Bring back the old Tour rules

Happy Yule subscribers

Style

Via http://echobravolove.tumblr.com/

Transport

I wish my city was this civilised.

Bicycle Anecdotes from Amsterdam from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

The right to bike.

Saudi women are not allowed to drive but they have recently gained the right to bike in "parks and recreational areas". However, they have to be accompanied by a male relative and dressed in the full Islamic head-to-toe abaya. I love the poster. It shows the absurdity of the whole thing.
Free the woman!

A Dutch cycling blogger visits Sydney and shares his opinions on the state of our infrastructure.

http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/a-trip-to-sydney-australia/

Drive like an adult

Cycling in the US from a Dutch perspective

Canberra Pursuit Promo 2

Roadside refreshment

BICYCLES IN THE ANGLO-BOER WAR OF 1899-1902

Australian rifle section mounted on a couple of rather unusual bicycles. Built by the Royal Australian Cycle Corps, the ‘War Cycle' was a pair of 'tandem' bicycles outfitted with rims allowing them to be used on rail tracks. The bikes were painted a khaki colour and above a pair of two 'War Cycles' can be seen, with two 'tandems' and two single bikes bolted to one another at the axles. It was reported that these prototypes with their 8 man crews could reach speeds of up to 30 miles per hour!

Via

Fairfield Bike Shorts film premiere!

The Fairfield Bike Shorts community film making project has been run over the last couple of months. It's been an intensive but fun and exciting period of workshops for locals and emerging talent and we're set to launch our FOUR short films plus a behind-the-scenes documentary on the 12th October 2013. Join us for this special occasion as we take a look at what happened during the workshops, watch the films, and speak to the participants who were involved in the project.



You can join the event on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/502954263123329/




Below is a list of activities currently being organised for this family-friendly event.
 PRE-SCREENING BICYCLE TOUR OF FAIRFIELD
Meet 2:15pm for 2:30pm ride
Dale Street, Fairfield Railway Station
Look for people with bicycles and fluro yellow tops
No bookings necessary. BYO bicycle & helmet.
This ride is organised by the Western Sydney Cycling Network
(If you're coming from the city, head in together with the crew from Cycle Sydney: http://www.meetup.com/cycle-sydney/events/141726692/)

BICYCLE VALET PARKING (TBC)
Opens 3:30pm-5:45pm
Ride your bicycle to the event and be confident that your bicycle is being looked after by someone while you’re watching the films and having fun
Valet bicycle parking is being provided by CAMWEST

PREMIERE FILM SCREENING
4pm-5:30pm
Powerhouse Youth Theatre
19 Harris Street, Fairfield NSW
Nibbles provided. This is a family-friendly event.
Door prizes provided by Treadlie Magazine
FREE event but bookings are essential.

To book, go to: http://fbs.eventbrite.com.au/

Fairfield Bike Shorts - promoting cycling through art, story & film

The Dutch army bicycle band

Reason #37 - Bikes don't catch on fire while you're riding along.

Call yourself a hipster?

Cyclists rescue 5 year old girl

On Thursday afternoon, five-year-old Jocelyn Rojas went missing without a sound from her front yard as authorities believed she was kidnapped by a suspect who lured her with ice cream. Within the next two hours, a search party was formed by police and members of the community. Two of which, 15-year olds Temar Boggs and Chris Garcia, rode their bikes around the neighborhood to look for Jocelyn. Temar, eyes wide open, spotted Jocelyn riding in the passenger’s seat of a reddish-purple sedan with round tail lights. They followed the car for 15 minutes.

“Every time we’d go down the street, he’d turn back around,” Temar told one local news source, “then … we [would] follow him.”
The suspect couldn’t shake the high school freshmen, so at one intersection about a half mile up the road from Boggs and Garcia, the kidnapper let Jocelyn out of the car. Then, he drove off. “He stopped at the end of the hill and let her out,” Tamar recalled, “and she ran to me and said that she needed her mom.”

Boggs held the girl in his arms and walked back to the search party’s rendezvous. Garcia pedaled alongside the two while guiding Boggs’s bike with one of his hands. Tracey Clay, Jocelyn’s grandmother, called the cyclist “our hero” and that there were “just no words to say.”

