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Showing posts from March 4, 2012

Jingle Cross Speedo 2010 [Coed Video]

TNR 03062012 Ride Recap

Highlights 13 cyclists 25 miles (totals may vary by cyclist) American Addition to see the Extreme Makeover house and new homes Gahanna (almost) Tour de Port Columbus Bexley Yellow Brick Pizza (see pics) Looking to ride on Tuesday's? Check out the Columbus Rides Bikes! group

25th Infantry Bicycle Corps: America's Black Army on Wheels

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From the  Historical Museum at Fort Missoula The widespread popularity of the bicycle worldwide caught the attention of military leaders in the United States during the late 1800s. Major General Nelson A. Miles, as Army Commander-in-Chief, expressed his interest by recommending that one full regiment be equipped with bicycles in 1892, and that existing troops at different posts around the country use bicycles to obtain a thorough knowledge of their own country, especially the topographical features, conditions of the roads, sources of supplies, and all information of military importance. On May 12, 1896, Fort Missoula's 2nd Lieutenant James A. Moss received permission to organize the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps, the first of its kind in the country. Moss, a native of Louisiana and a West Point graduate, was an avid cyclist who set out to thoroughly test the practicality of the bicycle for military purposes in mountainous country. Moss contacted the A. G. Spalding Company, w

Motherf***ing Bike [HD] - NSFW or children. You've been warned.

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Yay Bikes! and a Movie is April 2, 2012 - "Breaking Away" on the big screen!

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Join us for the inaugural Yay Bikes! membership meeting. We’re  celebrating the 200Columbus Bikecentennial by setting a goal to get  200 members by April 2nd. Come mix and mingle with your fellow riders. We will be discussing our Year of Yay 2012 rides, Bike the C-Bus and o ther great rides! When?  April 2, 2012 - 5:30pm - 9:00pm Where? Backstage Bistro 503 S. Front St. ,  Columbus, OH 43215 5:30PM - Mix and Mingle Happy Hour – Cash bar Food available for purchase from Backstage Bistro Menu 6:30PM - YEAR OF YAY! – Speakers Jim Coleman & Meredith Joy EARTHDAY 2012- Speaker Danielle Allison Other speakers will be announced soon! 7:00PM Screening of the film “BREAKING AWAY” Admission is FREE to all Yay Bikes! members. $5 for non-members. Not a member yet? Join at  www.yaybikes.com/ membership Please RSVP to Meredith@yaybikes.com by 3/24/12.

Pinchflat Artwork Submissions due March 15, 2012

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What and Why Wild Goose Creative , in partnership with Yay Bikes! , Make Believe Monsters , Bike OSU , and Jeremy Slagle Design , announces a call for entries to a bicycle-inspired poster show called Pinchflat 2. Posters will be displayed and sold at Wild Goose Creative and www.pinchflatcolumbus.com starting with a poster party on Saturday, May 5, 2012 and continuing through the end of May. All posters will be created by artists in Columbus or central Ohio. Artwork included in the poster show will encourage bike riding, celebrate the art and craft of bikes, or invite thought about bikes as an important way to get around Columbus. Artwork might also be designed to persuade people to get on a bike in the first place! Specifications Posters should be silkscreened, etched, lino cut, or letterpressed and should measure at least 11×17 inches. Each poster will be priced to sell at $30 and will be displayed along with between 20 and 30 other posters. Artists will be responsible for ha

How Suburban Sprawl Works Like a Ponzi Scheme [The Atlantic]

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KAID BENFIELD OCT 04, 2011 Flickr user Kaizer Rangwala, licensed under Creative Commons It will not be news to anyone who is reading this that the United States remains in the midst of the deepest economic crisis in my lifetime. (I guess it turns out that you can’t start two major wars while cutting taxes and failing to regulate financial institutions, at least not without paying a steep price. Surprise.) Getting out of this mess and becoming more economically resilient will require a basket of solutions, including a serious look at the way we have been growing our cities and towns. Indeed, my friend Charles Marohn and his colleagues at the Minnesota-based nonprofit  Strong Towns  have made a very compelling case that  suburban sprawl is basically a Ponzi scheme , in which municipalities expand infrastructure hoping to attract new taxpayers that can pay off the mounting costs associated with the last infrastructure expansion, over and over. Especially as maintenance costs i

Bike & Roll: The Best Way to Tour New York City!

