Remember When I Knew a Boxer, Baby

This weekend has been my first FULL weekend spent in the city in about 3 months, and I'm taking full advantage of it, mostly getting some mundane housekeeping tasks off my plate.  But that's not really why you're reading this blog, right?

Rather fortuitously, the weather has been near perfect for riding.  Yesterday in between chores, I crossed another Circuit Trail off my list, Boxer's Trail in Fairmount Park/Strawberry Mansion:

A brief back story: Boxer's Trail is where Joe Frazier (and many other boxers over the years) used to train back in the 60's.  Legend has it that Muhammad Ali one went to this trail to challenge Frazier to a fight before management intervened.  Back then, it was narrow and mostly overgrown.  Today, a restoration is in progress, but it's already decently passable:

My first thought from this view was about the bridge in the background, and whether or not I could venture there after I was finished.  Upon further investigation, it's the Columbia Railroad Bridge, not something that's really explore-able via bike.  Sigh...anyway, this is one of those places that, if not for the sounds of the Schuylkill Expressway off in the distance, you'd scarcely know you were in the city.  I detoured around much of this trail back in April, and once again, it's an area I'll go back to explore more another time.  Namely, a time when I bring a mountain bike:

A large section of the trail is gravel, which again, is passable, but much easier with knobby tires.  It's a moderately challenging ride with some serious hills no doubt, but that's what makes it fun.  The northwestern section is entirely paved.  At only 3.8 miles in length, it is one of the shorter trails on the circuit.  With the trail head being 5 miles from my house, I put in 14 miles yesterday, and I'm planning to head back out today at some point.  Ya know, after I cross some other boring stuff off my list...

Nice Rack: 21st & Ludlow

Two Nice Racks posts in a row?  Might be a sign...

At any rate, back in August, I mentioned some of my favorite bike racks in the city, which are actually old parking meter poles that have been repurposed.  Yesterday, I spotted another incarnation of the same ilk:

 

You can't really tell from that picture, but that's actually a bollard (ya know, the kind designed to keep cars from driving or parking on sidewalks) with a bike rack welded to it.  If I zoom out, you'll get the full picture (pun intended):

The poles are a bit more cumbersome, and as a result you can't really lock two bikes to one pole, but still, it works:

 

Philly is by far one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country, but we can always use more bike racks, so this is pretty awesome.  You wouldn't believe how often I ride to places and have nowhere to lock up.

Nice Rack: Water & Oregon

In a blast from the present, back in April I spotted a nice metal sculpture on the back of a flatbed trailer.  Last week, I spotted it again:

This is in front of the South Bowl bowling alley.  Pro tip: if you ride to the bowling alley and walk in with your helmet, your shoe rental is free.

Now to find out who made this thing...I'm assuming its point of origin was in Northern Liberties, because that's where I first spotted it.  If you have any info, let me know puh-lease.

Rustcycles: 11th & Chestnut

I stopped at the wine store on my way home from the office on Monday and spotted this poor fella:

Kinda unexpected.  This block of stores just opened in Center City (where security and surveillance are quite prevalent), and the bike rack is brand new, as you can see.  The rest of the bike's not in bad shape either.

The Road to Recovery

Sometimes you never know what you're going to ride into, for better or worse. This was for the better.

Continuing off my last post, I patched my tire on Wednesday, good enough that I could get it home to change the tube.  As luck would have it, I had a bad replacement tube, so I would have to go to a bike shop for the final fix.

I live in South Philly, but I still frequent the bike shop closest to where I work, Kayuh Bicycles all the way up on 19th & Girard, for a couple reasons:

1. I get a discount there for being a member of the Bicycle Coalition
2. The head tech, Izzy, is pretty awesome at what he does and always takes great care of my bike

So...I rode all the way up there yesterday evening.  I walked in and noticed there were chairs set up lecture style in the cafe. Izzy greeted me and said, "Hey great!  You made it!"

I asked, "Haha, alright...what did I make?"

Izzy told me his friend Nick was speaking about his organization, and of course he instructed me to stick around.  I asked if he could fix my bike, not knowing that in the last week or so, their hours had changed and the bike half of their shop had been closed for about a half hour.  He did me a favor and fixed it anyway, and since I had nothing but time, I owed it to him to stick around.  I'm glad I did.

Nick Basalyga was the featured speaker last nite (side note: Kayuh does events like these every week, and you should check them out if you're in the area), speaking about his newly-formed non-profit, In the Saddle:

Nick and Izzy

For starters, his non-profit focuses on cycling as a means to help individuals in recovery, be it from alcohol or any other substance abuse.  Nick himself is a recovering alcoholic and has been sober for 6 years.  I encounter more individuals like him the more I continue to ride.  It was inspiring to hear him talk about the positive impact that cycling has had on his life, and that's where the inspiration came to start his non-profit.  You can read much more about In the Saddle on his website (they're just getting started and could use some funding).

My favorite part of the evening was hearing his story of his fundraising bike ride across the country, leaving from San Francisco on July 29th and arriving in Philadelphia on October 1st:

Nick with his touring bike that made it across the country in about 2 months

As you may or may not be aware, Wash Cycle partners with organizations like Nick's to help individuals in recovery or re-entering the workforce (Including GearingUp, with whom I've ridden in support of several times), so I pledged my support.  I foresee working alongside them in the future...

