Tag Archive for Rahsaan Bahati

Reseda bike rider dies of apparent natural causes; and eligibility reduced for CA ebike rebates, still no start date set

January 19, 2023 / / Comments Off on Reseda bike rider dies of apparent natural causes; and eligibility reduced for CA ebike rebates, still no start date set

Sad news from Reseda, where someone died of an apparent medical crisis while riding a bike on the sidewalk on the 7000 block of Tampa Ave Tuesday night.

Despite initial reports of a traffic collision, authorities believe the victim collapsed on their own, and was beyond medical help by the time paramedics arrived.

There’s no word on the identity of the victim.

Photo by Tucă Bianca from Pexels.

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Calbike tells Governor Gavin Newsom that California needs more active transportation funding, not less, as he attempts to claw back half of the already approved funding in the coming budget.

And there’s still no date set for the start of California’s long-delayed ebike rebate program, though eligibility has been reduced from 400% of the federal poverty level to just 300%.

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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, calls for volunteers for Saturday’s big die-in at LA City Hall to protest traffic violence and deaths in the City of Angels.

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But it there was a bike path there, it would be closed.

Right?

https://twitter.com/EntitledCycling/status/1615436151309078528

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LADOT invites you to a family friendly ride on newly improved Anaheim Street in Wilmington next month.

https://twitter.com/LADOTofficial/status/1615832535912652806

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The East Side Riders are hosting their annual Ride 4 Love on February 11th, just three days before Valentines Day.

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More proof that bike people are the best people.

Although that looks like a pants suit, to me.

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We’re always told no one will ride a bike in LA’s 60° winters.

So how do you explain Londoners riding to work at 26°?

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

An Indiana woman faces charges for intentionally running down a man riding a bicycle, after they had allegedly had a physical confrontation at her home.

A Scottish driver was fined for throwing a tub of hair gel at a pair of bike riders, after becoming angry because they weren’t moving fast enough. Either that, or he was kindly assisting them with the inevitable helmet hair at the end of their ride. 

Well, that’s a new one. Residents of an oceanfront British town formed a conga line to protest a new segregated bike lane.

https://twitter.com/LiamFox/status/1487409022600945665

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

A dozen or so teenaged bike riders stormed the San Francisco Bay Bridge, popping wheelies and swerving through traffic on the roadway where bikes are banned, before being escorted off the bridge by the CHP.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cnf3pvDBmmd/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=0462d8c9-86ba-4841-97f1-eea98f2b2a14

The US Marshall’s Service pats themselves on the back for capturing their Fugitive of the Week for November 30th, after arresting a repeat flasher who failed to register as a sex offender, and attempted to escape from authorities on his bicycle. And failed.

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Local 

Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry took their two-year old daughter on a cold weather bike ride to the Los Angeles Zoo.

WeHoVille encouraged “residents and renters who’ve voiced their dismay” over proposed bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd and Fountain Ave to make themselves heard at last night’s meeting to present a feasibility study on the bike lanes. Because evidently, their belief that the bike lanes are infeasible should outweigh whatever the study shows.

LA County has ordered a safety study of two Altadena roads after a pair pf pedestrian deaths; reports on Holliston and Fair Oaks avenues are due back in 45 days.

The annual San Francisco to Los Angeles AIDS/Lifecycle fundraising ride will end near the Santa Monica Pier this year. Although I wonder how much that has to do with the death of Glen Brown in a solo fall at the end of last year’s ride in LA’s Fairfax district. 

Cycling Tips profiles Compton’s own Rahsaan Bahati, after the Black former national cycling champ founded his Bahati Foundation to get more people on bikes who look like him.

 

State

A Bay Area TV station says Marin County bike thieves are using sophisticated tools to steal bike from garages with glass windows, cutting a small hole in the glass, then inserting a long hook to defeat the lock. Doesn’t sound that sophisticated to me, but what do I know?

A Bay Area man will face a murder charge for intentionally crashing into a 52-year old man riding a bike three years ago; the passenger in his car testified that 40-year old Ric Acosta announced he was going to run the victim down; he had to wrestle the wheel from Acosta to keep him from running over the victim a second time.

