Happy Valentines Day everybody. I love you all! Here’s a selection of bike jobs around the United States.

Sign of the times in Japan: “Be careful to hittakuri,” warning women to beware of purse snatchers on bicycles. CC License photo by Takato Marui.

Jimmy Johns in Austin Central Park looking for bicycle delivery people.

What “Well established Bicycle Industry Company” is located in Foxborough, Mass? They seek a “manager to run an important new division offering an innovative component system with proven benefits to bicycle manufactures world wide to develop the market world wide for this breakthrough technology that replaces the messy bicycle chain with a smooth and quiet Belt Drive System.” Is it EMS?

Boston bike couriers wanted.

Boston Petpal.com seeks car-free people to walk dogs.

Chicago: Independent sales rep. These guys spend all day visiting bike shops.

Denver: Inside sales for Saves Our Soles sock company.

Unspecified “Pacific Islands” needs OR Nurses. “The main form of transportation for the island is by foot or bicycle.” The acronyms (TDY, PTO, UM) and benefits leads me to this is a military installation, so perhaps Guam?

San Francisco: Timbuk2 seeks retail sales associate.

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is looking for Great Streets Campaign Director.

Healdsburg / Sonoma County: Bicycle tour director. Hmmm….

Scotts Valley (my town) — Mechanical engineer with bicycle design experience.

Murph is a friend to Cyclelicious and he’s known to many Bay Area cyclists. He and his wife had their first child this evening. Congratulations to them on the birth of Liam Alexander Murph!

Santa Monica farmer’s market bike valet service video from Slate V.

Sunnyvale, California revokes anti trail rule.

San Francisco Valentines Day: Love on wheels.

Tolkein Estate says Cease and Desist to Rivendell?

Zooey Deschanel likes to bike.

Ed’s stolen bike story.

For the icebikers: electric warming gloves can short circuit, causing a burn hazard.

Not bike related, but “explosion and projectile hazard” always gets my attention in product recalls.

Finally, Mavic R-SYS wheels recalled because of spoke breakage hazard.

The 2009 Tour of California features two Tour de France winners, 16 Tour de France stage winners, 11 world champion cyclists, eight Olympic medalists, seven national champions, and eight American race champions.

“Welcoming such an impressive group of international and domestic cyclists to the race is something that we are incredibly proud of,” said Andrew Messick, president of Tour organizer AEG Sports. “The growing reputation of the Amgen Tour of California has resulted in the best, most accomplished, field of cyclists to ever to race on U.S. soil.”

“The peloton is terrific,” says renowned race announcer Phil Liggett. “You can happily call it the fourth or fifth biggest race in the world. The organization of this race just ticks. It is the best field that has ever raced in the U.S.”

For many local media outlets, the highlight of last night’s Amgen Tour of California press conference was Sunday Times sports writer Paul Kimmage when he pointedly asked Lance Armstrong why he admires cyclists who, in Kimmage’s opinion, are proven, unrepentant dopers. Armstrong, visibly angry about Paul Kimmage’s infamous “the cancer is back speech” last September, gave his “you don’t deserve the seat you sit in” response.

Beyond the negative article that Armstrong mentioned in his answer to Kimmage, there’s a long history about cycling, doping, and Paul Kimmage.

Paul Kimmage and his brothers followed their dad — Ireland’s 1962 road cycling champ — into racing. In 1990, Kimmage published the book Rough Ride, an autobiographical tell-all book about the world of professional cycling that included claims of widespread drug use within the peloton. His book was among the first to reveal doping among professional cyclists. He was condemned in the cycling world for breaking their code of silence and having “spat in the soup.” His countrymen vilified Kimmage for slurring Irish cycling heroes Stephen Roche and Seán Kelly.

Kimmage has expressed admiration to cyclists like David Millar who owned up to his doping and has apparently cleaned up his act. To cyclists like Floyd Landis, though, he has nothing but scorn. Kimmage is also critical of his fellow sports journalists who “are frightened to ask the searching questions.” Many cyclists — including Armstrong — refuse interview requests from Kimmage specifically because of his probing questions about drug use.

I haven’t read Rough Ride yet, but I’ll put this on my to-read book. If you’ve read it let me know what you thought of it.

Buy Rough Ride here.

…please buy it through me. Thank you 🙂

And Bike Hugger asked me to ask you to buy his book because it’s available on Kindle! You can even read it in Russian!

Amazon’s pretty excited about the Kindle 2 — they say the Kindle 2 is:

• Slim & Lightweight: Just over 1/3 inch and 10.2 ounces
• Books in under 60 seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required
• Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for crisp images and text; even reads well in bright sunlight
• Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging
• More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books
• Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns
• Read-to-Me: Text-to-Speech feature means Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud.
• No Wireless Bills: No monthly wireless bills, data plans, or commitments. Amazon pays for Kindle’s wireless connectivity so you won’t see a monthly wireless bill.
• Large Selection: Over 230,000 books, plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines and blogs available
• Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise