[via Neatorama]

Wherever you are, ride

Bike Hour:

It’s like Earth Hour, only more useful. It’s like a critical mass ride, only effective. The world’s biggest, completely unorganised, mass cycling rally will happen wherever you are, on Tuesday March 20, between 6 and 7 pm. Why? Because you will be riding your bike.

[twitterer]

And don’t stop there—30 Days of Biking is coming up in April:

30 Days of Biking, whose third year begins April 1, 2012, has one rule: Bike somewhere every day for 30 days—around the block, 20 miles to work, whatever suits you—then share your adventures online. We advocate daily bicycling because we believe it enriches lives and preserves the Earth. A worldwide, thousands-strong community of joyful cyclists has been forming around that idea since April 2010—and will further amass in 2012. We ride our bikes every day!

Grandpa’s bike

Bicycles for Japan’s elderly

Reflect on this

RydeSafe Reflective Bike Decals are a great idea, but I’ve achieved pretty much the same effect with a roll or two of 3M self-adhesive reflective tape.

Cyclist defined (again)

My own attempts to address the question “What is a cyclist?” is put well into the shade by Dave Moulton’s eloquent answer:

I seem to remember that Bike Snob NYC once described a cyclist as one who owned a floor pump; and others who relied on their local gas station to inflate their tires were not a real cyclists.

I think that is a pretty fair assessment; when a person cares enough about riding a bike to start buying other stuff like proper tire inflation technology, they are on their way to becoming a cyclist.

Justice for Ian

Xenophon: Hit-run lawyer Eugene McGee must face tribunal and now is the time to act.

For those who came in late, the story is well covered by Australian Story: Road To Nowhere – Part One and Road To Nowhere – Part Two.

Nutters on ice

Helen Skelton is hoping to become the first person to use a bike to reach the South Pole. [via iSay]

And, indeed, she did it.

A year’s worth of learning

Lessons learned as a year-round bike commuter, including:

Bicycle commuting is a great was to refresh oneself and get a good start on the work day. I feel more alert and healthy when I bike commute than when I am stuck in a two-ton metal egg.

It folds (and folds and folds)

dom’s folding bike twitterer

This also folds

Whoever truly invents a foldable, pocket-sized bicycle helmet will be hailed as a genius by those of us who live in helmet-compulsory jurisdictions. The inventors of the overade foldable bike helmet appear to be well on the way to genius-hood.

Correlation?

Don’t blame mandatory helmets for cyclist deaths in New Zealand.

Suit bag

Whoever truly invents a practical method for transporting office attire by bike will be hailed as a genius by those of us who regularly cycle to work. The inventors of the the Suitpack appear to be well on the way to genius-hood.

Storage

Space Commander Bike Box is kind of like a mini bike shed. [via cubbieberry and damsarahdam]

It’s not fare

Outrage at 0% fare rise for cyclists [twitterer]

Thoughts on driver anger

Mark Steel on Belfasttelegraph.co.uk:

After a while, the anger becomes fascinating.

Sometimes a driver will lean out of the window and scream “get out of the way” when you’re innocently at the side of the road — if you were in a car, you’d be much more in the way.

And you wonder how exhausting it must be to scream at everything that is, technically, in the way. They must knock at random doors and yell at whoever answers “If these houses hadn’t been built, I could have driven through here. Now get out of the way.”

[twitterer]

Droolworthy

From woowoowoo:

found this info about cycling in Pitztal…
www.imst.at/de/biken
www.pitztal.com/files/laufen/laufstrecken-panorama-pitztal.pdf

and then I remembered that everything they do in Pitztal, they do better in Öetztal ;-) www.oetztal.com/main/EN/SO/aktivitaeten/bike_rad/index.html

Perth vs Canberra

A sure sign of a civilised city [twitterer]

Murder

Here’s why drivers get away with murder in NYC:

The NYPD Accident Investigation Squad [AIS] only has 19 detectives, three sergeants, and one lieutenant, but is responsible for investigating fatal accidents for the entire city. But don’t worry, there’s always at least one detective on duty at all times.

twitterer

Elaborate sting

A DIY approach to catch a bike thief.

