espresso ride

Saturday morning, 9AM, it’s a little above 40 degrees. Between three and four hundred riders gather downtown, near the new American Tobacco complex. As the countdown to the start begins, all bikes are facing the same direction. Riders are ogling each others’ bikes and dancing little jigs to stay warm. Bright jackets and black tights are the costumes de jure.

Jack’s here to take pictures, I’m here to take sounds. Our ride will begin as soon as the Halloween Hundred is underway.

The horn sounds, the pedalers pedal out, and I catch up with the organizers. Roxanne Hall, whom I originally met on the Solstice Ride, tells me Habitat preregistered more than 360 riders and another hundred or so walked on.

I meet the beneficiary of all this — a shy man in his forties. His house will be built with the funds raised by the Halloween Hundred. He remembers when he used to ride a bike as a kid, but doesn’t think he’s ridden one since then. The idea of riding 30 or 60 miles seems foreign to him. We’re interrupted when a quilt hanging from a temporary stand blows over, and we take a moment to pick it up out of the street.

Jack returns from his brief sprint with the peloton, and he and I head to the nearest cafe, Blue Coffee which… is closed on the weekends.

Amelia Cafe is a quiet, intimately lit upscale cafe tucked away in the Brightleaf complex. It’s been open only four months, and the owner says business is picking up now that people know it’s here. Power outlets are accessible along the walls and the interior columns, and the owner says that wireless Internet access is available.

Jack and I opt for the outdoor seating, which is at circular tables with canvas umbrellas.

“Good prices on the sweets,” Jack says. The owner says all of the pastries are made in house, but not a single one is vegan. Trains pass by just behind Brightleaf, and the rumble and whistle down out our conversation for a few seconds.

Amelia’s espresso is smooth with no trace of bitterness. It’s got a nice crème on top and is just the right temperature. It’s the best espresso we’ll have all day.

Fowler’s while having the most grainy, most bitter espresso, has a unique outdoor seating area. Tables are set up under a huge overhang which means you’ll always be in shade. The deck is elevated; we’re at least two floors up from the parking lot below, and there’s even a 3rd floor of outdoor seating. From our table, we have a view of Main St and the same railroad tracks that run behind Brightleaf. Ceiling fans are scattered overhead. The décor is a mix of refurbished steel and wood reminiscent of the building’s industrial past.

The cafe had the added bonus of a barista who could speak bike. She shows up for her shift and asks about the “hot Fuji” chained up to the bike rack. *score* Jack was miffed that his Motobecane drew no similar comments. I keep telling him that if only he’d convert it to a single speed…

We ride on in search of a better drink. The morning is still brisk and traffic is light. Caffeine is beginning to sheath and protect the muscles.

On the way from Fowler’s to Bean Traders, we’re passed by a blue VW with a fancy road bike on the back. The VW is parked on 9th Street when get there, and we stand in line with the driver who’s just finished the 50k of the Halloween Hundred. He tells us about his ride while we tell him about ours.

Bean Traders’ espresso is middle of the road. It was smooth (not bitter) and had a nice flavor to it. But the paper cups are not only wasteful, they don’t insulate the drink very well and ruin the experience of sipping.

Our first espresso ride comes to an end, but we agree that we ought to do this again. There are a lot of cafes in Durham, and many miles can be ridden in between them.

*In Bean Traders’ defense, I will say that their baristas all seem to be very knowledgeable and talented and their beans are usually very good — which is why it’s my usual stop for morning coffee. I just wish they’d stop using disposable cups.

The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Basketball teams ride bikes for worthy cause

Phillip Barron
The Herald Sun
October 27th, 2005

DURHAM — On Saturday, November 5th, you’re invited to come out and support the Hillside High School men’s varsity and junior varsity basketball teams.

Basketball? Wait, this is the cycling column.

Well, the basketball teams are going for a bike ride. The second annual Ride with the Hornets, which begins at 8:30AM in the rear parking lot at Hillside High School, is a fund raiser for the varsity and JV mens teams.

