I haven’t got a damn clue what they’re on about, but they’re having fun on bikes… [via Sydney Cycle Chic]

Get utility bike

Melbourne City Bicycle Rider wants to know:

Why do most people ride bicycles based on sport bicycles? City Cyclist is doing a survey of all the City bike shops to see if any are selling comfortable, practical utility bicycles, like the Allegro W2, Velorbis, Schwinn, Electra etc etc.

See also: Upright is right, says Strida designer, the article that appears to have prompted the above question.

Bikes are sexy

…we like their riders too!

Fest

From the people who brought you the Melbourne Bicycle Film Festival: Melbourne Bikefest, “Celebrating bikes in everyday life”.

Roads infrastructure or gravy train?

Victorian infrastructure under developed

Chics

• Timeless Cycle Chic
• Bike Culture Meets Fashion Culture on Runway in NYC
• Bike Chic: Cycling Gets Stylish [twitterer]

What’s better than bike accessories?

More accessories! [twitterer]

Cycle-friendly City

Here’s how Melbourne treats one of its primary bicycle commuter routes on a work day. Bike-friendly, huh?

The safety and security of a recumbent

Recumbents—with their low centre of gravity and long wheel-base—they’re pretty safe aren’t they?

Inspiration

My 120 pound journey—Ben Does Life. [twitterer]

Boris

Invasion of the Boris Bikes [Thanks tom]

Bike repair? There’s an app for that.

Repair your bike using your iPhone

I don’t know much about art…

…but there’s something I rather like about Natalia Goncharova’s The Cyclist.

Bloggage

• Fakengers Using Courier Creditz In Traffic
• Lock Your Bike (Come on Karl, time for another update here!)

No big deal

vaguelyspecific says everyday cycling “just isn’t all that exciting”—she’s right, of course. It’s really rather…everyday.

DIY

• Shellac & twine makes handlebar fine
• A dial-gauge bicycle wheel building stand for $100
• Xtends – convert your bike into a long cargo bike—can you say “Xtracycle”?

Accident and injury

Cyclists face increased injury risk and recent bike accidents show need for stronger laws protecting cyclists. And yet, this has been a record decade for road safety.

And while we’re on the subject, UBC lab aims to design better traffic systems, reduce accidents.

Safe passing, by law

SaferCyclingAustralia:

The aim for us is to get a minimum safe passing distance when being overtaken by motorists…Motorists already have the ability to overtake by one metre or more depending on the road, but research over the last ten years shows that many drivers openly admit to refusing to allow cyclists enough room when passing. This is concerning when you consider that safety is a prime concern for existing and potential cyclists.

Low-key

The Man In The Golden Cape—way to get noticed in traffic.

Design

• Bike as furniture [Thanks tom]
• 15 Amazing Bicycles For the Future of Seoul
• Horsey Bike [Thanks tom]
• The Zambulance, a bike-trailer ambulance. [Thanks tom]

Read

The Hammer and Cycle Messenger Service: Chapter 1.

“What you gain is not worth what you lose.”

Australia’s arts and culture scene is in the grip of a bike helmet problem—bike helmet laws as a model of governmental over-regulation.

Everyday cycling

I see 30 Days of Biking is back on in September. Ride a bike on 30 consecutive days. C’mon, let’s do it! It’ll be fun.

The smell of burning fat (1)

The myth of ‘The Fat-Burning Zone’:

Some argue that prolonged, moderate-intensity exercise in the “fat-burning zone” is best. Others argue that high-intensity interval training is the best way to shed excess body fat. The truth is, both types of exercise are effective for fat-burning, and a program that combines the two is likely to be more effective than one based on either type alone.

Hmm, what about a program involving neither and heaps of donuts?

The smell of burning fat (2)

AAP reports:

Rising levels of obesity in Australia is putting extra pressure on emergency doctors and other hospital staff.

A review of patients arriving at a Melbourne hospital’s emergency ward has found almost 60 per cent were overweight or obese, posing an array of extra challenges to those providing medical care.

Welcome to the chubby country.

The smell of burning fat (3)

‘This one runs on fat & saves you money’

Everyone’s talking bike share

• London Cycle Hire Status Map [twitterer]
• Helmet law holds key—Vancouver facing the same Helmet Laws vs Bike Share dilemma as Melbourne. [twitterer]
• In a bid to “save” the Melbourne Bike Share scheme from compulsory helmet laws, the RACV will give away free helmets and they are also looking into collapsible helmets. They clearly have it all well thought out.

