Of course you want to see a flick about downhillers in Ireland, where the sky is sometimes blue and they never crash. Great backdrops on the Emerald Isle. Now out on DVD. To order, visit www.breakthecyclefilm.com.
A recent study found that despite widespread attention to the importance of helmet use, not only has helmet use not gone up, but the severity of cycling injuries has greatly increased. The researchers looked at cyclists admitted to a trauma center in Denver over 11 years. During that time, the severity of injuries and the length of stay for rundown cyclists dramatically increased. The obvious answer is that more people are riding their bikes, which is great, but the bad news is that the cycling infrastructure can't handle all the new riders. Inexperienced people are getting on their bikes to be healthy and avoid oil wars, and more of them are getting run over.
The Freakonomics blog on NY Times ran a similar article that posed the questions, "Will Bicycling to Work Get you Killed?" They found that bikers are 12 times more likely to be involved in a fatal accident than car drivers, but also that drivers have a 39% higher mortality rate. Basically, if you can survive the bike ride to work, you'll live a longer life.
This poor child is 7-year-old Kylie Bruehler. She lost both of her parents when a driver veered onto the shoulder a couple weeks ago and killed them. They were riding together on a tandem. Not only are there no charges pending against the reckless driver, but the Texas Governor actually vetoed a bill that would have required drivers to give cyclists a 'safe distance' when passing them after the tragedy. He called the bill unnecessary. A San Antonio columnist nailed it when she penned a column, "Bicyclists on the road treated no better than deer." Indeed. I'm trying really hard not to blame all of Texas for this, but the least they could do is demand the driver get tossed in jail and pass a bill making it illegal to run down bikers.
I'm not a roadie, or a mountain biker, just a guy who rides his bike to work 52 weeks a year on a $100 steel frame from 1985. I own the Easton EA50 SL wheelset because I walked into my local bike shop and said "I need a pair of wheels I can't break." In true dirtbag fashion, I bought them one at a time, four months apart. That was a couple of years ago, and after destroying much-lesser rear wheels and breaking spokes, these wheels have proven to be light, decent-looking, and as tough as an axe handle.
If you're a roadie looking to impress everyone at the shop ride, at $350, these won't do that. They also will not work if you're a fixie kid who wants to match his wheels to his chain and handlebar tape. But they've survived a couple incidents that would have given a stout test to any competitor in this price range:
Incident #1: While racing cars up 17th Street in Denver, I absent-mindedly forgot the location of one of the sunken sewer covers in the far left lane. I was close behind a car and didn't see this sewer cover -- which is functionally a giant pothole since it has a 2-3-inch lip all the way around -- until my front tire was almost rolling over the top of it. If you're a 180-pound clydesdale like me moving at 20 mph, and you're sitting on your seat as you pedal over something like that, the chances of your rear tire surviving are not high. I hit the lip so hard I got an instant pinch flat. The rear rim? Bowed but not broken. Just a small dent in one side of the rim. I am still riding it a year later.
Incident #2: I was riding way too fast down an alley in Denver and a driver backed a Honda Accord out of a blind parking spot, at perfect timing for me to not have any time to even squeeze my brake levers. I slammed into his rear quarter panel on the passenger side and flew over the trunk, somehow emerging unscathed. My front wheel took the brunt of the impact, flipping me over the handlebars, which left a $500 dent in the car. The wheel held fast, but the down tube on my Surly Cross Check buckled. The front wheel is straight as an arrow and is working great on my "new" bike, a 1985 Raleigh Team USA.
Summary: Put a pair of Easton wheels on your rig and smash them into something at a high velocity if you want to. If you can still ride, they'll ride.
Snow is falling in Denver, and if I know our local climate, the roads will be thawed and dry in a few days, but it's not too early for many folks to start thinking about winter biking. In Denver, you can pretty much survive the winter on an old mountain bike with deflated tires, and switch out your bike helmet for a ski helmet. If you're in a part of the country where the urban snowpack isn't so intermittent, thought, Leslie Kehmeier has a good article at Spadout.com about studded tires, and why you ought to think about buying or making some this season. Winter biking isn't about being tough; it's about skills and keeping your balance. And not being afraid to put on enough layers and look like Randy Parker from A Christmas Story on your bike. Check out the link to the Friction Coefficient Scale for Winter Road Conditions -- tracked snow vs. untracked snow, etc.