Heartbreaking story from Oakland, where a local website examines the 35 lives lost to traffic violence last year. Maybe if every city did that, we might have fewer of them. 

 

National

Momentum offers a “quick and easy” guide to bike fenders, while a writer for CyclingNews provides lessons learned while traveling with a bike.

A Portland artist says he didn’t mean to offend anyone with his installations of all-white children’s bicycles as part of an anti-violence campaign, not realizing the significance ghost bike-like white bikes have for the bicycling community.

Seattle’s Rad Power Bikes is introducing a three-wheeled e-cargo bike for stability-challenged riders.

Tempe, Arizona’s new Culdesac development is intended to provide a walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented community of 761 apartments with blissfully carfree streets.

A Las Vegas nurse says she was just in the right place at the right time to save the life of a 61-year old man who suffered a massive heart attack while riding his bike.

Another Las Vegas bike rider wasn’t so lucky, the victim of a DUI driver who was on her way to the methadone clinic when she smashed into him at 4 am, before flipping her car.

A San Antonio, Texas man credits his Apple Watch with saving his life when he broke his femur failing to make a corner on his bike in the rain; his watch automatically called paramedics, and gave his exact location when he didn’t know where he was.

The parents of a three-year old girl killed riding her bike in a Chicago bike lane last year have filed a lawsuit against the city alleging “willful and wanton misconduct” for failing to maintain the bike lane, as well as against the power company whose driver parked in the bike lane, forcing the family into the traffic lane where the girl was killed by the driver of a semi-truck.

Speaking of Chicago, the city will begin a pilot program using city-owned cameras to ticket drivers who park in bus and bike lanes.

They get it. The Houston Chronicle says it may seem counterintuitive to slow traffic and remove lanes on a major Houston street, but it makes perfect sense when you consider the purpose is to save lives. Hint: Try stopping the page as soon as it loads to get around the paper’s paywall.

Contemporary Christian singer Amy Grant says she’s still suffering from memory loss following her July bike crash in Nashville, forgetting the lyrics to her songs and even the death of a longtime friend’s husband.

Video show the admitted killer of eight people in an ISIS-inspired attack running with what turned out to be fake guns at the end of his 14-block rampage on a New York bike path; Sayfullo Saipov is on trial to determine whether he will be executed for his crimes.

 

International

Road.cc recommends their picks for the best winter road bikes. Because evidently, N+1 dictates different bikes for fair and foul weather.

Bike Radar offers eight tips they wish they knew before they started mountain biking. Here’s one more — make sure your health insurance is up to date. Because sooner or later, you’ll need it. 

Talk about a silver lining. More Europeans are turning to bicycles and e-scooters to combat rising energy prices, with 69% of motorists now using their cars less than before.

The next time you can’t find a safe place to lockup your bike, try not to think about Amsterdam’s new 7,000 space underwater bike parking garage. 

A bicycling group slammed plans for an elevated bike and pedestrian pathway through Brussel’s European Quarter, calling it an unneeded vanity project.

A new Japanese study shows that traveling farther distances by walking or cycling may help older adults prevent early functional disability and mortality.

This is why you don’t try to stop a bike thief yourself. A 16-year old Australian boy is on trial for fatally stabbing a man who was trying to stop him from stealing a kids bike; he was reportedly overheard confessing the crime to his best friend by the other boy’s mother.

 

Competitive Cycling

Australia’s Grace Brown beat Amanda Spratt in a sprint to win the final stage of the women’s Tour Down Under, topping the podium for the three-stage race.

Rain put a damper on the men’s Tour Down Under prologue won by Italy’s Alberto Bettiol; Australia’s Rohan Dennis won stage 2.

Bicycling reports competitors in the Tour Down Under’s individual time trial went out of their way to bend the rules prohibiting time trial bikes. Read it on AOL, which somehow still exists, if the magazine blocks you.

British pro James Knox was kicked off the Tour Down Under for drafting on a team car after he crashed; needless to say, he was not pleased.

Mark Cavendish will get one more chance to set the record for most stage wins at the Tour de France after signing with Astana-Qazaqstan; the 37-year old pro from the Isle of Man is currently tied with the legendary Eddy Merckx at 34 stage wins. As it turns out, I have something in common with Cav, since the Isle of Man is my family’s ancestral home, as well. 