It’s not unusual for organizations to use cycling events as fund raisers. This Saturday, Durham’s Habitat for Humanity is hosting the “Halloween Hundred” — a fully supported metric century (100km ride) where proceeds will sponsor construction of a homein Habitats East Ellerbee St. neighborhood.

The Triangle Cyclopaths are donating a portion of the proceeds from their November 5 “Dance with the Devil,” an endurance mountain bike race, to the Caring Community Foundation.

And every year, regional chapters of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society host an “MS150″ ride. All over the country, cyclists raise entry fees and additional funds to search for the cure for multiple sclerosis by riding in these 150km events.

This year, Coach Wayne Howell is doing something similar for his basketball teams at Hillside. He hopes that by inviting the community to sponsor members of the basketball teams, the Hornets can raise at least $1,300 for a “shoot-away” — a device that sets up under a basketball goal, rebounds shots, throws the ball out to the next person, and keeps statistics on players’ shooting percentage.

Howell, who played basketball professionally for more than nine years in Australia and Singapore, says that a device like the shoot-away would make a big difference to his teams. “It can take a team from making 300 or 400 jumpshots per hour to 2,000 or 3,000,” he says.

The Ride with the Hornets will be one of the first experiences the students will have together as a team. Tryouts for the basketball teams will be completed in the week leading up to that Saturday, and Howell wants to do something to help the team bond in their first few days.

“I found last year, we did a lot of team-building things, and that really helped us,” Howell says. “It always helped me, too, when I played overseas.”

Remembering the joy of cycling as a kid is what led Howell to start the Ride with the Hornets. “Growing up, we used to ride bikes a lot. I don’t think kids now ride bikes like we did,” he said, and he thinks a combination of video games and parents not pushing kidsout of the house are to blame.

“And with the [American Tobacco] Trail, you don’t have to worry about riding on the street,” he added.

In a school that already boasts increasing enrollment in academically rigorous programs like International Baccalaureate and AVID, four-time state champions in women’s track, and a world-traveled theatre department, Coach Howell sometimes feels the pressure to offer Hillside students something unique.

Bob Hill, the athletic director at Hillside, says “Howell is one of those people who likes to bring young people together and show them a lot of different life skills. The bike ride is a tool to be able to communicate with the students, have them share their thoughts and feelings about anything. I think it’s an excellent way to teach young kids outside the classroom.”

Howell has reason to think he’s offering something the students like. “All this year, I’ve had students ask, ‘Coach, are we gonna do the bike ride again?’,” he says.

Howell says donations can be made in two ways either directly to the team as a whole or by sponsoring an individual player. Sponsorship simply involves pledging to donate a certain amount of money per mile that the student rides.

This year, the community is also invited to join in the fun and ride with the Hornets. If you’d like to ride, be ready to roll by 8:30AM. Their route will follow the American Tobacco Trail, first north to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, then south to Highway 54, and then finishing back at the Hillside parking lot.

durham, where’s the community cafe?

Cafés make me happy. Or, maybe just café makes me happy.

Either way, I know what I like, and I have an easy time falling in love with cafés when I visit other places. But I’m having a hard time finding one to love in my own hometown. I’m not so sure it’s a “grass is always greener” problem.

Whether I’m sitting alone or there to talk with others, cafés are the places that best facilitate conversation. But around here, café conversations take place pretty much only through electronic media. Don’t get me wrong, I’m often sitting behind a glowing laptop screen in local cafés, feeding my addictions to both coffee and the Internet, but is that all people can do in third places anymore? Predominant noises in local cafés include clickity-click-clack or only half of a quietly shouted cell-phone conversation.

