Welcome to today’s pre-Thanksgiving video roundup! I’ve been riding around town but the fancy carbon bike is relegated to the trainer right now. Still, there are plenty of great videos to inspire us. We start with the European Bike Stealing Championships 2015 video above. The audio is a little busy, but it’s worth watching (action begins past the two minute mark).
Next, look at the Great Shasta Rail Trail! It’s rideable near McCloud. Laura from PathLessPedaled shows us how beautiful it is. This looks like a great destination for this upcoming year- perhaps combined with Crater Lake. Ah, winter season dreams.
Steve “Peaty” Peat takes us on a beautiful mountain adventure in Norway. Skip ahead 45 seconds if you want, the footage is gorgeous, but that area will go dark for the winter around December 9, the sun doesn’t return until January 4.
Ashland-based Jeff Jones has been featured here a few times but it’s been a while. His rigid all-terrain bike has a unique front fork and handlebars. He explains his rationale here:
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Do you remember Dave Roth? In this video he and Seb Kemp go cycling around British Columbia. It’s an older video (2 years old!) but it’s appropriate this time of year- it’s certainly wet and grey in the footage. I can’t tell what Seb is repairing around the 4 minute mark. If you are living outside the PNW right now, this may make you homesick.
Ellie Mitchell bikes to school. In Alaska. She also races against adults. What’s my excuse? Also, Al’s beard is nearly as awesome as his daughter.
Watch GCN ride on 1980-era wheels. It’s surreal to see the ancient (and narrow-range) cassette working with the (electronic) Di2 shifting.
Detroit’s Slow Roll weekly bike rides are encouraging. The progress Detroit is marking towards bike infrastructure and even bicycle manufacturing is inspiring. (Commenter Gregg rode with Slow Roll last year).
This week’s honorable mentions: Path Less Pedaled goes bike(fly)fishing in the Sacramento River, GCN’s guide to turbo training, Col Collective Season Two preview, former pro and current GCN host Matt Stephens interviews Frank Strack of Velominati at the Rouleur Classic (terrible video, great subject, good rationale on avoiding lifting your bike over your head), and finally the partying at SSCXWC (what is the “Canadian line”?).
Inclusion criteria: If I’ve missed something, post it in the comments! I’m trying to only include videos published in the last week or so. Note if there’s a specific point in a long video that is worth highlighting. Also note if there is colorful language. When it gets to spring, I will delay videos containing pro racing spoilers.
– Ted Timmons, @tedder42
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If bankrupt Detroit can find the money to build protected bike lanes, then there’s no excuse for Portland not to build them.
one thing that stands out is that the people stealing these bikes do not look like some of the bike theives in Portland who are experiencing extreme poverty, like Leroy Parsons a two weeks back. It must be nice to live in a place with a more substantial social safety net.
Yes! Instead of fighting the bike thieves we should be fixing the reason they turn to theft in the first place.
I asked someone from Germany about how much homelessness they have. She seemed a bit confused. “Well….we don’t really have homeless & begging…” I don’t know if it’s true, just reporting what was said.
They do have homelessness, it’s just not as visible as it is here since more effort goes into keeping it out of sight and out of mind. Much like if someone from Europe comments on racial violence while also claiming that Europe has none, bring up Roma/Gypsies.
I live in Europe, I count on one hand the number of homeless I’ve seen in 2 years.
This works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tufnWwV2J5I
The Jones bike looks interesting.
What happened to the guy who stole the bike in Amsterdam? they didn’t show.
I don’t have statistics on the matter but I did just spend 9 months cycling all over Europe and there are very very few people living on the streets. Practically none. There is a safety net the likes of which does not exist in the States.
It’s definitely not an out of sight, out of mind situation… where are you saying this ghost population of homeless are being hidden? Cause wherever they are, they’re not living on the streets. Except the Roma, who choose to be there.
I’m not saying there isn’t poverty in Europe, it has it’s problems for sure, but economies that have people starving and begging in plain sight, as we have in the US, is not one of them.
Re: Bike stealing video. How about instead of a “smoke” bomb there’s a “paint” bomb like banks use built into the seat so the thief would be running away with an orange bum?
I read the bike stealing championships were staged with actors.
Where did you read that? I assume there’s a link.