BikinginLA

It’s Day 19 of the 3rd Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.

You can help keep SoCal’s best bike news coming your way with just a few clicks by using PayPal. Or by using the Zelle app that is probably already in the banking app on your smartphone; send your contribution to ted @ bikinginla dot com (remove the spaces and format as a standard email address).

Any donation, in any amount, is truly and deeply appreciated.

As an added bonus, frequent contributor Megan Lynch will provide a free download of her CD Songs the Brothers Warner Taught Me to anyone who makes a contribution during the fund drive. If you’ve already contributed and would like a copy, just email me at the address above and I’ll forward it to her.

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Local

Would a bike lane on 5th Street through Skid Row in DTLA help the fight against drug dealing on the street, or just move it somewhere else?

The new management of the LA Weekly provides a baker’s three dozen photos from Sunday’s Wilshire Blvd CicLAvia, while Streetsblog offers an open thread to get your take on the day.

Metro will be closing a pair of bikeshare locations in DTLA through the rest of this week due to construction in the area.

Newly installed security cameras help Claremont police bust a thief for stripping parts off a $2,000 bike.

 

State

The woman whose body was discovered in San Francisco Bay by a bike rider on a Sunnyvale bike trail has been identified as a 23-year old Google software engineer.

The Bay Area’s low income residents remain reluctant to embrace the region’s Ford GoBike bikeshare.

Bighearted Santa Rosa middle school kids raised funds to buy bike helmets for 400 kids who lost homes in the recent fires.

Caltrans says no, you can’t ride your bike on I-5 through Sacramento, even if they are closing an alternate route for reconstruction.

Davis, Sacramento and West Sacramento are launching the largest docked ebike bikeshare system in the US.

 

National

Yes, General Motors really is trying to kill you.

With the holiday’s coming, you undoubtedly need tips on how to giftwrap a bicycle. Or turn it into a festive giftwrap moose.

A kindhearted Salt Lake City business owner returned a stolen adult tricycle to its owner after he bought it for $150, and refused to take anything in return.

In a story bike riders everywhere can relate to, Tennessee bicyclists complain that bike lanes are becoming obstacle courses littered with trash cans, cars and yard waste.

A Durham NC newspaper applauds plans for bike boulevards to encourage bicycling and improve safety for younger residents.

 

International

Ella Cycling Tips offers a primer on how — and why — to avoid sexist ad blunders when marketing bikes to women. Seriously, it ain’t that hard. Just try speaking to women like they’re actual human beings for a change.

No bias here. An Edmonton, Canada columnist disputes the city’s count of how many people are using new bike lanes, based purely on his own opinion. And somehow manages to place a price tag on the riders’ bikes and clothing by standing on the sidewalk and watching them go by.

US dockless bikeshare provider LimeBike, which just expanded to Los Angeles, is establishing a beachhead in Europe.

There’s a lot of history behind Brompton’s flagship London store, which is on the site of the bike shop where England’s first bicycle was sold in 1819. Although I would contend that a wooden hobby horse is a forerunner of the bike, not an actual bicycle.

Britain’s Sir Chris Hoy has decided he needs another year to get ready for his attempt to bike to the South Pole from the edge of Antarctica.

A British man has been told to expect a jail sentence after pleading guilty to seriously injuring a couple when he rode his bike into them at speed as they walked along an esplanade. Meanwhile, a 27-year old Bristol, England man has died after he was hit by a bike rider.

You could be the proud owner of your very own English ebike-based advertising business.

A writer in the UK correctly notes that there’s no excuse for not having lights on your bike after dark.

Actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger teams with Peter Sagan and the mayor of Paris to promote bicycling and call attention to the health aspects of climate change.

A new French ebike can brake for itself, and looks like something from Buck Rogers.

A Kiwi bike rider was threatened with a hammer by a road raging driver after confronting him over a way too close pass.

Caught on video: An Australian bike rider was lucky to walk away after a driver slammed into him in a violent crash.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from Rhode Island, where former BMX champ Kevin “K-Rob” Robinson died unexpectedly at age 45 after suffering an apparent stroke; he had set a world record as recently as last year for the longest ramp-to-ramp jump.

Aussie Richie Porte has a grudge with Tour de France and Giro champ Chris Froome over tactics that cost him a victory in the Critérium du Dauphiné.

 

Finally…

The next time someone questions whether bike riders are tough, ask if they could ride a bike to a party store after getting shot in the head — and tell them we make better drivers, too. Why just ride using Campagnolo when you can wear it?

And no, riding a bike does not mean you’re a liberal.