Tootfinder

Gosh, can you tell when I switched to an ebike and started riding to work?
#biking #bikeTooter #ebike

Someone said there’s a huge difference between going 20mph and 28mph on a bike. I completely agree.
#biking #bikeTooter #ebike

Secure bike parking at work… the ride in today was the fastest yet, despite the terrible winds! I attribute the short time to good luck in crossing busy roads and not having to wait multiple minutes to cross.
#biking #bikeTooter

Damn, this ebike things is actually pretty cool. I did my normal ride in the cemetery without using the motor and my stats are pretty damn close to my acoustic rides.
I’m probably going to have a lot to say about it this week.
#biking #bikeTooter

The three things that make bicycle route planning most difficult where I live is freeways, railroad tracks, and rivers.
#biking #bikeTooter

Blah. Rain today so I did not bike to work. Not quite ready for that... I have to take the car tomorrow as well due to a doctor appointment. Hopefully I can bike on Friday!
#biking #bikeTooter

I’m planning a small bike tour around the Copenhagen region to explore the area more slowly and meet people along the way.
My route will take me from Copenhagen to HelsingŸr, then to HillerŸd, Roskilde, and back to Copenhagen.
#BikeTour
#biking

I’ve been out biking all day and I’m still outside, soaking up the beautiful weather.
Biking brings my autistic self so much joy!
#Bicycle #AntiCar #Biking

First (real) ride on the new bike. So chuffed! Also, found a dollar on the way home so yeah, biking really pays off!
#biking #bikeTooter #mke

After 15 minutes of messing around with maps I've gone from "It's impossible to get there by bike!" to "Hmm, if I avoid the super-busy roads, cut through these parking lots, take a two mile detour... I think I can get there!"
#biking #bikeTooter

Today’s ride for Scrappy Hour was 7 miles out and then 7 miles back! The hills killed me. 😢
#scrappyHour #biking #bikeTooter

Over the weekend I came close to joining these two sections of where I've ridden my bike! The square on the bottom is where the bike shop is where I got my new bike a month ago. Might be a project for next weekend.
#biking #bikeTooter

Bikes with tiny wheels always look so weird to me. (I mean weird as a 6 foot tall adult. I rode 20" BMX bikes when I was a kid.)
Do these 20" bikes feel like riding a "normal" bike? Is it weird? Is it just me?
#biking #bikeTooter

I’ve been resting up all day, taking it easy… sore throat is gone (since Wednesday night) and no snot or congestion today, just tired really.
Hoping I can make it out to Riverwest 24 tomorrow for the biking fun that is the People’s Holiday.
#biking #bikeTooter

The view on the way to work along the Oak Leaf Trail is lovely at some spots...
(Though stopping for the photo I got attacked by bugs, which is not great.)
#biking #bikeTooter #mke

The current "bike to work" carry is a milk crate zip tied to a rear rack. I gave it a nice paint job and did a little cutout right behind the seat. There's a piece of foam in the bottom to prevent rattling (I toss my lock back there) and the bungee holds my backpack in place securely.
#biking #bikeTooter

I just learned about rain ponchos for cycling and... what?
#biking #bikeTooter

Well, I bought a bike. I also realized I don’t think I ever bought a bike for myself before! Most of my bikes were gifts, or built from random parts I’d bought, or pieced together from the dumpster. So this is sort of exciting! And after today’s ride I think an ebike is perfect for me. It’s not easy to ride with people 15 years younger than be, and with occasional knee & hip pain, pedal assist will save my ass.

Whooo! I should hit 300 miles on the new bike within 30 days of owning it.
#ebike #biking #bikeTooter

Favorite team name “Blood Bath and Beyond”
#biking #bikeTooter

This is a bit ancient (2013?) but some neat ideas here... I like the sliding potentiometer to sense when the brake cable is pulled.
#biking

jdeboi.com
Jenna deBoisblanc is a creative coder, teacher, and maker.

