“Every now and then, someone takes a potshot at bicyclists and bicycling. Sometimes it’s a politician; other times a shock jock. Whoever it is, and whatever their motivation, we don’t like it!” –The League of American Cyclists
“After years of federal and local spending on bike routes and other amenities, most cities are ready to handle more cyclists. But many motorists simply don’t see their two-wheeled brethren or, when they do, find them aggravating. Managing more cyclists is going to take more than new bike paths or fresh stripes on the roads. It looks as though there is a need, on both sides, for a revolution in manners.” –The Economist
“Road-bike aficionados are much like trout: simultaneously enthralled and mortified by anything shiny and new that enters their environment.” –Wired.com
“The premise that cyclists’ behavior somehow voids their right to sharing the road is indefensible at face value. ‘Well officer I thought it was OK to hit this cyclists because several blocks back I saw another run a red light’ is not something anyone could defend.” –TheWashCycle
“One of the greatest things about cycling is you can do it with 10,000 people or you can do it alone. And you don’t need to engage in the `secret handshake’ of name-dropping, proper equipment usage, and wardrobe in order to do it. Choose a group, choose a fashion, or don’t, it doesn’t matter.” — Bike Snob NYC
It was about as perfect a day as you could get for bike path trundling today.
At last, we’ve got an Australian importer for a Dutch utility bike. Yay!
A year on and ‘Treadly and Me’ is still here-who’d have thunk it? In the 243 posts since this blog started on 1 January 2006 I’ve avoided blogging about the blog, so perhaps you’ll excuse this one indulgence…
In August I made an entry called How To Steal a Bike, prompted by a couple of films on the web showing people ignoring someone stealing a bike right before their eyes. In the discussion that followed I suggested a possible approach for witnesses to a suspected bike theft: simply shouting Oi, that’s my bike
might be enough to see-off a thief. However for reasons of personal safety I didn’t think this was an entirely foolproof method.
Comments on the topic went quiet until last week when Paul from Adelaide recounted his largely unsuccessful attempt to use this approach. Feeling that the story shouldn’t be hidden away in the comments, I’ve asked Paul to go back and start at the beginning for this guest entry. You may not agree with what Paul did—you may even think him reckless or that he brought a bad outcome on himself. Maybe. Regardless it stands as a warning: your bike is replaceable, your life is not.
–T&M.
I haven’t seen one with my own eye, but these videos of Clive Sinclair’s A-Bike show that it really works.
Making video recordings of staged bike thefts is starting to become popular…
These guys video themselves stealing (their own) bike with bolt cutters, hacksaw, angle grinder, and hammer.
Sir Clive Sinclair is about to release another bike innovation - hopefully it will have a longer life than the Zike and the C5.