[twitterer]

Utility cycling

• Woman moving house from East to West coast of USA decides to go by bike
• The Two Faces of “Commuter” Cycling (Is that video taking the piss?)
• Refrigerator on bike—a man after my own heart…

How MacGyver does it

How to fix a bicycle puncture with only a pump. We think “cut the tire using his teeth” at point 3 and “tied the tire firmly” at point 4 is actually referring to the old knotted inner tube trick. See it in this list of emergency bike repairs along with a number of other MacGyver tricks.

Kids

Three Bikes on the Trail

City

• The real reason why bicycles are the key to better cities [Thanks tom]
• Driven to despair in Australia’s outer suburbs
• How to design a bicycle city

Stepper bikes: why?

There’s this and this and even this, but I simply don’t get why someone would want to go a ride a mobile stepping machine. (Come to that, I don’t even understand why anyone wants to use a stationary stepping machine.) I’ll stick to a bike thanks all the same.
[Thanks tom and ozzmosis]

Gadgets

• Our favourite way to stay hydrated while cycling [thanks flipsockgrrl and tom]
• Veltop or would an umbrella work just as well? [Thanks tom]
• Saddle Couch [thanks flipsockgrrl]

Bike parking

• Secure bike parking [Thanks tom]
• Monitoring bike parking in Utrecht [Thanks tom]
• Senza Bike Lock System by Jaryn Miller » Yanko Design [Thanks tom]
• TiGr Bike Lock [twitterer]

Hack

• Rube Goldberg powertrain [Thanks tom]
• Make a Mini Recumbent from a Kid Bike
• Lego Bike—don’t ask why. [Thanks tom]

On the way to Utrecht I met a man…

This man rides 80km a day. He’s 78 and doesn’t look it. [twitterer]

A Sunday in Hell

Good to see this classic documentary of the Paris-Roubaix on You Tube.

Bikes on a plane

How to take a bike on a plane: “Forget expensive bike bags – my road bike flew Ryanair in a massive plastic bag and lived to tell the tale.”

Bike share “disappointing”

A range of excuses offered as the Melbourne bike share scheme returns disappointing numbers. More bike stations wouldn’t hurt but it really comes down to compulsory helmet laws.

Helmets

Of course, you don’t need bike helmets. Oh, hang on, yes you do need bike helmets.

Well, if you’re going to wear one, maybe get one with an in-built ring of confidence.

Car vs Bike: The difference

The Difference campaign [twitterer]

Road safety

In New Zealand, the coroner is to look into ways to reduce cycle deaths, meanwhile a combined CPF/Heart Foundation survey finds that two in three blame unsafe roads for staying off their bikes. While I this is a very interesting survey, I think ‘unsafe roads’ is just one in a suite of excuses that people will use not to ride.

While we’re on the subject, would driving test changes boost cyclist safety? [twitterer]

In training to be an organ donor

What a Total Muppet! Watch for the idiot having a little tantrum and throwing his bike against at door at the end of the video.

Brrrrompton!

On London Cyclist, Nicole goes to Antwerp…with a Brompton and then does the Full Brompton Review.

Le Tour from above

Fake of the D. [twitterer]

Set the pace

Set the Pace with these Raleigh fetures

Chic

• Keep Ride And Stay Chic.
• Victoria Pendleton Grazia Fashion Shoot
• Remembering Amsterdam

Peak Cars

Angry Birds poop on cars:

In the near future cars won’t disappear (trains haven’t) but if a transport mode is in decline, even a very small decline, there’s less need to create infrastructure for that mode. Why build more motorways when use of such infrastructure is likely to decrease? Transport modes in the ascendency need the infrastructure spend. Yep, that’s right: bicycles. (And light rail, but that’s for another trade mag to champion).

Awwwwwww

Cute pic o’ the day

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.

World Bike Ride

Tour du Monde:

Everyone’s on bikes, from the pelotons of the Tour de France to the bicycle transporters of Burundi.

[twitterer]

Cargo – car = go

Cargo bikes, more cargo bikes, and a serious cargo trike.

Mountain Envy

Cycling Challenge: “Perhaps the best ride of the year. Certainly the most beautiful. Doreen and I spent the weekend in central Switzerland in Grindelwald – right in front of the famous Eiger north face.”

Check that scenery! Drool. [twitterer]

Bikeshare head cases

Andrew Bolt on bike share and helmet laws. [twitterer]

However, within its own scheme, Monash Uni solves the helmet problem (sort of). [twitterer]

Helmet hair

And while we’re on the topic, apparently mandatory helmets do not discourage cycling. Not touching that one. [twitterer]

On the other hand, wearing helmets in cars “has been proved more effective in preventing serious injury than cycle helmets, but promoting car helmets is likely to meet heavy opposition”. Oh, you reckon? Not touching that one, either. [twitterer]

The Rules (for Beach Road Poseurs)

The Rules

Sexy!

Sexy Dahon—but that’s a tautology, isn’t it? [twitterer]

Weight weenies extreme

When Milliseconds Mean Everything: “In the first-ever Tour de France, Maurice Garin beat second-place finisher Lucien Pothier by two hours, 49 minutes. In the last two decades, the sport has embraced technology—and the gaps have gotten smaller.”

