The Daily Bicycle

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Dave Feucht
IMG_3971

This weekend I hauled some bamboo stalks we have up to our friend’s place to prop up tomatoes. It felt really weird to be about as wide as a car suddenly, and I had to kind of pick my route knowing that I wouldn’t be able to ride in bike lanes if there were cars parked on the street, and that some small streets might be hard to squeeze through.

Though it wasn’t at all difficult to ride with these, it was probably one of the most awkward loads I’ve carried yet, just simply from trying not to hit anyone/anything with the bamboo :)

This entry was posted in portland and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • http://jqr.posterous.com Jonathan R

    In the future, all bike lanes will be as wide as motor vehicle lanes, with turning radii to match. No more of those frustrating bollards. Great picture.

    • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

      That would be nice! Either that, or driving cars like we do will become un-sustainable in terms of producing the energy to make it possible, and the majority of people will be back on bicycles, and we can just use the roads as-is, which would also be ok, I suppose – except then we’re stuck with the current situation for a while :)

  • citygirlrides

    i always feel like i’m taking way too much bike lane whenever i have to carry long stemmed flowers or school projects on bike.  although,  i do enjoy taking up a car lane and ruling it when there are no bike lanes available.

    • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

      Yeah, I had to ride in the lane with these even when there were bike lanes. Thankfully there wasn’t much traffic and I didn’t have any problems with that :) Most of the route over to our friends’ place is just through quiet neighborhoods too, so that helped. I got some funny glances though :)

  • http://www.joyofbicyclecommuting.com Micheal Blue

    Well, the most akward stuff that I hauled on my bike where two tires, each hanging from each side of the handlebars.  Though not as exciting as your bamboo ride, there was this baby elephant jumping through the tires while I was pedaling.  Hey, I had to stretch it a little bit, otherwise you wouldn’t read it.  BTW, how’s the cycling brochure doing – your cooperation with Velouria?  It would be nice to see.

    • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

      Wow, I’d like to see that elephant trick, that sounds pretty awesome :)

      We’re waiting on a couple bits of that brochure to be finished up before we compile it and send it to the designer… I’m sure I’ll make note of it when we get to that point :)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_E5KS43EFS3CIKY3O66RVQQUAPM Peter

    Was it possible to run those bamboos parallel with your bike rather than perpindicular?  Sometimes when i’ve got something long like that, I’ll run it under the seat and it extends forward and backwards past the wheels.  Then you dont have to worry about your width as much.  Just a thought…

    lovin the blog!

    • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

      Yeah, I was thinking about that afterwards, and I probably could have worked that out somehow, but hey, you live and learn, right? :)

      Glad you like the blog, thanks for reading!

  • somervillain

    “Was it possible to run those bamboos parallel with your bike rather than
    perpindicular?  Sometimes when i’ve got something long like that, I’ll
    run it under the seat and it extends forward and backwards past the
    wheels.  Then you dont have to worry about your width as much.  Just a
    thought…”

    That’s what I did last week when I saw over 40 ft of PVC tubing being discarded.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/7516215@N03/6097953251

    Luckily I had an extra bungee cord, and carried the tubes lengthwise.  The longest was about 8 feet long!  Strangely, I didn’t get a single comment.  I had to chuckle when I passed a fellow bicycle commuter going up a steep hill.