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BOTTS for Farrbott cartoons
BIKES for cycling stuff
BITS for stuff that's not Botts or Bikes
 Well, this is new. I was interviewed for a Podcast.
My partner met Claire from Story Solutions at the local co-working space and got chatting. She mentioned we are Lifestyle Cyclists and I have a LOT of bicycle experience. That's when the subject of Podcasts came up. A few weeks later we had a chat on Zoom for an hour or so and Claire produced this from that. Really good I thought. I still find it hard to listen to myself, but the online echo helped IMHO. https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-iwr4t-1434377 https://storysolutions.net/biketales/
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 Took this snap of a Surley(?) Longtail Cargobike driving thru Oregon a few summers ago.
Ha, there's still room for more bags on this beauty! Maybe he's keeping the deck free for firewood. Love the Jones Bars, must try them one day. The North Oregon coast is AMAZING, book up spots in the costal camp sites NOW then get down there. We've never been to a more beautiful place.  You may think it's the act of a mad man to take a powered bicycle, let alone a long tail one, out into frozen liquid sunshine, on purpose. I actually remember saying, "Woo Hoo it's snowing, I'm gonna take the Spicy home". Well, dear non-believer, I may be stupid but I'm not an idiot. It was fresh snowfall, so no ice under it, and only an inch deep when I headed out. This is gonna be maximum commuting fun.
The Yuba Spicy Curry is not my regular ride, I have a Virtue Truck Cargo Bicycle that I have converted to electric but is off the road while I sort out why the hub motor got so noisy (it's the clutch). But I have ridden this one on and off all summer as it's one of our loaner fleet. Lucky lucky me. Pretty much the best perk of being a bike mechanic here. I had my choice of eight other eBicycles but this is my favorite by a country mile. I would totally buy one but unfortunately it's just about a country foot too long for my apartment lifestyle, even so, I still fantasize about owning one. They start at four and a half grand american, but still way cheaper than a decent secondhand car, fuel and insurance for a year and this bike could last a lifetime looked after correctly. You can't say that about a car.  The main thing I liked about the EVO MD-2 was how the Shimano STEPS mid-drive power comes in as I ride. For an eBike I think it’s pretty much the most important feature.
I adore step thru frames, they are brilliant, I'm English so I consider this style a unisex frame that is often ‘favoured’ by the ladies. The hydraulic disc brakes were just the right amount of powerful. Soft at the lever and not locking the wheels ever to bring me to a complete stop exactly where and when I need it. I did really like that the console was compact and quite discrete on the bike and that the salient info I chose was big. I've got to mention the rack. It has the touring style rear rack which means you can also use market type panniers and not just touring style only, brilliant.  There we were, leaning against our camper van in the alley behind our new home. We took a breath and sighed! Wow. Finally, the beautiful wife and I had become Vancouver residents.
Predictably we spent that first day monotonously humping all our stuff into the apartment. Trundling across the rippled concrete parkade, wait for the elevator, go up the elevator, roll down the corridor, drop off the boxes, roll back down the corridor, wait for the elevator, etc., etc. Thankfully we had no furniture at this point, having toured in an RV for a year. But what we did have was an awesome uninterrupted view of the mountains. In due course, I required a ‘medicinal’ beer, or two, for my aching back. You understand! So we went for our first neighbourhood walkabout. We chose this end of the city because it is walkable. Having come from a small market town in the UK, we were used to getting what we needed locally, be it beer, beef, or a bank. On our walk that first dusky evening, hand in hand, we were properly excited about our new city, our new life.  When I first saw the spec on this cargobike way back sometime in 2018 I was blown away. This is maybe the perfect cargo bike, long-tail variety that is, for me. Dunno about you. I cannot see a time when I would transport a tiny child behind me where they can’t be seen, talked to and cared for when longjohns and box trikes exist? And I don’t even like kids!!!! But I do have a Chihuahua I carry most days on the front of my my bicycle if that counts!!!
