Culture: Page 261

Critical Mass

It’s all about the bike community

Culture

We’re living in a golden age of cycling. And we might have a bunch of loud, traffic-stopping cycling activists with anarchistic tendencies — better known as Critical Mass — to thank for it.  For the uninitiated, Critical Mass (CM) is a quasi-organized monthly bike ride that takes place on the last Friday of the month in cities across the globe. Founded in San Francisco in September 1992, the ride is part-rolling street party, part-pro-cycling demonstration, often chaotic and a heck of a good time — minus the occasional arrest — but, hey, even those can have side benefits. Continue reading →

Bike Couture

Innovations in helmets and attire for your commute

Culture

Attention all car commuters! Your excuses for pushing the gas pedal instead of the bike pedal — at least from a fashion perspective — won’t be worthy much longer. Yes, we all know it’s better for the environment and our health if we bike, but often it’s superficial justifications that keep us from trading four wheels for two. Here are some nifty tricks and cycle-centric designers who are making roadblocks like helmet head, or stuffing a change of clothes in your pack while pedaling to work like a spandex-encased sausage, obsolete. Continue reading →

Riders Ed

Safety beyond the helmet

Culture

Many Eugeneans have long felt relatively safe (around most drivers, that is), cycling for transit or pleasure, but others are so intimidated by the safety concerns of urban cycling — and not knowing what to do in a scary situation — that their fears prevent them from cycling to save the planet. Continue reading →

Bike Shorts

Brief bike news items

Culture

• Some Eugene-area bike racks take parking a step further than simple functionality. The woodland creatures in front of the Kiva come to mind, and so do the intrauterine device (IUD) bike racks outside the new Planned Parenthood on Franklin in Glenwood. The more cool bike parking opportunities the better. • Sundays at Falling Sky are extra friendly for bicycle commuters. Ride a bike and save a buck.  Continue reading →

Winter Bicycles

Sports

The name might be “Winter Bicycles,” but that’s probably because “Clean, Beautiful Bikes Customized for Absolutely Anything” is too clunky and long. Eric Estlund has been building custom bikes in the Eugene-Springfield area for six years, and he’s created everything from a knife-sharpening bike to bikes for commuting in the Chicago winter to bikes designed for riders with physical disabilities.  Continue reading →

Earth Day: Bike in Shapes!

Culture

We found out about Bike In Shapes just a little too late for our bike-themed Earth Day issue, but this event looks geeky and fun in all the right ways. They're meeting at the new Bier Stein at 7:45 pm on Thursday, April 18 — and ending there, too. Be there or be not-a-fractal. Continue reading →

April’s Cruelties

Vintners lose sleep in this unpredictable month

Drink

Every year, Oregon’s April just hammers me. I’ll toddle briskly through winter’s months, savoring the rains, blissfully indulging an interior life, inside our house and inside my own skull. I revel in the rains, regard them as profound blessings, in their various forms, from the feathermist, so light it won’t dimple the meniscus on a pond but will leave a walker soaked, to the guttergusher that floods fields and leaps river banks. I fret when, as recently, we enter a dry spell. Continue reading →

Why New Trees Fail

Tangled roots and other fatal hazards

Gardening

It’s annoying when a newly planted shrub or perennial dies on you, but unless it was a gift or it’s rare and hard to replace, it isn’t all that serious. Trees are another matter. Young trees can be expensive, and it takes quite a bit of effort to plant one. Most importantly, if the failing tree takes several years to die, there’s precious time lost in achieving the purpose for which you planted it, whether for fruit, shade, a focal point, screening or just a nice, imposing plant companion.  Continue reading →