A little light bike reading to start your week

Looks like I’ve taken my last ride until my wife goes back to work, since someone will need to stay home and keep an eye on her.

And the Corgi don’t count.

So get out there and ride for me this week, and maybe next. And don’t even get me started on the one after that.

In the meantime, pour yourself a cuppa joe and limber up that link-clicking finger.

………

We need more of this: An East L.A. festival includes a bike safety class for kids. Two new miles of bike path along the L.A. River in the Valley are just the beginning. Alhambra proposes a new bike plan with 41 miles of bikeways, yet only 3.5 miles of actual bike lanes; almost makes Beverly Hills look good. The upcoming Pedalers Fork bike bistro is now an official Moots dealer. Michael of CLR Effect rides the San Gabriel Valley with the LACBC and the authors of Where to Bike Los Angeles. A new L.A. prototype jacket design currently seeking funding dramatically ups the hi-viz arms race.

New beer and bike riding group Brewcyclers will host a Christmas lights ride to the Bruery in Placentia on December 16th; if you haven’t sampled the Bruery’s brews, this is one after dark ride I’d definitely recommend. Authorities in the Chico area are looking for the driver of a Silverado Extended cab pickup who left a cyclist to die on the side of the road. A 12-year old boy is killed by a trailer towed by a pickup truck while riding his bike in the Sacramento area; naturally, the driver is not suspected of any wrongdoing. A Stockton cyclist is pistol whipped and shot in the ass while riding.

Cannondale and Sho-Air team up to sponsor their new mountain bike team; and no, I didn’t know what a Sho-Air is, either. A Tucson cyclist bounces back from a July hit-and-run that left him seriously injured. A 19-year old Idaho man faces 14 years in prison for stealing 13 bikes from a California-based women’s team just before this year’s Exergy Bike Tour. Will better signage and striping make a killer Colorado highway safer? A Missouri writer says neither positive nor negative messages get cyclists off the sidewalk; no, that usually takes safer streets.

Sunday was the World Day of Remembrance for road traffic victims; isn’t it time we stopped creating more victims to remember? A drunk ninja cyclist in Vancouver is critically injured after colliding with a vehicle while riding downhill after dark. Calgary will remove new bike lanes local residents asked for because people think they’re ugly. The BBC will use helmet and dash-cam video to look at the supposed war between cyclists and motorists next month; a UK writer aptly describes it as two pitbulls fighting over a single bone. Bristol, England elects a bike-friendly mayor. A Cambridge man invents a tandem recumbent to allow his dementia-suffering mother to ride again. In Canterbury, medieval roads weren’t built for cars. British pro Mark Cavendish gets engaged the same day he becomes the latest UK rider to be injured in a collision. An Edinburgh paper says it’s time to break our addiction to the car. Someone finally admits it, as an Aussie driver says he had to be crazy to deliberately run over and kill a bicyclist. Bike lanes don’t do a lot of good if everyone thinks they’re parking lanes.

Finally, a rider is told he’s giving cyclists a bad name for taking the lane — by a spandex wearing roadie who got out of his SUV at an intersection to harangue his fellow rider. So which one really makes us look bad?

………

My deepest sympathy, prayers and best wishes for Witch on a Bicycle on the death of his father on Sunday. Also known as Opus the Poet, the Witch is one of the good guys in the bike blogging world, dedicating his life to protecting cyclists from the same sort of near-fatal collision he suffered.

3 comments

  1. patrick says:

    Maybe you should get/rent a stationary bike. I would hate to see you lose tone or gain weight. Keep up the good work both here and on the homefront.

  2. Michael says:

    14 years for 13 bikes. As much as I detest bike theft, I seem to remember a recent sentencing resulting in 10 days community labor, 400 hours community service and some $4,000 restitution for killing a cyclist on a city street. Seems bassackwards to me.

  3. JD says:

    According to the CHP, the Durham truck involved in the cyclist death by hit and run near Chico has been located.

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