Columbus Rides Bikes!

BicycleDutch It’s one of the most disconcerting interactions on urban and suburban streets: the uncomfortable, out-of-sync dance between bicycles and buses traveling in the same direction. Often, the person riding a bike will have to leave the bike lane and go out into car traffic to pass a bus that has pulled into a stop—only to be quickly passed again by the bus driver, who then has to pull in for the next stop just as the cyclist is coming up from the rear again. These two vehicles, because of their average speeds, relative sizes, and stopping patterns, are uniquely unsuited to share the same space. It’s scary for the person on the bicycle and the bus driver alike. [Keep reading at CityLab]

When heading out for a ride, most cyclists know to carry a few crucial items: food, water, a  spare tube , and a pump to name a few. But experienced riders almost always have some surprising or unexpected pieces of cycling gear that they can whip out when they need to solve almost any crisis. We asked  mechanics , racers, and our own editors what weird things they carry on every ride. Here are the seven most surprisingly helpful essentials we found. Plastic Shower Cap and Surgical Gloves Pro mountain biker and volunteer firefighter  Rebecca Rusch  swears by these weird but practical items. She keeps them in her seat bag and uses them to keep her head and hands dry whenever she gets caught in a cold mountain rainstorm. “They don't look pretty, but they totally work," she says. [Keep reading at Bicycling]

The Ride from Drew Linne on Vimeo . My senior thesis film at the Kansas City Art Institute: Based on a true story, a father and son set a goal to complete a 100 mile bike ride (a century ride) together. Months of rigorous training lead up to the final ride in Lake Tahoe. As the ride progresses, the viewer is immersed in the beautiful scenery of the lake, and we see how the father and son are brought closer together by the shared experience.

Photo courtesy Mark Stosberg Bike touring is  rising in popularity  across the country, and for good reason. Many seasoned cyclists will tell you: There’s no better way to experience a place than by bike. If your relationship with your bike stops at day trips, the idea of a multi-day excursion might seem intimidating! Rest easy! These simple tips can help get you on your way to your first overnighter. And we bet it won’t be your last! First, Ask Yourself… What distance is reasonable? Are you comfortable on gravel trails, or would you prefer a paved path? Remember, this is your trip, so cater to your own desires. FYI: With RTC’s trail-finder website,  Traillink.com , you can search for trails in your region and even sort them by activity and length.  [Keep reading at Rails to Trails]

A Couples' Ride from Darcy Turenne on Vimeo .

According to the  National Institute of Mental Health  (NIMH) and  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects people of all ages worldwide and is one of the leading disorders diagnosed in childhood. The characteristic behaviors of ADHD include varying grades of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. While these behaviors may seem normal for any school-age child, in diagnosed ADHD they usually present to a degree that somehow impairs cognitive, emotional, social, and/or physical function. The average age onset of ADHD is 7 years old, affecting about 11% of American adolescents with boys being 3-4 times more prone than girls. While it remains unclear what causes ADHD, perhaps more troubling is the inability to explain why  the number of school-age children diagnosed with this disorder is climbing . The rate of ADHD diagnosis increased from about 3% per year from 1997 to 2006 to 5% per year between 2003 and 2011. [

YOUTUBE A frame grab from a YouTube video shows bicyclists being taken down by off-duty police officers who were on a PedalPub in downtown Minneapolis. They came armed and on bicycles, planning a “Mad Max”-style attack. Their target was PedalPubs in downtown Minneapolis. Their weapons of choice were squirt guns and water balloons. What they didn’t know was that there were off-duty cops among the passengers. Two of the people-powered, 16-seat vehicles were hit Saturday in the late afternoon in the Warehouse District, said Lisa Stanplin, manager of Twin Cities PedalPubs. [Keep reading at Star Tribune]

The Self Charging Electric Bike Description This is the electric bike that riders help recharge by pedaling. Instead of rotating the rear wheel, pedaling this bike turns the built-in alternator that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy, providing supplemental power to the rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The 2 1/2" color LCD on the handle bars allow riders to easily select pedal resistance, acceleration, and speeds up to 16 MPH. The bike has a chainless hybrid drive system with an automatic dual winding motor, an aluminum frame with a carbon-fiber single fork, 20"-diameter tires, and dual hand brakes. Inside the frame, the electronic control unit’s sensors monitor the bike’s speed and slope of the terrain and automatically shifts gears to enable smooth rides up steep inclines or down declines. The battery enables up to 18-mile rides on a full charge without any pedaling or up to 28-mile rides when aided by pedaling. Recharges in 51/2 hours via included