Pay up

You work 3.84 minutes per day to pay for your bicycle, 2 hours for your car

Riding over 70

Advice From a 70-Year-Old Cyclist:

I am now 70, and I’ve never gone a year without a bike — not one that collects dust or serves as a clothes hanger, but a bike that is ridden nearly every day. I use my bike for daily exercise and transport to class, work, shopping, tennis, swimming — most everywhere I need to go, as long as the weather, distance and dress code do not make riding impractical.

Meanwhile Frenchman Robert Marchand has established a cycling world hour record for riders over 100 years old, and he says he could’ve gone harder.

Well that’s one way to solve it

I suspect the same sort of mentality that’s hammering through the dysfunctional Myki ticketing scheme thought up the solution for this locked emergency gate.

Cool and just a little bit stupid

Custom beach cruiser bicycle with air ride suspension twitterer

Fix it

How to defeat The Puncture Fairy twitterer

Get wood

Masterworks wood bicycles–art you can ride twitterer

Float

Whatever floats your pedal-powered house boat twitterer

Get off the sofa

Catriona Bonfiglioli on The Conversation:

Most of us know that overweight and obesity have reached crisis proportions in Australia but fewer people realise the death toll attributable to inactivity (13,491 a year) is even greater than the deaths linked to excess weight (9,525) and almost as high as for using tobacco (15,511).

Bike grows with the kid

Grow bikes get bigger as your child does:

Ahh kids…But what if there was a way to save the hip-pocket nerve for a couple more birthdays without having the little dears look like they should be riding around with the clowns on miniature bikes at the circus?

DIY

Motorized DIY bike mods [twitterer]

Mountain bikes in the mountains

Some terrific MTB photographs by Andrew Wilz.

[Thanks again to tom for several the above links.]

[twitterer]

New Year’s Resolution

How to give up cycling [twitterer]

Have we got a video?

Says @nonavarnado, “Ever wanted to completely lose yourself in bike videos? @bikeblognyc has you covered.” See Videos on Bike Blog NYC

Roundabout

Bike lane vs roundabout, dilemma:

How to safely turn right when motorists can go straight ahead from the lane on your right, but by law cyclists are required to stay in the bike lane on a roundabout — and not cross an unbroken white line because that’s also against the law.

Approaching from either of the other two directions the bike lane simply ends, at least then allowing you to safely choose the correct lane before riding through.

twitterer

Roundabouts: a sure sign that your local road engineers don’t care about bike or pedestrian movement. Discuss.

The Hurty Dozen

The Dirty Dozen looks like pure pain and suffering on the bike. (There’s more info on the ride on MetaFilter [Thanks tom])

The rise of the child’s toy

Here’s a Goofy cartoon from 1943 in which alternatives to the car are sought due to the gasoline and rubber shortage:

Then like a bolt from the blue came a solution. The answer to a nation’s needs. A simple device once discarded as a child’s toy yet now bids fair to completely replace the automobile…

twitterer

Engineering fail…no wait

Twisted bicycle bridge across the Vlaardingervaart [Thanks tom]

When infrastructure is done right…

Bristol’s Railway Path is becoming a victim of its own success and this Danish study found “that bicycle projects are likely to yield a positive economic return for society, because the benefits of the projects exceed the costs”.

…but it isn’t all about ‘facilities’

How San Francisco became a cycling city against the odds

Put down that damn phone!

Mashable reports that:

The latest findings from the NHTSA study indicate that 3,000 people were killed in car accidents in 2010 due to distracted drivers. Although the study classified distractions as talking and changing the radio to using a mobile device, it noted that reading or writing texts increases the chances of an accident by 2,300%.

