From the beating heart of the city, this is 102.3 FM WHIV LP New Orleans. Community Radio dedicated to social justice, human rights, and ending all wars.
This is Russell Welch, and I am from many bands you might know, the Russell Welch Hot Quartet, Jumbo Shrimp Jazz Band, Machia Lake and Little Bighorns, and you're listening to 102.3 WHIV-LP in New Orleans.
And my name is Janneke, Fietse kan ik wel, and I'm super excited to be here live in the studio. I am going to chat tonight with Mike. I met Mike.
Uh, yeah, here he comes over there. And we just walked in the studio, this is how life we are. Um, and I was gonna go play some music, but we had like minutes to go. So I was thinking, I am going to connect my Bluetooth and all that stuff, and find you some music. Um, uh, in a, in a hot second. So, uh, I normally, Mike, I'm so glad you're here. So, for everybody listening, uh, you're listening to I'll Spoken Show here on Out Spoken. I want to get more butts on bikes, because I think when we get more butts on bikes, life is better for everybody. But yeah, uh, WHIV we have, um, radio programming dedicated to human rights, social justice. So,
Um, my thought was that I have a radio show and just talk about myself and whatever happens. And then they're like, no, you can't. You just have to have a radio show about something. So I'm like, oh, I'll talk about cycling, right? I want to get more butts on bikes. I'm really, honestly, you know, that's kind of my idea that I think life will be better if that's happening. So anyway,
I just invite people left and right. So I met you at, uh, Santa's birthday party like a long time ago. Right?
Yeah. Around the holidays, whatever it was.
Yeah. And I'm like, hey, you wanna come talk me? You're like, sure. So this happened. But, uh, this is my first time, this is episode 430, I was thinking, and, uh, this is my first time that somebody had a flat tire to come to the radio show in 430 episodes. Yeah, 430 episodes. So that's pretty great.
Um, I'm sorry that you're the one that you have to have a flat tire. Are you going to bring it in or are you going to fix it yourself?
I don't know, I think I might, I think it needs a tune-up too. So I was thinking about, I was already thinking about taking it to get a tune-up because I haven't for a while. So, I'll probably take it in. I have fixed it myself before, but
I, do you feel like, I mean, I know there's like some die-hard people like, oh, you should be able to fix a flat yourself. But I think there's a difference between being able to fix a flat and fixing a flat.
Yeah. It's a lot of work. You gotta take it off. You know, you get dirty nails.
You do get dirty nails. I've fixed them before, like I know how to do it. But the last thing for me, when I looked at it was the last time I got an inner tube for it, what they charged me for the inner tube was more than what they charged to replace a tire. So it didn't make any
Oh, so I did have, uh, one of the delivery guys from Jimmy John's on the show last week, Vlad. And he was saying that he spent a lot of money on his tire, but that he drastically, uh, decreased the amount of flats that you had. But like, looking back, do you think that you drove through a bunch of debris and let it sit so it then it punctured, or like, was it just an instant nail or somebody stabbing it?
Man, I was trying to figure it out. Like, so I I rode around for and, uh, and everything was fine. So I didn't notice it. And then I stopped for a bit. Came out and I was trying to see if I could figure out what happened to it. It looked like maybe there's a piece of glass at the side. I saw like a little cut, but, you know, it's the streets of New Orleans. So there was broken glass when I was riding around. There was debris of all different kinds of things. There was a couple big like
Right. Right. Bumps that I hit. Right. Um.
So, I my my big recommendation is though, is that if you notice that you ride through glass, then stop and check your tire. And then Vlad last week was saying, well, you know, listen if that happens for something rhythmic make noise starting because then you know something is in your tire, right? The problem is is that when you have a piece of glass, when you keep on riding it, you shove it in your tire, whereas it, if it's there, it might just be still on the outside. You know, we kind of forget to go through the debris.
Yeah, I didn't, I mean, like I I thought that I'd ridden around whatever it was that was there. But there was, you know, there's some broken bottles by the convenience store. There was some like busted glass, but like cemeteries, whatever it was. So,
Right. So, all right, so flat tire now. Are you needing to get it fixed before you go ride it to work tomorrow, or do you not commute to work? Like what kind of cyclist are you? I don't really remember our conversation at all at this Santa party. I probably said, don't let's not talk about it now, just come on the radio. So, what kind of cyclist are you?
