Columbus Rides Bikes!

Bikes, Bourbon, & Bluegrass: Cycling the Kentucky Bourbon Trail from Gardner Raymond on Vimeo .

A plan to extend the Olentangy Greenway Trail through the tiny community of Mount Air is one of three options Metro Parks officials will present at an open house planned for next week. “Each of them has their unique challenges,” said Steve Studenmund, Metro Parks strategic-planning and land-acquisition manager. The open house is scheduled from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Highbanks Metro Park nature center, 9466 Columbus Pike. Officials are expecting some resistance, especially among Mount Air residents. The route through that community would run along Rt. 315 where there is limited right-of-way to install a trail. The second route would be difficult to build in terms of access because of the 100-foot bluffs east of the Olentangy River; bridges might need to be designed to support construction equipment. And the third would require one large bridge over the Olentangy and nine more spans across ravines... Read more about the costs at: http://www.dispatch.com/content/

[nahr-vuh-ster] noun 1. any of various farm machines for harvesting gnar. Another platform designed by the Surly folks, 29+ combines the superior rollover of 29″ wheels with the flotation and extra suspension of a fatbike. Surly’s Krampus was the test mule that proved 29+’s impressive rollover capability, and now it’s time for the next evolution. The Gnarvester is Carver’s take on the platform, a impressively light and nimble frame that can make full use of ~50mm rims and 29+ tires. Featuring a tapered head tube and sliding dropouts, any steerer tube or rear axle is fair game for the Gnarvester. Wrap it up with a beautiful brushed finish and a frame weight under 4 pounds, and you’re ready to get out there and harvest some gnar! Given the lack of a front derailleur, we opted to spec a SRAM X1 drivetrain in order to provide a decent gear range. Don’t worry…front chainring sizes vary from 26t to 36t so you can pick the gearing to work for yourself and your terrain. Clearan

Researchers used crowd-sourcing to create an algorithm that maps "beautiful, quiet, and happy" routes in London and Boston. Researchers at Yahoo have developed a GPS algorithm that allows users to choose a route  between two points based on beauty rather than the time or distance it takes. The  Shortest Path to Happiness study  carried out by Yahoo Labs in collaboration with  the University of Torino in Italy sought to offer "emotionally pleasant" routes using data  from a crowd-sourcing platform. [Keep reading at International Business Times]

Rep. Craig Redmon of Canton has introduced a bill requiring all bicyclists and non-motor vehicles such as horse-drawn buggies using Missouri state highways to carry liability insurance.  The 2015 Missouri State legislative session is just getting warmed up With bills introduced in each of the past several years to  ban bicycling on state highways , and more recently to remove bicycling from a state transportation funding proposal, the idea of an insurance requirement for bicyclists is not sitting well with Missouri bicyclists.  Whether intended or not, if this bill passes it will have the effect of restricting Missouri bicyclists' access to the roads and routes they need.  [Keep reading at  Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation, Inc.]

Columbus Food League, a restaurant management group dedicated to serving food and drinks that people love, is giving back to the community. Their restaurants include The Chintz Room, Surly Girl Saloon, Tip Top Kitchen & Cocktails, Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace, Dirty Frank's Westgate, and Grass Skirt Tiki Room. Over the past two and half years, Columbus Food League has developed a great way to give back through its Charitable Giving Program. Their program has helped raise thousands of dollars each year for many organizations in the Columbus community. The staff of Grass Skirt has chosen Yay Bikes! as their Community Partner for January! Our Community Partner Day will be January 7th . On this day, Grass Skirt will donate $1 from every drink special sold and 10% of the days food sales to Yay Bikes!. Grass Skirt will also display a donation tin at the bar to highlight them and collect money throughout the month. Stop over to Grass Skirt Tiki Room all day tomorrow and tal

All else equal, decreasing rolling resistance (rr) increases speed. Shorter curves indicate faster, lower rr tires. The two colors on each curve show rr for each tire at different tire pressures, 84 and 112 psi. Editor’s note:  This tech article ran in the  November 2012  issue of  Velo  magazine. Whether on tarmac or singletrack, a tire with lower rolling resistance reduces the power required to move forward while also providing a better quality ride. The tire absorbs small bumps by not transferring them into the bicycle and rider, resulting in a smoother ride, faster speeds, and better cornering. How could you pass that up? Read more at http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/12/bikes-and-tech/resistance-futile-tire-pressure-width-affect-rolling-resistance_355085#DO6bCEFRSmZbYXGg.99

Michale ("Mick-ail") Sevy isn’t a fitness devotee or a glutton for punishment. He’s not particularly issue-driven. He’s a low-key guy from Minneapolis who’s downsized his life and gets around without ever getting behind the wheel of a car. And though he doesn’t brag about belonging to that cohort of year-round car-free cyclists, he’s quick to encourage others to join the car-free club.   “I’ve been living without a car in Minneapolis for several years now and it works perfectly for me,” he says. “If I can do it, a lot of other people can too,” even if they rely more on transit and carsharing than year-round biking. “You just have to take the plunge,” he adds. Here’s how Sevy became car-free. [Keep reading at The Line]

Last week, Moab banned electric bikes from many of the area's most popular trails. And that's the right decision (for now). What's more alarming is the vitriolic reaction to the machines and their riders, making the cycling community sound a lot like the road's worst drivers.  By:  AARON GULLEY The Bureau of Land Management in Moab, Utah, updated its website last week with guidelines that  exclude “motor-assisted bicycles”  from many of the most popular trails around town. The update wasn’t really news. It is simply an articulation of standing policy that e-bikes are considered motorized vehicles and, as such, are banned from all trails designated for non-motorized use. But the BLM’s decision to overhaul the website—and MTBR’s decision to  report on it —reflects the growing confusion and unease over e-mountain bikes. [Keep reading at Bicycling]

EAST TO WEST from ManualPedal on Vimeo . [More at Manual Pedal]

It was a clear and bright spring morning in central Mississippi.  Jan Morgan and her cycling buddy Kim Richardson were riding along the edge of a two-lane highway, training for an upcoming triathlon in Florida. Both wore helmets. It was Sunday and traffic was slow on a rare flat stretch of State Highway 50. That’s when Richardson heard the rumble of an approaching car. The initial impact sounded “like a gunshot,” Richardson recalls. Morgan, 57, had been hit from behind. Richardson saw her friend bounce into the air and come falling back down onto the hood of the car, which continued to speed ahead for several hundred feet before coming to a stop. Local newspaper accounts said the vehicle had been traveling at 55 miles an hour, although no one will ever know exactly how fast the car was going when it hit Morgan. Richardson remembers the driver, a local woman named Robbie Norton, getting out of her car with a cell phone pressed against her ear. She was telling the person on the