“There are almost 7 billion people on earth, 730 million Europeans, 2 millions Slovenians, but there is only one man who is a four time winner of the toughest cycling challenge in the world…” Jure Robic RIP

Waze to go

Says @vaguelyspecific

I’ve started a Melbourne Cycling group on Waze to map bicycle paths, lanes and cyclist friendly routes. Who’s going to help me?

Waze

Hipsters on folding bikes?!?

According to the Wall Street Journal (that barometer of the zeitgeist), the folding bike has gone cool—which means my decade-old Dahon Boardwalk and I are well ahead of the curve! [via BikeBiz], twitterer]

Umm, but I don’t think they’re talking about this sort of folding bike—seriously uncool… [Thanks tom]

Paranoid Androids

Paranoid non-iPhone owners rest assured, Bike Doctor is now available for your Android.

Not such a good idea?

“Share The Road” Stinks… [via chainguard]

Witnessed

Cyclist strangled unconscious and charged with assault is found not guilty. One is left wondering—again—about police procedures…

Speed cameras do work

Speed cameras for the prevention of road traffic injuries and deaths:

Speed cameras and related automated enforcement devices are a worthwhile interventions for reducing road traffic injuries and deaths in both rural and urban settings. Considering continuing increases in traffic volume worldwide, automated enforcement with speed cameras to curb aberrant speeding behaviour, is a rational intervention to augment or supersede conventional enforcement. Speed cameras used for road section control, which measure average speed over distance, together with related emerging technologies arguably have the potential to favourably influence speeding behaviour and thus enhance road safety.

Or to put it simply, speed cameras work.

The way we were

• The Modern Bicycle in 1876 [Thanks tom]
• Victorian Cycles

Mad bastards

Don’t you just love crazy bastards like these guys? [Thanks tom]

Bloggage

• Bakfiets en Meer
• Crap cycle lanes of Melbourne [twitterer]
• littlecircles—”Words and pictures from our life on two wheels in and around Burlington, Vermont.”

Don’t be ridiculous!

No ridiculous car trips: “A ridiculously short car trip is one you might as well do on a bike.”

Design

• Electric bike runs (almost) on water
• Insane $45,000 racing bike weighs less than your lunch [Thanks tom]
• Bertelli Bicycles [Thanks woowoowoow]

Gear sack

Brisbane Outdoor Gear has a large capacity seat tube bag—thinks I should get myself one of those. [twitterer]

Commuting

According to Wired.com, a lot more people are biking to work in the USA. Now growth of “0.3 percent between 2005 and 2009″ doesn’t sound like much on its own, but there are some interesting factoids hidden in that very broad average.

While we’re talking about commuting, have a squiz at How to bike commute with a baby: A mom’s perspective:

Many people think it’s impossible to be a bike commuter with children, but that is simply not the case. Biking with children is totally possible and tons of fun with the right equipment, safety precautions, and the proper amount of planning. It’s really not so different from going on a car trip with your kids. You wouldn’t go on a trip without buckling up and having a car seat for your child.

Got video

• Look Ma! No hands! The Rampant View iPod nano headcam [Thanks tom]
• Fight Bad Driving: videos from the road.

Going Dutch

Papillionaire does Dutch bikes for Melbourne.

While we’re (kinda, sorta) on the subject: Riding Bikes with the Dutch.

Ride on, sir!

Jack Thacker turns 97 this month and “he gets on his bike at 8 each morning at his Naples home to begin his 12-mile round trip to the Queen Mary”. [via Boing Boing, thanks tom]

Yessss! Who says girls can’t parallel park? [twitterer]

Cyclist detector

Apparently there is now a cyclist-friendly car:

Subaru has developed new safety technology that can detect and avoid pedestrians, cyclists and other cars on the road.

And in other news, most cars have had this feature for over 100 years. It’s called a careful and attentive driver. But wait…

“This doesn’t replace the driver, it helps the driver if they are not paying attention,” said Derek Ashby, National Manager Engineering and Technical Services for Subaru Australia.

WTF? If you’re not paying attention, you shouldn’t be f—ing driving! What a knob.

