Bikes and beer, what’s not to love?

Brew Your Own:

This spring, while you’re inflating your tires, checking your brakes and getting ready for riding season, why not brew a bicyle-themed clone brew? Put the pedal to the metal with six brews from six bike-loving breweries.

[Thanks Doc Homebrew]

Meanwhile, the perfect combination has been discovered in Colorado: beer and bikes.

Lacy

Straight (Bar) Lacing:

distributes pressure evenly plus keeps the knots & ends to the side. For hiking / bushwalking, position the knots on the inside, away from snagging undergrowth. For biking / cycling, position them on the outside, away from chains & cranks.

10 minute endurance

10 minutes of fast sprints beat 10 hours of cycling, but then there is the question of getting your arse used to your saddle… [twitterer]

Audax insults Rochester

There’s unrest in Oppy’s home town that Audax isn’t finishing the Fleche Opperman All Day Trial at Rochester this year—but I bet heaps of teams will still be riding across to take team photos in front of Sir Hubert’s statue. [via audax-oz]

In the meedya

• Vicious Cycle on 60 Minutes, with video
• Radio National Australia Talks: Cycling safety
• Bike riders under pump to pay rego
• Sydney – the world’s worst cycling city?
• Safety experts urge cyclists to sit up and take notice [via Freedom Cyclist v Helmet Laws, twitterer]

Winner

Did I win? Yeah mate, you won—Funniest Home Videos, that is. [thanks woowoowoo]

Stayer

Keith Dunstan, still cycling in his 80s. Respect.

Not even a contender

I’d ask you to nominate me for the Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards but there isn’t a category for “Contribution to cycling by a bullshit artist with a blog”. CPF, please do something about this next year.

Call that a rack?

Now that’s a bike rack! [twitterer]

I hate these guys

Follow Me MTB video. I hate them all (in a good way).

And I’m not so keen on these guys either. Bloody smartypantses.

“A bit grippy”

Joby Gorillabike. As Phil Liggett might say, things are getting a bit grippy there.

Giving it away

Free bike help + advice [twitterer]

Flying Pigeons

Deluxe Flying Pigeon Bicycles—gorgeous!

Barry!

Barry-Roubaix : The Killer Gravel Road Race [twitterer]

Beware of unintended consequences

UK’s NHS trial offers people money to lose weight:

If people cannot be persuaded to stop smoking/lose weight/get more exercise for their own good – then why not pay them to do so?

Umm, because of the Law of Unintended Consequences and perverse incentives, perhaps?

[twitterer]

Bloggage

• The Slow Way Home—that guys is riding through some gorgeous scenery.
• That’s What She Said About Your Bike

Get back in the kitchen

• “Cocaine Bars” Energy Bar Recipe
• Runner’s Breakfasts would work for cyclists too, I suppose.

Stake your claim

• Cyclists, don’t be gutter-bunnies, urges motoring org

• IAM urges cyclists to “claim their lane”

Lego Repair Man

Bicycle Repair Man:

 - “Oh look… is it a stockbroker?”
 - “Is it a quantity surveyor?”
 - “Is it a church warden?”
 - “NO! It’s Bicycle Repair Man!”

[twitterer]

The truth about speeding

Association of British Nutters says speed limits kill.

[via Bike Hugger and People for Bikes]

Beautiful craziness

Date with Death: José Meiffret’s 1962 attempt to cycle a 200km/h motor-paced ‘flying mile’. A terrific read. And don’t miss the photo of his bike [thanks woowoowoo] with its 130-tooth chain wheel—what a beast!

Ah, the Internet

safe seats: “240 minutes of unexpected time in amsterdam….a theme emerges!”

20 years

20 years of TAC ads. Whoa. [twitterer]

SmartRoads

SmartRoads:

SmartRoads is an approach that manages competing interests for limited road space by giving priority use of the road to different transport modes at particular times of the day.

All road users will continue to have access to all roads. However, certain routes will be managed to work better for cars while others will be managed for public transport, cyclists and pedestrians.

The plan is spruiked in a video from VicRoads.

Bicycle Victoria’s view:

Efficient people movers, such as public transport and bikes, will benefit most from the new philosophy.

The mirror I’ve been waiting for

Beer View Mirror: “The only bicycle mirror you’ll be proud to wear!” Should go well with this Beer Can Bottle Cage.

Bikes and football

Kick Ball Pedal Bike tours all of London’s football grounds in a 150 mile jaunt. Cool idea.

Bikes as investment

This dude will be able to buy a house with the proceeds of selling his BMX collection.

They ride bikes

The Pedal Project – Three Cycling Cities:

When you picture a council junket you never see the fold up bike, the ferry and the cycle cafe. DCTV goes on a whirlwind (read cheap and quick – the way we all travel now) trip to look at models for European cycling along with the Dublin City Council cycling officer Ciaran Fallon. Along the way they meet bloggers and fashion designers and activists who all, incidentally, cycle bikes. And see how normal cycling is all across Europe.