The NHTSA also said that drivers who use mobile devices in any capacity are four times more likely to have an accident and injure themselves or others. Car accidents are the leading cause of death for teens in the U.S., and 16% of young drivers involved in fatal accidents were driving distracted.

“Using a cell phone while driving is the equivalent of having a blood alcohol concentration level of .08%, the legal limit in most states,” the NHTSA said in a statement. “Using a cell phone can reduce the brain activity associated with driving by 37%.”

See also the usually thoughtful commentary on this topic by Dave Moulton

Bikeshare works

The Boston bike-share success story:

Commuters coming into North and South Stations now routinely hop on bikes to get to their offices. Tourists use it as a way to better see the sights without the wear of walking. And I personally have found that it changes things: I now readily go places I didn’t. Cars are expensive to park; subways take too long. The bike is quick and easy.

twitterer

Ah, is this what “cycling” is about?

Explaining cycling to a non-cyclist [twitterer]

Conform!

Urban Riding Tips: Tip 142: Ride behind someone with a stupid set-up.: “The kind of people that install experimental portage systems are over-represented in the penal system due to their tendency to commit spur-of-the-moment crimes against the person.”

Soon “normal” may be unusual

National action needed to stop obesity becoming the norm:

By 2025, it’s predicted that ²/₃ of the Australian population aged over 25 will be overweight or obese if current trends continue. To paint the picture more crudely, it means that a person of normal weight will soon be the exception rather than the rule.

It’s electric

The Ridekick Electric Bicycle Trailer must be about the simplest, easiest electic bike conversion ever. [via DVICE, [thanks tom]

Gadgets and Gear

• Old school sidewall dynamo charger for iPod iPhone Cellphone and other devices
• Revolights look pretty cool.
• Or you can go reflective and support Fiks:Reflective Rim Stripes [Thanks tom]
• Fizik Kurve bike saddle goes for the flex appeal [Thanks tom]
• Bicycle with USB ports to charge devices off a built-in dynamo [Thanks tom]
• A battery pack disguised as classic Dutch bicycle repair kit [Thanks tom]

Carpark stalkers

I’m still astonished at the sheer bloody laziness of people who ‘stalk’ others for a parking spot in shopping centre carparks. This article on WSJ.com puts the lie to the myth that shopping centres are always short on parking spaces:

Circling around a parking lot hunting for a space is one of life’s most irritating experiences, especially this time of year. Truth is, though, there are usually available spots—most mall lots fill to just 30% to 35% of capacity, research shows. Shoppers in a rush just don’t want to walk.

The irony is that in taking so long to find a ‘handy’ parking spot, their shopping trips probably take longer.

[twitterer]

But even I took a deep breath when I saw Aldi’s ad for a $79.99 mountain bike this week.

$79.99 and no mention of Shimano components

Let’s put this in perspective: if you take such a bike to your local bike shop for all but the simplest repair, parts and labour will total to more than the purchase price. And on such a cheap bike, components will be low quality and it may be poorly assembled, so repairs are likely to be frequent.

At this price point, many of these bikes are going to end up on the hard waste pile after the first repair bill. I don’t think the manufacture of ‘disposable’ bikes represents the pinnacle of civilization.

But the quality of the build doesn’t just end with repairs—this is a product built to minimum specifications, yet made to look like it can handle rough riding. I doubt that it’s up to true MTB conditions and it wouldn’t surprise me if it comes with one of those warning stickers that say “Not intended for hard riding”. This may not be a huge problem, as the most likely use for these bikes is slow trundling on quiet bike paths. Beyond that kind of gentle riding I don’t think I’d be prepared to trust my life, health and safety to such a contraption.

The print ad-note that the models are dressed more for shared path than singletrack

That’s not to say that el cheapo bikes can’t be made to last and even come out as somewhat cost effective (e.g. see BT Humble’s Budget Bicycling), but that takes knowledge and skill not usually available to the ‘entry level’ rider.