A schematic showing what North Hill will look like during the BetterBlock street festival this week.  (Team BetterBlock) AKRON, Ohio -- Head to Akron's North Hill neighborhood this weekend and you might be surprised by the  pop-up shops and bike paths erected by Better Block . Friday-Sunday, May 15-17, the vacant storefronts and barren sidewalks will disappear. Volunteers, with support of the city and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, are transforming North Main Street into a vibrant arts district the immigrant neighborhood has not seen in decades. The Better Block project , an idea that originated Dallas, Texas, is demonstration imagining a revitalized area, and making that happen. Small businesses will overtake North Hill weekend, buttressed by new landscaping, reconfigured bike-friendly streets and new plazas. Organizers hope the event will help neighbors and visitors alike to imagine a new future for the neighborhood, and maybe just some of those

Sarah Braker, communications manager Sharing the road has its risks, and something that unites many bicyclists, from novice to experienced, is the fear of being hit by a car. But, what if it isn't just the person on two wheels, but also the one behind the wheel, who is a bike rider? As we learned from our  participation study , 88% of people who rode a bike in 2014 also drove a car, so it’s possible, even probable, that drivers involved in bike-car crashes are themselves people who ride bikes. What follows is the story of one such person, a frequent bike commuter who hit another bike rider with her car. Her name has been changed to protect her anonymity, and her story proves when it comes to bike and cars, it’s much more complicated than us versus them. Image: Flickr The driver My friend, we’ll call her Veronica, lives in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston and identifies as a bike commuter. She usually rides to work, three miles each way, and also uses her bike to ru

Oak Street, San Francisco. Photo: SFMTA.  Protected bike lanes are now officially star-spangled. Eight years after New York City created a Netherlands-inspired bikeway on 9th Avenue by putting it on the curb side of a car parking lane, the physically separated designs once perceived as outlandish haven't just become increasingly common from coast to coast — they've been detailed in a new design guide by the Federal Highway Adminstration. [Keep reading at People for Bikes]

[More at grit.cx]

Photo by Lily Holman My partner and I picked up the habit of shopping by bike shortly after we first started riding together. On the way home from a ride, we’d stop in at a butcher shop or pick up some take-out for dinner. At first, we’d hang bags from our handlebars, but we knew this was putting our purchases at risk as they swayed and bounced off our front wheels. We soon had the urge to carry more with us – without having to take transit or resort to borrowing a car. [Keep reading at Momentum]

[Thousand]

6 cyclists. Saturday ride from Parkersburg to Salem to bike camp and ride back on Sunday. We camped in Salem along the trail. Dinner in town at the shelter. 130+ miles. 6000+ ft climbing total. Rained intermittently. Multiple mechanicals including shifters, fenders and punctures. Great weekend with friends on the bike.

Cyclists don't want to lug around locks heavy enough to truly protect their bikes. That's why this bike rack includes the lock, so all you need is a key. After his bike was stolen, product design student Mason Holden started combing Amazon for a better lock. The problem: It didn't exist. Even the best lock on the market was easily breakable with a few simple tools. So Holden teamed up with fellow Glasgow School of Art student  Daniel Harking  to design an alternative. The heavier a bike lock, the better it works. But since cyclists don't want to lug around a giant lock—one highly rated lock weighs 11 pounds, and it still can't stand up to a hacksaw—the designers took another approach. What if the cyclists didn't bring a lock at all? "The way we saw the problem was that there's a limit to the weight cyclists are willing to carry, and that's the limit of bicycle security," says Harking. "If you look at something like a house or car

VIA FERRATA from Summitride on Vimeo .

Pack It On Combine the freedom of backpacking with the increased mobility and speed of cycling and you get the fast-growing sport of bike packing. At its core, bike packing is exploring and camping from your bike. The variety of trips, terrain, and gear options make bike packing accessible to any level of cyclist. Travel on pavement, a bike path, fire roads, or singletrack. Haul gear with a trailer, panniers, frame bags, or bungees over your rear rack. Go on a leisurely overnighter or a week-long race. Whatever flavor of bike packing you fancy, the following skills will help you squeeze more enjoyment out of your journey. (Photo by Jereme Rauckman) Route Planning Bike packing routes range from steep singletrack to wide open fire roads and stretches of pavement. Knowing your route helps you figure out any adjustments you’ll need to make to your bike and plan what gear to bring. Follow these tips to chart a solid trip. Be flexible.  Weather changes, bikes break, legs turn to

