Broken Bicycles

Half way to class today I heard the all to familiar clicking and scraping of bearings going out in my back wheel. I've been knocking shit over, spilling water, stepping on the cats, stubbing my toes, and getting my socks wet all morning. Suffice it to say I'm in a bit of a mood right now. So I sat down in the studio to do some work and turned on Pandora and the first song I heard was "Broken Bicycles" by Tom Waits. Cosmic irony at it's best. (Even more so because I am working on producing a Tom Waits show right now)

In other news I got sent a link about the first Western Wisconsin Bike Summit coming up in La Crosse on the 23rd. Sounds like it could be fun. I also took a bit of time poking around the website for the Driftless Region Bicycle Coalition and can't help but be a little jealous. The area is of comparable size to Eau Claire, but defiantly looks like it has it's act together. It would be really cool to have a group organized like this in EC.

Although it does bring up the question of making cycling work. Bike advocacy has become this huge political and social entity and so much of the time I find myself wishing I could put forth more time towards it. But at a certain point when you begin to view cycling as a 'cause' it begins to loose it's charm. I tend to view simply commuting and having a good time on your bike as one of the most vital forms of cycling advocacy. If there is no one riding, then what incentive does government have to change. This however becomes a vicious cycle of how do you get people riding bikes to prove you have legitimate numbers? Advocacy. What is the most powerful tool of advocacy? Numbers. And fun pictures of smiling kids, but I don't have any fun pictures of smiling kids... But I do have these!

My clothes still smell like cave fire.

Looks like the snow and ice are going to be gone for good after this weekend. DRY PAVEMENT HERE WE COME!