Interestingly the green lanes look like astroturf — expect some street artists to set up lawn chairs, beach balls, and a picnic blanket. There’s a Critical Mass suggestion. Next one, go and occupy all the Green Lanes and just chill there.
Note: to Portland, "we got Green Lanes too!"
And I sorta feel like a Bear at the Zoo, where they drop new toys into an enclosure to reduce boredom. This Summer in Seattle, the City has added new wayfinding signage, green lanes, new bike lanes; it’s all very exciting!
It’s spring in Seattle… Critical Mass’ers came out in full force to celebrate the return of long days, and favorable biking weather. The best way to confound an angry motorist stopped by a mob of cyclists? Hand them a Tulip.
The most ground-breaking gravity fueled mountain bike festival in the history of all things badass.
That means the Huggas are gonna put on some baggy shorts, full-face helmets, some crusty ‘tude, and blast down a hill on a freakin’ Freeride bike — hooah!
Ya know, slopestyle is new for us, but when in Rome. Shit I may even do some huckin’.
Kona will also have their asphalt and utility bikes onsite. I’m hoping to ride one of these to a store and back …
I’d like a bottle that didn’t harm me with nasty chemicals and one that let the water taste like water — too bad the Camel Back Bottle is bulky, doesn’t fit in the hand well, and I know I’m gonna drop it. The nipple action is very good though.
Just as we were talking about the dapperness in Portland, we spotted Dashing Tweeds in the UK
Not only stylish, but that cape is woven with high visibility Lumatwill. Commute in style and make sure you’re seen. Pair that cap with the Beret Helmet and a baguette in a basket. How could BSNYC refuse to wave hello when your rode by looking that good?
A friend sent me a link to a riding-buddy’s pictures from the Giro - instant gratification. When I first started following cycling, you had to wait for Cycle Sport magazine to show up to see the first shots of the race. CyclingNews (then Bill’s CyclingNews with the teal background) usually had the results posted within a couple of days.
Now we get live, streaming video, photos as they happen, and detailed same-day coverage. Add to the standard media sources all the user-driven sites like Flickr, Blogspot, and Twitter and you are surrounded by our sport. Gotta love those interwebs.
Big thanks to the folks at Glacier Bikes for keeping me in their loop.
We’ve got a set of Monkey Electric lights going on Bettie 2.0. It’s likely you could induce a shared trance state at a party with these lights and we may do just that during the Bizjam Seattle Party. Get them wheels a spinning, round and round with some House music and that’s a whole new hypnotic use for Bettie. Or flip them on during a commuter challenge as a defensive measure!
During the Tour de Fat, New Belgium is offering to swap cars for bikes. Four wheels for two:
Through the program, one volunteer in each Tour de Fat stop will commit to live car-free for one full year. The dedicated individual will sign over their car title and receive a custom New Belgium commuter bike in exchange. The selected candidate will chronicle the trials and triumphs along their car-free journey. The volunteer is chosen after submitting a video or essay describing their desire to live without a vehicle.
Manpris (that’s capri pants for men, but we don’t call them that) are def in and the longer the better. Seen here are Keith and me comparing our ‘pris.
We don’t get into politics here, but as a bike culture item, the Obama Spoke Cards are making a statement. For equal spoke time, someone should offer Hillary Spoke Cards … .
A group of our readers just purchased Hugga Jerseys and will wear them during Ride the Rockies later this month. We’re are running low on stock (back-ordering mediums directly from us, still available at Amazon) and new club fit jerseys are on the way. The Club Fit jersey from Hincapie offers more room for commuters, urban cyclists, and beer drinkers. We’ve also got new socks on the way and some surprises.
We didn’t get enough photos of all the Portland Urban Cycling Style, but did notice much dapperness, like this cycling gentleman with his shoes that matched his shirt.
Also saw several women cyclists in cowboy boots. Saw a couple of those fashionable horse-riding helmets, but no beret helmets.
If I could only work on Bike Hugger full time, I’d photo blog all of the industrial areas we ride through. While Seattle is known for it’s software, tech, and biotech, it’s actually an industrial port city.
Built during the Klondike Gold Rush, the town thrives on boats, planes, trains, and beer like PBR.
These murals are painted on a building in the Georgetown Neighborhood, across the street from the old Brewery.
I’ve had a Bianchi fetish forever. Bianchi makes all manner of bikes internationally, but some bikes are limited to a single market. The Bianchi Milano used to be a US-only model, but now several other countries offer something similar. However, the Bianchi Mini Velo is only available in Japan. I’ve wanted one for years. Maybe next spring I’ll have to make another Japan trip but this time come back with a really nice momento.