 

Finally…

That feeling when authorities attempt to thin the herd by placing a power pole in the middle of a cycle track. Or when you’re driving drunk on three wheels, when you should have four.

And more proof you can haul ass on your bike.

Or a donkey, anyway.

https://twitter.com/MazaCiclismo/status/1615380185171349506

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Six bicyclists critically injured in attack by pick driver in Arizona bike race, and LGBTQ+ hate from Florida pickup driver

June 21, 2021 / / Comments Off on Six bicyclists critically injured in attack by pick driver in Arizona bike race, and LGBTQ+ hate from Florida pickup driver

Once again, a driver has used a motor vehicle as a weapon, leaving broken bodies in his wake.

This time during a bike race in Show Low, Arizona Saturday morning.

The town of just 11,100 people, 175 miles northeast of Phoenix, was the starting point for the 13th Annual Bike the Bluff Championship Arizona State Road Race.

But just minutes after the men’s 55 and older masters race began, the driver of a Ford F-150 pickup traveling in the opposite direction deliberately crossed over three lanes of traffic to slam into a group of bicyclists, critically injuring six people, with a seventh rider hospitalized in stable condition.

Two other people suffered less serious injuries.

A witness describes the horrors of the crash, which came just six minutes after the start, with bodies flying in every direction. Be forewarned before you click on the link, though, because the story features disturbing photos of the victims lying on the ground after the crash, as well as their mangled bikes and helmets.

You’ll find most of those same photos here, without the graphic photos of the victims. But even then, there’s a photo of a bike wheel and busted fork stuck in the truck’s grill that will haunt me forever.

This is how a Phoenix TV station describes the aftermath.

Helmets, shoes and crumpled and broken bicycles were strewn across the street after the crash, and a tire was wedged into the grill of the truck, which had damage to its top and sides and a bullet hole in a window.

The New York Times reports the driver crashed into a utility pole and was surrounded by angry bicyclists pounding on the windows and screaming for him to get out.

Instead, he backed out and drove down the road, before making a U-turn and heading back toward the bicyclists, who feared a second attack that thankfully never came.

Police attempted to stop the 35-year old Show Low man, who has not been publicly identified, as he fled the scene. They cornered him behind a hardware store a short time later, and shot him in a confrontation, the details of which have not been released.

He remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

There’s no word yet on why he did it. Or what charges he’ll face, assuming he survives his wounds.

It should be at least six counts of attempted murder. And hopefully, with a sentence to be served consecutively so he’ll be locked up for a very long time.

Thanks to everyone who sent this one to me.

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This is who we share the road with.

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The team competition in the Race Across America, aka RAAM, kicked off in Oceanside, California yesterday, as teams of 2, 4, and 8 people set on on a race across the continent to the Empire State Building in New York.

Solo riders are seven days in on the race after starting on Tuesday, and allowed just another five days to complete the course.

An Oklahoma team is riding to promote mental health and suicide prevention, something that’s especially important after a year of Covid losses and lockdowns.

Endurance cyclist and semi-retired star San Diego bike lawyer Richard Duquette forwards a photo of himself sandwiched between three-time Olympian, four-time US road cycling champ and Ironman World Champ John Howard and former national crit champ Rahsaan Bahati, who’s competing in this year’s RAAM for Team Thin Energy.

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The Eastside Riders want your support to win an LA 2050 grant.

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A Kenyon rider offers a fascinating view of bicycling conditions in east central Africa, with a challenging soda-fueled, 102-mile ride to the Tanzanian border and back on torturous tuk tuk filled roads.

Thanks to Stormin’ Norman for the link.

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Pro cyclists have to move obstacles out of the way, too. Even Liège–Bastogne–Liège women’s champ Demi Vollering.

But damn, check out that scenery.

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Are two riders faster than one?

Probably not.

Thanks to Tandem Mike Wilkinson for the heads-up.

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

No bias here. Opponents of a bike path through a Florida seniors community insist that “bicycles and people do not mix.” Apparently forgetting that people ride bicycles, including many older people. And those who do are usually healthier and happier than those who don’t, regardless of age.

