The Bicycles of Leuven

I am blogging from the Condo Gardens Leuven over their "free" wifi. It is incredibly slow. I could shell out five euros and get a connection that is "8 times faster", but I think that would only take me to very slow and I'd be feeling annoyed about paying the money.

Leuven is a charming Medieval town in Belgium. I've been here for about 36 hours, but most of that has been spent sleeping. Still, I've taken 139 photos. Many of bicycles.

This is because there are a lot of them and they're different from what I see in Ottawa.

Almost all of the Leuven bicylces:

• are both old and old-fashioned;
• are 1-speed or 3-speed; and
• have dynamo-powered headlights and lots of reflectors.

Many have charming paint jobs.

Rainy Day at the Skatepark

Once again, someone's misfortune has allowed me to get pictures that I like. This time I got to take photos of the skatepark from inside. I never go inside when the weather is good because the skaters are zipping around and while I'm sure they would avoid me, I don't think they would consider it cool for some old guy to be wandering up and down their ramps taking photos when they could be zipping through the space I occupy.

I wonder if someone was trying stunts with this trike. If so, is that how it lost a wheel? Or were they trying the stunts with a broken trike. I'm guessing it didn't work out, else they wouldn't have left it behind.

More photos of the park in the rain at Flickr.

More Photos at the Skatepark

I've been taking more shots of the action at Legacy Skatepark. On Friday, one guy said in a loud voice, "anybody takes a picture of me, I'll slap him." I looked over to the group where the voice came from but none of them were looking at me.

A biker in a white t-shirt who'd been doing a lot of stunts in front of me said, "polite people."

"Who doesn't want their picture taken?" I called out. Nobody answered so I shrugged and went back to snapping away.

There are several things I wondered about as I took these pictures.

1. Shouldn't these lads be wearing helmets? and maybe other protective gear?
2. That really young looking kid... is he on his lunch break too or is he playing hookey?
3. Is it possible that when they see a photographer they'll try a trick that is too hard for them and hurt themselves?

I don't actually worry about whether they mind me taking the photos. If I made any money from the shots, I'd be happy to share it with them and my experience is that people doing things like this like to have pictures of themselves in action.

Just as I was leaving the skatepark, a rough-looking older guy walked through it. He called out to the biker in the white t-shirt and told him he should do a series of moves that would finish with going up one side of a steep slope, doing a back-flip, down the other side of the slope up the opposite wall, "...and then lock your handlebars.... Or do something else f--ked up. I'd do it myself, but I already got brain damage."

He then went on to describe one of the stunts he'd pulled that had wound up with him cracking his skull.

So, yes, a helmet might be a good idea.

Skatepark Flickr Set

The Legacy Skatepark in Nepean

When I left work today, it was a beautiful sunny evening and I didn't have to rush to a meeting or a practice, so I did what I've been wanting to do since the snow thawed and wandered over to the skate park.

I took a bunch of photos and nobody seemed to mind. One fellow might have been disappointed that I didn't get a shot of him wiping out. All I can say is that with everything going on, and the sunlight washing out my view screen, it was hard for me to get the action shots I did get.

If there is tension between the boarders and the bikers, or any sort of territorial squabbles, I didn't see any while I was there. Just a bunch of young guys working at improving their skillz.

Links:

All the shots I got on Flickr

• List of Skateboard parks in Ottawa
• Reviews of the Legacy Skateboard Park

My Bike Frame

If you have been past my house lately, you may have noticed this bike frame outside my door.

Take notice: I have a plan for this bike frame and it involves art.

On Sunday, I was giving Pam a bag of shells that my generous mother gave me to give to her. [What Pam does with shells]

After telling me to thank my mother, she said, "Listen, it's completely okay if you say, no. Completely okay, but here it is, my son's neighbour's boyfriend is an artist and he was wondering if he could have that bicycle frame in your yard for an art project."

"No!" I said more abruptly than I should have. "I have an art project of my own for that bike!"

"I thought you probably did," she said. "That's what I told this old man who also asked me if I thought he could take it one day when I was out here gardening."