The Sedentary Cyclist Salutes Dutch Cycling

Free cycling courses

Tyre-slashing man caught on camera having sex with bicycle

Annoyed at someone interfering with his bike, a Swedish man has caught a bizarre bike fetishist red-handed.
Per Edstrom got fed up that someone kept puncturing his tyres and set up a CCTV camera to try and catch the culprit.
What he got was footage of a hooded man holding a piece of paper, getting intimate with the bike. The miscreant stands over the rear wheel of the bike, punctures the tyre and then masturbates as it deflates.
Police in Osterlund are looking for the velophile and believe there may be a link to a series of crimes in the area in 2007. A 35-year-old man was arrested back then for allegedly slashing the tyres of 20 bikes, before masturbating over their saddles.
Mr Edstrom says he is willing to forgive the man, but just wants him to leave his bike alone.  “I am not scared of him, just irritated over all the punctures I have had to fix,” said Edstrom. “This man is probably completely harmless, bicycles are just his thing.”
The video is frankly a bit ‘ew’ for a family website, although there’s no nudity involved. If you feel you must, you can watch it on YouTube.
Unusual as this story is, it’s not the first instance of human-bicycle sexual relations. Earlier this year, Danish police were seeking a man who repeatedly masturbated on a women’s saddle while her bike was parked at a train station.
And lest we think this is a peculiarly Scandinavian kink, in 2007 a Scottish man was sentenced to three years’ probation after being caught having sex with his own bike.

via  http://road.cc/

The Sedentary Cyclist - Adventures in Sports Camera Mounts

Russian bike helmets

Susan Peters

Susan Peters riding her Monark bicycle along the Pacific Palisades at Santa Monica.

 

Susan Peters was an Oscar-nominated young actress, being groomed for stardom at MGM, when she was shot in a hunting accident and left paralysed from the waist down. She tried to continue her career in a wheelchair, but things fell apart: her husband (Richard Quine, the actor and director) left her, she became anorexic, and died of kidney failure at age 31. 

Via

The need for tweed - when too much hipster is barely enough

Join us this Sunday (June 30th) for the most stylish ride of the year. Get frocked up in your best vintage outfit, comb out your luxurious beard and meet us at Town Hall before 9am. You can find more details @ https://www.facebook.com/SydneyTweedRide or http://www.sydneycyclist.com/events/sydney-tweed-ride-2013 or http://sydneytweedride.com/

 

And don't forget to bring something for the picnic!

 

Australian Commercial Media makes me sick

Cyclist stopped by police for not wearing lycra

A cyclist in Bath was yesterday stopped by a police officer for not wearing the “appropriate gear” while riding a fixed gear bike, due to suspicions he may have stolen it – proof of Avon & Somerset Constabulary’s determination to stamp out bike theft.
 
The cyclist, Tim Burton, while a little taken aback by the incident in Keynsham yesterday afternoon, said on Twitter that he was happy to see that the force is taking the issue of bike theft seriously.
"Just got stopped by the police for 'not wearing Lycra' but being on a road bike," he tweeted.
"The PC said I wasn't dressed in appropriate gear to be riding my bike so had I stolen it?
"I was clipped in. No scruffy trainers but clean(ish) SPD shoes.” Burton’s bike is equipped with Crank Bros Candy pedals.
“Maybe I didn't look hipster enough? Apparently there have been some shed break-ins locally. The bike looks too good for me to own, obviously!"
Due to the hills around Bath you don't see as many fixies as in some places with flatter terrain, and we're guessing that Burton's bike had drop bars and so at casual glance would look like a road bike, which have been the subject of targeted thefts in the area.
After checking the bike’s frame number and performing a background check on Burton, he was allowed to go on his way.
The cyclist, who admitted that the sight of him on the bike probably looked “dodgy” said: "It is nice to see them looking out for pinched bikes, I told [the PC] I appreciated it."
He added: “I'm not saying they were wrong. It's amusing that I've been stopped for no Lycra!”
PC Keith James, who did the stop check, said: "Bike thefts are a priority for us in this area as we've had a number of garage and shed break-ins. I'm a cyclist myself and it was unusual to see an expensive bike being ridden by someone in non-cycling clothes and without a helmet. It soon became clear that Mr Burton was the genuine owner and I'm glad he's supportive of what we're doing to try to catch bike thieves."

MOTORISTS’ FRONT OF JUDEA

REG: Cyclists have bled us white, the bastards. They don’t pay road tax, they run red lights. And what have they ever given us in return?
XERXES: Pneumatic tyres.
REG: What?
XERXES: Pneumatic tyres.
REG: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that’s true. Yeah.
COMMANDO #3: And ball bearings.
REG: Yeah. All right. I’ll grant you pneumatic tyres and ball bearings are two things that the cyclists have done.
MATTHIAS: And the roads.
REG: Well, yeah. Obviously the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don’t they? But apart from pneumatic tyres, ball bearings, and the roads…
COMMANDO: Lightweight steel tubing.
XERXES: Chain driven differential gears.
COMMANDOS: Huh? Heh? Huh…
COMMANDO #2: Dust-free highways. Tractors. Automobile advertising.
COMMANDOS: Ohh…
REG: Yeah, yeah. All right. Fair enough.
COMMANDO #1: And central Government administration of roads.
COMMANDOS: Oh, yes. Yeah…
FRANCIS: Cars and planes.
REG: Cars and planes?
FRANCIS: Yeah, America’s first car was built by the Duryea brothers: they were bicycle builders first. And powered flight, Reg, that was developed by the Wright Brothers: they owned a bike shop and built bikes.
REG: All right, but apart from the pneumatic tyre, ball bearings, differential gears, roads, motoring, car ads, and aviation, what have cyclists ever done for us?
From  http://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/motorists-front-of-judea-what-have-the-cyclists-ever-done-for-us/

