Columbus Rides Bikes!

Three Myths about disk brakes 3.) Disk brakes are better than rim brakes because rim brakes only work their best on perfectly true wheels. Not false, but disk brakes require perfectly true rotors.  If you're not careful where you lean your disk-braked bike, or you crash hard, you'll need to true a bent rotor.  Even slightly out-of-true rotors will make a big racket and reduce your braking effectiveness. A rotor-truing tool. 2.) Disk brakes work better in wet weather than rim brakes. Only in seriously muddy situations.  The disk rotor is kept farther from the grime, but it is still possible to splash mud and crud into the system and contaminate the braking surface.  This will cause squealing that can only be eliminated by scrubbing your rotors and brake pads with alcohol.  In contrast, a well set-up rim brake with a wet-weather capable brake pad (Kool-Stop salmons, or my favorite SwissStop green compound) will work just as well wet or dry, with p...

Charity D'Amato A penny farthing at 2373 Professor Avenue. In Cleveland, OH, the standard bike rack is nowhere to be found. Charity D'Amato B-I-K-E clearly spells it out at 1947 West 25th Street. Charity D'Amato The "Ohio City" rack near the corner of Bridge Avenue and West 25th Street. Cleveland-centric racks are, however, frequently popping up. You can find rack designs ranging from spelled out neighborhood names (Ohio City), to the city’s iconic drawbridge at  The Tremont Tap House . The vintage penny farthing bikes at  Edison’s Pub  and the  Happy Dog  provide a cool spot for bikes to stay while riders enjoy leisurely patio time at these summertime hot spots. Even the new Market Garden Brewery  in the Ohio City neighborhood has bright red lettered racks welcoming those arriving by bike. Cleveland’s creative community is proving that the partnership of function and art will not only attract riders and their bic...

The movie broke for the first meeting, so join us for our second attempt at the inaugural Yay Bikes! membership meeting. We’re celebrating the 200Columbus Bikecentennial by setting a goal to get 200 members by June 11th. Come mix and mingle with your fellow riders. We wil l be discussing our Year of Yay 2012 rides, Bike the C-Bus and other great rides! 5:30PM - Mix and Mingle Happy Hour – Cash bar & food available for purchase from Backstage Bistro Menu 6:30PM - YEAR OF YAY! – Speakers Jim Coleman & Meredith Joy - more speakers to be announced as we get closer. 7:00PM Screening of the film “BREAKING AWAY” Admission is FREE to all Yay Bikes! members, $5 for non-members. Not a member yet? Join at  www.yaybikes.com/ membership Please RSVP to Meredith@yaybikes.com. [Facebook Event] [Yay Bikes] Breaking Away is a 1979 American film. A coming of age film, it follows a teenager in Bloomington, Indiana who has recently graduated from high school and is u...

How do you know if you’ve seen a glimpse of the future? Sci-fi films of the 1960s showed us a world where we’d all have robot butlers and flying cars, but we’re now living in that future and things haven’t changed so much. Sure skirts are a bit longer, cars uglier and we have iPads, yet if someone had skipped those fifty years in between, they’d still be able to recognise the world around them. If the past is any guide, the world of tomorrow will look a lot like today. So if we wonder about the future of mountain bikes, most things will stay constant: two wheels, cranks in the middle and a handlebar at the front. How and where we ride bikes won’t be that different either. Change the fundamentals and you no longer have a mountain bike. Present technology, however, ensures that there is still much room for future improvements - and the fact that we still rely on derailleur shifting is glaring evidence. Pinion's Gearbox - Ready for the Future For those who spend time thinking about...

Join us for a bicycle tour of Clintonville to sample food trucks on Saturday June 30th, 11am. The ride will start from Goodale Park in the open air shelter inside the park. A $10 donation will get you a Yelp goodie bag and a Yay Bikes! pint glass donated by Hal & Al's. Riders can pickup their bag at  our last stop, Brothers Drake Meadery. We will hold a raffle for TWO passes to a Columbus Food Adventures tour (TBA) at Brother's Drake once all the riders return. Sponsored By: Food Fort/ECDI, Yelp, Hal&Al's, Brothers Drake Meadery, Columbus Food Adventures. Big thanks to Food Fort for organizing the trucks. Ray Ray’s Tatoheads Per Zoot El Manantial Latino Pitabilities at Brothers Drake On Sunday July 1 the fun continues. If a rider brings their Yay Bikes! pint glass to the Monthly Food Truck and Cart event at Hal & Al's there will be special drink discounts (TBA). A percentage of the food sales from the SUNDAY Food Truck and Cart Rally will go to Yay Bike...

