BikinginLA

Josef Bray-Ali, who’s taking on anti-bike incumbent Gil Cedillo in the race for Los Angeles’ 1st Council District, is hosting a fundraiser at NELA’s Café de Leche on Sunday.

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Wired looks at the physics of Olympic BMX, while the US took a different approach to training for the BMX events this year.

A Dutch rider managed to qualify for the next round despite smashing his bike on the BMX course and carrying it across the finish line.

Velonews says the Olympics have forced mountain biking into shorter race formats, which one rider describes as more like a long BMX race.

Colorado considers creating a major event to replace the USA Pro Challenge, which went belly up after six years of bringing top pro cyclists to the state.

Outside examines how to motor dope your own bike, while Cycling Weekly looks at what it’s like to ride one.

And a Russian soccer player insists all cyclists dope, saying cycling is “simply impossible without doping.”

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Local

An administrator for a Century City financial management firm touts the benefits of Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare.

When a Chatsworth actor’s car needed major repairs, he took to his bike and Metro. And found he actually liked being able to get around the city without a car, especially for the senior off-peak rate of just 35¢.

Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson says his heroes are the ones who show up for meetings about bike safety.

Sheriff’s deputies are looking for a serial bike-riding groper in Cerritos.

The Long Beach Gazettes looks at the new parking protected bike lanes on Artesia Blvd in North Long Beach. But why, pray tell, did they file it under “Entertainment?”

 

State

Good news from Salinas, as a teenager who was broadsided by a car is recovering from serious injuries.

Bad news from Palo Alto, as a 73-year old bike rider was killed after allegedly running a stop sign. Funny how often bicyclists are blamed for crashes when they aren’t around to tell their side of the story.

San Francisco advocates fight the removal of ghost bikes; city policy calls for any memorial to be removed after just two weeks.

A candidate for the San Francisco board of supervisors responds to a fellow candidate’s call to register bikes and license their riders, saying bike licenses make good crankbait, but bad policy. Is it too late to move to the Bay just so we can all vote for him?

San Francisco launches a pair of 15-second radio spots promoting the Vision Zero program in English and Spanish, without really saying anything.

 

National

A writer for science website PLOS examines the problems with painted bike lanes that are squeezed onto the side of the road, saying if a car can park there it’s not a bike lane, it’s just the side of the road.

A writer for a left-leaning website goes on an extensive anti-mountain bike diatribe, insisting they have no place in national parks, and are “inbred with a culture of lawlessness and aggression.” And we all know inbreeding is a bad thing, right?

Bike lawyer Bob Mionske calls on bike riders to show a little courtesy to other users on multi-use paths, noting that the way we treat pedestrians could influence the way they treat us when they get behind the wheel.

Life is cheap in Alaska, where a young woman was released after spending just 74 days behind bars for running down a cyclist and leaving him to die in the street, after a night of partying.

A Colorado letter writer points out that it’s not just bike riders who break the law, noting how rare it is to see a motorist who’s not illegally putting others at risk in some way.

Football players at a Texas university tackle a bike thief — literally — as he was riding off with a super fan’s bicycle.

An Illinois shop owner calls for action after his wife was killed in a collision with a bike rider as she stepped out of a restaurant. We all have an obligation to ride safely around pedestrians. But instead of calling for enforcement to keep cyclists off the sidewalk, why not call for making the streets safer so people on bikes don’t feel compelled to ride there?

The Chicago Tribune harvests honey with the city’s bicycling beekeeper.

In the wake of the Kalamazoo massacre, city officials consider a three-foot passing law. Which would have done nothing to prevent the drunk and stoned driver from plowing into any of the nine victims.

A New York actress was barred from driving in the state after killing a cyclist while driving distracted last year, even though a botched police investigation allowed her to escape charges. However, she can still drive in New Jersey, where she holds her license, despite four previous moving violations.

Virginia Tech researchers work on creating a rating system for bike helmets.

Atlanta cyclists let their money do the talking by holding a cash mob event to call for protected bike lanes and demonstrate that bike riders make good customers.

A former Air Force colonel is riding 2,500 miles down the East Coast to raise funds for families of fallen soldiers.

 

International

The World Health Organization has named former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg global ambassador for road safety, with a portfolio that includes preventing deaths from traffic collisions.

A British TV sports reporter is in a coma after contracting a rare form of malaria while bicycling 3,000 miles on a charity bike ride from London to Rio.

An author says the bicycle has become a tool for radical activism in Afghanistan, as he flies into the country to photograph the women’s national cycling team.

The Wall Street Journal says a luxury cycling tour of Japan with a pro racer as your guide will make you a better rider.

Take a bike tour of the remote Ha Giang region of Vietnam, which was recently opened to visitors. Unlike previous fully supported tours of the county operated by Uncle Sam, this one will set you back over three grand. But no one will be shooting at you.

 

Finally…

Why choose between bicycling and yoga when you can do both at the same time? If you’re going to use your bike to steal a cellphone from a car passenger, try to stay upright long enough to get away.

And an Iowa man is under arrest for having sex with a parked van.

Note that it says with, not in.