Texas

This Bicycle Rider Is Going Places

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

Literally and figuratively, I’m always going somewhere. Today was partly virtual, in that my blog post 15 YEARS NOT A SLAVE TO CARS! was shared by TexBiker.net. It is an excellent collection of you guessed it! Bike news from around Texas. Thanks to Rick in Houston for doing that and for all he does! Another step in my diabolical plan to become internet famous. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! Yeah, sure Dude, whatever you say.

Vision Zero ATX held its first monthly meeting in a while at the Austin History Center. The small group is sponsored by a non-profit which has staff working on reducing all traffic deaths to zero whether they are people in cars, on bikes, by foot or even scooters. They are looking for volunteers to help rebuild their cause. Austin’s deaths increased last year, so there is work to be done to persuade city government to really allocate funds for better bike lanes and more. To learn more visit VisionZeroTexas.org.

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Can Meditation Improve Your Bicycling?

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 16 Comments

We humans are always looking to improve, make progress, get ahead. If we can find a short cut, a hack, a trick, we’ll more often than not take it. The path of least resistance isn’t necessarily laziness either. There’s a fine line between sloth and smart. When it comes to cycling, whether you ride 5,000 miles a year (as I did in 2019) or 500, the easier the better. Mindfulness is all the rage now, although meditation has been around for thousands of years. So, can meditation improve your bicycling?

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Picture This: 10 Photos From My 103-Mile Week Biking

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 11 Comments

One of the pleasures of being a car-free bicyclist in a bustling city like Austin is that there is never a shortage of cool things to photograph. When you’re stuck in a car, you can’t just pull over and take pictures. But see something interesting while cycling, pull over safely, and bam! You’re rewarded with plenty of images as you like. This is one of those posts where the words can’t paint the whole picture.

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Silent Ride of Remembrance for Merry “Cookie” Daye: ¡Presente!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 6 Comments

The rain stopped, clouds parted, and the sun came out on a winter Saturday in Austin. Fifty or so bicyclists gathered underneath the Browning Hangar, the first of its kind, a now refurbished WWII era structure built with wooden trusses. A sense of history was fitting for the somber purpose: to celebrate the life and commemorate the death of Merry “Cookie” Katheryn Daye. She was the fourth Austin Cyclist to die in 2019 in a crash, in this case a hit-and-run with a truck. We rode slowly and quietly to the crash site and had a gathering, and then returned. It was a fitting event.

The tragedy still hurts for the family members and strangers alike who didn’t know her but felt the pain and loss, even indirectly. This gathering was a step toward healing, community and preventing further senseless deaths. Perhaps, some justice will come out of this. That is why I initiated the idea for this ride and facilitated conversations to make sure it happened. At the end of the day, while the ride was a success due to no incidents and some media coverage, Cookie is gone. And that is just wrong, and it hurts. But her memory lives on.

[POST IN PROGRESS, MORE PHOTOS LATER]

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Tidbits from the Life of a Cyclist in Austin

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

I got a flat tire last night, but not just any flat tire. The tube exploded with a loud BANG! and so did the tire. The thing is, I was at a well-known high-crime drug corner, and for a second I thought someone was shooting at me with a gun. Then I realized the air was gone from my rear tire and my pedaling was over for the night. The guys hanging out at the convenience store parking lot knew it wasn’t a gunshot, though. There was a police officer parked in the lot, and a bus came along pretty quickly. Even more fortunate was that I was near the house of a member of the North East Austin Texas Bike Group, and her husband kindly took me home in their mini-van. Thanks, Thomas! It’s good to know people.

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And Iran, Iran So Far Away: A Bicyclist’s View on Another Looming War About Energy

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 7 Comments

I will be the first to admit that this piece probably isn’t going to be re-published in the New York Times, The Economist, Mad Magazine or anything with that sort of stature. However, I just had to put that Flock of Seagulls lyric to some good use. Sometimes titles are used to pique interest and have little to do with the content. And that’s largely the case here. I’m no Middle East expert, but I’m sure that bombing people who bomb to prove that bombing is wrong is… wrong. I will state the obvious: the more people cycling, the less we need to rely on the infernal combustion engine or even hybrids and the less energy wars we’ll have with other nations.

I will go on the record as saying I think that the future ex-president #45 of the US was well out of line, his legal authority and his friggin’ mind by ordering the targeted assassination of Iran’s #2 man, as deadly as he was. Later that same day that news broke, as I returned a car borrowed for visiting family over the holidays. I was only slightly relieved to be less a part of the problem. We in the developed nations rely on oil in many forms like plastic, to deliver food and other products. There’s not much A Dude can do to influence foreign policy. So this weekend, I let my legs do the talking as usual.

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On New Years Day of 2020, I Make Resolutions to… Hey, Is That Chocolate?

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 1 Comment

It’s the year 2020, a catchy number, and the start of a new decade. It’s a natural time to turn over a new leaf and start up some new habits. Lose weight, get organized, write that novel. But if you’re like most humans, after a few weeks most New Years resolutions have gone the way of holiday wrapping paper. A bold proclamation is now just a broken Hanukahmass toy sitting sadly in the corner. So why bother? Well, for some folks, they work. And as readers of A Dude Abikes know, I’ve had a fair bit of success with some changes. So here’s what I’m doing — and not doing — in 2020.

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I’ve Got the Fevah! It’s Cedar, and It Sucks

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 7 Comments

I had cedar fever – an invasion of the breath- and sinus-snatchers last year, and it really was un-fun. It feels like the flu — body aches, congestion, headaches, runny noise, cough — but is not viral. It’s “just” allergies. But it’s bad enough that I took myself to the community clinic to get checked out. For three long hours. They nice nurse practitioner jammed a sharp pointy swab deep into each sinus cavity, and then also gave me a breathing treatment with the stuff that’s in inhalers. The bottle I had was expired, I guess I didn’t deem it important enough to keep that current. Boy was that a bad decision!

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A Rainy, Restful Day on the Eve of Solstice for a Bike Ridin’ Dude in Austin, Texas

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 7 Comments

Late autumn conditions have been dry, mostly sunny and not too cold here in Central Texas. Waking to some light rain and grey skies was a welcome change, just in time for winter which officially begins tomorrow. For a car-less dude like me, going places generally means getting on Sophie the Fairdale Weekender Archer bicycle and dealing with whatever Mother Nature throws at me. While I was prepared to ride in the rain, it turned out that I didn’t need to and so I chose not to take advantage and rest.

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Austin Bicyclist 2019 Death #4: Merry Daye, 45 – On the Very Road Where Bike Austin is Calling for Protected Lanes

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

At 2:25 am on Monday, December 16, 2019, Merry Daye, a black woman aged 45 and a male were riding their bikes south on Cameron Road. Her bike had a trailer, and she was working on it while in the bike lane. The man was on the sidewalk. A silver Dodge Ram truck (the irony of the name is not lost on me) veered into the bike lane, crashing into Merry, bike and trailer. The truck then did a hit and run and left the scene. Emergency medical services was called and came to the crash site. They found Merry without a pulse, but were able to restore her heartbeat. She was transported to the hospital where she died. For her, family and friends, it will be Christmas without Merry. Sources: CBS Austin, KXAN, Austin Police Department

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