BikinginLA

Not everyone was marching for racial justice this past weekend.

Some were riding and rolling, as LA bike riders took part in a solidarity ride from Echo Park to Los Angeles City Hall on Saturday.

San Diego boarders and bicyclists rolled out over the weekend to protest racism and police violence.

Things didn’t always go peacefully, however, as someone in a plateless SUV drove through a Portland Black Liberation Ride, damaging at least one bicycle.

Dozens of people took the call for racial justice to the casinos on Las Vegas Blvd in a peaceful protest organized by a retired NBA player.

Rochester NY celebrated Juneteenth with a bicycle Freedom Ride, in memory of the Freedom Riders of the 1960s.

By far the biggest ride took place in New York, where an estimated 10,000 people came out on Saturday for a New York City ride to protest police brutality and champion Black Lives Matter.

this photo of yesterday’s NYC bike protest via ⁦@StreetRidersnyc⁩ is just astonishing pic.twitter.com/hAUZQcR03X

— Jason Gay (@jasongay) June 21, 2020

Hundreds turned out to ride in support of Black Lives Matter in the former capital of the Confederacy in Richmond VA.

Photo by Life Matters from Pexels.

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Meanwhile, NPR says at least 50 drivers have intentionally rammed protesters, as right-wing extremists turn their cars into weapons.

Like this Michigan driver, who asserted her God-given right to the road, regardless of who might be in her way, by driving through a group of protesters, injuring two people and driving over a 71-year old man’s bicycle.

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Let’s just leave this one right here for now.

Let’s thank ⁦@MitchOFarrell⁩ for preserving the All Black Lives Matter mural after the city started to erase it. Now we’re just two lanes from a Hollywood & Highland pedestrian plaza.

Funny though, how they can use k-rail to protect a mural, but not bike riders. pic.twitter.com/efPXDpYSHZ

— BikinginLA (@bikinginla) June 22, 2020

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Heartbreaking news, as former F-1 and CART champ Alex Zanardi is in a medically induced coma after he was severely injured during a handcycle race in Italy.

Doctors report he is in grave neurological condition, unsure if he will suffer mental impairment.

Zanardi became a champion Paralympic cyclist after losing both his legs in a horrific CART racing crash in 2001, winning gold and silver medals in the London and Rio games.

I got in trouble with someone on Twitter over the weekend after mistakenly saying Zanardi lost his legs in a Formula 1 crash, rather that in CART, trusting nearly 20-year old memories rather than pausing to look it up.

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This is who we share the roads with.

A Corona driver rear-ended a motorcyclist. Then kept driving with the motorbike stuck under his minivan.

Fortunately, the victim was not seriously hurt, and the driver has been arrested.

If there’s any justice, this will be the last time he ever drives.

Thanks to John Damman and Victor Bale for the heads-up.

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The president of Oakland’s city council is belatedly noticing that the local police are targeting kids on scraper bikes.

Were police interfering with scraper bikes? We’ve been advocating to end unjust targeting of (mostly African American) pedestrians and bicyclists. Can you send me info about this incident? https://t.co/7f22hAsv6T

— Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland Vice Mayor (@Kaplan4Oakland) June 21, 2020

I’m not sure who sent this one, but thank you, whoever you are!

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BBC presenter Jeremy Vine discovers that we turn invisible on a bicycle.

Tonight … on my way home … and the black car distracts me. pic.twitter.com/K4Hq5Km3uj

— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) June 19, 2020

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Speaking of who we share the roads with, it’s one thing to pull out in front of someone on a bicycle.

But it takes a special skill to pull out in front of a steaming locomotive.

https://twitter.com/Ogilvie_CJ/status/1274602928502956037

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The Urban Cycling Institute goes in-depth to examine the great French street reclamation, as Paris and Nice respond to the pandemic by stepping up plans to reimagine what our streets can be.

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Pink Bike says it’s time to get to know Japanese stunt rider Tomomi Nishikubo.

Meanwhile, don’t watch this downhill chase full screen on an empty stomach.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Last week we shared news of a horrible attack on a Florida bike rider, who was shot in the head with a crossbow by a passing driver for no apparent reason — although it’s worth noting that the driver was white, and the victim is Black. A crowdfunding page has raised nearly $64,000 of the $75,000 goal. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

But sometimes it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Santa Rosa nurse says she was punched in the face by a man on a bike, after she was accused of driving recklessly through a group of protesters who shattered her windshield with a skateboard and a bicycle. Seriously, don’t do that. Take video, take photos and take down the license. But don’t resort to violence. And don’t abuse your bike. 

Police in Chicago are looking for a bike-riding groper who assaulted a woman walking her dog on the city’s Lakefront Trail.

A man suffered a concussion when he was pushed off his bicycle by an aggressive bicyclist on an Indiana trail; witnesses say the attacker was swearing profusely before he intentionally elbowed the victim.

