The Mexican Bus

The Mexican Bus

Thinking that the Mexican bus is substantively different from the Greyhound is mis-guided, mis-taken, mis-sing the point. 

The point is never having to find your car keys, watch some crop of 20 somethings in uniformed shirts crawl under your car and poke around the dipstick and filters pretending they actually know what is happening to your piece of shit machine as you soothe your conscience on taking just one more Thanksgiving trip, heading north. 

Global warming is real as you take in the sights year after year.   A trip on the bus is no more uncomfortable than driving there yourself. 

And you aren’t in control, trusting that the driver has better luck than you do on the absolute barren stretches between Las Vegas and Raton.

We’ve been sold a bill of goods that will never arrive, never sit by your front porch because driving your own gas powered machine is nothing more than decadent.

Perhaps I shop less, strategically pick my layers based on the time I’m going to be exposed to the elements, lessen my circle of friends I can casually drop in on, but I’m saving money, feeling the real chill of the air as it fills up my lungs, watching the sunset directly instead of through mirrors and surreptitious glances between road, speedometer, mirror, side window sunset, road…

Barren Raton Pass looms ahead as the pen grows sluggish and takes longer to shape words.

November 24, 2010

Nine Out of Ten

Nine out of ten.

                In my twenty plus years of adulthood, I have had nine out of ten of my bikes stolen.   Count ‘em; that’s ninety percent, an A-.  Yeah, I know.  That sucks.   Thinking back, some of them were just stupid moves on my part.   For example, twenty years ago I left my bike on the front patio at a Burger King (where I worked) and went inside, letting them lock me in with the drive through open.   When somebody came by, I could only pound hopelessly at the glass, yelling for the manager to let me out, as he/she hopped on my bike and zoomed down the street.  However, other times were just my rotten luck and the underestimation of the initiative a bike thief would take.   Take for example, what happened on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at the south bike racks at the Student Resource Center (SRC) at CNM’s Main Campus.   As part of my regular schedule, I showed up for work at one.   The racks between the SRC and JS Hall were full, so I rolled over to the south racks.   I threaded my Kryptonite cable lock through my helmet, the front tire, frame and locked it to the rack.   Some four hours later, I took my dinner break and walked to the south side of the SRC, and my bike and my helmet were gone. 

                I went home (I can walk/ride home for dinner), cursed, ate, generally felt sorry for myself, and wondered if perhaps I’m at fault again.   Maybe I didn’t really lock it?  Maybe I wrapped it around the bike rack instead of through it?   When I got back to work, I called security to file a report.   Chances are that nothing positive will happen as a result of my report, but it could happen, so I wrote out the description of my bike:   a black, single-speed SE Draft and white Bell Helmet.
     About 15 minutes later, I got a call from security saying that they may have my helmet.   So I walked over to security and, sure enough, there it was, and in the helmet was my Kryptonite cable lock…and the cable was cut.   

               

He explained that earlier in the day (between two and three) another security guard spotted the helmet, put a note on it, and then when nobody claimed it took it back to security.   It was there for the last few hours until I filed my report.  

                Nine out of ten.   Number nine, which I got in August just for commuting, wasn’t even that valuable of a bike.  Yet somebody bothered to bring a big pair of bolt cutters (my guess would be the two foot long kind), looked down the row of bikes, and cut the cable in the middle of the day.   In the other rack, evidently, there was another cut cable still hanging from the rack.   So by my rough estimation, at least two bikes have been stolen from the SRC racks alone.   While I have no doubt that more bikes have been stolen, the fact that someone is willing to steal it in the middle of the day is pretty brazen.   So I ask you, what would you do if you saw someone using a pair of bolt cutters on a bike lock?   Would you assume that he left his key at home and is merely just trying to get his bike?  Would you call security and take a mental picture of what he looked like?    And what would you do if somebody is selling a good bike for way cheaper than it is worth?  Or if somebody you know is actually bragging about stealing a bike, would you confront them?  Stealing bikes is not cool, ever, under any circumstances.   When he stole my bike he stole my main method of transportation.   I made the decision to get rid of my car in August.   And now, I’m down a bike too.

