For Congressman, Life in Bike Lane Comes Naturally

Some members of Congress come to Washington and get in the fast lane. The 59-year-old Mr. Blumenauer came to Washington and got in the bike lane. Few members of Congress care more than he does about cranks and sprockets.

Mr. Blumenauer’s “obsession with bicycling borders on the interesting,” sniffed TV satirist Stephen Colbert.

“Bikeman,” a House colleague from Oregon calls him. Mr. Blumenauer owns seven bikes. His congressional office is one of the few — if not the only one — that didn’t even apply for a parking permit. On occasion, Mr. Blumenauer has cycled to the White House. On Mr. Blumenauer’s first visit, the Secret Service, more accustomed to limousines, was flummoxed at the sight of his bike.

“I leaned it up against the portico,” Mr. Blumenauer says.

The dude rocks. Read more in the Wall Street Journal.

Thanks to all for the holiday greetings and wishes. My family and I had a wonderful visit with my brother and his family down in lovely San Diego. My brother Mark gets used fry oil from the Mexican restaurant down the street. He showed me the simple rig he uses to filter the fry oil. The filtering rig is amazingly simple, and his Mercedes diesel runs off of the straight vegetable oil with no engine modifications at all. Jump below the photo for bicycle news and views.

Kids received bikes for Christmas. “The 170 brand new bikes are a Christmas gift to every student at the school, kindergarten through fifth grade. It was a surprise so big that it was overwhelming.”

Jamie in Columbus writes about the link between oil and the economy.

When reading about cycling deaths in the news, I often wonder if the reported details actually match reality. I’ve read so many times of a cyclist who dies because he swerved right in front of a speeding car and like Streetsblog also notes, the driver is the only living witness to the collision. As a cyclist, I can’t imagine just swerving out in front of car. The cyclist is generally aware that he’s vulnerable.

Streetsblog points us to a fascinating video from 1958 on “Magic Highway USA.”

A new year means new calendars. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, Biking Bis points us to some 2008 bicycle calendars.

Industry Outsider on rickshaws: Rickshaws are bad (they get in the way of cars, donchaknow), and rickshaws are good (they’re used by crime fighting superheroes!)

Sartolialist: Bikes in the background here, here and here. And the subject on the bike here.

Akemashite omedetō gozaimasu / 明けましておめでとうございます, all!

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season. I really appreciate the support and feedback from everybody who has visited Cyclelicious in 2007.

Here’s the view this Christmas Eve in Santa Cruz, California. You’re looking north at the lighthouse at Steamer Lane. Dream all you want for a white Christmas, I kind of like this bike-riding weather in December!

A heartbreaking story involving a six year old and her first bike.

Nobody paid more dearly than Savannah Nesbit. The six-year- old and her family lost their house in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood last month after failing to pay a subprime mortgage that adjusts higher every six months.

Savannah got her first bicycle for her birthday in August, pink with streamers dangling from the handlebars. She decorated the present from her grandmother with stickers of Dora the Explorer, her favorite animated character.

When sheriff’s deputies emptied the house and changed the locks, they left Savannah’s bike behind.

“She cries about that bike every night, and she wants me to buy her another one, but I can’t afford it right now because I have my own financial problems,” says Savannah’s grandmother, Anne Marie Wynter, whose home is also in foreclosure.

Another bike loss story: A paramedic’s bike was stolen! Maybe he could have used this high tech bike theft prevention, though I’m amazed this student believes security staff will actually pay attention when they’re alerted to a bike theft.

San Francisco Bike Coalition abandons plans for a bike ballot measure to bypass the anti-bike-plan court injunction.

CycleDog warns us the path to hell is strewn with flowers by tall, tastefully dressed Nordic women in stylish footwear. And this paper (pdf) from the city of Copenhagen traffic department and their consultants reveals some pretty dramatic accident statistics before and after bike facilities were installed.

