Oasis or Desert?

For the final week of our American adventure, we drove my father and his friend to Palm Desert, California. Now that I am blogging, I am trying to pay more attention to the various forms of cycling going on in these exotic and far away places. I was looking forward to seeing what the cycling scene in the Coachella Valley has to offer. The place is ideal for cyclocross bikes and mountain bikes. The bills are covered in trails that duck through canyons and over desert. Lots of dirt roads and singletrack. For road bikes there are some nice roads, but it seems a little limited for a dedicated roadie. I WOULD love to ride Joshua Tree some day.

The daytime temperatures varied between 106F. and 117F. Still, I saw several people out on city bikes, flat bars, and BMX bikes. It is a dry heat, so I can easily imagine how those temps could be tolerated during the summer months. Still, the majority of the population receives a pension and prefer golf carts to Campy.

I was pleasantly surprised to find an extensive system of marked bike routes and marked shoulder space for cycling. I saw a few men in their 60's riding some expensive road bikes in the heat. The TREK Madone is a big seller.

I thought I would look for something to buy at one of the local bike stores. Velo Bum is one of my favorites as it is run by a diehard and he doesn't carry much. He sells mainly Look, Time and Felt bikes. He had a real nice Calfee in there as well. He just didn't have much of anything. He told me to drive to Laguna on the coast if I wanted more of a selection.

I then went to Palm Desert Cycles, which is a novice-friendly shop where they assume you don't know much about cycling and charge an arm and a leg. I asked if they had any small jerseys, but they didn't and told me to go to Laguna.

Bikeman was great. I stopped by 15 min. after the posted opening time and it was closed. I stopped by again an hour later, but it was still closed. Finally, I returned again and it was another one-man operation with the owner/wrench busy working on a bike. He gave me a hello, and resumed his work. The owner, Kevin, seems to be an old racer with a great supply of new and used Italian bikes. I looked around, but nothing I could use.

The last place I went to was Tri A Bike. They are the big Giant dealer. There was a sign on the door advertising the "Composite Challenge", a Pepsi Challenge for bikes, and a silly gimmick to get the novice to part with their money on a scam as the "feel and comfort" of a bike can easily be manipulated with a quick adjustment in air pressure or wheel choice.

Next time I'll try Laguna.

Naked Cycles (NSFW)

On a quiet evening in Seattle, we thought we would take a leisurely stroll around Greenlake; Seattle's urban oasis, where Seattlites go to run, walk, yoga-cize, bike and show off on disco-rollerskates.

There is a 3 mile path that goes around the lake and it makes a nice route for urban athletes to train. Most of the cyclists are families and recreational riders who just want to do a few loops around the lake on a summer's evening.

As we rounded the southern end of the lake, a commotion of bicycles bounced down the path like tsunami of gears and chains. The pack of cycles enveloped the entire trail.

Seeing so many bikes at one time, I naturally took out my phone to capture the event.

It was only then that I noticed that several of the riders were riding in the buff. They were buck naked. Even the jaybirds were blushing.

In an earlier post I made the connection between counter-culture and cycling in America, where, in opposition to the auto-centric lifestyle adopted by most Americans, and in response to a built environment originally conceived exclusively for cars, many urban riders make a point to thumb their noses and give the finger to the automobile lifestyle.

Since before Lady Godiva, nudity and protest have been linked in a long passionate embrace. I think this is especially so in America where there is the historical friction between puritanical ideals and radical liberalism; a conflict that has dogged the USA since the days of Thomas Jefferson.

Where else would the human body, an instrument possessed by every person on earth and limited to two basic configurations of varying similarity, be used so overwhelmingly for its ability to invoke the intense reactions of shock and awe? Still, it is a lot like religion... it doesn't work unless you choose to buy into the program and seek to be motivated by the actors. It is not going to shock and offend unless people wish to be shocked and offended by it.

It reminds me a little bit of immature art students in college who would resort to explicit nudity as a short-cut to imagined poignancy, in which case it is not the viewer who is shocked by the display, but rather the imagination of the artist who harbors those feelings and projects them onto an imagined audience in a similar vein as Marcel Duchamp's deconstructionist joke, The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even, a piece in which the actors depicted in the work are physically separated on different panes of glass and therefore the masturbating bachelors are not being turned on by the bride, but rather by their own imaginations as they can not possibly occupy the same space as their object and thus Duchamp expresses that the emotion we feel for others is actually our own subjectivity projected outward, thus turning ourselves on rather than being turned on by others. It shows the actor's own perceptions [and insecurities]. I remember very clearly in college when a group of lesbians decided to go down to the mall and grope, kiss and flash senior citizens in an attempt to be normalized by society. Riiiiiight..... huh!

In this case at Greenlake, nudity was somehow being used to draw attention to cycling, but in fact it may detract from the message. I found it odd that a few months ago there was an attempt to do the same type of protest in Taiwan. I have no idea how the event went off.

I wonder how many hits this post will get. Everyone is a total perv whether they'll admit it or not.

Time To Ride

I am safely home and ready to ride after eating and drinking my way from Washington State to California. I knew I'd pay a price for it, but a vacation is a vacation and I guess I will have a lot of motivation to ride hard and ride often.

Cleaning House:

• Most bikes in Taipei shelters go unclaimed and after a short stay must be put to sleep.
• Miracle image of a bike appears in Taiwan road. Pilgrims arrive by the scooterload to take a look.
• Taiwanese bike companies attempt to innovate their way out of a future of mediocrity and obsolescence as the government pursues the industrial status quo and tourism economy.
• OzSoapbox with dogs on bikes.
• The China Daily reports on cycling in its Taiwan area. David Reid is oddly quoted in the article which seeks to better incorporate Taiwan into the Chinese imagination of the local (No, David is probably not party to this).