I want to know, where’s the café…
… where the old coots rant about politics on Saturday morning?
… that’s dimly lit with mismatched furniture and it’s all so comfortable you don’t want to leave?
… with tables and floors made of real wood?
… where the volume strikes the right balance of overhead music (usually jazz) and the buzz of conversations?
… whose patrons are more likely long-time residents rather than four-year transients studying for a bachelors?
… where people who have not gathered for a book club can still talk about books just because they’re well-read?
… where they serve more straight-up coffees and espressos and fewer watered down candy drinks (mochaccinos and lattes)?
… where the walls are decorated by local artists’ works?

Durham needs a place like this. A cross between the clientele of Cup A Joe in Raleigh and the atmosphere of Tate St. Coffee in Greensboro.

fishing for something


Fishing boats return to the shore in the afternoon.
Cape Coast, Ghana (ca. September 1997)

The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Bike commuting on the rise

Phillip Barron
The Herald Sun
October 13th, 2005

DURHAM — In April 2004, I took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. Just inside the Arizona state line, I stopped for gas. I’d always heard that gas is more expensive on the west coast, and here was proof. The price of “premium” gas began with a “2″ — I cleverly took a picture of the sign so that my friends back home could have a good laugh at gas prices in excess of $2 per gallon.

Now, the joke’s on us.

Gas prices are hovering around $3 per gallon, and that’s reason enough for me (and my wallet) to think twice about driving my car to Raleigh to go mountain biking. An October 6th Washington Post commodities article reports that while “SUV sales plunged in September more than 50 percent, U.S. bicycle sales have outnumbered car sales.” Sounds like mine is not the only wallet taking a hit.

On my route to work, I’ve met more first-time bicycle commuters in the last two months than in the last two years. Heck, probably more than I’ve met in the last 5 years. But at most, my experience merely anecdotally suggests that ridership numbers may be up.

Is the national bicycle-sales trend holding true for Durham as well?

“We’ve definitely seen an increase in sales this year” says REI-Durham’s store manager Jim Bennett. “And we certainly have seen a bigger increase in the last three months. The [Durham] store showed a 39% increase for the year through June, and since June we’re up 59% over last year’s sales.”

Durham’s other full service bicycle retailer, The Bicycle Chain has evidence to support the same trend. Chris Hull, the new general manager of the The Bicycle Chain’s Durham store, says the store has definitely seen one of its best fall seasons in a long time. “Sales are up, business is up,” he said.

But just as the New York Times bestseller list for books tells you nothing about whether people actually read the books they buy, new bicycle sales don’t necessarily indicate new ridership.

An increase in business for bicycle repair shops, however, would suggest that people are riding the bikes they have.

“When people ride their bikes, they need to be repaired,” says REI’s Bennett. “Revenue we’ve taken in from the bike shop shows that people are riding their bikes as well.”

Hull says The Bicycle Chain has also seen a significant increase in business for the service department. “People are dusting off their old bikes that have been sitting in the garage and bringing them in to get them in shape to ride,” he said.

Whereas service customers are famous for making requests along the lines of, “just do the minimum to get the bike running again,” Bennett says that customers are now taking bike maintenance more seriously.

“When people are willing to spend more money on their bikes, it’s often because they are riding more regularly,” Bennett says. “They’re riding to work or school and need their bikes to be reliable.”

Separating the effect of gas prices on bike sales from the effect of Lance Armstrong winning a 7th Tour de France may be difficult.

But Bennett says that REI has also seen an increase in the sale of commuter-specific accessories like fenders and racks. Although manufacturers are producing newer bike models with frame geometries designed specifically for commuting, you can also retro-fit just about any bike with the components that turn your sleek road bike or heavy duty mountain bike into a more utilitarian commuter - semi-slick tires for mountain bikes, locks, racks, panniers (saddlebags that hang over the racks), baskets, lights, and even reflective vests.

Components like fenders and tires with low rolling resistance make your everyday ride more comfortable. Cargo racks, panniers, and baskets make your bike more useful.

So, whether or not there are more folks riding to work due to higher prices at the gas pumps, there are more folks investing in bicycles and in the kind of equipment you’d use to ride to work.

