January 2010
37 posts
Oh No, Not Another Top Ten ?!
Looked at my bicycling log for the year and came up with a personal list of the top ten rides of 2009, in no particular order:
1. Pancakes at Grover Grange. Led to the hall from the Bob Jones Trail Head to the Grange by Bruce Collier. Any excuse to have pancakes. A pleasant ride to boot.
2-4. Two Canyons. Morro Bay to Cayucos, with Toro Creek and Cayucos Creek Canyons thrown in. (Brutal...
December 2009
16 posts
Fashioning a Safety Statement
There’s an e-tailer that has created biking jerseys that speak loud and clear. Here’s one example::
The name is Share and Damn Road. Check it out.
Apple App Approaches
Pedal Brain… sounds like a few riders we all know… but it’s also the name of a forthcoming app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Some gadget attaches to the smartphone which yields all kinds of riding data during and after a ride. Tied in with GPS it can trace your route and presumably guide you as well. For racers, it can tell you how your team members are doing. Pretty...
The Google Chronicles, Part N
Google Maps appears to have discovered the bike path. And this is good news.
According to a report in Bicycle Biz blog last summer, Google had equipped a trike with a camera to travel and film along bike paths. One of the first such paths so-mapped was the Monterey Coastal Bike Path which many from around here have pedaled. Checked it out. The path shows up on a zoomed-in map.
The Monterey...
"Pull Over!"
Bicycling in large groups is fun and dangerous. A lot of chances to visit with interesting friends and new acquaintances. Also a lot of chances to disrupt auto traffic, generally annoy motorists, and lock wheels. Some avid cyclists just simply won’t ride with more than one or two other cyclists because it’s unsafe.
One of the biggest issues when riding with groups is what to do...
It's Not Cream Cheese
Bike racks can be pricey. So can the real estate on which they’re placed. But they’re badly needed just about everywhere.
But they can be done on the cheap.
How about this from the City of Brotherly Love? They are converting unused parking meter poles into bike racks capable of holding three bikes. Same could be done with traffic signs, parking signs, etc. Check it out.
This'll Cheer You Up
Two men in their early 20s were nabbed by Constable Cathy Duder while bicycling in the nude on the beach in New Zealand. The offense: cycling without helmets. She sent them home to get their headgear. Her comment: “They were jovial young men who had not intended to cause offense,” as reported in the Belfast (Ireland) Telegraph.
It Might Not Be Cool, But. . .
The SLO Sheriff provides bicycles to needy kids every year at this time. The SLO Bicycle Club chipped in over $2,000 to make sure each bike recipient also received a helmet — and hopefully a serious lecture on how important the helmets are. (If only someone could design a “cool” helmet, one that kids felt with-it wearing, imagine how many head injuries could be prevented. In...
Safe!!
San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles rank as the safest cities for pedestrians in California. That according to a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Funny. Doesn’t seem that safe.
Paso, Take a Bow
Kudos to the Paso city council. They’ve adopted a comprehensive bike plan for the city. It’ll help make the city more bike friendly and safer, and hopefully help garner money for improvements from the (flush?) state and Feds. They envisions major bike ways. Council members all lauded the city planner and helpers like the Bicycle Coalition, according to a story in the Paso Robles...
The Danes Do It on Bikes
Every year of late the New York Times Magazine does an issue of the best ideas of the year. Some are dazzling. Some are not. One of this year’s best ideas was for a bicycle highway. Turns out a group of state highway officials have endorsed the idea. Called Bicycle Routes Highway Plan. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, in Denmark they’ve already doing it. There’ll be 15 wide...
Brake for Speed
This is a week or so old. New York Times had a piece about some MIT engineers building a bicycle that stored energy from braking, to give riders some extra power when needed. Sounds like a Prius to me. I’d swear there are a few riders whose dust I regularly eat that already have this (somehow) already installed. AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
Racking It for Richard
Speaking of bicycle racks, the SLO Bicycle Club is forking over $1,700 to the city of SLO for one to be placed near Boo Boo Records on Monterey St. It turns out that’s the going rate.
The club is making the donation because of the generosity of one of its members, the late Richard Fox. He left the club $5,000 in his will.