While it's true that you don't have to wash your woolies very often, you do have to wash them eventually--especially with the weather warming up a bit.

So here's a little plug for Kookaburra Wash (The Product Formerly Known as Woolwash), which we are restocking heavily for the coming season. It's the best thing we've found for washing merino or any other wool, which it reconditions, and it's made from vegetable extracts, so it's easy on the earth both in manufacture and in use. Not to mention that it gets you away from the generally nasty chemicals used in dry cleaning!

We like it enough that we use it for all our laundry, but it is especially kind to wool. You can use it for hand or machine washing (use delicate or preferably woolen cycle for BF's or other brands' wool cycling gear), air-dry flat, and BOB's yer uncle!

Contains lanolin for your wool and tea tree oil to control dust mites, as well as its gentle cleansers. And, according to Kookaburra, it costs you just 69¢ a load in the 16 ounce size (and less if you buy the gallon).

Check it out here.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:54:29 -0800 [link]  

Last night, we sent fully half of the Bicycle Fixation staff (ie, me) to a meeting of the Mid City West Community Council Transportation Committee, the idea being to beg a letter of support from the council for the LACBC's 4^th Street Bicycle Boulevard project.

Pleased to report that the committee approved our request for a letter of support, and will present their resolution to the full council in three weeks at the next meeting.

Then, once the mills of neighborhood committeedom have ground, we will present the case to the various city committees involved (as LACBC has been doing for many months), with letters from various "stakeholders" showing that pretty nearly everybody thinks that a complete streets/bicycle bouelvard treatment is just a dandy idea for 4^th Street.

And once those mills have ground, maybe, just maybe, we'll see some smooth pavement, diversion planters, and so forth established along 4^th, making the street an effective and attractive bicycle highway for commuters as well as a usable community space for residents and visitors to the various neighborhoods it traverses.

Streets traditionally have been community spaces, and in the most prosperous and humane countries they still are; it's only the recent mad addiction to private autos and hurry as a sacrament that turned them into nothing more than sluiceways for rushing cars.

This will be a good first step to re-establishing the secondary street network of Los Angeles as a place where humanity can flower--and to establishing a human-powered transportation modality that can better everything from personal health to neighborhood security to the condition of the very planet that we live on--all for the cost of a bit of repaving, a few carefully placed planters, and some paint.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:03:35 -0800 [link]  

The Bicycle Film Festival has extended the deadline for film submissions to March 27^th, so even if you're still editing, there's still hope! Click on the image below to find out how to submit to the 10th anniversary edition of BFF, and let your work be seen by cyclists in thirty-five cities on five continents!



Or just click here.

Richard Risemberg on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:20:22 -0800 [link]  

Gina and I rode over to ArtCycle 2010 last night, and had a great time meeting up with folks we knew from the velo-community, looking at bikes and crafts, and just generally relaxing in East Hollywood. Santa Monica Boulevard was closed from Vermont to Hillhurst and given over to human beings and human-scaled technology (except for some overly-loud recorded music pumped outta sound systems that completely overwhelmed the bluegrass band I was trying to hear).

Gina took some pix with her iPhone, and played with the effects settings on a couple of them; here they are to give you a tiny taste of it in case you weren't in LA or couldn't get over there:









We didn't do any of the gallery tours, nor did we sample wares of any of the 20 food trucks lined up there--though we did inspect the menus carefully. With Pure Luck and Scoops only three blocks away, we knew our duty....

Richard Risemberg on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:53:55 -0800 [link]  

Which is a review of, naturally, a bakfiets, or Dutch cargo bike--the kind that can carry a washing machine!

We kept it for several weeks and used it to haul books, framed large-format photos, junk, clothes, and the beautiful Gina herself, over the usual shattered LA roads we live among.

While it has its limitations--it's a cargo hauler, after all--it proved exceedingly useful, especially as I was cleaning a half-century of junk from my mother's house, now that she's moved to an assisted-living facility.

So, read all about it in our review of the Gazelle Cabby.

Includes a little sidebar on the view from the cargo box, by Gina!

Richard Risemberg on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:20:09 -0800 [link]  

While I was cleaning out some ancient drawers in my mother's house, I came across this photo of her riding a bicycle--which is astounding on several levels!

Among other things, my mother was very vain about her skin and so did not like to stay outside at all if she could avoid it. Also, she grew up on a ranch in Argentina, and rode horses plenty, but once she came to the US with my father she absolutely eschewed any activity remotely athletic. The truth is, I did not recall she even knew how to ride a bike, nor that she ever had.

But there she is, riding what appears to be the old Steyr three-speed, bought from Sears, which carried me back and forth to junior high school in my mid-teens.



So this image must be some forty-three years old. And it is totally posed; in fact it expresses absolutely nothing about my mother or her life.

The bike was awful. The hub gears had a tendency to slip into a false neutral when I was climbing a hill, causing me to slam my nuts on the top tube, and I switched to derailleur bikes as soon as I could beg one from my dad. (He was an engineer, and could design skyscrapers in his sleep, but adjusting a three-speed hub was not something even to be considered.)

My old man probably took the picture. I wonder what he did to persuade my mother to ride for the camera....

Chances are he suffered for it later, too.

Richard Risemberg on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:06:58 -0800 [link]  

We have just posted a review of David V. Herlihy's newest book, The Lost Cyclist, an exposé of the mysteries--and political scandal--surrounding the disappearance of round-the-world cyclist Frank Lenz in 1894. A thorough and well-written account by the author of Bicycle: a History; it will be released soon.

Herlihy's story covers the state of bicycle culture at the time, the feats of other contemporary long-distance riders, Lenz's own early history as well as his trip, and the search for his remains, and for justice, by fellow cyclist William Sachtleben.

Mr. Herlihy was kind enough to provide an advance copy of the book to Bicycle Fixation, and we have just posted our review here.

It's not only a ripping good story but an engrossing document of the early days of practical cycling.

Richard Risemberg on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:15:00 -0800 [link]  

The birthday ride I scheduled for last Sunday went beautifully, though not many folks came--not a surprise, considering that I gave only a couple of days' notice. But my dear Gina came along, and my friends Patrick and Charles, and John and Brian would have come but were out of town, and my son would have come but couldn't get out of bed in time.

Nevertheless, miles were pedaled, coffee drunk, croissants eaten, beaches and bright skies admired, and on the home stretch we ended up at Samosa House East at Washington and Overland, an otherwise charmless corner of LA where Vibha's crew whips up the south Indian grub that yer vegetarian editor (and his meat-eating accomplices) dote on all too fondly.

There we are, photographed by Gina courtesy of the little camera's timer (from left to right, that's Patrick, Gina, me, and Charles):



Thirty-five miles, countless calories, and a beautiful day on the roads of Los Angeles. And a slow last leg home with very full bellies....

Richard Risemberg on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:10:52 -0800 [link]