[twitterer]

Speed kills, going slow less so

The day I hit a child at 20mph – and realised the speed limit must be cut

Suddenly, a few speeding points on my licence don’t seem quite so innocent. If you have any, you should also feel ashamed. It is easy to exceed the speed limit and, thankfully, on this occasion, I wasn’t. Nor was I fiddling with my mobile phone, sat-nav, or CD player, all of which I have done before.

Paying for the roads

Recommended read of the week: Pay to Pedal? Reflections on an economic cycle

if what a person does imposes no costs or damage on anyone, there is no good reason to charge. We charge users not because of the benefits they derive but because of the costs of providing the relevant items. As a simple first principle, the amount of payment should accord with the costs imposed, not the benefits derived.

And the same applies in the USA, where cyclists ride on roads their taxes pay for:

The amount bicyclists overpay leaps out when you look at the costs of local roads, the roads cyclists use most. Litman found that only a third of the funds for their construction and maintenance comes from vehicle user charges; local property, income and sales taxes pay the rest. Automobile user fees contribute only about 1 cent per mile toward the costs of local roads but simultaneously impose costs more than six times that amount.

Here is the Whose Roads? paper referenced in that article.

Book it

More good reading in Carlton Reid’s Bike to Work Book digi-edition (May 2010), online now. [via road.cc]

Retraction

Another good read: Why I was foolish to mock police bike training.

Getting down your particulates

Toxic cities mock ‘healthy’ cycle riding:

Cycling to work may seem the healthy option, but a study has shown that people riding in cities inhale tens of millions of toxic nanoparticles with every breath, at least five times more than drivers or pedestrians.

I wonder how many of these particles cyclists expel again when breathing out?

Missed it again

Melburn-Roobaix was on last weekend. And I missed it. Again. Damn! Damn! Damn!

Reports from:

• Jack @ Melbourne Cyclist
• wurple.net
• Lawrence
• Cycling Tips

Tips for the road

Some really good ideas on sharing the road by Tanya Bosch. Among them:

The best advice my mother gave me was “treat everyone [as] if they are about to do something stupid”. She was referring to driving a car but it applies even more to bicycle riding.

[via About the bike]

Evaluation of risk

Children’s health suffering because it is ‘too risky’ to walk to school.

Go, Fabian, Go

Cancellara denies bike motor story, others debate the issue. Frankly, the second ‘button-pushing’ example is so blurry I can’t see what’s going on, but he does seem to have an amazing turn of speed. [thanks woowoowoo]

Love cycling in the city?

I Love Riding In the City at Urban Velo.

Bicycle innovation

Dave Moulton righly oberves that we owe a lot to the bicycle.

This is my T-shirt

ASHCAN offers the This Is My Bicycle. This Is My Gun. T-shirt. I’ll put that on my wish list, if anyone’s paying attention.

Check ‘em out

Top 50 cycling blogs 2010. (Oo! I got an ‘honourable mention’—thanks Andreas.)

Build it right and they will come

Bicycle Stations: A New Architectural Typology

With biking booming in many cities around the world, secure storage facilities are becoming essential. In the past decades cities have invested in bicycle paths as a process to increase bike commuting and reduce automobile usage, but little attention has been given to storage systems until recently. Instead of of using the typical bicycle cages and parking slabs cities are turning to a new typology of architecture which can give identity and encourage more bicycle commuters.

The hub

The Internal Gear Hub Review compares Shimano, SRAM, Sturmey Archer, Rohloff, and Fichtel & Sachs hub gears.

Hit the road

At Last – A Bike Lane That Makes Sense: “BIKE LANE WIDER THAN THE ROAD”!!!!

Biking the baby belly

Pedaling Pregnant:

Basically, when it comes to riding while pregnant, ask your doctor for permission. But if you rode your bike before, you will probably be cleared to continue doing so.

Most medical professionals say exercise is beneficial during pregnancy…The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology says healthy pregnant women should exercise at least three times a week and bicycling is one of their approved forms of exercise. The American Pregnancy Association says pregnant women should “avoid riding off the road or when the pavement is wet” because of accident risk. That’s the only warning they give.

[twitterer]

Meanwhile, in Mexico City

Mexico City offers bikes in its clean air campaign:

With its scofflaw drivers, gridlocked traffic and cobblestoned downtown, Mexico City isn’t the most bicycle-friendly place. But residents are being asked to take the risk for Madre Tierra as part of a larger campaign that leaders hope will clean up this 700-year-old metropolis.