I like riding my bike. Um, I used to ride more a lot. Like early on when I first moved to New Orleans, I didn't have a car or anything like that. So I just like that was what I used to commute. Um, but I don't, that's actually one of the other things I was thinking about cause it was so nice riding until I got a flat. But, um, I don't use it to commute. I just like to go out for a ride and sometimes like a long ride. But I don't ride near as much as I used to, because it was like, however many years ago, I got hit. And then for,
It took a while before I got back on a bike. And then even still now, I'm just nervous about it cause it was, uh, I was fine, but it was a strange experience.
Like how how? I mean, uh, tell me about it. I was just riding. I was just riding along Broad Street, and I was about four blocks from my house, and I was just like, oh, thinking about something. And then I looked up the street, and like two blocks up this black SUV came peeling around the corner, and I just had a bad feeling. And I just started pedaling as fast as I could. And they still ended up like hitting. It felt like somebody put a hit out on me, basically. Like a black SUV comes peeling around the corner. I'm just like, they're coming for me. And she just like blew through the whole thing, and then hit my back tire and crushed the back tire. And I ended up like rolling into the middle of Broad Street. And luckily there was no other cars there either. So I just like sat there for a little bit. And then
Oh, that's that's so scary. I had something like that happen with the person not hitting me, but coming with a high speed. Like I heard it coming. Yeah. And she was upset about something that happened earlier with me merging from Fountainebleau onto Broad Street. And, um, I ended up chatting with Charlie Thomas from Bike Law about it, where I'm like, this is almost a, you know, like an assault with a deadly weapon. If you are trying to run me over for something that you, that you perceived that was wrong, doing wrong earlier, you know, then that seems to be like an intent. And so the same thing what you're saying about you hear this car speeding towards you, and you know that they're coming for you, that's very scary.
Yeah, but then it was like it just ended up being some, you know, 20-year-old woman, who, and then this woman, this other woman like stopped. And like for whatever reason, you know, she was visiting her parents, and she left there and blew through the stop sign and hit me. And then pulled over. And, uh, she was like, oh, I stopped at the stop sign. I didn't see you. And so I pulled over. She's like, you did not stop at that stop sign. You flew straight through it. And I was like, it was just strange. Right. You know, because it was like, did you like, were able to kind of get your damages, uh, and your suffering compensated for?
No, I mean, like I went with her dad to Walmart to buy a new bike, you know, like that was sort of it. How long ago was this? This was a while ago. Oh, yeah. Well, you should talk with Charlie Thomas. Would at least be an interesting conversation, uh, in my opinion. Because and I'm like, oh, it's so frustrating, like, how many years do we have to have bad ozone, right, before somebody decided, oh, let's go and we're going to get this acid rain situation taken care of, and we're going to change things. Right? Like, at what point do you need to say, why do we have cars that need to go so fast from zero to nothing, um, when they're driving in the city, you know, should there be limitations on how fast these machines could operate? I mean, like in the Nether, I'm from the Netherlands. And you have these little, I they're not really cars. I think they have the equivalent of some kind of moped. You're supposed to have some kind of moped license to be able to use it, but it's not like a car. But it looks like a smart car. You know, they're really one-person car. A smart car, I think, fits two. So this one only fits one person. Yeah. And it just rides around like a little box. You know, like it's a smaller golf cart that's pretty much enclosed. Anyway, a lot of people seem to be, you know, using those. They don't really go faster than maybe, I don't know, 30, maybe 35. So, but you don't need anything faster, because you're in a city, you know, you're not going to use it on the interstate. Um, anywho, my point is is that it's unfortunate that we still have this pain and suffering. So, like people being distracted, and I don't really know, and I feel frustrated because it doesn't seem like there's anything we can do to change that, you know? I mean, people make a decision.
I mean, I think it's part of it here though, it's like a cultural issue, you know? I was just out in California, and when you get close to a crosswalk there, the drivers stop. Yes. Here they don't stop for literally anything. And then we created these bike lanes, but the bike lanes just seem like target practice, because you look and there's all these like plastic things and they're all run over. You know, like people just use the bike lanes for parking or for passing lanes or, right. Whatever. So it's I mean, you know, there's no sense. I mean, it's just like I said, I've been other places where people are aware and pay attention and are doing their best to be respectful of the road, and I don't get that here. I know. And and I am glad though that you have more kids getting educated in the use of a bicycle, so that from a bicycle point of view, maybe we can show how it's done, and maybe people will start respecting the cycling group as a whole if we are all having somewhat similar behaviors. But, you know,
It's getting convoluted these days though. Like when I was riding up, I nearly got hit by a guy riding an electric bike, right? Like I barely heard it, and it was at the last second, and they like blew by me. So there's a whole other thing. And then there's other people on scooters, and like that, whatever, my thought with the scooters was with the price of gas, I just see more people looking for alternative methods of traveling, getting from one place to another. Right. Right. So you would think that you get more injuries when you go head-to-head than when you are crashing when you go in the same direction. Sure. I'm assuming, right? This is my thought, you know, based on physics. Um,
So perhaps if we are having a lot more of these vehicles, maybe the city will become easier when we're saying, you know what, we're only ever going to go in one way. There's not going to be any more two-ways, you know, make it just like things flow. Maybe a cyclist you can maybe make some exceptions, but so that you have less chances of getting head-on. Right? And if you have enough space, will the cyclist going one way and another way be easier to educate?
