tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24096443902224188362012-02-16T05:30:56.006-08:00Riding E Mundo: Biking as Transportation, Inspiration & RehabilitationLori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.comBlogger201100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-49262942573101442752011-12-23T17:29:00.000-08:002011-12-23T20:46:55.025-08:00

In early December, due to feeling horribly weak and achy despite all my own best efforts and the best efforts my Lyme Literate doctor in Santa Rosa, I decided to spend the holidays and the first months of 2012 in Monterey, California to work with an Infectious Disease specialist who runs an infusion clinic that I had heard of via a few of my Lyme-ridden acquaintances. Despite feeling like a bag

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-86076382643524724352011-12-05T12:00:00.000-08:002011-12-05T12:00:24.157-08:00

This video of an E-Mundo on a BMX track cracks me up. I've taken my E-Mundo off road ... on various dirt trails in Marin, it's definitely a blast. Though I do think I need to upgrade my tires to withstand the rocks and such. Amazingly I haven't had a blowout yet, but it's only a matter of time. So Kevlar tires and tubes are on my Christmas wish list. It's hard to describe how fun it is

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-87619126157395372532011-09-25T18:06:00.000-07:002011-09-26T09:48:05.607-07:00

I haven't been riding much these past months, or writing, due to feeling extra crappy health-wise. But today, upon invitation of Jelani Bertoni from The Bicycle Works, I road E Mundo into Fairfax to join other local cargo bike owners in showing off our rides at Biketoberfest Marin. It still amazes me how crappy I can feel and still feel okay going out for a spin. Even my legs feel so weak that

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-15406494990943334302011-07-07T19:33:00.000-07:002011-07-07T19:33:50.820-07:00

E Mundo and I are mentioned in Liz Canning's article, 'Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate: Electric Assist and the Cargo Bike', as found on pages 6-8 of Marin County Bicycle Coalition's Pedal Press's Summer 2011 newsletter. The whole issue is on cargo bikes in Marin, California. What a great front cover: Open publication - Free publishing - More bicycle

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-67257846090449735862011-07-02T21:55:00.000-07:002011-07-04T22:15:09.759-07:00

I haven't been riding E Mundo much so far this summer ... some short errands and visits to nearby friends, but mostly I've been feeling too crummy. Last Friday, my Lyme literate MD put me back on antibiotics once again and I biked to my local drugstore to pick up the prescription; but since then I've been herxing from that, and also threw out a floating rib. After a week of turtle-like movement

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-4888767719146432882011-04-05T20:05:00.000-07:002011-04-05T20:05:03.087-07:00

I originally began writing about my favorite bike ride for Riding E Mundo but then sent the story to Patch San Anselmo-Fairfax for publication because it brought in some issues about Lyme/tick-born disease awareness that seemed appropriate for a local news rag. Click HERE to read the story.

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-22818996461611347812011-03-20T20:40:00.000-07:002011-03-21T13:06:29.855-07:00

I ran into Michael Bock (one of the builders of my E Mundo, who took me for my E Mundo test drive) at the grocery store and he told me about his latest creation as seen above -- an electric cargo bike/produce hauler for Gather restaurant in Berkeley, CA. What a beauty!!!

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-43930087454323486752011-01-29T20:09:00.000-08:002011-01-29T20:15:33.862-08:00

I have gone through half of winter trying to make do with my various combinations of liners, gloves and shell, and nothing was really working to keep my paws warm while biking. I've had Reynode's Syndrome for decades so it is no small task to keep my fingers from becoming popsickles. Since the beginning of 2011 I've had a relapse of Lyme-related puffy, sore, red and knotty fingers. So in addition

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-8120249722977645162010-12-10T17:52:00.000-08:002010-12-10T21:40:35.776-08:00

Pictures from the December 10th, 2010 opening of the Cal Park Tunnel Big smiles from Marin County Bicycle Coalition advocates Deb Hubsmith and Andy Peri. A crowd gathered at the south end of Cal Park Tunnel for the ribbon cutting ceremony. The north end of Cal Park Tunnel (San Rafael)  

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-26701261726165494242010-10-30T14:05:00.000-07:002010-11-03T10:54:55.395-07:00

In September, after writing a story about Marin Sanitary Service's new pilot composting program, I was invited to take a tour of the MSS Dump and Recycling Center with a class of 4th Graders. When I first thought of getting an electric Mundo, I really liked the idea of taking it on photographic and journalistic field trips throughout my community. Hence I was excited to take E Mundo on a field

