Invented in Sweden, only available in the EU......
Monday, November 11, 2013
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
NYC, America's Largest City, Gets a Pro-Bike Mayor
Bill de Blasio
Bicycling has become a mainstream way for many New Yorkers to commute to work and travel around the city. It’s inexpensive, it promotes public health, and it’s a key part of helping the city respond to climate change. Right now, the city’s goal is to increase bicycling to 3 percent of all trips by 2020. Bill de Blasio will double that goal—using education, promotion and safer streets to grow bicycling to 6 percent by 2020. De Blasio will continue expanding bike lanes around the city so that bicyclists have a safe, dedicated space to ride—and drivers and pedestrians will have more predictable streets. He will expand the public Bike Share program to outer-borough neighborhoods and increase education outreach to promote safe riding. With these tools, de Blasio will set a goal of cutting serious cycling injuries and fatalities in half — even as the number of cyclist continues to grow. De Blasio believes strongly that communities deserve a voice in decisions that affect them—and this includes bike lanes. As mayor, de Blasio will expand communication before street changes are installed by notifying residents and small businesses through the distribution of fliers and door-to-door outreach. He will work to address their feedback before projects are installed. By better communicating on the front end, de Blasio will reduce friction and bolster public support for expanding cycling in the city.
Source
And this guy is ahead of the curve in other ways too. Besides having an inter-racial family, his wife, Chirlane McCray, a political strategist and speechwriter, helped him get elected..
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Man Pedals Same Bike To, Across and From San Francisco Bay!
Note: With just a small bit of web research, i found out that Shuttle Bike, the Italian company that made the bike accessory Judah Schjller, below, used to pedal across the Bay has been trying to promote its invention here in Europe since 1992.
What it took to get this 'new way of biking'" really known about in the USA was a good marketing guy. Enter Judah Schiller, the founder of two San Francisco brand marketing companies. Aiko and Saatchi & Saatchi). A tip of the hit to him for knowing how to spin the half baked Bay Bridge bike path to get publicity for both a water bike lane and for his ad agency!!
What it took to get this 'new way of biking'" really known about in the USA was a good marketing guy. Enter Judah Schiller, the founder of two San Francisco brand marketing companies. Aiko and Saatchi & Saatchi). A tip of the hit to him for knowing how to spin the half baked Bay Bridge bike path to get publicity for both a water bike lane and for his ad agency!!
Judah Schiller, a former attorney and single father of three, rode to the
water's edge in Oakland, CA, outfitted his bike with a propeller and
pontoons (a ten-minute job) and 45 minutes later he was
at the Ferry Building in San Francisco!
And yet there again, Judah may have taken his inspiration from the Kinetic Sculpture racers who have been pedaling on water and land since the early 1970's:
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
SF Market St 1906 Days Before Quake
The above video of a cable car ride to the 1896 built Ferry Building shot days before the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 offers an amazing look at a time when the world functioned just fine without the rules of the road.
The quality is so excellent that the 30 second commercial penalty is worth the wait.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Giant's 79 Year-Old CEO Rides 700 Mies a Month - Story in NY Times
The former manufacturer for Schwinn, and now the world's largest maker of bikers,
Giant Bicycles, is led by a man who bikes his talk!!
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
San Jose, CA PrIest Hit by Car, Dies Just Short of his 100,000 Mile Lifetime Cycling Goal
On Aug 22, 20013 Ronna D. wrote:
This was one priest with integrity. He really did go the 'extra mile' for the parish that loved him. I could go on and on, about how different he was. We all miss him so much. I walked 47 miles over a month, to participate in this effort. The direct link is HERE.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Richard Ballantine, Author who did More than Anyone to bring Back the Bicycle Dies
While I was in the States with limited computer access, Richard Ballantine, the man whose book, "Richard's Bike Book" along with a lot of his other writing brought bicycling into the mainstream died May 29. He also famously maintained that if he were to own just one bike, it would be a trike......
An avid bicycle collector, Richard Ballantine was passionate about pedal power in all its forms, especially recumbent bicycles that had been banned from road-racing competitions
Here is the obitury that appeared in the Guardian:
An avid bicycle collector, Richard Ballantine was passionate about pedal power in all its forms, especially recumbent bicycles that had been banned from road-racing competitions
Here is the obitury that appeared in the Guardian:
Richard Ballantine obituary
Cyclists' champion who made the case for assertive urban cycling before it became fashionable
Richard Ballantine, who has died aged 72, was one of cycling's most influential and eloquent advocates, inspiring generations of cyclists. He was instrumental in promoting cyclists' rights and popularising mountain bikes and recumbent bicycles. Richard's Bicycle Book, first published in 1972, quickly became the cyclists' bible, selling more than 1m copies through numerous editions. Its encyclopedic format combined astute practical advice on buying and maintaining bikes with an original, passionate, eco-conscious manifesto for cycling – presciently, in light of the Opec oil embargo of 1973-74.
For Richard, riding a bicycle was a defence against the alienation of modern life and the dehumanising effects of cars. "Now look at what happens to you on a bicycle," he wrote. "It's immediate and direct. You pedal. You make decisions. You experience the tang of the air and the surge of power as you bite into the road. You're vitalised. As you hum along, you fully and gloriously experience the day, the sunshine, the clouds, the breezes. You're alive!"
"Sex," as one interviewer asserted, "had Dr Alex Comfort. Cycling had Richard Ballantine."
