SplinterBike.co.uk: “No bolts or screws, just wood and glues! Splinter Bike a 100% Wooden Bicycle Land Speed Record… attempt!” [thanks woowoowoo]

Commuting in ten

10 lessons learnt from cycle commuting for a year.

Look ma, no rider!

Scientists unlock the secrets of bike stability, make riders optional [Thanks tom]

A clever gadget but Dave Moulton remains unimpressed.

Remote controlled bike

Child cruelty or creative parenting?

Get it off your back

VelEau hydration system mounts on the bike instead of the rider [Thanks tom]

Soundtrack with cadence

cycle.jog.fm asks “I cycle at [insert cadence here] rotations per minute” and offers “the best workout songs and playlists for your cycling pace”.

The strongest survive

The Sperm Bike in Copenhagen [Thanks tom]

Protect your goodies

“Chain Condom is a bicycle chain cover that attaches in less than a minute and protects your car’s interior and bike’s drive train.”

Run the numbers

Grist has some “interesting demographic data” on the demographics of cycling in the USA.

Nagging doubts

The Age reports new findings on helmet safety:

An analysis by Norwegian researchers of existing studies has suggested previous scrutiny was biased towards helmets and relied too heavily on research into 1980s ”stack-hat” style hard-shell helmets. They argued that today’s ”soft-shell” helmets were less effective at reducing brain injuries.

And come to that, when considering and studying the utility of the bicycle helmet, it might be helpful to define what is a bicyclist?

Meanwhile in Britain, cyclists are getting tired of being tut-tutted for not wearing an ‘undignified plastic hat’.

Thoughts on your wheels

Kathleen Wilker urges you to love the ride you’re with

So to everyone who’s in the market for a fabulous spring bike, I wish you well in your search for the perfect bike and hope you have all kinds of great rides with your shiny new wheels.  And to everyone who is cruising along on clunkers that they own or that they’ve borrowed, may you love the ride you’re with!  Because a set of wheels is a set of wheels.

Envy

Wall Street Journal on alpine cycling without (much) pain:

Like Italy’s Dolomites and the French Alps synonymous with the Tour de France, the Swiss mountains become a sporty Eden each summer for cyclists who want to test their stamina, or just soak up the rugged countryside and rich mix of German, French and Italian culture.

Going down

Jeff Tiedeken’s Gravity Bike Gets Up to 60MPH [Thanks tom]

Separate lives

Clover Moore wants more bike lanes in Sydney to encourage the cycling.

While we’re on the subject, a study published in Injury Prevention finds that the injury risk of bicycling on physically separated bicycle-exclusive paths along roads is less than bicycling in the roads themselves. [twitterer]

That is, unless the lanes are painted by the City of Yarra: Spills prompt bike-lane safety fears.

The cure for doorings?

The rotary drop door for cars could be a cure for doorings, but I just don’t see it catching on.

Storage

• Display your bike on the wall as if it were a precious trophy
• Dero Track Rack

Parking

Elly Blue discusses the economic case for on-street bike parking, noting that “the solutions might seem difficult and costly … until you break them down and put them in perspective.”

Most notably, “business owners are among the first to catch on that well designed, visible bike parking, built in accordance with best practices, makes it easy and attractive for customers to ride to a business”.

Rejoice

Sarah Wilson: “I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel!” [twitterer]

SUV

Panasonic to launch power-assisted bikes with 2 child seats [via Engadget, thanks tom]

Monkey Business

CNNMoney.com reports on Carlos Perez of Bike Monkey Magazine:

Creating a company centered around cycling, however, was the last thing Perez had on his mind when he staged his first race in 2006. “I’m one of those people who has a knack for organizing things, and I just put together this mountain bike race as a fundraiser while I was still at Medtronic,” he recalls. The event was so successful that friends began urging him to start a race event company. At first Perez was skeptical. Making money at something he loved so much seemed counterintuitive, he explains. But when his second race in 2007 drew twice as many participants as his first, Perez decided to take the plunge. He resigned from Medtronic and started Bike Monkey. When asked how he came up with the name, Perez says, “I don’t know. The two words together just made me smile.”

