Welcome to this week’s roundup! Let’s start with a great success- New Yorkers are happy that the protected Pulaski Bridge Bike Path is open (see it on a map). It was done by reclaiming a lane from cars. The video above, from Streetfilms, shows the path and reactions to it.
This video shows a BMX rider in Long Beach California standing up to a police officer. Clearly the rider knew his rights in the park. He’s confrontational (and warning, spicy language), but hooray for well-informed citizens. As some of the comments say, this isn’t recommended for minorities.
The Little 500 is a race in Indiana, infamously depicted in Breaking Away. There’s a new film called ‘One Day In April’ coming out about it:
Here’s a local video showing PedalPT celebrating “National High Five Day”. Does anybody know that one dude?
This 20-minute video shows the bike boom of the 1970s; the first few minutes show the cyclists explaining why they choose to go by bike. This video, put out by the very pro-car AAA was well-done, discussing what cyclists and motorists should do. For instance, “bikes seem to swerve without reason”, and then it shows why cyclists may alter their path. My favorite quote: “someday there may be separate facilities for bicycles”.
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There are a lot of myths about carbon fiber. Does it explode? (no) Can heavy riders use it? (yes)
This video showing how (Polish U23 world champ) Kasia Niewiadoma was discovered is neat. It’s interesting to see how new racers develop:
There are some interesting “swing bikes” in town, one was in the intro vid for the Bike Film Fest last year. Here are some others with more traditional frame geometry. They look interesting, I wonder how long it takes to learn how to ride them.
Tumbleweed Bicycle is an Oakland-based bike company, and this video shows their prototype touring fatbike and some bits of their tour across Mongolia. Their “touring fatbike” is designed to use standard MTB parts, similar to the Surly LHT philosophy. It’s certainly a “product” video, but it’s worthwhile for the discussion of the design and features.
Liège Bastogne Liège
It’s been over a week since LBL, so I allow myself to spoil it. The weather was epic, Wout Poels won from the final three in the breakaway. I strongly recommend watching the CyclingTips recap, which starts with the mercurial weather:
Here’s the official recap:
And OGE’s video (their top rider was in second):
Giro D’Italia preview
The Giro starts in a few days and basically runs through the end of the month. I may trickle in some videos, respecting the spoiler rule. For now, here’s a GCN preview, naming their favorites:
Honorable Mentions
This week’s honorable mentions: BMX in New York City (lots of hooliganism), local moto vs bike crash, riding on new barrier-separated bike lanes in London, GCN: Top 6 Longest Bike Races, pro Warren Barguil talks about his bike setup, somewhat outrageous UK commuter crash on BBC News (see Carlton Reid’s quick take), hooning through San Francisco with smoke bombs, USA Cycling: “do not feel that a ban was prudent”, and footage/bio of a New York fixie rider.
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
Another great video from Clarence Eckerson, Jr. So glad (and envious) to see that NY continues to create great infrastructure for people on bikes long after JSK moved on.
And that video of the BMX rider is just great! It’s like everything you wish you had the knowledge and presence of mind to say in those situations.
I’m going to hold off on buying fatbike until I can own a Tumbleweed.
The Streetfilm’s video of the Pulaski Bridge redesign inspires me to think what Portland could do with St. John Bridge. There is plenty of capacity there on both sides of the bridge.
When my neighbor Stan Wicka was hit and killed by a texting Melanie Souza while riding on the shoulder (recognized by Santa Clara County as a bicycle lane) of San Tomas Expressway, the local newspaper (Patch) interviewed the Campbell police chief and asked him questions (passed in by readers) about the incident. The most common question the paper received was if it was legal to ride a bicycle on that expressway. The chief answered that it is only legal to ride on a bicycle on a shoulder of the highway and a bicyclist must never use any of the “car travel lanes.” I was the first of many to point out both the CA vehicle code and the pages in the newly revised Driver’s Manual that described when drivers might see a bicycle in ‘their’ lane (like when traversing across to enter a left-turn lane). I wish a could give you a link, but the online article disappeared shortly after the comments started rolling in.
Thanks for that groovy video from the 70’s! I wish it was clearer, though, cuz I wanted to get a screen grab of that lady with the bulb horn returning bottles of 7-Up with her tricycle as my gravatar. (Thought I had a good frame but that woody rolled in the way… brought back memories).
Ha ha, Long Beach! As an ex-So. Californian it’s a hoot to see that there’s still a chunk of Mississippi 25 miles south of downtown LA.