wandering manhattan in the rain

phil July 21, 2011

 

here are some shots from wandering manhattan on a rainy day.  I was feeling kind of ill so I kept it mellow.

 

 

 

“moustache man” strikes again.  love it.

(since then he has been arrested .. sadface)

 

 

 

 

 

yarnbombing a trike.  that did not look easy.

 

 

 

 

chairs outside of the adidas store in soho

 

 

 

 

running from the thunderstorm

I happened to be on the high line when a thunderstorm hit.  scary clouds loomed over hoboken until suddenly the temperature dropped 20 degrees and the full-on thunderstorm hit.

 

 

 

 

I wandered chelsea a bit.

 

 

 

 

I saw this sad spectacle of a bike.  everything had been stripped except for the crankset, saddle, and brake posts.  is this proof that using an old chain to secure your saddle works?

 

 

 

 

 I hopped back on the high line.

 

 

 

drinking hearts

 

 

 

 

loved the lighting here

 

 

 

 

 

graph: when are bikes faster than airplanes

phil July 19, 2011

After a group of cyclists (and someone on public transit and a rollerblader) beat a jetblue plane from burbank to long beach this past weekend during carmageddon, Nadia Korovina did a little analysis on Bike Commute News and came up with a simple equation to find the maximum distance at which traveling by bike is faster than traveling by plane:

 

 (Nadia, is that LaTeX? I’m impressed)

In the blog post, Nadia and Jordan found that the maximum distance where a bike is faster than a plane, assuming a 2.5 hour delay (including time standing in line, security, waiting, transport to and from the airport), 25mph average cyclist speed (those @wolfpackhustle guys can hustle), and an airplane speed of  500mph.

 

Some commenters wondered how things would work out for someone who rides a bit slower, and someone else asked about graphs.

 

so, here you go:

 

 

 

 

A bike traveling at 20mph would travel 52.1 miles before being passed by the jet.  At 15mph, this distance is 36.7 miles, at 12.5mph, this distance is 32.1 miles, and at 10mph, this distance is 25.5 miles.  The jetblue thing was definitely a bit of a stunt – I don’t think many people would expect a plane to be too efficient for a 40-mile commute, but this whole #flightvsbike thing goes a long way in showing the viability of using a bike for an everyday trip.  good work, all.

 

 

 

measuring bike tire wear

phil July 7, 2011

 

I put a michelin speedium 2 tire onto my rear wheel last summer.  I found out after a few miles that these guys look like they wear out quickly.  They feel soft and tacky, though, which is kind of nice.  I don’t recall getting a lot of flats on this tire throughout its lifespan.  here’s what the tire looked like after about 2500 miles (and after AIDS LifeCycle):

 

 

2500 miles doesn’t seem like a lot for a tire, but I didn’t have high expectations – I purchased a pair on sale for $12 each.

I still had the other new tire, so out of curiosity, I weighed the two:

 

 

 

left: new tire.  right: old tire.

 

I know there can be manufacturing variations in tire weight, but it’s pretty neat to quantitatively measure about 20 grams in tire wear.  I liked the tires.  I’ll probably purchase another pair of michelins next.