Category Archives: Bicycling

E582 – Ramon Martinez Chats Bike Indy

September 28, 2021Adventure, Bicyclingsprocketpodcast

Ramon Martinez joins us from the city of Independence, Oregon to let us know how he’s helping to turn this small Willamette Valley city into a big cycling destination. “Drop the Hammer” weekends offer short or long road or off-road rides that include some competition (if you want). Best thing about these rides? Your own start times!

BikeIndy website
Ramon on Instagram
Ramon on Strava

Mail
In response to our Wayfinding episode, we heard from a few folks. Maria Schur, @bicyclekitty told us, via Instagram, “When lost in the country on an overcast day (can’t determine south from the sun’s position), keep in mind that satellite dishes (in our region) point south.” And on Twitter, @VerseCycle Carolina Burrows said, “I sometimes look at churches to try and figure out which way’s east (the direction the seats face inside, so usually where the big stained glass window is).”

FinePrint
Produced at home thanks to:
music: Ryan J. Lane (intro & outro) & Hurtbird (headlines)
graphic design: Marcus Norman
web: http://thesprocketpodcast.com
email us: thesprocketpodcast@gmail.com
phone/SMS: 503-847-9774
Twitter & Instagram: @SprocketPodcast
Donate: Patreon (ongoing), Venmo (one time) or Square Cash (one-time)

Thanks to our sustaining donors for supporting our show costs:
Shadowfoot, Wayne Norman, Cameron Lien, Richard Wezensky, Tim Mooney, Glenn Kubish, Eric Weisz, Doug CohenMiller, Chris Smith, Caleb Jenkinson, JP Kewley, Peanut Butter Jar Matt, Marco Lo, Rich Otterstrom, Drew the Welder, Anna, Andre Johnson, Richard G, Guthrie Straw, Kampcite, Aaron Green, Mac Nurse David, Jeremy Kitchen, David Belais, Tim Coleman, Harry Hugel, E.J. Finneran, Brad Hipwell, Thomas Skadow, Keith Hutchison, Ranger Tom, Joyce Wilson, Ryan Tam, Jason Aufdenberg, Todd Tillinger, David Moore, Todd Groesbeck, Chris Barron, Sean Baird, Simon Paice, Gregory Braithwaite, dudeluna, Emma Rooks, Philip M, Lillian Karabaic, Spartan Dale, Josh Myles, Dennis O’Brien, Sarah G, Adam D, Go Dig A Hole, Beth Hamon, Greg Murphy, Mayra M, Oso, Isaac M, David C, Byron Paterson, Kurstin Graham, Erinne G, Rachel Moline, Jimmy Diesel, Christopher Barnett, and Jonathan Lee.

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E581 – Biking in Vancouver, BC with Spokesmama Lisa Corriveau

September 20, 2021Bicycling, Family, Urban Designsprocketpodcast

Spokesmama Lisa Corriveau is keeping busy in Vancouver, BC! She chats with Joan and Guthrie about bicycling with her kids, being a car-free family, volunteering with Cycling Without Age, and her job as a cycling instructor for HUB Cycling, teaching kids and adults how to ride a bike. She also shares how arthritis has impacted her bicycling and the changes she’s seen in infrastructure in Vancouver over many years on a bike.

Find out more about what Lisa is up to on her website, Spokesmama, and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Cycling Without Age
HUB Cycling

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E577 – William Hsu & Bike Summer

August 17, 2021Bicyclingsprocketpodcast

We talk with William Hsu, a recent transplant to Portland who has jumped into Pedalpalooza by volunteering with them on their social media campaign. How is Pedalpalooza going now that it’s Bike Summer?

Mail
In response to our bike commuting episode and how to clean up at work, Richard Wezenky commented, “Witch hazel works as well as alcohol to get rid of odor causing bacteria, but doesn’t dry out your skin.”

