Columbus Rides Bikes!

Giro previewed an intriguing new line of cycling clothing on Thursday at the  Golden Saddle Cyclery  in downtown Los Angeles. Dubbed 'New Road,’ the retro-inspired collection is neither street wear nor performance kit but somewhere in between. Whether or not that market actually exists remains to be seen, but we will find out once New Road becomes available in the spring. New Road’s styling is undeniably from days gone by with heather-finish Merino wool fabrics, subdued colors, and trim (but not tight) tailoring featured heavily throughout the roughly dozen-piece range, which includes a mix of long-sleeved and short-sleeved tops, shorts, short liners and outerwear. There's even a collared polo that would look at home on a long commute or stopping into a café along the way. There is also a pair of SPD-compatible lace-up  shoes . Lace-up SPD shoes are part of the line While the aesthetic is casual, Giro designed the pieces with real riding in mind. Road riders see

Elevated from today’s headline stack,  via Animal NY : A driver on a South Williamsburg street refused to share the road with cyclist Rafael Huerta, and after harassing Huerta in the street three times with his vehicle, refused to take responsibility for his actions. Instead, he claimed the cyclist was at fault — but  video from the cyclist’s handlebar-mounted camera  indicates otherwise. The video begins with Huerta riding eastbound on Wallabout Street, starting at Kent Avenue. (Wallabout is a parallel route to Flushing Avenue, which has shared-lane markings but also heavier truck and auto traffic.) The street is two-way and the lane is relatively narrow; the video shows Huerta riding in the right-hand third of the lane. After the intersection with Franklin Avenue, a gray Toyota minivan driver passes him, then hits the brakes and moves to the right, squeezing him between the moving vehicle and parked cars. Following a third encounter where the driver swerved into his path,

Caption from LIFE.  "Four-man bicycle is powered by five chains and has brakes on both its wheels. The bike was built by Art Rothschild (top position) who broke three ribs while learning how to ride it." Read more:  http://life.time.com/curiosities/bizarre-bikes-built-by-chicagoans-in-the-1940s/#ixzz2Sl1yUYAv

We're enjoying an unbelievably rich and diverse period of mountain-bike design these days, with competent choices from enduro rigs to 29er trail bikes to short-travel slopestyle machines and more. A few are built for racing, but many styles are built for what real-world riders do every day. When it comes to road riding, however, the choices are basically race bikes, or... slight variations on race bikes. This is dumb. The mountain bike market is no longer driven by cross-country racing like it was just a few short years ago. Likewise, the prototypical 'mountain bike' is no longer a lightweight hardtail built for shaving seconds off of the day's big climb. That being said, even the most  specialized  cross-country racing equipment - tubular  tires  included - are perfect given the right application. If you're not competing, though, race bikes aren't always the best tool for the job, and it hasn't taken long for the average mountain biker to recogniz

Milwaukee Ave in Chicago After Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s commitment to  build 100 miles of bike facilities in four years , the city started repaving, restriping, and redesigning their streets. Projects like those on  Kinzie  and  Dearborn  Streets demonstrated that cars and bicycles can co-exist on busy city roadways. The city announced its newest plans for protected green lanes on  Milwaukee Avenue in West Town  on April 30th. And if you read  this article in the Chicago Sun-Times , you might think that local residents and businesses were opposed to the project. Protected green lanes on Dearborn Street [Keep reading at  greenlaneproject.org]

For decades, cyclists bickered amongst themselves about the efficacy and safety of bike infrastructure. With the proliferation of protected bike lanes in recent years, however, everyone can see that predictions about bike lanes making streets more dangerous for cycling simply didn’t come to pass. Network blogger Elly Blue at  Taking the Lane  says the debate has been settled. The evidence from New York and other cities is clear: Bike infrastructure works. Photo of Eighth Avenue bike lane in Manhattan: Stephen Miller The evidence that protected bike lanes improve safety and retail performance has demolished the arguments against bike infrastructure, Blue writes. And cities around the country have New York to thank for that: In 2007, New York City added protected bike lanes, also known as “cycle tracks” to two previously car-centric one-way arterials in Manhattan, 8th and 9th Avenues. ( This short movie  explains more.) These lanes—basically, regular bike lanes with a phys

Starting on June 1, the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner service connecting San Luis Obispo to San Diego by way of Los Angeles is adopting a new policy that will make life harder for anyone planning on biking to or from the train. The policy is so onerous for bicycle commuters, one has to assume it’s intentional. Click on the image to see their current rider brochure for the Surfliner. The new bicycle policy is after the timetable at the bottom of page 2. Amtrak will require reservations and a $5 fee to “accommodate” bicycles on the Pacific Surfliner. A cyclist will either have to call Amtrak or go to the ticketing window to make a bike reservation and pay the fee; there isn’t any way to do this online because Amtrak apparently is operating in 1992. This change will apply to everyone: occasional riders, Amtrak monthly pass holders and Rail2Rail/Metrolink monthly pass holders. “The Surfliner serves the most popular bicycle tourism route in the country, so it’s frustrating to see A

The first bike share app for New York City New York City hasn't even finished laying down the 330 docking stations for its impending bike share program , but anticipation is spanning oceans. A Belgian company has released the first "live" mobile app for NYC bike share users, before there  are  any users. Take it as a sign of what's to come when the largest bike sharing program in the nation launches later this month.  RECOMMENDED LINKS The Anatomy of a Bike Share Docking Station New York Map of Bike Share Stations Full Coverage of CitiBike “We activated the app to be the first,” Tom Claes of the Belgian mobile app company,  WebComrades  told Transportation Nation.  His New York City Bike app, available on  Android  and iPhone , will tell users where the nearest docking station is, plot them on a map, let riders save favorite stations and track which are full and which are empty. In an ideal scenario there is an equilibrium and every docking statio