Last year I wrote from Japan about the “mini velo” genre of bike in Japan. Bianchi’s looks like a retro racer with ridiculously small wheels.
I’ve wanted one for years before I had ever been to Japan. God, these things are so cool. I’ll buy the cheaper 8sp model, strip the parts, and build it up again with Suntour Superbe Pro. It’ll be so hot.
City officials, hoping to make commutes like his less treacherous, have created a seven-block experiment of a bike lane on Ninth Avenue. Here, concrete dividers and a row of parked cars shield a bike lane from the street and its traffic. Low mini-traffic lights show when cyclists have the right of way. Bike commuters, messengers and delivery people peel down perfectly smooth paths.
The article also cites Portland as an example, how bikes are fashionable, and cites a needed change from car culture to bike culture in major cities. (Who’d a thought we’d see NYC promoting commuting!)
I was riding to work today heading south on Beacon near the VA hospital
when I think I saw a police officer pull over a rider for not wearing a helmet. As I rode by, I asked the rider if he was okay (thinking maybe he had gotten hit), and he just looked mad. Has anyone else heard reports of this today?
And I just heard from another cyclist that they got a 103 ticket for no helmet.
Just like the periodic stop-sign crackdowns on Mercer Island, sounds like the po po are looking for helmet scofflaws.
Anyone else seen cyclist getting tickets or got one themselves?
The first day was a mixed success--our winners seemed genuinely excited, but Twitter made the process very difficult by inexplicably swallowing any messages that contained an @ symbol. Our first batch of winners came out like this:
Tomorrow, all the stuff we're giving away can be mailed to you, so you don't have to be at Webvisions to get it. We've got a SXSW Interactive pass, a bunch more Ibex stuff, some Bike Hugger shirts, and more. Stayed tuned--follow us on Twitter because you WILL need to meet certain deadlines if you're a winner.
The riders in tonight’s Ride of Silence in Seattle were like velocipede monks, rolling silently from Gasworks, down Eastlake through downtown and Belltown, then finally out Denny back to the park. I didn’t see an official count, but I’d guess there were 200 riders, a sizable crowd but not quite the volume I saw last year. The ride was well organized, with cue sheets, guides at every turn, and incredibly good control over the pacing and grouping of the whole group.
The ride is international with rides in almost every state in the U.S. The point of the ride is to memorialize riders who have been killed or injured on the road, like my friend Matthew Sperry. I try to make the ride every year because Matt was killed doing what I do ever day — riding to work.
Tomorrow night is the annual Ride of Silence. We’ll toast the ride during the Mobile Social reception and pay our respects. Our event ends just as the Ride of Silence begins at 7:00 PM in Portland. And we encourage all to ride silently from Lucky Lab. We will.
From the Necessity is the Mother of Invention category, comes the Neodymics self-contained, powered-wheel conversion kit. With gas prices raising and increasing interest in electric bikes, I expect to see more entrepreneurs and inventors developing their own take on powering bikes. Using Dewalt power tool batteries is practical and even thinking of just popping off a non-powered wheel for a powered one is an interesting approach. It also looks like something that fell off a moon-lander or was once connected to a Cyborg …
Ibex, Crumpler et al have given us a bunch of schwag to give away at Webvisions, so here’s how we’re doing it:
Follow us on Twitter. When you've received word back from us (via Twitter) that we're following you, send us a direct tweet with the words "webvisions youremail@yourdomain.com" in it. (If you don't know how to do this, see below.)
That’s it. You’re in. Then during Webvisions on May 22 and 23, we’ll randomly select winners throughout each day. When we pick a name, we’ll send it out through Twitter with instructions for collecting the schwag. If you’re the winner, follow the instructions and it’s all yours. But, if you don’t follow the instructions, you’ll be out of luck. (Don’t worry--nothing weird. The instructions will be who won, what they won, and a time and place to pick up the prize.)
To get updates via SMS, turn device updates on (click on "Devices Updates" and then "On"). Make sure you’ve given Twitter a device to send them to. This is usually the fastest way to receive Twitter updates.
Once we see you following us, we'll reciprocate and send you a direct message to let you know. Once you receive it, go to the Twitter homepage and, in the “what are you doing?” box, type:
d bikehugger webvisions youremail@yourdomain.com
Fine Print
We’re using your email address to verify your identity but we’ll probably share it with our sponsors. If you don’t want us to do that, add the words “no email” to your entry Tweet. I.e., “d bikehugger webvisions youremail@yourdomain.com no email.” Anyone can enter, but they must follow the instructions for entering the contest and collecting the prize.
