Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2077.4

Of interest: A billboard across the street from my office is displaying an ad for a bike shop. Nice.

Commute report

Mileage when I got to work: 2069.7

Of interest: Rode on my new slick grey tires! Fun times.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2060.0

Listened to on the way to work: Coverville, the "Michael Jackson cover story" episode. There was a lot of talking on this episode; I'd rather hear music on my ride.

Of interest: This VC dude talks about work/life balance. I think everyone who bike commutes is already on their way towards work/life balance.

Totally wrong: As I've mentioned before, my daily commute takes me through a low-income neighborhood. A few weeks ago, a terrible McDonald's billboard went up, playing off poor person stereotypes. The billboard has a huge photo of a Big Mac with the words "I'll make it fit." just below. Why don't they write what they really mean? "Hey poor people! We know you're fat and don't care about nutrition. We know you'll shove our hamburgers in your face even if you're not hungry. How about stopping by?" Pathetic move, McDonalds.

The image: From the Spoof Ads section of Adbusters.

Fashion report

I know Vino's been in the news lately for kicking ass in the tour (sprintin' and climbin'? you da man!) and his recent team change, but what excited me was his FLASHY OUTFIT.

I mean, have you seen the beautiful Kazakstan champion outfit he's been wearing recently? It's a great aqua with complimentary buttercup accents. Swell.

It's even a step up from the T-Mobile fuschia, a great kit. Now if I was the best cyclist ever (no ice cream for me!) and I was choosing TDF team winners soley on their kits, here's my top 5, with 1 being best:

1. T-Mobile - Pink doesn't even look dorky on the guys.
2. Gerolsteiner - Love the colors, love the gradients. Also love how the branding really carries from their product - it's not just a slapped-on logo.
3. Liquigas - Swell color combo. One could argue that it's too muted, too forgettable, kind of the opposite of a CSC kit, but I like it.
4. Il Diablo - Okay, he's not a team, but he's at the TDF every year and he has the best kit by far.
5. Phonak - It's kinda ugly yet kinda pretty, but definitely easy to read. Plus, although there's yellow in the kit, it's not so overwhelming that you mistake a rider for the malliot jeune.

Commute report

Mileage when I got to work: 2051.7

How hot is it? The breeze made it feel like I was in a convection oven.

Brooklyn Bike Brawl

It's training for the anti-carmegeddon.

Check out the NPR piece on the event or visit C.H.U.N.K 666 online.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2043.4

Of interest: It's sauna-hot. I melted on the way to work so I had to go to meetings sealed in a Ziploc.

Also of interest: Crews are resurfacing yet another road that's part of my commute. (This is a good thing.) What's interesting to me is the brick pavers that live underneath the asphalt. They're just so pretty. I'd say keep them, but everybody knows that pavers can get slick in the rain.

Touching: Listen to this proposal on StoryCorps. Scroll down to the entry for Michael Wolmetz and Debora Brakarz. I found StoryCorps through UglyBike.

Another odd music video, this time with BIKES

This odd music video includes Mason jars, cult-ish outfits, fruit leather, consumer-grade Casio-esque keyboards, 1980's ephemera, golds and browns, a fruit dehydrator, cute kids, a living room, a sewing machine and what looks to be a Dr. Who-esque family journey on bicycles.

The video is for We Will Become Silhouettes by The Postal Service and was directed by the director of Napoleon Dynamite.

Odds and ends

About the image above: That's from the Whiskey Dick Triatholon site. No, I'm not making that up. Really. Check out their site if you don't believe me.

Fun stuff: Bike-powered voice over IP. Here's the link.

Non-bike music video: If you haven't this backyard music video yet, you're really missing out. This is, like, totally my favorite music video. I could watch it 100 times and not get sick of it. Oh, and the song by OK Go, is really catchy.

Dad, can I have a photo? So cute. I remember being that age and discovering the joy of photography, granted, my dad wasn't being hunted by the papparazzo.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2023.8

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2013.5

Terrible news: The incident involving a car t-boning the Australian women's road cycling team is truly shocking in its sadness. One cyclist is dead and five others are injured, all by a young driver.

Lance in France podcast

iPod: technology of leisure travel

Before leaving for Maine, I loaded up the lizpod with all sorts of great podcasts.

I envisioned a podcast listening, lemonade-sipping scenario on wraparound porch at the b&b or, better yet, I'd be lounging by the water, signature white earpods in cranium, re-aligning my chakras.

iPod: everything else is at home (nearly)

I made a conscious tech decision. The laptop would stay home - it was a good decision, though it seems every general store, b&b, marina and quonset hut has wireless internet these days. The cell phone would travel too, but only be checked sporadically, especially since Maine's cell phone reception is spotty. The camera would come, especially to document the wedding.

iPod: good for plane rides

It turns out that I didn't listen to the pod until the plane ride home. This was a good thing. The less technology while on vacation, the better, so she blogs.

I did enjoy the Lance in France podcasts. One of the podcasts was cute. Supposedly Johan and Lance were discussing the next day's strategy back at the hotel (yeah right - they worked that shit out long ago). They said they could talk about it on the podcast since the podcast wasn't going to be uploaded until after the next day's race.

