Yehuda Moon

Yehuda works at the Kickstand Cyclery, he's a commuter cyclist after my own heart

Velo Rock!

Just drove my car to work every day,
I didn’t mean to hurt nobody
Like 100 million other people just like me,
I couldn’t tell there was any other way,
I just couldn’t realize but now I think I’ll throw it away
There’s 7 billion other people just like me

I was thinking about blowin’ up all the automobiles
It seemed like such a good idea
You said hey man wouldn’t that be hypocritical
No way man cuz mines’ the first to go
Do it,
Now,
Stick a rag in,
Light the fucker up

I was thinking about melting down all the cars in the whole world
Making brand new mountain bikes for all the boys and girls
You said hey man wouldn’t that be helter skelter
No way man all we need is a giant smelter
Send it to Peoples Park,
Berkeley CA, 94704

Ride a fucking bike
Ride a fucking bike
Ride a fucking bike

I just lit my car on fire today I didn’t mean to hurt nobody
Just like 100 million other people just like me,
I could tell there wasn’t any other way
I finally realized and now it’s going up in flames
Cuz there’s 7 billion other people just like me
Having fun, since I was six, We’re only bike terrorists
Five thirty,
second Friday,
Berkeley Bart

Helter smelter by Fifteen

Via Urban Velo

Thea O'Connor

Yesterday I read one of the best articles on bicycle commuting that I've seen in a long time. It was buried in one of the ever multiplying supplements that accompany our weekend paper. Normally "My Career" goes straight into the recycling bin at our house but my partner was glancing through it and spotted this article by Thea O'Connor. I can't understand why it was in "My Career," I think it should have been in the main paper where people would see it, but perhaps it was a bit too sane for that sort of exposure. Thea has obviously done a bit of research and provides some excellent statistics that would be very useful for all you bicycle advocates out there. As I doubt more than about a dozen people would have seen it I've scanned it for you. Click on the image for a full size version.

Cycle Chic

Ms Spokes at London Cycle Chic has some excellent tips on what to wear to avoid arriving at work feeling all sweaty and grotty after your morning commute. She also has some ideas for exercises to improve your riding skills. Here are some more ideas I found on the World Wide Web...

Ed Kuepper - The Way I Made You Feel

Please don't run me over

Two weeks ago a 15 year old high school student named Austin Miller was run down and killed while he was riding his bike. Last year, young Austin wrote an article entitled "please don't run me over" for his school newspaper. Via Cyclelicious.

Tips for cyclists from a car driver

Direct Action against Urban 4WDs

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau found that half the 36 children killed in driveway deaths between 1996 and 1998 were struck by large 4WDs. They have also found: "The proportion of alcohol intoxication amongst 4WD drivers involved in fatal crashes (29 per cent) was higher than for all other types of vehicle.

4WDs spew out 43 percent more global-warming pollutants - 28 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon of gas consumed - and 47 percent more air pollution than the average car, using 1 million barrels of oil a day.

• An average 4WD is more than twice as likely as a car to kill the driver of the other vehicle in a collision.
• 4WDs are four times more likely than cars to roll over in an accident.

• 4WDs are three times more likely to kill the occupants in a rollover.
• 4WDs crashing into cars accounts for the majority of fatalities in vehicle-to-vehicle collisions.

There have been any number of articles about how selfish and ignorant it is to be driving a 4WD in the city. There are hundreds of anti 4WD websites. Sadly it seems that the kind of people who drive these bloated, fuel guzzling behemoths are too arrogant to listen. Most of these vehicles are owned by people who live in the richest suburbs in Sydney.

The only way to get the message home is to target the individuals who are driving them. I'm not saying you should physically attack them, (even though their choice of transport can, and is having a direct physical effect on all of us) You don't even have to damage their property (even though their overweight cars are damaging our roads forcing us to subsidise their selfish behaviour) No, all you need to do is follow the lead of people like the Indians of the concrete jungle

After all the "theft of air" is not illegal. You should probably leave a letter explaining why you've let the tires down. Maybe you can write something like this:

Letter to SUV owners:

Your SUV kills!

We have deflated one or several tyres of your SUV. Don’t take it personal. It’s your car we don’t like. You are certainly aware of the large amount of fuel it consumes, so we don’t have to enlighten you about that. But either you are ignorant of, or you don’t care about the fact that all the gas you consume by driving around in your SUV in the streets of the city has devastating consequences for others. Scientists are entirely sure that we are very close to pushing climate change across a threshold, into a phase where it will be totally out of control.

When the glaciers melt, people’s source of water disappear. When the deserts spread, agricultural fields become uncultivable. When the sea level rises, homes are inundated. Result: billions of refugees, countless deaths. It’s already estimated that 160 000 humans die every year due to the effects of climate change, according to the WHO.
As an affluent Swede you will survive longer then most. Those most vulnerable, and already worst afflicted by the global warming caused by Northern affluence, are the people of poor countries. In the end, however, climate chaos will affect us all, poor people as well as rich.

This does not have to happen if we impose a radical cut on carbon emissions. Now. Not tomorrow. That’s why we have disarmed your SUV by deflating the tyres.
Since you live in a city with a functioning and accessible public transportation system you will have no problem getting where you want without your SUV.

I wish I lived in Portland

The Mini-Bike Winter Chariot War







Now that is what I call a bike Culture...

Bike pics

Here's some more bike fashion pics borrowed from here and there on the World Wide Web. I do try to link each image through to it's source but I can't always remember where I found them or who sent them to me. If you see a picture of yours here I'm happy to link to you if you want.
























"When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking." — Sherlock Holmes, 1896