Cracking down on folding bikes

Over the years, I've been kinda mean to folding bikes and riders of folding bikes. And now, according to the Beeb, the backlash is in full swing in Londontown, as folder-commuters are taking up more space on the tube, flashing their goods in spandex shorts, and even --wrath of Vulcan!-- building their bikes enroute, rather than having the courtesy to wait until their station stop.




Of course, there's an easy solution: Build bigger train cars with bike-specific accomodations. But it's better, apparently, to let pointless class resentments brew.

On the other hand, I've got an even better solution. Provide more bike parking at train stations. Thataway, commuters can leave a clunker singlespeed parked at their destination, rather than hauling those silly clown-bikes around.

Bike shorts for someone you love

Seen in the morning papers. I expect to see at least ONE local team sporting this kit. Flanders or SPBC -- which onanistic team will get to these first?



Alas, not available in a bib. Yet.

International Wheelies: News from Abroad

Our Russian friends have discovered nude cycling during the short hyperborean Summer.

Meanwhile our German friends have invented office-chair racing. Rev up that Aeron, Herr Fahrtlich!

Separated by a common border and a different sense of humor

I honestly don't know what this video from Cannondale means, other than the subtle product placement of that odd Jackknife folding concept that just stands there in the background.

I suspect it has something to do with what happens when your company gets bought by a Canadian holding company with a strange sense of humor. Guy Caballero, where are you?

A worthy timewaster: Finally, an MTB spinoff of the ubiquitous MX gravity game

Up arrow=pedal
Left=weight back
Right=weight forward

Rainy Friday bike music

I have to admit I've actually been riding my bike instead of blogging, mostly because I'm working on a highly controversial theory -- doing research y'know. I'll report the results, along with my long awaited commentaries on Mexican Spin Class as well as the Bicycle Porn Film Fest. Ah, the backlog is piling up, but at least I filed my taxes and the Wild are out of the playoffs.

This song is by Bob Halloran, and it's called "Busted Bicycle." And while it features some awesome cool 12-string picking -- not something you see every day -- it is also a description of my Stumpjumper, which hangs forlornly in the basement, waiting for a new Juicy 7 and dry trails.

Taking a hacksaw to the new carbon frame, under the watchful eye of the US Army

Measure twice, cut once. Or, y'know, measure once and cut twice @ about $4000 per cut.

Dude should cut those chops next. To each his own, I guess. Cute dog, though.

Never did like that integrated seatpost. What the heck do you do when fashion dictates a higher set-up, once today's fashionable "power" setup is debunked like cholesterol in butter?

Variations on a cliche: "Bicycle Race" naked!

RE: Queen's "Bicycle Race"


Remember how we used to stroll over to YouTube and see which video had been watched more often -- Monty Python's "Bicycle Repairman" or Queen's legendary (and much overplayed) viddy?

We sorta gave that gag a rest for awhile, but I noticed today that some thoughtful young man has posted the uncensored version of the original music video. I didn't even know there were uncensored music videos in the Paleolithic age, but there you go.

Still can't believe Freddy Mercury wore that weird Brooks Brothers shirt, sort of the opposite of seeing your grandma in a knit tube-top. Course, maybe it was the undue influence of the Bay City Rollers.

Bike commuters have more equity in their homes than you do!

A report on NPR yesterday noted that the burst housing bubble is at its worst in bedroom communities across the land. Homes in suburbs that require as much as a one-hour car commute are losing value faster than any other homes in the country. And certain urban areas near the downtown districts of Philly and D.C. are actually increasing in value.

Oh, and this: People also seem to be hoarding food.


The more I read the papers, the more I think Thomas Malthus was right, that grumpy old bastard.

"The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world."

Oddly enough, that Apocalypse of Malthusian Destruction sounds uncannily like the last Critical Mass ride I was on, when I could not find a Taco Bell to save my life!

Que pasa? Lowriding across enemy lines

Lots of cyclists -- especially those who don't regularly commute and therefore have funny ideas about entitlement -- help stir up the pot of vehicular aggression by just generally acting like self-righteous assholes on the highways and biways and bike paths of America.




And, you know, I'm pointing four fingers back at myself here. I've done it too. Once while I was standing at the corner of 50th and Minnehaha waiting my turn and losing my patience, a carload of punk kids poured a Big Gulp of Sprite over my head. I caught them at the next stop light, and -- I'm ashamed to admit -- went a bit Medieval on their car with the empty soda bottle. They had to pull out of line, blow the light and squeal their tires to get away from the crazy red-faced middle-aged guy screaming every word in the book. That week, I gave myself a break from intervals, and y'know tried to reexamine my priorities.



Anyway, there is one particular subulcha in America that actually celebrates cars and bicycles at the same time and in the same way, together, and that's the nifty Latino tradition of lowriders and chopped out bikes. Yesterday in Phoenix, for example, the Dia de Guadalupe and Lowrider Car Show featured significant contributions from the kids and their superpimp Stingrays.

Not so much a taco'd wheel as a burrito'd wheel

Here's something from the whacko files that you may actually see in production in coming years: the folding bicycle wheel.

Or, you know, airlines could stop fleecing cyclists and actually allow regular bike boxes on planes. But that would be too easy.

It's not entirely clear what sort of tire/tube setup this dude is using, but safe to say it ain't sewups.

A Harley with silent pipes

This is a vintage bicycle. It's a Harley-Davidson from 1918. It's up for auction.





The lucky winner of this Hawg will have to live without that throaty rumble that's been the signature of Harley Davidsons since the 20s.

But if you eat what I eat, they'll still hear you coming.