Yes. You might think it is odd to have a rusty bicycle frame outside your door but there are at least two people ready to take it away from me at a moment's notice. I'm glad that the kind of people who have plans for old bike frames are the kind of people who ask instead of just stealing them.

Tricking Out The Bike: My Dream Trailer

That's a mighty nice trailer, I thought when I saw this fella on Elgin Street a couple weeks ago.

But when I make my bike trailer, I'm not going to need a wheel barrow because my trailer will convert to a barrow.

Bonus Link: Tricked-out Bikes on Flickr

Bike tips

When I lock my bike to a street pole or parking meter, I always put the bike on the side away from the street. That way if it falls down, it will be less likely to get run over by a car.

I also leave my helmet with my bike and don't bother locking it. So far, it seems there isn't a big market for stolen $10 helmets.

Stickers on the Camera

There are several things I want to point out about this photo of me on my bicycle.

First, my clever sideview mirror is still attached and hasn't been knocked off any of the times my bike has fallen over.

Second, check it out! On Thursday, March 30, it was so warm, I had to put my jacket in my pannier and ride in shirtsleeves. The day after this photo was taken, I cycled to and from school in a short sleeve shirt and still arrived in a perspiring state!

Third, do you notice the stickers on my camera? One is a yellow sticker that Kodak put on the camera to advertise its features: 2.2 megapixels, etc. Normally, I'd remove this kind of thing. But it occurred to me that it makes my $150 digital camera look like a $7 disposable and I thought that might be useful. The other sticker is a return-address label that a charity sent me.

I don't know if having the camera look cheap has prevented someone from stealing it from me. It seems to make people lower their guard and thus allow me to get more natural pictures. But the address label has resulted in a quick return. When I went to Toronto a few weeks ago, the ticket agent called to me after I'd paid and walked to the waiting area, "Mr. Scrimshaw?" He waved the camera. I'd left it on his counter.

Tired of Checking for New Posts all the Time?

Maybe it's time you subscribed to this blog in one way or another. There are several options over in my sidebar under "Subscribe to this Blog". You might want to read:

• Jon Tan's RSS Feeds Explained;
• Steve Shaw's 15 Ways to Read an RSS Feed; or
• Eric Zorn's 23 Steps to use Bloglines.

I use the "add content" feature on my Yahoo FrontPage.

A Really Tricked Out Bike

Way back in 1984, I took an Emergency Medical Technician course at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I can't say that the course has ever helped me save a life, but I did gain a friend, my back-boarding partner, Ed Buckner. I've stayed in touch with Ed over the years. He's a good guy, the kind of guy who'd mail a package of spaghetti to a CUSO volunteer in Africa who mentions in a letter that he hasn't had spaghetti for a while and misses it.

Ed is an entrepreneur. Over the years, he has been involved in many different businesses. I'm always interested in what he's up to. In my second last email from him he told me he was involved in a mobility product in Chicago. I asked him to tell me more if it wouldn't require me signing a non-disclosure agreement.

The mobility product is the Conferenc Bike (or CoBi), and they're hoping to have twenty of them in downtown Chicago on intersecting loops so people can buy a day pass and get all around the city, or just go for a 15-20 minute ride.

According to the CoBi website:

Everyone who rides a Conference Bike lights up smiling.

It lowers inhibitions and after just a few minutes even complete strangers begin talking to one another. Children come running. Adults are transformed into children.

Ed says "the economics are amazing". I hope he's right, because I'd love to see them here in Ottawa going down Gladstone and up Elgin.

Work Today

211 Bell Street N Ottawa

Tricking out the Bike 6

I thought I was a good bike tricker until I came across this guy on Make:Blog. A rocket booster on the tail rack! Why didn't I think of that first? (Click photo for Pop Sci article)

Seeing this set my mind going. How can I trick out my bike to compete with that? It occurred to me that on a day like we're having here, a rocket booster wouldn't do much good anyway.

No, on a day like this, you need a scoop and a bungee cord to make your own bike plow.