Bikewise beginners course

Are you new to bicycles or want to get back on the bike but lacking confidence on how to ride on shared paths or quiet roads? This course focuses on basic control skills as well as social interactions & etiquette on shared paths. Great for beginners or those rusty riders out there, you’ll learn how to enjoy your ride in a practical two-hour lesson taking place on the quiet network of paths around beautiful Bicentennial Park.

Please ensure your bike is in good working order, you have an Australian Standards certified helmet and you are wearing appropriate footwear.  Please note this is not a Learn to Ride class – you need to be able to ride at a basic level. Contact BikeWise if you are an absolute beginner for details on how to develop your skills.

Date:	The second Saturday of each month (see timetable here)
Time:	9:45am for a 10am start
Where:	Bicycle NSW Office at Sydney Olympic Park
Cost:	$10 for members and $20 for non-members (cash only)
Contact:	For general enquiries please contact us here. For wet-weather enquiries on the day, please call 0420 264 938.
Trainer:	BikeWise A transport behaviour change organisation concerned primarily with cycling; motivated by public health, community and environmental interests. The Bikewise dream is for people in our cities to enjoy the benefits of a culture where cycling is an easy, widespread and entirely normal transport option.

Bike commuting better than gym

According to Australian epidemiologist Takemi Sugiyama, lead author of a recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, “Commuting is a relevant health behaviour even for those who are sufficiently active in their leisure time.”
Analysing the research, The Health Behavior News Service notes, “It may be more realistic to accumulate physical activity through active transport than adding exercise to weekly leisure-time routines.”
The four-year study of 822 adults found that found that people commuting to work by car gained more weight on average, even if they engaged in regular exercise, than people who did not commute by car. The authors of the study recommend creating more opportunities for everyone to walk or bike to work.
An earlier study by researchers at the University of Sydney School of Public Health published in Obesity Reviews (the journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity) supports the thesis that leisure-time exercise alone is not enough to prevent obesity. Sixty to 90 minutes of daily physical activity is recommended to curb obesity, which is more time than most people can fit into their busy schedules. That’s why the study’s authors recommend “active transport” like biking and walking for commuting other common trips.

 Beyond fighting fat, biking and walking for transportation also boosts overall health. A 2007 paper in the European Journal of Epidemiology concludes “Commuting physical activity, independent of leisure time physical activity, was associated with a healthier level of most of the cardiovascular risk factors.”
The key advantage of travelling by bike over working out at a fitness centre is that most people find it easier to do. Instead of vying for scarce free time with many other fun and important things, exercise becomes something we do naturally as part of daily routine. As a study by Portland State University professor Jennifer Dill in the Journal of Public Health Policy shows, 60 percent of Portland cyclists ride for at least 150 minutes per week (the recommended exercise minimum for adults) and that “nearly all the bicycling was for utilitarian purposes, not exercise.”
She adds “a disproportionate share of the bicycling occurred on streets with bicycle lanes, separate paths, or bicycle boulevards”—confirming the importance of bike infrastructure improvements to public health.

Via  http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog

Take the lane!

Children on track to a healthier commute - Amy McNeilage

WHEN Bourke Street Public School opened its gates for a new year this week, bright blue polo shirts flooded off the Surry Hills street. Many students pushed bikes and scooters, having hopped off the cycleway that passes the school.
By the 9am bell, the playground walls were lined with bikes.
The school started its bike program less than two years ago and already at least a third of students ride to school on an average day. Most who don't ride walk.
The principal, Peter Johnston, says cycling has become an important part of the growing school's identity.
''It's improving their health, fitness and lifestyle,'' he said.
Lydia Ho, whose sons Arki and Ren attend the school, runs bike education programs with the students.
''They're not sitting in their big cars getting driven,'' she said. ''And they're engaging with their environment - meeting shop owners, saying hi to people on the street - and being part of the community.''
Leah Tansey, who commutes by bike with her six-year-old daughter, Emily, says she was initially concerned about safety.
''When we first started riding, it was a little bit scary. [Other cyclists] didn't seem to be that cautious around children,'' she said. ''[But] I think they have become much more aware that there are children on the track and they have much better bike manners now.''
 http://www.smh.com.au/national/children-on-track-to-a-healthier-commute-20130201-2dpzy.html