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Cycle Commuting Comicstrip

Yehuda Moon & the Kickstand Cyclery is a daily comic for cyclists everywhere. The comic is geared for the commuting audience. But is a little for everyone on two wheels. The comic is drawn by Rick Smith.

I’ve been reading with delight since it’s inception. I’ve wanted to do this about one hundred times myself. It seems urban bike culture is coming into it’s own. The comic depicts two cyclists. Yehuda is the steel frame/single speed/ simplicity bike guy who works at the shop the Kickstand. Then there is the bike shop owner Joe. Joe is more of a high technology fan and is a perfect foil to Yehuda.

Today’s comic is a gem.

Another favorite of mine is where Yehuda paints his own Bike lanes. Peruse the archives and enjoy.

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I find myself becoming more and more irritable on my morning bike commute. Drivers who use cell-phones, that do not look where they are going are trying my patience. This morning I made a critical mistake. I think if I had changed my position in the lane to be more direct and visible, this situation might have been negated.

I had my modified Bianchi San Jose with pannier bags loaded this morning. Laptop and clothes for the day in the bags, and I am heading downhill to a stop light. The stop light has some construction going on in the middle lane. I rolled up in the right lane first at the light. I was off to the right of the lane, which was my first mistake. I should have been in the middle of the lane. A woman from the center lane under construction started edging her SUV into the right lane. She rolled forward but needed me to move to turn right at the red light.

She actually rolled down the window and tried to sweetly ask me to move so she could turn right at the red light. “No!”, I told her. She could wait for the light to turn green like everybody else. If I had been a car she could/would never have done this.

My mistake was in being off to the right if I intended to go straight through the light. I was asking for it. Lesson learned occupy the center of the lane when you intend to go straight.

Bad Bike Commuter Positioning Diagram for going Straight in an Intersection

Good Position for a Bike in Traffic going straight

Certainly the second diagram is more aggressive in terms of the positioning in traffic, but hopefully safer. The object is not necessarily to be in the center to let the car through on the right, but to clearly occupy the middle to let the car know you are going straight.

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I’ve been a sort of lazy mechanic since birth. I’ve usually allowed other people to take care of mechanical problems that I found challenging.

This spring, an unnamed local bike shop, (lbs) sort of hosed me. At the time I was pretty upset about it, but in retrospect I think it was ninety percent my responsibility and ten percent the local bike shop.

I brought my Felt F1X in for a creaky noise on the non-drive side of the crank. I told the mechanic, a good kid who has been super helpful in the past, that my cyclocross bike was making some creaking noises. I wasn’t sure if it was the crank, the pedal, or something else. I left it there for the day, and picked it up at five. The kid said he couldn’t replicate it, but that I might think about replacing the cranks. We talked about a Shimano Dura-Ace upgrade, and a few other ideas, and then I biked home. I took the back way up Westnedge Hill and over some grass through Crane Park. In the tough part of the climb I was head over handlebars pumping uphill when the non-drive side of the crank snapped off the bottom bracket. I went down hitting my man business, (yes the pods) on the seat and then went down in the dirt. I walked the bike home sort of fuming along the way.

I was pretty pissed. I had just brought the bike in to the LBS to have this exact problem looked over. The kid probably didn’t ride it, tried to sell me a dura-ace crank set, ($650) and then sent me on me way. I brought it back to them and explained what happened. They replaced the crank at half cost and then sent me on my way again.

I knew what was wrong with the bike, I ride the bike every day, and my inability to articulate the problem and even attempt a repair had led to the problem. Of course when this happened in October that was not how I felt. But hindsight and all that usual stuff…

I was determined after this to become more self-reliant when it came to my bike maintenance. I attended a bike maintenance class at Breakaway Bikes in Portage Michigan. I’ve tried to pick up a few more tools. Unfortunately I keep putting off buying a real bike stand. I think I can’t put that off any longer.

Tonight with only the Park Tools website , one video I found on Expert Village., and a borrowed pedal wrench I managed to swap out two sets of SPD style pedals. Editor’s Note: both of those sites could use some SEO friendly URLs.

Once I figured out how to get the best mechanical advantage I took a nicer set of Shimano SPD clipless pedals off of my Vintage Trek Elance, and put them on my commuter bike, my Bianchi San Jose. I also attached my pannier rack which has been sitting in the trunk of my Volvo all winter.

All in all this left me with a bike I fixed myself, one scraped knuckle, and a generally manly and satisfied feeling.

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Headed down the backside of Westnedge hill this morning all suited up and raring to go on my morning commute. I got to my big scary downhill run and began riding the brakes to slow down before the descent. I unfortunately immediately locked out and slid on to the side of my bike and then proceeded to slide all the way down the hill on my side. It felt sort of cool actually like a dirt track racer, skidding down the entire hill on my side. After all the rain we had yesterday, and then the following cold temperatures, I decided that today it was ok to drive. If you crash less than a mile from your home on ice on Dec 12th, I’d say you toughed it out right. Or am I a giant weenie for driving?

Problem is- Westnedge hill is indeed a hill at all four points of the compass in Kalamazoo. You have to descend the hill at some point to get anywhere. The streets to use off the hill where there is little traffic ironically also have the issue of no salt, and no traffic to keep them clear. So my morning commute in winter consists of a white knuckled descent into a hairpin turn onto Burdick. In summer it’s sweet. I cruise down the hill, hit the turn at full speed; balls out to the wind, slow for traffic and then high tail it to work. In winter it’s a technical descent on a sheet of ice. Once you make it off the hill the streets are usually clear. I suppose I could *walk* my bike to the bottom. But that just seems silly.

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Snotty frozen rain and forty mile an hour winds buffeted me on my morning commute to work. The full winter commuting regalia made it’s first appearance. I think I still need some neoprene booties for my bike shoes. But the fenders and the Bianchi San Jose seem to be holding tight. Except the bloody seat post. I think the shop lubed the frame to preserve it during assembly. But unfortunately this means that the seat post will not stay put. It slides side to side and then eventually slides down about two inches. It’s driving me mad!

I made the mistake of looking out at the lake.

Today is a day where the gulls tuck close to the water’s edge. When the surge of the water climbs the beach, they take silly little steps back in near human surprise. If caught unaware when the storm rushes up the sand, the birds take flight with motionless wings. Their rigid wings tilt back and forth catching gusts. When you look out over the water, there is a jagged line of breakers that stretches as far as the eye can see, like an unending row of spilling sharks teeth. The wind whistles madly through the paddle shaft. Anything you put down blows down the beach. Launching and then breaking out is a herculean if not impossible task. Once out maybe you catch a ride, or maybe a ride catches you.

Having seen these waves first hand, I can now say this is nigh on surf-able.

Thursday is supposed to be a clean 4-7 foot day.

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I picked up a new bike on Thursday from Loose Spokes.
The Bianchi San Jose is technically a cyclocross bike. It is a steel frame bike with top tube routed brakes. The bike is excellent, it is crisp and smooth on the pedal and seems to be very tough. I wanted a single speed steel bike for my daily Michigan commute in the off-season. I essentially went through every drive train component on my Felt F1X last winter. And while Ultegra is not Campagnolo it wasn’t cheap either. So I decided to go all out and buy a complete bike. The idea of a Surly single speed was very appealing, but a frame plus all the components I needed would be almost double what I paid for the San Jose.

I swapped out the stock drop bars for the Nitto moustache bars. I dug in and figured out how the brake levers come off, and then how to apply handlebar tape. Not really that hard. But I think I could’ve done a better job.

I think the bars are pretty sweet. Nice hand position. I just need to get my lights on it and maybe a new saddle.