I don't know. Well, I don't know. Mean my my my thinking is like just to separate them as much as possible, to remove them from each other, cause I don't think this is not a fair fight. And you're leaving it to the discretion or the capabilities of individual people. Right. So, if you represent cyclists, and I represent people driving cars, what we can do is you claim a street to go for cyclists only, and then I'll claim one for cars, okay? Right. So, uh, you go first. I'm going to play some I'm going to
I claim a street. Yeah, claim a street. What street would you want? I know, I as a cyclist, I know exactly what street I think I would claim first.
Um, I don't know. Esplanade pops into mine. Which one? Esplanade. That would be a good street for cyclists. Could it potentially be cycling one way and cars and cycling the other way? The other thing it makes me think of is like in New York when they did their whole thing, like they reconfigured and took some of the intersections and made like public spaces out of them, but they put like concrete up to separate the bike lanes. Like here we just have like
Yeah. Plastic, which No, they even removed the bollards that were on Broad Street. Did you ever take Broad Street to go over? The overpass? You use it? I mean, I have, but not anytime recently. Not since they like did all these bike lanes. But, you know, Yeah, it's like it's intense. The bike lanes are pretty sus to me, cause they don't I I just when I go out for a bike ride, in my head I think of streets that have been recently paved and don't have a whole lot of cars on it. Right. So, I don't think about the bike lanes because the bike lanes are useless. I just see people like running things down and parking in the bike lane and like yelling at people. Yeah, I agree. There's a lot of streets. And I have to say, I just took Iberville today. Yeah. And that street was smooth and not a lot of stop signs, and I took it pretty much all the way from Broad, uh, maybe not quite all the way to Broad. Yeah, from Broad far up, and then I ended up taking Lafayette, which is beautiful. Mm-hm. Beautifully paved. I ended up, uh, texting my friend about it, to saying, you know, we need to take, we need to do a better job not just on looking where the roads are with the bike lanes, but looking at the roads that are not well-traveled by cars and then claiming those streets. Delachaise, I also really like, that can cut quite a bit from Uptown to Broad, you know, to get over the overpass and stuff like that. Mike, I was trying, I've been trying this whole time. I get so distracted to find us some music to play, um, while we're, I mean, like we ran into the studio. We didn't even have a chance to say, here's this, hello, welcome. Um, but if you just started tuning in, I am, um, I am here with Mike. Um, and we're ending up talking about, um, flat tires and started from there. So, because of that, now this song by Tom Waits, called Broken Bicycles, I play quite a bit, but I normally play the version of Matilda Santing. She's actually a Dutch singer, and I, um, but today, um, because I got Mike here, I am going to use the Tom Waits version, because I can't always play the same song, you know? Um, so here's Broken Bicycles by Tom Waits, and we'll be back with more Out Spoken here in WHIV LP New Orleans.
(Music plays)
WHIV is supported in part by OffBeat Magazine at offbeat.com. And I have for you the Band Beat of tonight. It is today my mother's birthday. Congratulations. Uh, it is March 31st. April Fool's Day tomorrow. Um, we can ask Mike about if this is going to be his April Fool's joke about having the flat tire tomorrow. But then it's not a joke at all, Mike. I'm so sorry.
