BikinginLA

Major video action for a Friday.

First up is a truly bizarre video offering a 360 degree high speed overhead view of a bike ride, as well as a similar look at driving. Not surprising, the bike footage is far more fun.

Or maybe you’d prefer a pair of Aussie cyclists drafting a truck at 77 mph — although if they’re really going that fast, how fast are the cars passing them going?

And a little closer to home, a professional mountain biker gets some serious speed — and major air — in the Santa Monica mountains.

All of which serves as a reminder that the LA Bicycle Film Festival starts today and runs through Saturday. Just try not to munch your KIND bars loudly enough to disturb the other patrons.

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Local

LA Councilmember Gil Cedillo has finally scheduled a public meeting to discuss the long delayed, fully funded and shovel ready bike lanes on North Figueroa. Maybe now we’ll finally find out why he’s been dragging his feet on a project that was ready to go when he took office.

Move LA’s draft proposal for the proposed transportation sales tax ballot measure, which includes 4% for active transportation and 20% for highways. If you ask me, that should be the other way around.

Meet Breaking Away star Dennis Christopher, and perhaps more importantly, the Masi bike he rode in the movie at Sunday’s CicLAvia.

Wolfpack Hustle reports back on last weekend’s successful assault on the Red Hook Criterium.

Santa Monica Next remembers the heavy-handed, and mostly illegal, crackdown on Critical Mass in what was then a much more bike-unfriendly SaMo just a few short years ago.

If you want to ride like that guy in the Santa Monica Mountain video, here’s how you start. CORBA is hosting a free mountain bike basic skills clinic in Malibu Creek State Park this Saturday. Thanks to Stephen Messer for the heads-up.

 

State

Newport Beach police go ebike.

Visiting the Santa Barbara backcountry by bike.

Gritty girls take on the Aptos Mountain Bike Festival.

Just 90 days in jail and three years probation for a two-time Marin bike thief.

Repeat after me: If you’re already wanted on six outstanding warrants, put a damn light on your bike. And don’t fight with the Fresno cops who try to stop you.

 

National

America has been invaded by rebel handmade bike builders.

Elly Blue offers advice on how to start riding your bike.

If your city doesn’t have a protected bike lane yet, it’s being left behind. And no, we don’t, unless you count those easily driven over pylons in the 2nd Street tunnel.

When a cyclist crashes while raging at you, are you obligated to stop? Three out of four Oregon ethicists say yes.

Keep your eyes on Craigslist, as thieves strip a Seattle bike shop of 32 custom built bicycles worth $150,000. Chances are, they’ll try to unload them out of state.

A proposed Missouri transportation tax is set aside after lawmakers attempt to keep any of the money from being spent on bike paths, which is not the “proper role of government” according to one Republican legislator.

As usual, Boston’s Bikeyface nails it by showing how life would be if she really did own the road.

A fond welcome back to the blog world to our long-time Carolina correspondent Zeke, and congrats on the new dogs and new found ability to bounce.

It only took killing three people by backing over them in a church parking lot for a 79-year old Florida driver to lose her license for a whole year. I’m sure local residents can’t wait until she gets it back at 80.

 

International

London police have been found liable for injuries to a bike riding former reporter who was hit by a patrol car on an emergency call; the victim still needs 24-hour car four years after the collision.

The makers of that Swedish airbag bike helmet says safety standards for helmets are far too low. Especially since theirs exceeds them.

Ironman star Yvonne van Vlerken suffers a broken collarbone in a collision with a car while visiting her home in the Netherlands.

They just don’t get it. An Aussie driver makes a lane change on a curve sharp enough to hide the presence of a bike rider, yet it’s the cyclist’s fault for riding in the lane where she’s more visible.

Speaking of not getting it, an Australian paper insists someone is going to die when a new three-foot — or one meter — law goes into effect. Because it’s just impossible to wait until you can pass a bike safely, right? Meanwhile, a writer says the press Down Under has declared war on bicycling.

A more than one-a-week rate of bicycling injuries calls out the need for bike lanes in Christchurch NZ.

A Shanghai driver gets two years for killing a cyclist while driving without a license. That would be an unusually stiff sentence for a driver in the US, with or without a license.

 

Finally…

Maybe you’re wearing your helmet on the wrong end. A new medical study shows bike riders are at risk for genital and kidney injuries, with men at greater risk than women, and boys at 10 times the risk of men — mostly from landing on the top tube.

And yes, I could have been the poster boy for that one.