{"id":361,"date":"2010-03-08T18:51:07","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T02:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/?p=361"},"modified":"2010-03-09T21:49:54","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T05:49:54","slug":"utility-bicycle-riding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/?p=361","title":{"rendered":"Utility Bicycle Riding"},"content":{"rendered":"

by John Pugliese<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The greatest aspect of joining a cycling club such as Almaden Cycle Touring Club (ACTC) is the diversity and ranges of bicycle riders, routes and activities. <\/span>ACTC offers several rides every day that cater to a range of cyclists from those going to a coffee shop to those scaling a local mountain such as Hamilton. <\/span>We have riders on touring bikes, race bikes, fixed gears, recumbents, tandems and more. <\/span>ACTC also encourages cycling in general through education, tour reviews, volunteering and highlighting of possibilities. <\/span>One local event is the Bike To Work Day (BTWD), which many members do anyway, but ACTC members help at stations and encourage the idea. <\/span>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been collecting some photos of my bicycle commuting journeys and wanted to present some ideas or options.<\/p>\n

In an article about my trip to the Auburn Century<\/a> , I mentioned taking the train to the event instead of driving. <\/span>I departed from the San Jose Diridon Station to catch Caltrain, which is a bike friendly commuter that goes to the Peninsula, San Francisco, Sacramento and more. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"image001\"

Awaiting CalTrain in San Jose<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Of course, one can also catch Bart to get to San Francisco, Oakland or the East Bay. <\/span>But, my interest is to show how bicycles can handle bigger tasks or utility duties. <\/span>Below is one of the best gifts that I have received, a Burley d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Lite tot trailer given to me by my sister because her kids outgrew it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if you have such a trailer, use it for utility rides, if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have one you can purchase one online. <\/span>The picture dates are incorrect.<\/p>\n

\"image004\"

The Burley d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Lite trailer, an excellent utility rig.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

One activity performed by ACTC is the workday ride, where volunteers will ride in San Jose to clean up bicycle trails and paint over graffiti. <\/span>I enjoyed taking my d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Lite trailer and carrying the paint and brooms as shown below.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Taking

Taking my \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcutility vehicle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 along San Jose bike trail on a cleanup ride<\/p><\/div>\n

But my favorite rides are to carry things by bike when someone says, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbut you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need to take a car for that.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/span>My d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Lite trailer had no issue with the transportation of a water cooler and filled 5 gallon water jug to the downtown office, simultaneously. <\/span>The delivery of a fan is showed next.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Trailering

Trailering a water cooler and filled 5 gallon water jug.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Trailering

Trailering a fan to the office<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one thing to cycle to the start of an ACTC ride in San Jose, Cupertino or Los Altos, but you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need to drive to take your mountain bike.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/span>Oh? <\/span>Wheels can be removed easily, and the whole mountain bike fits well into my utility cruiser. <\/span>And I prevent street wear on my off road tires. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"TraileTrailering

TraileTrailering my Kona mountain bike in my d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Lite trailer to ACTC Whine and Dine MTB<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Whine

Whine and Dine MTB start destination<\/p><\/div>\n

Some members ride to the monthly meetings, but there can be excuses such as a need to carry items for the Swap Meet. <\/span>My trailer carried a trainer, a set of wheels, a helmet, and various items, most which needed to be brought back home.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Riding

Riding off to the ACTC Swap Mee<\/p><\/div>\n

I look forward to carrying my sister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s children in a trail-a-bike like the one shown below.<\/p>\n

\"Trail-a-bike

Trail-a-bike transportation for children<\/p><\/div>\n

There are serious utility cyclists out there, like this impressive home made bike in front of Orchard Supply Hardware. <\/span>I figured that I could at least carry a hand truck.<\/p>\n

\"Utility

Utility riding gets serious at Orchard Supply Hardware<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Trailering

Trailering a hand truck<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The utility of the d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Lite trailer comes to light when thesides are folded down to use the trailer as a flat bed to carry items.<\/p>\n

\"Burley

Burley d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Lite with sides folded down<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

A friend had asked to borrow a wheelbarrow and I said that I would drop it off on the way to my office. <\/span>Since I ride to the office, I loaded up the Burley, strapped down the wheelbarrow by bungee cords and took a slight detour to the site.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Dropping

Dropping off a wheelbarrow by bike<\/p><\/div>\n

In conclusion, there really are no excuses. <\/span>Yay bikes.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by John Pugliese The greatest aspect of joining a cycling club such as Almaden Cycle Touring Club (ACTC) is the diversity and ranges of bicycle riders, routes and activities. ACTC offers several rides every day that cater to a range of cyclists from those going to a coffee shop to those scaling a local mountain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bicycling-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376,"href":"https:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions\/376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}