Disco team kit on Astana rides: Sara writes about strange bedfellows. The photo of dark blue Discovery vs sky blue Astana looks a little strange indeed. And speaking of Team Discovery, the eBay auction expired with no bikes sold.

Bicycling filmographer Lucas Brunelle has new bicycle videos up at his website.

A reason to love NYC? The head of the city transportation department is a cycling radical.

Nashville Cyclist is too blessed to be stressed.

Cool fixed gear calculator calculates skid patches as well as gearing.

Rats, I missed fat boy’s baiku. I can only blame the busy holiday season for my oversight! Sorry.

Now to the topic at hand: The Strida 5.0 folding bicycle. James the Designer finally posts his review of the Strida 5.0 folding bicycle. I really like his viewpoint from a real product designer’s point of view. Some of my thoughts on his notes:

• “Fritz mentioned in his post, that his Strida was slightly difficult to assemble. Maybe mine was packed differently, but I didn’t have that experience at all.” There’s a reason I’m a software programmer, rather than somebody who’s permitted access to a screwdriver and other dangerous tools. Mechanically, I’m kind of a klutz. Once I figured it out, though, I concur that this bike easily folds and unfolds in seconds. If you’re a klutz like me, a brick-and-mortar dealer does the assembly for you and can demo the fold/unfold, as Chicago Strida dealer Rapid Transit Cycleshop in Chicago notes in their blog.
• “Plastic chainring.” I agree with James, the belt drive and chainring is not an issue for me at all. Like James, I’m very impressed with how clean the whole drive train is, even after a rain ride.
• “The Strida attracted more attention than any other bike I have ridden.” I parked my Strida outside of my office door, and I am stepping out every 20 minutes or so giving a demonstration of this bike to a new set of coworkers. As I’ve mentioned, I work in an engineering facility and all of the engineers geek out on this bike in a major way. Children and adults that I ride by on my commute openly gawk and point at this bike. As soon as I was home last night my son wanted to ride it around the neighborhood again.
• “There were a few things that I would change about the Strida.” I had the same exact idea as James for a cantilevered seat. I’m a little shorter than him at 5’9″, but even on me the bike feels cramped.
• “It felt like riding a highwheeler which was kind of fun.” I also had exactly the same thought! (as my knees swung up near the handlebars)
• “The plastic rear rack.” I was able to hang an empty pannier on it but I haven’t actually gone anywhere with a pannier mounted. A rainjacket fits just fine in the little pocket formed by the rack.

Elsewhere about the Strida 5.0:

• Gizmodo: Folding bike sheds weight.
• Velo Orange: Strida folding bikes reviews the the Strida 3.2.
• Treehugger: Strida 5: World’s lightest folding bike.
• Kevin Kelly Cool Tools: Portable transit for urbanites.
• Larry in New Orleans promises a Strida 5.0 review soon over at Ride This Bike.

Here’s a cool piece of news I didn’t know about previously: The city of Fort Collins, Colorado held its first Winter Bike to Work Day yesterday. Winter cycling is actually reasonable in Colorado. Conditions are generally dry, and even when there is snow it dissipates rapidly in the high altitude sunshine and dry air.

If you need reasons to bike in the winter, Adam @ Rocbike posts his 10 reasons bikes are better for winter commuting. As I commented at Rocbike, I’m in snow-free Santa Cruz, California now, but I’ve “been there, done that” with winter bike commutes in Colorado, Illinois and north Texas.

Here’s a cool winter cyclist profile — Tanya the IT Coordinator uses her bike for everything in Toronto. Tanya is the Crazy Biker Chick.

Jared in Austin biked to work for the first time. Drop in and give him an encouraging word.

I wanted to pass along this bike photo that Gwadzilla took because the bike is so cool. Read more about the bike and its rider at Gwadzilla. Gwadz, if you don’t know, rides his bike around Washington DC and photographs cyclists in and around the US Capital.