Just get out and ride. You’ll thank me later.
Sometimes, I don’t even know what to say.
It seems like the news has been nothing but bad for the last few weeks. Topped off by yet another of cycling’s most popular riders pulled from the Tour de France after failing a drug test — and yes, I’m looking at you, Frank Schleck.
It’s gotten to the point that I’m almost afraid to read the news for fear of what I’m going to find. And who’s going to disappoint us next.
Fortunately, there’s a solution.
Just get out and ride your bike.
Now.
No, seriously. If you can get away even for a few minutes, stop what you’re doing and get out on your bike. And just forget about everything for awhile.
And yes, I do mean everything.
Just take a few minutes, or a few dozen miles, to remember why you fell in love with riding in the first place.
If you can’t get out now, find time to get a ride in before the day is over.
Trust me, you’ll feel better when you’re done.
And the news will keep until you get back.
………
We’re still dealing with the aftermath of last week’s extreme rash of cycling deaths, as witnesses identify the suspect vehicle in the hit-and-run death of Fontana cyclist Alex Silva.
Authorities ask you to be on the lookout for dark red early 2000s model Chevy Corvette convertible with damage to a left front bumper and fender, as well as damage to the convertible top, windshield and driver’s side window.
And Kevin M reveals that services have been announced for popular cyclist Willis Veluz-Abraham, who was killed in a solo cycling fall in the hills above Calabasas on Saturday — possibly as a result of recently installed rumble strips.
VIEWING-Tuesday, July 24th, 5pm-9pm, Mission Hills Mortuary, 11160 Stranwood Avenue, Mission Hills, CA 91345
VIGIL/MEMORIAL-Wednesday, July 25th, 6:30pm-9pm, Our Lady of Peace Church, 15444 Nordoff Street, North Hills, CA 91343
FUNERAL MASS & BURIAL-Thursday, July 26th, 10am, Our Lady of Peace Church, 15444 Nordoff Street, North Hills, CA 91343 (the procession from the church back to Mission Hills mortuary/cemetery will be escorted by members of Willis’ Bicycle Club)
………
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to bike racing, Frank Schleck becomes the latest to fail a drug test, this time for a banned diuretic, and is pulled from the Tour de France by his team. He says if the B sample also tests positive, he’ll charge someone with poisoning him.
No, seriously.
Maybe he was force-fed some Spanish beef.
In light of Sunday’s tack attack in the TdF, Dave Moulton considers the Dick Head factor. A 49ers fan site looks at notable cheaters over the years — including the rider who briefly won the 1904 Tour.
And Lance takes his fight against doping charges to a higher forum.
………
Clif Bar is giving the LACBC a second chance to raise $10,000 by logging your rides for the rest of the month. A new LA startup connects people with shared interests, like bike riding, for instance. Santa Monica’s Bike Center proves successful as it moves into a busy summer season. SaMo’s new police chief wants to ensure traffic does not impede bicycle and pedestrian safety; I think I like her already. Matt LeBlanc and Ali Larter ride a tandem on camera. Examined Spoke says he wants a lane of his own just like pedestrians enjoy. More on the ghost bike installed for Larry Schellhase in Redondo Beach. Long Beach begins a series of monthly community meetings to discuss bike issues next Monday.
Locations have been selected for Anaheim’s new bike share program, operated by the same company that will run L.A.’s upcoming program. Riverside police are looking for volunteers, including a citizen bike patrol. A 16-year old Oxnard cyclist is found unconscious after an apparent solo fall, two days after another rider was critically injured in a collision with a suspected drunk driver. Sunnyvale becomes the third city to pass an L.A. style anti-harassment ordinance. How long do drivers park in San Francisco bike lanes? Nearly a dozen fixies bite the dust as a San Francisco driver plows through a bike coral.
Ten things to know about the new federal transportation bill. Rather than covering women’s sports, Outside magazine asks why the media doesn’t. An Oregon prison inmate makes a brief escape by bike. An Illinois cyclist charges racial discrimination after getting a ticket for riding his bike through a construction zone, bizarrely comparing his case to Trayvon Martin. New York’s bike share program is delayed another month. Virginia’s Cookie Lady, famous for providing fresh cookies or lodging for passing cyclists, has passed away at age 91. The Orlando Sentinel says keep bikes off freeways.
