CalBike Joins Panel on E-Bike Incentives at Micromobility Conference

From CalBike.org

In October, Micromobility America brought a two-day conference and trade show of alternative transportation to Richmond, California. Exhibitors included manufacturers of a range of e-bikes and scooters, app developers, and even representatives from the U.S. Department of Transportation. CalBike participated in one of the many panel discussions, and you can view the recording below.

Our panel was titled How Cities Can Incentivize Electric Bikes and was expertly moderated by Colin Hughes. The panelists were:

  • Ed Clancy from Pedal Ahead, which is administering the statewide E-Bike Incentive Program
  • Heather House, a manager at the Rocky Mountain Institute, which has developed a tool for cities to measure the impact of e-bikes on reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • Kerby Olson, new mobility supervisor at OakDOT, which is preparing to introduce a local e-bike program
  • Brett Wiley, senior program associate at East Bay Community Energy (since renamed Ava Community Energy, providing green energy in the San Joaquin Valley as well as the East Bay), which is planning an ambitious e-bike incentive program for its customers
  • Laura McCamy, communication specialist and e-bike advocate for CalBike.

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Swapping Stems, Turbo Troubleshooting & Numb Feet! | GCN Tech Clinic

Slamming stems or spacing them to fit? Riding Zwift on maximum difficulty because the power feels all off? Is there a way to put pressure sensors into a shoe insole? How many watts does a ticking disc brake rotor actually take away? Numb feet after switching to cleats! All this and more are answered in this week’s GCN Tech Clinic.

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Is a gravel bike the ultimate winter bike? Why you should make the switch to gravel from the classic winter road bike

From Road.cc

If you can budget for it, a second bike to handle harsh conditions is preferable to beating up your best bike year-round. Here’s why my new winter steed is a gravel bike, rather than a road bike modified for winter
by EMILY TILLETT
Riding a bike outside during the winter months in the northern hemisphere can be challenging, mostly due to unpleasant weather conditions. It can dampen your motivation and quickly turn your pride and joy into a creaking mess. Here’s why I’ve chosen not to buy a dedicated winter road bike and spend my money on a gravel bike instead. 

My summer bike is a Specialized Tarmac SL6. Even though it has disc brakes, I’m hesitant to expose it to the salted winter roads. I want to keep the more expensive parts lasting longer, yet I’m not keen on spending the whole winter locked up on the turbo. Therefore, I’ve been on the lookout for a suitable alternative bike that can handle the winter conditions.

Many people invest in a cheap bike that they don’t mind abusing over the winter months, but I’ve gone down an alternative route and picked up a 2018 Specialized Diverge Comp with SRAM Force 1 from Facebook Marketplace instead.

Specialized first introduced its Diverge in 2014, and for the 2018 model year it gave the Diverge a complete overhaul. The bike is designed for road and off-road riding, featuring Future Shock suspension which provides 20mm of basic suspension. It also has tyre clearance for tyres up to 42mm and ‘Open Road’ geometry, which was an attempt to move away from traditional cyclocross geometry to differentiate the gravel and ‘cross genres.

Photo by Ben Guernsey on Unsplash

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Commentary: the Bay Area Needs its Own “Arroyo Fest”

From SF.Streestblog.org

What San Francisco and Oakland can learn from Los Angeles… yes, Los Angeles

By Roger Rudick

Los Angeles closed seven miles of the Arroyo Seco Parkway for one Sunday last month and let people use it for cycling, walking, and just having a good time. From our sister publication, Streetsblog Los Angeles:

…tens of thousands of Angelenos did the unthinkable: enjoyed spending time on a freeway. Arroyo Fest 2023 removed cars from about seven miles of the 110 Freeway, known as the Arroyo Seco Parkway. Instead, the freeway was filled with people on foot, on bike, on skates, on scooters.

San Francisco, of course, has Sunday Streets, one of the earliest and most successful and celebrated examples of a temporary conversion of car space for other uses. The Bay Area also boasts the annual “Niles Canyon Stroll & Roll,” which removes cars from a stretch of highway 84.

San Francisco has its Marathon closures. And the Golden Gate Bridge was famously closed to traffic in 1987 for its 50th anniversary. But there’s no equivalent to “Arroyo Fest,” where the city closes a freeway for pure recreation.

The two places to do it seem screamingly obvious.

The first is the stub of the Central Freeway and 101. The city is already talking about removing or undergrounding these freeways, which are in need of seismic retrofits or removal. The other is I-980 in Oakland. 980 is one of the top candidates for removal on the Federal government’s “Reconnecting Communities” program.

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Ollie and Hank decided to enter the biggest bike race in America, El Tour de Tucson. At 100 miles long, this was a test of endurance, but also speed. They tried to break the 4-hour 100-mile time barrier. Will Ollie and Hank manage to hit their target or fall behind the peloton?

 

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