Archive for bicycles

Save the planet – sell your bicycle, and drive that car!

October 18, 2006 at 10:58 pm · Filed under bicycles, cars, environment

Sorry, provocative is me!

But sometimes you really might be better off driving to work, rather then using a bicycle. The issue is the CO2 cost of heating the water for the shower that you might well have when you get there. Three aspects need to be considered.

  • The amazing amount of energy that is required to heat the 45 litres of water that people typically use when they have a shower.
  • The amount of CO2 that will be released to provide this energy.
  • The amount of CO2 that would have been generated by your car.

    • In my workplace, hot water is provided by instantaneous electric heaters. In Perth, most of our electricity is provided by burning coal. And my car is a petrol, four cylinder, manual 1.5l Mitsubishi Mirage that gets 7.1 litres/100km.

    Lets do the maths for this situation…
    Read the rest of this entry »

    Comments (4)

    BTA

    October 15, 2006 at 8:09 pm · Filed under bicycles, politics, transport

    [Originally posted April 28th, 2006]

    I’ve renewed my membership with the BTA, which I let lapse a couple of years ago. The Bicycle Transportation Alliance is a Perth based advocacy group for cyclists – it lobbies the government on bicycle issues and provides useful information, discounts, and third-party insurance to members. My receipt and first copy of Australian Cyclist arrived in the mail yesterday. I was impressed, having only posted them my application two working days before.

    Caught the bus in today – don’t want to overdo the cycling… May bike in again on Monday.

    Leave a Comment

    My new panniers

    October 15, 2006 at 8:06 pm · Filed under bicycles

    [originally posted April 26th, 2006]

    A test post to the blog. Well, what to say? Yesterday I tried out my panniers for the first time. Here’s a photo of my bike after a trip to a cafe on Beaufort St, where I had breakfast before doing some grocery shopping. Is definitely more comfortable without the backpack. I like the lower centre of gravity too. Tomorrow a trip to work. Will the laptop make it? Stay tuned.

    Comments (2)

    My first commute with panniers

    October 15, 2006 at 8:03 pm · Filed under bicycles, transport

    [originally posted April 27th, 2006]
    The transmission is a bit noisy and my front brake pulses a bit, which is a bit worrying (wheel not true?). My bike may need a checkup. Have switched to slick tyres, but am a bit dissappointed by the low pressure rating (40psi?!?) – may replace with something higher pressure if not too expensive. I didn’t even look at the pressure when I bought the tyres, I’d just assumed that they would be high pressure. They are IRC Metros.

    Well, the laptop survived. I just dropped it in a pannier (Deuter Rackpack II) with a jacket for a little padding. The consensus amongst cyclists at work seems to be that Dell Latitude laptops tolerate road vibration, at least for the three years before they are replaced. Collisions and near-misses can create issues though. This cycle tourist hasn’t had such good experiences with his Dell though (no info on how he packed it).

    Leave a Comment