WHEELS Wednesday: The Truth About Truing

Thinking about how I forgot my patch kit, and hoping that I won't need it on my trip, led me to thinking about bicycle wheels in general....

What do you do when your bicycle wheels are wobbly? Most people ignore the problem, or turn it over to their local bike shop. The solution is to straighten it, or 'true' the wheel, i.e. make its rotation perfectly correct, or true to the path it should take when spinning. I've seen many variations on this, and I even got a mini-lesson at the Bike Oven in L.A. The reality is, you can do this yourself--it's easier if you have a bike stand. But it can be done without one. Online videos are tremendously helpful, including this one from an Atlanta bike shop that defines terms, and these, Part 1 and Part 2.

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: BART Not That Smart; OAK Link Not A-O.K.

On the one hand, the well-worn path via inexpensive ($3) "Air BART" shuttle bus from Oakland (Calif.) International Airport (OAK) to the nearest BART/Rapid Rail, the Coliseum/Airport Station, works predictably and efficiently. Buses are capacious, schedules are frequent, drivers are professional, and there's room for luggage. Given that it's four miles, and multiple traffic lights, from terminal, buses make it in a relatively fast 12-15 minutes.

On the other hand, (Re: my recent trip from OAK to Millbrae/Burlingame...)...signage and communication remain, ahem, challenged:

*There is no clear signage at the BART station indicating that a regular stored-value BART system card, can also be purchased for the Air BART bus. Signs above the ticket machines note "Air BART" but little information beyond this. Station attendants repeat information about Air BART verbally, in lieu of adequate signage. There's also no indication at the station about frequency of bus service.

*There is no indication at OAK that you could use a BART card -- if you had one in your wallet, as I did not see a BART ticket machine in eye-range. 

*There is no indication that Coliseum/Airport BART Station is an overpass and short walk away from Amtrak's Coliseum/Airport station, served by Capitol Corridor service (San Jose-Sacramento)...nor is there any indication that the Air BART bus could be used to access this latter station, via the BART station.

*There is no indication, for those who are visiting (and it stands to reason that many visitors use this BART station), which platform/direction at the station is the correct one to head toward downtown Oakland or downtown San Francisco. You must look at the map, know what to look for, and deduce where you must stand to board the correct train.

*BART uses a nonsensical platform numbering system, with one platform labelled "1" and another labelled "2" (but what's the logic? It could be the other way around. Correct signage protocol would place terminal names with arrows below the station names along the outer walls (i.e. <<DUBLIN/PLEASANTON<<Montgomery St.>>DALY CITY/SFO/MILLBRAE), and this would be repeated along the length of the station outer walls. 

*It remains a challenge to see station names from a given seat on a given train. There are not enough outer wall station signs, and lighted station identification signs suspended from the ceiling are often unlighted, and they are not close enough together to guarantee a seated passenger can see any station sign. Barely audible train-driver announcements of the station, once arrived, are infrequent, inconsistent and not repeated at all. 

FLEET-FOOT Fridays: A Very Ferry Friday

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                                                                                                                                                     Governors Island Ferry, NYC

Some rights reserved by Ed Coyle Photography
Hong Kong Harbor

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Tyne River, South Shields, UK

Some rights reserved by Will Merydith
Bainbridge Island - Seattle Ferry

WHEELS Wednesday: Repair Your Bike for Free (or Almost...)

Why let the recession torpedo your bicycling? The bicycle repair co-operative is ascendant, with many large cities--and a few small ones--sporting these oases, where the budget-challenged (these days, that's most of us), can repair their bikes with trained volunteers, obtain free or low-cost parts, buy re-conditioned bikes, and donate their time. Many bike clubs also sponsor repair clinics.

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Examples of co-ops include The Recyclery (Chicago), Bike Oven (L.A.), The Bike Kitchen (L.A. and in S.F.). In NYC, Recycle the Bicycle has three locations (!); Five Borough Bicycle Club offers many classes and services. Bike Parts swap meets are another resource for repair and instruction: the Bridge Storage Swap Meet, in Richmond, Calif. (BART/Amtrak accessible), near Oakland, is monthly.

BTW, these venues almost always pop up near established commercial bike shops--and the symbiosis seems mutually beneficial. I'll be updating and expanding this list for perma-links on TraVERSatility. Google or Bing "free bicycle repair."

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: the 411 on L.A. Transit System Information...

Copyright Free. First Published 1974 by  AIGA and U.S. DOT

Rode bicycle over to Universal City Red Line Metro Station, to take it under the hill to do my standard circumnavigation of Griffith Park (via Franklin>Hillhurst>Los Feliz Blvd.>L.A. River Bikeway>Victory>Riverside). At Universal, a confused group of Japanese teens tried to navigate the rather unhelpful ticket machines menu to obtain stored-value cards (I forgot to take a picture of the group, sorry!). Finally, an L.A. Metro maintenance guy showed up, opened up the machine, ascertained it was empty of cards, and waved them onward.

Their questions about how to get to the popular Hollywood/Highland stop (which is just one stop south), led me to muse that signage and fare/payment information in these stations, for this system--and many others--is really sub-par. (By the way, there seem to be no "station pages" on the Metro website, dedicated to each station in the rail system; I know I've seen them, but they are not easy to find online...). Therefore:

TraVERSatility Principle #1: If we're to get more people using transit, we have to get more information about transit to the people.


Admittedly, changing station signage and machine menus is harder and more expensive than moving information around on the Web. But, in a system so heavily used by visitors--especially international ones--the economic impact of improving communication remains important. The more we know about where to go...the better off we'll all be.

FLEET-FOOT Fridays: Virgin's List of Bike-Friendly Cities

I'm hoping this isn't an old feature, but the Virgin family of airlines suggests 11 of the most bike-friendly cities in the world: they include...Amsterdam; Berlin; Copenhagen; Basel; Barcelona; Portland, Ore.; Davis, Calif.; Boulder, Colo.; Sandnes, Norway; Trondheim, Norway; San Francisco, Calif.

My guess is that one could add Olympia, Wash., Berkeley, Calif., maybe even Sacramento, Calif.; one or two other cities around the San Francisco Bay Area, and a few of the state capitals and university towns, like Ann Arbor, in the American Midwest, along with some in t. I was a little surprised to see Vancouver, B.C. not included--and I'm not sure whether it would qualify or not.

WHEELS Wednesday: Essential Biking Gear for Commuters, Others

So what do you absolutely have to have when you bicycle, especially as a commuter? I would argue that a spare tire tube and tire patch kit are important--and also easy to carry, because they take so little space in a backpack or computer bag. But why listen to me? Resources advising you on this abound online, including at at About.com, at GetRichSlowly, and even at manly-man Gear Patrol.

Cooler weather will be here eventually in the Northern hemisphere, and you can learn about what you'll need for winter cycling here. And if you just want to know about essential safety gear--and the laws governing them--a law firm offers this very serious primer.