Note we're not spammers.
More at the Mobile Social
Learn more about the Twitter Giveaway during our Mobile Social event the day before Webvisions. Mobile Socials are an intersection of bikes, technology, and culture. They include an urban ride, reception, and schwag.
Seems there isn’t a race or ride I do where I don’t forget something. Like discovering the tube that’s in the saddle bag is the old flat tube or that I don’t even have the saddle bag. No helmet, front wheel, or damn it my Polar!
Forgotten items I’ve heard of include
A bike — arrived at the race, no bike on car. FAIL
Shoes — I think we’ve all forgot our shoes. FAIL.
Helmet — you can usually find a helmet at a race or tour.
Gloves — yep, you can ride without them.
For her commute, Pam has forgot
socks
bra
underwear
makeup
and today a shirt. So she just wore her liner at the desk. No one probably noticed.
What have you forgot during your commute or on the big race day? (Pam and I wear the same kits, different size and a few times I’ve raced in a really tight jersey that was hers.)
In the road bike market, you may have noticed that nearly every manufacturer is offering bikes with compact double crankset, ie road cranks with a 110mm chainring bolt-circle typically mounting a 50 and 34 tooth chainring combination. Bike companies have toted the compact double as the ideal way to gain most of the benefits of a triple crank (namely better low range gearing) while having a better chainline and lower weight. This is mainly true, but before you decide that the compact double crank is right for you, you should understand its real advantages for you as a user as well as the motivations bike companies have for selling it to you.
Yubas are now distributed in the U.S by Rock the Bike. Check with your local bike shop to see if they can get it. Rock the Bike is importing two models: Mundo singlespeed or 6-speed. We’ve got the Yuba 6 on test and a report is coming soon.
It’s not very often that I’ve got a bike to test, just adjust the saddle/stem, ride it for 4 hours and and totally enjoy a comfortable ride. That says a lot about the Lapierre S-Lite 500 I rode around the South end of the Lake yesterday. The more I rode the bike, the more I liked it. For the S-Lite series, Lapierre has “tube forms that offer more comfort, with 25% more vertical flexibility in the rear triangle for better absorbtion of vibrations.” That means it’s a vertically compliant frame that flexes enough to smooth out the ride. As I wrote in my initial review of the bike, it’s for a century like Seattle to Portland. That flex also transmits road vibration so it doesn’t feel dull and carves very well. Consquently, without all the stiffness, it’s not the fastest climbing or sprinting bike. You’ll need to wind it up towards the finish line and use that triple to get over the big climbs.
Man, I don’t follow the custom/chopper bike scene very much so I may be out of touch, but this thing is scuplture! Amazingly, you can even ride it (here’s proof). More photos and construction details here. You gotta take a look, the design process and details are great to see. For example: it’s a single, drive side chain/seat stay.
Having been arrested and prosecuted for a car/bike road rage incident, I try my best to just ride away from a-hole drivers, but yesterday when a motorist drove his car onto the bike path in front of me, I decided that was “over the f’ing top” and gave his Lexus a Love Tap. A Love Tap is a gentle reminder to a car that you’re nearby, that they’re in your lane, or have rolled past a stoplight into your path. Dude wigged out when he heard the tap on his trunk and I was all, “seriously dude you’re on the bike path with your car.” I rode away and he parked his car. Never saw him again.
It’d been a while since an altercation and the last incident was in Maui where ironically a hippie-driven, bio-diesel, end-the-Iraq-war-stickered Mercedes tried to run me off the road. I’d never yelled at a hippie before, but this went down harsh and could’ve ended badly, if I’d not backed off, and that was a straight-up defensive-protective measure. I later concluded it was karma for me flipping off this Mercedes the year before.
Tip: a good Love Tap technique is to pop a breakaway mirror. That’ll get their attention and not do any damage.
What’s your Love Tap story or worst incident with a car?
It was tough for me even to mount a bike with a triple drivetrain, but we’ve got a Lapierre S-Lite 500 and that’s what it ships with. I figured, I’ve been running a 25 cassette for a while and finally put a 26 on my bike with SRAM, I’ll try it. That doesn’t mean I’m like those dudes palling around on bikes in the Flomax commercials, even though I’m a Masters Racer that’s closer to middle age than I’d like to think about.
