Posts

Showing posts from May 4, 2014

Bus Platform Sidepath, S. Jackson St., Seattle WA

A Foldable Bike Helmet You'll Just Happen To Have In Your Bag | NPR

Image
This is a bike helmet made for people who think bike helmets are a pain to carry around. English inventor Jeff Woolf came up with the idea of the first fold-flat bike helmet after noticing that many cyclists using European bike shares were going helmetless. He discovered that most who shunned helmets did so because they said they were too bulky to be conveniently stowed between rides. Morpher inventor Jeff Woolf with an earlier prototype. Courtesy of Morpher Certain a helmet had helped protect his head in a bike crash, Woolf wondered if there was a way to inspire more helmet wearing. "If I could invent a helmet that could fold flat, then I might save lives," Woolf said in an  Indiegogo campaign for the helmet , called  Morpher . [Keep reading at NPR]

Fairwheel Bikes builds a 9.18kg fat bike | Bike Radar

Image
Fat bikes are usually thought of as heavy and slow. They're also typically ridden in wintery conditions. Jason Woznick of  Fairwheel Bikes  decided to challenge both of those notions, however, with an ultralight carbon fat bike that will very likely never see a single snowflake. "I had a couple of reasons for wanting to do this one," Woznick told  BikeRadar.  "The biggest was that  fat bikes  are fun, but in a place like Tucson there really isn’t a reason to choose a fat bike over something like a  29er  in most cases. I wanted to build something that I’d want to take on rides rather than just always grabbing the 29er. To me a big part of that was building something light that handled and rode well. This bike simply makes me smile when I ride it and when I finish riding it, I still want to ride it again." [Keep reading at Bike Radar]

This Hubless Bicycle Folds to the Size of an Umbrella | Gizmodo

Image
Folding bicycles are wonderful, but by and large they have to strike a compromise: large wheels and limited portability, or small pack-size but with tiny little wheels. This slightly strange hubless bike promises a solution to that problem. The Sada Bike  promises standard bicycles dimensions—it uses 26-inch wheels—but its hubless design means that, as the frame folds away, it comes apart from the wheels to maximize portability.Gianluca Sada, it's designer, explains: The wheels have no spokes, the system folds with a single movement, the packaging container can also be used as a backpack... It uses a system anchoring the wheels using smaller wheels held by a small frame and a specific quick clamping device. They allow you to fold the bike quickly and easily, using its special package like a trendy backpack. It certainly lives up to its claims in terms of folding—check out the frame once collapsed in the image below. Obviously you have to move the wheels, too, but they

Highlights from the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route

The Myth of Safe "Class I" Bike Lanes in New York City

Vanhawks Valour | First ever connected carbon fibre bicycle | Kickstarter @vanhawks

Specs Sensors:  Bluetooth 4.0, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Magnetometer, Speed sensor, GPS Receiver, Mesh-network, Blindspot detection sensors, LEDs.  Charging: Supernova Infinity S Front Dynamo Hub  Shifting:  CVP Nuvinci N360 internal gear hub  Single speed/Fixie  Brakes:  Shimano calliper brakes  Weight:  15.8 pounds fixie 16.3 pounds single speed 19.6 pounds internal hub Tires :  Standard 700c , 28mm tires. Frame: Unibody Carbon fibre  Custom production number engraved on the frame for first 100 early-bird backers.   Handlebar:  Carbon fibre straight handlebar  Seat post: Carbon fibre seat post Fork Unibody Carbon fibre  Saddle: Ergon SM3 ergonomic saddle Grips:  Ergon GP1 ergonomic grips  Pedals  Ergon ergonomic PC2 paddles  Sizing Info: Small (50cm) for riders 5'1"-5'6" (155cm - 167.5cm) Medium (53cm) for riders 5'6"-5'11" (167.5cm - 180cm) Large (56cm) for riders 5'

BIKE! @yaybikes @columbusrides @bikethecbus

BIKE! from Trevor Adam Gill on Vimeo .

