Author Archives: jm

Much more than a wheel chair

Have you ever thought whether or not a disabled person can ride a bike? And if so, how would they do it? People in wheel chairs have it easy. The handbike or handcycle is a special vehicle in which a component is hooked to the wheel chair to form machine with three wheels in total. It moves by the force of the arms. Basically, it uses the same mechanism as a bicycle, but allows users to move further than just using a wheel chair. Nevertheless and for safety, streets and paths must be adapted similarly as it was a wheel chair. This new experience makes users enjoy all the bicycles benefits such as sport, environment, happiness and so on. Indeed, there are groups which cooperate to benefit themselves. One of them is the Club Tres Rodes Aspaym in Valencia (Three Wheels Group in English), the first in Spain. They enjoy their handbikes, promote social inclusion, prepare routes once a month, participate in activities and defend its reason. They are inspiring leaders.

 

Stickers fight

As the bicycle has been using more and more in the last years, drivers from the privileged group (car drivers) have been get used to it. Nevertheless, there is still a number of them who believes the whole street is for them. Sometimes cars do not respect bike or pedestrian lines, putting lives in risk. If only they would realize the potential damage their machines can cause. Moving a one-tonne car at 50 km/h (30 mph) or more is likely to produce death to a pedestrian in a car accident. Protests have been producing around the world from violent to peaceful ones. Between these lasts, the use of stickers is popular from Russia to Mexico. In the next video you can see how it works and the car drivers reactions.

Bike-…

A bicycle is much more than a simple mean of transportation. Going a step further than considering its benefits for human beings and environment, it has been used in a variety of ways throughout its history. Shrewdness has made people to develop a wide variety of bike-objects. Here are some of them.

Suppose you live in a developing country where electricity is too expensive, does not even arrive to mountainous area or you just want to save some money. People has thought a way up to use the legs force to clean garment. The bike-washer makes it reality. The pedals move transmits the energy through the chain, which in turn spins the drum. You need to put the dirty clothes, water and soap, and make some exercise. You will feel double satisfied. One the one hand, your garment will be cleaned. One the other hand, you will have produced endorphins which will make you feel happy.

Next, a bicycle can be modified to allow whipping and produce food with a different texture, like a delicious milkshake. The bike-beater takes advantage from the movement as before. This easy machine is another way to reduce electricity consumption.

Finally, bicycles has been used in wars to deliver important information from the war fronts. One use you probably does not known is bikes as stretchers. Yes, you have read stretchers. At least in Valencia, it was used the bike-stretcher during the Civil War. On the next photo you can see how ingenuity can give marvelous objects, especially needed in war times.

Quico

I had the honor to know him in person in a Critical Mass years ago. I can say without any fear of being wrong that Quico shares its laugh with the Biciclown (I wrote about him in the past). He is clever, open-minded and a truly adventurer.

His bike is called Vita (life in Italian) and this is precisely what it produces. People become amaze when seeing it. It is a dark blue, tall bike consisting of two bike welded one on the other, with special chain and all the measures adjusted to his size. In the process of constructing it, he had to look for specific parts since not all the bike stores had them. The fact of being a tall bike makes more difficult to overcome high uphills, but Quico has strong legs.

You can follow his adventures in his blog https://a100sonrisasporhora.com (in Spanish). “A 100 sonrisas por hora” means “at 100 smiles per hour” and that is just what he and his bike pass on. Indeed, he shows a flag with a smiley in which the eyes are in reality the wheels of a bicycle. As he relates in his blog, the impact of seeing a tall bike makes children to laugh and express surprise.

He started his trip in Spain and his purpose is to arrive to Malaysia on bike without any specific arrival date, crossing Europe and Asia. He wants to enjoy his trip the most and make people happy.

Biciclown

Ávaro Neil (Biciclown) is probably the person who is riding its bike for most time. He started riding in 2001 and has continued until now. A thing he can not ride with is its clown costume with whom he makes children laughing as he has been clown since 1989. You can find the trips he has done (and is still doing) and be stunned in https://biciclown.com (in Spanish). He receives help from people and counts with more than 30 sponsors which support him. Moreover, he has written six books, gives conferences, makes theater and adventure consultancy…

He launched the project Kilometers of smiles as he called it his first great travel on bike from 2001 to 2003. The bike attraction is so powerful that he felt the need to ride it again. Thus, he started a round-the-world trip in 2004 and he is expected to finish it this year. There is a nice video on his web on which you can see the pretended route he is riding.

Great journeys on bike

There are a bunch of special bikers who ride the world just for the pleasure of traveling and enjoying the bicycle, meaning they ride for thousands of kilometers in only one trip. If you have ever seen a bike with lots of panniers, you have probably come across one of these travelers. They usually constitute a group of people looking for real freedom and exciting experiences.

Previously of starting their trips, they need to planner them carefully. And I not taking about the landscapes they will see, they should also consider all the issues related to the route from the climate, money, food, possibly some little jobs they will need to do to survive, to the red paper, wars o cultural differences between countries.

I recommend spending some weeks or even months with the preparations, including bike tools and a tent since you will probably sleep outdoors as a result of not finding proper allocation. The type of bike should fulfill your purpose. If you have previously determined the route and are sure it will pass only on pave roads, you will probably use a classic bike. On the other hand, if you pretend to ride on both roads and paths, it is better to use a mountain bike.

This is a way of making sustainable tourism and I am going to show you some of these bikers in the next posts.

Changing habits

Let me tell you a story that has been repeating from the past century. We have a street and car stuck occurs often. Suddenly, one visionary says “Eh, we must improve the number of car lines so that cars won’t be in stuck anymore”. And then the street passes from two car lines to four ones at the expense of space for pedestrian. As a result, the number of cars also increases and car stuck comes in a few days. In this case the problem is even greater because space for pedestrian has been reduced and the more cars, the more pollution and noise.

One common argument of those who are blind to the improvement in sustainability produced by bikes lines, is to say that car lines reduction would be make everybody worse off. Note that the everybody in italic means “only themselves”. As the story I have explained earlier indicates, improvement in car infrastructure only causes more cars on streets. On the other hand, making bike lines on roads (and then reducing at least one car line) makes citizens better off as air quality improves and noises reduce. Moreover, as bikes take up less space as cars do, it is common that pedestrian space increases as bike line is built.

When car lines are reduced, dimwit car drivers blame against bike infrastructure instead of changing the car for the bike, the public transport or just walking. Replacing a habit by another is costing but if only they be open-minded enough to realize that everybody (now meaning each and every person) get better and improve their health.

What if I only have one locker

I have talked about how to lock the bicycle up in past posts. We all know how to do it rightly. Now, suppose you forget taking one locker, so that you ride happily your bike with only one locker. You realize it when you get your final location. But then you hesitate letting your bike on the street or going back to your start point as you do not want to lose your precious partner. There is one possibility of not returning and locking up your bike on the street. We will need an adjustable wrench or a front wheel with quick release mechanism for such a task. First, we find a proper object to lock it up. Second, we dismantle the front wheel. Third, we use our unique locker to lock up the rear wheel with the frame plus the front wheel. I know it sounds crazy, but it can be done. Just look carefully at the next picture. Finally, take into account that it is better to lock up your bike with one locker if you use the strongest one and put your bicycle face up (unlikely to the bike in the photo).

How not to lock your bike up

There are lots of ways of locking your bike up and the three essential parts you have to take into account consist in the wheels and the frame. The seat is also important if your bicycle has an easy-to-remove seat post. I am sure you have seen several examples of bikes which lack of a wheel and here I am going to show you extreme examples of harmed ones.

In this picture, the thief has stolen both the seat and the front wheel. This was done because the pad only locked up the frame. If the thief would had wanted to stole almost the entire bicycle, he could have done so.

Going a step further, in this photo the yellow bike’s owner locked it wrongly. He only secured the rear wheel and the frame, allowing the thief to steal the front wheel, the seat and the handlebars, not to mention the apparent low-quality bicycle lock.

Although it could sound a little alarming, having good bike locks and knowing how to use them properly are about to save your bike from thieves.