Columbus Rides Bikes!

REGISTER TODAY! Bike the C-Bus is celebrating our SIXTH year! The ride is a fun way to explore a few of the neighborhoods in and around Columbus. Experience segments of the King Lincoln District, Woodland Park, Olde Town East, Downtown, Short North Arts District, Italian Village, Harrison West, Victorian Village, Arena District, Franklinton, Brewery District and German Village. The entire ride will cover approximately 25 miles over 4 segments and will feature stops that highlight change that is occurring in our neighbo rhoods. Each stop will be sponsored by businesses and community groups and provide snacks, drinks and entertainment for the riders. The ride is configured to allow cyclists to complete segments if they do not feel comfortable riding the entire route. The $30 registration fee includes an official 2013 Bike the C-Bus t-shirt ( if you register by August 23 ) and wristband along with drinks and food at designated rest stops, plus a free lunch at the hospitality tent. Onli

This is the first of a series of stories produced in collaboration with  Youth Radio  on the changing car culture in America. When you're a teenager, there are many things you desperately want to find: friends, fun, a future, freedom. In  American Graffiti,  the   iconic movie  about teenagers set in 1962, the kids find all of that just by getting in their cars. The teenagers spend a whole lot of time tooling around in their cars — looking, cruising. But the deep relationship between American teen culture and the automobile depicted in the film has changed. Young people are driving less, getting their licenses later and waiting longer to purchase their first new car. The movie was set — but not filmed — in Modesto, Calif., and I wanted to see if any part of the city was like the movie. So on a hot Friday and Saturday summer night, I drove around Modesto. With its downtown and long, wide streets, the city seems a perfect place to cruise. But that's not what's h

People new to riding bikes as transportation routinely tell me they’re confused about their place on the road. It led me to wonder: Are people riding bikes like slower, more vulnerable drivers, or faster, glorified pedestrians? In countries like the Netherlands, it’s not hard to find where people riding bikes are supposed to be; they’re given the proper infrastructure and treatments at intersections. Biking is safe and practical. In other European countries, while not always as wonderful as the Netherlands, biking is still popular and people riding bikes are often given the proper infrastructure, and/or inherently dangerous road users (drivers in cars) are accepting of a bike’s place on the road. Come back to America. It’s hard for a lot of people to understand where a bike belongs. Until I was late in high school, I thought bikes belonged on the sidewalk. I grew up in a small town, and bikes were for recreation (or a trip to Madison, which my parents and their friends lauded as

The Tern Tool is your bike buddy whose job is to ensure you stay on your bike riding and not on stuck on the roadside with a problem. Specially designed to service your Tern bicycle, the Tern Tool features 20 integrated tools, including a 15 mm crescent wrench for tightening axle nuts and pedals and a 6 mm wrench for adjusting joint levers on Tern bikes. The included neoprene cover can be slipped onto the body handle for a more comfortable grip. The tool folds into a flat, compact size and can be easily slipped into pant pockets or a ride jersey. Buy it now online here . 15 mm crescent wrench for axle nuts and pedals Patented StuckNut™ design securely locks wrenches in place 20 integrated tools Neoprene tool cozy Includes tire patch kit Dimensions: 90 × 54 × 28 mm (3.5” x 2.1” x 1.1”) Weight: 175 g (11 oz) http://www.ternbicycles.com/gear/tern-tool

BY DANI FANKHAUSER 9 HOURS AGO When we think of design, we think of the products featured on  Fab  — functional and beautiful. "Art doesn’t just belong on your walls," boasts the product description of a simple but colorful rug. There's also the products on Kickstarter and Indiegogo that defy expectations — a bag is a bag is a bag, until it starts  charging your electronics . But if you've ever had extended contact with a real-life designer, no matter her or his specialty — you will find that design principles extend beyond just gadget features and colors. "Why is the handle here, when it should be here," this designer friend might say. Once someone has power to inspire the design of one thing, they begin seeing bits and pieces everywhere that could benefit from better design. [Keep reading at Mashable]

Editor: Re: No reason bikes should get a free ride, letter to the editor, Aug. 2 I thought I had heard it all when a complaint about air traffic noise took whininess to a whole new realm, but sadly, the outrageous letter from R.D. Grant has trumped that grumble. As an avid cyclist and, yes, a car owner, Grant's complaints have really hit a nerve because of the ludicrous suggestion that cyclists should start paying to ride their bicycles. The notion that cyclists should pay a licence fee must surely come from the fact bikes cause so much damage to the roads that this fee will offset the costs of repair. No? That's not it? Well then, it must be because cyclists do not pay taxes that go towards our infrastructure that includes transit and bike lanes. Hmm, I seem to remember paying my property tax and my gas tax when I drive my car, so that can't be it. Maybe it's because cycling is an inherently unhealthy activity that contributes to our rising health care costs.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Interested in a re-purposed shipping container made to corral bikes? You're in luck. LAND Studio is looking to place one last Bike Box in Cuyahoga County. As  Tipoff told you last year (second item) , the idea for the Bike Box came from Greg Peckham at LAND Studio, a Cleveland nonprofit devoted to parks and public art. Rust Belt Welding made the conversion from shipping container to bike corral. "Like so many great ideas, this started over beers," Sam McNulty said last year. He welcomed the first Bike Box next to his Nano Brew in Ohio City. [Keep reading at cleveland.com]