Anyway, if a $80 mountain bike sounds like a true bargain to you, then go ahead and get one. But go in with your eyes open: this bike won’t be much fun to ride, will be a pig to maintain, and will end up costing you much more than $80.

But today’s incident was so laughable, so rich in irony, I only regret that I didn’t have a video camera to share it with you.

First I need to explain a little about the road where it happened: heading north-to-south on Elzabeth St in North Melbourne there are two traffic lanes, and just before the Victoria St intersection the left lane splits into two left-turn lanes and the right-hand lane continues as the single through traffic lane (there is actually a second through traffic lane, but it’s separated by a traffic island). See this section of Google Maps to get the idea (note: left-hand rule of the road, if you’re not from around here).

I was riding a Bike Share blue bike and, as the traffic was pretty light, I was sure that I’d be of no inconvenience taking the inside lane while faster moving vehicles passed on the outside.

Apparently not.

My man came up behind honking and carrying on. I really couldn’t work out his problem—why didn’t he just go around? I was going straight ahead at Victoria St, so I changed over to the right-hand lane without a problem—why couldn’t he do the same?

He pulled up beside me at the traffic light, me in the right hand (through traffic) lane, he in the second left-hand turn lane. His window was down. Here we go…

Driver: What do you think you’re doing, holding up the traffic?

Me: [never believing I'd actually say this] Mate, I am traffic.

Driver: Well, what’s the bike lane for?

Me: [pointing out the obvious] Where is the bike lane here?

Driver: Well, ride on the footpath. [AKA sidewalk, if you're not from around here]

Me: It’s illegal for an adult to ride on the footpath.

I was in the middle of suggesting that if he was so ignorant of the road rules perhaps he should hand-in his license, when the the green turning arrow appeared and his line of traffic started moving, and he along with it. But then he pulled up at the intersection, even though the green arrow was still showing—thus holding up the row of traffic behind him!

I was already hooting with laughter and pouring derision on his driving ‘skill’ when the left turn light went red, the through traffic light changed to green and he leapt away from the line like a startled rabbit—going straight ahead. Yep, it turns out that he should have been in the right-hand, through traffic lane all the time—where he would have been if he’d just pulled his head in and gone around me in the first place.

Astonishing ignorance and stupidity, and he had the gall to abuse me for operating my vehicle completely legally and safely.

How then could I resist, a little further down the road, from ringing my bell and giving him a cheerful wave as I breezed past his car, stationary in a line of traffic? I mean, I was riding in the bike lane—just as he’d instructed me to.

Melbournism calls for Melbourne’s best cycling paths

What do they ride at Microsoft?

Apple’s campus bikes are classically minimal—a plain silver mixte, to be precise.

Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but if you think about it, this simple, classic bike seems like exactly the thing Apple would pick to get its employees around the campus. I wonder what Microsoft uses? Probably electric golf carts. Or even (shudder) Segways.

[thanks flipsockgrrl]

Once was car city

Detroit Bike City [Thanks tom]

Not quite bike city

Melbourne gains ‘bike city’ status. Oh, really?

Actually is bike city

NYTimes.com on The Dutch Way – Bicycles and Fresh Bread.

Number crunch

Mez Dispenser on checking the numbers on bike trips in Toronto—how did the city get it so wrong?

Design

• Plastic bike looks like a toy, but rides like the future [Thanks tom]
• Brian Cloyd’s Recumbent Trike impresses NASA [Thanks tom]
• Apparently Toyota is working on the bicycle of the future that shifts gears via brain waves. OK, cool idea and good on them, but I can’t see myself replacing reliable cable and levers any time in the foreseeable future.

Recognition

Dave Moulton on distinctive bike designs.