Hmm, technology might not have been the only thing making the gaps smaller…

Shorthand for ‘loser’

Tom Vanderbilt wonders how not having a car became Hollywood shorthand for loser. [twitterer]

Death trap?

bicyclism ponders “Deadly Treadlies”:

He was working up to his point; a verbal victory of wit. The delivery of a decisive score of intellectual perspicacity to be absorbed like water into a dehydrated sponge. His triple chins quivered in excitement. His rotund button-popping belly was thrust outwards towards us along the lines of a peacock’s tail flourish; at least to the delusions of his own mind’s self-attracted eye… His considerable bulk was, somehow, testimony to the weight of his authority.

‘No…you would never get me on one of those death traps…’ ‘Bicycles are the shortest path to suicide’.

I reckon I’ve met that bloke. Although I don’t put much store by the risk estimation of someone who seems to have trouble assessing his own risk of heart disease, type II diabetes, lung cancer, emphysema and cirrhosis of the liver.

There are wankers everywhere

On A Hundred and One Wankers:

Wanker #5 had a convertible. Not a huge surprise. He leaned over when driving to shout “Watch me overtake you” which i did, while he drove off laughing. Five minutes later, as he sat in traffic leading up to Kennington Park, I smiled at him and said “Watch me overtake you”. Brilliant.

Bloggage

• Cycle and Style “An Online Women’s Cycling Magazine. For Women. By Women.”
• Cyclized “Devoted to Cycling Culture and Urbanism”
• for the love of bikes

…and this is my bike

Amsterdam houdt van fietsen! [twitterer]

I’ve fallen and I can’t get up

Twitter to the Rescue: Lost, Injured Triathlete Saved by Tweet [twitterer]

Bikes are the problem

Apparently getting people in Denver to ride to work is “part of a greater strategy to rein in American cities under a United Nations treaty”. How do these crazies get air time? [twitterer]

Bikes are not the solution

The Earth Policy Institute says:

The bicycle has many attractions as a form of personal transportation. It alleviates congestion, lowers air pollution, reduces obesity, increases physical fitness, does not emit climate-disrupting carbon dioxide, and is priced within the reach of the billions of people who cannot afford a car…Few methods of reducing carbon emissions are as effective as substituting a bicycle for a car on short trips.

However, Energy Bulletin makes that the valid point that:

…in a a properly designed Traditional City, most people don’t need bicycles. This is true even today. In cities where people often do not own a car, such as New York or Hong Kong or Paris, these non-car-owning people usually do not own a bicycle either. Or, if they happen to own a bike, they do not use it every day as a transportation device. They get by just fine on foot, and using the transportation options available, especially trains and, if a train is not available, a bus. Occasionally a taxi. A bike is best as a least-desirable option, for those trips that are too long to walk comfortably, and not convenient by either train or bus. Ideally, these would be as few as possible, as a well-designed city should be a place where you can easily walk or ride a train (a bus if you have to) just about everywhere.

Excuse or solution

At Commute by Bike:

Come on now. I know that you think of yourself as a bike commuter. But all too often something gets in the way. As a small business owner who also likes calling himself a bike commuter, I’ve become quite familiar with all of the reasons (excuses) that it often seems much easier to take the car instead.

Just slow the f— down

UK’s Telegraph reports that one of Britain’s most senior police refers to speeding as “middle-class anti-social behaviour” that “all seems OK until something tragic happens, like their child dies because of a road traffic accident”.

But it is her criticism of motorists that is likely to cause controversy. Many motorists who are caught speeding complain that they are “soft” targets used to produce funds — speeding fines raise about £100 million a year — and that the police should be targeting serious criminals instead.

Hmm, there aren’t too many things more serious than placing the lives of random strangers in danger, I would have thought.

[twitterer]

Broads and bikes

No, no, no—The Broads. I remember Griff Rhys Jones talking about The Broads on his Rivers series, and I thought that they’d probably have some good cycling around there. Well, apparently they do: The Broads By Bike.

Chicks and bikes

Cyclepassion calendar [twitterer]

Flash mobs are so last year

And Queen’s “Bicycle Race” has been overdone, but still: bike flashmob Central Station Brussels. [twitterer]

Geez, was there anyone left there actually watching that?

This I do not understand

According to Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage the good burghers of that city want to change local laws “to make cyclists liable for accidents if they are hit while crossing a roadway”. What the hell…?

The bike economy

Sydney’s bike economy booms—so is it the beginning of a boom or the peak of a passing fad?

Designs

• Forkless Bicycle Design by Olli Erkkila. Fork me, that’s a cool bike!
• This electic bike is not for your granny—or maybe it is to her taste? [twitterer]
• Ooh, shiny! Cyglo Bike Tires with Embedded LEDs [twitterer]

Driving makes you fat

Does commuting by car make you fat?

It’s a simple equation: Exercise more and lose weight. Still, many people spend most of their time either behind a desk or driving to or from where that desk is located. A few states buck that trend with large cities that allow for more walking, biking, and commuting via public transportation, but are their citizens any more fit?

I dunno about you, but I find that visualisation a little hard to follow…

Let’s get political

Tony Abbott. Not the Man. [via Melbourne Cyclist]

Long-distance relationship

TechNewsDaily reports on the “jogging over distance” system that takes the best interactive elements of computer games to make mere “exercise” more like sports and therefore more fun.

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]

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!)