World Bike Ride

Tour du Monde:

Everyone's on bikes, from the pelotons of the Tour de France to the bicycle transporters of Burundi.

[twitterer]

Cargo - car = go

Cargo bikes, more cargo bikes, and a serious cargo trike.

Mountain Envy

Cycling Challenge: "Perhaps the best ride of the year. Certainly the most beautiful. Doreen and I spent the weekend in central Switzerland in Grindelwald – right in front of the famous Eiger north face."

Check that scenery! Drool. [twitterer]

Bikeshare head cases

Andrew Bolt on bike share and helmet laws. [twitterer]

However, within its own scheme, Monash Uni solves the helmet problem (sort of). [twitterer]

Helmet hair

And while we're on the topic, apparently mandatory helmets do not discourage cycling. Not touching that one. [twitterer]

On the other hand, wearing helmets in cars "has been proved more effective in preventing serious injury than cycle helmets, but promoting car helmets is likely to meet heavy opposition". Oh, you reckon? Not touching that one, either. [twitterer]

The Rules (for Beach Road Poseurs)

The Rules

Sexy!

Sexy Dahon—but that's a tautology, isn't it? [twitterer]

Weight weenies extreme

When Milliseconds Mean Everything: "In the first-ever Tour de France, Maurice Garin beat second-place finisher Lucien Pothier by two hours, 49 minutes. In the last two decades, the sport has embraced technology—and the gaps have gotten smaller."

Hmm, technology might not have been the only thing making the gaps smaller…

Shorthand for 'loser'

Tom Vanderbilt wonders how not having a car became Hollywood shorthand for loser.

[twitterer]

Death trap?

bicyclism ponders "Deadly Treadlies":

He was working up to his point; a verbal victory of wit. The delivery of a decisive score of intellectual perspicacity to be absorbed like water into a dehydrated sponge. His triple chins quivered in excitement. His rotund button-popping belly was thrust outwards towards us along the lines of a peacock's tail flourish; at least to the delusions of his own mind's self-attracted eye… His considerable bulk was, somehow, testimony to the weight of his authority.

'No…you would never get me on one of those death traps…' 'Bicycles are the shortest path to suicide'.

I reckon I've met that bloke. Although I don't put much store by the risk estimation of someone who seems to have trouble assessing his own risk of heart disease, type II diabetes, lung cancer, emphysema and cirrhosis of the liver.

There are wankers everywhere

On A Hundred and One Wankers:

Wanker #5 had a convertible. Not a huge surprise. He leaned over when driving to shout "Watch me overtake you" which i did, while he drove off laughing. Five minutes later, as he sat in traffic leading up to Kennington Park, I smiled at him and said "Watch me overtake you". Brilliant.

Bloggage

…and this is my bike

Amsterdam houdt van fietsen! [twitterer]

I've fallen and I can't get up

Twitter to the Rescue: Lost, Injured Triathlete Saved by Tweet

[twitterer]

Bikes are the problem

Apparently getting people in Denver to ride to work is "part of a greater strategy to rein in American cities under a United Nations treaty". How do these crazies get air time? [twitterer]

Bikes are not the solution

The Earth Policy Institute says:

The bicycle has many attractions as a form of personal transportation. It alleviates congestion, lowers air pollution, reduces obesity, increases physical fitness, does not emit climate-disrupting carbon dioxide, and is priced within the reach of the billions of people who cannot afford a car…Few methods of reducing carbon emissions are as effective as substituting a bicycle for a car on short trips.

However, Energy Bulletin makes that the valid point that:

…in a a properly designed Traditional City, most people don't need bicycles. This is true even today. In cities where people often do not own a car, such as New York or Hong Kong or Paris, these non-car-owning people usually do not own a bicycle either. Or, if they happen to own a bike, they do not use it every day as a transportation device. They get by just fine on foot, and using the transportation options available, especially trains and, if a train is not available, a bus. Occasionally a taxi. A bike is best as a least-desirable option, for those trips that are too long to walk comfortably, and not convenient by either train or bus. Ideally, these would be as few as possible, as a well-designed city should be a place where you can easily walk or ride a train (a bus if you have to) just about everywhere.

Excuse or solution

At Commute by Bike:

Come on now. I know that you think of yourself as a bike commuter. But all too often something gets in the way. As a small business owner who also likes calling himself a bike commuter, I've become quite familiar with all of the reasons (excuses) that it often seems much easier to take the car instead.

Just slow the f— down

UK's Telegraph reports that one of Britain's most senior police refers to speeding as "middle-class anti-social behaviour" that "all seems OK until something tragic happens, like their child dies because of a road traffic accident".

But it is her criticism of motorists that is likely to cause controversy. Many motorists who are caught speeding complain that they are "soft" targets used to produce funds — speeding fines raise about £100 million a year — and that the police should be targeting serious criminals instead.

Hmm, there aren't too many things more serious than placing the lives of random strangers in danger, I would have thought.

[twitterer]

Broads and bikes

No, no, no—The Broads. I remember Griff Rhys Jones talking about The Broads on his Rivers series, and I thought that they'd probably have some good cycling around there. Well, apparently they do: The Broads By Bike.

Chicks and bikes

Cyclepassion calendar [twitterer]

Flash mobs are so last year

And Queen's "Bicycle Race" has been overdone, but still: bike flashmob Central Station Brussels. [twitterer]

Geez, was there anyone left there actually watching that?

This I do not understand

According to Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage the good burghers of that city want to change local laws "to make cyclists liable for accidents if they are hit while crossing a roadway". What the hell…?

The bike economy

Sydney's bike economy booms—so is it the beginning of a boom or the peak of a passing fad?

Designs

Driving makes you fat

Does commuting by car make you fat?

It's a simple equation: Exercise more and lose weight. Still, many people spend most of their time either behind a desk or driving to or from where that desk is located. A few states buck that trend with large cities that allow for more walking, biking, and commuting via public transportation, but are their citizens any more fit?

I dunno about you, but I find that visualisation a little hard to follow…

Let's get political

Tony Abbott. Not the Man. [via Melbourne Cyclist]

Long-distance relationship

TechNewsDaily reports on the "jogging over distance" system that takes the best interactive elements of computer games to make mere "exercise" more like sports and therefore more fun.

Comments

wvcycling

Wow, this speedlinking page is so ADD that it isn't even funny. Love it.