Debate resurrected

We’ve had compulsory bicycle helmet laws for ages in Australia, and (for better or worse) debate on the topic doesn’t usually raise much interest. So you can’t help but connect the renewed local interest in bike helmet laws with the introduction of bike share in Melbourne:

• Call to repeal law on bicycle helmets
• Scrap bike helmet law, says health expert)
• Heady freedom as judge agrees helmet laws are unnecessary [twitterer]
• Even Andrew Bolt can see the problem.

Tools

What’s In Your Toolbox?

Fixed and fenderless

While watching a handsome couple on a handsome couple of single cog bikes the other day, I found myself wondering this way: I understand the simple, minimalist beauty of the single cog but given that lots of people seem to ride them as much for style, why don’t you often see mudguards on a street fixie/single speed? I mean you can get some very stylish ones and in Melbourne at any time of year, you want to protect your tweeds from road gunk.

Cunning plan

An Australian Vision for Active Transport (PDF, 4M) Now, if only there were an Australian government to present it to…

Lunartic

Lunartic Cycle:

A bike that’s got a really unique combination of different wheel sizes, a toothed belt drive and hub less rear wheel! The USP being the gyroscopic effect of a large wheel aiding speed and more road-surface contact adding stability. The small front wheel saves space and enhances maneuverability.

Design

• Redfish Creative’s concept bicycle speedometer
• “Normal” bike folds up into a leather bag
• LDN And NYC Bicycles: “wishbone shaped one piece carbon fiber frame…and the aluminum framed NYC…with nontraditional carbon fiber belt drive.”
• mad tricycle

[Thanks tom]

Chics and bikes

Elle magazine gets into cycling, chic of course. [twitterer]

G-string?

On a loosely related topic, Pedal Panties Bicycle Lingerie “is a fashionable pantie for women who want to feel as good as they look when they ride.”

Old news

• Bikes: The new fashion accessory
• Rise of the Mamils (middle-aged men in lycra)

None of that really qualifies as “news”, does it?

Making space

Artists Make DIY Bike Lane Along Helsinki Thoroughfare [Thanks tom]

Circumnavigation

“La Vuelta Puerto Rico is the ultimate cycling adventure for serious endurance athletes. Circumnavigate the entire island as part of a fast-paced international peloton on this fully supported, three-day, 375-mile journey.”

Day-dreaming again

The world’s best cycling routes: Isle of Wight, Tassie, France, Cuba, NZ…

The Young American

Get out of the Car: A change in US driving patterns:

Statistical evidence recently released in America indicates that young people are driving less and fewer own a car.

Young people are opting to catch public transport and Richard Florida believes that this shift away from driving is a positive sign of innovative change.

Here’s Florida’s article that prompted this discussion, and the Advertising Age article that he refers to.

Just to labour the point, Florida clearly has a bit of a thing about commuting (by car, presumably). For example, see:

• Commuting Is Very Bad for You
• The World’s Worst Commutes
• Driving Alone – A Quick and Dirty Analysis

I bet he gets at least a metre

Photo: A cyberpunk on a bicycle. [via Doobybrain.com, twitterer]

Laidback

This Strada velomobile is A Vision in Purple.

Very laidback

Bike Race-640

Law=Ass

Streetsblog.net reports Texas judge deems cyclist guilty for riding on the road. Biz-arre.

Tough viewing

Compilation of road safety videos—some of it actual footage, some of it made-for-TV community service announcements—all of it pretty real. [twitterer]

Someone you know and like rides a bike

This public awareness campaign looks good: You Know Me, I Ride a Bike. [via Cyclelicious]

I’ve often wondered about the possibilities of pointing out that just about every driver must know and like someone who rides a bike.

Random human interaction

One more reason to ride a bike.

Bloggage

• She Loves Bicycles
• The Bike Stylist
• The Mind of a Helmet Camera Cyclist

Urban design

Reinventing the City to Combat Climate Change

Duh, is it a pizza shop?

This Bike Shop Sign Ain’t Subtle [thanks Flipsockgrrl and tom]

Monster truck justice (1)

Bike stolen poster advises thief “I hope my bike takes you straight to hell” [twitterer]

Monster truck justice (2)

Carlton Reid observes that “If cyclists detonated on impact, motorists would no longer have any trouble spotting them up ahead and would give them the sort of road space they deserve.” Therefore he suggests clubbing together to buy a Caterpillar 797 monster mining truck.