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-28391469450177390792010-10-25T21:51:00.000-07:002010-10-26T13:31:04.864-07:00

E Mundo's odometer currently reads 514 miles, meaning in past three months I've ridden an average of about 5.5 miles per day. I've used my car a few times since July but am still a ways from needing to put fuel in it. Given my Hyundai's gas mileage I figure I'm avoiding paying about $45 of gas every 300 miles of biking ... so the cost of the bike is being slightly mitigated. At this rate it will

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-37066972491875304862010-09-30T16:33:00.000-07:002010-10-12T21:49:19.467-07:00

A few weeks ago I took my bike in to work on at The Bicycle Works in San Anselmo and then wrote a story for the San Anselmo-Fairfax Patch about the experience. Link to the story and pictures HERE.

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-58378830644281353312010-09-23T11:12:00.000-07:002010-09-23T11:13:31.410-07:00

Proposition 23 has been given the misleading name 'The California Jobs Initiative' by its founders. It proposes a suspension of California's clean air legislation AB 32 which passed in 2006. AB 32, dubbed 'The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, 'requires that greenhouse gas emission levels in the state be cut to 1990 levels by 2020. The process of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the state

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-57800209233355661692010-09-15T12:33:00.000-07:002010-09-15T12:33:41.711-07:00

A few weeks ago I loaded up E Mundo with giveaways and rode four miles to the San Rafael Salvation Army, looking like a bag lady on a really nice bike.

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-36999722868946971592010-09-08T15:33:00.000-07:002010-09-09T10:43:57.380-07:00

 Four Mile Canyon Fires, Source: Boulder's Daily Camera Early this year, feeling nostalgic for my mountain biking days in Colorado, I searched YouTube for 'Four Mile Canyon, Gold Hill, mountain biking' and found that some hearty biker had indeed put on a helmet cam and filmed this ambitious, steep and beautiful 27 mile loop out of Boulder, Colorado. I was so very happy and grateful to see the

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-53712235282643119592010-08-29T14:16:00.000-07:002010-08-29T16:01:11.831-07:00

Two weeks into my E Mundo adventure, my body aches and headaches began to flare up. The fear that riding might exacerbate my Lyme symptoms seemed to be justifying itself. After two weeks of progress, that horrible feeling of going backwards crept in. I was increasingly achy, weak, out of breath, heart jumpy and getting out of bed in the morning and taking care of basic tasks became all the more

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-34818063718110643462010-08-21T12:15:00.000-07:002010-08-21T22:16:57.297-07:00

Nelson Ching/Bloomberg News as seen in The Washington Post The electric bike wave began in China in the 1990's. Currently Asia and Europe have the highest e-bike sales. The U.S. population has been slow on the uptake of this trend. According to the New York Times, an estimated 120 million electric bikes hum through the streets of China; and American sales only topped around a modest 200,000 in

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-44753185240800184122010-08-15T22:20:00.000-07:002010-08-20T12:15:21.352-07:00

My first real biking memory is trying to cross a road to a shopping center three miles from my home in Newport News, Virginia. I was on a yellow Schwinn Stingray … I can’t remember if I still had training wheels on at the time. Thankfully the woman who hit me had enough time to slam on her brakes and only bruised my left knee. Actually I think it was me who ran my knee into the corner of her

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-3521541176399084702010-08-11T19:49:00.000-07:002010-08-14T10:34:11.293-07:00

In less than three weeks the E Mundo has brought to the forefront various issues and fears in my life, including the fear of being weighed down, the fear of not being able to carry my own weight in the world, and the fear of getting hurt. It thus became apparent that biking would be more than simply a physical therapy or a physical yoga. The flip side of being granted an expansion of movement

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409644390222418836.post-73491942827288760442010-08-07T09:45:00.000-07:002010-08-08T21:51:50.941-07:00

Note: This post is a blog ‘cross-over’ event. It is not the end of Circumsolatious, but it is the beginning of Riding E Mundo which grew from the small seed of a $3 pair of bike shorts found on the 2010 Spring Equinox. 'E Mundo' is short for an Electric Yuba Mundo Cargo Bike. Mundo also means 'World' in Spanish. Being a fan of recycling, reusing and bargains, the Salvation Army and Goodwill are

Lori Tompkinsnoreply@blogger.com4