Seoul Got Soul - Save the Bike Lane Trailer

[SEOUL got SOUL] SAVE THE BIKE LANE (BFF Trailer) from David Jongkwon Kim aka DKshop on Vimeo.

Meanwhile in Milano: Messenger Beats the SUV

'Don't sell your Track Bike for a Road Bike'

Buttons by Tracko, for sale at 1 dollar each, HERE.

"Who doesn't love buttons? And who doesn't like making a statement? This isn't political. I'm not here to tell you what kind of bike to ride. Because really... I don't care as long as you're on a bike. This is just a little reminder of where everyone came from. A much simpler time, one more about community. A time when people relied on each other for information rather than some blog or forum. A time when you didn't have a choice...you rode a Track Bike because that is all there was. There was no CMX, most had never even heard of Cyclocross, Road Bikes had gears and Mountain Bikes where just a no no. Don't sell your Track Bike for a Road Bike. Don't forget about your Track Bike because your CMX is more fun. Don't forget that before Cyclocross was ever cool Track Bikes introduced you and many others to this wonderful thing called cycling. The Track Bike will forever be in my heart. It has been a huge part of my life, the person I am and the people I have grown to love. So now it is time for me to give back to the Track Bike. I am doing this by trying my hardest to never let anyone forget what an amazing machine the Track Bike is and forever will be."

Interestingly these buttons have been posted on about every blog out there is but no one has really said anything about the weird write-up above. Are people just waiting for Bike Snob NYC to discover this?

Political or not, buttons like these are about making a statement once you buy it and pin it on your messenger bag or flat brimmed baseball cap or wherever. I do agree with the point made by Kyle/Tracko, even if I'm currently more excited about my road bike winter projects than hoarding ever more vintage track components I don't need. However, somehow publicly stating something like the  fact that messengers riding real track bikes on the NYC streets is where the whole fixed gear phenomena originally started always rubs some people like the singlespeed MTB brahs or the road bike conversion-loving Sheldon's disciples the wrong way.

Also, does this implicate that selling your sweet color-coordinated fixie biek in order to afford to buy a proper geared road bike, a über street-credible cyclocross bike or a 700cmx tricktrack bike for that matter, proves that you were into riding a track bike because of all the wrong reasons?

But you know what? I ordered one.

EDIT. And yes, he did it... 

Vending Machine

It's a vending machine. Yeah, so what? But what does it dispense?
Schwalbe inner tubes! Now how cool is that?

Photo taken by Eiha, outside of a bike shop in Dresden, Germany.

Kolelinia

"Kolelinia is a city fly attempt. We are born to move, this makes us alive. The transport is not only a transport, it has to be an experience! The quality of this process reflects directly on the quality of our life. Is it possible to achieve a completely new level of transportation with minimum resources?
Kolelinia is a concept for riding our own bikes on a steel wire, a new type of bicycle-lanes…

This doesn’t replace the normal biking, this only helps in problematic zones!
Could be a bridge type, a longer transportation line or a special designed and independent touristic line. Of course it is too early to talk about mass use."

From http://kolelinia.com/en/

Bicycle Superhighways - Only in Denmark

From Copenhagenzine.com:

"The City of Copenhagen is currently planning to expand the existing, extensive network of bike lanes to extend farther out into the suburbs. A network of 13 high-class routes - 'bicycle superhighways' if you will - dedicated to bicycle commuters and aimed at encouraging more to cycle to work.

Currently 55% of the citizens in central Copenhagen ride a bicycle daily and the number is 37% for Greater Copenhagen. While in many other countries anybody who cycles to work is often considered a 'bicycle commuter', most of the 500,000 people who cycle to work or education in Copenhagen don't fit into the Danish version of this statistical category.

A 'commuter' is loosely categorised as someone who travels more than 10 km to work. The City of Copenhagen and the surrounding towns are aiming to increase the trips by bike on the new routes. There is an efficient network of public transport throughout the region but just as any train passenger or motorist knows, it feels much quicker and is much quicker if you don't have to stop all the time. The same principle applies to cycling to work and it is the key to the development of this new net of superhighways.

Just like anywhere, there are many people who cycle longer distances but the focus for the new plan is the 'middle ground' - the zone between 7 and 15 km from the city centre.