Ride like a pirate day

This pirate ship bakfiets reminded me of the ol’ boat bakfiets. [twitterer]

Tow ‘em away

Copenhagen’s Bicycle Butlers: Park Illegally and get your chain oiled and tires pumped. So civilised.

Road toll: “the price we have to pay”?

Do We Tolerate Too Many Traffic Deaths? [twitterer]

Extreme

Extreme toy racing=extremely funny wipeouts.

Total respect

Pete Heal has cycled around Australia in 48-odd days. That’s an average of more than 300km per day. Respect.

Retribution

Every bicycle theft victim’s dream—methinks this video is more dream than reality, but it still makes pleasant viewing.

Helmet

Anecdote ain’t science, but still…This Helmet Saved My Life!

Park it here

Wall Street Journal reports on the cost of bike parking in New York City:

I’m pleased to report that my local garage is also doing its part to protect my life, by making the price of housing a bike there prohibitive…My garage is charging—no joke—$175 plus 8.875% tax. That’s almost $200 a month to stow a bike! You probably won’t be surprised to hear it has no takers. As one attendant observed, “You can buy a new bike” for that amount.

[via How We Drive]

Local government dickheads: 1

Casino city bans riding bikes through town. Words fail me. [twitterer]

Local government dickheads: 2

The Age reports:

A proposed ”no stopping zone” designed to improve bike safety along a stretch of road in bayside Melbourne will again be knocked back by a local council tomorrow night, despite robust support from the Victorian roads minister.

Bloggage

• Tokyo By Bike: “Once you’ve experienced Tokyo by Bicycle you’ll never ride the train again.”
• Randonneur Apprentice: “Learning something new on each and every brevet”
• Lovely Bicycle!

Perils of winter riding

Cold hands whilst riding – a cautionary tale

Proof

This video would seem to support the argument that you don’t need a mountain bike. [via Sydney Body Art Ride]

Inevitably

Following on from the Warrington Cycle Campaign, we now have out very own crap cycle lanes of Melbourne.

Trying to improve on perfection

10 Brilliant Bike Mods and Designs:

The bicycle is the near-perfect vehicle, but that doesn’t stop people from (brilliantly) messing with the design to increase speed, comfort or desirability to commuters.

DamianM: achiever

DamianM got a gong at the Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards—congratulations.

The problem with Albert

I may have more to say on this shortly, but for now: Albert street bike lane a joke?

Imagine what might happen…

…if all those cyclists gave up riding. [via CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum]

Cross

For some odd reason, I’m very pleased that there’s going to be a cyclocross series in Melbourne this year. Should be heaps of fun.

Fleeting glimpses

• Xtracycle-y Goodness outside the Vic Market
• I love riding in fog

And here’s part 2. [via Research Trailer Park]

Who needs a reason?

Ten things I’ve learned in six months of commuting by bicycle. [via RocBike.com]

Not wasting my time

Aerobic exercise ‘a waste of time’:

Millions of people who try to keep fit by jogging, cycling or going to the gym could be wasting their time, a study revealed today.

Well, I guess that depends what they want to get out of it.

“If a patient is not likely to benefit much from aerobic exercise, the physician could turn to other types of exercise or alternative therapies…Alternative types of exercise include anaerobic pursuits such as weightlifting, push-ups and pull-ups.

Yeah-no. I think I’ll stick to cycling, thanks all the same.

I would put it first

Apparently ‘The Rumour’ is the third most beautiful Dutch nude painting. The first two must have been amazing.

Gob-smacked

Gob-smacked is what I am at this:

Tyler Strandberg of Rocky Mount has a hard time getting her mind off her BlackBerry when she drives.

She has crashed three cars in the past three years.

Each time, she was distracted from her driving because she was typing text messages or talking on the phone.

“Sometimes I will zone out and forget I’m driving,” said Tyler, 23. “If I’m on the phone talking about something that takes up all my focus, I’m looking straight ahead – but not even seeing what’s there.”

[via How We Drive, twitterer]

Now if that doesn’t frighten the hell out of you, consider the possible outcomes.