A UK cop is charged with writing at least 350 fake tickets for cycling offenses — including one to a man who hasn’t been able to ride a bike for 15 years. Seven people have been arrested for sabotaging the famed Paris Vélib’ bike share program. A noted Mossad spy and former head of their assassination unit is killed when he’s hit by a truck while riding his bike; anyone want to lay odds on whether that was an accident?
Finally, forget carbon or titanium, your next bike could be made almost entirely from cardboard. But with a manufacturing cost of less than $12, it might make a practical spare. Or provide practical transportation for impoverished regions.
And there’s nothing funny about that.
This post was not here when I began my comment on your prior one and since posting it have read all the links and the links under green for bikenation and even note the fact that gasoline hybrids warm the globe about half as much as all electrics achieving par in fact with ICE engines which has the ‘union’ of scientists showing how pathetic they can be when acting alone instead of as part of the entire scientific community in failing to point out what bikes can do instead- of how many hundreds of mpg a car need get before it’s less evil then a electirc tandem for example as hammacer is reported to be selling (Broken link though) for less then a local dealer sells an unpowered model.
My contention though about funding levels, about analogies with subways, was understated. In NYC there share program is going to serve more commmuters it was argued then the subway, and the subway getting infinititel yhmore billkoins of public money.
Such an argument is unintentionally specious though- and this brings us back ot me beiing a sixth of a year in reaction time.
my brain is working on recalling what this remind me of- of the ‘zero cost fallacy’ to geting around red tape.
FIRST:
The right of way this for profit company is going to take will be lost to bike parking.
The demand for a real bike share program is going to be swept away.
It is generally understood that airless tires are requring of batteries or the worst thing you can do t osell a bike.
As is the fact that chains are the most efficient drive chain and used in all competitionsi still despite my comments moments ago about how any contender woudl address flats and dirty chains.
The delays in implimentation after the conitract is signed are now routine- aftger all like the billions wasted running empty trains for months everyoen is asleep. I lived next tothe expo line during those months- and rode along othose empty trains in my commute to USC too many times- dozens of times, and any more then taht I would of done something to publisize how much was b eing wasted.
The free 30 minutes is hilarious-it’s beach rental sleaze
Some must goto court and i don’t think its’ tooo late.
if your an investor- it might be too late to get your money out though-
shame on you for trying toget away with this here.
shame on the tiems for not reporting the real story!!!
The cost to own a bike is of course to park it- so is that to operate a bike sharing program.
asky any pier rental placewhatthe yspend hauling bikes on and off hte pier…
they would love to be able to float a boat with them on it overnight i sassure you!!
any innovatoin that makes the expereionce of the renter, and that’s what we will be, better, i’m for- but these innovatins are about reducingthe maintenace cost- and come athte price of wasting muscle energy
this is a years old design for the stations- comtemporary technology does not need a rack at all. THE gps obsoletes tehe rack. Warm transfers are trivial to impliiment and among the technolgoies mature and ready are spinnign hubcaps that allow othe bikess to return to base without any labor costs as they don’t need legs, or a third wheel, kickstand etc. to balance.
or come to youro location to let your board like a nice horse might come for it’s morning hay.
sure lots of them willl get hit- but it won’t be there fault and they’ll have the evidence remotely archived to prove it.
frankly unicycles would be better then these bike nation bikes! tghey would of course talk or otherwise prompt riders to lean etc. if not assist in the acceleration which merel yreturning unloaded ot base does not imply.
this is 2012 not 1970!!!
to guarantee this level of bikes for adecade requires a capitalisation provably thousands of times moreo then ‘bike nation’ has.
normally companies without an y trackrecord to speak of- without at least 10 years, cnot’ evfen bid.
this is so corrupt i’m in disbelief
where are al lthe competitors!!! espeicaly the ones wiht sufficint maturity to betrusted wit hthe contract, to deliver on time, not just hardware worthy of this metropolis and able to get every rider to sell thre car, the only question being whether it’s after one ride or no more then ten.
of coruse that you link to a overseas paper for east coast news for this continnent is ripe- thanks
who are the investors? my money is on it car backed- not all my money, but all i can afford to game certainly- reading aboutthe program, where bike nation essetnialy says- if your thinking htese are b ikes, like bieks your used to , like bikes you can ride as far as you enjoy riding bikes now.. get real! they admit there not able to domore then what a godo pair of shoes works far better doing!
in paris the balanciign of stations is providing jobs
jobs we can’t afford here!!
cars will eventiually be able to drive without passengers and should already be illegal to be human driven, but bikes being public and requiring assistance to meet the next sharer, or sidewalk or worse to park?