A working document that imagines a remaking of downtown Ottawa — after the rail system replaces 2,000 of the 2,600 bus trips currently made each day through the city core — proposes a dense network of segregated bicycle lanes on every major artery, shared bike and pedestrian routes on some roads, and many painted bike lanes on others. Photograph by:  Jean Levac , The Ottawa Citizen OTTAWA — When the underground light-rail system takes most of the transit load off the city’s streets, it’s going to free up a lot of pavement — and the city’s trying to decide what to do with all that room. A big part of the answer: bicycles. A working document that imagines a remaking of downtown Ottawa — after the rail system replaces 2,000 of the 2,600 bus trips currently made each day through the city core — proposes a dense network of segregated bicycle lanes on every major artery, shared bike and pedestrian routes on some roads, and many painted bike lanes on others. The visi...

Shot with a Braun Nizo Super 8 camera mounted on a bicycle. The camera had an intervalometer so it automatically shot a frame of film every so many seconds. I redid the ride in 2011 and photographed stills at key points in the film to show then and now. The Vancouver radio is from the early 70's. To view the route on Google maps click on this link:  maps.google.ca

A chance to own one of our very popular Boulder Bicycle frame and fork for a very nice price! (not the bicycle pictured). This frame features tig construction with True Temper Plat OX is 650b and has a 57 top tube and roughly 59cm center to very top of the seatpost clamp.  The frame has a more level top tube than our stock geo frames - roughly 1.4 degrees of slope.  The frame has our favorite light OS top tube - the proprietary to Waterford .65/.45/.65 28.6.  The downtube is a tad stouter than our stock tube - it is a .8/.6/.8.  The result is a solid feeling frame that feels pretty lively due to the light top tube.  It also makes for a frame that is less likely to shimmy. This frame was the shop demo frame and has some real miles on it (it was used quite a bit outside the shop) so it is used and has a number of paint blems.  Actually quite a few blems, but no crash damage or anything like that.   We'll include a bit of touch up paint. This ...

  - Easy-mount and easy-release universal bike mount clamp - Made of heavy duty silicone material - Mounts flashlights of around 2~4cm diameter - Color: Black - Material: PVC - Detachable velcro (23cm length) - Bracket caliber: 19mm / 24mm Flashlight Universal Bracket Mount Holder with Velcro Universal Adjustable Bicycle Mount for Flashlights (2cm~4cm Diameter)

Bicycle/ automobile collisions are relatively rare, and even when cars do hit bicyclists, most of the time the injuries are minor. Having said that, accidents happen, and road rage can be a problem, so recognizing common hazards can go a long way towards preventing collisions. RELATED Legal Brief - Collision Safety Laws in the USA The Legal Position of Cyclists Passing on the Right A majority of accidents in urban areas are intersection-related. The most common collisions are the left cross and the right hook. The left cross occurs when a bicyclist and automobile approach from opposite directions and the driver makes a left turn into or in front of the cyclist. The somewhat less common right hook happens when a car and cyclist are travelling in the same direction. The car overtakes the cyclist and makes a right turn, causing the cyclist to crash. In intersections controlled by traffic lights, most collisions occur within a few seconds before or after ...

No proper toolbox is complete without a bottle opener for keeping your mind limber while on the job, and few are suited to the task like the   Craftsman Bottle Opener   ($8). Sporting the signature clear, red, and blue Craftsman handle — just like the ones they use on their guaranteed-for-life screwdrivers — it features a stainless steel opener and a leather strap for hanging, so you won't have to start digging through drawers when   refreshment calls. [Uncrate]

View Larger Map When we were in Britain last October we drove from one of our parents to the other. It was an interesting experience being back on Britain's roads and making a long journey by car. One of the things we especially noticed after our absence from Britain's roads was how attempts had been made to limit speeds on roads through villages, but that they were inadequate. Speeds remained too high, and conditions for cyclists and pedestrians remained unpleasant. The example above is of the A153 entering the village of Coningsby in Lincolnshire, and that's the example I'll use in this blog post. There are hundreds of villages along similar roads in the UK. but this is the one by which I stopped and took some photos: The national speed limit of 60 mph ( 100 km/h ) applies along most of the length of the A153. On entering the village this falls to 40 mph ( 64 km/h ). A reduction in speed is encouraged by signs and a central reservation which doubles as a space for ...

