bike stencil


From the Buenos Aires Daily photoblog.

Specialized films

Following in the footsteps of BMW and SeaDoo, the bicycle manufacturer Specialized is using self-produced films as part of a new marketing campaign.

Frankly, neither the Roubaix escaping the police nor Dave strapping on his life-vest before taking on pirates from a motorcycle-on-water are as endearing as Clive Owen playing the driver hired to shake up Madonna before her next show. But hey… it’s still fun to see a bike outrunning a squad car.

Snap across North America

Charleston, SC

Arkansas

Ontario

Oklahoma — at the base of the tipi picnic shelter

Isle of Palms, SC — with some kites on the beach

A Tennessee rest area

Arizona – down on the rock

Jacksonville, FL

New Mexico

Camus on bicycle

During the German occupation of France, Albert Camus earned hero status among the French for editing the underground newspaper Combat. It wasn’t until the war was over, however, that more than a handful of people knew it was Camus publishing the journal. Nevertheless, he lived at various times in hiding, using false identity papers. As a moral voice in the resistance, his travels had to be simple so as not to draw the unwanted attention of the German army.

Depicting Camus’ travels in the weeks and days leading up to the Allied liberation of Paris, Herbert Lottman writes in his 1979 biography of Camus,

They left Paris on three bicycles — Pierre Gallimard, Janine, Michel, and Camus — Janine riding with the men in turn, although Pierre and Michel didn’t want her to ride with Camus because of the strain it might cause their sickly friend. They went to Verdelot, some fifty-five miles east of Paris on the banks of the Petit-Morin, where Gallimard editor and author Brice Parain had a home.
Meanwhile, Camus alerted fellow Combat conspirators Sartre and Beauvoir, and they took precautions. In her memoirs, Beauvoir describes their somewhat pathetic attempts to take protective cover: first by moving in for a few days with the Michel Leiris; then, by train and by bicycle…And when they heard that the American troops were approaching Chartres, they got back on their bicycles and by the side roads made their way to Paris.
But the news of the Allied advance, the imminent liberation of Paris, drew them (Camus and the Gallimards) back to the city. For the return trip they again rode three bicycles for the four of them, with the same seating arrangements. Peddling (sic) along, they saw planes diving and dropping bombs, Germans taking shelter in the woods along the road. They decided, “idiodically,” that the bombs weren’t meant for them.

While dates for these rides from and back to Paris are hard to nail down, I figure the return bicycle ride was sometime around today, August 24th — sixty-two years ago. So, here’s to Camus, riding a single-speed fifty-five miles through the French countryside back to Paris, dodging bombs and Germans along the way.


(image made with amaztype)

Durham’s Alleyrat alleycat

Saturday, September 2nd, come test your ingenuity on a bike. Race Durham’s next alleycat, and help raise money for a new organization — the Durham Bike Collective. While you’re clicky-clickin’, ask them what the Durham Bike Collective is.

Here’s an earlier version of their mission statement:

We propose an open community for bicyclists and bicycle culture in Durham. To this end, we further propose a bicycle co-operative that can function as a nexus of this community. Aside from the pleasure of riding them, we believe that bikes are a vital vehicle for sociality and movement, and that they offer a real alternative to the (economically, socially, ecologically) disastrous hegemony of the automobile. We further believe that in connection with other practices and knowledges there is in bicycling a vision of autonomy that has much to contribute to the creation of new forms of social life. Our practice as a collective will therefore be (at least initially) twofold:

1) Skill-share. In order to encourage self-empowerment through the exchange of practical knowledge, we will regularly facilitate and host gatherings in which skills related to bicycle maintenance, repair, and riding will be communicated in an open, free, and inviting setting.

2) Bicycle recovery and redistribution. We will solicit donations of unused and unwanted bicycles and bike parts, fix these bikes, and distribute them to the Durham community on a first-come, first-served basis. Ideally and budget permitting, these bicycles will be free; although in some cases a donation (money and/or sweat equity put into a bike or into the co-operative, in connection with our first goal) will be asked for the cost of any parts needed to refurbish the bike. All labor done within the collective will be voluntary and unpaid.

Durham to install hundreds of new bike racks

From the City of Durham’s website:

CityRacks is a bicycle parking program, which will install “inverted U” bicycle racks on city-owned property throughout the City of Durham. Sites are selected by taking into account density of bike traffic. These areas will most likely include parks, schools, business districts, universities, museums, and libraries.

* Sidewalk or walk area much be at least 8′ in width to prevent walkways from being blocked by bikes attached to bike racks.
* Bike racks must be installed approximately 13′ from fire hydrants, and 15′ from bus stop shelters and newsstands.
* Racks would preferably not be installed on brick/pavers, stone/slate or patterned concrete.
* Area must not be in a direct walkway entrance from a commercial business.
* Location should be in a high traffic biking area in order to accommodate as many bikers at possible.
* Area of location should be on city property and not under private ownership.
* Dimensions of the inverted “U” shaped racks are:


If you’d like to request that a bike rack be installed near a business you frequent or other destination, just fill out a Bike Rack Request Form online.

Let’s hope ours fare better than Toronto’s.

Toronto’s post-and-ring bike racks are “vulnerable”

Editorial: Repair the bike locks
The Toronto Star
Aug. 21, 2006. 01:00 AM

Toronto is a city of bicyclists, who strive to save the air and the roads while adroitly dodging motorists and ever-rising gas and parking prices.

So it is disconcerting to learn those ubiquitous post and ring bike stands that have dotted the city for 20 years are vulnerable to breaking with a simple two-by-four piece of lumber.

Eight cases of attacks on the stands by lumber-wielding thieves have been confirmed and another six are under investigation,

Even red-faced city biking officials have had to admit after conducting their own destructive attacks that the $200 stands are “vulnerable.”

City officials are looking at ways to strengthen or modify the 16,000 bike lock-ups, but warn that all the options are relatively expensive.

Individual cyclists can thwart thieves by using two hefty locks and the techniques on how best to use them that are outlined in a 20-page city booklet. But that is a confusing and costly alternative.

What should be done is that the city spend the money to fix the stands.

In a city where an estimated 7,000 bikes are stolen every year, the price is a good investment.

News and video from Martino’s Bike Lane Diary.

TCC Ring Post Sub-committee on VimeoDurham will be installing new city-owned bike racks later this year. I’m glad we chose not to go with the post-and-ring design, even if they are more aesthetically interesting that upside-down U’s.

Queen’s Quay bike arch

I don’t know what it is or what it’s for, but it’s bad, it’s in Toronto, and it appears to be made of bicycles.

More photos over at Martino’s Bike Lane Diary.

what is Critical Mass?

While no one can tell you what CM is (because first, you have to experience it for yourself; and second, what CM is depends on who shows up to ride), Daryl Hannah portrays it sympathetically and positively in this week’s dhlovelife episode.

return of the pedal

I’m back on the fixie for the first time in a couple of months.

I’ve been riding a multi-geared mountain bike which I’ve outfitted for commuting with 1.5in inverted-tread tires, fenders (for the non-existent rain), and an Xtracycle Free Radical. I’d gotten used to having gears again.

So, I fix up the fixie last night and hop on it this morning. I crest the first hill in my neighborhood and have one of those classic fixed-gear moments. My mountain-bike-bred instinct is to coast, now that I’ve reached the top of the hill. But my cranks disagree, and the egg beater pedals ignore my feet’s inertia. I do a little gallup to stay on the bike and remember there’s no coasting allowed.

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