Today in NYC is a Doggie Pedal Parade for all those cyclists transporting their dogs in baskets, trailers, and cargo bikes.
WHAT: Time’s Up! Doggie Pedal Parade
WHEN: Saturday, May 17, 2008 at 2 PM
WHERE: Traffic island on south end of Union Square East
between Broadway & 4th Ave
Met this commuter en route back to West Seattle. I showed her the way to her meeting on California. Alaskan Way was a gauntlet with cruise boats and a cargo ship arriving at the same time.
I commandeered the “I’m with Big Dummy” shirt from the schwag Surly sent us for the Mobile Social. It’s well timed with Bettie 2.0 arriving at Hugga HQ and I’ll wear it as I ride Bettie New around town.
More on Bettie 2.0 as we test ride her, but the quick review is
The bike is remarkably quiet. All I hear is the tires. Old Bettie was a cacophony of sound with the StokeMonkey, two chain rings and gears. It’s also like I went from driving a beat-up old truck to an Escalade. It’s smooth. Now that I understand how Nuvinci shifts, it’s a thing of drivetrain beauty. Also slow. Smooth and slow.
Reminder — Tomorrow is Bike to Work day, the best day all month to commute on your bike. Here in Seattle we’ve got an event organized by Cascade and sponsored by Starbucks (among others) replete with stations all over town where you can check in for some schwag. No worries if you’re not in Seattle, are rides allaroundthecountry.
Now, schwag is lovely, but it ain’t really enough to get me to stop most days. What should get you our riding and maybe even stopping at a promo-hut is the chance to get counted. Turns out our fair city doesn’t do an annual census, and tomorrow’s the day to vote with your feet — show the city how many of us are out there for transportation and how vital our cycling facilities are.10,000+ riders rode last year, it’ll be interesting to see how many more this year with gas prices up over 40 cents a gallon from last year. Plus the weather in Seattle is supposed to be fantastic tomorrow, so we’ll see ya out there. If you’ve checking in post commute — how’d it go?
Business and cycling meet at the Biz, Bikes, & Brew event — similar to our Mobile Socials with an emphasis on networking. We posted on deals on the bike earlier and have ridden with Dahon and others. A couple weeks ago, I met up with a potential new business partner and Bike Hugger was vetted by REI during one of their legendary lunch rides.
There isn’t a handbook for these rides, but I’d suggest
Our friends and Clever Cycles and Recyclery have offered to help us with bike parking at the end of the ride during the Mobile Social. They’re right across the street from Lucky Lab Hawthorne where the reception will take place.
We’ll just ride on over, drop our bikes off, and not worry about bike thieves.
If you need a bike, Clever Cycles has a good assortment of Bromptons and more to ride. Contact them and ask for Martina. Waterfront Bikes is also renting and just mention us for a hookup.
So we’re all busy with our day jobs, working on the Mobile Social, totally distracted by Bettie 2.0 (lots of new gear) and Bike to Work day shows up on the calendar!
I’m out riding that day in a hugga kit saying hello, and we gave a bunch of hugga socks to Cascade for their stations.
The Mobile Social. What the heck is that? It sounds like so many wonderful things. I’m interested in the intersection of bike culture and mobile technology.
Well that’s exactly what it is! The Mobile Social is the intersection of bikes, technology, and culture. We ride bikes, we’re mobile, use technology, socialize, and into gear. So we combined all that into an event and called it the Mobile Social. We think it’s wonderful and the first one was a success. Our next one is a week from today in Portland. And here’s what you need to know
About this time of year, I get really burned out on my current stock of energy bars. Taste change and so I don’t have a “best bar,” but try to rotate them in and out and mix it up with pastries, bagels, and a good old PB&J. I travel with the PRO Bar and Bear Valley Pemmican Bar. Those are considered meal replacements. A jersey-pocket standby is Clif and their shot chewy things are good for a nervous stomach right before a big race.
Rotating into the choices are bars from Zing. They’re developed by nutritionalists, taste like food, and are all-natural. They’re good and a nice change. For the bike, they’d need more substance for more calories. And, I wish that Natures Path would form their toaster pastries into bar shapes for my jersey.
It’s that time of year when more bikes start coming out. Cyclists are riding to work and lots of them are prepping for a tour with some big miles. Even if you’ll never kit up, pin a race number on, or turn a pedal in anger, some racer skills will help protect you and other cyclists. Flying around a blind corner, turning abruptly and other sketchy moves that’d take down a pack in a race can have the same effect at Seattle to Portland, on your commute, or an event in your area.