Nice points from Amy Fleuriot at about 9.40: Just because you put on a helmet and high-vis gear, it doesn’t make you ’safe’; and from Marc Woudenberg at about 25.20: Don’t promote cycling as “green”.

[twitterer]

See also Cambridge Study Tour 2010.

Dutch spray

In response to a question on chainguard about brakes on Dutch bikes, John S. Allen let fly with this amusing spray:

Yes, but the Dutch have such a great safety record, then don’t need a front brake, or a helmet, and they can text on a cell phone, pick their noses with both hand at once, carry a passenger on the rear rack with feet dangling into the spokes, pedal in tight skirts and stiletto heels, dangle a necktie into the front wheel, carry their children in suicide seats just behind the handlebars, all with impunity. If anything goes wrong, they just exit into a canal, and get a splash instead of a crash. Hey, it’s saltwater but the bike was only worth 15 Euros anyway. Ah, Amsterdam, bicycle-friendliest of cities!

Supertandem

Specialized Shiv Carbon Fiber Tandem – AKA: The Supersonic Divorce Machine. Says KarlOnSea, “This insane bike takes the romance out of tandems”.

Assessment

Health economic assessment tool for cycling:

This tool estimates the economic savings resulting from reduced mortality due to cycling, i.e.:

if x people cycle y distance on most days, what is the economic value of the improvements in their mortality rate?

HEAT for cycling is based on best available evidence, with parameters that can be adapted to fit specific situations. Default parameters are valid for the European context.

More hands-on justice

Bike couriers chase down bicycle thief in wild downtown pursuit.

Don’t ride in thunderstorms

Croat’s penis functioning after being struck by lightning [tweeted by @rosewal, who has an uncanny knack for finding such material…]

BMX + treadmill = schadenfreude

How Not to Use a Treadmill [tweeted by @rosewal—see what I mean?]

Park right by the entrance

Public transport users vote with feet:

Public transport users get a daily average of 41 minutes physical exercise, compared with an average of eight minutes for those who only drive, according to an analysis of Victorian travel data.

Well bugger me sideways, who’d have thunk it? [twitterer]

Pump me up

Biknd helium bike case: wrap up your bike and pump up the case. I can’t help wondering how long it would take the baggage handlers to tear it or puncture it though.

Find your way

No doubt you’ve heard that biking directions were added to Google Maps this week for the USA, elsewhere OpenCycleMap.org is already doing a great job.

Canberra loves cars

Wheel must turn for ACT road users.

So that’s how it works

Check out these diagrams of cutaway and exploded bicycle parts.

Two days later and I’m off to ride to work this morning (yes, on a public holiday, thanks very much!) after another night of heavy rainfall. As I headed off MLSP cautioned, “Watch out for all the debris on the road.”

“No worries”, I replied, “all this rain will have washed it away.”

Famous last words

How wrong can you be?

First up there was this sort of stuff everywhere except on the busiest roads, where the wheels of many cars probably helped sweep the roads clean:

This lot is not likely to be washed away any time soon.

Wherever there were trees, there was debris.

Yes, there really is a sealed path here—I can only assume this area was under water during the storm.

This mat of plant material stretched for at least 30m—again I can only assume that this area was awash during the storm.

On the return leg in the evening, the Yarra Trail had its various patches of mud, slop, soggy plant matter and silt:

A sandy deposit on the Yarra Trail.

And as the debris shows here, if I’d tried to use the Glenferrie Road underpass in the morning, I would have been swimming:

This spot is regularly inundated by flash flooding.

Compare and contrast with the height of another recent inundation.

Model	Super Flash	Ultra Light
Current Super Flash beside the old Ultra Light.
Dimensions [H×W×D]	63mm×33mm×38mm	126mm×72mm×44mm
Weight [approx]	50g	420g
Light	1×0.4 watt LED plus 2×LED	1×1.1 watt incandescent bulb
Optics	Brightest LED focused by a conical lens; other LEDs behind a red Fresnel lens	Single light in conical reflector through rectangular Fresnel lens
Modes	Steady beam and flash	Steady beam
Power	2×AAA battery	2×D battery
Output*	“Ouch!” Retina-burningly bright	“Is that all you got?” Gentle glow
* Subjective lighting units—who the hell understands all of that lumens, footcandles and candlepower stuff anyway?
The Super Flash outshines the Ultra Light

So what’s my point? Nothing really profound, except to note that I’d much rather have the “affordable” lighting of today than the “affordable” lighting I had back then.

I would add that the Ultra Light came paired with a headlight, which was basically the same unit with a clear lens. I used them both front and back as my sole sources of light. I don’t know where the headlight has gone, so I won’t be able to compare it to the new Ay Up light I’ve just bought—but I think you can imagine how that comparison would turn out…

“Flat Out” Teaser from Flat Out Productions on Vimeo.