(See, Mom, you don't need to worry about me cycling in the winter.)

Why I shouldn't listen to naysayers

I'm starting to think I should ignore the comments from Kathy and Dave about being kooky. For one thing, so far only two people thought the post about my globe was kooky. It's an anonymous poll, so it might not have been them, but I'm entitled to my suspicions. Another reason is illustrated by my unexpected shopping experience today. I went to the market for lunch today. Before I went, I thought I might go to the Giant Tiger to pick up a hooded sweatshirt and perhaps a couple of t-shirts. I decided that I wouldn't need a backback, because my one side basket should hold everything I'd want to buy. How was I to know that they'd have wide-brimmed maple leaf hats for $0.99 each. Next summer, it is guaranteed that the Maple Leaf Brass Band will be playing outside in the sun. Probably at the Teddy Bear's picnic. I could have got just one of these hats for myself. But others would be jealous. Go big or go home, Kathy would say. So I bought 31 hats. Enough for everyone in the band. But that meant I had to look like a bag lady on a bike on my ride home. I could easily have smushed them all into the bucket pannier, but no, I don't clip it to the bike normally, because it would look kooky. [Link: The original bucket pannier posting]

Pictures from the BikeCam

Just kidding, Mom. The bike stays home and I'll be walking today. I took this photo last week. It reminds me of the famous Tiananmen square picture of the man in front of the tanks. I'm afraid the man in my picture was also unsuccessful at stopping the onslaught.

Tricking out the Bike V: Rear View Mirror

With the coming of the cold weather, I wear my hood under my helmet. When it hits -7 below Celsius, I'll be wearing a neck tube and a tuque under the hood. At -15C, I'll replace the tuque with a balaclava. Wearing a balaclava, a neck tube, a hood and a helmet, it gets a little hard to turn my head to see what traffic is coming up behind me. "I need a rear-view mirror," I've been thinking. But at this time of year, it's not easy to get reasonably priced bicycle accessories. Then I remembered the convex mirrors I bought in my shopping spree at the Dollar Bank. Just need a way to securely attach the mirror to my handlebars. Something so it won't bounce all around. Two days later, I had my brainwave. Here is the recipe: Ingredients:

• one 2" wide angle blind spot mirror ($1.50 at the Dollar Bank);
• an old-fashioned corkscrew with a handle flat enough for attaching the mirror (no hinges, levers, wings) ($1.00 at the Dollar Bank);
• a cork removed from a wine bottle (one of those black plastic ones would be cool, I bet); and
• Some duct tape.

Directions:

1. Use a hammer or mallet to bang the cork into the opening at the end of the handlebar. (This may require removing your handlebar grip, or cutting it. I didn't have an air compressor around to help me remove mine, so I made an "X" cut in the rubber. If you removed the handlebar grip, put it back on once the cork is in place.)
2. Screw the corkscrew into the cork.
3. Fasten the mirror to the corkscrew with the duct tape. Sit on the bike and adjust the angle so it works for you. Almost vertical, with the top of the mirror about 10 degrees or 15 degrees away from me, works for me.
4. Bonus: A corkscrew every where you go.

Links:

• The Dollar Bank Shopping Spree

Tricking out the Bike IV: Camera Mount

Last Tuesday, Make: Blog featured a link to a set of simple instructions (that appear to be written by Chieh Cheng) to make a camera mount for a bicycle.

I've got to have one, I said to myself.

I bought the things I needed at Home Hardware Thursday afternoon (before going to the Buck or Two) and made one Thursday night.

The camera mount is the gizmo with the wingnuts (aka thumbscrews).

[Oh, notice the headlight? For some reason they designed it so that a cyclist will see the top of the light when it is on. I made a cowl with foil tape on the top to keep it from distracting me and wrecking my night vision. ]

Back to the camera mount, one of the best parts of the instructions is that they require going to a dollar store for a light from which you take the mounting clamp. (He went to a 99 cent store, but if you want me to be technical about it, we'd also have to go into currency conversions.) I didn't have to go to a dollar store for the clamp because I've got a bunch of them already kicking around. (I keep losing lights and not losing the clamps that go with them.)

