Bike Denton

Aug 20 2009

Uncategorized

Dinotte 200L-AA Light Review

I’ve spent too much money on cheap plastic lights that never even came close to this awesome bang-for-the-buck.

You can actually see the road with this light. With the light angled fairly level, I can see at least 50-75 feet in front of me. I can see traffic signs light up 1/4 mile down the road. 200 lumens is damn respectable.
It’s bright. Bright enough that cars take me much more seriously than before. They’ll wait and yield to me in situations where previously I might’ve been cut off. I love the new yield respect I get at night.
There are 6 settings total. There’s high, med, low for the steady beam. Then there’s rapid flash, pulse flash, and slow flash.
The beam pattern is a spot, and it doesn’t flood out to the sides like the Niterider MiNewt lights. The light color is somewhat bluish, and not as yellow as the Niterider lights.
I use the 4 AA battery version, because I didn’t want a proprietary lithium-ion battery to get stolen off the bike. Additionally, spare 4 AA clips are $1.50 at Radio Shack, and I can bring spare batteries very cheaply.
I’ve gone for 3 hours on the high setting with 2650mah rechargeable batteries, and I’ve never run out of power. I believe the low setting does 7+ hours.
The mounting system is perfect. Every light should mount this easily. Since the light is a cylinder shape, a rubber O-ring mounts the light body to any handlebar in mere seconds. Also, the included larger O-ring works nicely for mounting the light directly to my helmet (Giro Atmos). I did buy the $29 helmet mount system from Dinotte, and I haven’t ever needed it. While many lights are difficult to mount/dismount with gloves in cold weather, the Dinotte is easy to deal with in freezing temperatures.
The AA battery pack pouch mounts to the stem, handlebars, frame, or helmet with velcro. It’s a little bit floppy and doesn’t mount very tight, but it’s totally fine.
The build quality on this light is top notch. The body is polished aluminum with a thick plastic bezel and endcap. The assembly seems waterproof, and the housing stayed dry inside through numerous downpours. The rubber damper that goes between the light and handlebars fell off, and now I have a piece of tube there, and it seems to work fine.
I would helmet mount this light for MTB riding, because it does some bizarre strobe effect when jarred hard enough. I get this about once a week under normal riding, but there’s no lasting effect besides the indicator LED turning RED.

Overall, I wish I had bought this exact light years ago. It’s sometimes on sale for $95 directly from Dinotte, and the normal price is $119.

Tagged Lights, Reviews

Aug 19 2009

Denton

Bikeflation in Portland (but not Denton)

photo by Stuart Isett of The New York Times

Robin Goldstein just wrote a Freakonomics article about his perception of bicycle price inflation in Portland, since cycling has been growing almost 30% per year (as measured in 2007-2008). Robin was visiting Portland and wanted to buy a cheap bike to get around, but he couldn’t find anything for under $300 or so, which led him to analyze the average prices for recent Craigslist ads in several major cities. His price index table shows a rough doubling of prices in Seattle, San Francisco, and Portland, compared to Phoenix and Miami. I suspect that Dallas is on the cheaper side. (Anyone want to run the numbers and comment?)

Still, what’s up with this bike micro-inflation? Why does there seem to be no market in Portland for used bikes that are actually cheap? Portland is otherwise a pretty cheap city. Beer is cheap. Used clothing is cheap. By major urban standards, housing is cheap too, unless you compare it to the strip-mall-type cities. And certainly there are plenty of people in town who can’t afford to spend $475 — never mind $1,000 — on a bike.

I asked a few people in town about this and got some general sense of agreement and common frustration: cheap bikes are impossible to find around here. The word on the street was that so many people are selling their cars (or taking their cars off the road) and using bikes to commute to work that there just aren’t enough bikes to go around.

From my experience, used bikes seem to be priced relatively low in Denton, and the Querencia Community Bike Shop (at which I volunteer) has many used bikes for sale at super cheap prices ($25-100). Many of the bikes which make their way to QCBS have been thrown away or donated.