It was a Friday evening in June when John Lindenmayer left the League of Michigan Bicyclists' (LMB) office in Lansing, MI and rode his bicycle to the City Market. Around 6:30 p.m., he left to head home, utilizing the same route he had ridden dozens of times before. Traffic was light on Michigan Avenue, a five-lane road, which runs from the front steps of the State Capitol right past Michigan State University. John traveled eastbound in the far right (curb) lane for several blocks, without incident. Then, only blocks from home, he heard a honk imme¬diately behind him, followed by a siren. John turned to find a police car with its lights on. He promptly pulled over and parked his bike. John was confronted by a City of Lansing police officer who was professional and polite, but told him, "The roadways are made for motor vehicles, and you can ride your bike on it, but you're impeding traffic." As the Advocacy and Policy Director for LMB, John knew that arguing was

Full-Time Bicycle Mechanic (Columbus) Bike sharing is a sustainable, healthy and innovative community-based transportation program providing ideal short distance, point-to-point, and simple-to-use bikes for use around the city. With established systems in Washington, DC, Boston, MA, Melbourne, Australia and New York City, Alta Bicycle Share will be introducing this community-based transport option that enhances urban livability and mobility to Columbus in summer 2013. The program allows for users to access bikes at multiple self-serve locations and return the bike to any other available station in the system. As a company our responsibilities include: marketing and membership sales, station and bike repair and maintenance, station redeployment and reporting on system and operational performance. We are currently seeking a hands-on, highly organized and motivated Lead Bicycle Mechanic skilled at the art of bicycle repair and passionate about the potential for bike share to transform

In another show of intercity solidarity, more than 32,000 riders were expected in New York City on Sunday for the  Five Boro Bike Tour  to help raise money for the Boston Marathon bombing victims. (CBS2) Security at the tour, the largest cycling event in America, was increased in the wake of the bombings. Backpacks, saddle bags and hydration systems  were banned  from the 40 mile, car-free ride through the five boroughs, though water bottles and fanny packs were permitted. The finishing area on Staten Island was also limited to the tour's participants and volunteers, due to the enhanced security. And according to CBSNewYork.com , organizers called off the pyrotechnics that usually mark the start of the race. "I Ride For Boston" stickers worn by the tour riders were handed out in exchange for a suggested $5 donation, with 100 percent of the proceeds from their sale going to One Fund Boston, the charity launched after the attack. Ken Podziba, president and CEO o

By Jon Schmitz / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pittsburgh has joined a growing list of cities using bright green paint to make on-street bike lanes more visible. The city last week painted about 200 feet of the bike lanes on Liberty Avenue at the approaches to the Bloomfield Bridge, with the help of a $23,000 grant from Bikes Belong, a national organization of bicycle suppliers and retailers. "That's our first green bike lane," said Stephen Patchan, the city's bike-pedestrian coordinator, who said the location was selected because of the large numbers of vehicles that make turns across the bike lanes. "It's a material that is slip-resistant, and it will last longer" than the paint used for road striping, he said. Other cities, including Philadelphia, have used green paint to mark bike lanes, and the Federal Highway Administration, or FHWA, has given interim approval for its use in areas where bicyclists and traffic have conflicting movements.

Peter Hochstein has seen it all while bicycle touring in New England, and he continues to reflect on his experiences on his free time. While Hochstein isn't a frequent cyclist anymore, he's ready and willing to share his insight with CycloCamping and other people who are interested in seeing the world from their bicycles. Q . What has been the most memorable bike tour for you? A . It was that BAM (Bicycle Across Massachusetts) ride that I did back in 1991. This was the first multi-day ride I had ever done. I was already 51 years old, and darn proud of making it to my destination at the end of each day. Past that, there's a certain road camaraderie that develops over time when you do a group ride. You're all in this together. You're sharing common and sometimes difficult experiences. You're sharing meals together. You're swapping yarns. It all adds up to a bonding experience, sometimes with people very different from yourself, other than your common int

Image:  Wikimedia Commons In 1897, a wealthy American businessman named Horace Dobbins began construction on a private, for-profit bicycle superhighway that would stretch from Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles. It may seem like a preposterous notion now—everyone knows Angelenos don't get out of their cars—but at the time, amidst the height of a pre-automobile worldwide cycling boom, the idea attracted the attention of some hugely powerful players. And it  almost got built . Dobbins was able to win the support of an ex-governor of California, who in turn strong-armed a nay-saying legislature to get the bike highway approved. It was officially dubbed the California Cycleway. Here's a  Google Map  of its intended route: Read more:  http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/in-1897-a-bicycle-superhighway-was-the-future-of-california-transit#ixzz2SNHhQR86 Follow us:  @motherboard on Twitter  |  motherboardtv on Facebook

© Jimena Compean, Isabel Ayala and Jose Arturo Moreno Concept bikes offer a fun way to re-imagine how bikes of the future might look like. The Ford Citi Bike, designed by Jimena Compean, Isabel Ayala and Jose Arturo Moreno, anticipates more and more people taking bikes to work, rather than driving, thanks to rising fuel costs and increasing traffic congestion in metropolitan areas. Inspired by Ford's 2013 Focus ST, the Citi Bike features a low riding profile, allowing easier handling for inexperienced riders, or those who aren't outfitted to fling their legs over a high top bar (primly-dressed office ladies rejoice!). © Jimena Compean, Isabel Ayala and Jose Arturo Moreno © Jimena Compean, Isabel Ayala and Jose Arturo Moreno There are places to hold the requisite office gadgets like laptops and iPads apparently, and according to  Yanko Design , the bike's mechanism "consists in gears, and dented bands for traction, and torsion bars for steering." Contin