Tubingen, Germany. August 2011

The worst bike rack in town, in a spot with so much potential for greatness.

Here’s an interesting story: I am partly responsible for the bike rack that currently sits in front of Earth Fare. The old one, sort of a slinky to which you could only lock one wheel (though a long cable lock could reach the frame), was the worst rack in town. I know I am not alone in having put a note in the store’s comment box asking the management to consider a replacement. I even drew a diagram of the inverted-U racks that can be found downtown.

About a year ago or so they replaced it, but unfortunately I think that the new one is even worse: possibly the worst bike rack in town. Besides being a grid-type rack, which is generally discouraged by most guidelines, this rack fails in all possible categories: security, stability, usability, durability, and aesthetics. Unless you have a spot on the end, you can’t lock your frame without a long cable. My 26 x 1.4 city tires barely squeezed into the space between the bottom and top crossbars, and now my 26 x 2.0 balloon tires don’t fit at all. Indeed the person with the road bike in the photo here was forced to hang their front end over the top. If your wheel does fit and you do want to lock it to the rack, there’s no room to walk to the other side to attach your lock, even though that’s the only way you could easily reach an attachment point if the rack is full. The rack itself is not only poorly made of thin-gauge steel, but it was very poorly installed. In my opinion it is unattractive, but on a higher level it is ugly because it is so glaringly obvious how bad it is at its job. It’s no surprise when you go to Earth Fare nowadays and see bikes locked to the fence instead.

Everywhere but the rack. Photo: JP Wares

Earth Fare is an anchor business in Five Points, but there are other popular spots that are frequented by folks on bikes: The Royal Peasant, Five Points Bottle Shop, Jittery Joe’s and the Hub. (Aside: Yoforia’s clientele don’t seem like the bike riding type.) The Hub has a new rack but it’s really just there to keep bikes from tipping over outside their door. The Jittery Joe’s rack is more art than rack, and has many of the same foibles as Earth Fare’s. Two Story Coffee House has a nicely posted spot for bikes (or strollers) and the rack is a rather cute re-use of a curvy Victorian iron railing, but there’s maybe room for 2-3 bikes and isn’t suitable for long-term parking.

So, what if there were what I would call ‘premium’ bike parking in Five Points? What if you could lock up your bike, confident that it will be safe and stable, and walk to as many nearby businesses as you want? If you live within biking distance, it sure is a more attractive option than driving, and moving your car from business to business because you’re not supposed to park at one and shop at another. How about if the Royal Peasant turned the dead space near their entrance into a bike corral for 8-10 bikes? Would businesses that recently closed due to lack of parking have had a better chance at staying open if they provided bike parking outside their doors? I know we’re not Portland, but it’s worth learning from their experience with providing bike parking in front of businesses.

Several hundred light poles

On a recent visit to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport I had occasion to park on the upper level of the South Terminal hourly parking deck. Despite the blazing sun, all of the outdoor parking lights were on (and, I’ll note, they were also on a few days later on another trip). I counted 416 light poles using the aerial photo on Bing Maps, and I am guessing the lamps are 250-watt metal halides (though they could easily be 400 W).

I believe these are 250-watt metal halide lamps

That’s 104 kilowatts of lighting power! If we assume they would stay on all year, and only really need to be on an average of half the time during the year, that’s 8760/2 hours of runtime or 455,520 kilowatt-hours of energy being wasted. For reference, a typical US household uses about 10,000 kWh per year, so this is about 46 homes’ worth of electricity waste.

That probably doesn’t seem like a lot in the grand scheme of operating an entire airport, which must have staggering energy costs, but if the airport pays, say, 6 cents per kWh, this is still about $27,000 per year being used to make the days just a little brighter.

This is no ordinary pen: it is a Fisher Chrome Bullet Space Pen. And this is not an ordinary Fisher Chrome Bullet Space Pen, but one that my wife gave to me for my birthday while we lived in Edinburgh. Maybe a year or more prior I had expressed an interest in one, and while I’d forgotten about it she remembered, and managed to completely surprise me with one of the best birthday presents I’ve ever received. I carry it in my pocket wherever I go, which is easy and comfortable to do thanks to its compact size and smooth shape. I never tire of being able to answer, “Why yes, yes I do” when my wife asks if I have a pen on me.

I tend to get emotionally attached to certain objects. They’re not usually outrageously expensive things, but rather well designed, well made, or in some way commemorative of an important event or time in my life. I am very attached to this pen, which is why every once in a long while my heart skips a beat when I discover it’s not in my pocket. Whenever I use it it reminds me of her, and how happy she was to surprise me for my birthday (no easy task, I assure you).

We’re a few weeks away from our third anniversary, and I plan to carry this pen around with me until the chrome has worn through and the brass is polished by the inside of my pocket.

Before and after: the crank arm and part of the chainwheel have already received the treatment.

A while back I was looking around the web for a gentler way to remove rust from chrome than using fine steel wool. Chrome is porous, so rust on the surface can often be removed to reveal shiny chrome underneath; chrome is also very thin, so using steel wool or any other abrasive can only be done so many times before you’ve worn through. I found what I was looking for on a BMX forum: oxalic acid.

Oxalic acid is sold in the form of wood bleach, but this can be hard to find. It is also the main ingredient in Bar Keeper’s Friend, which can be had for about $2.69 at any supermarket.

I thought I'd have to replace this wheel; I guess maybe not.

The recommendation on the forum was to mix a mild solution of oxalic acid in water, and to soak the rusty parts in it overnight. The rust should wipe off with a toothbrush the next day. I tried this, and it does. An alternative I have tried since then is to make a thicker solution (like whole milk) and dip a rag in it, then use the rag to rub the rust off. Either way is a hell of a lot easier and gentler than using steel wool or chrome polish.

I keep Bar Keeper’s Friend in the workshop and at the BRP shop, and it turns out to be a great multi-purpose cleaner for around the house too.