Charlie and Mamachari

Borrowing a bicycle…
Charlie: I need to pop down to the shops.
Hiroshi: うん、いいよ。うちの二台目の自転車、使っていいよ。Use my Mama-chari.
Charlie: A what? Sorry—did you say mama Charlie? My name?
Hiroshi: ちがうよ！ママチャリ。Mama-chari. Not your name! Means “mother’s bike”.
Charlie: Oh, like a shopping bike? Does it have gears?
Hiroshi: 三段だけ。でも坂道はちょっときついよ。Have basket and gears three.
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Voice-over
A totally practical Japanese bicycle… ママfor mother, チャリ short for charinko, link to “chariot” undetermined.

English bicycle tyre valves and hot weather

Pick up at the airport…

Émile: How was the trip?

Filippo: The usual. Crises unfolding just as the hour of departure enters the 24 hour to go window. Happen to you?

Émile: Always. Some things never change. What went wrong this time?

Filippo: Wasn’t a full-blown melt-down. Pressure during the final week. Finish classes. Packing the boxes…

Émile: Ah. The fifty boxes of your life. Jacques emailed me.

Filippo: Ran out of boxes, found several more but then the rear tyre valve rubber perished and leaked so I had to push the bike home.

Émile: In the summer heat, yes. The “eishiki barubus” do that.

Filippo: Finished packing the last box and rushed to the airport, no time for a shower.

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Voice-over

英式バルブ. Aka known as English valves, Dunlop or Woods valves. Change every year to prevent them perishing in the heat. Used in Japan but not in England despite the name.

Is an e-bike a monstrosity?

At the bicycle rack…

Simplicity itself

Matthew: Ian Bogost writing in The Atlantic calls an e-bike a monstrosity.

Joseph: And is it?

Matthew: Well, it is a hybrid machine. It is neither a bicycle, nor a motorcycle.

Joseph: But surely it sometimes achieves the best of both worlds?

Matthew: Yes, an e-bike can take you further, go faster, and carry more than a regular bicycle. But electric assistance moves one level of engagement between human and machine.

Saddled with clutter

Joseph: I see you like green bikes.

Mathew: Sure. It’s one of the ways to support Zelensky. And the planet.

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Voice-over

Sometimes an article is written to provoke, others are written tongue-in-cheek. But Ian’s piece seems serious. The automation of machines that move us is separating us from them. And it may be so. Perhaps that’s why I like to alternate between a bicycle and an e-bike. It’s the schizophrenia of my generation.

Buying a bicycle or a bed?

Piazza chat…

Rusty: Last I heard you were thinking of buying a new bicycle.

Roy: Too late for that now. Decided to buy a bed.

Rusty: Bit of a step backwards from getting fit, isn’t it?

Roy: Perhaps. But it might be less dangerous and it might help getting a better sleep.

Rusty: So, the bicycle is to be ridden, the other is for when you are bed-ridden. How about an electric chair next?

_________

Voice-over

The cost is similar. Both are electric. The bicycle is battery-assisted for pedalling. The bed has electric motors to raise and lower it. The electric chair referred to is likely the one with a back massage function rather the terminate function type.

Bicycle hybrid gears

Recalling teenage bike-hood

Henry: We’d take out the innards of the hub, replace the grease with light oil so the gears would turn faster and then…

James: And then?

Henry: We’d add a derailleur set to extend the gearing. So we could cope with the hills.

James: Like having a granny cog? Tell me, did you ever scrape the paint off the frame to make it lighter?

Henry: Oh yes. Began there after turning the handlebars upside down.

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Voice-over

Many geared bikes in the 50s came with a Sturmey-Archer hub. Three-speed, though there was a four-speed too. Didn’t need much maintenance, but Henry, having an inquisitive mechanical intelligence took the wheel off, went past the locknut and into the hub itself. Then squeezed a derailleur cog cluster into the back wheel chain stay dropouts. 

Yearning to Ride a Unicycle

A long-held desire…

Trevor: Why would you want to ride a unicycle? At your age.

Cecil: When I was ten I saw a town parade. Floats to celebrate spring blossoms, to usher in a good apple season.

Trevor: Floats?

Cecil: A platform mounted on a truck carrying a display. Many of them were local companies advertising their products. The big float was decked with blossom decorations and carried the annual blossom queen.

Trevor: A shapely young female presumably?

Cecil: Exactly. But in front of the float the town band played, pipers marched behind, and alongside young men on unicycles wobbled along. I was in awe that they could balance on one wheel.

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Voice-over

The Hastings Blossom Festival marks the beginning of spring and the growing season. Of course the floats are the main attraction but some seem to be attracted by the sideshows.

Gone up a mountain

An absent friend, Peregrine…

William: He’d been talking about buying a bag for his bicycle for a few days. Seems he was off on a train and cycle journey.

Wayne: Where did he go?

From a T-shirt

William: He just vanished. A text from him on Friday: “I tried to buy a ticket online to Suwa. I thought ordering it online a QR code would be sent to my phone. Nope, had to pick up the ticket from the station. So much for the speed of booking travel by train online.”

Wayne: And nothing since?