what kind of nightmare am i in that i can’t wake up from
if for some reason 50 dollar fly wheels can’t be put on hthem so they don’t need kickstand, then jujst make them trikes
and about the seat sho0wn in the pictures-intead ofcharging 75 bucks let people buy there own and my god charge them more then abetter bike costs including hte rack… shit
technoogly means the ulocks are availabe right now for 50 bucks that work with oyr u p-hones wifi or bluetooth to alow that 60 dollar bike to be shared..
it’s not bike nation
it’s carnation
not concealed at all
bikes as toys
as recreation
as accouterment and vanity as 33 mpg being good enough when ANYHONE will tell you that anything under 200 mpg dooms the planet
and eletictric bikes are thouisands of mpg eqivalent
not tens of thousands htough
some significant numbers of people need toride them instead ofdiive
adn fuel cell charged regen elecric hard wheel bikes (cars weight requres soft wheels, mountain and downhill bike techonlogy means we can run hard plastic bare on the road now with suspensio nsystems making them feel like your in a bentley or a motor home at 15 psi with dozens of two foot wide tires that use a gallon a minute just remiain inflated.
at a red light
fuck no
los angeles is the most needing place for a solution
i won’t stand for bike natoin to protect cars, to keep our record setting parking spaces per bathroom- more parking spaces per toilet then anyplace in the world i’m sure, a badge of evil even another decade longer
the founder smay be well intentioned but there kids
without aclue
our commuinty has historians, has genuine scientist, brilliant brilliant people
none of whom had any notice
i;’m sure there is federal law and rules htat prevent sa mayor or city council alolwoing a private compan yto come in and prvent decent bikes fro m flourishing by dujmping crap everyhwhere wihtout even paying a fee!
how can this be
i’m not alone injust leraning about this on Mark’s site last week.
we need liquor license level notificiationis ot effected neighberhoods- nojtice that there unborn kids WILL HAVE ASTHMA AND LEARNINGDISAABITYEIS FOR SURE IF HTIS COMPMANYIES BUSINESS MODEL IS NOT STOPPED POST HASTE
i can’t imiaginei greater proof then my having spent over a year in dtla lobotomising me more then if i had camped out in singapore then this.
those are not bikes
they will not be shared
the cost to use them is outrageous- you can literally own a car for less!!!
IN response to your last entries I’ve spent some time on the office la bike blog and fail to find any mention of bikenation or this program- and I’ve read about hybrid powertrains for pleasure boats and was dissappointed to see them not being used in electric trains, only in otherwise all diesel. The a123 batteries are useful and are being abused to make minor improvements in fuel efficiency,when you would expect huge improvements and added value, immense added v alue like in rail, byincreasing acceleration.Unfortunately when you let dealers help municipalities obtain grants you don’t have anything like free enterprise. It’s almost as bad as the no bid contract for carnation- if it was really nobid, I’m ont saying it was, just that everyoen writes about it as if it was.
I think the bicycle community breathes a vain sigh of relief in there personal investments not being bested by what any fool can red for five bucks lus howeer many minutes beyond 30 they have it.
Bikenation is using the auto model- get the streets for free- unlike segway that spent a fortune training ever bus driver to load them- spending i estimate more then what the total price of any customer who has ever boarded a bus with one on this training, bikenation acts like incentivising rapid turn around does not help only them.
It is my hope that this is not an exclusive grant in anyway- that any company can grab up parking spaces all over town if they privide bikes, that we can have competition for our share dollars- that people charging the $75 can within the months alalowed call there provider and stop the payment because there dissapointed in the ride of these bikes, in the spooky feel of the shaft, are insulted by the greed of saving a tiny amount on the cost of the bikes and anticipated maintenance by not using belts or real chains sufficiently contained and cleanly lubricated with internal transmissions- the technology of internal gearing is awesome and they are not cheap- but there w orth moreo then these entire bikes clearly and by renting them the fact that most of us have never ridden on a modern internal to hub gearing would have chance of being addressed.
However as mentioned the need for racks is absent given iphones and who has them and even androids with there more ecectic carriage. Bikenation is clearly the gutter brand and if only they could proceed as cluelessly, unambitiously, inadaptively, they’d lose there shirts to real sharing of real quality bikes seeded with magical auctioining of memberships for optimal cost recovery like efforts to stop scalping by not underpricing tickets but selling directly to those ultimately attending for what they are willing to pay and no less to remove the profit middlemen enjoy.