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E574 – A Visit to Gateway Green

July 27, 2021Bicycling, Mountain Bikingsprocketpodcast

Guthrie, Aaron, and Armando loaded up the mobile recording equipment and headed out to Gateway Green, the first bike park in Portland, Oregon. Gateway Green is located in East Portland and offers an asphalt pump track as well as single track trails. Our hosts chatted with users about recent upgrades and how they’re using the park and its features.

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E572 – Sprocket Ride!

June 29, 2021Bicycling, Funsprocketpodcast

Image of a group bicycle ride, with several people on bikes with helmets on a neighborhood street The Sprocket Podcast goes for a bike ride! We convinced some folks to ride with us on a blazingly hot Portland evening, and we recorded an episode along the way. Listen to podcast listeners and friends chat with us at Irving Park, Colonel Summers Park, and Ladd’s Addition Park about their bicycling pet peeves, common misconceptions about bicycling, good things happening in their bike lives, and what else they’re looking forward to this year. We had a great time, and we’re so glad so many folks wanted to join us for a bike ride. This is one of our favorite episodes of the year so far, and we hope you enjoy it too!

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E571 – Commuting By Bike!

June 24, 2021Bicycling, Commutingsprocketpodcast

Image of two people on bikes in a bike lane, as shown from behind — Photo by Jonathan Lee, @subtledream

The pandemic bike boom and shifts in working life may mean more folks will be commuting by bicycle as remote workers return to the office. Experienced bike commuters Armando, Guthrie, and Joan chat about bike commuting to make this episode a helpful resource for new bike commuters. We discuss common questions from folks new to bike commuting and share our best tips along with advice from Sprocket Podcast listeners. Topics include clothing, route planning, the ride itself, arriving at work, some gear basics, and attitude and mindset. Get some great advice about riding your bike to work.
Photo credit: Jonathan Lee

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E570 – All Bodies On Bikes with Kailey Kornhauser

June 15, 2021Adventure, Bicycling, Camping, Clothingsprocketpodcast

Joan and Armando talk with Kailey Kornhauser about her fantastic new film, All Bodies on Bikes, and fatphobia and size discrimination within the world of bicycling. Kailey is a PhD student and bikepacker based in Corvallis, Oregon. She and her collaborator Marley Blonsky are advocates for size-inclusivity in bicycling, consulting with vendors and leading webinars along with working with Shimano on the new documentary. Kailey chats with us about bikepacking and what it’s been like to have a large following of folks looking for inspiration.

Links for stuff we talked about
Kailey on Instagram: @kornhausersauce
Kailey’s website
All Bodies on Bikes Facebook group
All Bodies on Bikes on Instagram: @allbodiesonbikes
Bikepacking.com routes
Molly Sugar’s website

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E568 – Swift Summit with Trevor

June 2, 2021Adventure, Bicyclingsprocketpodcast

Trevor joins us to chat about the Swift Summit, the spirit of a well tuned event, and aspirations for the future.

From the race:

Join those who are looking to dig deep for an event like no other: part brevet, part gran fondo, part self-supported endurance road race. Riders are provided a cue sheet, a marked course, and aid station/control points approximately 40 miles apart to restock. In between those support checks, riders can access convenience stores and other neutral amenities along the course as needed. The 200-mile route boasts over 10,000 feet of climbing and features several short sections of hard-packed gravel roads, while the 100-mile route checks in just over 5,000 feet of climbing and has no gravel. Both courses offer scenic views of the Cascades Mountain range and run alongside the swift Santiam and Calapooia Rivers.

What we talked about
– non-binary categories

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E564 – Helmets & Hi Viz

May 1, 2021Bicycling, Clothing, Infrastructuresprocketpodcast

Screenshot from video meeting. There are 4 boxes with 3 people, all in bright yellow jackets with headphones. — Joan, Armando, and Guthrie (aka Bob Vance) donned their brightest yellow jackets to record this episode, while Aaron’s camera went blank, preserving his all-black look.