Notes From Palm Desert

My internet access has greatly diminished and I am writing on a nasty Windows box that is set up for senior citizens. I an now in Palm Desert without a bike... I am getting jittery like a crackhead thinking about riding.

Still, a couple of notes from the end of my vacation.

1) I am saving up a few things to share.

2) I saw a few guys out in 117F. heat.

3) I am getting fat and really want to get back on the bicycle. I really can't keep up with this lifestyle. Oce you feel not-full, it is time to eat again. No wonder my father'd triglycerides are above 300 and blood sugar 200. I love my dad and want him to be around for a while longer, but he doesn't live his life to make that possible. One reason I love to bike and stay healthy is to avoid getting old like that. It is really too bad beacuse he is a great guy.

Riding Wine Country

Changhua's latest step in transforming Taiwan into a tourism Mecca has been kicked off in the hopes of enticing tourists to ride Changhua's wine country by bike. Ummm... interesting.

Tour de Fat: A Look At American Bicycle Culture

Everyone Is Included

Having been in Seattle for a couple weeks, I have been trying to find expressions of Seattle's cycling culture to export back to my readers in Taiwan. Although I have been documenting a trip away from the usual subject matter of this blog, I hope some of these pictures and stories from a foreign country can be used reflexively to give all of us who ride in Taiwan a different perspective of our own cycling culture.

As much as cyclists worldwide are bonded together through a shared activity, our expressions of this activity vary from place to place and much of what I have seen in Seattle has reminded me of how diverse bicycling culture really is. Even in Seattle's different districts the bike culture changes like regional accents.

In Seattle cycling has become deeply integrated into the social landscape and the built environment. Cyclists have become a ubiquitous element in the transportation structure which has resulted in the unexpected dividends of infusing declining neighborhoods with new economic vitality and creating jobs through cycling related construction projects (wider lanes, paths, routing etc...). It is really exciting to see the bicycle used for recreation, health, and transportation all at the same time.

Bike Path

Yesterday we attended the Tour de Fat, a one-day cycling event held every summer to help celebrate American cycling culture. The event looks like some kind of counter culture event, but really it brings out all types of cyclists and non-cyclists alike for a good time and a community building moment.

Ryan Along the Ship Canal

We rode across Seattle to get to the event at Gas Works Park; a park established from the ruins of Seattle's former natural gas utility. The red-rusted pipes and tubes provide an excellent backdrop for a cycling event with echoes of human triumph over industrial expansion.

Double Parked

Bikes of all shapes and sizes were locked to about every freestanding structure available. I think I saw only a single carbon fiber bike during the entire event. Compared to Taiwan there is less of a self-conscioussness about bikes... and I guess about lots of things.

Festivities

People were just out to be silly and have a little fun. I am not sure I have seen too many Taiwanese cross dressing and trying to look ridiculous in public to make asses of themselves. Maybe it happens, but not often.

Ridable Art

One section on the grounds was devoted to "ridable art". Artists had fashioned absurd, ridable vehicles based on bikes. Anyone could try as long as they acknowledged that it would be at their own risk.

Shoe Bike

Dave's Penny Farthing Tat

I saw quite a few bike related tattoos. Lots of cranks, gears, and chains. The body art thing is quite the thing in Seattle. It used to be more discreet. Now it seems all body art must be visible at all times.

Colorful Characters

32 Spoke Parasol

Many people brought their own bike related props, costumes and plain silliness. A little more prompting from the beer garden added to the atmosphere.

Ryan

Blowing Out The Back

Joyce Drinks In A Beer Garden

Tony Rises

After some bands had played, a car was traded for a bike and there were other bike giveaways with lots of crowd participation. The finale to this theater of the absurd came with a gigantic present box that opened up in a flurry of smoke and noise into a towering effigy of Tony Danza with outstretched "pride arms".

Who's The Boss?

U.S.A. Drinking Laws

Phallic Symbol

Before long the event was over and it was time to head out to the Buckaroo Tavern to get drunk enough to barely ride home. My wife was happy to have a bike to ride as well and actually circled Seattle as her final Seattle ride. I am happy she is now riding. So happy I picked up a killer deal on SIDI shoes from REI for her. $90 for a pair of ladies Dominators.

Lake Union

Kite Hill

Dunk At The Buck

I-90 Floating Bridge

I ended up taking a ride around Lake Washington and across the I-90 floating bridge. Seattle is surrounded by water on all sides. Puget Sound, Lake Union, Lake Washington and Green Lake make up the liquiscape of Seattle and provide some spectacular views. I didn't take too many pictures as the weather was cold and foggy for most of the morning. The sun eventually burned through by around 11:00am making the ride much more pleasant.

I was feeling better and more powerful in my legs, but my stomach was having a bad reaction to something. My main route was Lake Washington Blvd., the main round-lake road. It is flat, fast and filled with triathletes. Later on I will write a detailed comparison between Seattle and Taiwan riding, but I must say that for a population of under 2 million people, King County, Washington State, has a very high number of active people and especially cyclists on the roads and trails.

That does not mean the saturation of cycles could prohibit a random stranger from shouting, "bicycles are retarded!" from the passenger seat of a car.

I had to ride across the bridge, which is the longest floating bridge in the world and disastrously sunk during a storm in 1989. The road sections are built upon hollow pontoons that are fastened into place. This avoids having to anchor supports into the deep, muddy lakebed.

Good riding!

Seattle Peeks Over Capitol Hill

I-90 Floating Bridge

A Friendly Rider

Enjoying The Speed

Looking East Toward Bellevue