The Cycling Dude

True or False: Tandem Cycling a Marriage Saver?

Being a bachelor, and never having been aboard a Tandem, I'm the last person to ask about this question. ;-D

I DID find an article by Jennifer Schwartz, of Boston.com, from last July, that addresses the question.

It seems that while taking a ride with the spouse, each of you on your own trusty steed, may be a great way to experience the outdoors, and get some exercise, it can sometimes put a crimp in the relationship.

What to do?

Chuck seperate bikes, and share one! ;-D

This is a nice, feel good, story, with a wonderful illustration. ;-D

1 Legged Cyclist an Inspiration

Imagine yourself pedaling up, up, up, some highway in the mountains near where you live...

It's a beautiful spring day, you can see for miles, and you don't have a care in the world as you huff, and puff your way up the road.

Suddenly you become aware of a cyclist coming up behind you, and announcing his passage on your left.

Your jaw drops, and you almost lose your balance, on your trusty steed, as you notice that the rider leaving you in his wake...is doing so on 1 leg. ;-D

This happens alot to cyclists in Los Angeles according to a great article, in todays LA Times, about Felix Hackenberg:

During a 1999 appointment with a prosthetist Hackenberg was asked if he had considered riding a bicycle. No, he replied, but he was willing to try.

"I thought I'd have to put a mattress on my left side in case I fell," he said. "But I got on the thing and immediately had balance. I could ride it."

He hasn't stopped pedaling since. The 58-year-old is a daily fixture on streets near his Hollywood home, in Griffith Park and on steep mountain roads such as Mulholland Highway...

Read the rest of his amazing story, and see a selection of photos, here: Disabled Hollywood man bicycles way out of bitterness by Bob Pool.

 

Cycling Images to Make You Smile, and Think

I came across a couple of images that are interesting, beautiful, and funny.

1. Nothing like a bike ride with friends!

2. Cycling across a bridge in Italy.

Women have been Racing Bikes Since the Late 1800's?

I don't cover Professional Bicycle Racing, around here, but I love history, and I found the first paragraph and a half of the Introduction to Women's Cycling page of the Top Pro Cycling Women Website, to be a fascinating bit of reading:

As far back as the late 1800's, women were racing high wheeled bikes both for fun, and as a way to generate some income.

Ernestine Bernard of Paris put on a spectacle with a three mile race with a horse on her high wheeled bike at Toronto...

One women was noted to have not only raced and won repeatedly for years making a decent income, but she indulged in some elaborate antics, and handicapped herself on occasions to give the opponents a better shot at winning. However she was very good, and rarely lost these races...

In the early 1900's women were competing in 6 day events with evening competitions...

On June 25, 1894, Annie Londonderry became the first woman to cycle around the world.

Evelyn Hamilton rode 700 miles in September 1935 covering the distance in 4 days in beautiful Northern Scotland.

Read the rest of the piece here.

Check out the Top Pro Cycling Women website for more recent tidbits of history on other pages of the site.

 

 

112 years old, and Good Looking for its Age!

One of the first aluminum bicycles ever made.

A very cool look at a bike built in 1896.

Oh, and it's a Fixie, hee, hee! ;-D

5 wonderful photos of this bike in all its glory.

Thanks to Matt, from Des Moines, Iowa, for sharing!

I came across this page by accident, and it is part of a website called the Fixed Gear Gallery, a website with what it bills as "An incredible collection of Fixed Gear Bicycles from Around the World."

It's a news site, a resource site, and has forums, contests, and a Swapmeet, in addition to the growing Photo Gallery (Over 8600 entries!).

The Gallery has been around now for 7 years.

Photographing Abandoned Bicycles for Posterity

Joe Schumacher describes his effort this way:

New York has a lot of abandoned bicycles. I don't know why.

Do people forget the combinations or keys to their locks?

Do they forget they had a bike?

Most of the bikes pictured here are pretty cheap bikes.

Some of the bikes appear to have been abandoned long ago.

Consider this ever-growing photo album a way to remember those forgotten bicycles.

Awww, the poor, defenseless, little darlings! ;-D

An absolutely fascinating collection of photos.

Is Your Bike Frame A Hazard to Your Health?

I can hear you now... "What the ?"

That's what I thought, too.

The story is an interesting one:

Though you cannot see them, you may be touching them or even wearing them right now. Products made using nanoparticles are already part of our lives...

Nanotechnology -- the science of reducing materials to tiny sizes with new properties -- already has been used in more than 600 products in the U.S. market...

Carbon nanotubes are used to make bike frames lighter and sturdier, according to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, an initiative of the Woodrow Wilson International Center and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

While experts said there is no example of a product made using nanotechnology harming anyone, there appear to be issues of proper oversight.

Read the full story at Market Watch.

New Cycling Term Takes Lane on Wikipedia Highway

CYCLE CHIC:

A term that describes the culture of everyday cycling in fashionable clothes. It is generally associated with the utility cycling practised in cities such as Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berne, Basle, Berlin, among others, where citizens practice a high level of bicycle usage. In many European cities, as well as cities in China and Japan, cycling is an everyday transport choice and many cyclists choose to wear their regular clothes, as opposed to outfits generally associated with cycle sport, such as bicycle shorts, gloves and shoes.

Apparetly this is an up and coming trend in cities that are putting money into bicycle friendly infrastructure and facilities.

Get this!

"Citizens are discovering that it is possible to ride in their normal clothes around town."

WOW! Who'd a Thunk it? ;-D

Wikipedia.

A Tip of the Hat to new BikeBlogger Riding Pretty!

A quick tour of her blog indicates that a wonderful new site from California has joined the ranks. ;-D

Riding Pretty is a Berkeley, CA., Cyclist who has designed some really cool Bike Helmet Slip-on Covers for the Ladies (Guys, too, eventually, hee, hee???). ;-D

Tallest Man in World Takes Up Bicycling

Is this cool, or what? ;-D

Thanks to the kindness of strangers this amazing man is learning to ride a bicycle. ;-D

On Sunday, an organization for the disabled in his home village of Podolyantsi, 125 miles west of Kiev, gave Stadnik a giant bike so he can ride to the grocery store in a nearby village. The group also presented Stadnik with a fitness machine.

So what if the President of the country gave him a car, too, just look at the expression on his face in the photo, and in the video. ;-D

Inspiring Story of Persistence Over Pain

This is a story of a cyclist, injured while driving his car, who used his love of cycling to recover:

Greg Sherman shrugs and says really, he's just an average guy.

But an average guy doesn't get hit by a gravel truck, suffer debilitating pain for four years, then complete a dozen "century" bicycle races in as many months.

In a nutshell, that pretty much describes what happened to the Brentwood resident in 2007.

His advice for anyone wanting to do Centuries:

Surround yourself with motivating people. If you do it by yourself, it's a little bit harder.

From the Contra Costa Times -2/18/08:

Bicyclist undeterred by car accident: Brentwood man back in the saddle after years of pain, rehab, workouts.