Today 10-9 is Messenger Appreciation Day. I couldn’t find a Hallmark card so I’ll send some link love over to Rick the messenger in Santa Cruz.

Fixed Gear Blog gives props to Messengers and their bikes. I’ve only known a small handful of messengers, but the ones I’ve met all use geared bikes. Oh well.

Happy Friday, all!

I hear it’s raining heavily in some parts of the United States. This full coverage bike rain suit is getting lots of mention, but even with all the ventilation that thing looks like a sauna to me. And it’s not available until next Spring.

The best solution, in my opinion? Full coverage fenders and more modest rain wear.

Below are links to some of my previous rain gear articles at Cyclelicious. What do you do when it rains? Do you hang it up and stop riding? Or do you tough it out? What about the huge drenching soaks in the US Midwest this week?

• Cycling in the rain.
• Fenders.
• Cycling rain gear
• DIY shoe covers.
• DWR Care.
• Shoe and glove dryer.

“Island Etude” / 練習曲 / Lian xi qu – Taiwan bike movie – 100 minutes.

The Taiwan bike trip gang watched “Island Etude” during our travels. This film feels like a student project with its non-professional actors and psuedo documentary editing, but it works for the story of Ming.

Ming is a deaf college student who decides to pack his clothing and his guitar for a round the island bike tour — a Chinese walkabout on two wheels. There’s no real story besides a week’s worth of “Day In the Life” vignettes as Ming encounters friendly strangers — a fully kitted out road cyclist on his Giant (of course) road bike, a gorgeous Chinese TV actress, an even more gorgeous Lithuanian traveler, a dysfunctional family or three with unsatisfied housewives, local indigenous peoples and tribal elders with their pearls of wisdom. The film features scenery from some of the absolutely breathtaking vistas along the Taiwan eastern coast.

The movie (100 minutes) makes for a fairly mellow introduction to Taiwan culture. Reportedly, after “Island Etude” was released in 2007, Giant and Merida (the major bike suppliers in Taiwan) reported record domestic sales as thousands of young adults were inspired by the movie to experience the culture of rural Taiwan and, perhaps, meet a friendly Lithuanian traveler who needs directions to Hualien.

Trailer below…

In Santa Cruz County, a couple of parolees made the local news. I’ll call them John and Juan. They’re both about 40 years old. They’re both abiding by at least a portion of their parole terms by staying drug free.

John is apparently turning his life around. He’s an honor student at the local community college. He’s made friends. He drives a car.

Juan flips burgers. He can’t afford a car and rides a bicycle. He’s also dating a 17 year old girl, which is more than mildly icky in my book.

John and Juan apparently ‘exchanged words’ when John allegedly assaulted Juan by swerving his car into Juan’s bicycle in the road. Juan reported this assault to the police, and John is now at San Quentin awaiting a hearing to determine his status as a parolee.

The community has shown an outpouring of support for John. His classmates, friends and family have written letters to the parole board and have encouraged other residents to do the same. One local paper has editorialized that because Juan was not injured, John shouldn’t be thrown back into prison. After all, John is an upstanding citizen who drives a car and is turning his life around, while Juan is a low life who rides a bike and is probably a child molester besides.

If John threatened Juan with a loaded handgun, there would be no question about John’s parole status. But because John’s weapon is “just” a car, there’s no harm, no foul, and John should be let go. And besides, the local attorney has declined to prosecute because he doesn’t believe there’s enough evidence to guarantee a guilty verdict.

What do you think? Should John have another chance?

More –> Release denied.

Believe it or not, helicopters are considered a reasonable way for the wealthy to get around in Sao Paolo, Brazil, where traffic is so bad the average commuter spends three hours stuck in traffic and where the super elite feel a need to be insulated from crime on the ground.

In an intermodal challenge, people commuted via car, bicycle, motorbike, helicopter, mass transit, feet and wheelchair.

Amazingly, the bicyclist won the challenge, beating even the helicopter commuter!

Via Streetsblog. Check out especially the discussion following the posting at Streetsblog for some interesting background.

We already knew this at Cyclelicious, and Cycling Weekly in the UK has picked up on this as well — women say cyclists are the most attractive males:

In a survey by the Cycle Show of women attending the Show, the fairer sex found fans of cycling the most attractive from a list of typically male sporting pursuits.

Cycling came out as the top choice of hobby for prospective partners with 36% of respondents voting in its favour; beating the number one male hobbies of football (17%) and rugby (14%).



The women questioned revealed that not only are they more happy for prospective partners to spend time cycling when not spending time with them, but also that they are equally positive about the idea of cycling as a romantic experience. 44% of those questioned chose a bike ride as their top first date activity. Football fans faired less well, with only 17% of respondents choosing a trip to the football as their ideal first date.
 


Cyclists were also frequently described as ‘kind’, ‘considerate’ and ‘intelligent’ whereas the majority of women questioned felt that football fans were typically ‘aggressive’, ‘selfish’ and ‘proud.’
 


From Cycling News Wednesday round up. Via Cycle Blog.