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Local

Free your schedule for tomorrow evening, when the LA Department of Engineering will host a virtual town hall to discuss plans for the LA Riverway through the San Fernando Valley, between Lankershim and Whitsett.

 

State

As we’ve noted before, it takes a major schmuck to repeatedly burglarize a San Jose bike co-op that’s given away over 3,500 bicycles to homeless people.

San Francisco will keep a pilot protected bike lane on a section of Valencia Street, after the temporary lane proved successful.

The Redding bike rider killed in a solo crash earlier this month is described as someone who “did good deeds for everyone;” he was killed when he his head on a curb while riding without a helmet. Crashes like this are exactly what bike helmets were designed for; they were never intended to protect against motor vehicles.

More bad news from Chico, where a man was killed riding his bike in a collision with an apparently driverless car; the victim was blamed for riding through a stop sign. Thanks to John McBrearty for the link.

 

National

It was nice while it lasted. Auto traffic in the US has rebounded to 90% of pre-pandemic levels. Which means time is rapidly running out to take streets back from the big, dangerous machines. Thanks to Aurelio Jose Barrera for the second link.

The new lighted smart helmet from Lumos debuted on Kickstarter over the weekend, taking just four minutes to meet the $60,000 goal — then surpassed it by roughly 2500%. Thanks to Tim Rutt for the tip.

The Daily Beast offers advice on how to plan a long-distance bike ride in the age of Covid-19.

The New York Times offers tips on how to store a big bicycle in a small apartment.

The Today Show considers why bicycling has soared in popularity during the pandemic. Maybe because it’s good for you, with built-in social distancing, and safer when there are fewer cars on the streets. And it’s fun.

Kindhearted members of an Arizona riding club replaced a young girl’s stolen bicycle, and tossed in a lock and a gift certificate for a new helmet.

Speaking of kindhearted strangers, a trail riding group bought a new bicycle for a seven-year old Fort Worth, Texas girl after hers broke. And gave it to her just in time for her Marine father to come home on Father’s Day.

A Michigan man is riding 100 miles a week, with a goal of 1,000 miles by Labor Day, to raise $10,000 for Black Lives Matter.

Even though they’re thousands of miles apart, a father and son spent the weekend riding together in a virtual ride across Maine.

A Brooklyn woman completed a three-year project to ride every block in the New York borough, covering over 4,400 miles.

You already have the Greater Allegheny Passage-C&O Towpath bicycle trail leading 350 miles from Pittsburgh to DC on your bike bucket list, right?

You can now legally ride an ebike anywhere a bicycle is allowed in Florida, as the state rushes to catch up to the 21st Century.

A laid-off Disney World performer has ridden his bike over three thousand miles since the pandemic began in an effort to spread smiles around the area.

 

International

Great story from Brazil, where a man built an adaptive tricycle by hand for his granddaughter with cerebral palsy.

Toronto residents are taking advantage of good weather and a partially closed boulevard along the lakefront to get out on their bikes.

A local website suggests eight Montreal bike paths with incredible views for your next trip to the bicycling city.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a British priest’s bicycle.

Bikes are really booming in Great Britain, where 5% of consumers have bought a bicycle since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. Although some of those are probably healthcare workers replacing their stolen bikes.

Kate Moss is one of us, as she goes for a leisurely bike ride in the UK’s Cotswolds.

Nice. A new cross-border bike path will connect the Slovak and Czech cities of Trencin and Brumov-Bylnice.

Greek bicyclists stripped down and hopped on their bikes for this year’s edition of the World Naked Bike Ride, which has been cancelled virtually everywhere else due to the coronavirus.

Residents of Dhaka, Bangladesh, explain why they’re taking to their bicycles during the city’s coronavirus lockdown.

Talk about not getting it. The mayor of Manilla says he’s opposed to bike lanes in the city, because the streets are too dangerous to try to make them safer for bike riders.

Pedestrian advocates call for banning bike riders from shared pathways in Queensland, Australia, after a 93-year man was killed in a head-on collision with a man on a bicycle.

 

Call it a fixed false alarm. Aussie cyclist Lachlan Morton didn’t set a new record for Everesting after all las week. Then he did, shaving ten minutes off the existing record.

The founder of the Dirty Kanza gravel race has been fired after a social media post calling the Atlanta shooting of Rayshard Brooks justified. However, the name of the race is also problematic; Kanza is another name for the Kaw Nation and its people, which means Dirty Kanza could be read as “dirty Indian.”

A French website says there’s nothing to suggest the rescheduled Tour de France won’t start as planned this August. I wouldn’t hold your breath, though.

 

Your next bicycle could read your mind. Your next car could be a single seat backward e-tricycle.

And when you’re carrying heroin, cocaine, fentanyl and crystal meth on your bike, with an outstanding arrest warrant, put a damn horn on it, already.

On the other hand, how the hell could a passing cop even tell if you had one? Never mind what a stupid law that is.

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Thanks to David E. for his generous donation to support this site, and keep SoCal’s best bike news coming your way every day.

Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already.