Bikes, Beers, and Birthdays (Abridged Version)

Even though my birthday is tomorrow, today was supposed to be the second annual installment of my birthday bike ride (the first being last year). It's a tradition I actually got from my friend Todd, who rides his age in miles every year on or about his birthday.

See, the thing about planning a day to ride weeks in advance of the actual date is that Mother Nature doesn't care about your plans. Due to bitter cold temperatures and wind chills, I was forced to postpone my planned ride to Manayunk. I'll try to get one together for January on a day that's not as brutal.

My backup plan was to ride to the new Yards Brewery location, a place I'd not yet visited until today. From my house, it's only about 3.5 miles one way, much more palatable than the original 20+ miles I'd planned for today. I somehow still convinced my girlfriend to ride along with me. We did need to pause to get out of the elements a few times, and occasionally to admire the scenery:

That picture was taken in Franklin Square. I was pretty surprised to see the fountain still operational with temperatures in the teens. In any case, it made for a unique view.

We survived the trek to lower North Philly and made it to the tap room. There's not much bike parking outside (that will hopefully change in the near future), but when we arrived there was plenty of room inside:

In addition to the beer (obviously), the new space also features a food menu that caters to most anyone. Back in my day, ramen was never considered a gourmet restaurant choice. My how times have changed:

We bundled up again and headed for home. This ride was pretty tame compared to a lot of the crazy things I've done, but I'm actually really proud of my ride companion for toughing this out with me:

Nonetheless, I was ready for a hot shower and a nap by the time I got home. It's just not that pleasant to be outside today. Kudos to my co-workers who were out delivering laundry in this brutality, or really anyone who also toughed it out. I saw a few of you out there today.

I've got no major bicycling plans for the last couple days of December. I'm likely just going to do a couple laps around the block to keep my "ride a bike every day" pledge, and considering that I've somehow logged over 250 miles this month, that's definitely enough. Stay warm out there, friends.

#bikeyourbirthmonth

Advocacy: It's an All-Weather Affair

Exactly one month ago today, cyclist Emily Fredricks was killed in Center City Philadelphia while riding on her morning commute. There have been two other incidents since then, including a pedestrian fatality just last week. I can't believe I'm about to type this sentence, but these events have become so frequent, I almost can't keep up with them. If you read the Bicycle Coalition blog, it paints a rather grim picture of the state of cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in the greater Philadelphia area. Grim, but also accurate to those of us who utilize it on a daily basis.

If there is one positive out of all of this, it's rallied support among cycling and pedestrian safety advocates. The changes we want to see happen won't occur without some sort of a spark, some sort of notoriety. That's why we've continued to demonstrate in the streets, including braving temperatures in the teens to create our 3rd human protected bike lane this month:

Photo credit: Jameson Gitto

We are a little crazy, but it doesn't feel crazy to us. People have to get from point A to point B in any weather, and accidents can happen (and be prevented) in any weather just the same, so why should that deter us?

At the same time, we all recognize that standing in the street isn't enough. After all was said and done, the 30 or so of us that braved this morning's brutal cold and wind huddled together to remind ourselves of our next steps that never end: signing the petitions; calling the representatives; educating the community; and so on, and so forth. Standing in the cold is easy. It's all the other stuff and the bureaucracy and etc. that's tough, but when we win, it will be worth it.

I implore you, even if you're just a casual reader and even if you don't live in Philly, help us by spreading the message and getting involved with Vision Zero. Research your city or town and see if there's a similar grassroots cause that you can support. It's not about cyclists. It's not about pedestrians. It's about all of us working together to make sure we can all do the things we need to do safely. You never know whose life you could save...

Alright, enough soapboxing. Now it's time to brave the cold once again and ride home. Enjoy your evening.

#bikeyourbirthmonth

Merry Cycle-Mas

Yesterday wrapped up the 2017 Christmas season, and I hesitate to use the phrase "Thank God it's over." I'm not a hater of the season. In fact, I actually quite enjoy it. For whatever reason though, this Christmas season had seemed exceptionally hectic. Maybe it's partially due to this whole "trying to ride a bike every day in December" thing, but anyway...

It's day 26 and I'm still going strong. I'm looking forward to a birthday ride at the end of this week, and a new year of cycling beginning Monday. I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday!

Lite Therapy

After a couple somewhat frustrating days in the office where I literally spent all day solving computer-related problems (we don't need to go into any more detail than that), I decided at some point yesterday afternoon that I needed to spend some time with My Therapist.

The final push came from an email I received from GoPhillyGo, all about great Christmas lights displays. Their email included links to plan a trip to various display locations (including some that I'd visited a week ago on the Holiday Lights Ride). GoPhillyGo is a pretty neat little tool, allowing for trip planning across multiple modes of transportation (or multi-modal, if you want to sound cool). Though they inspired my destination choice, I chose to go solely by bike yesterday evening, approximately 10 miles all the way up to the great Northeast, Greeby Street to be exact.

