Columbus Rides Bikes!

On a recent afternoon, Jocelyn Steiber zipped across Prince Street on a bright blue Citi Bike: blond hair loose, floral print Ella Moss sundress parachuting like Marilyn Monroe. As she approached the Cafe Gitane docking station, Ms. Steiber, a charter member of New York City’s seven-week-old bike-share program, put down a foot — with pink toenails — clad in wedge-heel beige gladiator sandals. The shoe was no accident, but a considered choice. “I’ve tried to do stilettos on bikes and it’s just too hard, you’re just slipping,” said Ms. Steiber, 27, who commutes daily by bike from NoLIta, where she lives, to the West Village, where she is the owner of Jost Social Media. Today she was returning from a Helmut Lang sample sale, bargain loot secured in her bike basket with the built-in bungee cord. “I like to be fashionable and safe,” Ms. Steiber said. “I find wedges are best, and kind of funky, which I like. It’s easy to pair anything with them.” Now that bike sharing is sweeping

July 31 - August 4, 2013 Columbus, Ohio Hosted by The Major Taylor Club of Columbus We are proud to be the official host for The 4th Annual NBC National Conference. This will be a 4 day action packed event filled with cycling information, seminars, great food, clubs and riders from around the country and fantastic rides. This years theme will be "Building a Global Cycling Community". It is our goal to bring together our urban cycling communities to learn, ride and share stories. Columbus, Ohio is the oldest Major Taylor Cycling Club in the country and we feature the longest bicycling trail dedicated to The Major in the world! Join us in Columbus and lets roll ........ George Harper, President MTCC Columbus, Ohio [nbc2013.com]

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett checks out a Milwaukee B-cycle bike from the new kiosk at Discovery World Museum on the Lakefront. This morning Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett teamed up with Midwest Bikeshare, Inc., to announce the opening of Milwaukee’s first B-cycle kiosk. Mayor Barrett upped the ante not only by confirming the City will commit $288,000 toward Milwaukee bike-share system, but by announcing there will be 23 more stations open by March, 2014. I know, I know, we shouldn’t run out and chisel that date in granite, or even cream city brick, but this announcement did come with the opening of the first functioning bike-share kiosk in Milwaukee. Perhaps even more important than the first station or even the money is having the Mayor as a true champion of bike-share in Milwaukee. This milestone is just another indicator that even in my much loved, but sometimes slow to accept change, home town, that bicycles really are back on the rise as a legitimate form of transportation.

DIRT NORCO :: CASEY BROWN on Pinkbike

Alessandra Ambrosio , Doutzen Kroes and  Lily Aldridge  led a team of  Victoria's Secret  angels in a supermodel fundraiser cycle on Wednesday. "Here we come #SoulCycle!!! Riding for #Pelotonia! #JamesHospital! @VictoriasSecret @elsahosk," Lily tweeted. The spinning event, held in New York, coincided with the annual ride in Columbus, Ohio and invited the public to cycle alongside the gorgeous angels. CLICK ON PHOTOS TO SEE FULL GALLERY Amongst the top model team stood Elsa Hosk, Gracie Carvalho, Lindsay Ellingson and Magdalena Frackowiak. Kitted out in lycra leggings and their fundraiser tops, the girls were also joined by their instructor, Melanie Griffith, who coincidentally shares name with Antonio Bandera's actress wife. "Just finished @victoriassecret #supermodelcycle with the AMAZING instructor @iamnowmellyG! @soulcycle..." model Lindsay wrote on Twitter. [Keep reading at Hello Magazine]

Leaving the Statehouse for lunch at the North Market? How about dipping out of the Main Library to read at Bicentennial Park? Columbus hopes you’ll ditch your four wheels and an engine for two wheels and a set of pedals. The city has decided where its 30 CoGo bike-share locations will go when it launches the program this month. Kiosks will be posted as far north as the intersection of High Street and 2nd Avenue and as far south as Schiller Park. The program will have stations in the Arena District, at COSI, and at the Main Library and the Livingston Park branch. The system will have 300 bikes spread across the stations, said Heather Bowden, general manager of CoGo Bike Share. “I have meetings at City Hall and around Downtown, and oftentimes I’ll walk to the Commons,” said Rick Wolfe, the executive director of the North Market. “Now, I’ll be able to walk out there, put my credit card in there, and grab a bike to go to my meeting.” On Wednesday, the city will launch its bi

Kelli is CBNC from The Sleepers on Vimeo .

