Cult of the Bicycle

July 2008 - Posts

• Bike world news

  Ron in Cincinnati, Ohio publishes Bike World News. Ron focuses mainly on UCI Pro Tour racing, but he also look at cycling culture, technology and new products. His latest post, for example, is on one of my favorite road bikes, the Specialized Roubaix SL2. He even writes of the Roubaix that it has that "perfect balance of stiffness and vertical compliance." What else do you need to know about a bike? Bike World News. Posted Jul 31 2008, 05:16 PM by Cyclelicious Filed under: blog

• David Bryne's bike racks

  Ride along with former Talking Heads frontman David Bryne as he bikes across Brooklyn to show off his whimsical bike rack designs. Posted Jul 31 2008, 12:56 PM by Cyclelicious Filed under: video, new+york

• Criminal complaint against Christopher Long

  You've seen the video of New York Police officer Patrick Pogan tackling bike rider Chris Long during the Critical Mass bicycle ride through Times Square last week. If you haven't seen the video, it clearly shows Pogan targeting a cyclist then tackling him to the ground with a violent body check. The video shows Long riding and steering away from Pogan when Pogan runs directly at the cyclist and knocks him hard to the ground. The Smoking Gun posted Pogan's sworn statement in which he says he arrested Long because Long "steered the ... bicycle in the direction of [Pogan] and drove the bicycle directly into [Pogan]'s body, causing [Pogan] to fall to the ground and causing [Pogan] to suffer lacerations on [his] forearms." The Manhattan attorney's office filed charges of "attempted assault in the 3rd Degree" against Chris Long as a result of Pogan's statement. Chris Long spent 26 hours in jail after his arrest. All I can say of Pogan is "Liar Liar Pants on Fire." Pogan played high school football and was chosen as an offensive lineman for the 2003 Long Island all stars team. More: NY Times: When Official Truth Collides With Cheap Digital Technology Gothamist: Pogan's father, a retired NYPD detective, says "You do what you gotta do to make the arrest." Unbelievable. Posted Jul 30 2008, 04:16 PM by Cyclelicious Filed under: news, new+york

• Traffic safety: If you can't see, the speed limit is zero

  Two children in a marked crosswalk were hit by an SUV at Portola and 30th in Live Oak, California. The driver told officers she couldn't see the children because she was blinded by the son. "It's the driver's responsibility to make sure they can safely drive without any obstruction," California Highway Patrol officer Grant Boles said. "Don't just drive blind into the sun." Officer Dave Reed adds, "If you can't see, the speed limit is zero." It seems self-evident, but *doh*. More at the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Posted Jul 30 2008, 04:00 PM by Cyclelicious Filed under: safety

• Assaulted cyclist chases down attacker

  Props to Paul M for this news from Boulder, Colorado: a freakazoid pulls up alongside 23 year old cyclist Danika Bueno, grabs her left breast and tries to pedal away. Danika, who's biked across the United States twice, gave chase while calling 911 on her cell phone. The perverted perp is caught. Read the full story here. Posted Jul 30 2008, 10:00 AM by Cyclelicious