Denver, CO -- In an effort to illustrate how quickly weak cable locks attract thieves, our partners at KUSA's 9Wants to Know set up a GPS tracking device on a bike and locked it up at some of the worst areas for theft around town. The GPS device is disguised as a workable rear bike light. It can send text messages to a cell phone when the bike moves or when it is stolen. Coordinates are uploaded every 30 seconds to a website that tracks the bike in real time. In two of the thefts documented by 9Wants to Know, thieves broke through a cable lock commonly sold at stores around town. A $94 brand new Huffy mountain bike was used during 9Wants to Know's experiment to show how thieves will steal any bike, regardless of cost, if it's unsecured with a weak lock. 9Wants to Know picked two locations recently profiled in Denver's Top 10 Worst Bike Racks. [Keep reading at DigTriad]

Powerful sound from a trim, precision form—a bell for any bike: modern road, mountain, or vintage townie. Our objective was simple: design a bell that is exceedingly  effective in a busy, urban environment  AND that looks sexy on any bike. We tasked ourselves with distilling your average clunker bell into a smaller, more potent, and more streamlined form—befitting even a peleton-crushing road bike. To do so forced us to reconsider every design aspect and engineer to a higher standard. FORM:   We set out to design a compact,  well-integrated  component. A large bell may sound great but protrudes and looks bulky installed on many modern bicycles. Meanwhile, the tiny micro bells on the market are  too  small—dinky really, and generally cheaply made. We pursued the best form by way of the cleanest execution, encompassing both modern and classic aesthetics. It’s a bell that’s just the right size, tidy not tiny. Streamlined and effective. MOUNT:  Even a bell of the right s

In the discussion about separate or “protected” cycle tracks, it has been surprising that planners and decision makers don’t seem to want input from those who actually ride bikes. In some cases, there is  open disdain  for those who have been cycling in North America for many years. Now that cycling is becoming popular, largely through the example and tireless efforts of these cyclists, we are labeled  “a frustrating deterrent to mainstreaming cycling”  on the popular “Copenhagenize” blog. The author even suggests that we  hit our children , and insinuates that we prefer to mix with cars and trucks on freeways rather than ride on a separate path. (We don’t, the photo in the blog shows a location where a cyclepath actually makes sense.) Those are extremes, but the tenor isn’t much different when you talk to many bicycle advocacy groups who have jumped onto the cycle path bandwagon. Why this animosity? Because many experienced cyclists don’t want to ride on segregated cycle pa

It grows by the side of the road (and incredibly quickly). Could bamboo be the material that revitalizes this dying town? A group of activists and artisans in the small Alabama town of Greensboro (population 2,497) are bucking the trend of declining manufacturing and unemployment across the South with an unlikely solution: making high-end bikes from bamboo grown on the side of the road. "We are always looking for materials we can make something from, and neighbors are always complaining about how hard bamboo is to get rid of," explains Pamela Dorr, executive director of  HERO , the community development nonprofit in Greensboro that’s spearheading the project. "As we talked to designers and friends about what could be done, we learned about the DIY bikes at  Bamboo Bike Studio  in Brooklyn and started working with them as a partner." The result is a product line called  HERObikes . The third model,  the Semester , recently debuted on  K

In all seriousness though, the Turtle Shell® will go wherever you do. Designed from the ground up at Outdoor Tech's Los Angeles headquarters, it features an angular, triangle-themed construction that fits in as well on your coffee table as it does out in the elements. Its water-resistant, dust-proof, shock-proof shell is probably tougher than you are, and its built-in speakerphone and microphone functionality means you'll be double-fisting Dr. Peppers and having hands-free conference calls before you know it. Whatever your path and wherever you roam, the Turtle Shell® allows you to bring your music along to share with whomever you like. Fully wireless, fully portable. The Turtle Shell® wirelessly connects with your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or any other Bluetooth-enabled device. It streams crystal clear audio for a range of up to 30 feet for 9 hours on a single battery charge. That means you have to be within thirty feet of the party and the party has to last 9 hour

[Momentum Mag]

Indiegogo Campaign - Cheetah: The Nelson Vails Story trailer from stephane gauger on Vimeo .