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Description: Download map The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway is a continuous dedicated bike path circuit that extends around the entire island of Manhattan, and is part of the Hudson River Valley Greenway that extends north to Albany. It offers a safe and easy way to get up close and personal with the city's best sites. Most of the circuit is car-free; all of it is fun, offering a relaxed riding atmosphere for bikers of all ages and experience levels. The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway encompasses a bountiful assortment of famous parks and destinations, including Hudson River Park, The Battery, Governors Island, Brooklyn Bridge Park, East River Waterfront Esplanade, Ellis Island, Liberty Island, and Liberty State Park. These parks include museums, art exhibits, boat tours, bike tours, restaurants, historical buildings, and famous landmarks. Most of the waterfront parks are accessible by bike along the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway or by water transit within the waterways.

Jill Outside - The adventures of Alaska Jill

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Jill Homer Los Altos, California, United States I'm a cyclist, trail runner, journalist, winter enthusiast, photo documentarian, former (and hopefully future) Alaskan and endurance junkie who likes to go where the wind takes me. I've been blogging here since 2005, primarily as a personal scrapbook for my outdoor adventures. From her blog It's beautiful when you're commuting to the airport beneath a full moon and the strongest solar storm since 2004, witnessing luminescent waves of white and green aurora despite layers of light pollution. [Check out her blog]

Idéale Saddles: Behind the Leather Curtain [EBykr]

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Idéale saddles are among the least understood bicycle components given their historical prominence and sometimes exorbitant value. The dizzying array of models produced continues vexing even the most ardent collectors, who seem to enjoy the punishment received when combining obscurity of fact with broad product offerings and potential stratospheric price appreciation. The celebrated yet largely unknown Idéale saddle deserves its enigmatic reputation every bit proportionate to its modern popularity and then some. Had it not been for a collapsing French cycling industry and distinct inability to move beyond core markets, Idéale might even be around today. 1890 in France was a wonderful time and place for transportation breakthroughs.  Armand Peugeot and Emile Levassor gave motorized four wheelers their first automobiles, while motorized two wheelers had  Marquis Albert De Dion and Georges Bouton  finalizing the motorcycle engine before emerging as the world’s largest car prod

Michigander - Bicycling magazine's top 10 favorite multi-day rides

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http://www.michigantrails.org/michigander-bicycle-tour/

Yay Bikes spreads the cycling message at Yelp Helps Event #letsride

Bill, Emily and I spread the message of bicycle advocacy to a ton of the 200+ attendees of the Columbus Yelp Helps event on Wednesday evening at the Westin Columbus. We met a lot of people who are interested in our mission and discussed partnerships with many companies and organizations.

Celebrating Women in Sustainable Transport [The City Fix]

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A woman enjoys a cycle lane on Ahmedabad's Janmarg system. Photo by Meena Kadri. Today is  International Women’s Day , dedicated to the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. Women have made much progress in society, but there are still many injustices and inequities to tackle, especially in the realm of transportation. In 2007, for example, the Manhattan Borough President’s Office found that  86 percent of public transportation riders who said they had been sexually assaulted did not report it to the police . Granted, women are not exclusively the victims of sexual assault, but women do comprise the majority of this group. There is also a gap between what women need to be safe on public transportation and what policy and practice are willing to do. For example,  a nationwide survey of transit agencies  in the U.S. led by Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris  and supported by the Mineta Transportation Institute found that while  two-thirds

Bike Lanes: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly [Twin Cities Streets for People]

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  Minneapolis is certainly moving full speed ahead in its support for cycling. NiceRide is  expanding its stations ; the city is considering hiring a full-time cycling & pedestrian coordinator ; bike lanes are freshly  restriped in bright green  (at least in Dinkytown, anyway); and last year Minneapolis  surpassed Portland  as the nation’s #1 biking city. As an urban enthusiast, ardent supporter of Minneapolis’ pro-cycling efforts, and downtown resident, I should be excited to be biking every day in my city. But I’m not! I walk, or drive, for all my trips. But I don’t bike. Why, you ask? I am afraid of being hit by cars, that’s why! [keep reading at Twin Cities Streets for People]

Laurier bike lanes bad for business [Ottawa citizen]

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Store and restaurant owners hurting as lack of parking keeps customers and diners away BY HUGH ADAMI, OTTAWA CITIZEN   MARCH 4, 2012 Dewan Chowdhury, who owns Buffet Moni Mahal on Laurier between Elgin and Metcalfe, says he's taking in about $15,000 less a month due to parking issues on the street. He suggests the bike lanes should be moved to another street, so customers can park on one side of Laurier. Photograph by:  Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen , Ottawa Citizen Ottawa City Hall must have figured there was a good chance that segregated bike lanes on Laurier Avenue would hurt businesses along the downtown street. But when the city is bent on doing something "green," as it was with the bike lanes, turning a blind eye helps push through the agenda quickly. After all, it wouldn't listen to residents on Laurier, who were extremely vocal over the loss of most of the street's parking spots to accommodate the bike lanes. For mon