Much has been said about the magic of the credit economy- or used to be said, and is again getting a sure of attention under captions of “trust” and “reputation” with scoring and wickipedia providing an easallly accessed vocabularly inthe final paragraphs of any mature entry.
My prior comment inthis thred is not deliberately inaccurate but took some license with thefacts becasuse of my contgempt for there prior presentation regarding the EI of blasphemous use of electricity. Electricity local generationis largely irrelevent to it’s global impact. We have powerlines crossing state lines and regional analysis ignores the potential of reduced consumption increasing corss region distribution- my utilitywill soon have certified there cost to generate more power is less then THREE cents per KWH so if you waste two thirds of it shipping it to cross many states it’s only nine cents orin may areas profitable andin all areas less then using gasoline in greener, older, cars. The energy consumption of a green customer is mainly in there vanity having them by a ‘low’ impact vehicle because unlike transit or even taxis that in the latter case didn’t impact fleet fuel efficiency scores based upon miles driven but only upon sale so was deneid cab adquistion where they should of been installed first.
BIke sharing threatens ot be quite disruptive. it still can be. One Mayors well intentioned folly SHOULD not kill it, b ut might if we don’t care.
Federal Transit funds should not be looked at as lower cost thenother forms fo capitalisatin by component makers. There use should not as a rule b e abuse. It simply is not possible that the most expensive miles of subway lines are rational- some thought at least at wwhat that capital investment could obtain instead should not just be found in science fiction which i read like,exactly like, never.
USing fuel cells is not a sane way of reducing the noise of airconditioning in a 40 foot bus. It is not a noble way of adding a couple of miles at most per gallon.
Much is said about the potential full value of getting people pedalling, when health impact etc. is considered. I’ve argued that as grand and reasonable as that speculation is it ignores the alternaive ofo making pedaling optional but keeping the energy consumption comparable. today for example i haauled over a hundred pounds of groceries adn chose to pedal almost not at all and let teh hub motor do the work- and as they say in colorado narly doubled the distance by getting away from traffic after discovering that my left wheel was no longer securely attached to the axle so not having traffic whizzing by me might save my life. The disc brakes being a redundant barrier to wheels falling off was not obvious when i removed the ”spare’ as it’s nuts had fallen off at some point. In transit bus’s they brag about ‘bearingless’ drive trains, and consier there customers not tax payers or riders but a few ‘professionals’ who have no degree with specific training appropriate to there responsiblity. In fact the drive train maker has apparently removed all ther eslide shows from the website. It’s so uncompetive it should bring tears but I’m dry, bored.
It’s always been the case that almost nobody is seen on a bike that costs more then the very cheapest car. Half of the energy a transit bus uses is spent compressing the hydrogen- this is why most couples regret buying a tandem- they dont’ want to stop or slow down every time there partner does. Tehy dont’ want ot have to accelerate more then there own body. Fuel cell technology is now affordable for the consumption of a road bike if a small number of users can contributre to aquistion cost and long term financing and bulk purchasing is applied.
So we start by asking- how much can people save over car ownership and use- and we then ask, how much more are people willling to pay to be so green. With the latter, higher number as our budget, we begin.
Yet what do we see- NO, not one, public demonstratino of any of the car technologies being used in bikes. No domestic hybrids, fuuel cells, etc. These technolgies if not already ripe will ripen far sooner for smaller vehicles then larger as a point beyond dispute. Technologies to reduce teh energy consumption of compression are of course selling display space in science monthlies for a decade or more, and now online of course giving people with ebooks, even transit drivers, something ot do at red lights.(one of my favorite drivers is getting novels read at red lights and i do mmiss her perespective as Idon’t converse much when in motion)
All we see is brands like “jeep” gettin gon frames- racks on elders useless cars marketting them mocking “younger persons” who look the other way hoping to enjoy the petrol hand me downs.
We can plan our outings. We can share bikes with the same people day after day. WE can spend ten or twenty or even a hundred grand on ‘pilot’ bikes each and make profit and failt to spend more then teh cars displaced not even considering road savings. Or we would of but for our Mayor and a pawn entrepeneur.
Yourbeing used man! (whaever BN’s ceo’s name is i recall it seeming male)
Market your right of way. Calculate your potential take home, double it, advertise the opportunity, cash in on the one that promises most to better save the world. Enjoy your winnings. Orbe part of the problem instead.