Mission Mission

Hey you!  Yeah you there, the one with the funny haircut.  Do you know how to fix a flat on your bicycle?  Whaaaaat???  Why not?!?  What are you gonna do when you’re in the middle of nowhere on a beautiful ride and you hear that instantly recognizable hiss emanating from your tire?

Luckily, your friends at Mission Bicycle have the answer:

At this hands-on workshop, we’ll start with the basics, then give you the tricks and secrets of fast and easy flat fixing.
At the 11 AM session, we’ll get jacked on Fayes coffee and Pepple’s vegan donuts.  At the 5 PM session we’ll savor fresh Firebrand pretzels and ice cold beer (Anchor Steam and IBC).
We’ll even send you home with a set of our favorite tire levers.
We end the session with a group ride – a tour of the Mission District’s 11 bike related businesses.
One last thing.  No spectators allowed.  Nobody admitted without a bike.  Come prepared to get your hands dirty.

Of course, it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t have two (2) free tickets to give away! All you have to do is tell a little story in the comments about a time when not knowing how to fix a flat really ruined your day. The contest closes at 5pm on Wednesday and entries will be judged on merit.

And if you just want to be sure that you get in on this, you can also register for the class here.

[Photo by pinkestblack]

Give their rear window a little lovetap with the Freedom Hammer, and I guarantee that’s the last time they ever yell at a cyclist.

Previously:

Cyclists: What do you do when someone yells at you from their car?

This handy comic by The System gives you a healthy alternative to your standard bike vs. car road rage.

[via Rickshaw Bagworks' FB page]

Especially when compared to the flimsy protection offered by their Valencia St. counterparts.  I count nine intended spots to lock up bikes, and the imposing architecture makes for plenty of other opportunities to find purchase should they be full.  Let’s see a car try to take that out!

Previously:

Bike racks of Vancouver

Not as good as the Christmas tree method, but good.

(Sorry it’s blurry; I was on the move.)

They were just right out in the lane, following some bros on the sidewalk, for a full block at least. Dumb.

Also, how dumb is it that “film crews” nowadays just have a DSLR on a gigantic mount? I want a film crew to look like a film crew:

http://youtu.be/ruei3y9O1BI?t=42s

Our pal Tag hipped us to this time-lapse video of a bike locked to a rack in NYC for a year. As you can imagine, it slowly disappears, but not quite as fast as it would in SF wethinks. Says Tag:

It’s six months before anyone even goes for the water bottle. New York
is pussies.

See for yourself:

[via Gothamist]

Tree pile! (But how to keep the sap off your seat?)

[via Austin Kamps]

We’ve noticed all sorts of interesting and eclectic things locked to poles, parking meters, construction equipment, or whatever immobile objects happen to be convenient; so it should come as no surprise that we eventually come across something like this.

To be clear, I’m not making fun of this at all. Just the opposite, in fact, as I think this is rather bad ass! I mean, when I’m old and decrepit and can’t walk around on my own any longer, I’m definitely going to lock one of these babies outside my door so I can still at least attempt to get a slice of pizza down the street without any help.

I had my bike stolen out of 24th and Mission Street BART last Wednesday. Seen it? Hey, I know it happens. It’s my second stolen bike.

The thing is, I thought I had done everything right: I brought it in the gate, ran a cable through the wheels, and secured a newer mini Kryptonite U-lock through the frame. But when I got back everything was gone. I had to double check that I didn’t get off at the wrong station.

I think the lesson is that BART isn’t a safe place to park your bike. You may think you’re protecting your bike from outsiders, but you’re also protecting thieves. The bike parking area is in a secluded corner out of view of the operator booth, the station is noisy, and people are too hurried and desensitized to weirdos to take notice of strange activity. In retrospect, someone could take a generator and angle grinder down there while wearing a bear suit and no one would pay any attention.

There is also plenty of time for a thief to monitor the bike parking patterns. For me, I was parking it there for 8 hours every weekday as part of my commute. Someone could have easily figured out the best time to strike over the course of a few days.

I give props to the BART police for showing up quickly to take my report and offer their condolences, but unfortunately they said getting any security footage for such a large window of time and secluded corner probably wont happen. So much for vigilante justice.

I took away the following advice from them:

1. Write down the serial number of your bike. You’ll need it if your bike is ever recovered. Seriously, do it now. Put it in your phone or something.
2. Powell street BART is most secure. Due to people traffic and location of the bike area, they have had the least amount of theft there.
3. Don’t park a bike in public for more than a couple of hours if you expect to keep the bike. Get a beater.
4. Write BART about improving bike security. They don’t listen to the BART cops, they do listen to you. You can do so online here.

That being said, it could not have been easy for the thief to break my U-lock. It would have been time consuming and noisy. I offer these suggestions to BART:

1. If you haven’t already, put a security camera on the bike area.
2. Relocate bike racks to somewhere within line of sight to the operator booth.
3. Station agents should do regular scans of the station areas. Grandma can wait 5 minutes for help with which end to stick the ticket.
4. Improve hospitality towards bike commuters. Station, car, and time restrictions make it really hard to justify traveling with your bike. Caltrain figured this out to an extent. We can do better.

Best of luck out there against these savages.

[photo by Improv Everywhere via Fixed Gear Blog]