We’ve seen bikes made from wood before, but how about entirely from wood!
Posted in Uncategorized
Check out this clip on YouTube which claims to be of a cyclist weaving through traffic in Mexico at high speed. Truly incredible – it seems almost impossible that it can be someone on a bike doing that. But then I also saw this clip of a similarly insane cycle courier race in London.
It turns out both were made by Lucas Brunelle and you can view these and other videos on his own website. Also worth checking out the photos for (amongst other things) a couch bike and an amphibious bike. There should be more people like Lucas in the world. Life would be more interesting, if maybe a little more dangerous!
Hard to find cycle news that isn’t TDF related but here goes. The Moscow News writes about the difficulties of cycling in Moscow, whilst the NY Times reports on a new way to measure the power output of a bike. Meanwhile Paris has launched the worlds biggest city bike rental scheme making over 10,000 bikes available from 750 stations around the capital.
In Maine a new law is passed to protect cyclists whilst also tightening helmet laws – and strangely providing equal rights for cyclists at drive through windows!
Finally a few different papers seem to have picked up a story about bikes made from bamboo (also here). If you want to buy one check out the website here. Apparently bamboo is as strong as steel, flexible, and an ideal material for bike frames.
Posted in fun, in the news
I’m not about to cover the entire pro/anti cycle helmet debate in one short blog entry, but this study caught my eye a little while ago. It’s not often that you see actual research in what is usually a quite emotive debate. To sum it up this chap attached sensors to his bike and recorded how much room motorists gave him whilst wearing a helmet and without. Turns out that motorists seem to do some kind of strange compensation and actually get closer when the cyclist is wearing a helmet. Amusingly the guy also wore a wig to appear more like a female cyclist and was given even more room on the road.
If you really want to hear my two pennies worth (hey, it’s my blog) then I’m not persuaded enough by the study to trade in my helmet for a wig. Most of my cycling is commuting and mountain biking. I’ve seen helmets save lives both on and off road enough times to keep me reaching for my Giro as I leave the house.
And apparently David Beckham agrees.
Update: See this TV report from US show 20/20 which interviews the author of the above study.
OK so ITV finally got their act together and updated their site (more on their TV coverage later no doubt). Elsewhere in the mainstream media there’s coverage from the BBC (what you would expect from them, good but hardly exciting), Guardian (who seem to have Bradley Wiggins blogging for them), Times, and Eurosport.
The official site probably remains amongst the best places to head to on the interweb and is available in French, English, Spanish or German. Alternatives include the official tour YouTube channel. Cycling News has a fairly comprehensive site particularly if you’re into the more techy aspects, and Bicycling magazine has lots of reports and videos (including a column by David Millar).
In the blog world TDFBlog is a probably top and I’ll leave you to follow the links from there to other tour related blogs. Finally you can view the route on Google Earth and this site has details of various live radio and TV streams. Had enough yet? Only three more weeks to go…
Posted in media, tour de france
I love my bikes, but apparently not as much as this man. A lot of links flying around this week to this video of bike drifting, or power sliding on a bike.
And of course Britain is proud to be hosting one of the world’s premier cycling events this weekend. Yes it’s the the 9th World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling Championships.
Posted in fun
The Flying Scotsman is a new film telling the story of Graham Obree (warning film site plays cheesy trailer with ‘voiceover man’). The film seems to have got mostly good reviews (although not entirely). It has also received quite a lot of press coverage and interviews with Graham, amongst the best being this interview on the BBC.
Haven’t yet seem the film but I hope they don’t turn it into a typical corny triumph over adversity sports film. Mind you, Graham’s story of home-made bikes, marmalade sandwiches and world records does seem to lend itself to the treatment. It’s also a much needed drug-free cycling story. If you want it all in his own words you could buy the book – although it seems a shame that Graham’s picture on the front of his own autobiography seems to have been replaced by one of Jonny Lee Miller.
Posted in film, track cycling
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