From Business Pundit. The Finnish Valio milk brand added a helmet to their bicycling cow.

Props to Edwin for this heads up.

My paternal great grandparents were Italian immigrants who joined the growing Italian colony in Krebs, Oklahoma to work the coal mines in eastern Oklahoma. The Italians in Krebs are very proud of their Italian heritage, and I imagine they’re waving a lot of green, white and red today.

My paternal grandmother was also descended from the initial band of Choctaw Indians who walked from Mississippi to Indian Territory on the “trail of tears and death” in 1831. An astonishing 20% of those who left Mississippi perished on their way to Oklahoma. These Americans were themselves survivors of the massive depopulation of the American continents that occurred due to disease after Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

It’s indisputable that Columbus Day marks a watershed in human history. Perhaps because of my mixed heritage, I don’t feel strongly one way or the other on observation of the day; Columbus Day celebrations don’t bother me at all, but neither am I terribly upset at efforts to de-emphasize Columbus’s landing on San Salvador or rebranding of this day into Dia de la Raza.

Cyclelicious exists to discover other New Worlds, a voyage to explore ways to encourage more people to travel under their own power and, hopefully, learn to get along a little better with one another. I deviate from this mission (sometimes a lot), so I depend on you to keep me on track. I appreciate you all and thank you for sticking around and for all of your input.

Clif gave me some of their new “Shot Roks” to try. As you can see from the empty packaging, these “pop and go” protein bites are pretty tasty.

They’re kind of like those chocolate covered malt balls, but with a chewier texture and much less sugar. Shot Roks are high protein snacks that don’t melt, freeze or stick together, and there’s no messy powder to mix with liquid. They survived in the bottom of my overstuffed backpack and the high humidity and heat of Taiwan just fine, at least until I gulped them down.

One shortcoming — There are 10 Roks per bag. When I eat just a couple of Roks (which I’ve done), the rest of the little balls rattle around in the bottom of my backpack. Again, the balls survived just fine for the day, though I did eventually stuff them into a sealable baggie.

Holy bike utility belt, Batman!

Quiz: Why put these shifters on the head tube like this? Why not on the downtube? (Hint: I shot this in Taiwan).

Nice bike shoes.

An interview with Kara, carver of Brooks leather saddles.

Bicycle Law: Leading the Way.

Cafiend rides a recumbent.

Goofy – Honda’s answer to the Segway.

Girls on bicycles and a cute penny farthing.

Chris writes about European vs American attitudes on social media in the bike business.

Tonight on Monk — and he crashes, too. Natalie’s the Captain, and he’s (nominally) the stoker.

Here’s a video clip.

H/T.

This is kind of cute — a bike flashlight with integrated MP3 player and external speaker so you can listen to your tunes while biking at night.

The battery recharges through a USB interface and powers both the headlight and the MP3 player. Twist the ring to for song selection and volume control.

The headlight is a 1 Watt OSRAM LED providing 90-100 lumens in steady or flashing mode. I don’t see anything in the specs on the MP3 player memory size.

English language product info and online ordering. At $109 plus shipping (from Taiwan?) I’m not willing to buy and try — is this available in the USA at all anywhere? I saw this in a Taiwan bike magazine.