BikinginLA

Somehow, I missed this one earlier in the week.

Yet another young man has been shot and killed while riding his bike, this time Monday night in Compton.

The Sheriff’s Department says the 27-year old victim was targeted by the shooters, while a woman standing nearby was injured, apparently as collateral damage.

Thanks to Jaime Kate for the heads-up.

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In case you need a reminder how much fun it is to ride a bike, this girl’s reaction should do the trick.

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Caught on video: My friends at the West Seattle Blog post a first hand view of what it’s like to get right hooked by a massive semi-truck. Remarkably, both the rider and his bike survived almost unharmed.

As they note, you may want to hit the mute button if innocent ears are around, since they finally found someone who swears at drivers more than I do. And with good reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9RvUpdBJiU

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Un-effing-believable.

A Canadian driver went to play the slots after hitting a cyclist, leaving him to die alone in a ditch. Common sense suggests she’d face a murder charge for her callous indifference to human life, and sped the next several years behind bars.

Instead, she was fined a whopping $2,000, sentenced to community service, and lost her license for a whole month.

Clearly, life is cheap north of the border. At least if the victim is riding a bike.

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If you don’t read any other link today, take a few moments for this fascinating obituary of the sword swallowing, prize fighting, blood drinking Irish cycling legend Mike “Iron Man” Murphy, who slept in hay to prepare for races, and rode 40 miles afterwards just to cool down.

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Just eight days till the first world championships on US soil since ’86.

The reining world champ explains why he’s not the favorite, and says the hilly course means anything can happen. The San Diego Union Tribune handicaps the favorites, precious few whom are Americans. But if you happen to find yourself in Charlottesville VA next week, you can hang out with the US team.

Alexis Gougeard won Friday’s stage of the Vuelta in a solo breakaway, setting up Saturday’s penultimate leg in the mountains around Madrid. After crashing early in the stage, second place Fabio Aru lost three seconds to leader Tom Dumoulin, doubling the margin between them to just six seconds; however, he may lose more time if he’s penalized for an assist.

Mark Cavendish crashes out of the Tour of Britain — yes, there’s another race going on — with a shoulder injury.

And Marina del Rey women’s cyclist Lauren Mulwitz accepted a six-month ban for failing a drug test at June’s Manhattan Beach Gran Prix after she tested positive for marijuana. Yes, she was banned for pot, which has never been known to enhance anyone’s performance.

Seriously, why should anyone care if she or any other athlete takes a toke? Especially in California, where’s it’s just this side of legal.

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Local

Writing in the Daily News, a former Republican candidate for state assembly says the new mobility plan is all about whining about cars, and declares the new Reseda Blvd Great Streets protected bike lanes a failure. Somehow, they’re accused of making traffic worse even though no traffic lanes were removed; although admittedly, they do force drivers to actually look before jumping out of a car for a change.

The LA Times looks at what it’s like to ride the seven-day AIDS/LifeCycle ride from San Francisco to LA. Including being surrounded by men on bikes in red dresses.

A Glendale rider describes getting hit by a car that didn’t leave any passing room, let alone the three feet required by law.

Thousand Oaks will host their own two-mile ciclovía on Halloween.

 

State

Don’t try this at home. A San Diego man tackles the man selling his stolen bike after tracking it down on Craigslist. There are too many similar stories that went dangerously wrong; just call the police and let them handle it.

San Francisco’s SF Gate asks if it’s time to charge bike riders a road use fee. Actually, if you’re going to be fair about it, they owe us a refund.

A California appeals court rules that the environmental assessment for a new Danville housing development should have considered bike safety.

 

National

The trailer has dropped for The Program, the movie about Lance the Doper, staring Ben Foster, the doper.

Bicycling talks with the founder of Advocate Cycles, which will donate 100% of their profits to bike advocacy groups.

Honolulu busts bicyclists who illegally ride the sidewalk for a whole 100 feet between a bike lane and a multi-use path.

A Colorado cyclist is riding 12,000 miles to raise awareness about sex trafficking, while a Virginia man is riding cross country to raise money for the homeless.

Boston makes changes to a street where a bicyclist was killed in a right hook by a semi while she was riding in a bike lane. Every city, everywhere, should study the cause of any fatal collision, then fix the problem to keep it from happening again.

Hugh Jackman, aka Wolverine, is one of us, as he rides the streets of New York on his Scott mountain bike. Why is it that the press criticizes anyone who doesn’t wear a helmet, but makes fun of anyone who does?

 

International

An Ontario, Canada website says investing in bicycling is the smart thing to do, saying the province doesn’t have a traffic problem, it has a health problem.

If you build it, they will come. Bicycling is booming in Vancouver BC, as the city invests $4 million a year in bikeways and greenways. Although it doesn’t help when even the mayor of nearby Victoria is a victim of thieves who stripped her bike during a meeting to approve bike parking in a new development.

A Brit woman charges a cyclist the equivalent of nearly $5 to refill his water bottle — from a garden hose, no less — then dumps it out when he can’t pay.

A Copenhagen firm wants to be the Uber of bikes for hire. Although they couldn’t have picked a much worse name than AirDonkey; maybe it sounds better in Danish.

Speaking of Copenhagen, maybe someday the anti-bike forces here will say LA isn’t Jakarta, instead.

 

Finally…

A South African cyclist swears he had a suitcase full of syringes to lance the boils on his butt, while an official says they were for filling bike tires with sealant. Sure, let’s go with that. It’s such a no brainer to use the term no brainer when talking about bike helmets that anyone who uses the phrase no brainer to talk about bike helmets is just showing their own need for an effing copy editor.

And nothing like a little sex shaming to sell boy’s bikes.