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While on their current tour of Japan, some of our favorite industry folks over at Surly spotted an Urban Velo shirt on one of their hosts, Shuji-san. The in-house Surly Blog where we swiped this photo from is a fine read in itself, even when our merch isn’t lurking in view. Keep up on long-bikes, primitive camping, DIY woodburners, more long-bikes and alcoholism all in one sometimes updated spot.
Monthly Archive for July, 2009
Boutique Cycles is a user submitted web gallery out of Australia dedicated to custom and boutique bicycles of all types. What sets this site apart from the rest is the editorial standards for acceptance – only truly customized bicycles will be accepted, and submissions are vetted not only for content but for photo quality. Overall the photography is on par with product shots in many magazines, really capturing each bicycle as it should be.
One of the trickiest things about commuting by bike in NYC is finding a secure place to park your bike during the workday. NYC’s Transportation Alternatives has been fighting to get legislature passed that forces building owners to do so since 1993, and only just recently has the bill passed. According to Biking Bis:
1. The owners of office buildings with freight elevators — that’s about 1,600 buildings — would be required to allow bicycle access if the tenants allow workers to bring bicycles to work. The owners wouldn’t have to provide the space for parking (that’s up to the tenants), just the access.
2. Parking garages with more the 200 space must create a paid spot for bikes for every 10 spaces for cars. In a year, that requirement is reduced to garages or lots with 51 spaces.
There are exemptions that could allow some parking garages or building owners to weasel out of the requirements. Advocates expect a fight all the way.
We saw this retro-styled Electra bike on a German website a little bit before the US offices wanted it to be out there. Our contact at Electra said it was cool to re-post the images, but couldn’t provide more details at the time. I’m sure a certain portion of our audience can appreciate the styling. I’m left wondering, though, why doesn’t Electra jump in the market with a simple, steel, diamond-frame singespeed?
Matt Gilman wrote us recently let us know about his latest video, featuring plenty of riding footage and lending a new perspective to it all by documenting Matt walking out the sections beforehand with his white cane. Matt is blind, yet with careful planning and some friends giving a prompt here and there is able to ride bike trials lines well beyond the ability of many able bodied trials riders.
CHALLENGE: Try to trackstand while wearing a blindfold.
The end of the video issues the challenge, and I’ll report that after a few tries in the living room I can trackstand an entire 6 seconds with a blindfold on.
This weekend is the No Cassettes debut, August 1st at Velo Cult Bike Shop in San Diego. Party on all evening with plenty of fixed-wheel tricks for your viewing pleasure, whether on film or in person at the various contests.
It’s been about six months and the Redline 925 has worked its way up to being my go-to commuter bike. It’s simple, reliable and fun to ride. It’s also become the bike I play polo on, which accounts for most of the changes I’ve made (as well as most of the hard knocks the bike has taken).
As I wrote in my initial report, the stock pedals weren’t entirely bad, but the plastic toe clips weren’t getting the job done for me. I replaced them with a sweet set of Sakae (or SR Suntour) pedals out of the used bin at Iron City Bikes. I bought a cheap set of metal toe clips and a pair of leather straps. Life has been good ever since.
The second thing that I changed was the stem/handlebar combo. Brad came across several pair of cheap, silver aluminum riser bars in his travels, and I took a pair off his hands. I replaced the stock 70mm stem with a 90mm 5° rise Truvativ Team mountain bike stem. I tried out several styles of grips, and my current favorite are high-flange ODI/Lizard Skins lock-on grips, primarily for aesthetic reasons.
The no-name brake levers came off of a Schwinn Cutter, and so far they work fine. In fact, they work impressively well for being so inexpensive (free, really, since I took them off a bike that we use for roller racing). Since I use the bike for polo and run it freewheel, I flipped the brakes to “British” or “moto style”. I can’t be sure of the exact reason, but I had to replace the cable housing exiting both brake levers when the inner housing pulled through the ferrules and into the levers. I installed some Jagwire cables and housing, and a pair of high-quality lined end caps, and everything’s been fine since.
Continue reading ‘Redline 925 – So Far, So Good’
Asheville, NC firefighter Charles Diez was recently charged with shooting and nearly killing a cyclist in an unbelievable altercation on the roadway. The bullet allegedly shot by Diez penetrated both sides of the cyclist’s helmet but entirely missed his head. Beyond the luck of the victim in coming away unscathed, the real story is the reason the entire argument began. According to the Citizen-Times, Diez confronted the cyclist because he felt it was unsafe for the cyclist to be riding with his child on the side of the road in the middle of the day.
Diez was driving his car off Interstate 40 at Exit 55 at about 11:24 a.m. Sunday when he saw Alan Ray Simons and his wife riding bikes up the road with Simons’ 3-year-old son behind him in a bike seat, he said.