Last nite was near perfect for riding, with temps in the 50's and very little wind. That doesn't mean the ride was without challenges. For one, I knew going out that I'd be forced to take two of my most hated roads in the city, Columbus Blvd. and Aramingo Ave. Both are 4 or 6 lane roads with unprotected bike lanes (which I've been talking about a lot lately) and also not buffered, so you're literally riding next to traffic that's going 35 MPH or more. Even with experience, proper lights, reflectors AND a bright orange bike, the whole experience was a little nerve wracking as it always tends to be. As you can imagine, I didn't stop to take pictures.

To make matters more challenging, litter and broken glass are common in areas where the industrial fallout has led to abandonment and dumping. There's an abundance of these along last night's route. I was regularly running over debris hoping that the popping sounds I heard were just rocks and etc. squirting out from under my tires. I had my tool kit handy of course, but this really wasn't an area I'd prefer to have to stop to fix a flat (I'm not sure I prefer to fix a flat anywhere, to be honest). Thankfully I escaped unscathed.

I've been everywhere in this city including the Northeast multiple times, but I'd never rode up there at night. Every place always looks and feels different under cover of darkness, and you're going to run over things and hit bumps even if you know where you're going. I'm not going to lie, it was a little scary, and I most likely won't do this route again unless I'm in broad daylight.

All this aside, once I made the final left onto Greeby Street, I was rewarded with an absolutely breathtaking sight, well worth the time and energy spent:

Literally every house on the block was decorated. The only blank spot you'll see is a tree obscuring a house on the far left:

Talk about Griswoldian light displays. This spans the entire block on both sides. Makes you wonder about their electric bills... Some came complete with holiday music. I should have taken a video. I can only imagine what this looked like under snow cover. I guess I'll have to come back (more on that later).

Of course, for almost every trip out, there needs to be a trip back (what goes up must come down or something). The ride back was a little less stressful. I opted to take Frankford Ave. against the advice of GoogleMaps, simply to lower the amount of turns I'd need to make, but also because I knew the terrain a little better.

Again, that doesn't mean it was easy. I had been out for about an hour and a half at this point and the wind had started to pick up. By the time I got back to Fishtown, I had this strange feeling like I was almost home. The reality is that I'd still only traveled 4 miles or so, with another 6 to go. Being that it was around 8:45 by now, I was understandably feeling a little gassed.

I took a brief pause to visit/pay homage to my former favorite bar at 3rd & Girard (I randomly popped up there a couple months ago too), which is currently being demolished. A sad sight for sure, but there's a metaphor here somewhere:

I'm sort of glad I moved out of this neighborhood when I did, even if I do miss the good old days. Anyway, I made it home safe and sound. The therapy session was quite successful, I'd say:

I found out AFTER I got home that there's another large light display not too far from where I was last night. I guess I'll have to go back soon if I can find some time...

How Many More Times...

Late last week, another cyclist was struck in Center City Philly in one of the alleged "safest" bicycling areas in the city. Luckily this latest incident didn't result in the loss of a life, but that doesn't degrade the urgency with which Philadelphia needs to act to make the streets safer for everyone (drivers and pedestrians included).

The cycling community took to the streets again this morning to call attention to our cause, this time creating another human-protected bike lane on 13th Street between Spruce and Pine Streets:

The main thing we're fighting for are protected bike lanes, but the easier-to-grant request is the re-painting of faded bike lanes and crosswalks. As you can see from the pictures above and this one below, this particular stretch is actually in much better shape than some of the bike lanes on Spruce Street were before they were re-painted:

Still, it could use a re-paint, especially because of constant construction and infrastructure repair projects which have required drilling into the asphalt. Many of these areas have been opened up in or around bike lanes, and then re-paved without being re-striped:

Doesn't look much like a bike lane, does it?

Beyond all of the needed infrastructure improvements, what I think is most important is education. That's the main reason the cycling community organizes these events, why I keep going out to support them, and why I keep writing on this blog. The duty is on everyone to be aware of their surroundings, to drive and bike and walk defensively and to understand why. Many of us grow up knowing the "common sense" laws of driving because that's how we were born and raised, but not nearly as many people know cycling laws. It's been more than 17 years since I got my driver's license, and the only reason I've recently reviewed the PA drivers' manual was to write a blog post for work last year. This is to say, we all need to do better. How many more times will a life need to be put in jeopardy before drastic change occurs?

Related, we'll be doing this again on December 28th, the one month anniversary of Emily Fredricks' fatal incident. If you're a cyclist and will be in or around Center City Philly, I strongly urge you join us.

#bikeyourbirthmonth

How the Grinch Biked Christmas

A lot of people like to go Christmas shopping and get as much as possible accomplished in one fell swoop. While I understand their reasoning, I am not one of those people. In fact, for as much as I love the gift giving and overall feelgood nature of the Christmas season, I absolutely despise going Christmas shopping. I give extra kudos to my friends who still work in retail this time of year, because being in most stores for any more than a couple minutes these days drives me bat shit crazy.