Are there more new riders in Durham? I don’t know. You tell me. And come tell me at the next Bicyclist Breakfast.

–
The Durham Bicyclist Breakfast happens on the last Friday of every month. Drop by Mad Hatters (1802 W. Main Street) between 7:30 and 9AM.

naming the column

Newspaper columns often have catchy (if not kitschy) monikers. The paper I write for decided that my column on cycling should have its own unique name. Since I work in a place with a lot of exceptionally literate, creative people, I put the challenge of naming my column to my wordsmith colleagues. This list of suggestions is just too great not to share.

Tri-Cycling
Pace Lines
A Cyclist’s Pen, or a Cyclist’s “Quill”
Re: cycling
The Radical Cyclist
Rollin’
The Compleat Cyclist
The Constant Cyclist
Cyclogically Yours
Peddlers’ Pack
Wheel Life
The Wheel Deal
Lance Who?
Give Me a Brake
Cycle Spin
The Scribbling Cyclist
Road Rash
The People’s Pedaller
Barron on Bikes
Toe Clips
Gear Reader
Cranking It Out
Long Live Lycra

And the winner: The Outspokin’ Cyclist. Look for it (just like usual) on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month in The Herald Sun.

a darker shade of cruise

This month’s Cruiser Tuesday was decidely darker than the last one… the sun had set before the ride even began.

All this just meant that it was time for riders to show their creativity through lighting. Here we have, direct from the west coast, the Down Low Glow.

With a theme that blended sci-fi and western, the music powered “Space Wranglers” cruised through Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and UNC’s campus. Keeping a group of 40 riders together through intersections can be a challenge; and yet waiting for the light to change is boring without a different sort of challenge.

Jet-powered backpacks helped some ride faster than others. Princess Leia was delayed temporarily when her robe was tangled in the crank of her bike. Han Solo was riding up ahead; otherwise I’m sure (s)he would have come to her Highness’ rescue as always. We’re an odd sight, to be sure… one that garners stares, applause, and questions. One guy we passed called out, “what’s it called?” A rider in the group shouts back the best answer I can think of.

Just like the last one, the ride conlcuded at the Reservoir, where dudes and dudettes locked up their steeds, quenched their thirst, and practiced tricks in the road.

You can see from the direction of the blur that the guy in the foreground is riding backwards.

bikes around the world

One of the things I love about bicycles is their near universal use in transportation. Bikes are available in just about every country, they are used by people of all income levels, and they take on a variety of shapes, designs, and purposes.

Sure, there are some brand names of bikes and components that are sold here in the U.S. and are not readily available in other places. And when I’ve traveled to other countries, I’ve come across brand names I don’t recognize. But the bicycle itself is a constant around the world.

The bicycle is, after all, the greatest invention in history.


(Oxford, England — My mom studied at Oxford last summer. Just outside her college was this endless line of bikes leaning against the wall.)


(Puerto Escondido, Mexico — Vendors use these three-wheeled pedal-carts to sell everything from snacks to souvenirs, from ice to fresh fish, from T-shirts to jewelry.)


(Durham, North Carolina — A 1970s Fuji leans against the mural outside the historic Durham Bulls ballpark.)


(Cape Coast, Ghana — Mark, pictured here in his school uniform, shares my love of bicycles. He insisted that I take his picture while he was pedaling.)

TAKMTBD

By Wednesday of last week, the U.S. Senate joined the House of Representatives in declaring Saturday October 1st, national Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day.

About 12 kids showed up with parents in tow to the Lake Crabtree event, one of three TORC sponsored events held locally. They had a blast, learning everything from how to climb to how to fall.

Once the little kids were finished, the big kids came back out to play.


More photos from the day’s events are here and here.

TAKMTBD is an IMBA sponsored event, created in memory of Jack Doub, a teen-aged North Carolina mountain biker who died in 2002.