!Basic small-town cycling --- agk's diary 17 July 2024 @ 15:27 UTC --- written on X61 with model m keeb, hp vf15 monitor in hot kitchen with fan blowing in my face --- I'm recovering from a nasty cough that followed a series of compounding injuries. Finally, my body had to rest. Evy insisted on taking care of things so I could. I'm still very fatigued. I cough then wheeze if I talk much, but today I cycled our little girl to school before visiting the grocer and returning home to rest. We currently live with no cars. Evy's transmission (a CVT) gave out the week after my car was rear- ended. I'm awaiting brake work, then body work. This Friday I'll borrow my car from the shop to drive to and home from work if they aren't done with the brakes, because I live 60km from my job, but then it's back to the shop. We live in a city of 16,000 sited on and around an east-west ridge, an east-west creek, and a north- south railroad line that doesn't stop here anymore. There's a cycling trail along the creek; getting almost anywhere else involves getting up on or over the ridge. There's a private college on the ridge. Students bike across the quad on sidewalks. There are long- distance marked cycling routes that share pavement with highways with no special accomodations, and occasional through-cyclists come through town. There is some recreational cycling on the creekside trail. However, there is no established culture of commuting, running errands, or otherwise getting around on the roads. The hodgepodge of trails and bike lanes don't quite form a system, and every cyclist on the roads (there aren't many) follows his own rules. Most cyclists on the roads are middle-aged guys without helmets, without lights, sometimes without shirts, laboring up sidewalks or sometimes against traffic on kids bikes with seats painfully low. A few days ago a radiantly beautiful unhelmeted teenager rode a nearly out-of-control ebike from a sidewalk, across an intersection during a redlight, onto another sidewalk at 45kph. Evy and I ride on the roads, with helmets and in- expensive LED lights, and sometimes reflective vests. We are traffic. We make eye contact with drivers, watch out for danger spots (intersections, turn lanes, doors of parked cars), and use hand signals. We're unusual, but I wish we weren't. I wish there was routine cyclist education, like there is driver and motorcyclist education. There are things I wish drivers and cyclists knew about sharing the road (give me a whole lane when you pass!) A lot of it is in existing sources like John Allen's little Street Smarts booklets, the Chainbreaker book, Sheldon Brown's website, and the League of American Bicyclist's Smart Cycling guide. Evy and I have talked about making a little 'zine for our town, with maps of bike-friendly routes, and some safety, comfort, and culture stuff. I'd like to put in there that you don't need an expensive bike. Evy rides a youth mountain bike that's a little small for her with the seat jacked up really high. It's cheap and she's had it forever. We share a beach cruiser that used to belong to a roommate, spent a few years outside behind a neighbor's shed, and only needed a flat fixed and the back wheel scooted down in the rear dropouts to tension the single-speed chain. I ride a '70s Schwinn Varsity I bought for $20 and spent about $100 and some head-scratching to clean up enough to ride. More of these were built than any other derailleur bicycle. Kids bikes are easier to find free than adult bikes, but most people don't need to ride around on a thousand dollars. I want to ride something good enough, but that nobody wants to work hard to steal. Our daughter rolls behind in her "chariot," a used Schwinn child trailer Evy got off facebook market- place or from the Goodwill thrift store. We got extra mounting brackets so we can haul it with any bike. Daughter needs to go with us many places we go. It's important to adjust the seat til it's high enough. Almost everybody I see in my town rides with their saddle too low, which hurts their knees and butt, decreases their power, forces them to walk or stand on the pedals on hills, and makes starting and stopping awkward and hazardous in traffic. Keep putting it higher each time you ride by a half-inch until it's too high. Downshift before stopping. Hop off the seat and put one foot on the road. Signal intentions. Wear a helmet and lights. Make eye contact. Follow the flow of traffic. Ride with a cadence faster than your walking pace. U-Lock your bike. I'm sure we've spent more on u-locks, helmets, and lights than on our bikes, which were mostly free to us anyway. Wish there was public funds for these basics. Better than having no bike anymore; cheaper than brain and spinal injuries. Fixing a flat isn't awful in the beach cruiser, but tough for me on the Schwinn with its narrow road tires. I want us to put in time at the big-city community bike project and get a lot better at adjusting our brakes and derallieurs. They need regular maintenance. We should be able to do it ourselves without much fuss. Take care of your chain. Wipe it down after most rides. Lubricate it gently from time to time. Our family friend Ruwen's family had a Flying Pigeon bicycle in her village when she was young. It was the most-produced vehicle in the world's history, built to be able to carry a pig to market. It was her family's one vehicle. Then they got a moto, probably a Super Cub, the world's most produced motorized vehicle. Then they got a car. Bicycles, like trains and trolleybuses, served an essential role in industrialization, and should serve an equally important role in deindustrial- ization.