[twitterer]

Parking

Says estuarycyclist: “Need somewhere to park your truck sir? No probs. Park it here…”

If I’m not mistaken, in the UK double yellow lines mean no parking. Hmm.

Bloggage

• The Urbane Cyclist Blog
• Cap’n Slow’s Cycling Blog and Revue

Bloody idiot

This guy is a bloody idiot on two counts. First, so drunk he was barely able to stand, “Everton rode on anyway, nearly hitting a child in a crosswalk before losing control of the bike and falling”. Then he later tries to appeal his conviction for DUI by claiming that bicycles are not vehicles. Yes they are, deadshit. [via Chainguard]

R is the best rating

Rated R.

Tour by bike

Cycle-touring: a vision of post-peak holidays?

Vehicular

Interesting critique of Vehicular Cycling but seems incomplete.

By the way, what’s a guaranteed way to get a stream of long, ranty comments? Bagging out the VC movement.

Street skeleton

The Soopa Scoota:

There’s not much to say about this scooter in the way of specific physical details, ironically, but what we do know here is that you lie on it with your hands up by your face controlling your stylish speedfest down the hill, and that you roll so very very fast. Yay!

[via DVICE, thanks tom]

Lacy

Bicycle shoes lacing technique: “Lock Lace & Knot is the best method to help reduce heel slippage by creating a secure tight hold on the foot.”

Style and substance

CycleStyle is “Australia’s first online store purely devoted to providing stylish clothing and accessories for the urban cyclist. You won’t find any scary lycra or flourescent outfits inside!”

[via Melbourne Cyclist]

It carries stuff

According to Retrovelo, their frame bag:

Who says that bicycle bags always have to look like … bicycle bags? Even 100 years ago the rock-solid frame bags for Swiss military bikes proved its worth. We picked up this idea, modified its format and usability for everyday use and designed it with RETROVELO style.

[Thanks tom]

Waxed chins, er, chains

Chain Maintenance for Clean Freaks:

Wax makes an excellent chain lube. It runs extremely clean and it seems to be good for chains.

I can vouch for that! I used to wax my chain way back in the day. Can’t think why I stopped, apart from the hassle of actually applying the wax. [twitterer]

And more good stuff here

Monthly Roundup at London Cyclist.

Characters

Steven Marmo: “An ironworker and bike racer, Mr. Marmo, 26, spent much of his teens and early 20s in and out of jail for vandalism, drugs and bar fights.”

Bicycles allowed use of full lane

The million car challenge campaign:

Our Mission is simple.
Deliver one consistent message using one million cars so that millions of drivers will get the message….. “Bicycles Allowed Use of Full Lane, Change To Pass”.

[via Velobration]

Come on, eat!

Pasta—Fuel of Champions

Bloggage

• Velobration: “Celebrate Cycling!”
• Fuck Yeah Girls & Bikes!
• Bike Jerks

Bike Mag India

Launching in Feb 2010—the first issue of the official CYCLISTS.IN Magazine, a magazine to complement the Indian Cyclists Network. Cool. Put me down for that one.

Images

“The PBIC Image Library is a searchable collection of free, real-world images relating to walking and bicycling.”

New thoughts

Editorial in the Geelong Advertiser, Road users and mutual respect:

Where Australia has to lift its game is to provide genuine, safe conditions for cyclists who choose to ride to work. It’s all very well to have the scenic bike paths around the rivers, alongside golf courses and following historic rail trails; they’re undoubtedly pleasant but not very practical for getting to and from work…

Bikes are here to stay and cyclists and motorists have to learn to live with one another; last year, more bicycles were bought in Australia than cars. Like so many things in life, it’s a two-way street and an effective campaign is badly needed to make that street safer for all users.

The right facilities

How cycling centers could help smooth commuter transitions:

“Our existing transportation system has been built around the automobile — parking, service, fuel — and we need the same sort of system around other forms of transportation.”

