Morning Links: An onslaught of future bikes, WeHo to pay for biking to work, and Burbank trike thief gets four years

Am I the only one tired of reading about all the various Bikes of the Future?

Most of which only seem to complicate a device which is already brilliant in it’s simplicity and functionality.

No offense to designers of concept bikes, but they seem to spend a lot of time trying to reinvent the wheel.

Sometimes literally.

………

Nineteen-year old South African cyclist Keagan Girdlestone is showing improvement after suffering severe neck and throat injuries when he crashed into a team car while racing in Italy earlier this month; his team has been “blown away” by the support he’s received.

A writer for the Guardian remembers Dutch cyclist Mien Van Bree, who overcame hardships to become the women’s world champion in 1938.

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Local

West Hollywood considers paying the city’s senior managers $90 a month to walk, bike or take transit to work.

A career criminal gets four years for stealing a 13-year-old disabled boy’s $5,300 tricycle from a Burbank apartment complex; he later dumped it on the side of the road when the media coverage made the bike too hot. Not that the sentence isn’t deserved, but drivers rarely get that much time for killing someone, if any: case in point.

 

State

The Examiner examines OC’s fundraising Boob and Coast to Canyon Rides.

CiclaValley takes a family bike trip to SLO.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition finally named a new executive director after a seven month search, which began when the previous director abruptly stepped down after just eight months on the job.

This is why you let police deal with bike thieves. After a Manteca father confronted a man who appeared to be riding his daughter’s stolen bike, the man shot up his car.

 

National

How is bicycling good for your brain? Let us count the ways

Bicycling offers advice for that post-ride itchy ass. And the magazine discusses how losing weight can improve your performance on a bike. Of course, improving your performance can also help you lose weight.

City Lab offers advice on how to bike to work without looking like a sweaty mess. Which was pretty much impossible the past few days.

Colorado authorities charge a prison inmate with the murder of mountain biking pioneer Michael Rust; the body of the Colorado Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member was discovered earlier this year after he disappeared in 2009.

An Idaho business writer confesses to not knowing the rules governing bike riders.

Rockford IL is hosting a 12-hour bike tour on city streets. Sort of like an extended ciclovía, but with all the cars still on the streets. Thanks to Ashley for the heads-up.

Minnesota takes the Idaho stop law a step further by installing new radar sensors that detect when a bike rider is approaching, and trigger a green light so the rider doesn’t have to stop.

Massachusetts state transportation officials will remake Boston’s Commonwealth Ave as a Complete Street, complete with 6.5 feet wide buffered and parking protected cycle tracks in each direction.

A DC group meets four times a year to cheer on every bicyclist who rides by in a bike lane.

 

International

The latest Mercedes-Benz commercial trucks will come with active brake assist, as well as new safety technology to warn if cyclists or pedestrians are present when turning. Which hopefully will reduce the risk of deadly right hooks.

Winnipeg cyclists complain that a 10-foot wide two-way protected bike lane isn’t wide enough for the projected jump in bicycling it would create.

Try to run down a British bike rider, then get out of your car to punch him in the face, and you can just keep on driving. Meanwhile, a new Brit bike passive safety device promises to detect threats, record offenders and call for help if you crash. But apparently doesn’t stop drivers from punching you in the face, or take their licenses away if they do.

Researchers in the Netherlands conclude EPO has no effect on performance. Does this mean Lance can come back now?

Now that’s more like it. Australia’s New South Wales budgets an additional $80 million for bicycling infrastructure, on top of $39 million that was previously announced.

 

Finally…

It’s okay if you don’t stop when you run over a rat while riding. Your next conference table could be a $13,000 tricycle.

And if you’re going to get caught on a security camera stealing a bicycle, at least put your underwear on the right end.

 

One comment

  1. Ralph says:

    I find it disturbing that all of the concept bikes, meant for city utilitarian use, would need a separate front head light from the ones provided. Any high object in the front basket will block the light either from directly in front where the drivers need to see it and the road where you are driving. All fail.

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