Idiots. (In a good way.) [via trackosaurus rex]

Donald Norman, we need you!

Complex car controls equal confused drivers:

Too many automakers are making everyday activities excessively complex. The BMW iDrive had a controller for functions like the radio and air conditioning that was so baffling that it forced drivers to take their eyes off the road.

And there I was thinking good design made things simpler. Silly me.

Must. Ride. This. Road.

Passo San Gottardo. I think I’m in love.

Brrrr!

Just Chill. Heh!

Helmeted for sound

Tunebug with SurfaceSound Technology.

Jersey does the talkin’

Share The Damn Road and other “cycling jerseys that make a statement”.

You cannot be serious

Bike lock fail—”like tight jeans or a crop shirt, just because you can do something (or wear something), does not mean you should”. It’s gotta be a joke.

Fully-loaded man.

The Fully Loaded Touring Bike Photo Gallery.

While we’re on the subject, here are some tips for long-distance cycling.

You toucha my bike…

I’m no real fan of vigilante justice but…

Some bike messengers last month took justice into their own hands when they caught two suspected thieves, teenage boys who attended a local Catholic high school. According to police, the messengers stripped down the teens to their boxer shorts before taking their cellphones, backpacks and clothes.

“They meted out street justice. We don’t condone street justice. They never threatened them. But they made it clear: don’t mess with another person’s property,” Los Angeles Police Lt. Paul Vernon said. “This incident and the arrests are the tip of the iceberg when comes to people stealing bicycles.”

[via Cyclelicious]

Sydney to share?

The Sydney Morning Herald reports on a push for “naked” streets in Sydney:

the City of Sydney wants to take control of several main arteries through the central business district, rip out the traffic lights, strip the streets of safety signs, impose a speed limit of 10 kmh and give pedestrians the right of way.

Top Ten

It’s nice that Port Phillip made the top 10 bike rides of the world, but seriously just about any road within 50km of Bright is better than Port Phillip and has more “tortuous ascents”.

DIY

Red Green Makes a Chopper didn’t exactly have me in stitches, but mildly amusing.

What you missed this morning

Yehuda Moon wouldn’t miss this.

Get good LBS

4 tips you can use to find a reputable and trustworthy bike shop. No real earth-shattering revelations here (“word of mouth”—who knew?), but it may be of some use.

Start up

How to set up and run a bicycle repair company.

Tales of the Road

Just stumbled across these Tales of the Road videos targetted at 6–11 year olds:

Research found that children in this age range need to understand the reasons for always using good road safety behaviour. The campaign therefore uses animated characters that are vulnerable to the real consequences of not following good road use. The key message is ‘you need to use good road safety behaviour or you could come to real harm’. The campaign also demonstrates the correct road safety behaviours.

• The Girl Who Didn’t Dress Bright
• The Boy Who Didn’t Stop, Look and Listen
• The Boy Who Didn’t Look For a Safe Place To Cross

Counting on it

Cycling is a great way to boost your sperm count.

Don’t know much about art

Bike sculpture (made from bike parts).

Don’t understand

I really don’t get why people would do this: Unauthorized bike trail damages “pristine habitat” in Forest Park.

Heartbroken (not)

Death of the Hummer?:

The Hummer, originally designed as a military off-road vehicle by AM General, was in the late 90s the off-road vehicle of choice for many a celebrity that cared not about good gas mileage…However, in these economic trying times and when the Hollywood elite prefer hybrids over former-military vehicles, the Hummer has seen sales fall.

What a shame.

G.M. to Close Hummer After Sale Collapses [via EcoVelo]

I’ve just got one thing to say about that.

Why not?

Why Cycle?

Hmm, tempting.

Seeing as I didn’t make it to “Bounding up Baw Baw”—again—this might be worth a look: 2010 Baw Baw Challenge: 119k and 70k courses.

Hmm, no thanks.

As outlined on bicyclism blog, what is the point of the Shimano electronic gruppo? Apparently it won a design award, which should automatically mitigate against it.

As previously mentioned Wired magazine described is as a flappy paddle.

When it comes down to it, the vast majority of riders simply don’t need this added level of complexity on their bikes.

Here boy!

What to do if you get chased by a dog.

Again?

This must never happen again:

According to the World Health Organisation, the coroner into the world’s first road death, back in 1896, said “This must never happen again”.

SMIDSY

And on the historical front, was this Britain’s earliest SMIDSY? I just love the logic of it being impossible to doubt the word of a gentlemen. Those were the days.

Bloggage

• VelociPete
• Lovely Bicycle!
• Mexico Cycle Chic
• Cycle Krazy: Cycling Tips
• My Life on the Bike