Here's my first real bike cam shot. Gladstone Avenue, Friday morning.

On my way to Elgin Street Friday afternoon I took my first vigilante shot. This guy has stopped in a no-stopping zone, which is a bike lane, on a busy bridge. My bike lane! But, you ask, does that inexpensive Kodak of yours have the resolution to get the plate number?

Yes, it does.

My second vigilante shot is a car going through a very red light. For this one the plate was pretty blurry. You'd need one of those CSI guys to bring it out.

But I didn't put the camera mount on the bike to enforce the traffic code. I got it to make art.

Tricking out the Bike IV

This time I'm featuring someone else's tricked out bike. This creative fellow has a granny grocery cart hacked into a bike trailer. It's carrying a variety of bags and is attached to the rear carrier rack which has an old milk carton fastened to it. His cute little dog rides in the carton. I apologize for the blurry shot. The light was low. I was lining up for a second shot when he started waving me to pass him. I don't know if he saw my camera in his rear view mirror and didn't want photos or if he just thought I was riding too close. I'm thinking that a dog you could trust to ride in a milk carton on your bike would probably be a good dog to have around. I plan to get a trailer for my bike, but not a granny cart. I don't think those skinny wheels will support the kind of loads I'd want to carry and even with a light load, I bet they have a lot of friction. I suspect this fellow gets a good workout going around town. He would do better with a couple of laundry bucket panniers, but probably doesn't want to look kooky.

Tricking out the Bike III

You know how you fumble around with these round bike lock keys and always seem to have your key so the slot is pointed the wrong way? Even though half the time by sheer random chance you should have it the right way? I used a permanent marker to make a big black line to show where the slot goes so I always have it the right way around. And if you were wondering how to arrange the bungee cords on the bike pannier, I've added some photos to the end of the entry.

Tricking out th' Bike II

Ahoy, Mateys, 'Tis a Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, I be wishin' ye! As ye see, I've tricked out me bike in honour of th' day. Blackbeard's flag rigged to the carry rack and a bonnie bandanna fer th' helmet. [Ed. note - It be actually a bad idea t' cover yer helmet with anythin' that may catch on somethin' durin' a spill. Helmets be smooth t' allow them t' slide so your neck doesn'a snap like a marlin pike between two dreadnoughts.]

Tricking out the Bike

The Laundry Bucket Bicycle Pannier If you're the ecologically-minded kind of person that I am, you buy your laundry soap in big buckets and ride a bicycle as much as you can. I decided to combine those interests by making a pannier with one of the many laundry soap buckets around the house. All it took was four holes drilled in one side and two bungee cords. The only problem was that with the soap logo and text on the sides the pannier looked cheap and tacky. No problem. I came up with a little rocket ship picture that would go well with the blue lid and the white sides. Printed the picture onto some heavy paper, cut the pictures to 6"x8" , glued them to three sides of the bucket with spray adhesive and then coated the pictures with a waterproof spray-on substance. Got some thin foam at Spins'n'Needles and cut out star shapes that I sprayed with reflective paint. Glued the stars to the bucket. And voila, a flashy pannier that doubles as a stool. Kathy A and Dave T tell me that riding around with a bucket pannier with cartoon spaceships makes me look eccentric or kooky. And that the option of saying that the pictures were drawn by a nephew or niece would only work until people find out I have no nephews or nieces. Then I'd look creepy too. So best to go with just being kooky. As we get older, we're heading for either good kooky or bad kooky anyway. I say, this is good kooky. Camouflaged Toolkit See that extra water bottle on the bike in front of the bucket pannier? The one with the flat top. It's a toolkit. Wrench, multi-head screwdriver, can of oil, a rag, two Allen keys. So far, nobody has stolen it. [Author's note: although yesterday, a Scribbles reader who saw my bike said "I feel like stealing that water bottle."] Addendum If you are wondering how to arrange the bungee cords on the bike pannier, here is the arrangement I used.