Boston Bike Lane + Cab = Bad [VIDEO]

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NY Post Blames Bike Lanes For Bad Business On Broadway [Gothamist]

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That darn pesky bike lane ( juleskills 's flickr). The Wall Street Journal may have announced earlier this summer that  the bikes have won  but don't tell that to the paper's scruffy sibling the Post. That tabloid, like some  Upper East Side community boards , thinks the battle is still on and today anti-bicycle zealot Steve Cuozzo has posted another report from the front line: Broadway between Columbus Circle and Times Square, where the bike lanes  are supposedly  murdering businesses . Though murder is probably too strong of a word, even if Murdoch's minions used for their headline, as Cuozzo doesn't cite any actual closures. What he does cite are a handful of business owners who tell him "in guarded but passionate terms" of "lost business they may never be able to recoup." For instance Stephen Hanson, whose restaurant group B.R. Guest owns Ruby Foo's at Broadway at 49th Street, complains that the paths and the pedestrian arcade th

U of M Bike Lanes: Bad Design, Bad Results [rideboldly.org]

Editor's Note: This is from April 2011. - My fear about the current initiative in Columbus is implementation. If the proposed bike lanes are going to follow the precedent of the few existing lanes in Columbus then we will end up with issues. In the wake of  yesterday’s cyclist death near the University of Minnesota , I pointed out that the bike lanes near along 4th and University do not seem to meet current accepted standards for width, although I’ve not personally measured them. Twin Cities Sidewalks  observes that the post-tragedy discussion is likely to center on bicyclist and pedestrians being careful, rather than touching off a much-needed discussion of the poor roadway design in the University and Dinkytown areas. Twin Cities Sidewalks is right. High-speed roadways through the heart of campus, with or without bike lanes, are dumb, yet that’s what University, 4th and even Washington Avenue amount to. The bike lanes are built such that campus buses will migrate in and out

Why You Should Explore Cities by Bike [Momentum Mag]

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Jim Darling One of the best things about seeing a cit by bike is feeling the wind in your hair while you explore diverse neighborhoods, such as Washington, DC's Chinatown, pictured here. There is something inexplicably thrilling about using a bicycle to explore a strange new city, its streets pulsating with life. The glass and steel of buildings shimmer with a certain magic, street life seems more vibrant and the smells and sounds of a metropolis at full tilt threaten to overwhelm your senses. When you’re on a bicycle, you can’t help but feel completely alive and immersed in the moment. Instead of merely gazing passively through window glass, you experience and interact with a place in an immediate way. [keep reading at Momentum Mag] Editor's Note: Check out Yay Bikes! Year of Yay rides to explore Columbus, Ohio.

1937: wielrenners hinderen stoomtrein [watch out for the train]

James H Kunstler dissects suburbia [VIDEO]

Form Cycles Viaje

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COMMUTING A performance touring bike that can handle cargo, mud, snow and cobblestones. We have many different options for the commuting bike.  Pounding the pavement, jumping curbs and high-tailin’ it into work or just the coffee shop - the Viaje will deliver.  This is a bike designed to be comfortable while still earning you some style points with the endless array of customization. OPTIONS:        - WHEEL SIZE: Comes in 700c wheel size. 650c (good for five foot and under riders) is an option        - FORK: Designed around standard steel commuter fork geometry       - FRAME: Standard cable routing comes as top-mount with a seat tube pulley for easier shouldering and keeping cables out of        the elements        - FRAME OPTIONS: Cable routing changes, geared or horizontal drops, PRESS-FIT 30 or BB30, rack mounts, and bottle        deletion/additions       - FINISH: Powdercoat color choice/selection on steel; Brushed or Sand-blasted finish for Titanium

Bike co-op needs room to grow [The Other Paper]

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Courtesy Reda Ashour BY BRET LIEBENDORFER  |  0 comments After helping thousands of cyclists, the folks at Third Hand Bicycle Cooperative are now looking for a little assistance themselves. The nonprofit group has outgrown its space at 174 E. Fifth Ave. Gentrification has hampered the search for a new location within its Weinland Park-area home because most of the good properties have already been snatched up. “We’re finding almost every property is spoken for, even if they’re vacant,” said Reda Ashour, outreach coordinator for the group. From its roots, operating out of a basement on 15th Avenue, today’s core members of Third Hand trace their history to 2005 when they first opened to the public out of a residential garage in Clintonville. [Keep reading at The Other Paper]