I have leveled up once again. I used to be really interested in geo/mapping stuff and this whole biking thing has rekindled that, and now that I need to figure out how to bike to places, I am mapping like mad!
I found a route from work to the shops to home avoiding busy streets, which I *never* thought I would be able to do, but I'm doing it now!
#biking

Pan Yay! Got the Ortleib panniers and wow are they nice. Bonus that my backpack fits nicely in one of them.
#biking #bikeTooter

I cannot tell you how many squirrels have run out in front of me while biking this week, but the number is greater than 3 and it's only Wednesday.
Have you ever hit a squirrel or other animal on your bike?
#bikeTooter #biking

Part of the bike lane "slalom course" on Hampton Avenue on my ride to work...
The freeway entrance ahead is closed but honestly I don't know what good putting these in the bike lane does besides get in my way.
#biking #bikeTooter

One thing I wasn't ready for on the bike commute was the bugs. Riding next to the river in summer is wonderful, but now when I head home the bugs are out, and they are tiny little bastards that fly into my face and my arms and get stuck on me. I do not love it. Hoping this works.
#biking #bikeTooter

Another post talking about mapping all of my bike rides...
#biking

Mapping Bike Rides (Part II)
Tracking the tracks...

I found out one of my neighbors has an Aventon Pace (either 500.3 or 500.2) and said he loves it. Good to know. He got it at Erik's Bikes, which is where I hope to get one at some point.
#biking #bikeTooter #ebike

I went for a short ride today, and every now and then I would hear this weird “cling clang” sound, but I couldn’t figure out what the hell it was. I even stopped twice to investigate. It wasn’t constant though, just intermittent. Urgh!
Got home, took a photo, and then figured it out. Sigh…
#biking #bikeTooter

Today's ride to work... I had to stop and adjust my DIY pannier bag and it's not great. (I forgot to attach the bungee that also locks in the hooks.) I may look at getting some Ortleibs since everyone seems to love those.
#biking #bikeTooter

Today's ride on Hampton Avenue was much better! I just need to time it right. Wait for the light to turn green, wait until all the cars go through, then bike after them. I only need a gap of a few minutes to get past the gnarly part of the road.
The other tricky part is crossing Mayfair on the Menomonee Parkway. I actually get off the bike and walk it across there. No signals, not even for pedestrians so it's a rough one.

Ohh, bikerouter.de is super cool!
#biking #bikeTooter

bikerouter.de
▶ Der wahrscheinlich beste Fahrrad-Routenplaner der Welt! Kostenlos und datenschutzfreundlich. Gravel, Rennrad, MTB, City, Long Distance, Trekking uvm.

The other fun part of my ride today was when a guy had to wait an extra 10 seconds for me to go through an intersection before he could make a left turn.
He yelled "Get on the sidewalk!" and while I was tempted to yell "I'm in the bike lane!" I just sort of laughed it off.
#biking

Today's bike ride to work was a bit rough when I got to Hampton Avenue. There's a 0.65 mile stretch between Mayfair and 124th that can be brutal. Last week wasn't as bad so I think I just need to time it a bit better with the oncoming traffic.
I actually got forced onto the sidewalk for a bit due to construction barrels, the super narrow "bike lane", and overly aggressive drivers.

I’m not saying I’m the first person to ride the entire length of the new protected bike lane on Lisbon but there’s a good chance I am… (I had to carry my bike across a dozen gaps because it’s not all connected yet!)
#biking #bikeTooter

Today’s ride was 8.3 miles… nothing too exciting to report. (In other news I’ve been relearning SQL to pull data from the RunGap SQLite database.)
#biking #bikeTooter #mke

Today's ride to work on the borrowed ebike. Took a route I really don't like due to flooding of the Menomonee River, but it was okay. Made it under 24 minutes. (My car commute is typically 15 minutes, so that's pretty good!)
Brought a spare shirt to work since I have to wear a backpack to carry things. Also, 6.66 miles? Epic.
#biking

There is an e-bike Lending Library...
#ebike #biking

Community Pedal Power E-Bike Lending Library
A free e-bike lending library serving Cambridge, Somerville, and the surrounding area.

I wrote up a post about using "Squadrats" to map out all of the areas I've rode my bike...
#biking

I did not make any good progress on my project to read GPX data with Python today. (Trying to read speed.) May need to just read it as XML.
There are a bunch of nerds who do Python and bikes though, so someone might have the code example I need.
#biking #bikeTooter

I got this bike 12 days ago and just hit 100 miles. If I can keep commuting to work that's about 13 miles each day of riding a bike instead of driving a car.
#biking #bikeTooter #ebike

Sooo, I rode the ebike this morning, did my longest ride, in minutes and miles. Burned tons of calories, so yeah… ebike means more exercise, not less.
#biking #bikeTooter #ebike