Then I saw the photos. Oh wow. Looking sooooooo good. Solid, two batteries, big bags, big front basket, bloke riding it, chunky 20” wheels front and back (my favorite), and made by Tern! And haven’t they got the best PR pic ever with the kid giving a finger to the sky like they’re on a roller coaster. Genius. I have a Tern Cargo Node, its a factory edition cargobike collaboration between Tern and Xtracycle. Its the nicest bicycle I have EVER ridden (so far!), so I was stoked when they announced the GSD. But what does GSD stand for? So far, from my research, and this isn’t from Tern, it means Get Shit Done. Funny if it’s true. Either way, it does, and then some.  I remember the very first time I came across Velopalooza, I was cycling with my wife one afternoon in East Vancouver. It was late autumn 2015, pleasantly warm, and I was trying to decide which brewery Linzi would enjoy the most. This lifestyle cyclist requires decent bicycle parking that I can see from my table, THEN the beer has to be good, right? There was less choice back then and Linzi has a very specific requirements as she’s not a natural born beer drinker.
We were stopped at a light. Adanac and Clark I think. My gaze resting in the mid-distance as I pondered our local adult beverage options. As deafening semi-trucks sped by Linzi spotted a very artistic mini-poster taped at a jaunty angle around the light pole. It had a bicycle on it. Naturally we had a closer look. “What’s Velopalooza” we wondered. It also stated ‘Two weeks of bike fun’ with dates in June just past. Shame! We missed it. Two weeks of bike fun sounds perfect. So I took a picture of it to look-up online later when we got home.  It feels to me like Vancouver has similar kinds of snow events that I'm used to from when I lived in Old Blighty! I say 'events' because we didn’t call them 'storms'. The BBC weather person would report, "if we're lucky it's gonna snow a bit tomorrow in the South East, we may even get a whole inch of the fluffy stuff, so don't forget to wrap up". You get the gist! So nothing to 'write home' about, yet here I am writing about it, and my mother who lives in the UK may even get to read this!!!!
All that said, rolling into work this last two days has been potentially hazardous to my health. The streets are not cleared for this bicycle commuter! City workers in the three municipalities I travel seem to be on the 9-5 and I have to be in for 8.30!!!! Thick slippy snow with some slushy tracks of cars to follow which my bog standard Schwalbe Marathon tires cope with surprisingly well. And as I've only had them on for a few months, I feel quite chuffed about my extravagant purchasing decision. They ‘fail hard’ though in much more than three inches of fresh snow. I'm going exactly nowhere. Front and back wheels spin for a few seconds before I start listing to Port. You can't have everything I suppose.  Tony posing on his new Urban Arrow Shorty on the Spirit Trail not long after he bought it. I kinda remember meeting Tony Valente years and years ago in a soulless corner meeting room of steel and glass at the City Library. Back then, he was the local HUB (cycling advocacy) Chairman and sat at the centre of an extensive arrangement of tables wading his way through the agenda. He remembers me from that time, and once when I wore my magnificent kilt on a guided ride of the city HUB had organised!!!!!
Since then, quite by chance, we connected on Instagram, where I noticed he had purchased an Urban Arrow Shorty. To me, this was interesting, because IMHO it’s not an obvious consumer choice. It’s a clumsy-looking commercial bike. So I asked if I could interview him about his purchasing decision. We met to discuss this article at a local Craft Brewery. One with plenty of shade because we are suffering another ‘heat event’. Not quite as horrid as the record breaker from a few weeks ago when it hit 40+ Celsius! We have 33-35 degrees day after day right now. I was ordering a tasty adult beverage from the waitress when Tony rolled up on his Shorty wearing jeans and a blue shirt straight from the office. Before going out after work, he used to have to shower and change when he rode a regular bike. Not any more. Since he went full-time electric, he’s experiencing not only the freedom and ease of power-assisted cycling but also the freedom of not having to carry extra clothes every day to work. |
AuthorThis is my playground. So it's always 'work in progress'. I like to create all sorts that doesn't fit into one 'niche'! Mainly cartoon robots, bicycle culture and other 'bits' that occur to me like coffee, cooking on a camp stove and stormtroopers. Categories
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