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The benefits of cycling or walking outweigh the risks of death or injury from accidents, two health experts argue. We read with interest The Vancouver Sun article “It may be time to start talking about licensing bikes” and the subsequent letters to the editor. We agree that an open and constructive discussion of cycling issues is needed. We are writing to provide a more complete public health context, since there may be misconceptions. We address three issues related to modes of transport: the burden (or number) of injuries; the risk (or rate) of injuries; and other potential risks and benefits of various modes. The burden of deaths and head injuries The editorial suggests that “cycling remains the biggest cause of traumatic brain injury for all other forms of recreational activity among young people.” By this, we presume the authors meant the single most important recreational cause of traumatic head injuries. In Canada, cycling accounts for 10 per cent of head injur

45NRTH SUMMER TRAINING from 45NRTH on Vimeo . June 2013. 85 degrees outside. 10 degrees inside. We chose to do our summer training inside.

Photo:  Paul Krueger (flickr) Vancouver, British Columbia has separate bike lanes for two-wheel commuters. Columbus cyclists and motorists share the roads, where bike lanes are indicated with "sharrows." Podcast:  Download  (Duration: 53:32 — 73.5MB) 11:00 Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman has expressed his wish that the city become “Bike City USA.” Although Columbus has $5 million in bike upgrades coming this summer, and a bike share program set to roll out, some riders feel the money’s being spent in the wrong places. This hour, we’ll discuss whether Columbus is ready to take off its training wheels. Guests Steven Magas , attorney specializing in bicycle law Barb Seckler , Director of  Institute for Active Living Claire Hurley , Manager of  Madison B-Cycle http://wosu.org/2012/allsides/creating-a-bike-friendly-columbus/

My son has this totally awesome “exhaust” pipe on his bike that I covet. It’s really a resonator for the classic baseball-card-in-the-spokes trick. It makes a terrific racket, and gets people to move out of the way without necessitating a honk on your horn. I decided to build my own, using a recycled beverage bottle. Armed with a Dremel Rotary Tool, a bottle of energy drink, and a depleted gift card, I set out to make my own soda bottle bike exhaust. Materials: Dremel Rotary Tool  cut-off wheel, 180- and 280-grit abrasive buffs, aluminum oxide grinding stone, and 1/8″ drill bit Aluminum 16oz. beverage bottle Hose clamps (2) Plastic gift card (depleted) #8 screw (1) with nuts (2) and washer (1)  Pop rivet gun with 1/8″ short aluminum rivets  Permanent marker Masking tape Dust mask Safety goggles Download the Project PDF (Right click to save the PDF to your desktop.) http://makezine.com/2010/12/08/make-a-soda-bottle-bike-exhaust/

Photo by Dmitry Gudkov Riding the Prospect Park West protected bicycle lane is safe and convenient for all ages and abilities. Every transition is a challenge and what I love most about challenges is that they are also an opportunity. This past May, I spent an afternoon riding the protected bike lane on 9th Avenue in New York City. On a beautiful, upright Viva city bike, perfect for riding safely with my head up, I enjoyed spotting the new bike share stations dotting the protected lane. I quickly noticed the difference between riding on a narrow and unprotected bike lane, like on nearby 6th Avenue, to that of riding on a protected route. Even though I am confident riding in any city and on any street, my experience was exponentially more enjoyable on a protected bike lane [Keep reading at Momentum Magazine]

A CENTURY OF RACE ROUTES ILLUSTRATES THE EVOLUTION OF LA GRAND BOUCLE. It’s surprising, given the physical duress, corporate sponsorships, and celebrity status of today’s cyclists, but the Tour de France was founded by a journalist. Géo Lefèvre, with the support of his editor, launched the Tour de France in 1903 in an effort to publicize their French newspaper,  L’Auto . The inaugural race comprised 60 single riders (“routiers”), 1,500 miles, and six lengthy stages. One hundred races later (the tour took a hiatus during both of the world wars), the competition is a different beast entirely.  100 Tours: Cent Ans de la Grand Boucle , a graphic from designer  Sam Potts , charts the various routes the bikers have trekked over the years. “It’s a pretty convoluted history,” Potts tells Co.Design. “They’ve done a lot of experiments. For a few years they had national teams instead of commercial teams. So riders would be riding for Switzerland instead of a company. But often now you come

LIKE A RAY OF SUN ON A SURELY-SOMEONE-HAS-A-SOLUTION DESIGN CHALLENGE, PIXIO LIGHTS ARE ALWAYS SECURE ON YOUR BIKE, ALWAYS READY TO GO. Bike lights are equal parts essential and infuriating. Toss them in your bag after locking up, and they’re likely to turn on and flash for hours, running down to zero before you reach for them again. Leave them on once you’ve parked, and a sticky-fingered stranger will gladly relieve you of their service. Forget to charge them, and they’re dead when you most need them. Bike design continues to evolve--tremendously, impressively, with a passion for new materials and aerodynamic and invention almost like none other. But apart from a few small  recent introductions , bike lighting design is still pretty much in the dark ages. It makes sense then that Dutch product designer Hugo van de Watering’s aha moment occurred due to a cyclist’s common act of nighttime improvisation. He was hanging out at a friend’s place, all set to head h

The family of a Chillicothe woman killed in a car crash last week hopes to find the stolen bicycle that they say changed her fate. Anna Rooney, 36, had recently developed a passion for mountain-bike racing. When someone used bolt cutters to steal two of Rooney’s bikes outside the German Village Guest House on Jaeger Street on June 30, she scrambled to borrow a bike for an upcoming race, said her brother, Walt Rooney, 42, of Seattle. She had just picked up that bike from a friend in southern Ross County around 9:20 p.m. Thursday and was returning home along Rt. 50 when her Lincoln Navigator was struck by a Chevrolet Suburban that crossed into her lane, said Sgt. James Lott of the Chillicothe post of the State Highway Patrol. Rooney and the driver of the Suburban, Shira Seymour, 36, of Bainbridge, were taken to Adena Medical Center in Chillicothe before being transferred to Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, Lott said. Rooney died early Friday. If her bikes hadn’t

This will be the Final Review on these tires. For the Introduction and First Impressions on these tires, go  here . 37mm Panaracer Pasela Tour Guard Now that I have spent hours and many miles on the Panaracer Pasela tires, I am ready to give my final review on these made in Japan tires with a touring pedigree. A quick recap is in order- At first, I was a bit underwhelmed with the size and ride quality of these tires. With such a stout reputation amongst randonnuers and touring aficionados, I had high expectations and when the ride was somewhat stiff and uninspiring, I felt a bit put out, actually. However; as I state in my earlier post on these tires, they seemed to be loosening up as I piled on the miles, so I was going to withhold judgment….. until now, that is. Final Impressions:  I swapped the Panaracers to a bit wider rim, but they never did “measure up”, as it were, coming in at a 36.3mm measurement at the end of the test period. Not what I had looked for, and would lea

From all of the staff at Dutch Kitchen –  Since 1960, it has been a privilege for Dutch Kitchen to serve guests from the Plain City and Columbus community. We've made many good friends over the years, but must sadly say goodbye on July 20. Our business is no longer what it once was and the decision to close our doors is based on finances. We hope you will join us at our sister restaurant, Der Dutchman just up the road in Plain City. As many staff as possible will be shifted to the  "The Der"  so you can still visit your old friends as well as make new ones. Dutch Kitchen will be open our regular hours, 11am to 8pm Monday through Friday and 6:30am to 8pm on Saturdays through July 20. We invite you to visit us during this time and share your memories. Again, we thank our guests for their fellowship and support over the years. As we open this new chapter, we hope you'll enjoy homestyle cooking and bakery with our friends at Der Dutchman.