It was opened on the 13th of July, 1885, the magnificent national museum of the Netherlands; the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. And it was  festively re-opened  on April 13th this year, after an almost 10 year renovation that brought the interior back to the old splendour from under white wash that came with 20st century “modernisations”. But even more important: it has been two months since the underpass for bicycles was re-opened on 13th of May, 2013. The Amsterdam Rijksmuseum in1885 was then located at the edge of the city. The  Rijksmuseum  was built as a national exhibition building mainly to display the paintings of 16th and 17th century Dutch masters. At the time, other architects looked down on it. They called it a  ‘medley of styles, with its renaissance-style arches, Neo-Gothic windows and medieval towers, out of step with contemporary life’ . Architect Cuypers won a design competition, but even the king despised the building. He called it a catholic cathedral and as a pro

http://www.cogburnoutdoors.com/

This project will provide a safe crossing over County Line Road for pedestrians and bicyclists. The project is located just east of N State St (State Route 3) at the Ohio to Erie Trail. Project Manager: Designer: Contractor: Jeff Kessler, 614.901.6669, Jeff.Kessler@westerville.org WD Transportation To Be Determined Design 2012-2013; Construction 2013-2014 Design: $170,000 Utility Relocation and Construction: $1,450,000 This project has received a $500,000 grant through the Clean Ohio Trail Fund, administered by The Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The project was awarded on July 2, 2013. Construction is scheduled to begin mid August and continue through May 2014.  [City of Westerville]

Sally Bigham celebrates her victory and course record. Photo: Sam Wells | VeloNews.com LEADVILLE, Colo. (VN) — Maybe she’d have won last year, without that wrong turn. It’s one of those unanswerable questions now, the truth buried somewhere under miles of Colorado dirt roads. But thankfully, Sally Bigham (Topeak-Ergon) doesn’t have to wonder what could have been any more.  She thrashed the Leadville course  and her competitors on Saturday in the Leadville Trail 100 MTB’s 20th edition, taking the course record from the woman who beat her last year, Specialized’s Rebecca Rusch, by more than 10 minutes. She finished in 7:17:01. “This year, I knew that I could have been at least five minutes faster. But after being sent off course last year, it really stressed me out,” she said. “I stopped drinking and got stressed and panicked trying to make the time back up. By making that mistake — on this course you can’t stop eating and drinking. It’s disaster. Last year wasn’t good for me bec

The Tentsile Stingray is a unique lightweight tree tent. It offers occupants a spacious triple hammock interior, accessed via a hatch through the floor or via a large side door. It can also be set up on the ground or suspended at any height. Tentsile Stingray specs: Size: 4.8 x 4.8 x 4.8m/ 13 x 13 x 13' Bag Size: 59 x 25 x 25cm/ 25 x 10 x 10” Height: 110cm/ 3' Unit weight: 7kg/ 14lbs  Poles x 2: 10mm aluminium alloy Roof: 2oz PU coated waterproof polyester 3000mm hh in a choice of 4 colors Floor: 420d reinforced, PU coated balistic nylon - Olive Green Tentsile Stingray uses heavy duty yet lightweight components with a 2.5-tonne minimum breaking strength, however it is recommended to carry only the weight of three adults and their gear. RECOMENDED MAXIMUM LOAD 400kg/ 880lbs Package includes: Tentsile Stingray tree tent and its poles Lightweight durable bag  Ratchet straps x3  Instruction manual Note :  Due to continuous innovation &am

In addition to the  Split Pivot mountain bikes  and  new fatbikes , Salsa had the rest of their line up on hand at Saddle Drive. Most of the models have been previously available, but carry small updates or big improvements for 2014 like the new Fargo above. We picked out a few of the highlights, and put them up on the scale after the break.   Now in it’s third generation, the biggest change to the Fargo is the introduction of the new Firestarter carbon fork. No, unfortunately it doesn’t  actually  include a fire starter (seems like a good idea to us though), but it is specifically designed to work well and look good with a steel frame. Often times the addition of a carbon fork to a skinny tubed steel or ti bike can look a little odd, so Salsa spend a lot of time ensuring that the new fork fit the lines of the bike while still offering dual Anything Cage mounts. Continue reading at BikeRumor

Phnom Penh Traffic Dance from Willie Weir on Vimeo .

After photographing the well presented shearer’s bicycle at  Pushies Galore , I had to find out more about these men who rode bicycles thousands of kilometres across Australia’s harsh and unforgiving – unpaved interior, only to find more back breaking work when they arrived at the sheds of Australia’s vast sheep stations. Then there were the  games these pedaling shearers played,  Thumbs Up and Birds Fly…… Australian shearer’s bicycles which came into use in the late 1890′s were more than a form of efficient transportation. When it caned hard with rain and the sheep were too wet to shear, work-horse bicycles became racing bikes, on other days races for shearers were organised events at local race tracks. The rim of one dispirited shearer’s bicycle became a place for him to scratch his epitaph. Traversing vast distances on dusty outback tracks over thousands of kilometres, sometimes across more than one state was the norm for many shearers. For others the bicycle was the means to ge