There are roughly 100,000 people who currently commute into or out of Copenhagen County [as opposed to within], travelling between 4-15 km. 15,000 of them ride their bicycle.

The remaining 85,000 who take the bus, train or car are the target group for this project.

The routes will be developed on the existing bike lanes but they will have a number of improved features, according to the City's vision:

- Smooth, even surfaces free of leaves, ice and snow.
- As direct as possible with no detours.
- Homogenous visual expression, for example, with signage and the trademark blue bike lanes through larger intersections.
- 'Service stations' with air and tools along the routes.
- Possibility to maintain a high speed and with sufficient width to overtake other cyclists.
- Safe and quick crossing priority for cyclists when they approach cross streets.
- Green Wave for cyclists through sections with frequent stop lights. [The Green Wave is in place on three main routes into Copenhagen already. Cycle 20 km/h and you hit green lights all the way.]

The new commuter routes are expected to cost roughly 250 million kroner [$47 million]. A net of routes of similar length, isolated and away from the streets would cost between 1 and 1.5 billion kroner. [$200-280 million].

The City of Aarhus is working on a similar project."

'I like to ride my bike because I think it's fun...'

A Reason to Bike from Brighter Planet on Vimeo.

TSYGÄLLÄ DUUNIIN?

* * *

TSYGÄLLÄ DUUNIIN?

Hyötypyöräilyn tulevaisuus Suomen kaupungeissa

Keskustelutilaisuus
Torstaina 1.10.2009 klo 17-19
Eduskunnan pikkuparlamentin Kansalaisinfossa
Arkadiankatu 3

- Tampereen teknillisen yliopiston tutkija Kalle Vaismaa:
Pyöräily ja kävely osaksi kaupunkien liikennejärjestelmää.

- Helsingin kaupunkisuunnitteluviraston toimistopäällikkö Leena Silfverberg:
Polkupyöräilyyn edistämiseen liittyvät lainsäädännön muutostarpeet.

- Pyöräilykuntien verkoston puheenjohtaja Markku Lahtinen:
Polkupyöräilyä edistävän kaavoituksen ja väylien merkitys.

- Fillarikonsultit esittelevät: Työmatkapyöräilyn ideapakki.
Miten lisätä työmatkapyöräilyä työantajan ja työntekijän näkökulmasta.

Alustusten jälkeen yleisökeskustelua.

Tilaisuuden avaa kansanedustaja Johanna Sumuvuori ja juontaa toimittaja Anna Laine.

Tervetuloa!
Vihreä eduskuntaryhmä & Helsingin vihreiden pyöräilytyöryhmä.

Lisätietoa:

Martti Tulenheimo
Kansanedustaja Ville Niinistön avustaja
martti . tulenheimo ÄT eduskunta . fi
(09) 432 4074

* * *

Boris Johnson Fixed !!!

This is bit mad, like the Brits tend to say. But who the h*ll is this akward-looking suit-and-tie guy anyway, you may ask?

Well, he is Boris Johnson, currently the Mayor of London, England. So seeing him ride a rather tarck-style fixed gear bike is indeed pretty hilarious, but in a good way.

Thanks to Ben Broomfield for the photos. Cheers!

Fillarikorjaamo Helsinki

Yksivaihde.net is having our very own club night in the Korjaamo Bar / Club in Töölö Helsinki on every first Friday of the summer months, plus an extra End of the Summer Grande Finale night in August. 

We'll start at the terrace at 7 o'clock and move inside the bar around ten, there'll be a cheap special happy hour beer price for everyone arriving on a bicycle. 

There will be also a street race / alleycat starting at six o'clock from the terrace every time, then possibly some trick competitions, a free bike repairs spot with tools to borrow etc. and so on. We'll try to organize some movie viewings too and yours truly will be spinning vinyl among other people. 

So everyone please join us if you're in town, and even if you're only visiting Helsinki!  

Taxis = The Enemy? In Toronto...

Everyone, please try to be nice to each other out there, all right? This is just too harsh. 

 *  *  *  

Taxi Driver Severs Cyclists' Leg in Violent Hit-and-Run
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 11.17.08

Last night in Toronto, a cyclist had a loud argument with a cab driver and the next thing residents heard was a sickening crunch and a man screaming for help- the cabbie rammed the cyclist against a pole and severed his leg. Doctors couldn't fix it and the leg was amputated.