Cycling appears to increase steadily in Denton, especially in the last few years, and I’m curious whether the inflationary trend will eventually raise Denton bicycle prices?

Tagged Bikeonomics, Denton

Aug 18 2009

2 Comments

Denton

Joys of Hauling

I love riding with big stuff. I feel a sublime satisfaction when moving big things via bike instead of by car.

I sold a mountain bike frame and a tube amplifier head on ebay, and both things went in big boxes for shipping. Then I needed to get the stuff to the shipping store a mile away. The shipping store is on my way to work, and I don’t have a parking pass, so I loaded everything up on my Burley trailer.

The vacuum tubes, separately packed, are on top of the tube amplifier head. The tall box holds the bicycle frame.

Riding with this much weight requires more effort, but not as much as I’d have thought. In retrospect, disc brakes would’ve tamed my descent of the Denton St hill, but I managed to stop before the stop sign at the bottom.

Having reached the shipping place (on University), I sent my stuff off and rode to work with the empty trailer.

And of course, not wanting to make an empty trip back home from work, I stopped by a coworker’s house and retrieved some fence posts that he didn’t need.

100 lbs, 100 degree heat, it’s easier than you think.

Tagged Car-Free, commuting, Denton, hauling, slow biking

Aug 17 2009

Uncategorized

Fort Worth Cyclist Killed And Left in Car

Nathaniel Jones of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that a 59 year-old man was struck head-on last Saturday by a drunk driver. The 27 year-old driver drifted across the street enough to hit the cyclist, and then the cyclist somehow ended up lodged in the back seat, bleeding to death.

Police were called to the 400 block of Northeast 38th Street about 9 p.m. and found the critically injured Ronnie Monroe Keller lodged in the back seat of a 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier.

Keller, who had been riding a bike, had been struck head-on by the vehicle, police said Monday. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Keller’s body struck the windshield, went over the top and crashed through the back window before coming to rest partially lodged in the back seat of the car, police said.

Police arrested 27-year-old Vincent Paul Riojas, who was hiding under a parked vehicle in the area.

Riojas was taken to the Grand Prairie Jail and charged with intoxication manslaughter, resisting arrest and failure to stop and render aid. He was also wanted on an unrelated felony warrant.

He remained in the Grand Prairie Jail on a $150,000 bond.

The article doesn’t mention whether the victim, Ronnie Keller, was wearing a helmet or using lights.

Tagged accidents

Aug 14 2009

Uncategorized

Regional Bike Committee Meeting Next Wednesday 8/19

August 19, 2009
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm
North Central Texas Council of Governments
Transportation Council Room

NCTCOG is a voluntary collective of local governments, and among other things, they will be discussing the Veloweb, an ambitious bike trail network intended to link DFW regions. The 2009 chair of the NCTCOG Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee is Don Koski, whose name you might recognize from a recent interview on the Bike Friendly Oak Cliff blog. Don is Forth Worth’s senior planner, and having worked previously in the twin cities, he’s coming from a city ranked in the top 10 bike-friendly American cities. This BPAC group has published a 2030 Mobility Plan which allocated $213 million for regional bicycle and pedestrian improvements. This meeting is open to the public, and RSVP is requested for anyone interested in the Safe Routes To School webinar at 2PM.

Please join NCTCOG as we welcome Texas Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program Coordinators Melanie Young and Cheryl Cook, from the TxDOT Dallas District, and Joel Mallard, from the TxDOT Fort Worth District. Each Coordinator will be available for a question and answer session following a presentation on the Texas SRTS Program. In addition, a presentation on the Dallas County Cottonwood Trail project will be given, and plans for the Regional Veloweb Update Review Meetings will be discussed.

Free Safe Routes to School Webinar from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm!
ATTN: If you are interested in attending this webinar, please RSVP immediately, as space is limited.

