Bike Hugger 

Wow. I’m not sure anything I can write can help with this one.

I’d like a robot that’d make me a sandwich. Maybe read my email aloud in the voice of Data and degrease/lube a chain in one fast operation. A robot that parks bikes is good as well …

Noted elsewhere

• Boing Boing
• Japan Probe
• Gizmodo

But I think I’d rather have a hardass bike valet carefully keep all the bikes inline and monitor them, then a darn robot. Robots are prone to growing into giants and taking over the world.

Will the bike industry ever stop re-launching Bridgestones? Bike Radar spotted the Mellow Johnny commuter and an astute commenter noted

I’m intrigued by this chainless design …

No chain! It’s a dandy horse!! Now that’s way old school.

(Photo Credit: Trek)

Getting maybe more attention than it deserved at the Tour de Georgia was Dave Zabriskie’s Snidely Whiplash mustache:

Here’s Dave’s blog post on the mustache, which I think debuted at the Tour of California.

Byron and I started chatting about the œpelostache. The prototypical pelostache belongs to noted bicycle innovator Tom Ritchey, of course.

My favorite recent example is Alex Candelario, who a few years ago looked like he came straight to the race from a porn shoot.

Looking through Flickr, I discovered dozens of mustache groups. There’s King size flavour savours, Hot Girl Mustache, even cats with mustaches. But nothing for cyclists with ‘staches.

So, since Bike Hugger is all about documenting bike culture, we’ve created a new group on Flickr called Pelostaches. I’ve added pictures I have of Zabriskie and Alex Candelario, invited a couple of others, and am still searching for images of Deadly Nedly Overend before he got the Remington sponsorship (pointers welcome). We welcome contributions from anybody with pictures to share. Bonus points for handlebar mustaches.

Update: Posted this and then found the cycling mustache had been exhaustively cataloged at œHow to Avoid the Bummer Life.

Following folding bikes in pop culture, we just got tipped that Dahons are on the CSI:NY set, at Pomono College for their Green Bike program, and were on the Coachella Amtrak Train with DJ Mark Farina.

At Coachella, the DJ booth ran on full solar plus bikes being used as a charging station for iPods and phones.

(Photo Credit: MXF of the Sycons)

Mine is: not only do our kits look way better than Team Highroad, but we’ve got the mustaches!

Uploaded by Frank Steele | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

According to press reports over the weekend, Washington DC is launching the first bike share program in the US. It works like Zipcar with an annual fee, stations, and 120 bikes. The SmartBikeDC bikes are three-speed, upright “comfort” bikes. They feature mudguards to prevent the rider from getting wet, chain guards to keep clothes from getting caught, front and rear lights that turn on in the dark and easily adjustable seats.

More reports

• Bike-share Blog
• Bicycle-Sharing Program to Be First of Kind in US
• Washington turning to bike-sharing plan

A quick teaser that we’ve got Bettie 2.0 being built right now as well as the Yuba Mundo – full tests and posts are coming soon. With two longtail, sport-utility, cargo bikes on test, maybe we’ll race them or something …

ok, I like Hincapie as much as anyone else, wish Team High Road well, but what is up with that jersey design?

Is there some retro 80s aesthetic I’m missing? Did they just pull all the other sponsors off before it was sublimated?

Photo uploaded by jctdesign. More from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

While focused on climbing, I enjoyed this video from Gregory Mountain Products, and longed for a ride in the quite of nothing around me. The video features Joe Kinder, an NYC Punk that went rural in Hurricane, Utah.