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 ….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/11/12/how-to-guide-for-bike-riding-police-in-uk-draws-fire/
The federal judge in the contract dispute between Trek Bicycle and Greg LeMond says both parties should think about an out-of-court settlement to avoid a messy trial on the lawsuits in the spring.
Central in the suit – countersuit are allegations that LeMond made against Lance Armstrong and the Texan's reaction to them. The judge this week said Armstrong would be subpoenaed to testify at the trial scheduled in March.
Lawyers for both LeMond and Trek said they're willing to meet for settlement talks …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/11/12/lemond-trek-lawsuits-roll-on-stormy-trial-on-tap/
It's a deadly mistake to design streets and roads with only cars in mind, especially as more commuters are turning to walking and bicycling.
That's no surprise to those of us on bikes. But it's always welcome to see groups like the Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership reach that conclusion in their report issued this week.
In fact, the most dangerous cities for walking in the US are in the South — car-centric areas that have undergone rapid growth in recent decades. The worst cities in the US for walking, based on the report's pedestrian danger index, are the metro areas of Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Jacksonville and Memphis.
Four of those cities that lead the pedestrian danger list are in Florida, a state that always ranks near the top for the rate of bicycling fatalities as well…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/11/10/designing-roads-just-for-cars-is-deadly-for-bicyclists-and-walkers/
The five-member Harrison family is more than 2,000 miles into a 7,000-mile epic bike tour from Kentucky to Alaska by way of Florida and Texas.
Bill and Amarind and their three children — Cheyenne (6), Jasmine (4) and Robin (3) — are undertaking the bike tour on a quintuple bike that can be reconfigured to a quad, triplet or straight tandem by decoupling some sections.
That's the family at left soon after taking delivery of the quint bike. What you don't see is their racks and trailer loaded down with enough gear to sustain them all the way from their home in Mount Vernon, Kentucky, to their destination in Fairbanks, Alaska, sometime in 2010.
In fact, that two-wheel bike trailer carried so much stuff that it would scrape bottom on some bumpy roads until Bill made some adjustments ….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/11/09/quintuplet-bicycle-carries-family-to-alaska/
It's never too soon to start planning for a major bike ride next year.
Although cross-country bike travel isn't in the cards for me, I started checking into self-contained or fully supported coast-to-coast bike tours that are offered in 2010.
Here a a few that I stumbled across that are being offered by non-profits or as fund-raisers for charitable causes. The rides are targeted for everyone from college students to women over 50.
I'll update the 2010 Cross-country Bike Travel page for more rides as I come across them. ……
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/11/06/bakers-dozen-cross-country-bike-tours-offered-in-2010/
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 …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/11/06/half-a-million-pieces-of-chocolate-equals-5000-bikes-for-africa/
Bike travelers on the Great Allegheny Passage pump about $40 million a year into the local economies and $7.5 million into wages along the 132-mile rail-to-trail from Cumberland, Maryland, to the outskirts of Pittsburgh.
Those are the not-so-surprising findings of the Great Allegheny Passage Economic Impact Study conducted in 2008 and 2009.
The report once again proves the “build-it-and-they-will-come” relationship between trails, bicyclists, and profitability to businesses in the vicinity, especially those that cater to bike travel.
Some of the major findings of the study:
— The $40 million was more than five times the impact of $7.26 million in 2001, when the Passage links had not yet been connected;
— On average, businesses attributed 25% of their sales to trail users …..
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/11/05/rail-to-trail-bike-travel-provides-economic-stimulus/
Lance Armstrong will have some competition as the most popular kid in the peloton for Australia's Tour Down Under next January now that favorite son Cadel Evans, right, has committed to the bike race.
Evans had earlier been quoted that he was going to skip his nation's bike race because it didn't fit into his training schedule for the 2010 Tour de France, which he is hungry to win.
But having relocated to BMC Racing after dropping his five-year tenure with Silence-Lotto last week, Evans and BMC are said to be accepting a wild card to race in the Tour Down Under from January 17-24, 2010.
There's no doubt that Armstrong's return to Adelaide with his newly minted Team RadioShack …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/11/05/armstrong-and-evans-at-tour-down-under-in-january/
Bikers' cabin, Virginia
circa 1984Here are the latest and final election results. Trust me. There will be no charges of mudslinging or requests for recounts.
I'm talking about the results from the Bicycle Travel Award contest hosted by Adventure Cycling Association, the nonprofit that has developed 38,000 miles of bike routes criss-crossing the US.
The folks named below were nominated by some of you. The individuals were chosen for making the on-the-road lives of bike travelers easier and their work in furthering the enjoyment of bicycle touring.
The June Curry Trail Angel Award goes to Bill and Nancy Nix of Knox, North Dakota …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/11/04/adventure-cycling-names-bicycle-travel-award-winners/
We all know that Twitter is a great resource for social networking, and it's the one place where you'll always be able to find out what Lance Armstrong is up to on a daily, in not hourly, basis.
But I never have been so entertained — and wasted so much time — on Twitter as this morning with suggestions from the Twitteratis of the best bike movies never made.
Here's just a few of my favorites from this morning. They can be found at Twitter.com #bikemovies:
Citizen Chain
Astana Potter and the Prisoner of Kazakhstan
The Year of Spinning Dangerously …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/11/04/twitters-list-of-best-bike-movies-never-made/
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