BikinginLA

Ad Age celebrates a classic ad for a 1970 Sears banana-seated chopper bike.

Unfortunately, while the type’s too small to read, the photo at the bottom shows the days of “pink it and shrink it” started early.

And throw in a handlebar basket while you’re at it.

Because girls, unlike boys, actually want to carry stuff, evidently.

Photo from Ad Age story; unfortunately, that it’s full size.

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The LA Times has endorsed university professor and climate activist Loraine Lundquist in the special election for LA’s 12th Council District in the San Fernando Valley.

She won the endorsement of Bike the Vote LA, as well. Which is good enough for me.

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Cycling in the South Bay spends a day celebrating with South LA’s East Side Riders, and discovers just how diverse the LA bicycling community is.

After almost forty years of competitive cycling, it’s eye-opening to start understanding how diverse and complex the fabric of our cycling community is, so far beyond the “race around in your underwear” scene. It’s easy to fixate on your own backyard and the Big Group Ride, but hanging out with people who are using bikes as a way to change lives is pretty danged rewarding.

Thanks to David Huntsman for the heads-up.

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At least she pulled over, anyway.

I mistook this car for an uber but it turned out she parked in the bike lane to take a selfie while kissing her dog #carinbikelane @bikinginla pic.twitter.com/e3LZQEjEjm

— Dr Grace Peng (@gspeng) July 21, 2019

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CiclaValley finds a unique way to see LA.

A happy accident, but a unique way of looking at DTLA.#mydayinla @happeninginDTLA #GoProHero7 @LATimescitybeat pic.twitter.com/zBE8Q19djX

— Zachary Rynew (@Ciclavalley) July 19, 2019

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Most cyclists wait until after the race to sign autographs.

https://twitter.com/Peter_SagFan/status/1152938822201741312

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

Even when the riders are naked.

Evidently aroused to anger by the sight of human flesh, someone whipped out a paintball gun and started shooting at participants in the St. Louis edition of the World Naked Bike Ride.

Two young Ohio men face misdemeanor assault charges for throwing a water bottle at a bike rider, after the attack was caught on a truck driver’s dashcam video; one of the men admitted to the assault, saying they were just being stupid.

State police in Cambridge MA didn’t get the memo on that city’s naked ride, turning a peaceful afterparty into a near riot that resulted in the arrest of one person.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever shot a 13-year old New Orleans boy in the leg in a drive-by as he was riding his bike.

A British man got two years behind bars for brake checking, then deliberately driving into a man on a bike, for the crime of shaking his head at the motorist’s crappy driving.

But sometimes it’s the people on bikes behaving badly.

A bike-raging London man used his bicycle as a weapon to attack a London cab driver and the car’s occupants.

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Local

An op-ed in the LA Times says e-scooters could just be an attempt by big tech to colonize our public spaces.

A survivor of the 2003 Santa Monica farmer’s market crash that killed 10 people and injured 63 others says cars will always be weapons, but we can and should make open spaces safer.

Jeff Goldblum is one of us, too. Maybe.

 

State

Rancho Mirage unveils its plans to improve bike and pedestrian safety.

The bizarrely contentious CV Link bikeway circling the Coachella Valley is expected to grow by another 15 miles next year.

It took Ventura firefighters 40 minutes to bring a brush fire under control after it was started by sparks from a motorized bike.

A sharp-eyed Sacramento pawn shop employee gets the credit for recovering an adaptive tandem stolen from a nonverbal special needs man.

 

National

Will ebikes save the bike industry?

Bicycling readers offer tips on surviving summer’s hottest bike rides, including bringing along a nylon stocking to fill with ice to cool off. Which would also come in handy if you decide to rob a bank on the way home.

Delta Airlines drops its $150 flat fee to fly with your bike. Sort of.

Tucson AZ tries flexible plastic delineators to keep drivers out of bike lanes. Which don’t do a lot of good when people can just drive over them.

Campus police at the University of Utah accidentally run down a woman accused of stealing a bicycle.

Arkansas’ Walton brothers, heirs to the massive Walmart fortune, want to turn Bentonville into a ski town for bicycles.

