Bike Hugger 

i found a few more pix from my Japan trip

This is the commemorative stone marking the finish line for the 1990 UCI World Championships in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Maiko’s dad made sure we stopped here on the way from the train station to the hotel. Maiko’s family really went out of their way to entertain us.

Some people love shopping for clothes. Me? I hate it. Usually I have to buy clothes because I wore holes in something very comfortable but no longer available. Thus I gotta buy something that is often less comfortable and more expensive then what I had before. So when I had to admit that one batch of riding shorts was dead and that the replacements weren’t getting any less ill-fitting, I gave in and ordered up some new bibs from my old time favorite, Castelli.

Yes, yes, I know that I’ve been back from Japan for two months, but I had one more story to post.

So after taking the train back to Tokyo from Matsumoto, homeboy and I dropped off most of our stuff at the embassy and jumped another train to Nikko. Done with bike touring, we could do some sightseeing and then fit some rides in between.

Nikko is a small town due north of Tokyo best known as the final resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate that united feudal Japan for 250 years of peace and isolation from the outside world. The temples and shrines under ancient trees are the mystical heart of Japan, nestled in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture. Yet despite Nikko’s emerald tranquility and ancient refinement, I would soon be engaged in a highspeed dogfight above the shogun’s tomb.

Well folks - our tiny little sport is now “mainstream”. No, this isn’t in reference o the articles in the New York Times. We are now getting front-page coverage in theonion.. The best part is the focus is on the “clean” cyclists!

Cyclelicious tipped us to a prototype Cannondale Folding Bike, which looks remarkably like Pong’s Magic Motorcycle Prototype from way back.

Via the Bike Show, I started reading about Godfried-Willem Raes’ Symphony for Singing Bicycles, a rotating peloton of sound with specially-equipped bikes.

Now imagine performing a symphony on Stone Way … and having the Rock the Bike crowd close the performance.

After seeing this 70s folding bike with integrated rack, taking some photos, and chatting with the owner, I googled italian folding bike and found several versions of the same bike with different names. There’s the Cinzia, Hyda Bike, Barbarellas, Safari, and sometimes Bianchi. Fascinating. Anyone know the history of these bikes?

The Goat commends to our attention Cycle Chic, an informative blog around since June, devoted to documenting “Copenhagen Girls on Bikes.”

Thank god for the Internet.

[Via the Goat]

1200 yellow bikes were donated to Burning Man for a Burning Bike Share program with lots of reaction from the community.

Also check the Burning Man Bike Ride on YouTube and Simone’s Burner Bike below.

Alan Durning, executive director of Sightline Institute, and Chuck Ayers, executive director of the Cascade Bicycle Club wrote an editorial this week on Stone Way, which is the cause célèbre for Seattle cyclists.

“The fate of Stone Way is particularly important to the future of green, healthy transportation in Seattle. The Seattle Bicycle Master Plan, which calls for an extensive network of new bicycle lanes, originally flagged Stone Way as a key link, connecting the increasing residential and commercial density of North Seattle to the region’s most popular bicycle route: the Burke-Gilman Trail.”

Predictable comments in the Soundoff, reminded me of this YouTube video about funding bicycle projects.

Does Stone Way matter to you? Is it your cause célèbre?