The right speed

The British Medical Journal reports on the effect on road injuries of introducing 20 mph (32 km/h) speed limits in London:

This study provides detailed evidence to suggest that 20 mph zones are effective in reducing the risks of casualties in a major metropolitan area, especially with regard to serious injury and death, and that the benefits are greatest among younger children…

In summary:

What is already known on this topic<br/> Road injuries are among the leading causes of mortality and disability worldwide
There is evidence that reducing the speed and volume of traffic can reduce rates of road traffic injury

What this study adds
20 mph zones are effective measures for reducing road injuries with no evidence of casualty migration to nearby roads

The wrong equipment

The New York Times reports:

To the dismay of safety advocates already worried about driver distraction, automakers and high-tech companies have found a new place to put sophisticated Internet-connected computers: the front seat.

Technology giants like Intel and Google are turning their attention from the desktop to the dashboard, hoping to bring the power of the PC to the car. They see vast opportunity for profit in working with automakers to create the next generation of irresistible devices.

That’s got to be a joke, right?

Slow news day

I’m sick and tired of reading about so-called bike tribes. Just get over it and ride your damn bike. [twitterer]

Weight loss

Confessions of a weight-loss cyclist:

“One morning I looked in the mirror and thought that I had got to do something, so I picked the phone up and got an assessment with my local health trust.”

Frank Kinlan has lost 50kg to date, since taking up cycling. What a bloody champion.

Making a point?

Funeral home offers drunk drivers a free burial:

Planning to drink and drive this New Year’s? A north Georgia funeral home has a deal for you. Between now and noon Thursday, drivers can visit McGuire, Jennings and Miller Funeral Home in Rome to sign a contract stating they plan to drink or take drugs and then drive on New Year’s Eve. If they die in a wreck that day, the funeral home will give them a free burial.

[via How We Drive]

Nutjobs-R-Us

I really love crazies like Kris Holm. What a complete nutjob (e.g. see 2 min 20 sec) but aren’t you glad there are people like this is the world? [via wurple.net]

Innovate or die

• I reckon I’ll copy this idea: Surly BBQ Bike. [twitterer]
• No so sure about the Multi-angle-wheel bicycle
• And I really don’t see the point of an Amphibious bicycle

Clueless concept

When I read the phrase “concept bike”, I always get a strange uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Except in the case of this new fixie concept bike which made me throw up a little in my mouth. [Thanks (for nothing) tom]

On the rack

Cyclehoop turns every street-sign into a bike rack. Trying to think of a downside for this idea…can’t come up with one.

Shine on

• PUYL is a bicycle pump and portable light combined in one device. [Thanks tom]
• Commuter light comparison. Wow, those rear Smart lights are really worth having.
• The PHOTON BELL for bicycles: “If there is a group up ahead with their backs to me, I dab the switch and an intense brightness, for a quarter of a second, causes a spinal arc reflex in the group and they gently part to the sides of the path, looking around for the cause.”
• Awesome Twin Spotlamps: Take two matching torches, “the sort that take the big 6V batteries with the springs”…whoa, this is not going to be a lightweight setup!

Road rage? My arse!

• Cyclists and motorists on collision course
• Justice Served?

Rights

Bike Writers Collective’s Mission Statement claims to be the Cyclists’ Bill of Rights.

Share the road?

• 9 Driving Habits that Most Annoy Cyclists
• Top 6 things we cyclists love to do to annoy drivers
• Annoying things people do on the roads (includes “Special Cycling Section”)

Carrying more stuff

Transporting (more) luggage with a Brompton [twitterer]

Worth the ASL?

“Bike boxes”: do they work? Behaviour at cycle advanced stop lines. [PDF]

Campus cycling

Verlyn Klinkenborg waxes lyrical in The New York Times on the right kind of cyclist (i.e. those who don’t wear “sleek and gaudy costumes”):

There is a deeply pleasing randomness about the campus cyclists, as though one morning university officials had assigned a bicycle to every member of the Stanford community, come as you are, without considering for a moment matters of fit – or fitness.

Too ugly for the beauty contest

Yet again I fail to make the cut in the online beauty contest: A list of top 50 Cycling blogs by Blog Rank.

Cars, teens and phones

Teens and Distracted Driving:

One in four (26%) of American teens of driving age say they have texted while driving, and half (48%) of all teens ages 12 to 17 say they’ve been a passenger while a driver has texted behind the wheel.

Unsurprising, yet still chilling.