I made some progress on mapping all the GPX files of my bikes rides for 2025... though it looks like I am still getting some walking data mixed in, so I'll need to fix that.
The cemetery paths are interesting! There are two paths I guess I never rode down in 2025. Weird.
#biking #bikeTooter

It's crude, but I separated all my bike ride GPX files from the huge pile of files and loaded them all into gpx.studio to show where I've rode my bike in the last 20-ish months.
#biking #bikeTooter #geo

I guess I should have got a cargo bike. (Kidding!) I had to bring a few packages to work today so my DIY pannier got a test... seemed to work fine.
#biking #bikeTooter #ebike

It’s been awhile since I did a “fast as I can” cemetery ride and I was amazed at my average speed. I kept it going on the streets a bit more to do 8 miles total.
#biking #bikeTooter #mke

Trying to decide between going with a budget ebike around $1,000 or a better model from a local shop that would be double that price.
The cheaper one is definitely within my budget, while the other option is quite a bit more that I’d like to spend…
Hoping to commute to work, 7 miles each way, both could handle that easily…
#biking

This morning I had to get some work done so I did a short ride of just 3 miles around the neighborhood on the old 1970's Raleigh. I tried to notice what causes the squeaks and rubbing noises and did a little maintenance when I got home.
No huge hills on this ride, it's a 3-speed, but I did have an average 11mph for the 16 minute ride.
#biking

I am using Strava now, but only because it's a way to get my data from Apple Health to flow to other places. Right now Wandrer and Squadrats pull data from Strava, and Strava gets the original data from Apple Health. The world is complex and silly sometimes.
#bikeTooter #biking

Today's ebike ride was 8.25 miles along one of my normal routes but I tried to avoid pedal assist as much as I could. In a 45 minute ride I probably used it for less than 5 minutes just to deal with a few hills along the way. I really want to get used to riding without assist for more of a "workout" on it, but also have the backup of assist for the hills.
#biking

I wrote a post about my attempts to map my bike rides... (More posts on this topic are in the works!)
#biking

Mapping Bike Rides (Part 1)
Where have I been all this time?

Probably not news to urban cyclists but parking lots are a game changer! Places I thought I could not bike to are accessible where parking lots are all connected, or right next to each other with a bit of grass between them.
#bikeTooter #biking

Holy Crap! I biked to work... I took the (borrowed) ebike and it took 24 minutes. (I had estimated 35-40.) My route was about 7 miles. (The bike said 7, my phone said 6.7.)
This drive usually takes about 15 minutes by car. I probably spent at least a few minutes waiting at stoplights at the busier streets but taking the Oak Leaf Trail was smooth as hell.
#biking

Today I rode the ebike to Capital Drive which is 5 miles towards work... It looks like it would be 3 miles from there to get to work, so 8 miles total, which is 2 more than I estimated.
But on the ebike it was a breeze. I tried to go pretty fast, and the route I took was a perfect biking route. The first 6.5 miles should be easy, though the last 1.5 might be a bit treacherous.
I'll try Thurs or Fri if I can.

Ooooh! The current Printables contest is for 3D printed bike gear!
#3Dprinting

Bike Gear | Contest theme | Printables.com
If you like to ride your bicycle, you know—there’s always something that could work better. This round is for 3D-printable parts and accessories that make cycling smoother, safer, or just more fun. Think mounts for lights or action cameras, bottle holders, custom tool clips, chain keepers, mudguards, storage solutions, or transport helpers. Or give your bike some personality with custom valve caps, spoke decorations, handlebar charms, or other small touches that turn it into the bike of you…

I rode 11.8 miles today. Went to Firefly Grove Park in Wauwatosa where they have a pump track and talked to two of the guys using it.
One really wanted me to try, and offered his bike as well, but after riding there uphill most of the way for 4 miles I said "I'll just watch you guys!" so I did.
I did ride on the smaller part of the track, and I can see the appeal, with the right bike.

Favorite bike from Riverwest 24.
#mke #milwaukee #riverwest24 #biking

Sigh, well I was feeling good about getting an ebike but I stopped by a local shop and the model I was looking at is pretty much sold out everywhere. They do have newer models ($more expensive$) and some other modes so I may need to do up that whole spreadsheet of features to compare things.
#bikeTooter #biking

I had to pedal like crazy the last half mile to keep my average speed at 12mph…
#biking #bikeTooter #mke #milwaukee