Astride A Strida
For Urban Cowboys
The Strida 5.0 – an Urban 2.0 mode of transportation is probably most portable of wheels for city get about. It weighs 10 kilograms and has a collapsible triangular frame. The Strida is long and narrow, and carries like a photographer’s tripod (I can fold it while running down the platform at Grand Central). An easy way to visualize it is to picture three tubes in a triangle. Two points are hinged, and the third is a latch. When unlatched, the tubes fall together to look like a group of parallel tubes with a seat and wheels. Assembly is just forming the triangle, then click and go. This design is very clever, yet simple and robust. Greaseless, very compact and guaranteed maintenance free. From $985. For dealers, see www.strida.com.Hey Hey Where Are you
The Plus Bike
Italian desginers Fabio Bortolani and Ermanno Righi of the Dovetusai studio in Milano have designed a radical two-frame über urban bike. It has the look of a old bike from the early 1900’s but with a modern touch. The top tube has a built-in light for late night urban riding. No indication if it’s in production or whether it ever will be.We all want one to be sure!
Source: Super Touch Art.
Men Touch.
Bicycle Kingdom
Remaining Vigilante
Last year, China became the world’s second-biggest car market, behind the United States. In Beijing alone, there are 1,000 new cars on the streets every day.As a result, bicycles are increasingly being squeezed to the margins. The streets are choked with traffic and automobile fumes. New roads are sometimes built without any bike lanes. Hundreds of bicyclists are killed in collisions with cars every year.
Pedal power has become so life-threatening that many Chinese have abandoned their bicycles.
Source: StreetsBlog
Cycling Generates Brainpower
alive
Cycling has enormous physical benefits. In a one-hour ride, you can work on strength and endurance, aerobic capacity, balance, and, depending on how many car doors you managed to dodge, agility.Good for the Brain…
Recent research shows that exercising can increase brainpower by prompting brain cells to multiply, strengthening their connections, and boosting their resilience against damage and disease, especially in older adults. A study published in 2005 reports on older Italian cyclists who, despite their ages, maintain extraordinary activity levels. The study explores “the physical and mental health effects of intensive exercise in older people…and the cultural and social features that support and promote bicycling in Italy.”
…and the Soul
Exercise-generated brainpower is conducive to philosophy and the soul. Cycling in nature provides the sensory impetus. The smells of the area may awaken long-lost memories that can add fuel to thought. Sounds of bugs, birds, and large hairy woodland creatures (whoa!) spark the development of more thought. On a bicycle you can experience every pothole on the trail and every daisy by the roadside. On every ride there is a cacophony of sensory input to spark those new brain cells. Thinking is like an adventure holiday. All you have to do is pedal.
Source: alive magazine
Here's Riding at You
Sweet Rider
Here’s a tip for riding in the winter months:Dress in layers. Multiple layers will help trap heat to your body and help maintain a steady body core temperature. You’ll want a windproof outer layer, a warm fleece type middle layer to trap your body heat, and a wicking bottom layer. You want the bottom layer to be next to your skin so that it can pull your perspiration away from your body to keep you dry. Keeping the body dry will prevent you from getting a deep chill that you can’t shake.
Source: Pedal PushersBici Zen
Immortal Class
Scrive achab: « E’ la bici che Filippo Zanazzi ha creato per me. Oggi l’ho ritirata, dopo essermi munito di Kriptonyte e ho scorrazzato per il traffico cittadino come un coyote selvaggio.» Il nome “achab”, gliel’ho dato io, deriva dal mondo dei byke messengers, per i quali “moby”, come la balena bianca che achab inseguiva, sono tutti i mezzi lenti e ingombranti, autobus, camioncini, attraverso i quali la bici schizza rapida eagile più di ogni altro mezzo. Insomma, una bici che arpiona la città. Ruota anteriore rigorosamente 26, posteriore 28. Come Bootleg comanda. Copertoni vittoria e ritchei (come quelli che avevi tu sulla bootleg), telaio nero, manubrio e sellino rossi. 24 velocità, moltiplica color metallo. Aspetto: meravigliosa!Se vuoi vederla, possiamo incontrarci… magari anche un giovedì a critcal mass. Ora bisogna aiutare Zanazzi a pubblicizzarla per bene, perché per me è una bomba questa bici.
Sto leggendo infatti Culley e lo zen ho capito che non è l’arte della manutenzione della motocilcetta, ma in quella della bicicletta. Lì c‘è lo zen. La bici da messenger in città è una TAZ come poche ce ne sono. Ti fa sentire bene. Altro che Smart.
Fonte (archivo ciclistica it)
Bici Zanazzi (la bici taz)
Immortal Class
Beer High
Here’s looking at you
Now that the final ruling on Landis has been rendered and in the spirit of Jones baring her soul, I too wish to come clean.A few years back I was transporting a local fellow who needed a lift from a nearby factory to the route where the TdF was scheduled to pass along.
I was rolling along as fast as I could given his weight and lack of fitness on a bike. But he was getting more and more agitated about the slowness of our progress. He was cursing and complaining that he didn’t want to miss this chance to watch the TdF roll by.
So as we cycled along as best as we could and coming upon a small beer shop by the road, I had the brilliant idea that we should grab a couple of brewskies: one for him in the hopes that it would calm his nerves, and one for me as I knew it would put sizzle in my gears.
Last year, after his spectacular ride, Landis offered this as a reason for his extra-effort on stage 17: “It was an attack that stemmed from a quiet beer I shared with team manager John Lelangue on Wednesday night, when we resolved that the Tour was “not over.”
And Landis even joked about that beer during his post-race press conference.
Well I had a good laugh over that, as it brought to mind my own personal performance after we got the brewskies into us. We started to pick-up steam. We got ourselves into the groove and we just buzzed along at an ever faster clip.. We not only got there in time but managed having gotten a big head of steam to easily fly over the peloton. Salud mon amis!
p.s. I think we could have won the stage that day. He begged me to go for it. But I knew that we would be tested, so I ignored him. Besides I didn’t want to end up on French TV and be another bike in the long lists of bikes who end up confessing for past indiscretions.
Shiny And New
Just Lke A Virgin
I am pedals incomplete, but it wont be long now. I can’t wait to hit the roads and byways of hill and town and feel the wind amoung the spokes. Today I have begun my countdown to the 2007 Giro. I am hoping that some soul’s heart will beat when they glance my way and will choose me as the bike to ride to glory. More than a groupo what I need now is for someone to commit to me. To want to take me to the top of Monte Zoncolan, and make cycling history atop the toughest climb in Europe, a 10 kilometer climb, rising with an average gradient of 11.9%. I am up to the challenge and I am on stand-by for the right rider. A strong rider on my bold frame can flatten any road!My present address
Uber Urban
Two Wheeled Sustainability
At first we thought that it would be too big of a change to make at this stage in our lives. For my wife it was not too big of an adjustment. She had never been one to commit to the open road. But for me it was something that I grappled with for some time. I had been a roadie; a rando bandito! But after one too many broken gears, I decided to give up the rural rides and the open roads. It was time to slow things down… to enjoy the ‘slow life’. I have settled into my new life as a city slicker. I have even gone so far as to add the comfort of chain guards to keep city grit from gumming me up. Oh yes I am now an urban unit. But I still on occasion like to ride out into the rural hills just outside the city and take in the quite solitude. And to reminisce about the old days … rando riding! But I do so now as a member of the slow life. As Jorg & Olif say ‘...our lifestyles should reflect our values and communicate who we are. The choices we make ultimately shape the way we live’.Vive La Resolution!