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

Now that’s more like it. Responding to complaints of anti-social behavior from groups of bike riders and skateboarders, London police welcome them to ride in the city center, where its relatively safe compared to other areas.

A 28-year old Welsh man could face charges of manslaughter and causing bodily harm by wanton/furious driving after killing a 79-year old woman while allegedly riding his bicycle recklessly.

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Local

Metro will vote this Thursday on whether to modernize their Highway Program to open up spending for bus lanes, bike lanes, pedestrian infrastructure and other projects that work to reduce Vehicle Mile Traveled, instead of adding lanes to already overcrowded freeway.

Unincorporated Los Angeles County has a short new protected bike lane on Workman Mill Road in Avocado Heights.

 

State

Work is set to begin this week on installing spacious seven-foot parking- and post-protected bike lanes on 30th Street in San Diego. Meanwhile, local residents and business people decry the loss of 450 parking spaces for the project.

Ride with the American Institute of Graphic Arts next Saturday, and take in the murals of La Jolla.

San Francisco police have arrested a 40-year old man on suspicion of a “prolific” string of pharmacy thefts, including the recent theft where a man on a bicycle was seen clearing pharmacy shelves into a bag before riding out of the store.

Santa Rosa police are looking for a heartless hit-and-run driver who left a bike rider lying in the roadway with severe injuries.

 

National

CNN confirms that it’s not your imagination. Drivers really have gotten worse during the pandemic.

A design site recommends bicycle accessories that run the gamut from smart to cool to…strange.

A writer for c|net recommends a pair of bone conduction headphones from Aftershokz, crediting them with saving his life by allowing him to hear a truck bearing down on him from behind as he rode his bike; they’re on sale now for Prime Day.

Keith Johnson forwards information on a one-year bicycle technician program at the Northwest Arkansas Community College.

Minneapolis bike riders vote with their feet — or their pedals — riding on bike trails more and bike lanes a lot less.

Take a 33-day ride along the entire length of the Mississippi River.

On one of the area’s first post-pandemic group rides, around 50 Michigan bike riders remember the victims of the Kalamazoo massacre, five years after a drunk and stoned driver killed five people and injured four others when he slammed into their group ride.

In yet another example of keeping dangerous drivers on the road until it’s too late, a Massachusetts man was arrested for his fifth DUI after hitting a bike rider (scroll down), following four previous convictions; he was also arrested for possession of a powdery substance believe to be coke. Let’s hope they finally take it seriously this time, and he never drives again.

An op-ed writer in the New York Post insists that the city has to reign in ebikes after the death of Gone Girl actress Lisa Banes, and the ebike hit-and-run that left her seriously injured. Except Banes was struck by a rider on an e-scooter, not an ebike. And in her case, the problem wasn’t the ebike, it was a salmon delivery bicyclist going the wrong way in a bike lane on the wrong side of the street. 

Once again, a bike rider is a hero, after a passing bicyclist teamed with a New Jersey state trooper to rescue two women who fell from their overturned kayak.

 

International

Bike Radar offers a 12-week plan to get fit this summer.

Cuban bike riders turned out to protest the ongoing US blockade of their country, which hasn’t accomplished anything 50 years.

A British Columbia man thought he was in good shape thanks to mountain biking, but his first visit to a doctor in years uncovered stage 4 thyroid cancer than had spread to his spine; he’s now planning a solo 465-mile bike ride across Minnesota in September to benefit the Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association.

It takes a major schmuck to knock an 11-year old Toronto boy off his bike after speeding through a stop sign, then flee as the kid stumbles to the curb. And schmuck is putting it mildly.

Big news from London, where Oxford Circus, one of the city’s busiest intersections, will be transformed into a pair of pedestrian plazas separated by a significantly smaller street, with traffic further reduced by closing nearby feeder streets. Seriously, if they can do it there — and in Paris and New York — there’s no reason we can’t do it here. Or wherever you live and ride.

An Indian immigrant learns to ride a bike again at 70 years old, nearly 50 years after giving up riding when she moved to Great Britain.

A writer for Cycling Weekly takes a ride through the UK’s equivalent of Top Gun on Northern Wales’ Mach Loop, one of just two places on earth where you can look down and see ground-hugging fighter pilots roaring beneath you.

