Morning Links: New theme song for your next bike ride, honoring LaGrange founder, and Bike with a Cop on Sunday

Cody Westheimer says instead of having his daughter’s playlist stuck in his head when he rides, he wrote and recorded his own bike-themed song to keep him company.

And he’s kind enough to share it with us, so we’ll have something better to get stuck in our heads, too.

I haven’t had a chance to hear it yet, since I’m not on Spotify.

So tell me what you think.

And yes, I promise I’ll sign up for the free app later today and give the song a listen.

Cross my heart.

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The founder of LA’s Velo Club LaGrange will be honored with an official city proclamation this Sunday.

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Here’s your chance to bike with the LAPD’s Wilshire Division this Sunday.

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Who needs an e-scooter when you have Corgi power?

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on.

Someone has been setting a Massachusetts bike trail on fire, including a pair of docked bikeshare bikes.

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Local

Josh Brolin is one of us, as he takes his shirtless new dad body to the beach in Santa Monica for a bike ride with his wife and eight-month-old son.

Metro’s BEST program is teaming with the LACBC, West Hollywood and the West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition to offer a free Bike 1 — Back to Basics course this Sunday.

CiclaValley goes gravel grinding on Pacifico Mountain. And no, it was not named for the Mexican beer empties someone left at the top. Probably. 

 

State

Watsonville releases its Vision Zero plan to end traffic deaths. Let’s hope they’re more committed to it than Los Angeles has been.

They get it. San Francisco Streetsblog says it’s great that the legislature is considering tripling the state’s rebate for electric car buyers, but where’s the rebate for ebikes?

Two Chico men ended up with stab wounds after a fight over a bicycle; one man used a knife to steal it and the other fought to defend it.

 

National

Happy birthday BMX biking

CNET offers tips on how to stay safe on an e-scooter.

One more reason to ride a bike. A border surveillance firm wants to profile drivers, passengers and their likely reasons to drive into New York.

A Chicago writer discovers she can ride an e-scooter, even if she can’t ride a bike.

An autistic Michigan boy can ride his bike again, after a mysterious donor gave him a new adult tricycle because his was stolen a few weeks ago.

Sound familiar? The Boston Globe calls on the city to pick up the pace on building bike lanes, saying Boston has a good plan to improve bike safety, but is “vexingly slow” in doing it.

Speaking of the Globe, they recommend riding a gravel bike to explore the road less traveled.

More on Tuesday’s New York die-in, where hundreds of bike riders turn out to demand safer streetsBicycling says it’s shocking just how badly New York is failing bicyclists. Even though the city is light years ahead of Los Angeles.

The Department of DIY strikes again. Or in this case, New York’s self-described Transformation Department, a group of “rogue cyclists” credited with creating a toilet plunger-protected bike lane.

New York Streetsblog suggests a solution after a new study shows the city’s bikeshare program primarily serves rich white people.

A DC bike commuter makes the conservative case bicycling, in the face of bone-headed, windshield-biased right wing calls to ban bikes from the streets — and pave the roads with our bones.

A Charleston SC paper says the city’s streets are built for fast cars, and inherently deadly for anyone else.

 

International

Ottawa police say they’re investigating the road rage punishment pass which resulted in a driver clipping a bike rider’s handlebar mirror.

Nothing like that dry British wit. A TV station claims its program Cyclists: Scourge of the Streets was a “balanced documentary” that offered “an unfiltered look at both sides of the fence,” while a cycling magazine says can’t we all just get along? Wait. You mean they weren’t trying to be funny?

A Welsh bike rider credits his helmet with saving his life when he hit a traffic cone at 40 mph; his broken neck, not so much.

An 81-year old Welsh grandmother suffered serious injuries when she was the victim of a hit-and-run bike rider who went through a red light as she was crossing the street.

The next time you can’t find a safe place to park your bike, consider that Utrecht in the Netherlands is nearing completion of the world’s largest underground bike garage, with room for over 12,500 bicycles.

A British professor set a new record for riding across Europe in just 16 days, 20 hours and 59 minutes, breaking the four-day old previous record by more than two days.

An Irish columnist says foul smelling, polluting cars must be driven from our cities. Meanwhile, an Aussie website says you should physically avoid cars when you ride to keep from sucking in half your daily dose of air pollution. Although I prefer their other idea — melt down all the cars and turn them into free bicycles.

Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry are two of us, too, as they go for a pre-wedding tandem bike ride on a French island.

Turning China back into the Bicycle Kingdom to fight pollution.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Sacramento Bee says French pro Julian Alaphilippe brings panache to the yellow jersey.

Peter Sagan overcame a hilly course to claim Wednesday’s stage of the Tour de France, while his bike got back-to-back wins.

Dutch pro Annemiek van Vleuten is building what could be an insurmountable lead in the Giro Rosa.

 

Finally…

Cow farts are bad for the planet, bike lanes aren’t. Your next bike could come with pigeon poop pre-installed.

And riding with LA’s preeminent moped gang.

 

One comment

  1. Ralph says:

    That last bike would be much better with a generator hub, lights, fenders, and rack installed.

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