Um, so yeah, if you head out now, uh, Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro's hosting Stanton Moore Trio starting at 7:30. Well, 7:30 at the Preservation Hall, the Preservation All-Stars will be on the stage. Santana, the 2026 Oneness Tour at the Saenger Theater at 7:30, while Paradise Jazz Band is at the stage at the Maison Restaurant and Music Club at 8:00. Fritzel's All-Star Band with Mel Sharif at the Fritzel's European Jazz Club at 8:00, while Double Bird featuring Peter Harris, Ashling Parker, Pedro Segundo and BC Coogan, uh, will be at the stage at 8:00 at the Bayou Bar at the Pontchartrain Hotel. The Wedding Present with Marc Robinson sings Unrest at Gasa Gasa at 8:00, while at Dos Jefes, the stage will be, um, all present with Tom Hook there at 8:30. Uh, Preservation All-Stars at the Preservation Hall at 8:45, while Nisibi and Company will be at stage at 30/90 Degrees starting at 9:00. KDB in the Hammydowns and Bamboula's at 9:00, while BJ's Lounge in the Bywater is hosting Bruce's Button Up Open Mic at 9:00. Clown Fis Presley with Ivy and the Strange Band and King King Siki Billy at Siberia at 9:00, while Stan More Trio going to continue at the Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro at 9:30. And then continuing at the Bayou Bar at the Pontchartrain Hotel, you'll find on stage Double Bird featuring Peter Harris, Ashling Parker, Pedro Segundo and BC Coogan at 10:00. That, my friends, was your band beat for tonight. More information including content, original videos and photos can be found at offbeat.com. So my name is Janneke. I got Mike in studio. Welcome Mike to being here chatting with me today. Thank you. Um, so,
While you were talking about crashing, you know, Yeah. Uh, you had mentioned that you are still experiencing some nervousness now while you're getting out on the bike. Yeah. I don't ride near as much as I used to. Like I used to go out and, um, after that I didn't like, um, the woman's dad or whatever, I bought bought me a new bike. Yeah. Um, but I didn't ride it. I maybe rode it when I first got it just to check it out. But then I kind of This is the one that you just got the flat tire on? No, that's a whole different one. That's a whole other story. Um, the one that, uh, he got me, I don't even remember it, cause I never really use it. I just sort of left it and then somebody eventually stole it. Right. And so I don't feel like I really wanted it or something like that. Like I never used it. Then I kind of just left it out and didn't really lock it up and it took a surprisingly long time for somebody to actually take it. Like a couple years. Right. Well, that is something good. I mean, it was fairly clear that you were not using it, so did somebody steal it or somebody gave it a better home? Yeah, I mean, it's fine. Like I said, I was like, I just Right. So, I didn't have any, I didn't have any connection with it. Right. The one bike that I loved, that's like the one thing was, uh, it wasn't that one. It wasn't the one I got hit on. This one was like one I lost in a fire. But there used to be on Tulane like a place that was like Joe's Lawn and Bike, and so they had like lawn care stuff. And they had bikes. Right. They had these really cool bikes. And so it was like this one that had flames on the tires and ghost flames on it. It was a big cruiser with disc brakes and all that. But that one burned. Like the whole place burned down? Yeah, it was in like a it was in my garage, and the garage caught on fire and it was in there and it burned. Well, you know what, Yes, I have noted coming to the United States that there's a lot of lawn places or like these lawn mower and bicycle repair shops. You don't see it as much as as I used to, but maybe I'm not traveling as much because I'm just staying in New Orleans, and we have enough of a crowd for people to really have their own bike shops. This, I mean, this place isn't there anymore. It was like I and I don't even know if it's around. There's a place that's like Joe's, whatever, that's out in Metairie. Oh, yeah. Now, but they had like really cool bikes. And I haven't even seen bikes like those ones in any other stores. Have you seen some of the What it sounds like, is some of those stretch bikes that some of those It was kind of like that, except it was more like a cruiser. It wasn't all really long. It was just a really nice one. Super fat tires. Right. And, uh, yeah, it was nice. Yeah. Is what I bought after Katrina. And so I was like staying at a friend's house, and I didn't have anything. And I remember, I don't know, I spent like $380 or something on that bike, which was a decent amount for me at that point in time. Right. And I didn't know where my life was going, or what was happening. But I took it like after I got it, and I rode it for like two or three hours. And I was and just felt the wind and everything. And I was like, I don't, if I never get a chance to ride this bike again, or get stolen or whatever, like, it was worth every dollar just that one day to ride around for a couple hours. Right. And you lost some in the fire? Hmm? That's the one you lost in the fire? Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like you're still grieving that a little bit. Well, I was like, I would get another bike like that if I could have found one at the time, you know. Well, I'm saying, like, I get that, right? But I don't think it's fair to to put because it's so much not just the bike, it's also the time that you have that bike, right? You're going to be in different stages in your life, you know, the whole thing about Katrina, you know, of, where are we, you know, what do we have? You know, there's a different relationship with stuff at that point because there was not that much distraction elsewhere around town. And so, I could see, and I'm not saying that this is the case, but I'm just making a point to say that sometimes trying to chase the bicycle that you had at another time is maybe never going to be fulfilling because it is now. You know? Like, if you have all these other bikes coming up that are faster, don't we like have to go in the rat race and go faster, and overtake the streets and have like super highways, where like I just have to, now I have a job, right? Where, uh, so I used to be a bike commuter, where I would bike to work all the time. And then I got to a point where I had to drive my car two times a week. And now it's looking like I have a job where I have to go drive my car five days a week, and then two days out of the week, I drive with clients in a car. And then for the other job, I'm going to be driving all over the Northshore and Southshore all the time. So, it's going to be, it's going to be at the point where it's tonight, I need to take my bike rack off because it's too heavy and it's going to take too much gas, you know? Um, so I'm realizing that that's going to be terrible. Yeah. So I want to maybe I'm realizing I need to finally get on this whole riding an electric bike. Not necessarily to the Northshore, but when I have to go to Elmwood, you know, can I potentially put my car at work and just take my bicycle and ride my bike to work? And if I have to go to the Northshore, at least I get a bike ride in the morning. I mean, you could, you know. I thought something about that actually today when I was riding around with my office in the Lower Garden District. And it's like I could ride over there easy enough. Yeah. Um, that's not the issue. It's it's more like sweating when it gets hot out. Like, Yeah, but what time do you go to work? Because I would get to work in like 8 o'clock. It was nice to go in at 7:30. So in the morning the sun is not really up, and there's a lot of shade from the houses. And as long as you move I would just take little shorts, little tank, and then go to work. And then by the time I would get to work, by the time the the hottest moment was walking from the bike to the building. Right. Where the rest of the time, it was lovely. It was lovely. And by the time you come home, you go back, you take your shirt off, you ride home, you have to maybe have a hat for some shade. If you're lucky, you're going with the sun in the back. So you're not really having problems with the sun is hitting your face. And then by the time you come home, you're like, yeah, it feels like I'm on vacation. I can highly recommend it. If the distance, like most of the time people don't really have to go that far. My problem is that now I'm all over the place. Right. First world problems, really. Truly changing. Do you think there's going to be a more push to get people to come live within the city limits and get things closer, so that we can maybe have more people go back to streetcars, buses? Like if you had your way, would you want to have the streetcar return, like on some of the old streets that they have, like Magnolia had a streetcar and, I mean, in my head, I was like a romantic ideal, sure, but how much do I actually use the streetcar? I don't really use the streetcar. Right. You know. I think I think as far as like people returning to the city, there's a lot of, it's been happening organically in between the baby boomers and millennials or whatever. Both want to be in a walkable place where you go to a cafe and get a cup of coffee, and you can walk to your grocery store or whatever it is. So, there's that. There's a move back from the suburbs. And I think that the price of gas is going to continue to exacerbate these things. And then the other side of it is that all of the infrastructure, there's this whole other group that's like smart towns or something like that. And their whole, what they basically say is like all the old infrastructure, all the stuff that's in the core of the city, you, the tax revenue generated from those, has to basically support the suburbs and everything. Because the density of those ones in the downtown, there's multiples, for every dollar, whatever, of infrastructure, you're getting back $8, let's say, of revenue, whereas out in the suburbs for every dollar of like pipes and electrical lines, you're getting back 20 cents or something. Yeah, it's terrible. It's terrible. And the other thing about those places is that like, you know, and we're probably at that threshold, like 50 years, 60 years. We did all this stuff, and there was money on the front end to build all these things out, but there's not necessarily the money to maintain it. Maintain it. Not just maintain it. It was built for vehicles that were not as heavy as, let's say, school buses and UPS trucks. Or just even the number of them. Right. Sheer number, exactly. The roads. So, if the vibration is shaking the houses, it is going to be shaking those old pipes. Right? I think we should say, if we want to not have the city have to fix everything reactionary to some, you know, leakage, to say, you know what, let's stop. And we can have a lot more people bringing, you know, packages around in these little cargo bikes, you know. But then it's like, well, where do you get the people that want to ride in the summer? But if you don't have to spend all the money on the repair of the city, then you can spend, uh, a lot more people giving money, right? Like in Ireland, I think it was where they said, they're going to give a basic salary to 2000 artists for three years. And then after three years, another 2000 artists can, uh, apply