For additional information or questions, please contact Deborah Humphreys
at dhumphreys@nctcog.org or (817) 608-2394.

Come early and listen as APBP examines critical components of effective bicycle and pedestrian education programs for children. Learn how the hands-on education program in Winterthur, Switzerland, became routine, repeated and reinforced annually (a speaker from Winterthur, Switzerland has been invited). In addition, find out how schools can use the new pedestrian safety curriculum developed for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Tagged city politics, city staff, DFW, NCTCOG, Veloweb

Aug 07 2009

4 Comments

Denton

Denton Square Gets Bike Racks

After 100+ years of bike traffic on the Denton square, city staff installed serpentine racks to accommodate bicycles.

As previously mentioned, city staff indicated that bike racks were due to be installed soon. This week, we started seeing some of the smaller ones appearing on or near the square. So far there are small racks by Banter and Beth Marie’s, and the larger ones should appear soon.

City Contact: Julie Glover, Economic Development Program Administrator

Tagged Bike Racks, change, city staff, Denton

Jul 29 2009

3 Comments

Denton

Ray Roberts S24O

That’s “Ess two four oh”, in case you thought the last digit was a zero.

An S24O is a “Sub 24 hour Overnight” bike camping trip, and the term was coined by Grant Petersen, of Rivendell Bicycle fame.

If you have to work for a living and don’t have summers off, bike camping is easier to fit in, and the easiest way of all is with Sub-24 Hour Overnight (S24O) trips. You leave on your bike in the late afternoon or evening, ride to your campsite in a few hours, camp, sleep, and ride home the next morning. It’s that simple, and that’s the beauty of it. You can fit it in. It requires almost no planning or time commitment.

For this S24O, we rode from central Denton out to Ray Roberts, and we camped in the Isle Du Bois campground. That campground has nice, large, secluded campsites which border the lake. You can walk 30 feet and be in the water, which feels exquisite during the summer. Our route was about 17 miles each way, and it’s fairly flat with a climb up the lake dam near the park. One of our campers climbed it just fine on a single speed mountain bike, so it can’t be that bad.

The route out there is beautiful, and once you get north of Loop 288, the city unwinds into grassy fields and a wide shoulder to ride on.

nice, WIDE shoulder

I think packing for bikecamping is easier than packing for car camping, because you can’t haul as much on a bike, and it’s harder to endlessly capitulate over which shoes to bring (and then end up bringing all the choices). Since you’ll only be out for a day or so, you won’t need a cooler or much cookware. We usually bring a burrito for one easy meal, and I usually pack a sandwich for a simple, no-cook breakfast. The simple comforts/needs are the most appreciated. As always, we made Bookish coffee in the morning, just like at home, ground by hand.

Zassenhaus turkish coffee mill, unbreakable french press

Isle Du Bois campsites at Ray Roberts are not directly accessible by car, so they’re quiet, easily accessible by bike/foot, and you won’t have headlights/sound interrupting your quiet camp experience. Except for occasional trolling fishing boats and buzzing recreational watercraft, it’s pretty quiet. Even in the dead of summer, the water is refreshingly cool, so bring swimming clothes.

I liked our route, which used the northern half of the Greenbelt trail. Wide tires are nice for this kind of riding (I use 28c-35c), but our friend Cooper came along with us on skinny road tires and did just fine.

At a minimum, you’ll need a rear rack to carry some stuff: tent, sleeping pad, food, clothes. A front rack is also nice, because it can even out the load and make the bike easier to handle than if unevenly loaded.

After a long mid-morning swim, we packed up and rolled out. Efficient bike camping generates minimal trash which can be easily hauled out.

On the return ride on the Greenbelt, we stopped at the Old Mckinney bridge. It’s a 100+ year old dilapidated structure, but the main concrete piers tower over the shallow creek. I think the sign said that Bonnie and Clyde had used it as an escape route, but I can’t find any mention of that in historical text.