I'd argue that the podcasts need to be about 1/2 hour (they're a measly 5 minutes long) and I'd like a chance to listen to an entire press conference - and there could be more fun things, like raw audio from the warmup area, sound from roadside Lance fans (since this is Lance-centric) - but it's a good start.

There are VERY FEW bike podcasts around, so even though it's mostly a way to get folks signed up for Sirius satellite radio, and to raise the visibility of Lance's weekly Sirius show, I'm glad Lance in France is available.

NOTE: I just found out that Dan Osipow is doing TWICE DAILY podcasts from the tour. Pretty cool. I just subscribed...

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2003.7

Back from vacation: I enjoyed my time in Maine. If you haven't been to Monhegan Island, you should scrape up all of your pennies, and $100's and go. It's a real treat. I hesitate recommending it because too many visitors spoil the ambience, and if the island is as non-commercialized these days, I can't imagine how wonderful it used to be decades ago.

About today's photo: Google image searched this one. As always, you can click on the image to visit the image's site of origin.

Maine bike report: I did see some bikes around Maine, but because most of our car travelling was limited to Route 1, a busy highway, I didn't get a big chance to explore bikeways. I did stop in to a few bike shops and one of the inns we stayed at (I highly recommend this one!) did house a bike touring group at the same time.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 1999.2 (Almost at 2,00)

About the photo: The photo is from Cycling News via the AFP wire service.

El Diablo, Didi Senft, is a huge cycling fan. He rides a gigantic bike and dresses as the devil. He even has a sponsor, Luk clutches.

Senft has been Pezzed even has an entry in Wikipedia!

More El Diablo photos: Here and here

Bikes and Google maps

I love the Google map/dataset combo sites.

They're gaining so much traction so quickly that blogs have popped up to document the projects.

Now, here's a project that bikers can take to heart: Google maps mashed with cycling data.

This project is especially relevant to the fancy computer bikers (I'm not included - I don't train religiously enough to warrant anything more than a simple odometer/speedometer), the ones with the fancy watches and heart rate monitors and whatever else they have strapped to their bodies.

The fine folks at Particletree who created this project were kind enough to offer their sourcecode for free.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 1988.9

Weather: I wish I had windshield wipers on my glasses and rubber pants for my tush. Oh, and that flat in the rain didn't help, but it did give incentive to fix my tire rather quickly.

Bike-related Calvin and Hobbes strip: Click here

Japanese bike fun! FUN! FUN! FUN

Become a bike courier

Also of interest: call-ahead bike parking

Soooooooooooooooooooo ghetto

Saw this on Overheard in NY:

Tween girl: ...when her water broke, she rode her bike to the hospital. How ghetto is that?

--B44 bus

Mountin' up

I'm undoing adulthood slowly and trying to regain the skills of my youth, the skills I had that I didn't even know I had until I lost them.

Hand-less
I'm making progress on riding without hands. I'm getting really good at this. I don't want to get overconfident like this dude, but I'm again able to ride "look ma" style.

Gettin' on and off
After about two years of halfhearted attempts, and a mounting desire to compete in my first cyclocross race, it will become important to learn a cyclocross mount and dismount.

Even more importantly, this mount looks smooth and fancy!

The way I mount now: stop bike, flip pedal upwards, flip leg over. Clip in on right side, push off.

That's slow. A cyclocross mount, or some other "moving mount" sounds a whole lot quicker.

I'd also like to re-learn the "hop hop hop, swing one leg over" mount. My dad, age 64, always mounts this way. It looks scary to me, but also cool.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 1934.6 (I've gone about 700 miles since May, and only took about two long rides.)

Of interest: Hmmmm. Not much of anything.

commute report

miles when i got to work: 1926.5

rides this weekend: rural hills on sunday morning, rode to meet a friend at the always hip (really!) july 4 parade on monday

Team Puma on adrants

We got the free Team Puma DVD in the mail and liked it. It was almost too snippet-oriented though, not enough linear content. Anyway, the Team Puma has made it on Adrants blog.

There's a lot of marketing around this, and frankly, this is the type of marketing Puma needs. Forget the mainstream TV blasts, forget the mainstream altogether. There's even a Puma bike by Cannondale.

This site outlines the Puma plans.

By the way, have you checked out the Puma site lately? They have shoes designed by Phillipe Starck. Crazy.

It's not the TDF, it's a Brady Bunch episode

Don't walk...ride

Ya know those impossibly looooooooooooooong traffic lights. The ones that you can't just ride through because there's tons o' traffic. Well, this might be the solution you're looking for.

The "Famous Crosswalk Button Hack" (if it still works anymore) is the the following:

The most popular hack, which works on most models, is the "Instant Walk." Three short clicks, followed by two long, one short, two long, and three short; turn any crosswalk signal from "don't walk" to "walk" with a matching change in the traffic signals.

I've gotta try this today!

Media lab likes bikes too

MIT Media Lab project: Fancy bike helmet

High tech folks working to improve the a very low-tech experience. Cool.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 1820.7

Cream cheese: The newly repaved road feels just great, like I'm riding on cream cheese.