That said, I'm not a total Grinch. I do go Christmas shopping. I just prefer to take many small trips as opposed to one or two large trips. I can handle the stress in limited doses. I got started early (haha!) this year and headed out for a few of these trips on Saturday. It works out perfectly, because I can only carry so much on my bike. 

That was the lightest of three separate trips to three different stores I made this weekend, the last of which was a combined effort that included my weekly grocery store visit last night:

The biggest bonus in all of this (at least for me) is that I put more miles on my bike and my legs, so I don't feel as guilty about eating all those Christmas cookies. I'm also plugging Mom's Organic Market because I'm stoked they're finally in Philly, and I'll gladly ride the literal extra mile to shop there instead of Whole Paycheck.

I'm still not finished shopping, so there are several more rides ahead this week. One week until Christmas. Can you believe it?

#bikeyourbirthmonth

The Year That's Been: 2017

Every December I find myself saying, "I can't believe it's already December." It's that time of year when most of us are looking ahead to next year, or looking back on the year that was, for better or worse. Very anti-Jedi of us not to focus on the present, but I think reflection can be healthy. Acknowledging achievements and shortcomings is how we move forward, right?

One thing I personally almost never say is, "I wish I'd done more." There's always the feeling that I could have done more, but in hindsight, I usually look at all that I have done and realize that it was more than enough. According to Strava, it's been over 3,300 miles of "enough" this year. Sometimes I think it's actually too much, but maybe that's why it's fun? Who knows?

In any case, 2017 has been quite a ride (pun intended). As per my tradition, some highlights from this year, starting with the top 5 moments all of you enjoyed (according to readership):

1. The Naked Miles - Scenes from the 2017 Philly Naked Bike Ride
• A lot of people seem to mention how disgusted or wierded out they are by this event, and every single year this post wins the readership award. What does that say?
2. Prudente 3,000 - I bailed out my friend and crossed 3,000 miles for the year
3. "It Could Have Been Any One of Us" - Thoughts on a tough day for Philly cyclists after an unfortunate death. I'm happy this is high up on the list, but ultimately it could be higher...
4. Will Food for Bike - Moonlighting as a courier in a delicious barter
5. Bike Lame - An uninspiring update on the status of bike lanes in Center City Philly (which was updated a day later)

My top 5 favorites:

1. 600 - Riding more than 50 miles with friends to finish out 30 Days of Biking
2. The Abandoned Blog - An adventure to the Abandoned PA Turnpike, which was fun despite the lackluster weather
3. DCing is Believing - Work related adventures in the nation's capital
4. Go East, Young Man - Crossing off another lengthy section of the D&L Trail, and visiting 2 microbreweries on the way
5. Tricentennial Cycloblog - The blog turns 300! And I bought a bike for my girlfriend.

Miles and statistics are easy to quantify. What's not so easy to label is the enthusiasm I feel from all of you who ride and join in, and from cycling in general. Words and pictures can't tell the entire story, and that's awesome. You know, the journey is its own reward and all that. But hey, here are some pictures (and intermediary commentary) anyway!

Believe it or not, this was the first time The Bike With No Name experienced snow

 Women's March in January

To ensure I didn't miss out on the first day of 30 Days of Biking, I borrowed my girlfriend's daughter's bike for a lap around the block 

 Later that same day, we rented CoGo bikeshare bikes and rode around Ohio State Campus in Columbus

Next week, my friend Amy and I biked to not one... 

Not two... 

Not three... 

 Not four...

 But FIVE breweries in one weekend down the Eastern Shore of Delaware/Maryland

 I borrowed Mom's bike to ride to Easter Sunday brunch

 ...and occasionally got called into active Wash Cyclist duty away from my office job

Drexel Park became one of my favorite random stops, if you couldn't tell from all the pictures above

 Some friends and I rode more than 50 miles in celebration of my friend Todd's birthday, which also happened to be on day 30 of 30 Days of Biking

 I visited DC in May and rode the Capital Bikeshare from the train station

I returned home the same day, having traveled more than 300 miles door-to-door without ever stepping foot inside a car 

My girlfriend and I took to some trails in Western PA on a camping trip in June 

A rally in support of safer streets after a pedestrian fatality in early July

 Trail riding in Delaware with my girlfriend

 

32 miles on the D&L Trail to visit two breweries in Easton... 

...and finding some wildlife on the way home. 

I braved the elements to ride approximately half of the Abandoned PA Turnpike in September 

First ride with my newest addition to the fleet, My Therapist! 

My message at the Philly Naked Bike Ride 

Black Friday ride in Columbus with my girlfriend

Standing in solidarity with the Philadelphia cycling community to create a protected bike lane just a few weeks ago

 And finally, 'tis the season

The year is far from over. With just over two weeks remaining in my #bikeyourbirthmonth challenge, you know I still have a couple things up my sleeve. I guess that could include the unexpected snow cycling adventure from yesterday.

As always, I'm looking forward to making many more memories with all of you in 2018. Thanks for riding along!