Bike Girl Is Outraged

Bike Girl has heard via her red Bike Writers' Collective bat phone that a horrible Hummer v Bike accident in Downtown. Apparantly, the police took the motorist's side, despite the motorist reportedly ramming through a group of cyclists intentionally.

Fellow Bike Writers' Collective embers Gary Rides Bikes and WestSide BikeSide have the details.

If the links don't work, it is because the sites have gotten so many hits, they have crashed. See Midnight Ridazz to weigh in.

Bike Girl Makes A Novice Mistake

Bike Girl made a mistake this week that only a novice makes. She did not properly maintain her bicycles. Yes, that's a plural. Bike Girl was nearly late to work because not one, but two bikes were out of commission.

One might say, "I thought Bike Girl had N+1 Bikes and could therefore always hop on a trusty cycle and ride off into the sunset." But one may not be aware that Bike Girl has been down-sizing her fleet. She now technically has 3 bike FRAMES, and only 2 sets of wheels. But that is not the issue.

The issue is, our fearless protagonist did not think to pump up her tires until 5 minutes before the last possible moment she could walk out the door in order to get to her destination on time. At that point, Bike Girl's pump decided to fail. Actually, it was a big "F" Fail. The pump let all of the air out of her tires, and would not put air back in. Bike Girl's attempts to fix the problem Failed. This happened on all four of Bike Girl's wheels as she tried to interchange the wheels to get a complete set.

By this point, Bike Girl was late. She thought about using her fancy schmancy CO2 containers to fill the tires. But being already late, and thinking about how much CO2 containers cost, Bike Girl decided to hop in the car instead.

The moral of the story is, one should check one's steed thoroughly when putting it into the barn at night. That way, when one needs to get going in the morning, one's trusty steed is ready to ride!

Bike Girl Has No Basket

Bike Girl received a compliment from a reader this week on the SWEET basket on the bicycle in the photo at the top of the blog. The reader asked where it is possible to procure nice-looking baskets that are able to carry groceries and are not the “heavy and ugly steel mesh kinds.”

The above bicycle is long gone; sold to a lovely lady on Craigslist for more than it was worth. The basket was procured from a pile at the Bike-ro-wave in Santa Monica. It was pre-loved, meaning it was already completely crushed when I found it. I believe it cost one dollar. The Bike-ro-wave, as well as the Bicycle Kitchen and the Bike Oven are great places to find random parts and accessories for cheap.

Bike Girl now prefers a rack and panniers to carry around her groceries or other items. The rack goes on the back and is not bulky and ugly. Panniers come in many stylish designs, plus they’re detachable. So if you’re not carting around random Stuff, they don’t need to be on the bike.

As far as the style-factor on regular bike baskets:

The Copenhagen-ize blog has some lovely posts on customizing bike baskets.
Bike Girl personally thinks there is a Correct Basket for every bike. Though panniers are her favorite all-purpose pick.