Some of the old timers might remember Bob Fishell’s Spike Bike series of posts to Usenet in 1989. Spike Bike was a fictional cyclist in “the cyclist’s paradise” of bike-free Detroit, Michigan. He carries a submachine gun in his water bottle cage, stuffs a couple of grenades in his jersey pockets, and a Rambo knife…
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Do You Look Cool?
Well if you don’t – you can now! TwinSix.com is all you need to know. They have their 2008 line up and it’s amazing.
Bike vs car
I’ve had three close encounters of the car kind in a lifetime of cycling. I present them for your education, enjoyment and evaluation. 1. G.I. Jane in Tokyo. This was around 1981 when I was 15 years old and riding my dad’s Japanese custom hand built touring bike to meet a friend at the Yokota…
Interbike next week
Just a quick note that I will be at Interbike on behalf of Commute By Bike and the Crooked Cog Network. I promise to post plenty of photos and maybe some video, along with product previews. If you have any special requests please feel free to post them here and I’ll see what I can…
BBC wants your commute photos and videos
The BBC wants to see photos and videos of the daily commute from around the world for a special short film they’re creating made up entirely of content they receive. When it is ready they will show it on the BBC News website and on BBC World. Photos and video can be emailed to yourpics@bbc.co.uk,…
Commuting with kids
When my children were smaller I sometimes had to transport them from work to home by bike. When they were both smaller, they both fit in the trailer. When their combined weight exceeded 100 pounds, though, we moved up to the “bike train” — my bike towing a trailer bike which towed the child trailer….
Breaking Ground
This week at Wandertec: 1. Watched the new shop construction begin. 2. Shopped for a multi website platform. 3. Listed Ortlieb Pannier Accessories on the Bike Trailer Shop. After months of making arrangements and waiting around, the Wandertec shop expansion is finally underway. I’m hoping to have it closed in and the heating system operational…
rec.bicycles
Before Web 2.0, blogs, web pages and even before the Internet existed, there was Usenet. Usenet is a collection of “newsgroups” — thousands of different discussion topics loosely organized into various hierarchies. One of the hierarchies is rec.bicycles. Rec is for “recreation.” rec.bicycles — pronounced “wreck bicycles” — is further subdivided into rec.bicycles.soc, rec.bicycles.marketplace, rec.bicycles.misc,…
Converting Bike Trailers to Hand Trolleys
It can be convenient to have a bike cargo trailer that converts into a trailer that is easily pushed around by hand. This can be useful for wheeling your gear down to the beach while leaving your bike parked. Or pushing your trailer through the grocery store. It is a useful mode if you have to push your trailer through an apartment building or to the office.
The Carry Freedom Large Y-Frame Trailer has been set up by the good folks at Carry Freedom as a walking trailer. This has been a somewhat custom modification that they’ve offered. They are working on offering the walking handle as a standard accessory. Some of their customers have used this setup for long distance walking trips.
Commuting 101: Lights at night
Lights have come a long way since I started bike commuting over 20 years ago. In the mid-80s, I used a 6 watt dynamo to power my incandescent headlight and tail lights, supplementing those with the old flashing yellow “Belt Beacon.” Today, a dizzying array of lighting choices are available for the night cyclist. You…
Home Bike Storage
A while back we ran a poll to see how you stored your bikes at work. I thought about doing another poll about home bike storage but, let’s face it gang, there are just too many options and too many combinations. There are 11 bikes in my garage at the moment, three of them are…
Commute train
I’m curious, does anybody commute to work with at least one other cyclist? Has anybody ever joined or started a spontaneous group ride during a commute? I’m broke this month so I didn’t buy a train pass. My commute from San Jose, CA to Menlo Park is about 22 miles. This morning, a guy joined…
CELLOing to EuroBike
This Past Few Weeks at Wandertec:1. Added loads of info and options into the Bike Cargo Trailers at the BikeTrailerShop.com.2. Purchased a Toyota Corolla for the business.3. Sent Joe and John of VooDoo Cycles off with some demo CELLOs on their trip to EuroBike.4. Ordered a bunch of 20″ tires and bike trailer tubes to…
London Tube Strike = More Bike Commuters
London residents are half way through the planned three-day strike by members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers which began Monday evening. According to the Associated Press: “Hundreds of thousands of commuters struggled to get to work Tuesday by bus, bike, cab and on foot as a subway workers’ strike stretched…
NYC traffic commisioner commutes by bike
Janette Sadik-Khan, the commissioner of the Department of Transportation, rides her bicycle to work. That the head of an agency long associated with car travel is an avid bicyclist symbolizes what might be a new way of thinking about how New York’s asphalt should be used. “It’s invaluable to get on a bike and see…
Dahon urban minibike
Although it was introduced at the beginning of this year, the Dahon Smooth Hound 6.0 made its debut at Eurobike over the weekend where it got some nice attention. Although Dahon puts this bike in the touring bike category, at Eurobike the Dahon reps apparently put this bike square in the camp of urban utility…
Enjoy Labor Day
Get out and ride just for the fun of it. In the mean time: Welcome to Coffee Talk, I’m your host Warren T. Here’s a topic: It has been said that there are old pilots and bold pilots but no old, bold pilots. Discuss. […replacing “pilots” with “cyclists.”] Go ahead, talk amongst yourselves.
And they say cyclists don't obey traffic laws?
How many times have you heard someone complain that cyclists never stop at stop signs? Below is a video that was taken yesterday morning at 8:30am at a point where the bike trail crosses the road. My phone only records 20 seconds of video so you missed the next 4 vehicles (including a FedEx truck)…
How Do You Know For Sure?
There is a wonderful thread over at Team Estrogen asking the question “You know you’re officially a bike commuter when…” So many of the entries ring true. The one that smacked me in the face was “when you drive your car to work people ask you where your bike is.” Grab a cup of coffee…
Sneak peak: Cannondale urban bikes
The website has been “under construction” for ages, but Cannondale gives us a little peak under the kimono of their intentions at Eurobike 2007, where they revealed a concept folding bicycle and the Cannondale Hooligan. The folding bike seems to be based on the Jacknife design. A one sided “Righty” fork and rear wheel support…
Commuting 101: Save Your Night Vision
Earlier this summer my buddy John, my son Peter and I (along with around 1,000 other cyclists) took part in the Lenexa Midnight Bike Ride. The coolest part of the 12 mile run was the 2 miles we spent riding through some industrial caves. As you can see, the caves are well lit. Once you…
Boulder Bike Summit
The city of Boulder, Colorado is inviting area cyclists to the Boulder Bike Summit on Friday, September 7 at the Boulder Outlook Hotel. In the past twenty years, Boulder has made tremendous progress in becoming bicycle-friendly. Now it’s time to craft a vision for the next twenty years. Boulder’s Bike Summit is an initiative of…
Haro Metro Series
While following a link from twentynineinches I found my way on Bike Biz Babe’s blog. Earlier in the day a prototype 29er was found there, when I stumbled across the blog I found some previews of Haro‘s new Metro line. It looks from the photos & pricing to be well spec’d bikes for the new…
Spy photo: 2008 Masi Speciale Commuter bike
Here’s some nice bike porn for the weekend. It’s a flip-flop fixed/SS with front-facing rear fork ends intended for bike commuters (hence the name “Speciale Commuter.”) CroMo of course. More details coming soon. Enjoy! See also the Masi Speciale SoulVille cruiser bike that was recently unveiled. This is a totally different direction for Masi and…