500 miles for July

My oversized gut proves I haven’t biked nearly as much as I should have so far this year, so I’ve committed myself to 500 miles of riding for the month of July. Let’s see how far I get.


I won’t spoil the Stage 2 TdF yet, but today’s stage winner has been trending all morning on Twitter for the San Francisco region. I don’t think I’ve seen major bike race results as a trending topic before unless it involves Lance Armstrong and doping news.


Transportation Highway Bill Passes: As anticipated, the 600 page Transportation funding and spending bill passed both houses of Congress. MAP-21 authorizes $105 billion in spending over the next two years. The 18.5 cent Federal gas tax currently generates about $36 billion of revenue for the Department of Transportation, so clearly an additional $16 billion+ will be required from the U.S. Treasury general fund to make up the difference. As of this writing, I haven’t heard that Obama has signed this bill, but the White House released a statement praising the passage of MAP-21 and Obama is expected to sign the bill.

[Ad] Coffee Table book of Sad Bikes: Bicycles Locked to Poles


Bicycles locked to poles


ExxonMobil On Global Warming: In a speech last week at the Council on Foreign Relations, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson reversed his company’s stance on climate change by acknowledging that fossil fuel use contributes to climate change. Environmentalists assailed Tillerson anyway because he basically told the human race to suck it up and deal with the effects of global warming. Tillerson, who received his civil engineering degree from the University of Texas in 1975, believes that global warming is an engineering problem with engineering solutions.

While Tillerson is supremely confident in humanity’s ingenuity to solve issues related to climate change and oil well safety, he believes the work of climate scientists that model the effects of rising atmospheric CO2 “are not particularly good.” The oil industry makes very heavy use of computer models for exploration and risk management.


California High Speed Rail: Critical vote coming up in the California Senate next week, but how will Bay Area Senators vote?


Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge coming up Saturday, July 28, 2012.

Jimmy Fallons rides a bike.

Remember that rear-view video camera gadget that was all the rage at Interbike last September? James (who, incidentally, dislikes cycling mirrors) got a review unit of the Cerevellum Hindsight and gives his first impressions.

The Atlantic: The bicycle as a symbol of China’s transformation.


How many miles will you ride for the month of July?

4 Comments

  1. 500 miles…sounds like a challenge.  I may have to join you in the race to 500, especially since I did my longest ride since March yesterday.  Put me down for 64 miles as of July 1. 

    Who else is in on the challenge?

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