Things are much worse than I thought that they would be.

I got out and about tonight and went down town to see how bad things are from the seat of a bike instead of a car. Bad. The downtown commuter rail station has two bike racks. Both of them had bikes one bike each chained up.

There used to be another one there but the owner must have forgotten his key. I guess that no one wants to park their cars there wither because there were only thirty or so parking spots. This lot lived up to every thing that I expected. So I set off across a very busy street and over a very busy and narrow bridge to the other commuter rail station, less than a mile away. There things were both better and worse.







That's how many car parking spots there are. There are two bike racks, each can hold a half dozen bikes and at least one spot was claimed! It must be safer to leave them over here. As I suspected. So, after this sort-of-win, I took off to the downtown area. The main street was just as congested and dangerous as I suspected. What I did not expect was that, since the flow of traffic is so slow there to begin with, the drivers didn't seem too put out to be stuck behind my bike which, in fact, cut through the congestion faster than they did any way. Bear in mind that this experiment had a sample size of one, but statistically 100% of the motorists I encountered were content to follow along at a respectful distance as I peddled on through. Which is all I could do since there was no where to park the damn bike! Out of three municipal lots down town only one had any thing that even LOOKED like a bike rack, and honestly it didn't look like one. I found this contraption in on the farthest side of the parking lot farthest from the actual down town. No bikes but I didn't feel too bad since the garage is so far away from every thing that no one even bothers to park their car there either. Luckily for me I work almost thirty miles away in a place where the commuter rail does not go but Rt. 495 does! Bike commute in downtown Haverhill? Forget it.

It's Still a Tween Space

OK. When I started making these notes it was with the intention of observing and participating in the cycling experience in an area where not many people cycle. Sad to say, not much has changes.

The vast majority of bicycles in these parts come from the local Walmart and are ridden by children or people not allowed to have cars due to legal or financial constraints. There are few, very few, active cyclists about. I see them from time to time riding alone on some back road in town. No groups. Ever. There are a few people who cycle for utillity, as I once dreamed that I would. And that sums it up. We have one, and only one, road in town that has a "share the road" bicycle sign. Of course that road leads into an affluent neighboring community and does not connect to the city's infrastructure at all. Our local bike shop is marginal at best. Loath to fix up an older bike beyond the "tune-up" and all about selling new bikes to people who don't want them. Dismal and disappointing.

What this town needs is a cycling activist. I am poised to be, at best, an advocate. I wold love to see things change around here. The city is doing a lot to promote the down town area as a dining and shopping destination and artist zone. Many abandoned factory buildings have been converted into condos and there is a Commuter Rail Station right there! The downtown area is primed for a cycling boom that just isn't happening. I imagine that the route of that problem is two fold.

First is common sense. The main street through the down town area is a death trap for cyclists! With on-street parking on both sides, the roadway is barely wide enough for the two lanes of traffic. No room for a bike lane there a t all and there is no practical way to free up more space there other than eliminating one of the sides of parking and that would never fly with the local business owners. Of course, even if you could get cyclists safely to and fro down town, you would have to be a heck of a risk taker to leave your bike unattended there. Sadly, our down-town area directly abuts the worst neighborhoods in town. The Train Station is in the heart of the slum. It's such an un-appealing place to be that most people choose to drive over the river to the next station in a nicer part of town. I could never imagine leaving a bicycle, locked up or not, at the Haverhill train station for a single day, never mind routinely.

The second barrier to making the city more cycle-friendly is geographical. Some people might just call it sloth but the truth of the matter is that the down-town area sits in a river valley that has steep climbs out of it on all sides. One of those climbs is directly in front of my house and in all the time that I have lived here I have seen only three people successfully climb my hill: a hobo on a bike loaded with cans, one spandex-man and a kid on a BMX bike. That's it. I have seen lots of bike pushed up the hill but ridden? I have pushed my bike up the hill several times and you know what? It's a hard hum up that hill even on foot!

So, to recap, nothing has changes. We are too poor to have scads of recreational cyclists and too rural to have scads of commuters and utility cyclists. I still like to ride my bike around when I can and plan on keeping up with my fitness riding as I trty to loose some weight. Perhaps, if other people see me out and about it will inspire them to get the old bikes out of storage and get on the road. Maybe one of them will rise up as the activist that we need here in town to make it no longer a Tween Space for cyclists.

PMC

Until recently I had no idea what a big deal the Pan-Mass Challenge was! It's a big deal for charity and for cycling. There are routes of various lengths and difficulties, it's not just on mass of riders heading along the same route. There are routes as short as 50 miles and as long as a hundred and fifty. My friend Newt, who is a great rider and charity fund raiser, avoids this ride and I need to find out more about why. In any event, I think that I am going to try to make this a goal for next year: to ride the PMC!

I have burned Zero calories

I was supposed to go riding yesterday but my little girl was sick so I just hung out with her. Not a single calorie burned but the snuggle time was priceless. AND she feels better today. THAT'S the power of daddy. Work today but tomorrow.....

Saddle Sore

After putting a couple hundred miles on the Vintage Leather Saddle, and by "vintage" I mean that the actual saddle is wicked old, it's just not working for me. It's not breaking in. It's making my but uncomfortable and I'm not even sure that it was adjusted right. So I replaced it. I have a"trek" brand saddle that is pretty wide so of course I didn't use that one but a smaller one that I salvaged off of a Shogun 400. It took me a few tries to get it adjusted right but after a while I got the riding position right but it was only slightly more comfortable than the old leather one had been.

But what to do? Why, get a more comfortable one of course! Which one though? How can you pick one? There are all kinds of leather ones, and a billion kinds of synthetic ones. How do I pick one? I have no idea. I guess I'll try the one that's on there again since it IS marginally more comfortable than the other one. But I'm serious. How the heck DOES one pick a descent, comfortable bicycle seat?