Bike Pittsburgh

Sierra Magazine’s Answer Guy Answers Folk’s Green Living Questions:

Hey Mr. Green,
I always chuckle when I see articles like “Two-Wheeled Wonder” (March/April) make claims of bikes having “no emissions.” A bicycle produces no greenhouse-gas emissions the same way my home heating and cooling system does: No emissions are produced on-site. But to claim that a bicycle is emission-free fails to take into account the emissions produced by making the bike and fueling its engine. Specifically, what powers my bicycle? Human muscle. It takes corn, beef, and a variety of other food fuels, most of which require the use of carbon-based energy for production. One might even make the claim that bicycling is less efficient than using an automobile given the resources needed to support my engine. –Philip

Read Mr. Green’s answer here »

By Jodi Weigand
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, May 12, 2008

Neither rain nor snow nor searing sunshine can keep Caitlin Lenahan from cycling her way to work.

“(Biking) is a whole different way of thinking, and I prefer the flexibility that cycling gives me,” said Lenahan, 27, of Bloomfield. “It cuts down on so much frustration.”

Today kicks off the 14th annual Bike to Work Week, when bike enthusiasts encourage friends and family to hit the road or a trail and pedal to work.

About 1 percent of Pittsburghers — twice the national average — bike to work, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey. More than 150 “Three Rivers” bike racks — which incorporate a Y design to symbolize the rivers at The Point — are outside businesses Downtown and in the East End, giving bike commuters a place to secure their ride.

read more»

Nice job Brian and Caitlin!

Good Bike Fit Helps Prevent Injuries, Maximizes Power, and Is Key to Staying Comfortable While Riding

Bikes that don’t fit properly can make riding a bike a whole lot less comfortable and ultimately less fun. More seriously, improper fit can lead to myriad physical issues such as knee injuries, muscle strain, neck, back, foot, hand and wrist pain. Not to mention issues relating to folks’ lower extremities including saddle sores and even impotence in men.

Fit is important, and there are a handful of things you can do at home (given that you have an alan wrench set) to try to get the best fit out of your bike. However, if you’re still experiencing pain after trying to adjust for everything on your own (as I was recently with my left knee), it can be well worth a trip to see the professionals.

UPMC’s Cycling Performance

Luckily for us here in Pittsburgh, UPMC Sports Medicine has a Cycling Performance center, where experts in bicycle fitting and performance can help you fine tune things. For $75 ($65 for Bike Pittsburgh members), the professional athletic trainers on staff (Matt Tinkey and Phil Hensler) will do the following:

1. Musculoskeletal screening
2. Cycling-related injury assessment
3. And Evealuation of appropriate joint angles and pedaling forces including:

• varus and valgus (natural foot alignment)
• cleat position in order to minimize knee strain and foot pain, and maximize power
• saddle tilt
• saddle position (fore and aft)
• saddle height
• riding form (posture, pedal stroke, knee position)

For racers and people interested in maximizing their speed and endurance on a bike, they offer additional services at an added cost that tests for maximal oxygen uptake, peak power, lactate threshold, body composition, nutrition analysis and consultation, injury prevention and rehab services, and baseline testing for concussion assessment and management.

Assessments and Adjustments

Given that I’m mostly into riding my bike to work and the grocery store with only the occasional muscle-burner thrown in for fun, I opted for the basic fit assessment. They started out by taking a brief history and made sure they had an understanding of my knee pain.

They measured my legs to see if my legs were the same length (they were), and checked my standing posture to make sure I didn’t have any curvatures or looked off center in any way (fine there too). They also measured my varus and valgus. Fancy words meaning the angle at which my feet naturally hang when picked up off the floor (yup, fine there too). For folks with more extreme angles in their varus and valgus they will place a wedge in your shoe to keep your pressure even over the pedal.

From there they made sure my cleats were in the right position (they weren’t - not even close!). They used a laser level and some cool measuring techniques based on my toe joints to line pinpoint the proper place to locate the cleat (Photo below). This made a huge difference for me. I immediately felt like I was getting more power out of my pedal stroke. On top of that (and more importantly for me) I felt more comfortable.

After that adjustment, they got me on my bike which was hooked up to a trainer. From there they checked on my knee angle (see photo). I learned that 27-32 degrees at the 6 o-clock position is optimal. When I first got on the bike, my saddle was just a bit too high (they found that I was “ankling” and thus putting more stress on my calf muscles than is optimal), so they lowered my seat post. They also checked the fore/aft positioning of my saddle. It turned out it was a full inch too far back. Adjusting my saddle forward by that amount was critical. Immediately, pedaling became much more comfortable. They also checked the “float” which is how much your foot is able to move while clipped into the pedal.