All this because I needed to fix a flat.  Who knew?

Share This!

Yesterday was a tough day for many.  Overlooking the obvious (Election results, which I was going to be unhappy with no matter what as a Bernie Sanders supporter), I was greeted with a flat tire at 13th & Locust while I was on my way to work:

As you can see, it was also raining, a trend which continued throughout the entire day.  There might be some symbolism in that.  Already late and exhausted from staying up late to watch returns, I was thrown a small bit of fortune in the form of an Indego station just across the intersection from where I realized my tire went flat:

I was able to finish my morning commute via bicycle.  After work, I tackled fixing the tire.  I was not a fan of Indego at first (even though I liked the idea), but it's saved my ass on numerous occasions, and I'm glad it exists.  Excuse me as I mount my soapbox for a paragraph:

Projects like Indego don't come about by electing a President.  They come about by electing local officials and supporting efforts in your community to make the small world around you a better place.  Having a figurehead in your corner sure doesn't hurt, but the local game is really where this all begins.  I experience many of these small joys that remind me there's always hope, and I hope you'll all remember that too, as I remain optimistic that we can ride towards a better future...

Paint me a Winner

Last week, after watching a football game at a friend's house in Fishtown (we won't discuss the teams or the outcome), I was riding home and couldn't help but notice this new bike lane painted on 2nd Street between Spring Garden and Callowhill.  When I used to live in Northern Liberties, this used to be one of my more frequently traveled streets, and it was definitely in need of one:

Cars speed thru here at well above the posted limit and the police usually don't do much about it, so a designated bike lane is a definitive step in the right direction.  One thing that's perplexing, though...if you look closely at the above picture, you'll notice that the bike lane continues on the opposite side of the street just past the intersection:

I kinda understand, because there's a merge lane over on the left, but anyone who's ridden south on 6th street can tell you that there's a bike lane that traverses the I-676 off-ramp merge lane, so...not really sure what the thinking is here.  I'd think having to cross 2 lanes in the middle of an intersection would be rather un-safe, but in any case, more bike lanes still make me happy.  Sort of.

Tomorrow is Election Day.  I'm voting for the candidate who I can most likely picture riding a bike.  No really.  That's about as political as I'll get on here, but I do hope you will get out and vote, preferably via bicycle if you can.

Striking 2,000

For those of you who don't live in Philadelphia, we're in the throes of what I like to call "SEPTAocalypse," the seemingly yearly occurrence where transit union workers strike in an effort to garner better wages, healthcare benefits, hours, etc. (News flash: it doesn't happen every year). It's made commuting a living hell for most of the populace (more on that in a second), but at the very least, the weather has been amazing:

Not pictured: me wearing shorts. In November.

The Bicycle Coalition has been doing a "Bike the Strike" initiative, and though I haven't been able to participate formally, I have been riding (of course). I'm glad they're choosing to use this as an opportunity to get more people interested in biking because...

The commuting, as mentioned before, has been awful. Our company has had to scramble just to get people to the office (in fact, I gave several of them rides with a company-issued Zipcar), and I'd say the amount of cars on the streets has tripled. I bring all of this up because this has affected everyone to varying degrees, even cyclists, who you think would be the least affected. People are driving cars in the bike lanes, I've had several close calls and my friends have had several more (I guess more traffic means more chance of incident - who'da thought, common sense?), and I've gotten the bird flipped at me or yelled at more times than I usually do in a month. Most of those weren't my fault. Anywho...

But hey, on the plus side, I went over 2,000 miles on Strava this year since I started logging in May:

This doesn't account for January - April, where I know I rode well more than 1,000 miles even in the Winter. Hell...I logged nearly 600 miles in April alone. And, in spite of the increased traffic, it's motivated me to ride even more. Bikes never go on strike.

All that said, I do hope this strike ends soon, because I do use SEPTA from time to time, and it's incredibly valuable for keeping our city safe and more environmentally friendly. Cycling remains my most effective means of transportation, but I know not everyone is that fortunate, and riding in this muck the last 3 days has been less than pleasant even in great weather. So yea...here's hoping.

Nice Rack: 10th & Watkins

Quick life update: I've been working a lot lately (to the tune of working 20 of the last 21 days, and eventually it'll be 27 of 28), but I recently re-signed my lease for another year. Fan-fucking-tastic if you ask me, because I've never lived in a place for more than a year since about 2008, and my bank account is finally back to where it was before I face-planted a little over a year ago. Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Also little over a year ago, I first stumbled into Watkins Drinkery, which has since become one of my regular happy hour haunts. A few weeks ago, I noticed the normal, everyday bike rack outside had some new colors on it:

It's actually not a paint job, but rather a yarn bomb:

For those of you who don't know what yarn bombing is, don't feel bad. I didn't know about it before I started this blog. In fact, case in point is this oblivious blog post from, you guessed it, a little over a year ago. They're some of my favorite street art pieces to find, though, mostly because they're almost always gone within a month or two. Something about catching a glimpse of something that's only there for a moment makes it feel "special," I guess.

Anywho, happy November (really), and here's hoping I can sneak in some more pre-Winter rides once my schedule calms down.

Nice Racks is a series of bike rack art I've stumbled upon throughout Philadelphia.