Last week, a woman was roaring down the Swing Bridge nearly right into me as I was coming up onto it (possibly setting a personal best on her commute). Later a commuter swung wide into a blind corner nearly clipping me and another came just whizzing out across the yellow line. I don’t know if it’s rusty skills, maybe they have no skills, or don’t care, but staying the course and holding your line is a good thing to do even if all you ever ride is a tourist bike path.
Noticed this Ibex softshell jacket at a cafe in Seattle. With that well-worn patina and mud spray it’s obviously used for more than just looking nice. The owner said he loved it. I’ve got a blue one (on clearance) and it’s perfect for chilly spring days — in a week or so it’ll get too warm for it, but it’s currently my fav. I also took it on my trip to Chicago.
This is the third known instance of a bird flying into a drivetrain. The first was when I saw a crow fly right into a fellow cyclists wheel and out the other side. The crow kept flying. Then one time I rode right over a seagull; don’t think that one made it. Now, this third one happened to another cyclist during a descent down Madrona hill and if you look close at the front derailleur you can see the feathery evidence.
Bob Downs, president of Planet Bike, was in town a little while ago, and he and his group stopped into the bike shop. One of the things on their mind was an item with which I’ve recently become enamored: generator lights. It seems that Planet Bike will be bringing their expertise with LEDs to the generator light market.
While I’ve been in the trench warfare of flat tires and greasy chains, I’ve been wondering about the larger picture, keeping a look out for industry, market, and technology trends. I’m not talking about wishful thinking about what I’d like to see happen; I mean, I’d like to wake up to Jessica Alba in a thong cleaning my drivetrain, but that’s not very likely. I’m talking about forecasting what will happen in the next two years.
The wheels of progress never stop turning at SDOT, who managed to get some green gravely material down in a couple of locations this week after months of anticipation. We’ve posted about the green lanes before, it’s great to see they’re making their way into the real world. I rode down to take a look this morning, and I can confirm it’s really, really green.
with a raffle for Crumpler’s Headaitchs and a Raygun Famous Winebar. Free beer, food food, bike talk, Mark’s V club-life MC’ing skills, and I’m predicting a damn good time.
Sign up on Upcoming so we know who’s coming and can make sure we’ve got enough beer!
I managed to cajole a friend into taking some snaps from the Sustainable West Seattle fair this Saturday. It’s clear from the evidence that West Seattle is sustaining more than it’s fair share of cycles, including of the cargo, electric and kid variety, let alone the electric cargo fuzzy dice category. Great day for a fair, sounds like wonderful time was had by all.
Bike Hugger got its start in part because of all the bike culture I noticed as I traveled around on business, speaking at conferences, and vacations. These bike connections continue today and just this week at Web Design World where I met Planet Propaganda. We talked blogs, social media, and the work they’re doing with Gary Fisher.
Traveling a lot leads to airport fatigue and there’s nothing more refreshing than seeing a bike exhibit!
The goal of the exhibit is to offer a glimpse into the role bikes play in the lives of Oregonians – racing, replacing a car, riding up and down mountains, or just riding for the joy of it. The exhibit is organized by the Port of Portland, Sweetpea Bicycles, the Regional Arts & Culture Council and the Portland Development Commission.
PDX is my fav little airport and many of Webvision’s attendees will see the exhibit as they arrive.
Based on the popularity of this post, Byron created a bike bags Flickr group. Pop in and upload photos of your setup—if you’re inclined, write a few words describing it and why it works for you (if you don’t have a Flickr account, you can sign up for free to share your photos). Byron loaded the Hugga Bag and has photos of the Raygun coming….
In the road bike market, you may have noticed that nearly every manufacturer is offering bikes with compact double crankset, ie road cranks with a 110mm chainring bolt-circle typically mounting a 50 and 34 tooth chainring combination. Bike companies have toted the compact double as the ideal way to gain most of the benefits of a triple crank (namely better low range gearing) while having a better chainline and lower weight. This is mainly true, but before you decide that the compact double crank is right for you, you should understand its real advantages for you as a user as well as the motivations bike companies have for selling it to you.
Rotating into the choices are bars from 
Bob Downs, president of Planet Bike, was in town a little while ago, and he and his group stopped into the bike shop. One of the things on their mind was an item with which I’ve recently become enamored: generator lights. It seems that Planet Bike will be bringing their expertise with LEDs to the generator light market.
