Toronto's most notorious and prolific bicycle thief pleaded guilty to possessing 10 stolen bicycles and six drug charges on Wednesday, resulting in a 30-month prison sentence.
That guilty plea covers just a few of the 2,200 to 2,900 stolen bicycles that Igor Kenk, 50, had stored away in his bike shop, his home and in 10 garages he rented around the city.
Cooperating with authorities, Kenk allowed the government to confiscate those bicycles as well as a couple of motor vehicles and one of the buildings that housed the bikes.
The courts are considering a grand auction to sell the bicycles, although most aren't in good shape…
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/12/16/canadas-most-prolific-bike-thief-gets-30-months/
Podium Cafe lists a couple of dozen quotes uttered by current and former pro cyclists during the past year and asks for our favorite.
The list has a few Lance Armstrong tweets about Alberto Contador being a “pistolero” and having “lots to learn.” Jens Voigt and Bradley Wiggins also are well represented.
My favorite, though, comes from Bernard Hinault, the 5-time winner of the Tour de France who commented on the earpiece radios now worn by cyclists to communicate with the team manager:
“I am against them. It is just a 'Game Boy' that has a gigolo attached at the end telling the racer when to take a piss.” …..
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/12/15/pick-your-bike-racer-quote-of-the-year/
As strange as it may seem, a move is afoot to bring the Giro d'Italia bike race to Washington DC in 2012.
The Giro characteristically has begun the 3-week bike race for a few days in other countries before relocating to Italy for the bulk of the miles. The Tour de France also will visit adjacent countries during its three-week run.
But never before has one of these races included a TransAtlantic flight as part of the race …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/12/14/plans-to-start-2012-giro-ditalia-in-washington-dc/
A bicycling buddy saw this beer truck blocking a bike lane while he was visiting in New York recently and sent me the picture, entitling it, “An Incentive to Ride a Bike.”
I'll agree there have been times on a long, hot bike ride that the mirage of a truck carrying ice-cold beers dancing before my eyes would have willed me ahead.
But the photo also records a much more dangerous problem, motor vehicles that force bicyclists into traffic by blocking the bike lanes.
It's a common problem in New York City. The Hunter College of the City University of New York recently set out to see how frequently it happens. Their results:
“During a 10-minute span of time, a New York City cyclist traveling in a bike lane will encounter a vehicle during a stretch of just five or six city blocks more than 60 percent of the time. ….
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/12/14/an-incentive-to-ride-a-bike-or-dangerous-obstruction/
All too common in New York, a vehicle blocking a bike lane. The driver should pay a fine directly from his stock to the bicyclist. Photo by Bruce Friedland.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/12/14/beer-truck-blocks-a-bike-lane/
A simple tandem bike ride may have unlocked a treatment for Parkinson's disease, a disorder of the central nervous system that impairs motor skills and speech.
The discovery happened when a biomedical engineer, Jay Alberts, captained a tandem in a 200-mile bike tour of Iowa with a friend who was afflicted with Parkinson's.
At the end of that 2003 bike ride, the tandem's stoker said her hand tremors had stopped at the end of the day.
A couple of years later, Alberts conducted a tandem bicycling experiement with a neurologist who suffered from Parkinson's. Again, his tremors stopped after a 50-mile tandem bike ride …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/12/13/a-tandem-bike-ride-leads-to-treatment-for-parkinsons/
Where and when are you most likely to find bicycle riders in Bellevue, Washington? It's the I-90 bike trail in the Enatai neighborhood.
According to the Pedestrian and Bicycle Count Report taken on Sept. 29, bicycle commuters come through there at the rate of 2 per minute between 4 and 6 p.m., and at about 1 per minute between 7 and 9 a.m.
If you commute between the Eastside and Seattle, that I-90 bridge trail is the only way across Lake Washington. The only alternatives are riding through Renton south of the lake or the Burke-Gilman Trail through Bothell north of the lake. [The photo shows bike commuters at that location on a bike-to-work day …..
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/12/12/where-to-find-bike-commuters-in-bellevue/
As the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen draws to a close, some journalists took advantage of a bike tour through the city on Thursday offered by the Cycling Embassy of Denmark.
The description by one reporter at the Telegraph makes the city sound like bicycling heaven:
“Despite the drizzle and cold, for someone who bikes in London it was sheer bliss. There are bike lanes everywhere, with enough room for two or three cyclists. Cycle routes are closed to traffic and there are shortcuts by lakesides and through pretty parks. There is no weaving through traffic, running over pedestrians or throwing hand signals because you simply don’t have to, there is room for everyone.”
Apparently bicycling in Denmark in the '70s was destined to go the way of the dodo bird ….
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/12/11/creating-bicycling-bliss-in-copenhagen/
Riding through the fog in Copenhagen. Photo by the Cycling Embassy of Denmark.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/12/11/cyclists-in-copehagen/
Some interesting news from Lance Armstrong buried in other items at the Team RadioShack press conference in Tucson this week was his tentative bike racing schedule for 2010.
VeloNews mentions just six races for Armstrong in the 2010 season, although there's nothing to prevent him from adding more.
Here are the races as reported at VeloNews and the dates ….
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/12/11/lance-armstrongs-2010-cycling-schedule/
Adventure Cycling Association Trail biking Rails to Trails Conservancy League of American Bicyclists
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