To finish up, Matt and Phil lined up my knee position while pedaling with my toes to check if anything was out of whack with my pedal stroke. Again, they used a laser level. Everything checked out! (see photo below)

Keep in mind, I knew, roughly, the various tricks of proper bike fit prior to going to this appointment, but was still fairly far off in the fore/aft positioning of my saddle and where my cleats were situated. Prior to this appointment I calculated my miles over the past decade at more than 30,000 (haven’t had a computer for much of the time) with only slight discomfort, which has started recently. Hopefully, thanks to what I learned at this fitting, I’ll be able to pedal many more miles without any problems.

If you’re experiencing any discomfort riding and are interested in getting a comprehensive bike fit, give Matt a call at the Cycling Performance Center. If you’re not already a member of Bike Pittsburgh, consider joining and use your membership card to save $10 off of a $75 fitting.

Contact:
Matthew Tinkey, ATC
Certified Athletic Trainer
UPMC Sports Medicine
3200 S. Water St
Pittsburgh PA 15203
412.432.3770
tinkeyml@upmc.edu

Here’s another study arguing how compact urban development is key to mitigating climate change gas emissions. Communities that are planned to be transit-oriented and friendly to bicycling and walking are the future for this country. Embrace it!

Reducing urban sprawl could play an important role in addressing climate change.

Julian D. Marshall
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Published in Environmental Science & Technology

Improving city layouts and transportation networks could reduce carbon emissions more than replacing all gasoline with corn ethanol (1). Although much attention on mitigating climate change has focused on alternative fuels, vehicles, and electricity generation, better urban design represents an important yet undervalued opportunity. Fortunately, such decisions are well within the reach of local governments and leaders and can reduce long-term carbon emissions.

The impact of cities—and urban design—on the global climate is becoming increasingly important. In 2008, urbanites will outnumber rural dwellers globally for the first time in human history (2). China’s population doubled between 1952 and 2003, but its urban population increased 7-fold; today, 170 Chinese cities have at least 1 million residents (3). The U.S. has 39 such cities (4). In coming decades, urban populations are expected to double while rural populations level off or decline.

Vehicle use is rising rapidly. From 1970 to 2005, U.S. total vehicle-kilometers increased 3× faster than the population (annual increases: 3.0% vs 1.0%) (5). Similar trends occurred in China (8.3% vs 1.7%, a 5-fold difference) and the world (4.3% vs 1.8%) during 1970–1990 (6). If current trends in total vehicle-kilometers continue, vehicle CO2 emissions may increase even if emissions per mile decline (7).

In an influential paper in Science, Socolow and Pacala (8) argue that climate stabilization during the next half century means reducing CO2 emissions by 175 GtC (33%) relative to a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario. They propose seven strategies, with each “stabilization wedge” representing emission reductions of 25 GtC during 2005–2054 (each wedge grows from no reduction in 2005 to 1 GtC per year [yr] reduction in 2054).

The race is now on to figure out ways to design and implement these wedges. Often neglected in the debate is the role of urban form (e.g., land-use patterns and the layout of transportation infrastructure) in meeting climate objectives. My estimates suggest that reducing urban sprawl in the U.S. alone could represent half or more of a stabilization wedge. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning, on Scott’s ride to work, he came across a cycling crash on Friendship Ave where a cyclist was lying on the ground. It turned out his front wheel came off of his fork causing him to endo and fly over his bars. Those little levers on the end of your forks seem simple enough, but do you know how to use them properly?

As a frequent staffer at Free Ride, I see a lot of the problems that cyclists, especially those with a limited amount of mechanical knowledge, have with their rides. One thing I see on many bikes of new cyclists is improper quick release use. This is an unfortunate common problem as I don’t think that their functioning is as intuitive as one might believe.

So, inspired by today’s events, we decided to re-publish this article, originally from Bicycling Life, and help cyclists educate themselves about proper quick release use. It can be hard enough out there staying safe from cars, so let’s not hurt ourselves.

How to use a Quick Release

Bicycle wheels on better bikes come with a device called a quick release which holds the wheel on. These are used because you then do not have to carry tools to remove the wheel. It seem people are often removing bike wheels, to fix a flat, or fit the bike into a car, or to keep someone from stealing it.

Quick releases are simple to operate, and you wouldn’t think a web page dealing with them was warranted. Wrong! Bike shop owners will tell you it is one the most commonly miss-adjusted part on a bicycles owned by people new to cycling.

That wouldn’t be so bad, if it wasn’t so dangerous to misuse quick releases. If not properly used, the front wheel can fall off, and you crash. Hard. Usually head first.

So lets take a quick look at a quick release and explain how it works. It’s really simple, and remarkably secure when used correctly.

By their very nature, it is almost impossible for a quick release to work itself open. Personally, I always disbelieve anyone who says “it just popped open”. They way they are designed, it takes more force for the quick release to open than it does for it to remain securely shut. All the bumps in the world will not jar them open. The only way they “just pop open” is if they are never properly closed.
Read the rest of this entry »