Over the past few weeks I’ve heard a few mentions of bike thefts off of the bike car on Caltrain. A typical scenario seems to be this: a commuter brings his bike on board several minutes before the train departs. A no good, dirty, rotten scoundrel hops on the bike car, grabs the nearest bike and takes off.

At SF 4th & King, the bike is located conveniently adjacent to the train station exit, making an easy escape for the miscreant.

Ross D in SF was a victim in San Francisco, where idled trains are common. I suppose this can happen as well at stops where trains stop for a period of time. Some local and limited trains, for example, wait at Lawrence Station with the doors open until a following express train passes.

In light of the recent bike thefts, I’ve noticed some people are now locking their bikes into the bike car. This is against Caltrain’s bike rules and it’s inconsiderate to the other cycling passengers, but I can understand the concern.

It’s easy to not be vigilant since every day is a party on the bike car, but Rob has posted his tips for Caltrain bicycle security here. The best takeaway, in my opinion? Watch your bike when the train doors are open.

Lucas Brunelle and his buddies shows us how it’s done on the Charles River in Boston back in 2004.

You propel your bike by pedaling in a metal track. To keep from falling off and hurtling to your death, something like a chairlift grip mechanism attaches the bike handlebar to a safety cable on either side of the bike. The “grip” isn’t really a grip since it doesn’t grip the cable, but rolls freely as shown in the animation below.

The idea is to enable bike transportation in areas where space or money is in short supply. Do you need a new bike / pedestrian bridge over Highway 101 in San Mateo but don’t have $8 million in the budget? Buy a truckload of gutter, half inch steel cable, a pile of cable grips and supporting structures and you’re good to go!

Can you imagine the vertigo and thrill of flying on your bike underneath the Oakland Bay Bridge while 30 mph gusts toss you to and fro with the churning waves of the Bay 200 feet below?

More info at Kolelinia.com. Via Steve in Chicago.

I haven’t done a job posting in a long time, but somebody asked me about this topic this morning so here’s my first job posting for 2010. These are job postings from Craigslist for bike industry jobs but not bike shop jobs (sales, mechanics or store managers), some transportation or advocacy related postings if I run across them; and other items that might be of interest.

If you know of other interesting job postings, please feel free to mention and add a link in the comments.

San Francisco Bay Area, California and environs.

Compliance & Documentation Engineering Specialist at Specialized Bicycles in Morgan Hill. Specialized also needs an Accounts Payable Specialist, i.e. somebody to collect past due accounts from the local bikes shops.

Helmet Design Engineer for a product liability group in Santa Cruz, California.

Office & Event Manager for MonkeyLectric in Berkeley.

Public Bikes in San Francisco seeks Sales Director, Marketing Manager, Volunteers, “Public Agents”, and Models for their “Public Transit for One” venture.

Timbuk2 seeks Customer Service Representative and Production Manager in San Francisco.

Kali Protectives sells downhill riding helmets and gear. They’re looking for inside sales for South San Jose.

Mocana Corporation in downtown San Francisco is looking for a senior accountant and they have an interesting “Nice to Have”: Current or prior motorcycle or bicycle rider.

The San Jose Safety Ambassador programs will pay you $14/hour + benefits to ride a bicycle to keep the downtown area clean, safe and friendly for all those who visit, live and work in downtown.

Education/Bicycle Rodeo Coordinator/Instructor for the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition in Santa Rosa.

Southern California

Charity Ride Organizer for Bike MS in Santa Monica.

LAPD has an immediate need for bike patrol officers.

Texas

Bike Taxi in Houston.

Soigneur in Houston.

Pedicab in Austin.

Elsewhere…

Sock designer in Westminster, CO (‘burb of Denver).

Bicycle component company CEO seeks Personal Assistant in Athens, GA.

Central Coast artist Kathleen King poses with her recently completed Bike Scribble mural at K-Man Cycle & Run in Atascadero, California.

“K-Man” is Keith Schmidt, who commissioned Kathleen to paint the mural at his new shop. Keith does a lot to support the local community.

Kathleen is looking for the next bike shop wall to paint; who will it be? You can find her on Twitter @BikeChik, or at her occasionally updated blog. Keith is @teamKman.

Here’s some handmade wooden bike loveliness that will be shown at the Japanese Handmade Bicycle Fair [2010 ハンドメイドバイシクルフェア] which begins this Friday.

Shipbuilder Sueshiro Sano is the owner of a 200 year old business that handcrafts oceangoing wooden sailing ships for an international clientèle in Japan. In the fall of 2007, Sano began to experiment with a mahogany laminate bike. This initial build was a mostly solid bike with an aluminum seat tube wrapped in thin laminate, a big honkin’ wooden head tube with a metal sleeve for the steerer, a solid wooden fork with metal fork ends, and wooden seatpost.

Bike number 2, built in 2008, was their first hollow frame with a goal toward bringing the total bike weight under 8 kg (17.6 lbs) built up with wooden saddle, wooden drop handlebar, and Shimano Dura Ace components.

Sueshiro SANO has only built a small handful of these wooden bicycles for sale. If you can’t afford the complete bike, you can get mahogany laminate handlebars, seatpost and wheels for your minivelo bike.

There’s a tremendous amount of information on how these bikes are designed and built, including details on the craftsmanship and thinking going into these bikes at the SANOMAGIC website. Several movies are also available for download as WMV files.

If you understand Japanese, there’s this interesting talk with the bike designer and ride along on the SANO MAGIC mahogany bike on Youtube.

Yohei Morita visited SANO MAGIC last weekend. See his Flickr photos here.