• Bicycle camping at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park

  I've recently learned of a new blog, "Post Car Adventuring," which is reminding me to post some of my own suggestions for car-free camping convenient to San Francisco Bay Area bicyclists. The Santa Cruz area has a host of options for bicycling and camping. Henry Cowell State Park Bicycle Camping I almost don't want to mention this because I want to keep it a secret -- very few people seem to know about the bicycle camping area at Henry Cowell State Park near Santa Cruz. This campground featuring hiking trails that wind through majestic coast redwood trees is only three miles from my front door. From Thursday through the weekends, the car camping spots are almost always filled to capacity. Car campers pay $25 per night in addition to the $6 entry fee, while bicycle campers only pay $3 per night to stay. Every time I've gone, the bicycle camping area has always been open. Important note: The Henry Cowell Campground is not open in the winter. Biking from Santa Cruz From my home it's a fairly quick bike ride to the Henry Cowell campground. From Santa Cruz, you can ride your bike up Graham Hill Road to the campground entrance. Graham Hill Road is fairly narrow, so if you don't like traffic another option is to ride along the Roaring Camp railroad tracks to the Henry Cowell Park visitor center, then use park trails to get to the camping area. Bikes are permitted only on certain trails so consult the park map. Bus from Santa Cruz Santa Cruz Metro route #35 runs from the Metro Center on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz up through Scotts Valley and Felton. From Felton Faire (the Safeway parking lot), turn left on Graham Hill Road, then turn right into the Roaring Camp Railroad parking lot. At the end of the parking lot, cut all the way right until you're immediately alongside the tracks. Continue south along the tracks, pass the employee parking area, and you'll reach Roaring Camp's picnic area. Henry Cowell State Park is accessible through the fence to the right. Follow Pipeline Road (the paved trail) and turn left on Ridge Fire Road (a steep and sandy uphill) or Powder Mill Fire Road (still sandy, but not quite as steep). Follow signs to get to the campground. Bus #31 from the downtown Metro Center runs during the week and stops very near the campground entrance on Graham Hill Road. From the Bay Area - Bike State Route 17 (aka Highway 17) is technically county expressway between Los Gatos and Scotts Valley; bicycles are legal but not recommended. Instead, take the Los Gatos Creek Trail and make your way to Lexington Reservoir. Get on Alma Bridge Road and go south toward the Santa Cruz Mountains. Just before Alma Bridge Road intersects with Highway 17, there's a dirt social trail adjacent to the northbound side of the highway. Follow this dirt path until you can get on Old Santa Cruz Highway. You'll cross over the San Andreas Fault immediately after the CDF fire station. Old Santa Cruz Highway winds up the Santa Cruz Mountains. Watch for a right turn to Mountain Charlie Road -- a sign indicates this road is for local traffic only. Turn right on Mountain Charlie -- this is an extremely steep and narrow grade. Turn right on Summit Road, cross over Highway 17, then turn left from Summit onto the other side of Mountain Charlie Road. Again, this is a steep and narrow grade, except now you're going downhill -- CONTROL YOUR SPEED AND STAY TO THE RIGHT! Eventually, Mountain Charlie ends at Glenwood Drive. Turn right on Glenwood and follow it into Scotts Valley. Turn onto Scotts Valley Drive and cycle through town on the bike laned street. Cross Mount Hermon Road and follow Whispering Pines Drive around to Lockwood Lane, where you turn left, then left again onto Graham Hill Road. From there it's about a half mile to the campground entrance. Los Gatos to Henry Cowell is about 20 miles, and you'll climb to an elevation of about 1900 feet at the Santa Cruz Mountains summit. From the Bay Area -- Public transportation Take any of myriad options to get to San Jose Diridon Station. Caltrain, ACE Train, Amtrak, VTA Light Rail and numerous VTA buses all stop at San Jose Diridon. From the East Bay you can either take BART around to Millbrae and hop on Caltrain; or go down to Fremont BART, take AC Transit bus #217 to the Great Mall Light Rail Station, connect to VTA light rail to either Tasman or Convention Center, transfer to the Winchester Light Rail line and get off at Diridon Station. From Diridon Station, the Highway 17 Express Bus makes numerous runs daily from San Jose to Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz. Ride the bus either to Scotts Valley and bike the rest of the way to the campground from there, or take the bus into Santa Cruz and follow the "Bus from Santa Cruz" directions above. Note that the bike racks on the Highway 17 buses and all Santa Cruz Metro buses are often fully utilized, so be prepared to wait your turn. Don't forget to visit "Post Car Adventuring for more car free adventuring inspiration. Next up: The time I attempted to ride my bike up to the Long's Peak Trailhead for a two day backpacking trip to the summit of a Colorado 14er. Posted Jul 30 2008, 02:18 AM by Cyclelicious

• Sky Yeager interview

  Sky Yaeger is the designer behind the bikes at Swobo. Before going to Swobo, Sky worked for Bianchi USA for 17 years where we she the product manager responsible for bikes like San Jose. Forbes of Cycloculture, "a journal for real world cyclists," interviewed Sky and asked about her design influences. See the interview here. He kindly used one of my photos of Sky, which is a sure way of getting a link from me. Related: Swobo Del Norte and Shout out to bike nerds. Posted Jul 30 2008, 12:32 AM by Cyclelicious

• Bicycle Leadership Conference during Sea Otter Festival

  Bicycle Leadership Conference to be held in conjunction with Sea Otter Classic In an effort to better leverage networking opportunities and industry leadership attendance, the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association (BPSA) today announced it signed a three-year agreement with the Sea Otter Classic to host its annual Bicycle Leadership Conference (BLC) in conjunction with the cycling festival through 2011. The 2009 BLC will be held April 15-17, 2009 at the Sea Otter host hotel, the Embassy Suites in Seaside, Calif. The 2009 Sea Otter Classic will be held April 16-19 at the Laguna Seca Recreation Area in Monterey Calif. "Aligning ourselves with the Sea Otter Classic, a well-attended and highly relevant cycling-focused event, is one way we can further support our attending membership and improve the effectiveness of our conference," said John Nedeau, president of the BPSA and vice president of global sales for SRAM. "Because many of our members also attend the Sea Otter Classic, we are confident that by combining the two events we will boost attendance from manufacturers and suppliers alike." In addition to discussion on growing the bicycle industry, BLC 2009 will focus on improving communication about the growing number of industry organizations and advocacy groups, their individual missions and how manufacturers can better work with these groups to support the broader goals of the industry. In addition to research results, panel discussions, breakout groups and networking opportunities, the conference will again offer improved bike rides and the industry's most prestigious golf tournament. The BLC will again host the BRAINy awards dinner presentation. "The Bicycle Leadership Conference is important to the future of our industry," said Frank Yohannan, president and CEO of the Sea Otter Classic. "Only through strong leadership can we identify our challenges and plan a strategy of growth and expansion. All of us at the Sea Otter Classic welcome the opportunity to support this event and further grow the sport of cycling." While the BPSA will continue to determine the conference topic and content, the Sea Otter Classic has retained the services of Lifeboat Solutions' Lance Camisasca as conference director for the event. Camisasca's experience in the cycling industry as Interbike show director for ten years and his industry contacts will be invaluable in managing the registration, logistics and marketing for the conference. "The idea for Sea Otter to host the 2009 BLC is brilliant," Camisasca said. "I look forward to helping shape a memorable and purposeful BLC event by integrating the conference components with Sea Otter Classic's activities and events." Posted Jul 29 2008, 05:22 PM by Cyclelicious Filed under: news

• Manufacture of guns, bicycles booming in UK

  The century-old dilemma facing economists seeking to strike the right balance between guns and butter receives a new twist on Monday with figures showing Britain enjoying booming production of guns – and bicycles. The fastest growing segments of UK manufacturing are weapons, followed by the bicycles and motorbikes. Large UK weapons companies include divisions of BAE Systems and the missile maker MBDA, as well as smaller groups such as BSA Guns, based in Birmingham. In fact, BSA successfully combined both weapon and bicycle production until 1957, and continued making motorcycles until the early 1970s. Among the groups in the second best performing business area – motorbikes and cycles – are the Triumph motorcycle company and the bicycle producer Pashley, both based in the Midlands. Read more in the Financial Times. Props to my co-worker Mike H. Posted Jul 29 2008, 01:53 PM by Cyclelicious

• Portland traffic count: 18% of vehicles are bikes

  In this news story about the recent spate of bad attitudes and violence between cyclists and motorists in Portland, Oregon, is this fun little quote. "Eighteen percent of the vehicles that crossed the Hawthorne Bridge last year were bicycles." The city of Portland, OR counts traffic on the four bridges that cross the Williamette River. That 18% figure for the Hawthorne Bridge is last year's (2007) number. On San Francisco Market Street, the Municipal Transportation Agency counted twice as many bikes as private automobiles on Bike To Work Day last May! Posted Jul 28 2008, 06:18 PM by Cyclelicious