Dahon Bikes is gearing up to launch an innovative bike-share program that will offer riders an opportunity to borrow a bike that will not only aid in their commute but also fit into tight spaces, like crowded buses and trains, or indoors should one not have a lock to secure it. The Dahon Dock-In Stations Bike Share program is facilitated through a partnership with Best Lockers, effectively joining the worldwide leader in folding bikes with the leader in on-the-go storage technology. Best Lockers’ electronic GoPod lockers, developed in 2009, will make it possible for hotels, universities, city transportation and other organizations to offer more bikes while utilizing less space. “This program will be a smarter, more efficient and cost effective way to share bicycles,” said Ken Fagut, Dahon’s director of sales and marketing in North America. “Under this program we can put 16 Dahon folding bikes in the same space used to accommodate two standard bikeshare bicycles.” According

From Cogo- Please join us at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, July 17 at Bicentennial Park for a fun event featuring remarks by Mayor Michael B. Coleman and Council member Zachary M. Klein as well as an opportunity to see the CoGo bicycles up close. We will also be announcing the sale of annual memberships for $75 each at the event. We are eager for everyone to come out and get acquainted with the CoGo Bike Share as we prepare to install 30 stations with 300 bikes across downtown Columbus. [Facebook Page]

[Road Holland]

http://www.lizcanning.com/Liz_Canning_Creative/Cargo_Bike_Documentary.html

It’s no secret Chicago believes biking will help boost it’s profile as a world class city. With that being said, Chicago’s Mayor- Rahm Emanuel announced another ambitious project to help boost it’s already 115 miles of bike lanes. In four years, he wants to create 100 miles of protected bike paths — not just painted lines on the street but paths separated from car traffic by posts or other dividers. By next summer, he wants the city’s first large-scale bike-sharing program, starting with 3,000 bikes. That is pretty impressive. Chicago could really encourage alternative forms of transportation as cars are becoming more of a problem with soaring gas prices and being home to some of the worst traffic congestions in the nation. How does Chicago stack up with other cities? Currently Copenhagen is leading the way in cities with the best cycling infrastructure and ridership, (Copenhagen has a whopping 38% bike ridership  commute compared to Chicago’s 2%). Chicago looks to event

Days after a hit-and-run collision that left a 21-year-old bicyclist brain-dead, Columbus police were still looking today for the vehicle that struck him.  Elijah Smith was taken to Grant Medical Center after he was hit while riding his bicycle home from work about 4 a.m. Wednesday. His father, Rodney Smith, 48, of Canal Winchester, said doctors declared his son brain-dead on Thursday.  Elijah Smith was struck near Woodland and Woodward avenues on the North Side, said Sgt. Brooke Wilson of the Columbus police accident-investigation unit. Wilson said police were looking for a black 2004 Volkswagen Passat with front-end damage, a smashed windshield and a smashed sunroof.  Rodney Smith said his son was bicycling to his E. 11th Avenue home from his overnight shift at Plaskolite Inc., an acrylic-sheet manufacturing plant on Joyce Avenue.  Elijah Smith is on life support at the hospital, Rodney Smith said, but his family and friends haven’t given up on his recovery. “We have been praying eve

Photos: Kristin Rule A couple of years ago Kristin Rule, alias 'The Unconventional Cellist' undertook a 20 week music tour, toting her cello on a motorbike with a solar trailer. With a new album recently released, she is soon to be touring again, but this time by bicycle accompanied by a solar-powered, electric-assist trailer. The 30 watt solar photovoltaic panel on the  'Mechanarchy 'Watt-Bot'  trailer stores electrical energy in a pair of 12 volt batteries. These provide up to three hours of electrically assisted riding for pedalling a cello laden  Yuba Mundo  up hills. The assistance offered by the 'Watt-Bot' is said to be "akin to having an extremely strong tailwind." But there's much more to the story. [Keep reading at Treehugger]

Wolfpack Hustle. The Midnight Drag Race from Midnight Ridazz on Vimeo .