Although National Bike Month has come to a close, there's good news for bicyclists and motorists in six cities today: the  Green Lane Project  from Bikes Belong is underway. And last week in Chicago, Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez was on hand for the official launch. What exactly are green lanes? They are  next-generation bike lanes  carefully separated from vehicle lanes by a buffer of curbs, thin posts, attractive planters, or even parked cars. Bikes Belong  has selected six cities as pilots for the Green Lane Project. By working together and sharing resources and best practices, these cities hope to develop world-class bike networks on busy city streets. Bikes Belong will provide them with strategic and technical assistance and will work to share the lessons learned with other communities interested in supporting bicycling as a means of transportation. DOT and the Federal Highway Administration like traffic-separated lanes because they ...

Edward Dyster A six-year-old boy who lives in Stone, Staffordshire, has embarked on a 113-bike ride from his birthplace, Northampton, to Tower Bridge in London to raise money for a hospice after being inspired by the story of a girl named Tilly. Halfway through his journey, he has already beaten his £1,000 fundraising target. Edward Dyster set out on the trip with his parents Emma and Steve last Friday, with the family aiming to cover 24 miles per day to arrive in the capital on Wednesday, mainly riding routes forming part of the National Cycle Network. While that might avoid the traffic, it clearly doesn’t miss the typical British bank holiday weather we’re ‘enjoying,’ adding an extra element to his challenge. The youngster came up with the idea for the fund raising trip after staff from Donna Louise Children’s Hospice in Stoke on Trent visited him and his classmates at Christ Church First School and told them about their work. “I wanted to help the children at the hospi...

For well over a hundred years, people have hopped on bicycles for transportation, recreation, competition, and more. In many parts of the world, spinning pedals moves goods and generates electricity. While usually attached to two wheels, pedal power takes many forms, adapting to a wide range of needs. Globally, over 100 million bicycles are produced every year - over 60% of them in China - easily doubling world production of automobiles. Efficient, clean, and cheap, pedal power in all its forms can solve modern problems with basic technology, and offers a health benefit to those cranking away. And it's hard to beat the simple joy of riding a bike. Gathered here are images of people around the world as we pedal for a reason, or just because. --   Lane Turner   ( 49 photos total ) A boy rides his bicycle near rice fields in Bago, Myanmar on February 20, 2012. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) See all the photos at boston.com

I recently returned from a quick trip to Fullerton, California to help my brother celebrate his 40th birthday. Given that I'm from Portland, a place known for being, you know, all sustainable and stuff, my brother wanted to show me this cool new gas station that had just opened up near his house. [Keep reading at Bike Portland]

Earl is the quintessential campus ride. Take it to class, then tear it up on the polo field, then head to the after party. [Trek]

Flickr/Elvert Barnes See full coverage Cities in the U.S., including Washington, D.C., where I live, are making significant investments in bicycling infrastructure. Two categories that have appeared just in the last decade, for example, are  bicycle sharing  and  urban bike stations  where cyclists can store bikes and get repairs. Bike lanes, or painted stripes marking bicycle travel space on roadways, have been around longer, but some of the new ones are much more sophisticated than what we had ten or twenty years ago. In particular, one new generation of bike lanes is called  “cycle tracks,”  comprising bike lanes that are on the roadway but physically separated from motor vehicle traffic. We have one on 15th Street NW right in front of my office (see photos, taken a few blocks north). It is immensely popular as a bike commuting route.  Advanced cycle tracks even have their own traffic signals. The D.C.-based advocacy blog WashCycle...

For a bicycling network to attract the widest possible segment of the population, its most fundamental attribute should be low-stress connectivity, that is, providing routes between people’s origins and destinations that do not require cyclists to use links that exceed their tolerance for traffic stress, and that do not involve an undue level of detour. The objective of this study is to develop measures of low-stress connectivity that can be used to evaluate and guide bicycle network planning. We propose a set of criteria by which road segments can be classified into four levels of traffic stress (LTS). LTS 1 is suitable for children; LTS 2, based on Dutch bikeway design criteria, represents the traffic stress that most adults will tolerate; LTS 3 and 4 represent greater levels of stress. As a case study, every street in San Jose, California, was classified by LTS. Maps in which only bicycle-friendly links are displayed reveal a city divided into islands within which low-stress b...