[via Bike Skirt]

When Sturmey met Archer

Hours of idle distraction can be found at the [Sturmey-Archer Historical Archive][].

Utility bikes in days of yore

Museum of Tradesman's Delivery Bikes [twitterer]

Ride, ladies, ride

Why we need more women on two wheels:

Many a female cyclist will have gone into her local bike shop, been blinded by the racks of fluorescent fabrics and wondered if it would ever be possible to buy cycling gear that wouldn't make her look as if she had been attacked by a highlighter pen.

Design house Cyclodelic gets a big boost in the article, and Cyclechic is playing in a similar space. At a quick glance both company's stuff looks pretty good. [twitterer]

Meanwhile Beauty and the Bike is looking at the ups and downs of cycling for teenage girls:

Being happy cyclists ourselves, we realized that girls and women in Britain rarely use a bicycle, whilst a bike is a must for teenagers in many other European countries. So we decided to document the individual reasons, cultural backgrounds and political constraints on a human being's decision about how to get from A to B.

Looks interesting.

[insert place here] Cycle Chic

Stephen Crawford's Japanese Cycle Chic. Those Japanese cyclists seem to really love small-wheeled bikes.

Dude, that's a wheelchair

GM and Segway working on new balancing two-wheeler P.U.M.A. project Umm, bike lane, car lane or footpath for this one? [twitterer]

The whole problem with the original Segway is that it didn't "own" a problem: what could you do on a Segway that you couldn't do (generally more cheaply) on foot or bike or by car? The P.U.M.A. also looks like being another gee-whiz tech solution without a clearly defined problem to own. What does it do that a wheelchair doesn't do? But I wish them well and hope it finds its niche.

Adelaide cyclists a bunch of Nings

Adelaide Cyclists is now on the Ning.com network, along with Melbourne Cyclist and Sydney Cyclist.

Designed to be motorised

The A2B looks like a bike that's been designed specifically for it's electric motor—that ain't no bolt-on after thought.

Fitch and Flanders

Adrian Fitch is back from the Tour of Flanders—check out those cobblestones.

Mutual respect

In his Guest Editorial at Bike Portland Roger Geller expresses a view that I share:

When I think of cycling courtesy I think most often of people walking. Always yield to people on foot. They generally always should receive the right-of-way when there is the potential for bicycle-pedestrian conflict. Stopping in the presence of meanderers — especially the old and the young — is never a bad option. What does it cost you: a couple of seconds? What does it gain? Mutual respect and absence of confrontation

Let's swap

On a related topic, there was an interesting article in The Scotsman this week:

Cyclists and bus drivers have never been known as the best of friends as they vie for position on the Capital's roads.

But the often tense relationship could be about to improve, thanks to an "eye-opening" journey by the head of Lothian Buses.

Ian Craig, the company's managing director, saddled up for a 45-minute tour of the city centre ahead of a meeting with cycling lobby group Spokes, filming his trip along the way.

…

"The experience was pretty revealing – it opened my eyes to the challenges that cyclists face, which are clearly significant.

"The focus for me wasn't just on bus drivers. It was about experiencing what the city centre traffic is actually like for cyclists. I wouldn't single out any particular group of motorists, but I saw behaviour ranging from the very courteous to that which was frightening."

A few more such swaps—in both directions—could go a small way towards getting better understanding on the roads.

DIY

Ommmmmmmmm

Here are a few bicycle meditations, of which this one naturally caught my eye. I had already taken to responding to motorist aggression with polite and cheerful waving, and now I know why.

Charles Ponzi would be proud

US Transportation System Revealed to be Giant Ponzi Scheme. Nice one. [via Bike Portland]

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/04/07/gm-and-segway-working-on-new-balancing-2-wheeler/

Comments

Treadly and Me

Yeah, but despite my frightfully witty subheading I don't think they are supposed to be meditations in the transcendental sense—more in the cogitative sense. And let's face it, there's always part of any ride where you can leave the brain ticking over. While paying due attention to the road, of course.

eccles

Maybe I'm just a cynic, but in my world a lot of those meditations would end with "and now because you are not concentrating on where you are going, you plough into another cyclist" :)