William: I sent a bunch of cartoons like “Never underestimate an old man with a mountain bike.” He hasn’t even checked his messages.

Wayne: Must be enjoying being out of Tokyo.

William: Or fallen off.

___________

Voice-over

Being an inveterate traveller and stranded for 16 months must be hard. Where Peregrine pre-pandemic would be on a flight every two weeks his recent wanderings have been no more than 30 kilometers by bicycle. But even Tokyo’s bike trails have palled evidently, the mountains call. Bit like the grand old duke of York, marching up and then marching down, with a train speeding the intrepid to the site, bike bagged.

Caveats for Electric Bicycles

Out cycling in the hills…

Émile: Rather like the idea of an electric bicycle. I see even women with a child on the back flying up hills.

André: Unless you forget to charge it.

Émile: Yes, I’ve heard there are drawbacks. Like the limited range.

André: A purchase that can be deferred.

_________

Voice-over

It does feel zingy to whizz away on a dendo. But there are factors like the cost, battery life, maintenance, repairs and even manufacturing being an environmental problem.

Cycling to the Hospital

Seeking advice…

Eddie: You’ve taken the train into town recently. Was it crowded?

Louis: A bit. And that was at 10:30. Off peak.

Eddie: So that’s why you bicycle everywhere now.

Louis: You get used to it. It’s only 20 kilometers to town. An hour and a half.

charging bicycle lamp

Eddie: I can do that.

Louis: When do you need to be there? 

Eddie: Hospital checkup at 9 am.

Louis: Early start.

Eddie: Yes. Maybe 6:30. So I’ll need a new light and a seat.

Louis: Cheaper than driving and paying for parking. And think of your carbon footprint.

_________

Voice-over

Preparing the bicycle brought pleasant ecological surprises. A gel seat cover and a light that can be recharged by USB.

Bicycle under a Persimmon

Painting a persimmon tree…

Instructor: Simple.
Learner: Yes. In keeping with my watercolor skill level.
Instructor: Does it have a meaning?
Learner: It does. I’m painting the tree but it reminds me of when I got my first bicycle I’d park it under the persimmon tree in the garden.
_________
Voice-over
Boyhood bicycle-hood memory from 60 years ago. The boy in him recalled the bicycle, while the septuagenarian appreciates the tree. Vision is fusion.

The bicycle as a cultural horse

a caffè della bicycletta...

a Fabriano

.

Paolo:  Un caffè amico mio?

.

Akira: Grazie. Caffetteria interessante.

.

Paolo: Coffee sellers used to sell from bicycles. In the poor times. After the war.

.

Akira: And I hear all kinds of trades were carried on from the back of bicycles.

.

Paolo: It was a kind of cultural horse.

.

a Koganei

Akira: Did you name the bicycles?

.

Paolo: Famous bicycle names are Bianchi, Colnago and Pinarello. But these are racing brands.

.

Akira: Japanese bicycles carry names that are often puzzling. Stylish Space, Ocean Kara.

___________

Voice-over

A random walk through a bicycle park near a Japanese station reveals the following names on bicycles in a row. Perhaps they are chosen to evoke a feeling.

Stylish Space, Athletic Works, Bobby Town, StepCruz, Anyone, Ocean Kara, OffTime…

...

Low-tech high-tech visit to Linnaeus Hammarby

A summer place

On visiting a remote farm out of Uppsala…

Carl: A serene place, silent but for bees buzzing. Bit awkward to get to though. Bus runs twice an hour and the bus stop 40 minutes walk from the farm.

Lars: So how did you get there? 

Carl: Rented a bike from the Bangladeshi cyclery near the bibliotek. 

Lars: You could find the way?

GPS route to Linnaeus Hammarby

Carl: Used GPS on the phone.

Lars: How long did it take?

Carl: 90 minutes going, 45 minutes coming back.

Lars: Why the difference? 

Carl: Going there I had to keep stopping to read the GPS map. Coming back I knew the way, and didn’t need to stop. Headed for the cathedral towers.

Lars: GPS wastes time? 

Carl: Not at all. Couldn't have found Hammarby easily without it.
__________
Voice-over
GPS mapping is a boon to those who have an unreliable internal compass. But beware dropping the phone to read the GPS, or flattening the battery through frequent checking to see you’re on the right cycle track. And it didn’t predict road construction. But cycling through the silent Swedish countryside recalls wild strawberries. Aah!

...

Premium Rush Flashbacks

Fixed Gear, No Brakes

Fixed Gear Afficionado Enthusiasm…

Cyclo: Fixed gear cycle action sequences…! Whizzing this way and that.

Crito: But the story is confusing. It jumps back in time, then forward.

Cyclo: That reflects bike messenger’s lives. Here, there, everywhere.

Crito: You like bikes. So you like the movie. You identify with it.

Cyclo: Not entirely. I DO have a brake on my bike. I can’t do Wilee.

_________

Voice-over

Are jump-cuts and flashbacks easy to follow?

Overused, they upset the narrative flow.

Each time you get a flashback, it’s like having to restart a story.

Even when it seems to reflect the way a fixed gear fanatic feels and wheels his way through the streets.

But see it. It’s a twisty bit of time travel and a wry wrestle!

...