Retro

• In the Doone Valley by Frank Patterson [twitterer]
• Bicycles. Sears, Roebuck & Co. Advertising Booklet, 1914.
• The trend today is to BSA [twitterer]

You go girl

Bicycle Thief, Interrupted:

Some idiot has the brass balls to steal a bike in broad daylight. But Kristen Bell and her co-workers saw what was happening and sprung into action, taking revenge for theft victims everywhere.

[Thanks tom]

Light up those hoops

Project Aura: Bicycle Safety Lighting System [Thanks tom]

“These jeans hate me”

Commute by Bike on Levi’s Nerd-Repellent Commuter Jeans:

I’m working on finding out if Levi’s makes an uncool version of these pants, and if they do, I’ll review them sometime in the future — and I’ll find out if “higher back rise” means, “covers your butt crack.”

Park it there

Apple shaped multi-story bike park in Alphen aan de Rijn [Thanks tom]

Counterintuitive

New road sign: Lane Closed to Ease Congestion [twitterer]

Best advice ever

Keep calm and ride on.

Another way a bike is better

Simple way to cool down your car after it’s been baking in the sun.

Too much Tour de France is barely enough

• Dave Moulton calls it A Perfect Result.
• The Conversation on the science of the Tour de France time trial.
• I’ve really come to look forward to the Boston Globe’s two-part folio of shots from the Tour de France: Part 1 and Part 2.
  (Incidentally, if anyone ever tries to suggest that every single one of these riders isn’t an incredibly hard man, just point them this photo of Laurens ten Dam.)
• road.cc reminded me of the wonderful TdF film Vive le tour! Sure, you’ve probably seen it before but go and watch it again.
• And I just need to keep a bookmark of Senor Coconut – Tour de France for future reference.

Sadly, we need to keep it in perspective

Amy Gillett Foundation on a stark reminder of the dangers cyclists face on our roads:

As the nation celebrates Cadel Evans’ famous Tour De France victory, it is also a time to highlight the issues of safety for cyclists on our roads as we mourn the death of another cyclist on Beach Road in Melbourne last Friday.

Work it out

Triathleteurope on effective hour-long bike workouts:

Not everyone has the time to put in five-hour rides every week. Fortunately, there are a few hour-long sessions that you can do that are invaluable for developing your bike fitness.

Energy supply

Interesting article on Why do we get exhausted?

Futile

KarlOnSea on the futility of culture change through exhortation:

Supposedly, all we have to do to make the roads attractive to the 98% of the population who don’t ride bikes on a regular basis, is to change the behaviour of these drivers. Yeah. Like that’s going to happen by just asking drivers nicely to pay a lot more attention, and curb any aggressive tendencies they may have.

Apropos: Bike crashes in Queensland: cyclists most likely to be at fault. [twitterer]

And when cycling infrastructure is everywhere, you get installations like this. [twitterer]

Accessorise, dahling!

@noteon: “Finally, somebody makes an affordable saddle scrotum”.

Handlebar clearance

Heidi Swift suggests Don’t look down. Mmmmmokay!

The debate the just keeps on giving

Cycle helmets: safety essential or health risk?

Cycle helmets should not be made compulsory, according to medical experts. The surprise finding from a poll of readers of the British Medical Journal suggests there is no simple answer to improving cycling safety.

Back to the drawing board

Human Powered Cycles reports on a prototype utility bike:

Not long after we built the first prototype furniture removalist bike, we tried moving some wood. Well actually it was a few hundred kilograms of wood.

Ah. Oops.

Cook now

TravellingTwo offers a free bicycle touring cookbook (from 1979):

There are hints on proportions (note that the book was aimed at groups of cyclists, so all recipes serve 10 people!), nutrition and how to carry tricky things, like sticky jars of honey.

Girls in the biz

Oregon Business reports from Interbike on why women lag in bike riding and business. [twitterer]

Jens says

The Jens Voigt Soundboard: ’nuff said!

The Pillars of French Cycling

Interesting film on the French bike industry, in two parts: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.