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#bicycles #ideas #future #cities #urbanism #books

City cycling and urbanism

I have lived in suburbia for most of my life, and have been a passionate outdoorsman who craves wilderness for my entire life as well. I had always been skeptical of cities, and city-dwellers, despite enjoying my occasional visits to them. It's only recently become clear to me that my blanket dismissal of cities was foolish (there are great cities, and less-great ones, but even those can have great neighborhoods), and that the enjoyable qualities of cities were not unique to those singular areas, but are often due to urban design principles that can be applied to cities and neighborhoods in many other places as well. I am a very late convert to urbanism, and the benefits of dense and walkable cities.

I feel totally unqualified at this point to write much about urbanism and urban design, given the wealth of great discussion from others elsewhere. And I absolutely adore public transit, especially trains and subways, but don't have much to write about there either.

For now, most of this page will be for collecting resources for my next bicycle purchase.

I'll also add that seeing city neighborhoods and public transit networks around the world is becoming increasingly interesting to my Travel philosophy. As an example, during a recent one-day visit to Panama, I chose to ride the relatively new subway across Panama City to get to the airport, rather than a much faster and safer(?) Uber, and that experience came out to be far more interesting and fulfilling to me.

Inspiration and references

Current bicycle

An old Miyata Seven Ten sport/commuter bicycle, steel-framed, built in 1981 according to the serial number. The Miyata 1981 catalog contains information on the frame geometry and original components. Bought at a used bicycle shop in Austin TX around 2011. Heavily customized, inspired by Rivendell Bicycle Works, and the need for something practical.

I love this thing, it's one of my most beloved possessions. But among other issues, the gears and chain are slowly wearing out, and finding replacement parts is only possible through scavenging other old bikes, or considerable expense. Its gear ratios are also insufficient for climbing hills. Though I still hope to keep this bicycle for a long time, the futures for it are narrowing.

Parts that I added/replaced:

I believe the previous owner replaced the stock pedals with tiny clipless pedals, which I quickly replaced. They also added the rear rack, which was greatly appreciated.

Using this gear inches calculator, this bike only has around 44" for climbing (700c rims, chainrings have 39 and 52 teeth, sprockets run from 13 to 24). Lower is better, and something like 20" would be preferred! On the high end, it gets 108", which is slightly more than a 1x setup like a Surly Preamble, but that's much less important for me.

My 1981 Miyata touring bicycle

Future bicycles

I'm currently torn between an acoustic commuter bike, a rack-equipped e-bike, a longtail cargo e-bike, or a frontloader cargo e-bike. Pros and cons discussed below. Or perhaps I should get multiple bicycles?

An acoustic bike is making an increasing amount of sense to me, so a variety of options are listed.

Acoustic commuter bikes

Rack-equipped e-bike

Longtail cargo e-bike

Frontloader cargo e-bike (Bakfiets/Long Johns)