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Showing posts from May 11, 2014

New Lexington Gravel Grinder, Sunday May 18th 9:30am #letsride #gravelgrinder

Let's ride from New Lexington, OH on some gravel roads. Please gather at the park located on Orchard Ave between 9:30am and 10am to roll a little after 10am. Park near the swimming pool. Route is here -  http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4693867 Distance: 37.6 mi Elevation: +  2584 Ohio Gravel Grinders Facebook event Photos from our last adventure

Spring from Peter Nylund

Spring from Peter Nylund on Vimeo .

TRANS IOWA: TOUCHING THE LIMIT…LIGHTLY | Bikepackers Magazine

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“On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit. And you then go for this limit and you touch this limit, and you think, ‘Okay, this is the limit’. And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further.” –Ayrton Senna Content and Images courtesy of Alex Roberts As I start this, it’s been a week since Trans Iowa.  Sitting on my couch, I can’t honestly say I wish it was this time last weekend.  At this point, I was 11 hours in, and fighting a headwind.  After making great time to Checkpoint 1, the wind was starting to raise serious doubts about a finish.  But we’ll get to that. We rolled into Grinnell, Iowa just after noon on Friday, April 25th.  The hotel said check-in was not until 3, and the pre-race ‘Meat Up’ didn’t start until 4.  We hopped on the bikes to spin out the legs and find the start.  We found the start just in front of  Bikes To You  in the charming downtown area.  We met the shop owner Coop who was the

Sometimes, nice guys don’t even finish | Cycling in the South Bay

There is a rancid piece of burnt meat that bicycle “advocates” regularly wrap in a burrito and try shove down the throat of everyone else. It goes like this: Cars hate us because we’re not nice. Until we are nice, we will never get the treatment we deserve. The latest purveyor of this bankrupt, blame-the-victim, “Can’t we all just get along?” vacuousness is someone named Richard Fries. You can  read his thoughts here. Or not. The problem isn’t, and has never been, that “we are our own worst enemy.” It is something much simpler. Road cycling is a negotiation for space. For the car, more space means quicker travel, if even a mere second faster. For a bike, more space means reducing the chance of hitting something or getting hit. That’s all there is to it. If you’re going to use the roadway, you will have to negotiate your place on it every pedal stroke of every single ride, and it’s a zero-sum game. The more space for you, the less for the car. You win, they lose, and no none like

Moots Snoots for sale at mere 12K | Big Wheel Deals

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When it comes to one-of-a-kind bikes, there may never be another as unique and function-specific as this one. Way back when I first started dreaming about riding to the South Pole, I knew that any old off-the-shelf bike wasn't going to do the job the way I wanted it done.  I knew that I needed the bike to be light and durable beyond question, but I also knew that it needed to carry all of my gear and fuel in a simple and easy to access manner. Brad Bingham and I had several conversations about the end product before he put pencil to graph paper and started sketching this bike out. Salient details include: -Liquid storage in both fork legs, downtube, and the entirety of the trailer. -Custom titanium front and rear racks. -5 bottle cage placements, none interfering with the ability to run a full frame bag. -150mm spacing with on-center built wheels.  All three wheels can be run in every position on the bike. -All wheels use DT Swiss 440 hubs, DT Swiss butte

Why Cyclist Is a Dirty Word | Outside Online

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The word “cyclist” can be a dirty one — particularly among the most passionate riders of bicycles. “Cyclist” can be a badge of honor, the thinking goes, but also a shortcut to stereotyping, more charged than “driver,” say, or “runner.” (You rarely hear about jogger-driver confrontations). I first wandered into this thicket while addressing a group of transportation advocates in Australia, and have since absorbed the lesson like a mantra: Better to say “a person on a bike.” Take my own life. Saturday mornings might find me racing around Central Park predawn or joining the hundreds of riders who throng New York’s celebrated Route 9W. Yes, your quintessential Middle-Age-Man-in-Lycra (MAMIL). But later that day will find me with the family, pedaling our town bikes on New York City’s new protected lanes, with nary a stitch of performance clothing to be seen, to catch the ferry to Governors Island. During the week, I will grab a CitiBike in Midtown and ride it to a meeting in Chelsea, a

Ainsworth State Park S24O

Ainsworth State Park S24O from Russ Roca on Vimeo .

Across The U.S., Bicycle Commuting Picks Up Speed

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As bicycling goes, America is far behind Copenhagen, the promised land where roads look like bicycle highways as people pedal to work. But commuting by bike in the U.S. is catching on — though geographic, income and gender disparities persist. In Chicago, busy Sheridan Road is the start of the Lakefront bike trail on its north side. That's where you can find plenty of bicyclists commuting to work early in the morning. "I'm one of those year-round warriors, unless the weather is really bad," says Louise Graham, one among a steady stream of backpack-wearing bicyclists getting on the path. Graham works in sales downtown and travels about 20 miles round trip. The same is true for David Michaels, who works at a digital marketing firm and rides four to five days a week. If he rode a train to work, he says, he'd be buried in his phone. "If I'm riding, I'm active," Michaels says. "I'm riding down the lakeshore path, which is gorgeous a

Ride the Elevator 2014 photos #letsride #LifeinCbus

Pro-Joy instead of Anti-Racing | Off the Beaten Path

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These days, the  “real-world”  or  “alternative”  cycling world often seems to define itself by what it is not: It’s not racing. One company even  made a patch  that said:  “Racing Sucks!” Perhaps this sentiment is understandable, considering how much racing has dominated bike design and cycling culture in recent decades, often with negative consequences like narrow tires, poor fender clearances and a general attitude of  “every ride a race.” Even so, I prefer a positive vision. [Keep reading at Off the Beaten Path]