• Sports headlines

  Some of the sports headlines I saw today and yesterday... Ziegler sets record in A's 6-5 victory over Rangers Johnson pitches Diamondbacks past the Giants Carlos Sastre wins doping-scarred race I have't listened to it yet, but David promised to rant about this on today's edition of The Spokesmen cycling podcast. In my view, the fact that three people were caught doping and ejected during the race is evidence that the system is working. When was the last time a ball player was shadowed by chaperons and marched into a locker room for a surprise drug test immediately prior to a game? Posted Jul 28 2008, 03:54 PM by Cyclelicious

• Full lockers at work

  I've chronicled how the local trains and buses have maxed out on bicycle capacity. I've encountered another bicycling infrastructure capacity issue on my commute. The shower lockers are now all in use. We don't have assigned lockers at my work -- the cyclists and joggers and others who use the showers just hang our sweaty clothes and towels in the small individual lockers for the day. We're required to remove our belongings when we leave in the evening. It used to be that only two or three lockers were used during the day. Now I see that the dozen lockers in my building's shower room are fully utilized almost every day. I'm seeing more bikes around the building, too. People are leaving them in the stairways, the hallway, and in their offices. The outside bike cage is many bikes I haven't seen in previous months, many of them obviously brand new. Even people I *never* expected to see on a bike are riding their bikes to work on occasion, and all of them come to me like excited little children bragging about their accomplishment. I say good for you. I should probably get some gold stars to pass out to everybody who does this. It used to be when I searched for bicycling news article in July, the news was dominated by the Tour de France and headlines like "Bicyclist killed in car crash." These days I'm seeing more stories like this: Parking a bike gets tougher in Seattle. With Gas Above $4 A Gallon, More And More People Are Trading In Four Wheels For Two Pakistan, High fares encourage bicycle comeback. Canada: Gas fuels bicycle interest. Do you see more cyclists on the road where you live and work? Posted Jul 28 2008, 12:35 PM by Cyclelicious

• Zippered bike sorts

  Happy Sunday evening. Here are a couple of quick links for you: First, the zippered bike shorts mentioned in the title of this post are from Selle SMP. They're to facilitate nature breaks. I'm not going to post the "how to use" illustrations here, so I'll just point you to Carlton's post. See Brother Ed's Guide to Buying Hot Merchandise Posted Jul 27 2008, 08:01 PM by Cyclelicious

• The winner is Bikesgonewild

  Bikesgonewild wins the leather toe clip sew kit. He plans to use it on an old 70s Colnago bike that he's restoring. Tour de France Stage 19 I found another blog with Tour de France recaps: Velonoise reports on Chavanel's win today in Stage 19. KWC is traveling and doesn't have his own report, but his Stage 19 robot automatically collected the links for you. Posted Jul 25 2008, 05:55 PM by Cyclelicious

• If it's good enough for Bike Snob...

  First of all, I've notified the winner of the leather toe clip sew kit. I'll let you know who it is as soon as I've heard from him. James @ Bicycle Design tagged me. Don't fear -- I won't tag you -- but since Bike Snob answered the call, I might as well do so also. The questions: If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be? I'd have the bike I'm riding today. I'm easy to please that way. Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not? I'm satisfied with what I have. If I got something newer and better I sure wouldn't complain, but I don't covet somebody else's ultimate or perfect bike. If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why? That's the Greek story of Sisyphus, who was cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill only to watch it roll down. He was cursed to do this in Tartarus (the Greek underworld, their version of Hell) through eternity. What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride to to do for the rest of her / his life? That would be Zeus, because Sisyphus tattled on him. Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrowminded? I'm an open minded guy who rides all kinds of bikes. The only thing I probably won't try is extreme freeride. Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent. I've tried recumbent bicycles. I think they're fun, kind of like the bumper cars at an amusement park. Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss? I can swim decently enough, but I got into cycling because running hurts too much. No pain, all gain. Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why? WWFCD: What would Fat Cyclist do? What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it? You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do? I'd pull my camera out and start snapping photos, of course. Just like I didn't do when I've encountered other wildlife in the middle of the road or trail like a bobcat (Santa Cruz), a whole herd of mule deer that I had to slalom through at 40 mph (yikes! Rocky Mountain National Park), American bison (Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Lawton, OK), elk (Estes Park, CO) and several moose (near Grand Lake, CO). Posted Jul 25 2008, 02:53 PM by Cyclelicious