North American Handmade Bicycle Show

So I went to the NAHBS yesterday in Nap town. Woke up early to get out there. I saw some interesting stuff. I think I was expecting something a bit different though.

Heres a nice commuter bike. They were all about the front rack.

A bamboo bike. Apparently these are made in developing countries and then sold here in the US.

A nice chain guard detail. Very sophisicated.

An old school style fork from a company out of Fort Collins.


A cool builder from MASS. called Alternative Needs Tranportation. Some really nice commuter bikes with rack and lights. Really nice high end hubs too.

A nice piece from Velo Orange. I really like that basket.

This was one of my favorite things. These guys from Portland, Signal Cycles made this wine rack holder. A really beautiful rack.

There was a lot more there. Tons of 29ers. I don't think I saw one 26 inch wheel there. Really high end commuter, road, and fixed gears. Unfortunately no one really brought out many touring frames or anything new in the cargo arena.

WWDBD? (What Would Daniel Boone Do?)

This question was posed back in December/January in 2006 while a group of us were backpacking down the in Daniel Boone National Forest. DB has long been my favorite frontiersman in American History. I didn't know much about him until recently when I started reading a biography by Robert Morgan. DB's life has a lot to say about pioneering the American landscape, and his legacy lives on and confronts us with some current issues. The conflict that existed mostly throughout his life was preserving his role as a frontier woodsman while populating the state of Kentucky.

From an early age Boone would go into the woods and hunt and trap. He would commonly be out in the wilderness for days and provided his family with food and furs from an early age. He made most of his money for his family through the fur trade. Theres a story in which one season he killed 91 bears in the Virginia wilderness. This was the attitude of many men on the western frontier, and the frontier would move further west as the hunting lands in the area were used up. Boone only reportedly made any kind of comment regarding how he treated the land and its resources. It was simply not thought as something that could be used up like it had in Europe.

Boone built one of the first roads into Kentucky by way of the Cumberland Gap. It was more of a trail that used Indian hunting trails and buffalo traces that could accommodate people on foot with pack horses. He brought people and settled in the "promised land" of Kentucky. Kentucky was a much contested area among settlers in different colonies, the colonies governments, and the Indians who believed it to be a sacred hunting ground. Indeed it was because it had some of the richest area of game for the time. As people filed into Kentucky they would claim huge tracts of land to start farming. After a few years the soil would be worthless from only planting corn on it and the field would be used for a school house or cemetery. Morgan also goes on to point out the fact that as settlers moved in they would clear as many trees as they could. The forests were dark and a good place for Indians to hide in ambush of the settlements.

The American frontier life was hard on the environment of this continent and we still seem to live by the values of those days. America at the time was viewed as endless and people bought land for pennies an acre and spread out across the western lands. They destroyed populations of game and the old growth forests in which they lived. Today our cities are growing out into the frontier that is the edge of the cities. Everyone wants their plot of land in places such as Anderson Meadows and Eagles Watch, and most Americans feel it their right. Our cities are being destroyed by this sprawling landscape just as Daniel Boone's forests were being destroyed. The American suburbs are huge. Houston is 100 miles in diameter! Transportation is a huge problem through our cities with declining infrastructure, smog, and traffic jams. The alternative forms that seem to work in Europe and other places don't sit well with the American attitude. Why ride the bus when you can be on the open road blazing the trail to work? America is all about personal mobility and a personal mode seems to be attached to Americans at the hip whether its a car, bike, truck, or skateboard. We don't have a collective mindset in transportation that Europe seems to have, and we have a unique problem with our sprawling cities and need for the feeling of freedom. Just like Daniel Boone we still live life with those frontier values. So what is our American solution to the transportation problem in the land of the free and the home of the brave? Like Daniel Boone we need to reject the solutions back East and blaze into the new frontier. We are a self sufficient people (at least we like to think that.)

Riding Down South if I Wear Out 99 Pair of Tire

This is the last one for today. Let me get up on my soap box before I write this... ok. Here we go.

So I came to Austin, TX about one month ago. I've since parked my car behind my house and have just been getting around by bike (It's hard to stand on this soap box when you're on your high horse too.) So how is riding in Austin. Well everyone was repping Austin as a bike friendly city. Sike! Not so much. I'd say it's pretty much average in terms of cities to ride in. I get honked at, cut off, and pains in my groin from the potholes.

I've also been on the various Austin bike blogs, craigslist, been riding 20 miles plus solo around the city, been riding with critical mass and other such rides full of shenanigans and I would say I'm pretty much sick of the bike/car animosity around here, and really everywhere.

What the solution? Laws? Law Enforcement? Infrastructure? New forms of human powered transport?

I would say understanding for starters. Not only understanding from our fossil fueled friends but also from our aerodynamic spandex friends, our badass faceplanting bmx friends , our cuties on cruiser friends, and our hipster fixie friends.

People just get so pissed about the topic of bikes on the roads. We are all allowed to be there. Some people drive cars, some people can keep up with those cars, some people can't keep up with them. Some understanding from bikers could come from the fact of how do you pass someone on a bike? I don't even really know how. I just pass people but when I'm driving I know how it can give a jolt when a 4 cyclinder camry is redlining trying to pass you and you feel like they're going to hit you. Some understanding from cars could come from the fact that the person on the bike is doing a lot more work than you are. Put yourself in that other person's shoes.

We'll until next time don't look up when the wild geese come flyin from the west.

O and I've been talking to different people in Cincinnati. A bike festival is hopefully in the plans for next June. Bike Kill? Slaughterama? Six Day Party?