The British government says cycling in the UK is getting more and more dangerous each year, according to a story in The Times.
The rate of cyclists killed and seriously injured measured as a proportion of distance travelled rose by 9 per cent in 2011. It was the third consecutive year in which the rate of death and serious injury amongst cyclists had increased. . . . The data undermined Government claims that it is becoming ever-more safe to cycle as increased numbers of cyclists take to the roads in Britain. The figures also provoked calls for an urgent inquiry into the apparent decline of road safety.
The most dangerous time to ride a bike? During rush hour. In other words, bike commuters in the UK are in even greater danger. Something needs to be done.
Looking for USB rechargeable lights for morning/evening rides or commutes now that fall has descended on the Northern Hemi? Knog Blinders are a great way to go. Click the link to check them out.
Who what? According to the Inner Ring this is Quentin Jauregui switching bikes during a race. You may have to watch the edit a couple times. We didn’t even see it the first time.
We spent most of our time on the floor of the Sands Expo center at Interbike half-heartedly searching the aisles for an ANT+ monitor. Not a bicycle computer, not a GPS unit, not a dedicated nav system; just a dumb monitor that can read all our ANT+ data and display it back to us from a small unit on our bars.
We rock the iPhone for our cycling data capture. We’ve got to carry the phone anyway, and if we’re going to carry it, we might as well use it as our computer. But we’re not interested in mounting the iPhone on our bars for several reasons. One, it requires putting the phone in a new case every time we go on a ride, two, we’re not sure the iPhone will stay on the bars while we’re mountain biking, and three, the iPhone is just to big to be mounted up on the bars anyway. We’re already neck deep into Abvio’s Cyclemeter and really aren’t interested in jumping ship to a Garmin 500 for all kinds of reasons. We simply want a way to see the numbers without having to get the phone out of our back pocket. It seems like this would be a pretty popular item if it were made correctly and priced right.
New Haven, Connecticut has a new enemy: bike gangs. Yes, according to a story on MyFoxNY.com criminals have been using bikes to commit crimes.
Police tell the New Haven Register the bike packs have been roaming the Fair Haven neighborhood, often targeting the large population of undocumented workers that live in the area. . . They say the gangs will roll up to a victim, beat them up and rob them, before riding away.
We’re just guessing on this one, but we bet the gangs aren’t riding carbon, hardtail mountain bikes. BMX maybe?
The Des Plaines, Iowa Police Department tolled out four new iForce Bicycles at their downtown police station last week saying that these bikes were the “department’s lated addition to its vehicle fleet,” according to a storying the Journal Online.
Police called attention to the value of using bicycles to enhance “saturation patrols in problem areas of the city” as an enforcement strategy. These require officers to patrol an area on foot, bicycles or in police vehicles. Since the department’s two bicycles were 12 years old, the need to upgrade the department’s bicycles became apparent. . . “Bicycles enhance our officers’ ability to more aggressively patrol targeted areas where it is difficult for a police squad to patrol. The targeted patrol areas will benefit from an enhanced police presence. We’re stepping up our efforts to reduce criminal activity by, as I like to say, ‘getting more boots on the ground,’” said Mayor Moylan.
As we’ve said before, having cops on bikes also lets the officers see how it is out on the roads and makes them much more sympathetic to the needs of cyclists all over the city.
After a week in Las Vegas (September 17-21, 2012) at Interbike 2012 we feel like we were just getting a handle on where everything was. It was a huge show filled with wondrous things of all sizes and shapes. Here is a little of what we saw, people we talked to, and booths we stumbled through during our tour. Enjoy the ride. Click here for the complete photo gallery.
In the era of buckles, and straps, and clicking ratchets seeing a pair of full race cycling shoes with simple laces seems almost absurd at first. But sometimes it takes a step back to remind us all how good the old school can be.
Giro has gone back to the future with their new road cycling shoe the Empire. During the Outdoor Demo at Interbike we spoke with Giro Creative Director Eric Horton to get the idea behind delivering a laced racing shoe in 2012. [click to continue…]
It’s always great to see so many bikes together in one place with so many people who love them. Not even a 98 degree hot blast could melt the smiles off everyone faces at Interbike’s Outdoor Demo in Boulder City, Nevada September 17 – 18, 2012.
With only 8 hours a day and hundreds and hundreds of bikes it’s difficult to even know where to begin. In fact, we were so blown away by all the product that we didn’t even ride today. We attempted to sort things out for tomorrow. We saw a 36er (yes, bozo), some 650b’s, and an electronic suspension system that we’re only beginning to get our heads around. But that could take a while.
Hey look, it’s a unicyle with a front wheel, and bars, and a front disc brake that came about by someone asking a simple question, according to their site:
Is it possible to evolve from the established bicycle design while adhering to the basic principles of simplicity, functionality, and excitement? . . This is the question that gave birth to the bicymple. By removing the chain, the number of moving parts and overall complexity is significantly reduced. A direct-drive, freewheeling hub joins the crank arm axis with the rear-wheel axis, shortening the wheelbase and minimizing the design.
In this case it appears that the designers are keeping it simple and stupid.
The British government says cycling in the UK is getting more and more dangerous each year, according to a story in The Times.