How To Cleverhood

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How To Cleverhood from Cleverhood on Vimeo . http://www.cleverhood.com/

Metro Parks ready to build next chunk of Camp Chase trail | Columbus Dispatch

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COURTNEY HERGESHEIMER | DISPATCH FILE PHOTO Signs mark the Camp Chase multiuse trail where it crosses Alkire Road. Metro Parks is to spend $2.9 million for the next link of the Camp Chase multiuse trail — a 1-mile section between Hall Road and Sullivant Avenue that crosses over I-270. The Metro Parks board awarded the contract to the Righter Co. yesterday. The park district received $1.98 million from the federal government for the project, including $135,000 that was spent last year to put in a bridge pier. The bridge over the freeway will be a little longer than a football field. The park board also approved spending an additional $289,951 with H.R. Gray for construction administration and inspection. The work is expected to begin by the end of June and be completed by the end of the year, said Steve Brown, chief landscape architect for Metro Parks. [Keep reading at Columbus Dispatch]

Ride the Elevator is at 6PM tonight! @yaybikes @ftoncycleworks #letsride

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Join us for Ride the Elevator 2014. This is a FREE ride from Goodale Park (be there by 6pm) , Franklinton Cycleworks (be there by 6:30pm) and we will converge on Elevator Brewery. You must be 21 to participate.  The entrance fee at Elevator Brewery is $10 CASH and all proceeds go directly to Yay Bikes! and Franklinton CycleWorks. You will be handed a beer and bottle opener to pose for a mass cheers photo. At beer 30 (7:30pm) we will pop open our beer and smile for the camera. Afterwards we will get Dick to open the taproom and we will hang out. [Facebook event]

De Blasio Looks Toward Sweden for Road Safety | NY Times

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STOCKHOLM — Across this Scandinavian capital of graceful cyclists and speed-regulating shrubbery, cabbies who drive Volvos and pedestrians who look over their shoulders before jaywalking, a simple figure rules: Zero. It is the number of people permitted to die in Swedish traffic, according to national law. For nearly two decades, every rising barrier and reduced speed limit has been tailored to this seemingly impossible goal, of eradicating traffic deaths and serious injuries, and its guiding premise: Every inch of street space must anticipate, and accommodate, human error. While roadway deaths have not been eliminated, the country’s rate of fatalities has been whittled down to an international low. Now its approach faces perhaps its stiffest test: the streets of New York City. [Keep reading at NY Times]

This Sleek Commuter Bike Has A Secret: You Hardly Have To Pedal

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The first unusual feature about the Vanmoof Electrified is that you don’t notice it’s an e-bike at all. E-bikes make urban cycling more practical and accessible, but they aren’t exactly sexy. In New York City, they’re synonymous with restaurant deliverymen, and in some cases are illegal. In Europe, for many years, they’d mostly been used by the elderly. The  Vanmoof Electrified , made by a Dutch cycling company that focuses solely on making bikes for urban commuters, aims to change all of that with a sleek and intelligent design that gives the e-bike a practical and visual facelift. Using innovations from the auto industry, including fully-integrated powerful LED lights, anti-theft GPS tracking, and a simple fob key, the bike feels like a joy to ride--a far cry from the clunky models that many associate with e-bike technology. “E-bikes are the future, but not the way they’ve been designed so far. We really believe we’ve managed to create a product that att

Why cyclists should be able to roll through stop signs and ride through red lights

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This man doesn't need to stop. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images DON'T MISS STORIES.   FOLLOW VOX!   If you've looked around  a city lately, you might've noticed that many cyclists don't obey many traffic laws. They roll through stop signs, instead of coming to a complete stop, and brazenly ride through red lights if there aren't any cars coming. RESEARCH AND COMMON SENSE SAY SLOWLY ROLLING THROUGH A STOP SIGN ON A BIKE SHOULDN'T BE ILLEGAL Cyclists reading this might be nodding guiltily in recognition of their own behavior. Drivers might be angrily remembering the last biker they saw flout the law, wondering when traffic police will finally crack down and assign some tickets. But the cyclists are probably in the right here. While it's obviously reckless for them to blow through an intersection when they don't have the right of way, research and  common sense say that slowly rolling through a stop sign on a bike shouldn't be illegal in

Opinion: Dear America

Dear America, We'd like the word " enduro " back, please. A couple of years ago it was kinda cute watching you call XC pedal-fests enduro races. It was like watching a baby deer take its first hesitant steps, trembling at the knees and struggling like hell, but at least you were trying. But watching you strap on fanny packs, ride short-travel bikes 'round Soquel Demo Forest and assume that, because it wasn't invented by an American, enduro is a new sport, was starting to grate. Sea Otter was the straw that broke the camel's back, though. It was the point when you jumped the proverbial shark and it's time to go our separate ways. Lycra? Really? On this side of the Atlantic that's an instant DQ from any reputable race. It's not " so enduro, " it's really f*cking embarrassing and this needs to stop. There are a few things you ought to understand: 1. Enduro is not "new" If you search through the archives of the French website, 1

Deer Creek State Park Bike Camping (S24O) Trip 05112014

Tim, Bill and I rode from Galloway, OH southwest to Deer Creek State Park to camp. 60 miles roundtrip. Route covered the new sections of Camp Chase Rail Trail in Battelle Darby and heading east toward Galloway.

Arundel Looney Bin & Bottle Cage

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The  Looney Bin  is the place for those that just can’t get along with the rest. Not every bottle is a 73mm and not everyone wants to use a “regular” bottle while on their bike. The Looney Bin will hold anything from a convenience store bottle of H2O to a nice bottle of Pinot Noir. This is the perfect cage for a commuter rig or the Mixte for that spring picnic. [ Arundel]