Columbia Bicycles

It turns out that Jenny and I are not the only boaters excited for bicycle season to begin. Our friend Christina, who bought the Fitzcarraldo from us, found herself an old gem of a cruiser bike on craigslist this weekend. It's such a neat bike I wanted to post it here. Some sort of old Columbia brand bike, probably 1960's era. Neat. As you can tell, she is very proud of it. Yay boats and bikes!

Bicycle Time

Springtime is the time to break our bikes back out. I've read lots of things about boats and bikes and the compatibility (or lack thereof) the two. Well, Jenny and I both like biking for exercise, and I like commuting (it's only 4.5 miles from the boat to the museum I work at). Luckily, we are at a marina which has a nice big bike rack inside the marina gates. It is safe and out of the way. On the other hand, Jenny and I don't plan on being here forever. This creates a lot of dilemmas:

Dilemma 1) We are both tired of cheap crappy wal-mart bikes that breakdown after a year of moderate use- yet we wish to keep them in a marine environment.

Dilemma 2) How to store the bike on board during passages.

Dilemma 3) How to store the bike if we are somewhere we can't safely leave them.

This led us to the conclusion that, like so many things on boats, the bikes will have to be a compromise. We started looking at folding bikes and through gobs of research we each managed to find ones that suit us perfectly.

Last spring I purchased a Dahon Matrix, as seen here and in the picture below.

Shortly after that, Jenny opted to go old school and get a Raleigh 20 as seen at this rather eccentric gentleman's homepage here. and also pictured below.

Yes, mine is a little flashier and more expensive but I use it for commuting and didn't want to sacrifice tons of speed in order for it to fold. On the other hand Jenny's is very cute, has a nice 70's feel, and suits her leisurely riding style perfectly. We love both these bikes.

They both fold down quickly and neatly and we can then strap them to the stern rail, or if need be store them in the quarterberth... or under the cockpit... or in the lazarette... or wherever we choose. They are both made with good quality metals and nice paints. They have good gears made by quality companies. If any bikes can survive a life at sea, we think it is these two.

That said, I had a nice ride in to work today and it is a great sign of the approaching summer.

Treehugger and Sailing

One of my favorite websites to go to is Treehugger. They often have very neat little articles regarding self sufficiency, food, health, etc. Once in awhile they even throw in something regarding sailing.

Here are some recent articles that I found especially amusing.

Sail Your Bike with Whike:


This is a sailing kit for your recumbent bike! Sadly, we a) don't have recumbent bikes and b) I don't weigh enough. I guess you have to have a bit more meat on your bones so that you don't fly away...these things can get your bike going as fast as 30 knots!


The other article I always think about is this one:

Slow Freight: Sail Power is Actually Faster than Containerships Today


I read this when it first came out (nearly a year ago now) and I always think about that as I see those ships chugging along, pushing black smoke into the air. If you look at the comments, you can see that maybe the article is a bit misleading. Regardless, I think it's interesting to think about.