Do helmets protect our heads in bike crashes or make it more likely we’ll get into a crash? Do high viz clothes and gear actually make us more visible to people driving cars? Why do we spend so much time talking about helmets when better infrastructure would make us safer than helmets ever could? We don’t know the answers to any of these questions, but that didn’t stop us from talking about them! Aaron, Armando, Guthrie, and Joan chat safety culture in the bike world.

The Stuff We Talked About
Via Twitter user @cathasach4bikes:
“Regular reminder that no one makes helmets for Black girls’ everyday hair. This means that Black girls are disproportionately excluded from bike safety classes that require helmets. This should be the real helmet discussion.”

“Bike helmets – a dangerous fixation? On the bike helmet’s place in the cycling safety discourse in the United States”
Applied Mobilities, by Gregg Culver

“How US helmet laws are used against cyclists of colour and homeless people”
From the Guardian, April 20: “In Seattle, 43% of citations since 2017 have gone towards homeless people, while Black cyclists received citations at nearly four times the rate of white cyclists”

“Why It Makes Sense to Bike without a Helmet”
“…if we start looking into the research, there’s a strong argument to be made that wearing a bike helmet may actually increase your risk of injury, and increase the risk of injury of all the cyclists around you.”

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E563 – David Plotz, Podcaster & DC Bike Commuter

April 24, 2021Air Travel, Bicyclingsprocketpodcast

David Plotz, podcaster extraordinaire, joins Joan and Armando to talk about bike commuting in Washington, DC, his new podcast venture, City Cast, and how we can explore the world without making it worse. Or can we? Plus, David threatens to start a rival bike podcast!

Follow David on Twitter and learn more about City Cast (and listen in Chicago and Denver).

Headlines
‘The pandemic trade-off’: Some parents are reassessing which kids’ activities feel safe
From the Washington Post: “With most kids’ team sports suspended or restricted because of concerns about covid, parents have been reassessing which activities feel safe and which seem risky. It’s led to some unorthodox trade-offs, as people turn away from traditional team sports and start looking at alternative sports in a new light. Skateboard sales jumped 75 percent last year compared with 2019… mountain bike sales increasing by 75 percent in 2020. Baseball and softball equipment sales dropped 17 percent, and soccer and football equipment fell more than 10 percent. Hordes of new skateboarders and cyclists may be a bright spot in the decades-long trend of declining physical activity rates among kids. Some wonder whether the shift will become part of a broader trend away from highly structured team sports and toward more free-range forms of physical activity.”

Pedalpalooza is on! Organizers announce three-month festival to start in June
From BikePortland: Portland’s favorite free fun festival of bike rides and events will make a big return in 2021… Organizers of Pedalpalooza announced Thursday this year’s fest will last three months — from June through August. Since Covid-19 and its variants are still very much circulating in the community, the emphasis this year will be on smaller rides.

Thanks to our sustaining donors for supporting our show costs:
Shadowfoot, Wayne Norman, Cameron Lien, Richard Wezensky, Tim Mooney, Glenn Kubish, Eric Weisz, Doug CohenMiller, Todd Parker, Chris Smith, Caleb Jenkinson, JP Kewley, Peanut Butter Jar Matt, Marco Lo, Rich Otterstrom, Drew the Welder, Anna, Andre Johnson, Richard G, Guthrie Straw, Kampcite, Aaron Green, Mac Nurse David, Jeremy Kitchen, David Belais, Tim Coleman, Harry Hugel, E.J. Finneran, Brad Hipwell, Thomas Skadow, Keith Hutchison, Ranger Tom, Joyce Wilson, Ryan Tam, Jason Aufdenberg, Microcosm Publishing, David Moore, Todd Groesbeck, Chris Barron, Sean Baird, Simon, Gregory Braithwaite, dudeluna, Emma Rooks, Marshall, Lillian Karabaic, Paula Funatake, Spartan Dale, Bike Initiative Keweenaw, Sarah G, Adam D, Go Dig A Hole, Beth Hamon, Greg Murphy, Mayra M, Oso, Isaac M, David C, Byron Paterson, Kurstin Graham, Erinne G, Rachel Moline, and Jimmy Diesel.

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