to get this basic, uh, income. And it's not a lot. I think it's like 350 bucks a month or something, right? But it will at least take some of the pressure off where they can make some more decisions. You know, they can make that decision and say, you know, we do that for the same, you know, let's see how it's going. I mean, there's so many people that want to stay active and go to the gym and do hot yoga, why not ride a bicycle and deliver packages? And like, you know, or sit in the car, drive around delivering packages, and then go to the gym to kind of get your exercise. You know, it's kind of like a Anyway, I don't know. If I had my way, uh, if I could be dictator, then I would say I would probably make a lot of changes that would be very rigorous in the way of slowing down the time, and where we can be productive in shorter amounts of time. We don't have to work 40 hours a week, we can get the job done probably in 20. You know? But we don't get paid, we don't want to get paid for 20, so we work 40 hours. But really, we can be more efficient, then work less, have the same salary, be happier, be outside more, be healthier, be less cranky, have less crime, have less issues. You know, doesn't that sound so great? I should play some music because I mean, it does, but it, but it makes me think of like the whole AI revolution and robots and everything else like that. Like, is that, is that the ideal of it? Like I don't think we started the whole industrial revolution to just everybody be working all the time and tied to these machines and being cogs in a machine. So, is it like, these things are will do the things that we don't want to do? Or, is it all a ruse? You know? As it just going to be the the few people that are the investors in this that are going to benefit from it, and automation and everything else like that, and everybody else is just going to be out of work? Right. Right. And so, with this automation, that's I mean, from that point of view, right? Everybody really should get the basic, the basic income. Well, that's what I was thinking like so just the other day I was going down North. And we could have. We can with the amount of money that people are making. We probably already all can have a basic income, and people still make money. And then we all do our jobs, you know, to make society work the way we wanted in these 20 hours or less or something. Because I do not want to go back and do nothing but pick berries, and go hunting. You know, it's nice that there's restaurants and places to eat. Well, that sort of brings up what you're talking about with the artists. Like, would we be creating more art? Would we do things that are innately human versus things that are more tied to industry? Well, if you have That part I don't, that part I don't know. Or would it just be, would we just have like more addiction? No, I think I think they've done some studies where they had maybe mice or rats or something. And they gave rats an option to be have as much cocaine. I don't know what kind of drug it was. Probably cocaine. And then have as much access to that. Like water laced with stuff, probably. And then they have as much access to that while they had also access to a huge play space with lots of things that were stimulating and interesting. And then you had rats that were in a place that had only had cocaine water. And so, of course, the rats with only the cocaine water, that's what they did. And they laid there and they did nothing. But on the other place, with a lot of stuff going on, that cocaine water was just left behind, right? Because they didn't need that to get their happiness and endorphins and dopamine and seratonin and, you know, how it all works, um, out of that. So, if we don't have to work all the time and you're not tired of going from this job to that job, to helping out grandma with the caregiving and doing this and getting groceries and cleaning your house and, you know, then we would maybe have more energy to say, I'm going to ride my bike, and I'm going to meet up with my friend Susie, and we're going to go roller skating, or, you know, we're going to learn how to make, you know, whatever masks from cardboard. Yeah. I mean, I think I I like the idea, but I just don't know if that's how it's going to pan out. Well, I'm hoping that in this conversation with you, Mike, that today somebody's listening and it goes like, you know what, I think I should ride my bike. This is what I'm hoping for. Um, I don't know. What I'm going to do today is I'm going to take my bike rack down off my bike after I drop you lift, because you get your flat tire. Right. And then I'm going to take it off because it will help save a bunch of money in gas prices by not having such a heavy rack on my car. Um, and I would be lighter, so I'm doing less damage to the roads, um, and going from there. Right. So, how are you addressing, going back to your nervousness. How, how are you addressing your tension that you experience on the bike? And then while you contemplate that a little bit, I'm going to try and find us a little bit more music to play in just a little bit. You're listening to Out Spoken, y'all, by the way, here on WHIV. We are not a radio station with a mission, we are a mission with a radio station. And if you have tuned in, you know my mission is to get more butts off bikes. Or that's my hope for the future. Um, so Mike, think about this. And, um, what I'm going to do is I am going to, uh, I don't really know what I want to play at all. Oh, this is a very beautiful song. Um, but maybe this one would be more fitting. Um, here we go. Pedal Your Blues Away by R. Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders.