Is Detroit is the Future of Bicycle Friendly Communities? | The Bicycle Blog of Wisconsin

Image
I might just take my next bicycle vacation to Detroit after watching this inspiring video produced by my old college friend  Donna Terek, now of the Detroit News .  While Madison, with all it’s bicycle paths, bike lanes, and B-cycle bike share system might fit the League of American Bicyclists’ (and most people’s) definition of a Bicycle Friendly Community, Detroit appears to be a genuinely friendly city for people who want to ride bicycles. The difference is more than semantics. I’m not saying Madison is not a friendly community, it is. And while I am sure lots of people who ride bicycles in Detroit would love to have all a bike share system like Madison B-cycle, and all the bike lanes (Detroit does have 170 miles of bike lanes), paths and other cycling amenities that Madison boasts, Detroit appears to have developed a wonderfully diverse, grass roots, urban bicycle culture that should serve as a DIY model of how to grow bicycling for free, even before you have the bicycle friendly

LOST IN TIME | Sierra Club

Image
Instant oatmeal and rum in an alder thicket provide shelter from the storm. Aaron Teasdale One evening in mid-June  in the remote fishing port of Yakutat, Alaska, a young Tlingit girl and her mother walk past two men hunching over strange bicycles and a spread of colorful equipment outside the town's single-gate airport. "Where are they going on those bikes?" she asks her mother, which is an excellent question considering that Yakutat has only a few short Jeep tracks and no roads or trails leading to another town (because there is no other town).  "I have no idea, honey," her mother replies. From the patio of a nearby shack, aspirationally named the Yakutat Lodge, a woman in a Bud Light sweatshirt takes out a cigarette and says, "What're you guys doin'?" Ryan Krueger and I point to the fat, four-inch-wide tires on our bicycles and explain that we can ride on sand, that our tiny rafts will allow us to cross the many rivers we

Afghan Female Cyclists: Breaking Away, And Breaking Taboos

Image
On a recent day, just west of Kabul — where the city's sooty sky gives way to fresher air — Abdul Sadiq coaches four young members of the Afghan National Cycling Federation. They're working on their riding technique while dodging the free-form traffic. "The road is very narrow. Make sure you don't get into an accident, as you can see the cars are coming," the former competitive cyclist tells them, amid zooming vehicles and honking horns. They're at Qargha Lake, whose aquamarine waters sit below a snow-sprinkled mountain backdrop of 13,000-foot peaks. It was here in 2012 that Taliban insurgents attacked a resort, killing 18 Afghans. But this day is all about riding: The cyclists wear long-sleeve jerseys and full-length tights — and draw hoots, honks and open-mouth stares when they pedal past. These aren't ordinary riders: They're members of Afghanistan's only women's cycling team. And in this deeply conservative country where women hav

Learning to Love Bikers

Image
THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND bicyclists are expected to ride in the annual Five Boro Bike Tour in New York City this morning. About half the registrants are from out of state and won’t be familiar with riding in the city. They’ll be getting their dose of it on its best day, when cyclists seize thoroughfares like Avenue of the Americas and the Belt Parkway from quotidian traffic terrors like the garbage truck and the wide-turning bus. It is, in fact, a cool experience; you won’t get it, entirely, if you’re a suburbanite or someone from farther afield, but if you’ve lived in New York as an adult as long as I have — more than 35 years — just the idea of riding a bike on F.D.R. Drive is liberating, a power-to-the-people sort of delight. Plus, the worst hill you have to climb is over the hump of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. So, welcome, all you strangers, share the bounty of the day, and have a good time. But you don’t know the half of it. I say this as a habitual bike traveler who has pref

WHY IT MAKES SENSE TO BIKE WITHOUT A HELMET

Image
As I was cycling home the other night I came across a few of my fellow students from the  Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies . Several of them asked me: Where is your bike helmet? I get this question  a lot.  I have made a careful and conscientious choice to not wear a helmet when I'm cycling in urban areas because I strongly believe that it will help improve the overall safety of cycling in the long run. It's an unintuitive position to take. People have tried to reason with me that because I've spent so much money and time developing my brain, and the cost of an injury would be so devastating, it's clearly more important to wear a helmet. But if we start looking into the research, there's a strong argument to be made that wearing a bike helmet may actually increase your risk of injury, and increase the risk of injury of all the cyclists around you. WHY DOESN'T EVERYBODY WEAR A HELMET? Let's first get one thing out of the way:

IVA JEAN 2014 | Kickstarter

Image
Over the last year, my team and I have been working to expand our line. Using the same principles we always have, our new collection goes beyond the bike. We’ve developed two pants that are both tailored, minimal, comfortable, and durable. Our tops are both luxurious and practical, perfect for any situation. Our garments use high quality performance fabrics, feature feminine cuts and modern details, and will be made in Seattle, Washington. // CITY LEGGING AND TROUSER // Our City Legging and Trouser are both constructed of Schoeller-Dryskin, a durable four-way stretch fabric that is water resistant, abrasion resistant and moisture wicking. We’ve also eliminated the inseam to reduce chafing and potential wear, providing women with comfortable and long lasting options. The  City Legging  provides women with a slim silhouette perfect for layering. We’ve designed the legging to have a high waist, skinny leg, and side zipper for easy entrance. Black. Sizes 0-14. [Kic