Category: Culture

Jennifer Lopez on a bicycle

39 year old superstar Jennifer Lopez completed a half-mile swim, 18-mile bike ride and 4-mile run yesterday in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon — her first — in a time of 2 hours, 23 minutes and 28 seconds.

Jennifer Lopez proves she is a super mom by competing in Malibu's triathlon this weekend. Lopez swam, ran and cycled her way to the finish line!

Other celebrities who swam, biked and ran in Malibue include Amanda Detmer, Nicholas Gonzales (who looks like a runner), Jon Cryer (who looks tired), James Denton, Matthew McConaughey, Brittany Daniel, Estella Warren and Eliza Dushku. Even real athletes like Anna Kournikova and Amanda Beard were among the 2,000 people who participated.

We see a *lot* of Specalized bicycles among the Hollywood celebrities! Here’s Eliza Dushku with what looks like a 2007 but brand new Specialized Ruby Comp (Compact).

Eliza Dushku with her Specialized Ruby Comp bicycle

Bicycle songs for Denver

Suggest songs for Bike to Work Week in Denver

Bicycle Colorado’s executive director, Dan Grunig, has been invited to be a guest DJ on G. Brown’s Palace radio show on KCUV 102.3 in Denver on June 21 at 9 a.m. Help Dan create a playlist of great bicycling music to get folks fired up for Denver’s Bike to Work Week, June 23-27. Submit your song suggestions and tell Dan why your song promotes or is related to bicycling. Then listen on June 21 to see if your song is selected. If you are outside of Denver, you can listen live on the internet.

Some of the song suggestions I submitted include:

Submit your song suggestions today!

The heroic bike commuter

Something cycling advocates occasionally talk about is that the overwhelming majority of bike commuters seem to be men. Some areas measure the success of their bike promotion efforts by the proportion of women to men out riding their bikes.

I’ve always assumed it was a matter of risk assessment, that women who feel less safe are more inclined to drive rather than expose themselves in the open. Natalie Ramsland, the bike builder at Sweetpea Bicycles in Portland told me something this morning that really gave me food for thought.

I suspect that the broader scope of women’s responsibilities (work, caregiving, schelppin’) plays some role female ridership. It’s easier to be the heroic bike commuter if you’ve got somebody else picking up the drycleaning and shuttling Johnny off to soccer practice. It seems that too often that somebody is female.

This is certainly true in my family; while I’m busy self-righteously saving the planet, my wife is busy running errands and taking care of the household.

It’s time for me to be a little more appreciative of my wife and to evaluate how I can contribute more to the household, I think.

You can read more about Natalie in this interview at Commute By Bike.

Swobo Del Norte

I’ve posted these photos of the Swobo Del Norte already, but I figure it’s worth a repeat with the hundreds of Swobo fans visiting me today. Here’s Erin riding the new Swobo Del Norte singlespeed bicycle.

Erin with the Swobo Del Norte

The Swobo Del Norte is an all steel singlespeed bicycle for urban riding, complete with fender and rack mounts. This is a pre production bike and the saddle got loose (hence the weird angle), but otherwise this bike will come equipped as pictured for $679. The 130 mm flip flop allows for a quick conversion to fixed gear, but you’ll need to add your own cog to the fixie side of the hub.

Erin on the Swobo Del Norte

The Del Norte is named for the Del Norte ferry boat that runs between San Francisco and Larkspur in the North Bay. See Del Norte product details at Swobo’s website.

2008 Specialized Angel

The new Specialized Angel made her debut appearance during the 2008 Amgen Tour of California. Please feel free to comment.

Specialized Angel - (c) Ken Conley

Photo by Ken Conley

Here are some more photos of the Specialized Angel — click on the image to view large. If you like this post, please share it using one of the buttons below (Digg, Stumbleupon, Facebook, Del.icio.us, CycleCluster, email).

Specialized Angel - (c) Ken Conley 2008 Specialized Angel

A big thank you to Ken Conley for sharing his Tour of California photos. He’ll be up on Mount Hamilton for today’s Stage 3. It’s cold and rainy in the South Bay right now. While race officials have an alternate route ready, weather forecasters don’t expect snow or ice today. The inclement weather also hasn’t stopped many fans who are already lining up on Sierra Road to watch the cyclist zoom into San Jose this afternoon.