In a story that should have run over a month ago, a writer for the Daily Beast explores the area around Indianapolis and the irony of riding a bike to the Indy 500.

‘Tis the season. No, really. An Akron, Ohio group celebrates Christmas in July by giving away bicycles to kids in need.

Instead of just preaching about fire and brimstone, a Rochester NY pastor rode his bicycle over police cars and through a wall of flame. Although it helps when your previous job was with the circus.

A seven-year old Bronx girl just got a new bicycle. And a new arm to ride it with, after losing her’s to a misdiagnosed flesh eating bacteria.

A Staten Island columnist says New York Council Speaker Corey Johnson won’t get his vote for mayor as long as he keeps talking about reducing car culture and bike and pedestrian deaths, when some of those dead people might have done something to contribute to it.

Brooklyn readers are happy to blame the victims for New York’s rising bicycle death rates, accusing the city’s “entitled snobs” of having a vendetta against cars and trucks.

Critics accuse New York Mayor and presidential candidate Bill de Blasio of being afraid of the street fights that keep the city from achieving its Vision Zero goals.

New York bike deaths are soaring, while police are writing fewer tickets for blocking bike lanes.

A New York writer plays pinball with cars as a cab-dodging, tip-chasing Postmates delivery rider. Thanks to Tim Rutt for the link.

Good piece from Gothamist detailing how to win the fight to get bike lanes in your neighborhood.

A Florida woman faces a DUI manslaughter charge for jumping the curb and killing a 17-month old girl as her parents rode their bikes on the sidewalk after police found cocaine, fentanyl and other drugs in her system; the child’s father remains in critical condition.

 

International

Forbes talks with an aerodynamicist who builds fatter, but faster and more aero wheels, while Wired examines the “incredible” technology behind this year’s Tour de France bikes.

A Costa Rican hit-and-run driver has been released from jail on a staycation house arrest as he appeals a seven-year sentence for killing four bike riders in a single crash.

A Toronto paper says Vancouver’s recent success shows that if you want to increase bicycling rates, you need an actual network of protected bike lanes — and the political leadership to do it. Which is where Los Angeles invariably fails.

A Toronto columnist says the city is just spinning its wheels on its bike plan, arguing that if it really is a cycling city, it’s a dysfunctional and bumpy one.

More proof evil often only stands out in retrospect, as English bicycling groups cozied up to Germany’s Hitler Youth in the years leading up to WWII.

Um, no. UK police give a DIY motorized bike rider a stern warning after discovering his gas tank was held on to the crossbar with string.

A British parliament member suffers minor injuries when she’s struck by a driver while riding her bike outside parliament.

Brussels, Belgium, described as one of the most car-choked, polluted and bike hostile cities in Europe, is putting the brakes on cars and lowering speed limits to encourage greener transportation options.

Just like Amsterdam wasn’t always Amsterdam, Dutch city Delft wasn’t always the bike-friendly city you see today. On the other hand, Los Angeles is still Los Angeles. Which isn’t necessary a good thing. 

A Philippine aboriginal tribe makes ornate, hand-carved gravity-powered wooden bicycles.

 

Competitive Cycling

It’s looking like Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe will be wearing yellow in Paris next weekend, after finishing second on the legendary Tourmalet climb that many observers expected him to crack on.

Rapidly riding Dutch cyclist Wout van Aert will be out for the next two months after suffering a deep cut crashing during the in the Tour de France time trial; he’s hoping to be back on his bike in time for ‘cross season.

Cycling Weekly wonders why the yellow jersey is one of the most iconic symbols in sports on its one hundredth anniversary.

Outside says ex-Tour de France winner Floyd Landis still has a lot to say. The question is, given his track record, can we believe any of it?

The first American to win the Tour de France wasn’t LeMond, Lance or Landis. Or a man, for that matter.

The Los Angeles Daily News offers photos from this weekend’s 58th annual Manhattan Beach Grand Prix, won by Cory Williams on the men’s side and Coryn Rivera on the women’s.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to landscape your new bike park with poison ivy. Furnish your home in recycled bikeshare bikes.

And if you’re riding your bike with an outstanding warrant and a long, long list of priors, put a damn light on it.

Seriously.