Patchy

Gizmodo reckons these bike inner tubes wince when punctured, and then self-seal. Cool. [twitterer]

Road safety

• @amsterdamized says “Dutch program tries to change driving behavior of notorious offenders, doesn’t seem to work”.
• The Age reports that “The number of people being seriously injured on Australia’s roads is on the rise, according to new research that takes some of the shine off much-heralded reductions in road fatalities…And one of the most worrying trends was a big increase in the number of middle-aged men being injured on motorcycles and bicycles.” [twitterer]
• New York Times: “A nationally representative sample of more than 800 crashes involving teenage drivers shows that almost two-thirds were due not to reckless behavior like speeding or joyriding but to three novice driving mistakes: failing to scan the road, misjudging driving conditions and becoming distracted.”

On the same topics, the WHO notes that mobile phone use is part of a growing problem of driver distraction:

Distracted driving is a serious and growing threat to road safety. With more and more people owning mobile phones, and the rapid introduction of new “in-vehicle” communication systems, this problem is likely to escalate globally in the coming years…It is now evident that if you are using a mobile phone while driving you are approximately four times more likely to be involved in a crash than a driver who is not using a phone. This risk appears to be similar for both hand-held and hands-free phones, because it is the cognitive distraction that is an issue, not only the physical distraction associated with holding the phone. Text messaging appears to have an even more severe impact on driving behaviour and crash risk.

[twitterer]

Bikeumentary

Pedal Driven:

In the pristine forests above Leavenworth, Washington, there exists a world of hidden trailheads and clandestine trails. Here a sect of outdoor enthusiasts, extreme mountain bikers called freeriders, have gone underground. They are the skate punks of the forest, unwelcome and under pressure to leave. The locations of their trails are carefully guarded secrets and the riders who ride them keep constant vigil, on the lookout for US Forest Service rangers.

[Thanks tom]

Great Ocean Road Classic on Vimeo

Instant legend

Susie Weber rode her bike to hospital to deliver her baby. [via JSOnline]

Not being part of the problem

How not to buy stolen bikes online: “There is no such thing as a free lunch or a cheap, expensive bike. If it looks dodgy, it is.”

Cycle chic

• Hot chicks and their fixies
• Bike Fancy

HPV

• The velomobile: high-tech bike or low-tech car?
• Velomobille + ice [twitterer]
• Pedal-powered hydrofoils!

DIY, Mexico-style

Guerilla DIY bike lane created by Guadalajara citizens!

Bottle hygiene

• How safe is your water bottle?
• Cleaning water bottles made easy

Air time

Giants Of Dirt Part 2 featuring one serious nutjob on a BMX. Love it. [twitterer]

Gravel Grinders

Melbourne Gravel Grinders first ride is on next weekend at Hurstbridge.

The last word on lightweight mudguards

Birds of a feather fender together…

Wax it up and ride

Chain Waxing Revisited, “for the non-believers in the crowd”.

Red light runners?

An article in Accident Analysis & Prevention found that “The majority of Melbourne commuter cyclists observed (93.1%) stopped at the red light.” [twitterer]

Tourist-envy

• Cycling Gypsies: “In July 2008 we quit our jobs, sold whatever couldn’t fit on the back of our bikes and pedaled into the sunset with our two doggy co-pilots.”
• “While Out Riding is a photo-story blog charting a bike journey south from Prudoe Bay, Alaska, along quiet dirt roads where possible. At the moment I’m not completely sure where I’ll end up…”

Real leadership required

• Public transport for outer suburbs: Units not crucial
• It’s crunch time for Melbourne: we need a congestion tax
• Beijing car restrictions backfire
• A critical review of the legal penalties for drivers who kill cyclists or pedestrians: “Every year as many pedestrian and cyclist fatalities occur on Britain’s roads as all combined homicides”
• Mia Birk: “What do you see as the biggest obstacle to turning any city into a cycling city? Political will.”

This “war on cars” thingy

• “War On Cars”: A History [twitterer]
• In search of the famous ‘war on motorists’
• The War On the Carless

Commuting and cyclocross

Have you ever considered a cyclocross bike for commuting?