British lawyer “Mr. Loophole,” whose job is to get celebrity drivers off the hook for traffic crimes, wants to make bicycle and e-scooter riders wear a license plate. Seriously.

Evidently, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will keep the bespoke Bilenk bicycle given him by Joe Biden, after commissioning a matching tricycle for his one-year old son.

Several Philippine bicyclists were injured, including a 14-year old girl, when they collided with each other while passing a truck during an illegal bike.

 

Competitive Cycling

Congratulations to Lauren Stephens and Joey Rosskopf for winning the US national road cycling titles; SoCal’s Coryn Rivera finished second to capture her third silver of the nats, while retiring cyclist Brent Bookwalter finished second for the men in his final race as a pro.

LA’s vaunted L39ION of Los Angeles cycling team came up short in the men’s crit, when pre-race favorites Cory Williams and Travis McCabe of Best Buddies Racing hit the pavement on the final turn; 18-year old U-23 team member Luke Lamperti won a surprise victory, while Kendal Ryan won the women’s crit.

In a major surprise, L39ION of Los Angeles founder Justin Williams won his 12th national title — but his first representing Belize, switching his national affiliation to his father’s homeland after winning eleven US national titles.

Reuters previews the road cycling competitions at next month’s Tokyo Olympics.

Team USA introduces the 14 paracyclists who will represent the US in Tokyo.

Twenty-five-year old South Africa native Nicholas Dlamini was named to the Tour de France roster for the Qhubeka Assos team, becoming the first Black African cyclist to ride in the race.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could have some good bones. Don’t use a riding crop on your fellow naked bike riders, even if you are a dominatrix.

And that feeling when a bicyclist and TV news host turns out to have pretty good taste in music, too.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Watch for dangerous smoke and closed roads in SGV, Shoup on parking minimums, and Bahati gets star treatment

August 20, 2020 / / 2 comments

My apologies for yet another unexcused absence yesterday.

Which seems like it’s starting to be a habit.

I spent most of Tuesday night being tormented by demons when I should have been working.

Either that, or my neuropathy, which is mostly managed, if not controlled, most of the time, flared up to a devastatingly painful level.

I’m leaning towards the first explanation, myself.

Then last night, I lost a few crucial hours to an extended internet outage, thanks to a certain cable provider who shall remain nameless. Which means we still have more to catch up on tomorrow.

Assuming there’s not some other minor disaster waiting in the wings. Just part of this annus horribilis we’re all dealing with this year.

And yes, that’s two n’s, thank you.

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Be careful breathing in the San Gabriel Valley for the next several days, after officials issued a warning about smoke from the Ranch2 fire.

Smoke from wildfires can cause serious health and breathing problems, both short and long term. Especially when you’re sucking it in on a bike.

A simple rule of thumb is, if you can smell smoke, stay inside and don’t ride. But if you have to, wear a good quality mask to filter as much of the smoke as possible.

Trust me on this one.

Meanwhile, several road closures remain in effect:

  • San Gabriel Canyon Road/Highway 39: closed at Northbound Hwy 39 at Sierra Madre Avenue (southbound Highway 39 is closed at East Fork roRoad)
  • Glendora Mountain Road: closed from Big Dalton to East Fork
  • Glendora Ridge Road: closed from Glendora Mountain Road to Mt. Baldy Road
  • Santa Anita Canyon Road: closed from Arno Drive to Chantry Flats Road

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UCLA parking meister Donald Shoup explains the problems with parking minimums.

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South LA’s own Rahsaan Bahati gets the star treatment from Peloton.

 

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Another edition of celebs on bikes.

Country singer Luke Bryan is one of us.

Coldplay’s Chris Martin is one of of us, going for a solo ride in the Hamptons.

Halle Berry might be one of us, posing on a bicycle for a photo shoot, though not actually riding it.

Semi-presidential candidate Kanye West is sort of one of us, too, preferring to do his riding indoors by crashing an Atlanta cycling class.

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The Department of DIY strikes in Guadalajara, using a three-wheeled cargo bike to paint their own bike lane.

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Don’t let anyone tell you there’s not enough room on the street.

