3 July 03

Recycling Bicycles

uppsalabike.jpgCoup de Vent today has a post illustrating an old bike dragged from the local canal that she thinks might be her ticket to artistic fame and glory. This reminds us of the bicycle, shown at right, we saw in Uppsala on our trip to Sweden a couple years ago that was evidently fished out of the canal that runs along the east edge of the university and quickly put back into use.

Back in Davis, Peter Wagner is well-known for his eclectic bicycle creations built out by recycling parts from old and usually discarded bikes. His trademark Whymcycle, with its mesmerizingly asymmetric wheels, is something of a cross between a pogo stick, a skateboard, and a one-speed bike.

July is a month when for us cycling events come to the fore. All day downtown tomorrow is the Davis 4th of July Criterium, and the Tour de France begins on Saturday.

Posted by at 08:18 PM in Bicycling | Link |
  1. You guys bicycle, too??? God, we must be on mirror planets! And in Davis, no less! (I lived in Eugene, Oregon for 10 years)...

    My wife and I have done a lot of bicycle travel. In 1995 we took a 6 month honeymoon by bicycle around northern Europe. I dream of going on such a trip again. Next stop (I hope) New Zealand, Patagonia, or Mongolia!

    Take a look at these sites. Aren’t these people wonderful?

    http://www.mountainbike-expedition-team.de/

    http://www.bikefriday.com/lynette/

    On our Europe trip we traveled by mountain bike, but upon coming back we each got ourselves a Bike Friday folder. Much easier for traveling. Our next trip will be MUCH lighter.

    And then, Tour de France! Thank goodness we have cable TV now so we can watch it. (though we are not really tv watchers… but in Japan there is no other way to get non-Japanese programs).

    Where have you traveled by bicycle?

    tailwinds,
    miguel

    — butuki    4. July 2003, 05:45    Link
  2. We have six bikes between the two of us, one of which is a Burley Duet tandem. We haven’t really done much touring but a favorite dream is to bike across the country. I’d love to do that soon. I don’t feel I’m in shape for it but the people who have done it say you get in shape on the way—which makes sense. The tandem’s great because I get to draft the entire time and don’t get left in the dust by Numenius.

    We don’t have a TV but follow the TdF closely on the live Web reports, early in the morning, when the finishes are usually riveting.

    You aren’t also a calligrapher, by any chance??

    — Pica    4. July 2003, 07:10    Link
  3. When my wife and I started out on the Europe trip we weren’t in shape either. That’s why we started with Holland… not a hill to be seen. We never counted on the wind, though, and after a week we were exhausted, in part because we still hadn’t understood the concept of “moving with the sun”; we were still on Japan time and stuck too rigorously to the schedule. In time we learned to move as our whims dictated, at times bicycling nonstop for days, at others, arriving at a beautiful spot and just sojourning there for a week or so. It totally changed our concept of time. After living out under the sky for half a year, we could barely stand to be inside. Upon returning to Japan and staying at my wife’s parent’s place in November, we had to sleep with the window wide open, even with the cold, because we felt claustrophobic. After 6 months we were in shape like never before or since.

    Back in 1982 my roommate at the U of O asked me to join him for a cross country tour of the States. Unfortunately I didn’t have the money at the time, but I wish I had found a way to do it. I regret that a lot.

    Here we have four bikes between us and 11 (yes, you read right!) tents (that includes tarps and camping hammocks though)... Went through a gear craze for a while, but amazingly have made a full swing around and gone back to my pennyless teenage camping years when I got by on just about nothing. Now I camp in either a light tipi, a tarp, or a light hammock. It feels nice to be light again. And to be back to the basics of simplicity… my whole purpose for getting out there in the first place. What was I thinking before? Now I have to think of ways to recycle the unneeded tents….

    I don’t do calligraphy in the professional sense, though I do work for people occasionally. I’ve loved doing calligraphy for myself since I was a boy. When my new blog design is up I’ll have a little to show.

    I take it you asked that because that’s what you guys might be doing, too? Somehow I get the feeling…

    — butuki    4. July 2003, 08:57    Link
  4. There’s probably a l-o-n-g history of bikes and canals that we just don’t know about. We are probably those people who react in the moment about found objects and wonder about the object’s life forgetting or not knowing about the longer term histories of those who bike hurl or who stray off the path for whatever reasons….. Frankly I’m currently most concerned about the clams attached to ‘my’ local bike whom I feel need a different level of understanding. Did yours have clams attached? I have the idea that the Swedish and the Dutch, for example, are more pragmatic and also appreciate a thing of (odd) beauty. I personally couldn’t ride a bike with pond weed still wound round the back wheel. I’d be so watchful for the moment that it finally became disentangled and left the bike that I’d be a risk on the streets to myself and others.

    — Coup de Vent    5. July 2003, 13:34    Link
  5. Someday I want to bike around Europe.

    — bicycles    16. October 2003, 14:09    Link
  6. For a Better Tomorrow…Today.

    — Durffwurzle For President    8. November 2004, 12:56    Link

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