Astounded

Likewise, I’m astounded at this one in the Lancashire Telegraph:

A road rage teenage driver repeatedly targeted a cyclist and left him fearing for his life.

Burnley Crown Court heard how unbeknown to Benjamin Harrison, 18, his victim was police inspector Martin Melvin.

Nine times he almost mowed down DI Melvin, aiming for him on the pavement, striking his handle-bars, forcing him off his bike into trees, threatening to kill him and hurling stones and coins at him.

When arrested, he asked “Can I not just apologise?” Yes, you should apologise and then they should ban you from driving for life—you have no business being in control of a motor vehicle. Check out the sentence:

…nine months in jail, suspended for two years, with 12 months supervision and 100 hours unpaid work. He was banned from driving for two years and must pay £750 costs.

[via road.cc]

Prescience

While touring New Zealand, a German cyclist blogged about trucking “beasts” days before she was killed by a truck.

Fritz goes over the hood

I just picked up the report that Yokota Fritz was recently hit by a car—another SMIDSY. Nice face gash, looks like all his teeth are still there—and glad to hear he’s otherwise OK.

Roads to justice

Traffic Injustice, Part II, a commentary on bicycling.com. Recommended read of the week.

Saddle saw

NancyBoy advises don’t confuse your chamois with your chainsaw.

Long load

Andy’s longbike is a tandem turned into a single-seater with a mega pannier rack: “The idea behind this bicycle was to afford myself trailer-like capacities, sans-trailer.” [via BikeHacks]

Engage!

Engage with the traffic—good advice, although it just seems like common human courtesy to me (true that’s something which is altogether uncommon). [twitterer]

Skid lid

Apparently cheap bike helmets offer the same protection as expensive ones. [via Research Trailer Park]

Hardly a surprising finding, as in most jurisdictions helmets need to comply with minimum standards. But it is interesting that, provided it’s properly fitted (and that’s the crucial point), an expensive helmet doesn’t provide more protection in proportion with its higher price. Expensive helmets do offer better ventilation, lighter weight, and better fitting options. But all else being equal, they probably aren’t any “safer”.

What energy food?

Mens Health has a Food Face-Off:

Powders, pills, bars, and bottles are convenient, but real food can be as good (or better) for pre-, post-, and mid-workout fuel and hydration.

[twitterer]

Meanwhile, in Utopia…

Cyclists call for ‘friendly’ roads:

Research findings out today have found most bicycle owners who do not to ride to work have nominated dangerous traffic conditions as the big deterrent.

[twitterer]

And likewise in Vancouver, “if riders don’t feel safe, they’ll leave bikes at home”.

Lanes

While I retain my bike lane agnosticism, it’s interesting to have a look at what bike lanes are like in other places.

But then, bike lanes are really just extra parking lanes aren’t they?

Analysis

Bicycle Analyzer:

Enter your bicycle’s gear values, pedaling cadence and wheel diameter and this program will calculate all your gear ratios and speeds, and analyze the design of your transmission.

Sucker

All you ever wanted to know (and possibly more than you wanted to know) about Chain-Suck.

Ride here (or perhaps not)

The 19 most complex and dangerous roads in the world.

Get out of the car, butterball!

Research has found that the fittest children are those who cycle to school:

In all cases, children who were driven to school had the lowest levels of physical fitness, being less fit than walkers, cyclists and even children who took the bus. Cyclists were also found to be more physically active at other times of day when compared to children using other transport modes.

Sad but true:

Although cyclists and car users were most different in terms of physical fitness, the distances they travelled to school were very similar. Cyclists rode for about 1.5 miles to school, and average car rides were about two miles. Half of these car journeys were less than two miles and 15 percent were less than a mile – both easily walkable or bikeable distances.

To speculate, parents of the the car-riding kids probably argue “but riding is dangerous!” Yeah, right. And type 2 diabetes is a picnic…

What was I thinking?

Back in January 2006:

• Wish I’d thought of this: photos of cycling commuters from an apartment window.
• Fatal Friday Syndrome: Figures highlighted by the Scottish Safety Camera Partnership suggested car accidents increased by nearly one-fifth on Friday afternoons.
• The “cycling is the new golf” thing (remember that?) appeared in the mainstream.
• Why cyclists prefer black knicks.

