They hang off the front of public buses, the backs of overwhelmed hatchbacks, and from the rafters of bars. Just about everyone in this car-free village rides, owns, sells, or services bikes, and I am high on the energy of this. [more...]

Some of the energy comes from the pure sinfulness of it. For the last few days we've driven the five or so kilometres from Bel's home into the village proper when it would have taken about ten minutes to ride on the paved bike trails. I allow the mixture of guilt and titillation to wash over me. [more...]

Add to that that these people are not metrosexual hipsters with skinny jeans and single speeds but mountain bikers seeking the excess and artifice of Whistler's Kokanee Crankworx Mountain Bike Festival and I feel like I'm in dreamy evil Las Vegas again. [more...]

I received an email from someone I used to work with, whom I last saw 15 years ago. He'd seen my name on the masthead and wanted to know if I was the same guy. Yes. He'd recently sold his car, relocated from the suburbs, and was looking for a bike to use around town. We'll probably see more of this, as the price of gas continues to rise, and operating cars grows more unfeasible. [more...]

And why not? You can buy a very good quality bike for less than the cost of one month of car use. You'll rediscover your city, recover the use of your legs, have a lot of fun, and save wads of cash. Paradoxically, your food bill may go up even as the extra pounds drop off. (Cyclists eat a lot, and then burn it all up with their after-dinner ride.) You'll never again pay for parking, and the rush-hour traffic reports on the radio will become a source of entertainment, since they will no longer apply to you. [more...]

Over time, you'll become "the expert," and people will begin contacting you for bike advice. And you'll probably meet a lot of interesting people. [more...]

The dimensions and design of a bicycle's frame fundamentally determine how it will ride. Understanding which features of the frame affect corresponding aspects of its behaviour can be very helpful in determining what kind of bike is right for you. Herein, a primer on bicycle frame geometry - a look at how certain aspects of a frame's design determine how it will "handle" or ride as a bike. I'm going to examine bottom bracket drop, seat tube angle, and chain stay length. [more...]

Bottom Bracket Drop

Draw a horizontal line between the front and rear drop outs (where the wheels attach) of the frame and fork. Now, draw a perpendicular line that passes through the center of the frame's bottom bracket. The distance between the centre of the frame's bottom bracket and the first line, measured along the second, is the frame's bottom bracket drop: how far below the wheels' axles the bottom bracket sits. [more...]

Sometimes, I hate riding a bike. I do it every day, most days of the year, and I hate the cold, I hate the routine, I hate how I look when I get off the bike. It's my dirty little secret. [more...]

I hate that my shoulders are rounded from years of hanging over a handlebar and I hate that my nose is always runny. I hate drivers who don't see me, I hate dogs off leash, and I hate parents who jaywalk with their school kids without looking both ways. [more...]

Most of all I hate the smokers. Not the sociable ones puffing on cigarettes in building doorways, but the car-driving ones who idle at red lights. While they sip on fair-trade coffee and listen to public radio, their tail pipes blow carbon monoxide into my face - every single car, every single red light.

By the time I get to work, I feel grumpy, smelly and unfeminine. My bike's heavy with rain gear, water, clothes, and a U-lock and I have to haul it all up slippery stairs to the back room of my workplace. [more...]

That Cover...

[photo:momentum32-cover.jpg|align=right] [more...]

I have been reading your magazine for the last few issues from Ottawa, Ontario. First, I must say that I have enjoyed every page. I read them several times over, even the advertising. I even went back to the guy that shared them with me and grabbed about a dozen more copies to hand out to my friends at work who cycle regularly on our Wednesday after work rides (weather permitting) and I put a couple of issues in a mailer and sent them to my parents who are avid cyclists in Guelph, ON. [more...]

Stand on an urban street corner early in the morning and ask the passing cycle commuters what they love about riding to work. One or more will likely declare, "It's the best part of my day!" I wonder if, on particularly gorgeous mornings, some people get to work and just keep on riding. [more...]

Though I still thoroughly enjoy my ride to work, it's no longer the best part of my day. With a recent surge of interest in mobility biking, there's an exciting feeling of discovery as we investigate and connect with other parts of the self-propelled world. There's significant movement to change the landscape for cycling in North America - and it's clear in talking to self-propelled people. That's my favourite part of the day - connecting with other riders and learning about their view of the Bikeosphere. [more...]

My experience teaching workshops on bicycle repair and maintenance have taught me to regard two mechanical skills as essential for the well-prepared bicycle commuter: flat repair and drivetrain mainte [more...]

On a recent early morning ride, I pondered the nature and purpose of our tort (civil wrong) system, and the social purpose underlying litigation; in short, “the big picture.” Normally I confine th [more...]