Below are some of my favorite books on bicycling. If you are planning to buy any of these (I wouldn’t recommend them if they were not worth reading), consider doing so by clicking the link for the book below. My comments are just below each book.
POTUS needs a safety lesson
Apparently Obama was riding along a Martha’s Vineyard trail with no helmet, and the bare-headed ride was caught by a photographer. Not a very good example to set…
No-helmet Obama
Let’s hope no one hits a pothole.
While Sasha Obama (yellow shirt) and another girl have enough sense to wear helmets, it appears President Barack Obama (second from left), his secret service agent and Dr. Eric Whitaker (far right)need a few bike safety lessons while on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.
Whitaker, we should point out, is technically wearing a helmet, but they don’t work very well when they’re not fastened. (See the photo below).
“What kind of fool doesn’t wear a helmet while biking?” wondered Tribune photo editor Maggie Walker, who was so aghast after spotting the images that she emailed the White House. She’s waiting to hear back. (AP photos by Alex Brandon)
Via the Chicago Tribune.
los padres on bikes
I got a call last week from my mom who wanted advice about bikes. Be still my beating heart! My folks, riding bikes!
Over the weekend, I received this cell phone pic… a new Trek Pure (lime green) for my mom and Trek Navigator for my dad. They’ve already ridden around the neighborhood several times and to a café for breakfast over the weekend.
Google (trail) Maps
Now that Google’s done mapping and photographing all the important streets in the world, they’re turning their attention to the auto-free zones.
Now Google Maps is expanding to biking and hiking trails. A Google employee on a tricycle rides around to snap the same wide-area views.
“Much of the world is inaccessible to the car,” says Daniel Ratner, a Google senior engineer who designed the trike. “We want to get access to places people find important.” — USA Today
Google Maps Bike Paths and Hiking Trails, coming soon to a place off the beaten path near you. How long before the Google Tricycle rides the ATT I wonder…
Bicycle movie night, Durham
In preparation for the 2009 Bull Moon Ride, Durham Habitat for Humanity is hosting a potluck dinner and a chance to view a classic cycling film. Roxanne Hall and Peter Anlyan send out this note to the Durham cycling community…
Breaking Away (IMDB page at link)
Oscar winner for Best writing, Best actress and Best director
See this link for Breaking Away
Presented by Durham HabitatWednesday: June 17th 2009
Gathering & Pot Luck: 6:00 pm
Movie: 7:30 pm
Rigsbee Hall
208 Rigsbee Ave. Durham NC 27701Please spread the word
Habitat Bull Moon Ride
Sat., July 18, 2009
8:31 p.m.
To register and for additional information visit www.durhamhabitat.org.
Read more about the Bull Moon Ride.
penal Tour de France takes off this year
No, not the penile Tour de France, the penal Tour de France. Nearly 200 inmates in French prisons will participate this year in the inaugural bicycle tour of the French countryside, designed and run only for prison inmates.
The 194 inmates, escorted by 124 prison guards and sports instructors, will set off from Lille and cycle about 2,400km (1,500 miles), ending up in Paris. They will have to cycle in a pack, will not be ranked and, for obvious reasons, breakaway sprints will not be allowed. — BBC
Why ride? The hope is that inmates will learn such values as teamwork, self-esteem, and dedication.
A May article in Reuters ran under the title “What could possibly go wrong?“
Ride for Clive, Saturday, June 6th
from Manky Maxblack's photostream
The uncomfortable truth about the everyday meeting place for automobiles and bicycles is that we both share the same width of road, despite a significant discrepancy in power, weight, and protection from the environment. The very same feat of civil engineering that makes road biking so pleasant (smooth pavement) facilitates distracted drivers continuing the culturally acceptable bad habit of driving too fast.
If bike meets car, the bike usually loses.
The Annual Ride of Silence is a memorial event encouraging “cyclists of all abilities and levels of experience” to honor and remember cyclists who have been injured or killed on public roads. In recent years, phenomena called Ghost Bikes have appeared at the site of deadly bike/auto accidents. “Small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street,” Ghost Bikes are like striped bike lanes in that, by serving as a visual reminder of the responsibility to share the road, they create the expectation that bicyclists will be on the road, even if they are not there right now.
This Saturday (June 6th, 2009) in Durham is a free, all-abilities cycling event to promote bicycle safety and remember someone who was the victim of our cultural unwillingness to slow down. The 12-mile Ride for Clive is at once a memorial ride for Clive Sweeney and a celebration of Clive’s life and love of cycling. Whether you knew Clive or not, all are welcome.
Sweeney was killed in an unfortunate meeting of car and bicycle, of inattentive driver and dedicated cyclist. To say he was killed by “wreckless driving,” as WRAL writes, is insensitive. To call it a bike accident is to miss the point. His “bike didn’t kill him,” said one commenter on the durhambikeandped listserv, “Clive was killed by a reckless person driving a weapon.”
The route for Saturday’s Ride for Clive follows the American Tobacco Trail, the focus of the ride is safety, and the spirit is sure to be positive.
- 8AM registration
- 8:30AM safety tips
- 9AM ride
Before his untimely death, McKinney (advertising firm in Durham) interviewed Clive talking about himself and his passions in life. If you would like to know more, you can watch the video here.
Read more about both the ride and about Clive Sweeney at http://rideforclive.com/
UPDATE: Forgot to mention that the good folks at Bull City Cycling are behind this, organizing and planning the ride.
Durham bike patrol officer trained as a bike mechanic
Who knows, “protect and serve” might mean changing your tire the next time you flat.
h/t to Dale McKeel who pointed this out on the durhambikeandped listserv.
Standing Start, a brief review
Standing Start, a 12-minute documentary short-film on track bicycle racing, uses narration adapted from Homer’s The Odyssey to frame the significance of training, pursuit, and competition.
Like Douglas Gordon’s Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait, this riveting film from the Scottish Documentary Institute looks at the some of life’s larger questions through an intimate and aesthetic portrayal of sport. One man stands for all men through most of the film, and only in the sparse scenes of a multi-person race are we reminded that this struggle for strength, explosive strength, has meaning because of the community of others whose training is just as steadfast.
Track racing is a beautiful marriage of the human and the machine. In contrast to the stories of judgment and salvation told in the Terminator films, Standing Start presents a story about the very human use of machines to realize full human potentiality. Instead of humans-vs.machines, it is a story of humans with machines.
I was able to view the film, which is still on the festival circuit, last summer at the Los Angeles Bicycle Film festival. If you get a chance, check it out. It’s among the most carefully measured 12 minutes of film you’ll ever watch.
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