It’s good for you. No, it’s bad for you.

The ABC reports that:

A study obtained by the ABC shows cycling injuries are being grossly under-estimated…

Official bike injury statistics are based on police records. But not all bike injuries are reported to police, and the report shows that 98 per cent of cycling injuries are not showing up in official statistics.

The data are used to support this argument by Prof Drew Richardson of Canberra Hospital for more segregation on the roads:

“I am very wary about cyclists and larger or faster vehicles sharing the same space. When human beings share the same space they do tend to bump into each other, whether it’s in supermarket aisles or lifts. And it’s certainly true on the roads.

There’s also a similar study in the UK mentioned in The Guardian.

Bike doily

tom suggests that a little reflective lace might go well with my Aldi cycling shoes. Uh-uh, I’m not going to make that sort of mistake again!

It’s supposed to be cheap!

10 Most Expensive Bicycles On Earth [Thanks tom]

I ♥ local bike shop

Your local bike shop: a source of good advice, good deals and good fun.

Bloggage

• The Hungry Cyclist: “one man’s inter-continental pursuit of the perfect meal – on a bicycle.”
• Vélo Vogue—”where the bike lane meets the runway” (Ooh, look—I’m fleetingly fashionable!)

Incognito

Frances Benjamin Johnston:

Circa 1890. “Frances Benjamin Johnston, self-portrait, dressed as a man with false mustache.” The Washington, D.C., photographer was one of the first women to rise to prominence in the profession.

[via Momentum]

I’m fashionable, again

I don’t know much about fashion, but I know what I like. I also know that if you do just about anything for long enough (with perhaps a few notable exceptions, such as masturbation or genocide), it eventually becomes fashionable. Or, indeed, fashionable again*. And so it is with cycling.

* That said, I can’t really see the mullet or stone-washed stretch denim making a big comeback any time soon. But then again, who can comprehend the addled minds of the trend-setting elite?

Road trip, anyone?

The World’s most spectacular roads—some good cycling to be had in some of these places, I reckon.

The evidence

Bristol City Council provides evidence on the benefits of cycling and walking:

Key evidence from peer-reviewed literature, often from a public health evidence base is being used to strengthen the case for current policies and practice

Presented as “Essential Evidence on a page”, so far there are 28 items—this looks like an excellent resource! [via walkit.com[

Let's get physics

Are gyroscopic effects significant when riding a bicycle?

Utter bloody disregard

[twitterer]

The war on error

The war on bicyclism is a just war:

“… if you asked which killed more people in the last 10 years in London, international terrorism, or bicycles, the answer would definitely be bicycles”

Bike lanes squeezed

Cycle lanes encourage motorists to drive closer to bikes:

Cycle lanes can make roads more dangerous for cyclists because they encourage motorists to drive closer when overtaking bicycles, a study has found.

Drivers give cyclists a wider berth on roads where there is no lane because they assume that they should share the road and make more allowance for the risk of wobbles.

[via e.can]

This is not the first time such a theory has been proposed—see: The Effect of Cycle Lanes on Cyclists’ Road Space [PDF] by the Warrington Cycle Campaign. And Dr Ian Walker’s overtaking study is not a million miles away either.

In Chicago, we share the road

Chicago police training video promotes bicycle safety, respect

Google check

Fritz does a little reality check on “student killed riding bike to school” vs “student killed driving to school”.

Freeway

Bicyclist access to freeways, controlled-access toll highways, and toll bridges [PDF]:

The danger to bicyclists is overwhelmingly concentrated at intersections, driveways, and other places where traffic patterns cross. Elimination of cross traffic and the reduction of turning maneuvers are among the features that make freeways so safe for motor traffic. These same advantages benefit bicyclists, and many surface streets are more dangerous than freeway shoulders.

Dressing for the conditions

“There is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.” The basic winter bicycling clothing temperature table may help in this regard.

Classic

Vintage bicycle ads—as twitterer put it “Ideas for your next bike”.

Disabled?

Disabled Riders Show How It’s Done At Ae Forest [twitterer]

Moulton

• Moultons
• bradford on avon 2009

[twitterer]

Bloggage

• Fat Grrl Rides
• Old Bike Blog

Lightweight camping

Screw a house, I’m buying a camper bike. [twitterer]