Our first video is an obligatory Christmas-themed video: someone riding a tree-equipped tallbike around Paris.
What caused the Dutch bike revolution? Too much traffic, too many traffic deaths, and oil/economic crises. Kindermoort (“children deaths”) went from 400 to nearly zero per year. How’s that different than the US? There hasn’t been a mass movement against these issues here.
This is a well-filmed video traversing Iceland from North to South with mountain biker/freerider/mountain trials rider Hans Rey. The music bed fits very well.
This track bike race in Mexico City is light on details but it shows what Mexico City (and the surrounding region) looks like. I treasure my memories of traversing all of Central America.
While we are talking about racing, here’s the East Coast Cargo Bike Championship. That’s some serious cargo! Warning: spicy language.
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This “bike poncho” Kickstarter project is interesting. I wonder how well it would work, especially given the rain we’ve had this month.
Finally, here are two of my recent videos. The first is of Saltzman Road on December 13. We went to check out the truck crash and fire and wanted to see how Saltzman looked with the recent flooding.
Second, I was invited to join some mountain bikers in St. George, Utah. I was experimenting with a new camera (it’s a little bumpy) and I missed most of the slickrock fun. It’s still surreal to see this terrain, given the December we’ve been having!
Honorable mentions: good sportsmanship: not passing a rider who flatted near the line (near end of vid clip; here’s a news article explaining it), the crazy Joe Rogan interviewing the barely-apologetic Lance Armstrong, a boring video of Peter Sagan on a fatbike on snow (but still ensuring I mention Sagan every week), loud music and high-energy mountain biking,
“bandit cross” video, video about Los Angeles’s CicLAvia, and BMX street riding.
Inclusion criteria: If I’ve missed something, post it in the comments! I prefer 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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That truck fire was just barely not more interesting.
If it had ignited a single one of the asphalt tankers odds are they all would have ignited.
But… If any of the asphalt tankers had leaked & burned it would have occurred RIGHT NEXT TO a silicon wafer plant I used to work at. While their chemical storage and protection proceedures are well within standards I don’t suspect there are many contingency plans that include several leaking burning asphalt tankers at the border of your property.
This fire could have become VERY interesting.
seems they’re trying to reinvent the rain cape…
That Saltzman video…who knew Forest Park would be wet in the winter?!
Stays pretty wet in the summer too.
Conditions are better in the winter as far as I’m concerned. Far too often negotiating the sharp blind corners meant placing yourself at the outside of the turn no matter what because the terrain blocked the sights and sounds of downhill MTB runners who would always take the inside of the turn at full speed SIGHT UNSEEN
… Funny thing is that, being Portlanders, they’d always panic and try to avoid you then apologize. The sudden appearance of high velocity bicycle where there was no sight nor sound of it before is rather jarring in an otherwise very quiet park.
Winter seems to reduce the number of these clueless daredevils a great deal.
Clueless daredevil here! With no real MTB options in the city I will continue to bomb the firelanes…because that is all I have.
BTW, clueless, no. Hyper aware of all of my surrounding when in descending mode. Planning my line far ahead as I go. Full control of bike at all times. I have been riding MTB’s in the area for 20 years, FP has been a go-to throughout all of those years. That will not change.
Daredevil? Umm, no. That is relative term. I see guys on motorcycles splitting the lanes at 70MPH, that is daredevil to me, but to them, just business as usual. I see guys assembling construction cranes 100’s of feet off the ground, daredevil to me, business as usual for them. You get the picture.
They don’t work well for drop bars either–block lights on bars. Like a lot of things, they work great in certain situations.
The Saltzman climb is great no matter then conditions, but the Cornell descent crazy no matter what. In heavy rain, no thank you.
…the conditions…
…is crazy…
Aww come on!
The rocketship bombing run down Cornell from Skyline to Barnes is KICKAZZ!
If you get a green light at the Cornell and NW Miller intersection you can easily maintain or exceed the posted speed limit. Cars will simply leave you alone because you are going the “proper” speed.
No blinking or twitching though; it helps if, as a kid, you imagined piloting down a narrow space station trench at full throttle while avoiding enemy fire.
that is my “summer training” descent, I do it a couple times per week. Not usually in the wet, though. I kept the speed down.
It sounds like yours had a hood and was too small for you + your bike. I haven’t felt like mine (from catoregon.org) was limiting movement, except turn signals in heavy rain + wind. It does block my mirror and sometimes the handlebar mounted headlight, but seemed to work fine with the drop bar (on the hoods) and straight handlebar bikes. Rain pants and booties are a better bet for heavy rain, since your shoes and shins get soaked by splash from your tires and even your hips get splashed by nearby cars plowing through puddles. It’s great for unexpected downpours or sprinkles on warm days. The rest of the winter, I’m already wearing a raincoat as a windbreaker, so rain chaps might be a better backup to keep my legs dry.
The stiffened front on the boncho looks interesting if it will stay down and not blow up. It also looks rather compact and light. Mine does puddle between my arms, so I have to be careful to dump it before trying to signal or it will dump on my leg.
Their website is down. *sniffle*
I totally thought that video would be of Dan Saltzman getting wet!!!!!! You click baited me!!!!! 🙂
This one was just released today. Timely as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwqCGPJOg7k
The rain cape idea is awesome. A wand of springy hoop to keep the front out there where it belongs; and then it helps it to compact the whole thing into a small package. I hope they do well.
I wish they forced every tour-de-France racer to wear a rain cape when it rains in the race. Not only would the riders race in greater comfort, spectators may consider the rain cape for their own use. Rain cape technology would improve too, as competing teams would work on improving the capes. Now that could be some trickle-drown technology that many people would find useful!
If you used a rain cape in the past and hated it, your negative experience may be premature. Fit and material make a big difference. I made a rain cape out of Sunbrella material this week and it is very promising. Will put up a blog post about it in a week or so.