[via audax-oz]

Go anywhere machine

Rant of the month is by HG for his recent post on getting a sense of adventure back into MTB:

I see my mountain bike as my go-anywhere machine. Singletrack, roads, firetrails, 4WD tracks, up hills, down hills, over boulders, through creeks, snow, sun or rain. Sure, I might need to walk or even carry my bike for some bits, but I don’t want my ride to be restricted by the confines of a bunch of signs pointing me towards the next bit of track.

Yeah.

Go anywhere daydream

10 places to ride your bike before you die [twitterer]

Beach Road

Video: Beach Road Legs

Spoken for

29 inches, 36 Spokes… That’s how I roll!

The Wacky Races: Official Rules

It’s Not A Race. Wow, on the folding bike I can bump my Food Chain Number up to a very defendable 12! That’s a comfy place in the peloton of plonkers.

Forester reviews

John Forester reviews ‘Cycling and Society’ [PDF] [via chainguard]

Ride to school day

Cycling or Walking to School Will Not Be Tolerated! [via chainguard]

Cam

The Holy Grail of bike-cams? X170 review

Geek Speak

Wow your friends with your inside knowledge of Tour de France speak:

Yes, you too can sound like a complete cycling dork just by carefully studying and memorizing the most commonly used words and phrases in the sport of competitive cycling

Bloggage

• Bicycle Pirate
• Girls and Bicycles: “Advocating beautiful girls on bicycles in a city addicted to cars.”
• Bikejuju
• NewmaForma
• Milano Fixed

I don’t get it

The BILF shirt: “If you don’t get it, then this shirt is probably not for you or anyone you know.” [twitterer]

Doom or Possibility

Which Cycling Politics: Doom or Possibility?:

Because cycling is not very risky. The average bicyclist – and this includes all those ones who ride in a less-than-competent manner – will travel about 4 million hours before experiencing a fatal crash. That is equal to 456 years of non-stop cycling. Cyclists who follow the basic rules of the road will travel significantly farther before a fatal crash. But we focus way too much on these rare crashes, instead of on the hundreds of millions of miles cyclists travel every year without incident.

A fair observation

Of all the potentially dangerous things you are legally allowed to do riding your bike without a helmet is not one of them. Why?

Boring

Cycling should be dull, not an extreme sport.

Employers benefit

Life Cycle UK provides a guide for Cycle Friendly Employers:

Cycling offers real benefits to employers such as freeing up valuable land for development, creating a healthier workforce, helping staff get to work more reliably, as well as helping the more general business climate through reducing congestion and pollution.

Yeah, what he said

Cycliquette

And two rights, one wrong?

Clean it

• Quick: Baby wipes – what can’t they do?
• Thorough: Clean your bike this weekend for improved performance
• Extreme: Polishing bicycle parts

Fold it

Is a bike with collapsing wheels really a good idea? Gizmodo says no.

Map it

• Cycling Profiles takes an opposite view to Bikely.com: no do-it-yourself input but the maps and profiles are pretty good quality.
• Trailmapping: “A community based around mapping trails and logging trips for mountain bikers, road bikers, runners, hikers, kayakers, rafters and explorers of all kinds.”
• Here comes the Google Street View trike [Thanks tom]
• Ebb and Flow of Melbourne Trains (or how it’s supposed to work) [Thanks woowoowoo]

Sail it

This Bike is a Boat, Lady. [via Bikejuju]

DIY

• Bicycle Lantern. Yep, they do mean lantern, as in “paraffin powered”. You too can light your way with a naked flame. What’s not to love about that?
• How to set up cleat positioning

Special facilities

• Unicycle Lane
• The world’s worst cycle lanes

Real bikes for real people

Bikes For The Rest Of Us:

Sometimes I wish Greg Lemond never won the Tour de France in 1986…bike shops across the country began putting aside their single speeds, 3-speeds and cruisers to make room for expensive, lightweight, “high-end” racing bikes. In other words, bike shops lost interest in selling regular bikes to regular people.

Shweeet cruiser

Zeth:

Zeth is our star pick this season…a formidable machine that is inspired by the fluid expressions of kinetic sculptures, as well as the shadowy artworks portrayed of Gotham City. It is also nicknamed ‘Dark Knight’ – to capture a fantastical experience of roaming the streets on a modern iron horse.

[Thanks woowoowoo]

Movember

It Mo time again and “Treadly and Me” is raising funds to help fight prostate cancer and depression in men. Feel free to donate in our name. Any and all contributions gratefully accepted.