Welcome to this week’s roundup! We’re starting with my favorite video (so far) that I’ve posted. This is a great little documentary about a bike shop in Amsterdam. There are many great quotes (“without a bike, you’re nowhere in Amsterdam”) and sweet moments. I love seeing all the “working bikes”.
The next is my video of the minibike chariot races. Jonathan’s article has great pictures, but video illustrates the chaos in a completely different way. I’m thrilled this part of Portland still exists.
This video shows the problems with cycling in Berlin. Even when there are bike lanes, they aren’t first-class. Skip ahead a minute for policy and explanation. Her video is very well-done; I really like the style. (warning: colorful language at the beginning)
https://vimeo.com/149510165
This video shows Ross Shafer’s house. Shafer is the creator of Salsa. He talks about choosing the name Salsa and shows the first bike (“I’d a hard time that good quality of a paint job on acid”). It’s interesting to listen to Shafer’s business instincts.
This is an older video, but it’s from the city of Odense in Denmark, showing their cycling infrastructure. They make a good argument for being the leader of cycling. Note their right-turn paths and the curbless sidewalks. Does anyone know what street they said was going carfree? It’d be great to see video of that.
While we’re on older videos, parking in bike lanes is a concern, but what about moose in a bike lane? I’m unsure where this is, I’m guessing northern Europe, because the bike lane is nicer than anything I’d expect to find in Canada or Alaska (or Russia).
This is video has audio of the brilliant Carlton Reid on (arch-conservative) Nick Ferrari‘s “Leading Britain’s Conversation”, which Reid renamed “London’s Bloody Cyclists”. Ferrari’s arguments are infuriating- I’m unsure how delivery services lead to massive amounts of traffic- since there are usually only a tiny number of delivery vans compared to the online retailers that use those services. Anyhow, it’s outrageously illuminating.
A local rider uploaded their mistake to Youtube. As they were looking for a gap to go around a bus, they failed to mentally process the surrounding traffic. It appears that target fixation was the final piece of the puzzle leading to the crash. (warning, spicy language, collision, no significant injury)
Mike Cotty has been branching out for this “season” of Col Collective videos. This is the most recent video, showing him climbing (and talking about) Pikes Peak. I’ve been up it by motorized means; I’d love to do it under my own power someday. (you can also watch the descent)
How much have bikes improved in the past 30 years? I ride a slightly updated 40 year old 10-speed Raleigh and a modern race/climbing bike. There’s a big difference in weight and drivetrain accuracy, but the most significant differences are the lack of gearing range and less effective brakes.
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Drones are coming. This one shows beautiful footage of the Orica GreenEdge training camp in South Africa.
This video is a 4-minute timelapse showing the process of building a custom bike. Seeing the handiwork is always fun- and then seeing the rider on the streets completes the story. For those that don’t like watching urban riding, skip ahead to the 3 minute mark to see some pretty scenery.
This is a well-directed and well-shot video showing offroad riding. The drone footage is great, and it looks like a scenic place to ride. Of course, it’s the French Alps, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that it’s so scenic.
This week’s honorable mentions: this mountain biking/forest rally video being used to sell a car, the new Showers Pass waterproof socks (they work for me), cars in the bike lanes in SF (skip ahead to the 2 minute mark for an egregious example- hooray for parents?), a review of Zwift Workouts, the process of buying a car in Japan (from Streetfilms, looks like some of the externalities have been captured), and tilting (e-assist) trike.
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. I will delay videos containing pro racing spoilers by 7 days.
– Ted Timmons, @tedder42
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As an ‘Ami’ (American) living in Germany, the short from Claudia really rings true to my own experiences. I have been here for about 12 years and the infrastructure for cycling has actually decreased in that time. What is there is good but new developements are often not linked to other areas by way of cycleway. What makes this more strange is that the numbers of cyclists continue to steadily grow. Berlin in particular has an amazing opportunity to become a city totally devoted to multimodal transport. Unfortunately, they seem set to model the worst case scenario of another capital city: Brussels.
Don’t think everything in Europe is perfect Portland! We are a bit further but we have our own battles to fight!
Someone needs to introduce Nick Ferrari to the concept of induced demand… something tells me he would just condescendingly talk over you though.
Ross Shafer is my new hero.
Deservingly so. I have been one degree away from him over the years. I never was able to get one of his bikes, but I have over a couple dozen Salsa stems, I will never part with. Three have been in my cross bikes since the late 80’s.
Ted… Thanks for the Amsterdam vid. I tire easily of Portland worshiping their engrained life with bikes, but as a bike industry person that small slice of life warms my heart !