Here’s a look at some of the I Love Riding in the City contributors for issue #15.
We want you to represent your city. Click here, and don’t forget to attach a high-res photo. A “high-res” photo, for those who don’t know, is typically 300dpi or greater at print size. If you’re not sure, try sending the unedited photo file that comes a modern digital camera.
I noticed this this on BikeBlogNYC… Speculating on the reason as to why Obama may be shunning a helmet while the kids sport them, Paul White, leader of Transportation Alternatives said, “Helmets look goofy – you look a little dorky. When you’re the leader of the free world you have to look tough.”
I wonder if the riot police will feel the same way about their choice in headgear at the upcoming G20 Summit?
Note: Edited after readers pointed out errors in our initial post.
Read more at www.nydailynews.com.
Portland, do you want to session a pump track with sweet jumps? Oh, you know you do. Come on out on September 13th at 6pm. There will be OpenSprints and more. No cover. Lots of prizes.
Visit backyardblam.blogspot.com for more info.
From an engineering perspective, the many materials lumped under “carbon fiber” are remarkable in their strength to weight ratios and their ability to be custom tuned for given applications. In bicycles, I tend to be of the belief that carbon is overused by consumers either not informed or willfully ignorant of the potential for small damage to cause catastrophic failure in carbon parts. Carbon bicycle parts can be some of the best riding and lightest items on the market, but are by and large disposable items. Minor accidents and deep scratches can end up causing components to fail in rather spectacular ways. Busted Carbon has pages upon pages of photos of broken carbon parts, some from classic “JRA” (Just Riding Along) stories and others from crashes and traffic accidents. If for nothing else, flipping through tens of thousands of dollars of broken parts and bad days makes me glad my bicycle is currently in one piece.
Los Angeles has the Lord of Griffith fixed crit coming up on the afternoon of September 19th, three laps no waiting. The afterparty promises a ton of prizes, a full bar and tattoos — all the makings of a memorable evening.
This gallery of vintage bike polo images is certainly worth sharing, even if there is no other information available. The game was played on grass with specialized polo frames with tight steering geometry and a seating position over the rear wheel, bikes that for the most part have been since lost to the ages. Some photos show a pretty packed grandstand — there must be a news report or two about this era of polo playing. And I swear I’ve seen this guy at a tournament or two…
Labor Day weekend brings a weekend of events to Memphis TN surrounding the 4th annual Memphis Downs alleycat. Up-down style, as in you’ll have to climb and descend 11 parking garages throughout the race. Meet and greet footdown, parties and pick-up polo are all in the works with all money from the weekend going to Revolutions Community Bike Shop.
The Sprout Fund, Pittsburgh’s premier non-profit arts and community organization, is hosting their annual fundraiser party, Hothouse, this weekend. Though the event itself has nothing to do with bicycles, this year’s promotional artwork features a bicycle. It might at first seem to be a novelty, or simply out of place, but then consider that one of the main people behind The Sprout Fund rides his bike to work every day. Countless volunteers and party-goers will arrive via bicycle, and appropriately, Bike-PGH will be providing bicycle valet services at the event.
To me, the artwork seems to say bicycles are “cool” in the mainstream. Not just with corporations looking to cash in on the next big thing, or with ultra-hip design firms trying to be edgy, but with the majority of intelligent people with a social and economic conscience.
I stumbled upon this NYC Helmet over at Bike Snob… Apparently the City of New York contracted the design firm FuseProject to create a unique, functional helmet for NYC bicycle commuters. It’s got a polystyrene helmet with a removable cloth cover. The helmet’s vents are large enough to allow most locks to pass through, making it convenient to lock your helmet to the bike. Theoretically, users can customize their helmet cover, though I kind of doubt stickers will adhere to the cloth for too long.
Check out www.fuseproject.com.
The Country Cat is coming up on September 12th in Nashville TN. Registration is $10, with all of the proceeds going towards Parkinson’s Research. Standard checkpoint style race, get more info as it becomes available at their MySpace page.
Those of you who’ve been missing Stevil’s postings over at How to Avoid the Bummer Life can finally rejoice. He’s back to his irreverent blogging ways with a brand new blog called All Hail the Black Market.
You need more incentive to go check it out? Just remember, if it weren’t for Stevil, many of us would never have seen the Danzig/Shakira video. Nuff said.
The All-CIty Big Block frameset is going to make a splash once it is actually available this November. At the $500 asking price, this is one of the best spec’d framesets out there with some very real thought in it. The geometry is steep and tall with a short offset fork, mirroring the handling attributes of “true track” frames that so many are in search of. In fact, there is no reason for this not to succeed on the track along with the street. Its butted 4130 tubes and tapered stays should ride well, as should the lugged crowned fork. For the city riders, this bike will fit 32mm tires, giving up a bit of top end speed for the much warranted flat resistance that larger tires make. 
There are brake provisions front and rear if you’re so inclined, and the cast track end featuring the Hennepin Avenue Bridge has integrated chain tensioners to keep your axle in place. Production framesets will be available in a black/white color scheme, with the pictured red/white paint available on complete bike builds. The blue/black paint was a prototype only, destined to a lucky person as a one-off paint sample. Also recently announced is the new fixed freestyle model, the Dropout, with a BMX style fork and the latest touches in street fixed wheel bike design. Interesting things continue to come from Minneapolis.
The Brooklyn version of the New York Bike Jumble earlier this summer went off great, so why not bookend the season with a Manhattan version? Come 10am on September 13th there will be plenty of deals to be had from both manufacturer and shop closeouts to the treasure trove of some people’s basements. Tables are $100 day of — real estate is expensive in Manhattan and it pays to preregister.
Potentially the first hardcourt polo specific frameset is now available under the Fleet Velo brand. The Joust and the Fleet Velo brand itself actually come out of the Waterford factory, with a legacy and family name that touches on nearly every piece of the modern bicycle industry in some way. The Joust was first shown at the 2009 North American Handmade Bicycle Show, with Tucker Schwinn’s (great-great-grandson of Ignaz) personal bike in the Waterford booth… and potentially involved in a rogue polo match in an adjacent vacant convention hall just after this picture was taken. The Joust is a 26″ wheeled bike with steep geometry and a high bottom bracket, with a fork and front end designed for the tight maneuvering and inevitable crashes of polo. Extra-long track ends allow a wider range between two different single gears on a double-sided hub, making The Joust a capable street bike for the off the court. The frame and fork is available in five sizes for $650 – by some measures a steep investment in a bike meant for relatively harsh polo play, but a deal as compared to high end mountain and cyclocross framesets that ultimately meet the same fate. It was inevitable that purpose-made frames would appear at some point as the game grows and changes, The Joust is just first in line. The clock is ticking until we see commercially available complete hardcourt mallets.
Urban Velo #15 is at the printer, and the new issue will be available online by September 1st. Subscribe to the print edition and we’ll mail your copy as soon as they’re available. And remember, you can subscribe to the Podcast version and iTunes will download the new PDF automatically.
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