Administrator and author of Biking Bis. Currently live in the Seattle area; previously Texas, California, Maryland, Georgia and Ohio. Own a Lemond road bike for light riding and Rockhopper for poor weather riding and touring.

Most commented posts

  1. How to enforce 3-foot passing law to protect bicyclists — 51 comments
  2. Washington state lists parks with bike/hike campsites — 20 comments
  3. 10 longest rail-trails for bicycling — John Wayne Pioneer Trail in Washington leads the list — 19 comments
  4. Indiana town says “No” to bicycle tourism — 18 comments
  5. Are bike path bollards an unnecessary hazard? — 17 comments

Author's posts

“Rising from the Ashes” by bicycle

Bicycling is the centerpiece of the inspiring documentary “Rising from the Ashes,” a story set in Africa that’s making the rounds of the film festival circuit this fall.

It tells how genocide survivors from the Rwandan civil war are helped by an American cyclist to form the Rwanda national cycling team.

As you can imagine, the story is not all about the bike.

The cyclists were all children during the Rwandan genocide…

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2012/10/12/rising-from-the-ashes-by-bicycle/

Mr. B’s Joy Box Express plans bicycle trip down Mississippi

Whenever I hear about musicians taking to the road by bicycle, it’s usually guys or gals with small stringed instruments. The Ditty Bops nationwide tour with the ukelele and mandolin come to mind.

Then along comes Mr. B and the Joy Box Express. Boogie woogie piano player Mark Braun and his ensemble travel around their home state of Michigan on a specially built three-man bicycle that hauls a 350-pound piano.

Have you ever tried to move an upright piano? I have, it ain’t easy to roll out the door and onto a truck. I can’t imagine pedaling one….

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2012/10/11/mr-bs-joy-box-express-plans-bicycle-trip-down-mississippi/

Pro cyclists suffer disgrace from association with Lance Armstrong (updated)

Update: If you’re interested in reading the Reasoned Decision offered by the US Anti-Doping Association against Lance Armstrong, the 202-page document is available here at the USADA website. Testimony and other documents are available at US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team Investigation.


One of the unfortunate sidelights in the Lance Armstrong doping affair is the number of pro cyclists whose careers have been tainted by their association with the former 7-time Tour de France winner.

The US Anti-Doping Association released details of its 1,000-page report on its case against Armstrong on Wednesday. It includes testimony for 26 individuals of whom 15 are cyclists, 11 of them former members of the Postal Service team.

Six of those received six-month suspensions stemming from their testimony, confirming why none of them competed in the London Olympics. Those cyclists and their most recent teams are …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2012/10/10/pro-cyclists-suffer-disgrace-from-association-with-lance-armstrong/

Bicycle Tour Network: new name and new ideas

The organizers of hundreds of multi-day bicycle tour events in North America have changed their association’s name and are holding a conference at the swank Grand Hyatt Denver at the end of the month.

Wouldn’t it seem more appropriate for them to be camping out on a high school campus where the hot water boiler has been shut off for the season and where they hold their meetings in a stuffy gymnasium?

The National Bicycle Tour Directors Association is now simply …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2012/10/08/bicycle-tour-network-new-name-and-new-ideas/

Unsafe roads: Filmmakers search for answers on cross-country bicycle tour

Three bicyclists are filming interviews and collision scenes as they head down the California coast this week to begin a cross-country bicycle tour.

They hope to learn how Americans share the road and why that leads to so many deaths and injuries to people on two wheels. They plan to release a documentary film on the subject in 2014 entitled “Spoke.”

There’s a lot of interest in their work. The three — Em Baker, Nick Navarro and Lauren Gardner — recently raised more than $11,000 for the project from 125 donors at Kickstarter.com. …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2012/10/04/unsafe-roads-filmmakers-search-for-answers-on-cross-country-bicycle-tour/

Updating Seattle’s Bicycle Master Plan; upcoming meetings

Seattle’s bicycling future is being crafted right now as the city continues work on updating the 5-year-old Seattle Bicycle Master Plan.

The update project team will make a presentation to the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board on Wednesday night. More public meetings are planned in the coming months (see below).

The update project team plans to …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2012/10/03/updating-seattles-bicycle-master-plan-upcoming-meetings/

Cycling centenarian sets records in France

This guy is awesome. His feats are amazing. But if I start training tomorrow, I think I can challenge his records when I qualify in the year 2050.

French cyclist Robert Marchand, age 100, last week rode his bicycle on a track for 100 kilometers in 4 hours, 17 minutes and 27 seconds. That works out to about 14.3 mph, which is decent.

Because there’s no 100K record on the books for his age group, the Union Cycliste Internationale said it will recognize Marchand’s feat. The over-100 category was created in February …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2012/10/02/cycling-centenarian-sets-records-in-france/

Sun shines on colorful Kitsap Color Classic bicycle ride

As fall rolls along, I feel an obligation to go out for a bicycle ride on every sunny day because I’m afraid it might be the last time I’ll see my shadow until next summer.

I wasn’t disappointed on Sunday as I joined more than a thousand other Seattle-area cyclists for a ferry ride to Kingston for the 19th annual Kitsap Color Classic presented by Cascade Bicycle Club.
This is the club’s last big ride of the year, and on Sunday the scene at the ferry dock in Edmonds resembled the club’s first ride of the year — the Chilly Hilly. The only difference was that the sun shone brilliantly …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2012/10/01/sun-shines-on-colorful-kitsap-color-classic-bicycle-ride/

California governor rejects 3-foot bill for second time; applauds effort for bicycle safety

California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. vetoed a bill for the second time on Friday that would require motorists give bicyclists a 3-foot gap when passing.

This time, Brown objected to a provision that allows motorists to cross a double-yellow line if there’s no room to give 3 feet of space.

Currently, there are 21 states that require drivers to give bicyclists and pedestrians a gap of 3 or more feet when passing (Pennsylvania is 4 feet). …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2012/09/28/california-governor-rejects-3-foot-bill-for-second-time-applauds-effort-bicycle-safety/

On TV: Sharing a tandem bicycle tour across Egypt’s volatile landscape

We all know that the best way to get to know a place is from the saddle of a bicycle.

Englishman Dominic Gill takes that one step further, by riding solo on a tandem bicycle and inviting people from the local countryside to join him.

He put that practice into play most recently in Egypt, where he rode his tandem bicycle 2,500 miles across the landscape of the Arab Revolution. ….

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2012/09/28/on-tv-sharing-a-tandem-bicycle-tour-across-egypts-volatile-landscape/