Richard made the case for assertive urban cycling long before it became fashionable. He provided bold, colourful advice on how to handle motorists (compete for road space as an equal – don't cower in the gutter), lorries (beware when riding on the inside, make yourself obvious) and – despite being an animal lover himself – aggressive dogs (reciprocate hostility as needed). He proposed a utopian future of separate bike lanes and free bikes in city centres. "A better deal for cyclists," he wrote, "is a better deal for society." An advocate of campaigning through direct action, he had a radical's fearless instinct for a cause and a pen to match.
Born in Kingston, New York state, Richard was the only child of Ian and Betty Ballantine, who pioneered paperback publishing in America, first with Bantam and later with Ballantine Books. Richard grew up between Woodstock and New York, where he attended the Browning school and, briefly, Columbia University. As a student, he was an activist in the New Left movement.
His real education came from growing up in the family's publishing business, which mass-marketed JRR Tolkien, Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov, and introduced authors such as Ray Bradbury, Philip K Dick and Tom Robbins to a wider readership.
After working variously as a chef, shooting gallery attendant, book editor and housing community organiser in New York, Richard moved to the UK in the early 1970s. Following the success of Richard's Bicycle Book, he launched Bicycle, the UK's first glossy cycle magazine for everyday cyclists. His passion for innovations that improved urban cycling led him to import the first high-security, anti-theft D-locks from the US.
After testing an imported US prototype mountain bike in 1982, Richard realised that they could transform cycling, but needed to be promoted. When two young Australian law students, Tim Gartside and Peter Murphy, approached Bicycle with a plan to ride across the Sahara on roadsters, Richard decided they should ride mountain bikes and that he and I should import them together. The success of the landmark, 3,410-mile, north-south crossing of the Sahara inspired us to import a further 20 mountain bikes to kickstart interest in them. Subsequently Richard co-launched the Fat Tyre Five series of mountain bike races, staged over five weekends in 1984.
An avid bicycle collector, he was passionate about pedal power in all its forms, especially aerodynamic, recumbent bicycles that had been banned from road-racing competitions. He co-founded the British Human Power Club in 1983 and was its chairman, and also chairman of the World Human Powered Vehicle Association, until his death.
He wrote several more books on cycling, including (with myself) Richards' Ultimate Bicycle Book (1992), as well as campaigning columns for publications such as the Guardian and New Cyclist. In his last book, City Cycling (2007), he returned to providing inspirational and amusing instructions on how to survive as a cyclist in an urban environment.
A warm-hearted and fun-loving colleague, he had an editor's eclectic range, editing books that included an 18-part series on the Vietnam war; the astronaut Michael Collins's memoirs of the Apollo 11 moon landing; and The Sawtooth Wolves, documenting a six-year study of a wolf pack.
Richard was an accomplished blues guitarist and five-string banjo player, having been taught the banjo in Woodstock by the American folk musician Billy Faier.
He is survived by his wife, Sherry, whom he married in 1974; his children, Danielle, Katharyn and Shawn; his grandchildren, Alexander and Norah; and his mother.
• Richard Ballantine, author and publisher, born 25 July 1940; died 29 May 2013
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Report - Cycling is Booming!!
Biking boomed in communities across the country, doubling from 1.7 billion trips in 2001 to more than four billion trips in 2009 (with no in sight).......
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Saturday, June 1, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Philly Bike Messenger Riding with his Cat
Philadelphia bike courier Rudi Saldia riding through the city with his cat Mary Jane perched parrot fashion on his shoulder
Friday, April 26, 2013
Friday, April 12, 2013
Cyclist Injured by NYPD Car Gets Billed $1,263 for Damage to Vehicle
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NYPD (Pete Stewart, Wikimedia Commons)
A cyclist in New York City who was hospitalised after being struck by an unmarked police car has spoken of his disbelief after being billed more than $1,200 for the damage that happened to the vehicle during the incident.
According to the New York Post, it’s at least the third time in recent months that city authorities have sent victims bills in similar circumstances – and each time, they have quietly dropped the demand for money after being challenged.
The latest bill, in the sum of $1,263, was received by Justin Johnsen, a 31-year-old resident of South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who was riding his bike to work as a design-engineer in Red Hook last November when he was hit by a Ford Taurus that happened to be an unmarked police car.
“I think it’s preposterous,” said Johansen of the bill he received. “I was upset,” continued the cyclist, who had to visit hospital after the incident to have stitches inserted in wounds to his arms.
“I was in kind of disbelief that they were going to send this letter after four months or so and ask me to pay damages for their vehicle, when they hit me when I was on a bicycle.”
Describing the background to the incident, which happened at 8.30 in the morning on 5 November, he said: “I had left the bike lane to make a left turn, and I looked behind me and saw that it was clear, and the farthest car was a fair distance.
He indicated to turn, but said that before he could do so, he “was swiped by this car on my left side. I didn’t feel too good . . . I got some big gashes to my elbows,” he explained, adding that the while the two officers in the vehicle were “pretty friendly” after the collision, they were “not apologetic at all.”
While his medical bills ran to several hundred dollars, Johnsen said he hadn’t thought about suing the police, but in the matter of the demand for money for damage to his vehicle he has a lawyer, Daniel Flanzig, acting for him on a pro bono basis.
Flanzig, who had volunteered his services after hearing that the city had told Johnsen it would sue him if he didn’t pay, said: “They should be sending an apology letter instead of a bill.”
courtesy: http://road.cc/content/news/80569-cyclist-injured-nypd-car-gets-billed-1263-damage-vehicle
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Cyclist conquers world's 5th tallest building
Krystian Herba, of Poland, rode 2,754 steps to reach
the 100th-floor observation deck of the world’s
fifth tallest building in Shanghai, China
Story with video
Monday, March 4, 2013
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
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