Bicycle blog

By Yokota Fritz


I didn't run into Dorky Doug today, though I led BionX Boy and Java Man in to work at a nice 24 mph pace. I'm loving this week's Bay Area weather, and it looks like every other bike commuter is also. Caltrain was packed and it's only February. If you plan to bring your bike on Caltrain, consider getting a folding bike.

Let's catch up on the news I've neglected touring the Tour of California...

Jim G's encounter with a Hot Tri Babe on a carbon racing bike with aero bars.

Summer on her tri bike. Photo by Me.

15 year old Austin Miller was run over by a bus and killed two weeks ago as he rode his bike. Last year, young Austin wrote "please don't run me over" for his school newspaper. Via.

We had an oil spill in San Francisco Bay last year. People were rightly concerned about the effect of the spill on wildlife and habitat as well as the beaches. But if that stuff wasn't in the water, we would have been breathing it instead. "The distribution of airborne PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon) really mirrors what is in oil and its refined products. So in essence we are breathing aerosolised oil spill in our big cities."

Also from Streetsblog: Are the big environmental groups now ready to reduce how much America drives?

Video: Levi's Tour of California bike.

More AToC: Tour of California good for bike retailers. “Teams were in our shop looking for rain jackets,” said Adam Galuszka of Palo Alto Bicycles. “We were selling lots of winter goodies for the teams.”

Kona to donate 1000 AfricaBikes.

Cool looking pedal powered snowplow.

I haven't decided yet if this is silly or clever: home made windproof toes for cycling shoes made from old inner tubes. I always just use sandwich baggies.

Ecorazzi: Indepedent Spirit Awards powered by bike.

Bike Love: bikes made of yarn. Mentioned by Gwadz.

I guess I'll jump on the bandwagon and also mention the Google Maps Bike There petition.

DNA on coffee cup ID's serial bike thief, a respected physician and bike racer who apparently couldn't control himself around high end bikes. There's a sad ending to the tale.

This needs more attention, probably.

Sacramento celebrates bicycling.

Pothole Haiku.

A good year for the Pigeon.

Another good post from Bike Diaries: our bill of rights.

Winter cycling in the news. And welcome back to blogging, Tonya!

Get your 650B stickers.

Off Topic interesting: A visit to North Korea in disguise. "It is difficult for journalists and professional photographers to gain a visa to North Korea. Because the Internet is not available in North Korea, when I applied for a visa as the vice president of the International Society of Olympic Historians (which I am), no one seemed to notice the other side of my career. There were seven other people on our tour, all of whom turned out to be, like me, journalists or photographers in disguise."

Some people see a resemblance between Rock Racing owner Michael Ball and North Korea dictator Kim Jung Il.


Off Topic irony: Memory testing cards recalled due to lead, which causes memory problems.