Thomas, a 16-year-old has created instructions on Instructables for a DIY wind turbine that is attached to his bicycle. Charge your phone with the wind! It's made from some scrap parts, and some inexpensive electronic parts he has purchased. Charge your phone with the wind! In his words, "I go very often to cycle in the nature where is no electricity, and during a long bike tour my phone usually discharges. These smartphones have a large capacity but its consumption is big too. I made a few weeks ago another bike turbine for the Bicycle Contest, but I think I can make a better one. So created an all in one wind turbine power bank" The turbine shown mounted Materials • an old CPU fan • toroidal inductor • 2N2222 or 2N3904 or BC547 transistor • 5v step-up module, (boought on eBay) • germanioum diodes (5 pieces) • a small perfboard • an old phone battery or a 18650 cell • and a small switch • bike support element Th

Mountain Bikes and Bothy Nights from Alastair Humphreys on Vimeo .

THE OREGON OUTBACK: A 360-MILE DIRT ODYSSEY 360 MILES, 75% DIRT KLAMATH FALLS TO THE DESCHUTES FULL ROUTE DETAILS — FRIDAY – MAY 22, 2015 – 7:00 A.M. — Due to the realities of living in litigious society, we are no longer taking any formal role in organizing this ride.  That doesn’t mean it won’t still happen – we fully expect folks to still show up and ride and it’s not like we were really doing anything beyond picking a date, time and route.  It just means we don’t want to potentially get sued if something happens to someone.   So even though we beat this drum repeatedly every year, here it goes again, with even more feeling:  you are really, truly 100% on your own.    You can read more about why we are doing this here .   But again, we expect our rides, including this one, to continue to go down on the same dates and times and in the same way they always have.  You can see when these rides are expected to happen in the prior link or check the  Calendar page  for m

Last night, Anthony Ryan was biking home from his job as a lecturer on fine arts at SF State University when he was nearly rammed by a motorist on Phelan Avenue. Ryan says the driver tried to door him and run him over multiple times. He  posted footage  taken by another driver showing the end of the encounter, when the assailant attempted to back up over Ryan. The assault occurred outside City College’s main campus. According to Ryan, the aggression began as he was riding in the left-turn lane from eastbound Ocean on to Phelan. Ryan, who previously had a more violent run-in with a reckless driver in the area, relayed his account in  a series of tweets : [Keep reading at StreetsBlog]

Janet Lee said she snapped this photo of a bicyclist throwing a bike lock at her car during a confrontation on Tuesday evening. Her teenage daughter was driving the car.  (Photo by Janet Lee) Update:   The second (non-bike-lock-throwing) bicyclist in the photo has contacted The Oregonian/OregonLive with his version of what happened. Read it below.   Dear Portland bicyclists: Bike locks are for locking up your ride, not hucking at cars during the evening commute.   A Portland woman says she has filed a police report against a bicyclist who she says threw a bike lock at her car and kicked her in the arm during a heated exchange east of the Hawthorne Bridge on Tuesday night. Janet Lee said her teenage daughter was driving their 2000 BMW when she snapped a photo of the cyclist heaving the heavy U-lock at the vehicle. [Keep reading at Oregonian]

SFMTA This fall,  San Francisco  will become one of the elite few cities in the United States to build a raised bike lane. The city's Municipal Transportation Agency will oversee the construction of an elevated pathway on Valencia Street in the southern Mission District. The curb-hugging lane will be raised about 2 inches above the road surface, and will measure 6-feet wide with an additional 5-foot "buffer zone." The city will follow up with a handful of other raised lanes next year, all planned for areas with high rates of bicycle injuries. [Keep reading at CityLab]

All charts: Pew Charitable Trusts [ PDF ] David Alpert at  Greater Greater Washington  shares this fantastic chart from a new study of transportation funding by the Pew Charitable Trusts [ PDF ]. Alpert explains: This chart from Pew shows where the transportation money comes from; it’s not all drivers. Basically, the bluish areas are revenues which come specifically from drivers: gas taxes, vehicle taxes, and tolls. The greenish ones are other revenues: property taxes, general fund transfers, and other funds. [Keep reading at StreetsBlog] 

Dave Hoverman and his wife, Abby Smith, in Berkeley, Calif., with their cargo bike, which can hold all four children. When Dave Hoverman, 38, a business strategy consultant in Berkeley, Calif., goes to Costco on the weekends, he ditches his Audi Q7 and instead loads his four children into a  Cetma  cargo bike with a trailer hitched to the rear. “We do all sorts of errands on the bike,” Mr. Hoverman said. “We try not to get in the car all weekend.” Mr. Hoverman is among a growing contingent of eco-minded and health-conscious urban parents who are leaving their car keys at home and relying on high-capacity cargo bikes for family transportation. [Keep reading at NY Times]