Nude Cycling

Warning: this post may be a little NSFW due to censored cartoon nudity and genital mutilation.
Why do people bike naked?

If you read the Wikipedia entry the goal is to "deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world." 


Sounds like a terrible idea to me. Bikes have a lot of sharp bits that I'd rather not have contact my tender bits. 

Sure, it wouldn't happen like the above picture, but you could fall and get yer niblets caught somewhere.


On top of it not being a great idea because of the dangers involved, in my opinion it also doesn't really deliver the message it's aiming for. I've never thought bringing out the crazy was the way to get your message across. And I fail to see how a bunch of naked/semi-naked people riding bikes through town "deliver[s] a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world."

I could protest obesity by going out in public and setting fire to bologna and mustard sandwich on nutrient deficient white bread...

...but I'd probably end up spending the night in a rubber room. While the activity of burning the sandwich was related in a way to obesity, it really does not convey my message. 


I see naked biking in the same light. The message is in there somewhere, but between the people who are offended by the flapping genitalia, and those who just didn't realize there was a message to be seen, nobody save the cyclists themselves really get the message.


And I'm guessing half the cyclists don't even understand the message.


Ok, time to go for a fully clothed ride.

New Style with the New Name

That's right, I'm trying something different. The last post about the bee in my shirt was not a one-off.

I like to draw, and as of recent I've had no outlet for my need to draw. I was writing on this blog once in a while, so I figured why not draw some pictures to go along with the posts.

The only rule I'm setting for myself is that no picture can take more than five minutes to draw.

This is a trial run.

It ought to be fun. 

OW OW OW OW OW OW!

The other day it was hot. My jersey zipper was obscenely low as I rode home at around 5:30 PM.

My chest hair blowing in the wind, the little I have. I rode down the big hill. This hill is big for flat ol' Chapel Hill, it is in fact the hill referred to by the town name. I can get up to 40 mph on this hill, don't tell the cops (Speed limit is 35.) I was going 40 this day, did I mention it was hot, the breeze felt good.

Then along came a little bee...

It flew into my shirt, bypassing the chest hair, right straight to my armpit.

So I'm flying down the Chapel Hill, at 40 mph on a bicycle being stung repeatedly in the armpit by a small bee, that I'm sure just wanted out of my shirt.

To top it all off, I already had a scrape on my arm and a bruise on my leg from a prior spill. In reaching frantically for the bee in my armpit with my scabbed over arm, I managed to open that wound. I did not however manage to kill the bee that continued to sting my armpit over and over and over. That whole thing about bees stinging once then dying is horseshit by the way.

When I got to the bottom of the hill, I pulled up on the sidewalk, retrieved the bee out of my shirt and squished it. Several times.

It was still a hot 95°F, and now I was paranoid to ride with my jersey wide open, and my armpit, elbow and leg were all throbbing. But I got that bee dammit.

Name Change.

I've been "Triangle Bicycle Commuter" for a year now. This morning while sipping my Joe I came across the real Triangle Bicycle Commuter. I knew when I started the blog that the blogger subdomain trianglebicyclecommuter was not available, but I couldn't find a blog with that name, and the URL turned up nothing, so I went with the name. However, it's there now, so I'm vacating the name and I have more than one reason to do so.

• There is already a blog with that name.
• I am about to graduate from UNC and will likely move away from the Triangle.
• Since I started the blog the scope has changed so the name should be more broad.
• It's my blog and I'll do what I want to.

So without further ado, I reveal the new name, appropriately conjured up on my morning bike commute.

Another Place I'm Going

The new name fits with my URL that I had to come up with doo(sic) to the lack of availability of trianglebicyclecommuter.blogspot.com.

It begins with an "A" to plop it on top of alphabetically organized blogrolls.

It embodies my desire to travel to new and unfamiliar places.

And best of all, it tickles my juvenile need to make potty humor whenever possible. My apologies to my friend Will for the TP picture atop the new blog.

So, I hope the change doesn't throw you off track. The same info will always be here.

WELCOME BACK STUDENTS!!!!!!!!!

Welcome back to the Triangle, UNC, Duke, NCSU, and NCCU students. I have recently had a small uptick in google searches about biking in the Durham/Chapel Hill area, I will assume these come from new students in the area wondering about using bikes to get around the Triangle.

With the return of students to the area comes a lot of automobile traffic. So if you're a student driving a car around: Don't hit me.

For students with bikes, this blog has information about getting around by bike. I commute from Durham to Chapel Hill by bike almost every day, so here I have compiled a list of all the routes I've used with descriptions of the roads and traffic.

I also bike through the winter, and have biked on the coldest mornings that the Triangle has to offer (16°F). For these mornings I have written posts about the clothing I wore and how well it protected me from the weather.

On top of those useful posts I post random crap, rants about whatever, tidbits about my bike, and even a post about a bike trip through The Gambia I did almost ten years ago.

I hope you can find a useful bit of information here. Have a good school year!