Columbus Rides Bikes!

Back in December we went over to Tasmania to shoot the first of the new Rapha Continental films. Riding around Tasmania was one of those things that's quite easily achievable for us in Melbourne, but there's always something bigger, better or more important to do. Some call it "proximity syndrom", I call it "way overdue". After some lengthy planning meetings with the film crew we set out to make a character out of Tasmania in the movie. It was risky because I didn’t want to end up with a movie that simply showed pretty pictures of Tassie, but I couldn’t imagine how else it could be done. There are some fascinating things about Tasmania’s past and it’s nature and trying to capture that five minutes would be a challenge. The riders in this film literally got to carry out one of my dream trips; To ride down to the end of Beach Road, hop onto the Spirit of Tasmania, and sail across the swells of the Bass Strait, and spend three days riding the l...

Dosnoventa is a bicycle company located in Barcelona, Spain. They make bikes.  So what does Jack Kerouac, a lost love, Pink Floyd, and Johnny Cash have to do with a bike company? Well, they also made a short film. Watch it. "I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree on a cold winter day. It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don't worry. It's all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don't know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever."   Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity." We were never really born, we will never really die....

A designer has an idea of how to make drivers take more caution around cyclists: Help them see bikers as people, not obstacles. When London started adding more bike lanes, more commuters started cycling to work. But if you watch the city streets at rush hour, you'll notice something: Almost all the cyclists are men. British women are  four times less likely to ride . The same trend happens in the U.S., where only about a quarter of regular bike commuters are female. A new jacket, designed by London-based designer  Will Verity , is intended to help get more women riding by tackling their main concern--most just don't feel safe weaving through cars and trucks in heavy traffic. The jacket uses sensors to tell if a car or bus is approaching, and then starts flashing LED lights. As cars get closer or drive faster, the lights  flash  more quickly. The design is inspired by animals that use visual signals to keep predators away. It's also carefully constructed t...

Forget that pitiful bell. On loud and busy streets, you're gonna want one of these. There's a reason why  car horns  are so annoyingly loud: If you need to get a driver's attention in an emergency and they have the windows rolled up and the radio at top volume, they'll still hear you. But what happens when you're on a bike with a  pitiful metal bell ? One  louder solution --if it's legal where you live--might be a whistle, like  this new design from Swedish bike accessory company Bookman. It was manufactured by Acme Whistles, which first started making whistles in the U.K. in 1870. "We wanted to create a bike whistle as an alternative signaling instrument for especially loud and busy streets," says Bookman's  Johan Lidehall . "Most of our customers probably wouldn't like the look of a big horn attached to their bike, so that's why we decided on the small but loud whistle instead." With a small puf...

Screen capture  Global News Rising Canadian squash star Adrian Dudzicki was murdered yesterday by Aleksey Aleksev, while riding his bicycle to practice in Toronto. The weapon was a 1992 BMW 325; Aleksev has been charged with dangerous driving causing death and criminal negligence causing death. [Keep reading at  Treehugger]

SUNSET HILLS, MO (KTVI) – A cyclist claims the mayor of Sunset Hills ran his car into him knocking him off his bike on purpose. The mayor claims that’s not true and insists the cyclist started it all.  Sunset Hills Police are investigating which has the cyclist’s lawyer crying foul. Randy Murdick has won state-wide cycling races.  Murdick told about what happened Tuesday afternoon, “Literally hit me so hard it knocked the bike out from under me.” Murdick said his achilles tendon was torn, and he was badly bruised plus his $12,000 dollar bike was damaged. He said he was not far from Old Gravois Road and Kennerly Mayor Mark Furrer pulled up next to him in his red Mercedes and yelled at him.  Murdick said “He kept hollering to get off his road.” [Keep reading at fox2now]

The “Solid” bike drew a crowd at the big reveal party Friday night. (Photos by J Maus/BikePortland) What happens when top design firms are paired with expert bike makers and told to create the “ultimate urban utility bike”? Thanks to the  Oregon Manifest Bike Design Project  we now know the answer to that question. Oregon Manifest co-founders Shannon Holt (L) and Jocelyn Sycip. On Friday night, teams from five cities — New York, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco and Portland — revealed their designs at five simultaneous parties. It was the climax of an eight-month collaborative process that took city bike design and engineering into completely new territory. The organizers behind this competition believe that urban bikes get the short end of the R & D stick in the U.S. bike industry. “We think it’s the most important — yet least evolved category,” said event co-founder Shannon Holt, referring to the low priority city bikes are given (compared to racing bi...

Even if you’re not from Colorado, you are likely familiar with the amount of large mountains that engulf the state. Specifically mountains that reach 14,000 feet in elevation and above.  There are 89 mountains that are 14,000 feet or higher in the United States, over half of those (53) peaks are in the state of Colorado. Even more outstanding is that there are at least 600 additional mountains that range anywhere from 13,000 feet to 13,999 feet in the state of Colorado. People have long enjoyed climbing these peaks, and many people set goals to climb all 14ers in their lifetime. Some people, however, are just not satisfied with simple goals. In the case of adventurer Justin Simoni, he is taking it to an extremely different level. On Friday, July 25th Justin set out on a challenge that will consist of not only  climbing each 14er  in colorado, but doing so self-powered, and self-supported. In laymen’s terms, he is doing it all himself, non-stop until each...

Why do some people hate cyclists? Can we collectively ride and drive away from the 'them and us' mentality? Many motorists run red lights and habitually park with wheels on the pavement.  Motor vehicles killed 359 pedestrians  in 2011. In cities, cars that can accomodate three or more passengers tend to carry just the driver, leading to congestion and contributing to high levels of air pollution. Yet, for some people, cyclists are the real villains of the piece and the wrong-doings of the minority are projected on to the majority: "all cyclists run red lights" and "all cyclists ride on the pavement". The sins of a few projected on to the many is one of factors that leads to an irrational hatred of cyclists. You really don’t have to go very far on the internet before finding this sort of stuff. Using search terms ‘cyclist’ and  ‘road tax’  on Twitter, for instance, will bring up lots of unbidden hate, or follow  @cyclehatred  which is a collection ...

This design envisions a bicycle that can be simply assembled or taken apart in 10 minutes. Hope you're good with a socket wrench. If you've ever brought a bike along on a flight or packed up the parts to ship across the country, you know that trying to move a bike around is expensive. It also tends to slightly offset some of the environmental benefits of riding, since a box holding a bulky frame takes up a lot of space on a delivery truck. That's why this new design concept shrinks down a bike so it fits in a backpack. "Conventional bikes are awkward in every way except when you ride them," says  Amit Mirchandani , managing and creative director for  Lucid Design , the India firm that designed the new bicycle. "The Kit Bike is so small when disassembled it fits in a bag you could carry as a backpack. When you assemble the bike, you get a full-size bike that is comfortable to ride." Read on at FastCompany ...

Late last week, a young woman from Danvers, Massachusetts, tweeted something that had cyclists and non-homicidal people up in arms: Thanks for the emoji visual, @Erikamarquis143. Unfortunately, this tweet is just the latest edition of cycling hatred spewed through social media. Take Emma Way, for example. Last year, the 21-year-old pixie-faced blonde from the UK tweeted this gem: Way had swiped a 29-year-old with her side mirror, “sending him off the bike and into the trees where he was banged up, but wasn't seriously injured,” Jalopnik  reports . Way didn’t stop, and the cyclist only came forward to cops after Way’s tweet went viral. (He didn’t want his girlfriend to worry and  start putting his bikes on eBay .) Way repented—after local police found her tweet and she was suspended from her job. [Keep reading at Outside]