Category: Other cycling

Let's admit it. Too many bicyclists keep too many unused bicycles in their garages or their basements. I'll include myself among the guilty.

Maybe there's an emotional attachment to an old relic. Or it's difficult to find an alternative to taking the bicycle to the dump, an unceremonious end for a trusty companion.

Several nonprofits are set up to collect these old bikes and redistribute them back into the community or ship them overseas. I've created a list of some of these at “Where to Donate Your Used Bicycles.”

One of the most successful is Bikes for the World, which is shipping its 40,000th bike next month. Based in Arlington, Virginia, it's a nonprofit project of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association …

Continue reading

Bicyclists in more than a dozen US cities are planning to ride 29 miles on Sunday, Nov. 29, to mark the 29th anniversary of the first reported AIDS case.

The number of miles may be small but the cause is great. The bike rides are a preview of the Dec. 1 World AIDS Day events that have taken place every year since the World Health Organization established it in 1988.

The website for Positive Pedalers in San Francisco is tracking the cities with announced bike rides. Check back there for updates. Here's the list so far:

Atlanta — Piedmont Park Tennis Center
Austin — ….

Continue reading

I'm amazed at what technically minded people can throw together in their garages. Here's a guy who may one day enable us to take virtual bike tours across the US without leaving home.

He calls it Stationary Cycling through Google Street View. It's a huge improvement over what I used to do.

Back in the days when I spent most of my time either working or commuting, I set up my bicycle in a woodworking shop the previous homeowner had built in the back yard. I called it the “Men's Crisis Center” and spend 15 minutes to an hour there several nights a week on my trainer.

The music pumping over the earphones wasn't enough to keep me my occupied, so I pulled out my TransAmerica bike maps and started a virtual cross-country ride. It took a lot of imagination to recall what the scenery had been like, but I covered from 3 to 15 miles a night ….

Continue reading

As the end of the year rolls around, it's time to consider your options for replacing that 2009 calendar or else you'll end up with a big ol' bare spot on the wall.

Here are a few bike-theme calendars that I've run across that are either inspirational, scenic, or downright erotic.

Let's start with CyclePassion, the calendar produced annually in Germany that features many of Europe's top women cyclists striking some admittedly sexy poses. Bike equipment is used as props in the photos. Many women are garbed in recycled bicycle equipment this year; just think of bicycle innertubes as a fashion statement.

That's Anna Sanchez, the under-23 National Road Champion from Spain, pictured above. ….

Continue reading

A bicycling manual for police officers in the UK might be getting a lot of laughs over there, but bike-police training is a serious business in the US.

The Independent reports that a 93-page, 2-volume manual gives advice on how to balance to avoid a fall, and how to brake, turn and avoid the “kerb.” It reminds them to eat and drink because they will get hungry.

A taxpayers' association called it an “absurd waste of police time” and tax money. London's bike-riding Mayor Boris Johnson even took a couple of pot shots at it.

That reaction might surprise US members of the International Police Mountain Bicycle Association, which is holding its 8-day annual conference in St. Louis from May 1-8, 2010 ….

Continue reading

Cadbury Canada brought together two of my favorite things — chocolate and bikes — in a promotion to do some good in Africa.

The chocolate maker is sending 5,000 bikes to central and southern Ghana where they'll give people access to schools, medical care and local markets.

Chocaholics participated in the bike donation by converting their Cadbury purchases into bicycle parts at The Bicycle Factory website. Consumers entered UPC codes from their chocolate purchases to “create” bicycle parts.

Each UPC equaled a bicycle part. It took 100 parts to build a bicycle …

Continue reading

Imagine rolling along on your bike for a leisurely country ride and suddenly being thrust into the finish line of a major bike race.

That's the stunt set up by Frenchman Remi Gallard in this video at left. It looks like something Alan Funt might have done for Candid Camera; others compare Gallard's work to Johnny Knoxville.

In any case, these cyclists seem to take the interruption pretty good-naturedly. I mean, how can you not laugh at a guy running alongside you in his underwear? …

Continue reading

My son gained two strong opinions at college about combination U-locks for bicycles: They're great when they work, but a real pain when they malfunction.

When he went off to college for the first time this fall, he took a brand-new Kryptonite combination U-lock with him. He didn't want to risk losing his bike, and he'd heard — from me — that cable locks are easily compromised.

His first problem arose when he was riding across campus and his U-lock fell to the ground off the handlebar. A button that opens the lock broke off and disappeared into the grass.

While a replacement was in the mail, he and his friend used a MasterLock combination U-lock to attach their bikes to a rack at a nearby mall on a Friday. When they returned, the button that releases the lock jammed, and they could not get it open …

Continue reading

My neighbor likes to give his dog a nice run at the end of a leash while he rides his bicycle. I cringe a little bit when I see them take off like this, but they always return in one piece.

While my concern is for his safety, an elected official in San Jose is worried about pedestrians. This after a 62-year-old woman walking along a city trail last summer got tangled in a dog leash, fell, hit her head, and later died. The dog on the leash was one of two being pulled by a bicyclist.

The councilwoman is calling a public hearing Wednesday night to find out what the public thinks about restricting bicyclists who give their dogs a run at the end of a leash while they ride.

It's the first time, at least in California …

Continue reading