Cyclocross racing and commuting have a few things in common. Both are for the hardy, attracting cyclists who don’t mind riding in foul weather, over imperfect terrain or in adverse conditions.

Kids

• "Get off F—book and go ride a bike!"
• Want a safe place to raise kids? Look to the cities [twitterer]

Design

• Aesthetic of the Impractical [Thanks tom]
• Bike Portage Strap
• Bamboo Bikes [Thanks woowoowoo]
• The Rael road bike concept includes accident recording technology. [Thanks tom]

Smart use of technology

Why cyclists should use GPS

No excuse

The No Excuse Zone Map “shows the distance a healthy person can cycle within half an hour, to or from Melbourne’s city centre”.

Boris Bike hot spots

Boris Bikes/Barclays Cycle Hire Average Journey Times

Carrying a tune?

Rest

“Hi, cyclist! Rest your foot here…” [Thanks tom]

That’s ACE

I’ve seen a handful of Alpine Classic reports (no doubt there are more out there):

• Local TV turned up for the 4am start of the ACE 250 in Bright.
• My Audax Alpine Classic by naomi on Sydney Cyclist.
• Surly Dave cut it fine but made it in the end
• NancyBoy puts his story in not one, not two, but yes three parts. No wait, four parts. Hang on, five. Now that’s just getting ridiculous.

[Thinks: I should pull me finger out a write a report myself…]

Prang

Bike fall on Google street view, recorded for posterity.

I don’t know much about fashion

Endurogirl has declared the ugliest team kit for 2010—and the winner is: Footon-Servetto-Fuji.

One word: ick.

Street cycling

ABC Radio National’s Background Briefing on 31 January 2010 is about on road cycling:

With a dramatic increase in cycling, comes a plethora of new safety issues on the roads. Doctors, politicians, planners and cyclists agree it will mean changing the way we design, govern and use our roads.

[twitterer]

Ceasefire!

In New Zealand, “cycling advocates are calling for a ceasefire in the latest skirmish between some drivers and cyclists.”

Justice

L.A. road rage doctor gets five years – VeloNews:

The California physician, convicted of assaulting a pair of cyclists with his car, was sentenced to five years in prison at the close of a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday morning.

But then, don’t expect much to change generally.

[via Dave Moulton]

More justice

Meanwhile, remember this idiot who shot a cyclist in the head because “he was upset that the victim was bike riding with his child” on a busy road? Well, Charles Diez will serve 120 days in prison, the rest of his 15–27 sentence being suspended.

Observed one cyclist: “If a cyclist shot a fireman, judge or prosecuting attorney in his head, in front of his family, what sentence do you think he/she would receive.”

[via audax-oz]

The original carbon fibre

Bamboo Bikes:

Carbon fiber and aluminum are so 2009. This year’s best bicycling model is made out of bamboo and hemp. A new generation of manufacturers are coming up with some of the most environmentally friendly transport yet. Lighter, stronger, more comfortable and these bikes have also got a much smaller carbon footprint.

[thanks flipsockgrrl]

Recline

RecumbentTV: “Sit back and relax for a while!”

Growth

Cycling hits top gear as Aussie riders help propel economic cycle

Bloggage

• Lone Cyclist: “I love mountain bikes, road bikes and trail running”
• cyclosity: “Photos links videos and more assembled by Liam Quigley”

It’s a dirty job but…

Daily Kos reports on Pedal People, a bicycle-powered haulage service that has “picked up and hauled more than 341,000 cubic feet of trash, recyclables, and compost” since 2002.

Girls, tall bikes, cool

Irondelles – Girls on tall bikes [twitterer]

Oh, do shut up!

Jens Voigt “Shut Up Legs” T-shirt: Do You Want One Too? [twitterer]

Paths

Tweets Whalford, “Government to spend $759 million on a new bike path. Oh and a freeway alongside”: Peninsula freeway to join Carrum Downs and Mount Martha.

Meanwhile the Yarra Trail is undergoing reconstruction works between Bridge Road and the Monash Freeway

Street design

Tom Vanderbilt comments on an apparently successful shared space scheme in England. An earlier post included some interesting before-and-after shots.