November 17, 2010

Biker's Beware

Bikers Beware:   City Plans to Balance Budget by Citing Bicyclists

 

 

 

                After 5 years of making the arduous trek in my car to CNM’s WS campus, this summer I was transferred to Main Campus, an easy bike commute.   To mark the occasion, I donated my piece of crap CO2 spewing Ford Escort to KUNM and became a biker.

                Years ago the thought of giving up my car and relying on my bike was about as abhorrent an idea as listening to a born-again preacher ramble on about how much Jesus loves me and by the way vote Republican while being stoned.   But in the last 5 years, while I was learning the intricacies of Albuquerque’s very bad corporate radio stations, the city has become way more bike friendly.  

                So there I am on my dinner hour, riding up Silver (the Bicycle Boulevard), rolling up to Cornell,  making sure I am the only one at the 4-Way stop, and then riding through the stop sign when I get told to pull over into the alley by two bicycle cops who were staked out right there.   The first cop informs me that I ran the stop sign and that bikes are supposed to follow the same laws as cars.  He goes on to inform me that he’s only out there doing this because the Mayor’s office has gotten a lot of complaints lately about bikers not obeying the traffic laws.   He also basically stated that they were going to be out there every day for the next couple of weeks so I should warn other bikers what they were up to.  Consider yourself warned. 

                Twenty minutes later I’m looking at my two warning notices and wondering a couple of things:  one, evidently there isn’t enough crime in the city to keep these two fit, professional cops busy, and two, why are there so many stop signs on Silver?   If Silver is really supposed to be a bicycle boulevard, the major east-west thoroughfare for bikers, than shouldn’t it actually be conducive for biking?   I know they’ve labeled it and have changed the speed limit to 18 miles per hour, but that’s not enough.  

                During rush hour in a car, I can travel up and down Coal and/or Lead at 30 miles per hour and only have to stop at San Mateo, Carlisle, and University.   On Central at roughly 6 PM, I can make the same trek and if I’m lucky not even have to stop.  Yet, the bicycle boulevard has a stop sign roughly every 4 blocks.   Now, I can actually see the logic of stopping at University, Yale, Girard, Carlisle, Washington, and San Mateo, but can someone actually tell me why I should have to stop at Buena Vista, Cornell, Stanford, Princeton, Richmond, Amherst, Hermosa, Solano, Aliso, Morningside and Monroe?   Having to obey traffic laws on this bike boulevard is akin to riding a roller coaster where you never get to go down.  It’s accelerate up the hill.  Stop.   Accelerate up the hill.  Stop.  Accelerate up the hill.   Stop.  It makes absolutely no sense, yet this is where we’re supposed to be biking?

                So what to do?  Well, maybe the solution would be to ignore Silver?  If we’re supposed to obey traffic laws and thus under the blind eyes of Lady Justice are essentially cars then maybe we should just start traveling up Central or Lead/Coal and actually take up a lane like a car?   Cause if the purpose of traveling up Silver is to create a safe, bike friendly route that is efficient then Silver isn’t quite there yet.

                As a warning the next time you pull up behind a biker on Central and want to curse the biker out because they are obeying the law and slowing you down, thank the Mayor.  Evidently, he's so worried about the city's budget woes he's stopping bicycles for not stopping.  That's right.  He's issuing citations to bicyclists.

November 4, 2010

Fixed Vs. Free

Fixed Vs. Free

Having purchased it in 2006, my bike --a Gary Fisher mountain bike with a rear rack, pedals that I could clip in or just stand on, a small light, a seat bag with a set of tools, tube, and patch kit, and memories of rides through the Jemez, the Sandias, the Bosque, the Magdalenas, Arizona, Colorado, and Nebraska--was stolen on a Friday, July 23rd.   This was not a good time for my bike to be stolen.  Just a week before I'd gotten rid of my car when the repair bill was more than the car was worth.  So, losing my bike was more than just losing memories it was losing my main source of transport, the way I got to work, trips to friends' houses, grocery stores, and nights on the town.

I knew I was going to buy a new bike, and I was pretty sure I was going to buy a single speed. Basically a single speed bike meant that the price dropped considerably because having more than one speed meant a derailleur, and a derailleur isn’t cheap. So, on Sunday, I borrowed a car and drove out to the bike shop and purchased an SE Draft single speed bike.

