(Update: Jan. 21 — Trail cleared and reopened on Wednesday) A fallen tree blocks the Burke-Gilman Trail just north of Seattle. Cyclists were directed onto a sidestreet to detour the mudslide that brought the tree down.
Neighbors say this tree in Lake Forest came down about 5:30 Friday morning. The trail was also blocked further south. The area has undergone some precip just about everyday the past two weeks.
This narrow section of the Burke Gilman …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/16/mudslide-blocks-burke-gilman-trail/
If bicycling were the only factor, what would be the 10 best cities in the world in which to live?
The website AskMen.com set out to name the Top 10 Bicycle-Friendly Cities in its quest for naming the Top 10 in dozens of categories — prescription drugs, to motorbikes, to hottest women.
The list has undergone some modifications since I first stumbled across it in 2007. Amsterdam is still No. 1, but Portland, Oregon, fell from No. 2 to No. 6.
The website doesn't explain this sudden loss of prestige for Portland, but I doubt if it has anything to do with the 5% to 6% decrease in bike traffic in the past year, as revealed in a recent study by the city.
BikePortland saysthat the city attributed that first bike traffic decrease since 1995 to the poor economy (car traffic was down, too) and to people returning to cars as the price of gasoline dropped a bit.
Here's the Top 10, as reported by AskMen:
1. Amsterdam, The Netherlands — Cars are almost secondary ..
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/15/top-10-best-cities-in-the-world-for-bicycling/
Prompted by the deaths of three bicyclists on city streets last year, Boise, Idaho, is the latest locale to require motorists to give bicyclists a 3 feet of space when passing.
Usually this is a statewide law. Although the Idaho state legislature hasn't approved such a law, it is the only state that allows bicyclists to make the “Idaho stop” — treating stop signs as yield signs and stop lights as stop signs.
Currently 14 states require that motorists give bicycle riders the 3-foot margin of safety.
The Boise City Council took the action this week based on the recommendations in a final report by the Cycling Safety Task Force …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/14/boise-puts-latest-3-foot-and-anti-harassment-laws-on-the-books/
Bicyclists don't have to travel to Italy to participate in the cycling phenomenon known as gran fondos any more. There are plenty scheduled in the US and Canada in 2010.
I've stumbled across six more gran fondos — in California, Colorado, Oregon and British Columbia — since I first reported on the sudden surge in the events back in December: “Gran Fondo bike rides gain popularity in the US”.
That brings to 17 the number of gran fondos available to cyclists in North America.
I've compiled a list of all 17, their dates and locations at a new page: “2010 North American Gran Fondo bike rides.” Check it out soon if you're interested in joining in, these rides are known to fill up fast.
Three of the new rides are slated in Colorado by sports marketing firm Cyclosportivo N.A…..
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/14/more-gran-fondos-in-2010-for-recreational-and-amateur-cyclists/
Update: Orphanage funded by charity bicycle rides still standing
That's horrific news coming out of the earthquake zone in Haiti. It always seems that the regions least capable of sustaining a natural disaster are the ones hardest hit.
Millions are waiting to hear from friends, relatives and coworkers in the area hit by the 7.0 earthquake. Meanwhile, a group that funds a Port-Au-Prince orphanage with charity bike rides (see 6-minute video at right) got good news Wednesday morning.
Both buildings of the H.I.S. Home for Children are still standing and being patrolled, although a security wall fell down, according to reports in the Herald News in suburban Chicago …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/13/bicyclists-came-to-aid-of-haitian-children-before-the-earthquake/
Seattle Bike Supply is recalling 350 Redline Conquest Pro bicycles and frames because of a defective fork.
The Kent, Washington-based distributor is urging consumers to stop riding the bikes immediately as the fork legs can separate from the fork crown.
The recall involves all year 2010 Redline Conquest Pro Cyclocross bicycles and framesets. They were sold in pearl white/blue and have aluminum frames with carbon fiber forks and aluminum steerer tubes …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/12/seattle-bike-supply-recalls-redline-cyclocross-bikes/
While last week's 5-year sentence of a Los Angeles doctor for a road rage attack that injured two cyclists got big headlines, rage on the road involving bicyclists isn't uncommon.
Sometimes bicycle riders are the target, sometimes they're the aggressors, and sometimes they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. It makes me wonder if there's a way to avoid road rage.
In Naperville, Illinois, a 67-year-old woman is charged with four felony counts of aggravated battery. Last July, witnesses told police she rammed a 17-year-old bicyclist on a BMX bike from behind ….
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/12/bicyclists-not-strangers-to-road-rage-how-to-avoid-it/
The slogan on Vancouver, BC's BikeRescue.org website must have sounded almost too good to be true to someone trying to recover a stolen bicycle:
“Ripped. Rescued. Returned. Putting bikes back where they belong.”
The website claimed the project had returned 256 stolen bikes by finding obviously stolen bicycles for sale at low prices, buying them, then reuniting them with their owners.
Well, it was too good to be true.
The head of the organization, Gordon Sinclair Blackwell, 41, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to 36 counts of possession of stolen property (bicycles). …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/12/vancouver-bike-rescue-project-was-fencing-operation/
Sometimes a chance encounter made while traveling by bicycle can lead to a life-long undertaking.
Such is the case of Mike Church, 27, whose 10,000-mile bike tour across Europe and Asia with a small group of bicyclists has led to the founding and maintenance of a school in a part of Nepal that is far off the tourist track.
The Mikey Medium English School, named for Church, opened in 2008 with funds provided in lieu of wedding gifts to Church's marriage to Ali Sharp. Since then, Church's parents have helped their son raise funds for the project. Church grew up in Davidsonville, Maryland, and is now a graduate student in Montana.
Interviewed in the Annapolis Capital, Church said:
“It just goes to show you how surprisingly easy it is to make a difference. It's a wonderful thing. My parents and I have supplied the school, but it's not a heroic deed. In the grand scheme of things, it's a minor and painless exercise ……
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/10/bike-tour-across-asia-leads-to-school-project-in-nepal/
A Los Angeles judge sentenced an emergency room doctor to 5 years in prison on Friday for assaulting a group of cyclists with his car on a winding road near his home in 2008.
It's good to see justice handed down in this case against Christopher Thompson, 60. The incident caught the attention of bicycle riders worldwide; more than 270 e-mailed or wrote the Los Angeles court in support of a stiff sentence.
In November, a jury convicted Thompson of mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious injury and reckless driving causing injury.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Superior Court Judge Scott T. Millington said he did not take the correspondence from bicyclists into account in making his sentence. The Times said the judge:
“…called the case a “wake-up call” to motorists and cyclists and urged local government to provide riders with more bike lanes. He said he believed that Thompson had shown a lack of remorse ….
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/08/la-road-rage-doctor-sentenced-to-5-years-for-assaulting-bicyclists/
Adventure Cycling Association Trail biking Rails to Trails Conservancy League of American Bicyclists
Recent Comments