The cabbie took off and then three hours later called police and said he was defending himself against a robbery attempt

Constable Burrows: "We're trying to determine the sequence of events and how this escalated from the sound of voices to what we have right now, a male in hospital with fairly significant injuries fighting for his life".

The Godmachine

Cops & Cyclists in NYC

Everybody's seen the clip already I'm sure but here it is again, NYPD officer showing in practice what he thinks of the Critical Mass participants at the Times Square. 

Nasty. 

But read here what other cops think of what the asshole did... 

and no one's making that shit up. 

Now, can we get our very own Rodney King Riots, can we?

Tandem For A Slightly Larger Family

This thing here in not fixed gear related but very fascinating anyhow since tandems are cool. But maybe too much is too much sometimes. For 6 people including one baby? The question is, is this the ideal bike for an Eco-Conscious Mormon family? With the rapidly rising price of gasoline even in the States, maybe yes. 

But there's one part in the ad that I don't really get: 'Would really like to see it stay in the U.S.'

And of course it's on Ebay, here. 

But if you like tandems and have a lot of loose money but dig slightly more sporty bikes, check this out. 

Dutch Education: Learning To Steal A Bike

Once more concerning bike thieves, this time serious news from Amsterdam:

"AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch cyclists lobby group plans to teach more people across the country how to steal bikes after lessons it conducted in the big cities showed that bike owners became more security-conscious after taking the lessons.

"Someone specialized in locks shows people how to unpick them. This teaches people how to better secure their bikes," a spokeswoman for Dutch bike group Fietsersbond said on Wednesday.

About 700,000 bikes were stolen in the Netherlands last year, home to 18 million bikes. Bikes are the most common form of transport in the Netherlands.

Fietserbond will tour the country, offering its bike theft lessons which has so far helped students moving to the cities like Amsterdam and who usually poorly secure their bikes, the group's spokeswoman said.

"If freshmen move to the city with their bikes, it is a party for bike thieves," she said.

The government launched a campaign on Wednesday, urging people to report bike theft to the police and make a note of their bike's identity number."

Lock It Up.

Not to comment on my friend's bike incident yesterday but just to remind everyone out there. Lock it up good, ok? 

This pic (courtesy of the failblog.org) can also be conveniently used to comment on web forums... 

Bike Thieves In Kumpula, Helsinki.

After yesterday's happy news there's today's sad news. It's like the ying/yang thing, I suppose. 

My colleague Giac AKA Interflug just called me five minutes ago that his bike had been stolen from their court yard in Limingantie Kumpula, Helsinki, during the night. The bike was locked to a bike stand and all. Giac is all fucked up now because he cannot get to work, which sucks. 

His bike was almost brand new-looking nice sporty Tunturi geared mixte ATB bike, it's also pretty recognizable as it was a blue & white Markkinointi & Mainonta Special Edition and there aren't that many of those around. The bike has a bright yellow Selle Italia seat and Shimano components. 

Kumpula is a peaceful community with lots of wooden houses with kind of a slightly bohemian vibe so stealing bike's from a closed yard behind the house during the night hints that the bike was probably not stolen by drunken teenagers needing a ride. 

There are no photos but if you see a bike fitting to that description somewhere, let us know. Beer reward is offered if the bike is found. 

Also, don't forget to check out Giac's 'Jack and his amazing ukulele / Giacomo e il suo incredibile ukulele' MySpace page and listen to his cool original songs (with titles like 'The Day That Britney Died'...) that he performs with an Ukulele. Well, now he has a reason to write a melancholy song about his bike that's gone. 

Criminal Mass Takes Over The Freeway

This news was so awesome that I just had to steal it, like this:

"Last Friday, Crimanimal Mass took their second bicycle ride on the freeway during drive-home rush hour. Whizzing by gridlocked cars, the demonstration, albeit illegal, raises questions. Good questions. One of the group's organizers, Morgan Strauss, 29, was quoted in the Santa Monica Daily Press (.pdf) this weekend saying that he “just wanted to raise questions about the transportation infrastructure. In a city ruled by cars, why is it that you can get places faster on bikes?”

Many photos were taken of the ride, which included nearly 30 bicyclists, but also three rollerbladers."

There's a nice gallery of photos, click here.