A month later, after busting two rear spokes, I knew that a new wheel was in the works.  But the dilemma was just beginning.  In my research into single speed bikes, I discovered a debate that I didn't even know existed:  the option of going with a "fixed" rear-wheel or a "free" rear-wheel.

Normally, most bikes come with what is known as a "free" wheel.   This means that there is a system of ball bearings in the hub (the center piece of the wheel that all the spokes attach to and that attaches to the frame) that allows the pedals to spin without engaging the wheel.   For example, in most bikes you can lift up the rear wheel and spin the pedals backwards and the wheel won't spin.   The immediate impact of this is the ability to coast.

So there I was with a broken tire and a choice.   Do I go "fixed" or "free?"

In a "fixed" gear bicycle, there are no ball bearings in the hub, so if the pedals move the wheel moves, forwards or backwards.   Originally, all bikes were "fixed" gear bicycles, but when they invented the ball bearing system, most bikes moved to a "free" wheel.   But, in the '80s "fixed" gear bicycles begin to make a comeback with the rise of the bike messenger.   In big cities it is faster to have a bike courier shuttle paperwork (legal briefs, memos, medical records, etc.) from different offices than to mail it or have someone drive it over (there's just too much traffic, parking issues, etc.).   Bikes can zigzag through traffic, run lights, hop up on sidewalks, and steer quickly around pedestrians and road hazards.  As more messengers dart around town, their bikes are taking more of a beating.   Since the "fixed" gear bike doesn't have a derailleur, ball bearings, or, sometimes, even back brakes, bike messengers begin hopping on them and darting across town because they were cheaper to buy and cheaper to maintain.   In many cases the bike is so cheap, but durable, that the messenger doesn't even have to lock it up, which of course saves time as well. 

            But being cheaper isn't without its drawbacks.   The catch with a fixed gear bike, or “fixie” for short, is that if I am not pedaling, I am braking.   I don't have a choice.   Either I pedal the bike or I slow down the speed of the turning pedals by applying pressure.   I can, of course, take my foot off the pedals completely, but this creates problems because at some point I have to put my feet on the pedals and it's hard to do that when they are spinning.  Yet, momentum is a powerful thing and stopping a wheel in motion is fighting momentum.   Indeed, in order to really master riding a “fixie” one has to learn how to “skid,” “skip,” and “hockey stop.”   Indeed, many early adopters had to learn these skills because they may not have any other way to brake.   Knowing how to stop a brakeless “fixie” is sometimes a matter of life and death.

            In answering the question of Fixed versus Free, I had to evaluate what exactly I was going to do with my bike.  Despite the fact that my commute is not long, most of the time I'm going to use my bike to commute.  Since my commute is not long, I won't be coasting because I'm tired.  Likewise, I don't get much exercise besides my commute, so coasting more means less actual exercise.  Finally, having a “fixie” means that I can actually pedal my bike backwards.   I’d seen people standing on their seat as they drifted backwards and never knew how it was done.  A “fixie” means that the rider can ride any direction the wheel spins.

            Occasionally, however, I want to spin the wheel forward for a long time and having the ability to coast without taking my feet off the pedals does come in handy.   In fact, being able to coast up to a stoplight, around a corner, or after a long climb is probably the most compelling reason to go “free.”   Another advantage is all free-wheel bikes have a braking system that is not associated with the wheel at all, so, free-wheel bikes are relatively safer.   Riding a free-wheel bike also means I can actually go down hills much faster.   After a certain point there is only so fast my legs can spin, but with a free wheel bike, I can pedal as fast as I possibly can and if the wheel still “wants” to go faster it can; it’s not attached to the pedals the same way that a “fixie” is.

            What I wanted was both.   So, after shopping around, I bought a new wheel with what is called a “flip-flop” hub.   With a “flip-flop” hub I could ride “fixed” when I wanted to and then, by simply reversing the rear wheel, I have a “free” wheel too.   I’d be able to ride “free” when I was on longer trips or ride backwards when I’m just looking for something to do.   I’d be able to coast when I’m just too tired or get the workout when I, otherwise, don’t have much time.   In biking, I could have my cake and eat it too.