Range of commute

Dutch blog 24 oranges reports that the City of Zwolle wants to extend the average range of bike commutes from about 5km to 15km by loaning commuters electric bicycles. [Thanks tom]

But in the last few weeks I have mixed it up a bit and kept things fresh by changing my route and my pace. It all started when a forced detour took me around Birrarung Marr because some festival or expo was being installed in the park. So I decided to keep going up Batman Ave into Exhibition St. There’s a sharp little hill at the bottom of Exhibition St, but after that it’s quite pleasant and easy riding. And going that different way (just a few streets over from my usual south-north route through the CBD) gave me a fresh prespective on my city. Old and familiar sights that I don’t regularly see, made new by being viewed from a bicycle seat.

Some other variations that I’ve tried in the last month:

Slo-ow

One golden morning I was actually early for work (shock!) and with plenty of time on my hands I decided to enjoy as much of the day as I could, so imposed a speed limit on myself: under no circumstances would I allow myself to go faster than 25km/h (except perhaps freewheeling down hills). Everyone passed me and it was surprisingly easy to avoid the temptation of jumping on behind anyone going past at a pace I could keep up with. I trundled and took photos. It was great.

One golden morning on the Yarra River

Average

The other day I twiddled the knobs on my clock to show the “average speed” setting just as I headed for home, so I decided to play “always above average” in which I tried to maintain a speed faster than my currently displayed average speed. There’s a three-part strategy for this game: warm-up slowly for the first third of the ride, step up to a comfortable pace during the middle third, and go hell-for-leather in the final third. (Never make the mistake of going out hard in the first half of the ride unless the last half of your route is all seriously downhill.) I’ll admit to excusing myself from maintaining the above-average pace for one short but steep-ish section of my ride home.

Faster

On another morning, I rolled onto the trail just as one of those crazy bike path pacelines came sweeping along. Throwing caution and intelligence to the wind, I jumped on the back. Taking Paul Sherwin’s advice that the most dangerous place to be is in the back of the peloton, I jumped to the front and pushed myself hard to set the pace.

Forget the clock

Yes, I forgot to attach my speedometer (again) and despite the minor annoyance at my forgetfulness, I made the best of it and simply enjoyed riding by “feel” rather than riding to a particular number on the display.

An old favourite

Earlier in the year I had got into the habit of riding across the parks around the MCG to avoid going through the CBD. I really like this route but recently I’ve stopped going that way, for no apparent reason. Perhaps it takes a little bit longer to go that way, and the little hill in Clarendon St might have something to do with it. Anyway it was fun to add a bit of variety and return to this old favourite one afternoon.

An old, old favourite

These days I only ride on the Gardiners Creek Trail for the short stretch between Glenferrie Road and the Yarra Trail—the rest of it I avoid. So when I returned to that trail on a recent whim, it was a pleasant discovery to find that the M1 Upgrade and Parkland Uglification project has brought some interesting new changes to the the trail, including a reasonably well thought-out bridge and an artificial wetland where a bowling green once stood.

Discovery: a new bridge and artificial wetlands

Explorations

Lately I’ve been trying to fine-tune the first part of my commuting route. So I’ve been doing some exploring up and down back streets, usually on my way home. It hasn’t always been rewarding for defining my new route but as far as aimless wandering goes it’s been great fun.

And there you have it: half a dozen ways to vary a commute without even thinking about. Any other suggestions?

Not surprisingly, car-dependent cities have more congestion and less mobility than those that offer a wider range of commuting options. The very vehicle whose great promise was personal mobility is in fact virtually immobilizing entire urban populations, making it difficult for rich and poor alike to move about.

Photos

Sad, poignant and funny photos of bikes that have been left behind, at Abandoned Bicycles of New York.

World’s Greatest Bike Lock. OK, but where do you keep it while you’re riding?

Public transport governance

The Public Transport Users Association started the year by launching a study of public transport governance, comparing public transport management around the world, and looking at the past and future of Victoria’s public transport.

Bike Blog .au

After 279 days, Alex Simmons is pedalling again. Go you good thing.

And more Australians blogging their bikes:

• a woman and a fixed wheel
• hippyblog
• Liz Randall
• Mums Wobblings
• Peta Mullens