(Music plays)
Woohoo! That was, um, R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders here on Out Spoken, a show about all aspects of cycling. My name is Janneke, Fietse kan ik wel, and I got Mike in the studio. Um, thank you so much for being here. Sure. Um, so we started out talking about your flat tire, and if you were going to go patch it, and we got, I probably railroaded the conversation. Uh, have you kind of made a decision what you're going to do? Fix it or bring it in? I was saying I'll probably bring it in, I'm thinking, cause the bike needs to get a tune-up. You did say that. Yeah, good. Um, I got a new bike, and then they say like, you need to bring it back because the riding and stuff knocks things loose. Well, I I didn't do that, and then I crashed my bike. And then I kind of kicked it back together. And, uh, when I go down the street, it's ter it's terrible. When you hear me on that bike making all the noise, and all that stuff, they're like, oh no. No, not that woman. Um, yeah, it's kind of pitiful. Maybe that's why I'm hesitant to buying a really nice bike, because, you know, am I going to be good enough to that bike, you know? Like what you were saying about being worried about that nice bike, it get stolen. Yeah. Yeah. Um, the other thought that I had, that I think would be good to share, because if we're talking about electric bikes and more people going to use those, right? Just like a helmet. If you have a helmet and you fall, you should get a new helmet because you can't guarantee that the helmet's working anymore, because you've crashed. And so, if you have had a electric bike and the battery has fallen, it could be that the damage that you have in the bike in the in the in the battery will increase the chances of it sparking and causing a fire. Um, so, watch out with your battery, uh, equipment. You know, if you know there's a lot of people in your house, make sure that when they are charging those bikes, um, not between you and the outside. You know, a lot of people put it away in the hallway and say like, oh, we're not going to put it in the way, here we're going to charge our bike. Uh, it would be very unfortunate to get trapped between that flaming electric bike. Um, I know, it's also somber. People like listening, you're like, I don't want to ride my bike. Uh, but it is beautiful. If you didn't have a flat tire. Did you have a good ride coming to your destination today, though? Yeah, it was great. It's kind of a bummer. I, so instead of me bringing a, uh, car with a thing, I should have brought you like something to fix your tire. Yeah, I might have something at home. I have not fixed a tire at home in so long that the other day when I was going to, I recognized that the glue in the tube was pretty much evaporated. Oh, yeah. So, you know, like, well, that's great. How much money did I spend on this? And then how many times did I use it? And now when I need to use it, you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It seems like when I'm riding, I haven't gotten one in a while. But, uh, do they have tires that are like, can't get punctured? I guess that was one of the things that I was wondering about today. Well, so I've seen the recommendation to put a liner in, right? And you could use an old tube to put an extra liner inside. Oh, yeah. But and then there's tires that are of high quality that you're not supposed to puncture very easily. And then I've seen in some places where they talk about having like a flat on the way back, or like on a ride, and you fix it, and you know that you have a problem in the tube itself, or in the tire, that you could put a folded up dollar would be the cheapest paper. Which is not paper, right? So if you fold that over, that could maybe protect you at that point. Not that I'm saying you should line your tire with money, you could also just get the extra stuff. Right. But yeah, but but this is my point. Like, Okay, I've not had a flat tire for a while. And I did maybe not get the cheapest tire. However, I don't think I have that great of a stuff. I think what's helping me is to stop before I continue going, and to make sure that I'm not driving the glass further into my tube. Phew! Phew! Bless you. Thank you. Anyway. Um, I mean, I, I, I, I have a mountain bike at least. Like I wouldn't have, uh, you know, a nice, whatever, like 10-speed or something here with really skinny tires. What do you mean? Like, you Oh, you think it would be easier to get a flat tire on those tires? Yeah, I feel like, like the little thin racing tires or whatever. Yeah, but it's still with the same principle. I mean, you can get a flat tire because something is puncturing, or you can get a flat tire because you don't have enough air in your tires. And you're hitting something hard, and then your tube gets sponched between the rock and the rim. Yeah, but those ones don't have any tread on them. Like the mountain bike tires have like Oh, I see what you're saying, because it seems like there'd be some clearance in between the actual inner tube. Right. I also feel that there's a lot of spaces in the road where your tires could get into. Like some of the, I never thought about it, because I never really rode one of those bikes. But if you see the vent or the rain grates on Broad, you know, I wonder if they have to bunny hop over that. All that stuff. Streetcar tracks. You know. Um, all right, listen, this is what I think we're going to do. I'm going to play some music, and then I really want to hear about what we can do to help people overcome their confidence so that we can get more butts on bikes. Um, so potentially, what I'm going to do is I'm going to play some music. And this is a song, Bicycle by the BC Unidos. I have no idea how to really pronounce that the right way. So here we go. We'll be right back, y'all, with more, uh, Out Spoken.
