\n10-speed? (Yes, cold-weather bike warriors, I’m aware that your bike never
\ncollects dust.) We all know biking is better for the environment than jumping
\nbehind the wheel (not to mention less expensive and healthier, assuming you follow the rules of the road<\/a>). So I
\ncruised through the Ask Umbra archives in search of some inspiration to offer the
\nbike-curious among you. Where does your bike take you? Let me know in the
\ncomments below.<\/p>\n
Appetite for \nHighway to helmet.<\/strong> \nXtra-ordinary.<\/strong> \nSkirting the issue. Banana seatly, Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Take note, companies: Young workers want urban jobs<\/a><\/p>\n Shape shifting bike trailer-cart-strollers.<\/a><\/p>\n Ask Umbra on fertility awareness, grilling, and Earth Day pledges<\/a><\/p>\n
\ndestruction.<\/strong>
Sounds nutty to me, but even biking can get a bad rap sometimes—including complaints
\nabout biking being a dirty industry and bikers gobbling more calories, thus
\nincreasing their carbon forkprint. Let’s start with the charge that biking is a
\ndirty industry. Based on the Carnegie-Mellon Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment<\/a> model, which calculates the environmental impacts of different manufacturing
\nsectors by dollar value, the production of bicycles is more carbon intensive
\nthan the production of cars (0.912 metric tons of carbon equivalent, OR MTCO2E,
\nversus 0.628 MTCO2E per $1,000 of manufacturing costs). However, when we look
\nat the total value of bikes versus cars, hands down, bikes win. Next up: that problem of a hearty cyclist’s
\nincreased caloric intake and the greenhouse gases associated with
\nmeat production<\/a>, which we can neatly sidestep this one. Why would you improve
\nyour fitness and overall health by biking 20 miles a day, and then eat four
\nsteaks? Don’t eat more meat. It’s not good for your health, and it’s not good
\nfor the planet. If you must add foods due to your insatiable bike-derived
\nhunger, let them be vegetable-based. Even on a 100 percent ground beef diet (ick),
\na person driving a car emits 730 kilograms of carbon equivalent per 1,000
\nmiles, while a cyclist will emit 410 kg over the same distance. More
\nreasonably, if the person is fueled by the typical American diet, those
\nemissions shift to 670 and 87, respectively. Get the full Ask Umbra
\nanswer<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Indeedy, most bike helmets are made of petroleum-based plastics, but please continue to wear your helmet and
\nreplace it after each crash. Cut the straps of your old helmet and write
\n“crashed” on it with a permanent marker, and then throw it in the
\ngarbage. A lightweight helmet made out of plastic is a fairly innocuous object
\non the environmental scale. As we have learned over the years, plastic is evil
\ndue to the raw materials from which it is made and the eons that will pass ere
\nit degrades. On the bright side, helmets are light, and hence do not require
\noverly much fuel on their trip to the bike store or the landfill. Some
\ncompanies are even tinkering with eco-friendly
\nhelmets<\/a>. And you could always save your used helmets for some kind of trash
\nsculpture. A hospital visit has the potential for much more ecological impact
\nthan your discarded helmet. Your fitness level keeps you (hopefully) from
\ngeneral ill health, and hence reduces the need for greenhouse-gas emitting
\ntrips to the doctor. More important, of course, the helmet protects you from
\nserious head injury and\/or death, both of which are far more environmentally
\ncostly than a piddling nine-ounce helmet. Get
\nthe full Ask Umbra answer<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Even people who have much to haul and live in fickle-weather places are able to
\nshed their cars and replace them with bikes. It just requires planning ahead and buying a
\nbike like the Xtracycle<\/a> in a design
\nsuited to your needs. It may be a tad expensive, but certainly cheaper than a
\ncar in the long term. And handy: The rear tire on the Xtracycle is farther back
\nand lower than on a traditional bike, configured for a long, hearty rack able
\nto hold people, four panniers, musical instruments—basically whatever you
\nmight imagine. Xtracycle offers a conversion kit for traditional bikes, too.
\nThe best news, though, is not that the Xtracycle exists and is apparently
\ngreat, but that it is not the only specialty bike out there. Bikes are a form
\nof transport, and bike hauling is its own established transport activity with
\nappropriate technology to suit. It’s not that we must weigh down our inner
\nLance Armstrong with unwieldy baskets and trailers; rather, we are updating the
\nrickshaw. If you want to haul stuff on a regular basis, there is a bike or
\nbike-expanding attachment for you. Get the full Ask
\nUmbra answer<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Want to don your best skirt, dress, or utilikilt<\/a> but still commute by bike? Not a problem, ladies and gents. You should be able to hunt down a small-scale
\nbike fabricator or repair shop that could build custom skirt and chain guards.
\nI would start by looking for a few small bike shops with that punkish, bike
\nmessengerish attitude and asking them what the options are around town. It
\nmight be that these stores actually know where to buy pre-made guards. You may
\nalready have come across my second manufacturing-related suggestion, which
\nseems to be all over the web: Make your own skirt guard<\/a> out of fabric, cable ties or wire, and
\na pair of scissors. Get
\nthe full Ask Umbra answer<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Umbra<\/p>\n