Welcome to your weekly roundup of the best bike stories on the web…
— Big news from Colorado this morning: According to the Denver Post, the bike ban in the small town of Black Hawk has been overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court.
— It was a big week for cyclocross in America with Louisville hosting the 2013 World Championships. A Wall Street Journal piece declared the event, “The Other (Cooler) Super Bowl.” From what I heard, the weather was severe, but the crowds were undeterred. If you missed the action, catch replays over at VeloNews.com.
— And just how bad can things get for Lance Armstrong? Across the pond they’re wondering whether everyone who bought his “It’s not about the bike” book should get a refund. “It wasn’t about the bike, after all.”
— Have you heard the rumors that President Obama might pick Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for US DOT Secretary? Well, Villaraigosa says it’s not going to happen (at least until the end of June).
— This is pretty sweet. A 10-year old boy from Newport Beach, California has started a bike-based recycling business.
— A lot of folks in the advocacy world are wondering how to more effectively connect health issues to active transportation. If you’re one of them, there’s a new page on the Federal Highway Administration website that might be worth checking out.
— This Daily Beast article asks a very good question: Where are the Bicycles in Post-Apocalyptic Fiction?
— San Francisco continues to make noise about their ambition new bike plan. Unfortunately it’s largely unfunded (sound familiar?).
— If you’re a fan of the Lovely Bicycle blog, you’ll be happy to know that Ms. Constance Winters is now writing the “Upright Citizen” blog on Bicycling.com.
— One way to improve bicycling that is relatively inexpensive and not too ambitious is to make neighborhood streets nicer to bike on. It’s great to see that concept continue to spread as our friends in Pasadena, California get set to enjoy their first bicycle boulevard.
— Fat biking is set for a big year. If you haven’t thought much about it yet, this story from KATU is a good primer.
— Here’s a fun one from pseudo-news site NewsBiscuit: Cyclists furious as council paint everything else luminous green.
— Has anyone tried this Lovetrack iPhone app (video below)? It looks pretty nifty. Sort of like Strava but more visual and for around-town rides instead of serious training rides.
Lovetrack from Lovetrack on Vimeo.
We round up the best bike-inspired things we find on the web each Monday. If you’d like to share something you come across, drop us a line and we’ll give it a look. For more great bike links, be sure to follow @BikePortland on Twitter.
Thanks for reading.
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Cool story about the bike-based recycling business! When I was 10 I had a bicycle-based newspaper distribution business.
Same here. I used a whole month’s pay to get the bmx bike of my dreams. Some very fond memories delivery paper on my bicycle after school
I’m a tad ashamed that it took me so long to determine the luminous story wasn’t satire upon first read. I could feel myself getting very upset, and them very very embarrassed.
Well sadly, this kind of “safety” overreaction is all too believable in the information [overload] age where people operate in a perpetual state of distraction. I say if you’re not going to pay any attention to what’s going on around you, just plug yourself into The Matrix and be done with it; let the rest of us have the real world.
“Has anyone tried this Lovetrack iPhone app (video below)? ”
The app is not yet available btw.
bicycles in post-apocalyptic fiction – Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. Set in Willamette Valley.
the lack of bicycles really bugged me when i read “the road”.
watching veloria/velouria/constance morph over time has been fun but how many pseudonyms does one person need?
How many names?
Aliases needed = (bridges burnt + enemies made)^2
I am incredibly happy ‘The Road’ didn’t have any bicycles. That novel made me so sad (it was brilliant, but sad) I wouldn’t want to associate one of my favorite pass times with it.
re; bbc magazine Lance Armstrong article:
Good article, brings up some very interesting aspects reflecting on to what degree people feel righteous indignation about this athletes challenges, fair accomplishments and transgressions.
A couple excerpts:
“…Not all those taken in by the Armstrong myth believe they are entitled to a refund, however. A keen endurance mountain bike racer before he was struck by lymphoma, Richard Salisbury was inspired to return to the saddle after reading It’s Not About The Bike during his recovery in 2002.
Essentially, he believes, readers of Armstrong’s books got what they paid for – and reclaiming the autobiographies’ cover price will not retrospectively make up for Armstrong’s behaviour.
“The books did help a lot of people through a dark time,” he adds.
“Someone gave me the book while I was in remission and it came at the right time. It inspired me to get back out there. You can’t take that away.” …” bbc article
“…Similarly, he argues, readers have an obligation to use their own critical faculties. Claims about Armstrong’s doping had circulated for years, Byng says. The public, he insists, were free to make up their own minds.
“It’s laughable that someone is seriously thinking about doing this,” he adds.
“The idea that just because someone calls something a memoir it’s definitely the truth is so naive. Every narrator is unreliable.
“Armstrong is a total piece of work and I’m not trying to defend him, but this wasn’t the first time this happened and it won’t be the last.” …” from bbc magazine article, Jamie Bing ,managing director of Canongate books