Rainy evening on Swanston Street

Après le Tour, waste

Mont Ventoux: [500,000 people, 20 tons of garbage, €20,000 clean-up l][]=very, very ugly. [twitterer]

Le Tour 1940

The 1940 Tour de France—oh, har-de-har. [thanks n]

Recommended reading

This week's recommended reading: [The Culture of Speed vs the Culture of t][].

Also picked up by city cycling.

Parking

The Logistics of Bicycle Commuting:

Depending on the bike you select for your commute, you may be comfortable locking it up outside at a standard bike rack (if there are any available), or you might want to take more precaution by finding a bike locker, bike parking facility, safe niche somewhere at your workplace to leave it for the day, or you might decide to utilize a more creative solution for parking.

Meanwhile Jan Chipchase speculates on the nature of [late 21st Century Parking][]:

Parking is a atoms-in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time kinda problem - how best to location shift the bicycle from [where you are now] to [where the bicycle needs to be to be sufficiently out of the way] whilst it is not needed to [where you are now] when you are ready to ride again?

What was I thinking?

August 2006 was nothing if not productive, including entries such as:

Objectification

Bicycle Shaped Object:

This blog is an attempt to provide a realistic insight – good and bad – into what cheap bikes (aka “Bicycle Shaped Objects”) mean for customers, for cycling, for business and the environment.

What's life like on the Asda el cheapo bike and similar?

In the beginning

Most common noob mistakes.

[And don't talk to me about [stupid s][]!]

Celebrity cyclists say

Me and my bike: Five famous enthusiasts tell us their cycling stories.

Bike Pr0n

Cycling Photography by VeloDramatic—yummy.

DIY

All go car free

Seven car-free cities [twitterer]

It's hard to believe that before the early 20th century, almost every city in the world was "car-free." Zoom ahead 100 years later, and you have to do some real digging to escape the army of cars now clogging the planet's roads and highways.

Put your back into it

Jetrike: "a front wheel drive (FWD) tilting delta trike design that features self-centering tilt geometry. Its tilting mechanism works independently from the steering. The idea is to use the riders weight to remain centered as the trike becomes stationary."

Various motivations

Bike commuting by the numbers suggests a saving of nearly 000 by selling the car and commuting by bike. That's before forking over for a new bike. Oh yeah, and there's other motivation as well:

What I always forget to mention when talking with people about commuting is this: there's virtually nothing PG-rated I love to do more than ride a good bike.

Keepin' it real

Why You Should be Riding Steel and not Carbon.

Plastic

Barbie as bike advocate [twitterer]

"For the ladies"

Hit The Road With Our Top 10 Fashionable Bikes Just For The Ladies [twitterer]

Contortionist

"The Contortionist bike is compact, bendy and oddly sexy, like an actual contortionist". [twitterer]

Fold this

Click-Stand is the world's only folding portable bicycle stand. Umm, yes—it is basically just a stick.

Shooting fish in a barrel

San Jose Mercury News reports that:

Bike to Work hosted its sixth annual Commuter Race on Tuesday…All the bikes beat the cars by a good 10-20 minutes during the treasure hunt-style race that began at the intersection of Front and Cooper streets, made stops at The Buttery on Soquel and Branciforte avenues and again at New Leaf Market on 41st Avenue before crossing the finish line at the tiki on the Capitola Esplanade.

Another "shock" result there. [via [the cycling e][]]

Cycling campaign

CNN tells of politcal campaigning in Afghanistan:

Every morning Sangin Mohammed Rahmani says goodbye to his wife, gets on his bicycle and sets out alone on a bumpy, unpaved Kabul road that he hopes will lead him to the presidency.

"This is going to be my vehicle to success," he says, patting his bicycle, as he pushes it down a rutted, garbage-strewn street. "With my bicycle and my mobile phone, I can solve all the problems of the people."

[twitterer]

Vacant expression

Human Powered Cycles is hiring:

Applicants must have a strong background and experience in the role of bicycle mechanic and the ability to work in a team. The position is primarily based in the workshop on servicing and repairs and setup of new/second hand bikes.

Applications close 12 August.

Fight like Susan

Fatty's wife Susan died on 5 August. Thoughts and sympathy to her family and friends.

And I wouldn't dare say that she lost.