When I'm not out there on the mean streets of San Francisco getting hit by cars on my bike, I'm looking for the perfect shoe that can stand up to the daily abuse of riding my bike. I usually end up with a pair of Vans slip-ons, but they inevitably wear out at the the friction points on the toe clips and along the cranks. I think my last pair lasted about a year and half, two years, before giving out. Not bad, but you know I hate greasing the wheels of the capitalist machine. Anyway, I'm always a sucker for gimmicks, and street shoes made specifically for biking fit the bill perfectly. There are a few options out there, but not many. So I went down to the Chrome retail shop on 4th and picked myself up a pair of Kursks, full retail no pro-deal so I could write from the heart for you guys, straight from the new Chromes shoes lineup. And honestly, much as it pains me to write nice things, I'm digging them.
First though, the bad news. They're kind of narrow and because of the 1,000 denier Cordura used in the uppers, a bit hot. Definitely don't breath like canvas Chucks or vans. But I'll forgive them for that because I'm expecting the 1,000 denier Cordura is going to last me a decade, much like my low top Chucks used to when they were made of thicker canvas. But what do I really dig about the Chrome shoes line? The goddamn lace garage. So simple, but totally useful. Funny thing is I was joking with the guy working the floor at the Chrome store complaining that I have to use a rubberband to stop my laces from getting caught in the chain, a mere annoyance for me because I ride a regular road bike, but pretty dangerous if you ride a fixie. Anyway, even the guy in the shop didn't have a clue the shoes have a lace garage and I discovered it accidentally today. Other nice design feature laces with metal endings to stop fraying, another one of my pet peeves. These two features alone are good enough for me to give a thumbs up to the Chrome shoes lineup. Click through to see the full specs for the Chrome shoes after the jump, suffice it to say they reflect some good cycling design thinking and something you might expect coming out of a company now owned by super secretive (try Googling him) Bay Area entrepreneur, majority owner of Keen, and one of the backers of Timbuk2, Rory Fuerst. I think he was actually in the store during my visit. Which is kind of like seeing the Yeti, at least for me. You hear about it him a lot, but question whether he actually exists in real life. So now that I've said the nice things and gotten that out of the way, let me throw out two more things to Rory and the Chrome designers. Has nothing to do w/ the shoes, so you can skip it if you want to avoid my rant.
First, Chrome peeps stop whoring out the brand by slapping the Chrome griffin on everything. Nobody wants to be a walking billboard for a brand they like. If we did, we'd wear Nike track suits and sneakers. Seriously, you think any self respecting person is going to wear your pants, cap, shirt, and bag all emblazoned with the Griffin? It just looks dumb. People will be more inclined to wear more things if you're a bit more subtle in your design. We're not sheep, despte evidence to the contrary over the last few years. Put the Griffin on the sole of the Chome shoes if you must. Better yet, take a page out of the up and coming cycling gear brands like Outlier, and don't put your logo out there at all. My second point is, what's the deal with naming your shoes after WWII battles? Doesn't it seem a bit juvenile and bit war mongerish to name you shoes after battles where thousands of people died? You really want people to think about death and misery when they pick up your shoes? I get the whole Eastern European design chic ethos, but com'on, there are so many great things to celebrate about Eastern Europe, why chose Kursk where a couple of hundred thousands Germans and Russians died, or Midway where couple thousand American & Japanese died, or even Arnhem. Stick to Eastern European cities and stereotypes like Warsaw and Ivan, they're relatively harmless. Or better yet, how about celebrating some of the great things Eastern Europe has given the world. Chopin, for example? Maybe the Copernicus bag. Tolstoy shoes. Anyway, that ends my rant. I feel better now. Can you tell me wife is Eastern European? But I still love you guys like I loved the little kids I took care of in high school. The ones that rode the short bus to school. They were special to me, just like you. Don't ever change boys. Ever. Ever, ever, ever. Stay gold. Peace. Buy Chrome shoes starting at $70 direct from their website.
David Byrne is many things, but one wouldn't think bike evangelist. Yet he is, and for much longer than the new band wagon jumper oners.
Bicycling is like a religion to Byrne, a symbol of his wide-eyed eternal youth, and also a kind of therapy. Back in his Talking Heads days, he had an old three-speed that he rode through the potholed streets of downtown Manhattan, to the Mudd Club and gallery openings in Soho. Back then, biking was so unpopular that you didn’t have to worry about getting your bike stolen—nobody wanted it.
Montague is showing off their new folding single speed at Interbike. They call it the first "700c" single speed folding bike. Hyperbole aside, seems like an interesting bike from the design perspective:
The BOSTON frame is designed around a patented folding system. This
design eliminates the need to break the frame in order to fold the
bike. Not only does this make folding easier but it makes this bike the
strongest folding bike on the market. The Folding Integrated Technology
(F.I.T.) is based around frame construction concepts designed for
serious full suspension downhill bikes.
David Byrne is many things, but one wouldn't think bike evangelist. Yet he is, and for much longer than the new band wagon 
jumper oners. 
