Why abusing cyclists from a car is an act of cowardice (in simple words that even you can understand) by Hank Green.
On becoming a cyclist
If you mention bicycling in public, society breaks down. Relationships are torn apart. Brothers fight brothers. Once you've opened that can of worms, it's not unusual to see a bicyclist wearing someone else's skull for a helmet whiz past, while an SUV full of anti-bike crusaders sporting jewelry made from bicyclist teeth and waving a pig head on a stick drives by. It's total chaos.
Commuting
Bikeyface on Dressing for Commuting:
People get too hung up on clothes. From sporty to dressy, it's okay to wear whatever works for your lifestyle. You can bike in anything. Well, almost…
When good endurances turn bad
Athletic Extremism: When Exercise Turns Deadly
A review in this month's Mayo Clinic Proceedings presents evidence from several recent studies that "excessive endurance exercise"—the kind of training required for ultra marathons, Iron Man competitions, and long-distance bike races—may do lasting damage to the heart. While the results are far from damning—the data are often mixed—they suggest that, at a minimum, lacing up the running shoes and going gonzo does little to improve one's health.
Chronic over-exercisers, writes Dr. James O'Keefe, lead author of the MCP review and a cardiologist at St. Luke's Hospital, in Kansas City, Missouri, may develop scarring and calcification inside their ventricles and arteries. The medical term for this is "structural and electrical remodeling," and it's just what it sounds like: the slow hardening and thickening of the heart's plumbing, the fraying of biological circuitry, due to years of strain.
Cycling, dropped
Nation back-pedalling on bike riding:
A Sydney University study says that while the total number of cyclists has risen, so has the country's population, meaning that on a per capita basis bike riding has dropped by 37.5 per cent between 1986 and 2011.
Britain: More training but less cycling
On the back of an announcement of more money for child cycle training, the Department for Transport in the UK has released a report titled "Cycling to School - A review of school census and Bikeability report data". Sadly, this confirms what I wrote last November about how an emphasis on Bikeability and Cycling Proficiency have failed British cycling.
The new figures shows again how the rates of children cycling to school remain extraordinarily low in the UK. The change over the period of 2006 to 2011 is given as -0.01% for 5-10 year olds and +0.06% for 11-15 year olds. This is also presented as a change of 0% for all ages combined.
"Cycling"=noble, "cyclists"=less-so
Evil; the morality of cycling [twitterer]
I find it odd this funny mixed attitude, partly summed-up by Condescending Wonka on cyclists, because I never think of myself as an eco-warrior because I ride my bike to work.
Do you want fries with your Olympic Dream?
Beware! Stairs ahead!
Recently circulated on the Chainguard list, this post from David Hembrow: Stairs are dangerous - wear a helmet:
In 2008, 716 cyclists died on the roads of the United States. It's quite a death toll - it would of course be better if there were fewer. However, by comparison, 12000 people die each year on stairs in the same country. It's much the same pattern in any country. Stairs are much more dangerous than bicycles. Nearly 17x as dangerous.
It's not about the actual numbers, the point is that there is no safety hysteria around stairs.
I said, "CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
We visited this busy road to test how much of this soundscape is deadened by wearing earphones while you ride, and as an interesting counter measure, how it compares to car drivers using their music systems.
Ride to school
In Copenhagen
Two words you don't hear often enough in promoting cycling: "hedonistic" and "aesthetic". twitterer
Le Tour
- Suffer score: how demanding is Le Tour de France?
- Peter Sagan vs. Forrest Gump
- TDF 2012 - Cows with Guns (#trolldj at work!)
- Speaking of which, arguably the best TdF coverage on the web is at Les Vaches du Tour
And finally:
'Seen elsewhere: "It's not a Tour de France without Andy Schleck!" Um, yes it is. Really it is. They've had, like, 94 of them without him.' —@John_the_Monkey