Show #612 – September 21, 2022

Guests: Jonathan Maus; Will Tracy

On this episode, I’m going to introduce you to a young cycling journalist whose professional journey began in college.

One thing that he says at the beginning of our conversation struck me as SO true – that unless your parents, or someone close to you, shows you the way, getting into the sport of bicycle racing is not very easy.

Nonetheless, Will Tracy did do some bike racing but found that reporting on and photographing the sport was much more rewarding for him.

I discovered Will when he penned a piece about a fight between two teams that ended up with suspensions from racing.  And, I was surprised, because I don’t think of cycling as a hand-to-hand combat sport.

To begin however, we bring Jonathan Maus, editor and publisher of Bike Portland, back to TOC for a conversation about a topic that I didn’t even know was a “thing.”

Here in the Cleveland area, I am not aware of huge homeless encampments.  I am, of course aware that we have a homeless population, but it’s difficult for me to comprehend large encampments with tents, walls, and piles and piles of bikes and parts.

Which brings me to the topic – homelessness and bike theft.  Apparently, that’s a thing too and Los Angeles has even gone so far as to enact legislation to deal with the issue.

Jonathan wrote about homelessness and bike theft and the new legislation in LA for Bike Portland back in June.  But it turns out that he’s been aware of the issue – in Portland – and has been involved with helping to sort out the theft from what might just be transportation or recreation.

We talk about a few other topics too and in the second half of our conversation… well, you’ll just have to listen because there are some things happening in Portland that I don’t think are happening anywhere else – such as the “Carry Shit Olympics.”  Yep you heard that right!

(photo of Jonathan taken by Eleni Maus)

Show #356 – July 15, 2017

Guests: Jonathan Maus, NARP’s James Zumwalt + Caitlin & Victoria, Sara Dykman

First guest this evening is Jonathan Maus. He is the publisher/editor of bikeportland.org and I’ve invited him to be my guest to talk about a new law that just passed Oregon State legislature that will TAX new bikes a flat $15 fee.

We’ll find out what precipitated the tax, what the State is saying the money will be used to do, and get the cycling-side of the move. One of the issues at hand for me is that it will be contingent upon bike shops to collect the money and then… what?

We’ll speak with a trio of folks who are involved with the U.S. railroad system. James Zumwalt is the director of policy research for the National Association of Railroad Passengers and has some chilling data about what the Feds are thinking about in terms of our national passenger rail system. He will be joined by two young women, fresh out of college, who are taking the summer and the train, along with their bikes, to highlight the rail system and what it is like to take your bike on board.

Our third guest is Sara Dykman. Sara is a Kansas City native who graduated from college in 2008. Since then, she has bicycle-toured 49 states (her first summer out of school!), has traveled the length of South America, and has canoed from Montana to the Gulf of Mexico.

As if that isn’t impressive enough, she is the creator of Beyond a Book, an organization that hooks kids up with wildlife projects; the current one, Butter Bike, being a 10,000 mile solo bike trip following the migration of the Monarch Butterflies. We’ll talk with Sara in Vermont as she makes the return toward Mexico.

You can follow Sara’s trip at ButterBike!