(Music plays)
Yeah. Become a member of 102.3 WHIV FM today. We are 100% volunteer run, and your tax deductible donation would go a long way in helping us continue to shine a light on human rights and social justice issue. Visit whivfm.org and click donate to become a member or to make a generous donation. While you're there, visit our online store for cool gear from 102.3 WHIV FM. We're not a radio station with a mission. We are a mission with a radio station, and all wars. So yeah, I am super happy that I'm here on Tuesdays, 7 to 8. Talk about all things cycling. Today, Mike was like, sure, I'll come in the studio. And, uh, so I really appreciate you coming. Um, before we get head out, uh, we get the Blues Crusade coming at 8 o'clock. So I hope you stay tuned in listening to more music here on WHIV. Um, but Mike, you were mentioning something about that you feel some nervousness from that crash that you had. Sure. Um, and so, what are you doing or how does it bother you? What do you, how does it manifest when you go out there? One of those I mean, it's it's gotten less over the course of time. But like I sort of mentioned before, before I go riding, and depending on where I'm going, I, uh, plan out a way to go that's going to avoid any large streets, busy streets, and things like that. And, um, that's sort of the main thing is what's, unlike what I would do before, which is like if I wanted to go for a bike ride, I just go and hop on my bike. Now I'm like, well, where am I going and how am I going to get there? And then, um, if I'm on a street and it's just too busy or too chaotic, I'll just either stop riding or I'll find a different route. And I sort of do the things that makes me think about, um, this person was like that studied martial arts or whatever. They talked about walking between the raindrops. And so I have this idea like maybe if I time things right and everything's right. So I go out there and, you know, if I go and I ride to the gym, which is like a 10-minute bike ride, and I go on a route where I pretty much don't run into any cars and I don't have to stop to cross a road. I was like, I took the right route at the right time. So just things like that. Yes. But that shows, to me, that shows that you're a cyclist. Like I don't think a cyclist, like in the Netherlands, we have a cyclist and you have somebody that's using a bicycle, like a bicyclist. Right. And a cyclist is somebody that in general goes really fast and has like the special gear and the special bike. Well, everybody else is using the bike just like everybody else in the Netherlands where you go to school, to work, to the bar, to the store, whatever, you know? And, um, but since I'm here, I think a cyclist is somebody that knows where's the shade, where's the street without pot holes, you know, where's the street without any roads. And, uh, without any, like, traffic that is heavier than, you know, a small car maybe. And I think that when you get introduced to a city without using a car, I think it's sometimes hard to envision yourself going places outside of the routes that you take by that car. Yeah, I mean, that's one of the thoughts that I had just riding around today on the ride that I took. It was like, I go in ways that I wouldn't go in a car. Yeah. Because it's the exact opposite, right? When I go in a car, I go in like the quickest way, and it's usually the busiest one and the biggest street. I'm doing the exact opposite when I ride on a bike. So then I see things that I've not normally exposed to. And that's one of the things that I like about it, is novel about it. And there's a certain, the other thing is like, I don't like jogging or anything like that. You know, because you can't coast. You can't put some energy into it, and then just sort of coast for a while and like look around. You know, if you're doing that running, you just fall flat on your face. So, it's to say like the speed of riding a bicycle is, like I did a lot of video work and production work for a while. And it's kind of like a nice speed for a tracking shot in a movie. It's like a movie about Basquiat. And I remember my friend telling me about it, and he's like, it's just like when I go riding around on my BMX bike, because there was a lot of shots, uh, that seemed like they were taken like on a bike. Or the speed and pace of it was like that. So it's a really nice way. And then you're like, all of your senses. That's the other thing, like all of your senses are engaged. So, the other reason it's like, it's sort of the flip side of things is that also like I have nervousness to ride a bike, but also if I'm feeling anxious, or kind of like wound up about some things, and I go for a bike ride, I just completely there in that place. Right. So, that's probably keeps me coming back to it. Well, and a lot of these, you know, these feelings we have, right? Feeling better, going to the gym. You have those after the fact, right? Feeling better after the bike ride. So, uh, yes. Hopefully it will help you get maybe in the mode of using some of those on some of the earlier days before summer. And, uh, recognize the benefit of having used all your senses before you even get to work, you know? And be like super sharp, so that you can get that job done in four hours. And then, you know, you can twiddle, twiddle. I don't know. Have a meeting here, and a meeting there, and a meeting here. And then go to a conference, and, you know. That's what the thing is, right? We're all going to go to conferences. Hmm. I know. Anyway. Um, listen, I'm going to play some more music. I'm going to let this conversation be the conversation. I really do want to thank you quite a bit for coming, uh, today to chatting with me, Mike. Sure. Thank you. And, uh, I potentially run into you in other places around town. Who knows? Um, what I'm going to do is I'm going to play this, um, well, we only have like a few minutes. So I should play a short song. Why don't I just play Kimya Dawson with her song, I Like My Bike. Um, because the Blues Crusade is pretty much, uh, on its way in the next few seconds, y'all. You've been listening to WHIV LP New Orleans. Good night, everybody.
(Music plays)