“He decided he needed to tell them he thought it was unsafe that they would do that and have their child out there in an area where they had a lot of traffic,” Splain said.
Diez stopped his car and confronted Simons near 1360 Tunnel Road. When Simons began to walk away, Diez shot at him, Splain said.
The bullet blew a hole through the outer lining of Simons’ helmet and went straight through both sides of it, but he was not hit.
Jordan Hufnagel was recently profiled by filmmaker Jared Souney for the relaunch of the UK’s Level Mag online. Check out the video and the still shots.
My friends and regular readers of this blog know that my theory on bike lights is, “more light, more better.” To that end, I’m a big fan of this little number from Serfas. The Serfas Seat Stay taillight features a red ½ watt LED bulb in the center and three regular LED bulbs on either side. The light’s silicone body is water-resistant and flexible enough to allow it to be mounted to almost any tube on the bike.
On the bright side, this light is affordable, versatile and adds considerable visibility to your bike at night. But as bright as the ½ watt LED is, it’s also very directional. This means that if it’s pointed at an oncoming drivers eyes, it’s impossible to miss the blazing red beam of light. But, if it’s pointed skyward at an angle it’s not nearly as effective. It does, however, still cast a fair amount of red light on the bike and rider, as do the remaining six LED bulbs. My point is that this light alone is probably not really enough to ride at night safely. I strongly recommend pairing it with at least one other blinking taillight.
Serfas claims the seat stay light gets about 100 hours of burn time from a fresh set of batteries, though actual results may vary. So far mine shows no sign of dimming, but I’m probably far from the 100 hour mark. The seat stay light includes two Lithium CR2032 batteries and retails for $20. Check out www.serfas.com.
Brad adds: Sometimes we have different experiences with the same product, and this is one of those cases. While having similar first experiences with this Serfas light, the switch on my sample has always been finicky and the stretchy silicone body snapped as I was removing it from the bike one day just last week, sending it to the project parts bin. Luckily, Serfas is known to have a particularly good warranty department and I’d imagine this light would be replaced no questions asked under the circumstances.
The Green Mobility Network is an organization dedicated to making Miami-Dade County a better place to walk and bike in. According to a recent press release:
The Alliance for Biking & Walking has awarded a $30,000 matching grant to Miami-based Green Mobility Network. The grant was made possible by Planet Bike and is the first in a series of special grassroots bicycle advocacy grants to be given by Planet Bike in 2009.
Visit www.greenmobilitynetwork.org for more info.
Got time for a little Sunday reading? Here’s a great piece of writing from 1997. Featherhead is a former bike messenger who’s serving time on drug charges.
I came to Washington about the same time as Ronald Reagan. He had a vision. I had five bucks and a bicycle. I got a job riding a bike all day, which was like paying a monkey for climbing a tree. I had found my Shangri-La.
For years, I rode through the city as if I owned it. As a lark one day, I festooned my helmet with ostrich feathers, purple, pink, and blue. I added peacock feathers for a touch of green, plumage fluttering in the breeze to express my glee. It was a big success. A TV show did a story on couriers featuring my helmet. Regardies magazine later did the same. I was famous in a small and satisfying way, which is to say, on my own terms.
Like any good American, I used my notoriety to cash in. I was already peddling passports, plane tickets, press photos, etc., as an adjunct to my courier enterprise, so I took it a step further and started slinging acid—that’s LSD to you GS-7s. Couriers would spot the feathers and give chase from blocks away.
Washington City Paper, Issue of Mar. 21 – 27, 1997. Link courtesy of Gwadzilla.
According to a recent press release:
Forget plastic handlebar tape. It’s an oil-based product which make it so planet unfriendly. Now you can revel in the luxury of 100% eco-friendly, organic cotton bar tape from Green Grips. In addition to the obvious benefits to the environment, Green Grips bar tape enhances breathability to your hands and is great for riders with rubber allergies or for those with sensitive skin. Plus, Green Grips ship product to dealers in reusable plastic containers, creating no waste.
Read more at www.bicyclenewswire.com, or visit www.lexcobike.com for more info.
Tim McGivern of Monterey, CA dropped us a note to introduce his blog:
I recently started a project that involves researching, reporting and advocating for sustainable products within the bicycle industry. Its only a few months old, but the reaction has been great. I have been posting articles, reviews, and interviews on my site thesustainablecyclist.com. Since Urban Velo is a fantastic, important publication, I wanted to make you guys aware of what I was doing. I’m gaining a bit of momentum, and since I’m a reader of the blog and magazine, I felt it was appropriate. Take a peak if your interested.
Check out thesustainablecyclist.com.
Spotted on the Juice Studio blog, this Make Magazine video shows you how to make a messenger bag from either recycled vinyl banners or even from homemade, recycled plastic bag material. You can even download a pattern from their site.
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