Ted’s Video Roundup: Vision Zero 101, cycling anime, LA gravel, and more

Welcome to my mostly-weekly video roundup! Today seems as good as any other day to watch bike videos. Right? I’ve watched about 100 bike videos this week so I can share the best with you.

We’re starting on a safety/wonky/political note this week- a fantastic overview of Vision Zero. Watch the first 40 seconds for this: “mobility is a basic human right. No one should have to risk their life to get to work, to go shopping, or to go out with a friend.” While talking about systematic safety, “we’re human, a system that is safe only if people don’t make mistakes is not a system that is made for humans.”

Russ and Laura of Path Less Pedaled were in Los Angeles recently and posted our first video- riding Mt. Lowe Road to Mueller Tunnel. It’s an incredible climb, over 3000 feet in 8 miles.

People have been laughing at this video where cyclists attempt to pull a mountainbike off of an electric fence. I don’t know what’s funnier- the antics or the accents. (warning: colorful language, I think.)

Here’s some Brunelle. It’s just a snippet, but the weather on New Years looks much better than ours did.

I was never good at playing H.O.R.S.E. in basketball. I think I’d fail B.I.K.E. too. Still, it looks like a fun drinking game.

Russ and Laura also narrated a gravel-grinding ride in Los Angeles on the Verdugo Mountains– just outside Burbank, in fact. There are really interesting little pockets of Los Angeles that are surprising and amazing.

GMBN has tips for climbing 1000m (3000ft) on a mountain bike. It’s very helpful for road cyclists too. (my #1 tip is to climb using a heartrate monitor)

For those who are training through the winter, here are some tips from GCN: (also: 4 training session ideas)

London’s cycling infrastructure is looking fantastic. They have problems, but it shows how far a city can get by making a commitment to improve their roads. I still cringe when I see oncoming traffic on the ‘wrong’ side of the street.

They have similar problems to us, though, here’s a car in the bike lane. Check out the 1:25 mark where they are held up by traffic. (also: a cyclist doing bad)

Cycling anime. Interested? You’ll like this. There are some pretty legit road bike racing anime series in there.

I covered this in the past, but here’s another video about the Isla Bikes reusable bike program:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXktCRkgly8

It’s not all about speed, right? GMBN looks for the fun lines instead of the fast lines:

NPR Youtube series Skunk Bear did an episode exploring if you can power your house with your bicycle.

Women-specific bike design is a thing- for good reason. Women aren’t just smaller men. This BikeRadar piece gives a good overview of these designs, from bad to good.

Ray of DC Rainmaker showed what Zwift looks like on a VR headset (like Oculus Rift). He talks about the advantages and disadvantages- basically, it’s mostly a gimmick.

It takes about 90 seconds before he goes through the list, but there are a lot of tactile patterns on sidewalks to help the blind. I know these exist to some extent in the US also.

This “bunnyhop battle” is sort of the reverse version of a limbo contest.

Travel Oregon released a video about the Painted Hills Scenic Bikeway. I rode this and loved it– something makes me think PLP has ridden it too.

Honorable Mentions

This week’s honorable mentions: 11 minutes of Brumotti breathing heavily, stunt riding overlaid with political audio clips.

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 on Twitter

BikePortland is supported by the community (that means you!). Please become a subscriber or make a donation today.