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

This one would fit in the section below, as well. A ten-year old British boy was traumatized when a group of older boys on bikes dumped a carton of milk over him as he was riding his bike.

A British amateur bike racer was pushed off his bike by someone in a passing car, describing it as more terrifying than coming under enemy fire when he was in the military.

Then there’s this.

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

Sticking with the UK, authorities are looking for an apparently crazed bicyclist who refused to let a driver pass, then spit on his car and dented it with his bike. As always, there’s undoubtedly another side to the story. But bad behavior is never the right solution.

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Local

Now that’s more like it. A killer drunk driver got 15 years for the hit-and-run death of a pedestrian in Pasadena last year.

 

State

San Diego is launching a new bike blog to get more commuters out on their bikes.

 

National

Cycling News offers tips for weight weenies, with five ways to quickly cut the weight of your bike. Although one of the best ways to improve your bike’s performance is to reduce the weight of the person on it.

A pair of studies show riding an ebike provides good exercise, and is as safe as any other bike.

One more way our laws keep dangerous drivers on the road until it’s too late. A legal loophole allows drivers who’ve lost their license in one state to keep driving in another.

A recall has been issued for the Ripper Jr., Ripper MIPS Jr., and Ripper MIPS bicycle helmets because they don’t comply with federal safety standards.

A pediatric ER doctor suggests tips on how to get your kid to wear a bike helmet.

Portland’s Department of Transportation is responding to the Black Lives Matter movement by working to become an actively anti-racist organization.

Nice. A couple hundred Chicago bike riders turned out to show the streets some peace and love.

Kindhearted Minnesota cops gave a new bike to a young girl after hers was damaged when she was hit by a driver; the bike was one of 12 donated by local Shriners for deserving kids.

A Flint, Michigan bike rider was critically injured when he was run down by a cop responding to an emergency call. As usual, the person on the bike gets the blame, especially since he’s not around to give his side of the story.

An Indianapolis man got his custom-made twin-chain-drive bicycle back five years after it was stolen when someone dropped it off at a bike co-op.

That’s one way to solve the problem. The NYPD has inexplicably eliminated bicycling injuries from their Traffic Stat portal, making the problem disappear overnight.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. A Delaware judge ruled that a driver who struck and killed two men as they were standing with their bikes outside a restaurant couldn’t have foreseen that he would have the seizure that caused the wreck, even though he had a history of seizures and hadn’t always followed his doctor’s orders or treatment plans.

A crowdfunding page has raised over $800,000 for the family of Connor Hinnant, the five-year old North Carolina boy who was fatally shot point blank by a neighbor, apparently for the crime of riding a bike on his lawn.

A Myrtle Beach SC bike rider is suing the city, alleging he was right hooked by a cop in a marked patrol car while he was riding in a marked bike lane. At the very least, he wants his bike replaced.

 

International

Cycling Weekly patiently explains the difference between gravel and ‘cross bikes.

An English town somehow equates dangerous bicycling with illegally feeding sea gulls, fining people the equivalent of $130 for either one.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a distracted driver walked without a single day behind bars for killing a bike-riding Royal Air Force officer while on the phone with his daughter. Meanwhile, a 78-year old driver walked with a suspended sentence for killing a bike rider ten years his senior.

Bike friendly Amsterdam is deteriorating, and at risk of collapsing back into the sea. Although all the bikes in that photo will make you forget everything else.

Talk about a close call. A Turkish boy was lucky to avoid serious injury when he rode his bike out from a side street and into the side of a passing car.

Now that’s a good dad. An Indian man rode his bike 65 miles to take his son for an education test, hoping to get him into a better school.

A Russian website remembers the first Russian to ride a bike around the world, in 1911, before dying when his plane was shot down in WWI.

 

Competitive Cycling

Dutch pro Jos van Emden figuratively nailed his thesis to the church door, listing ten proposals to improve safety in the peloton, including air bags along the rails near the finish, and a system of yellow and red cards to punish dangerous riders.

In a shocking move, Team Ineos has dropped former Tour de France winners Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas from their Tour roster, denying Froome a shot at a record-tying fifth win.

 

Finally…

Gotham bike riders want to know where to stick it. The best truck for backing over your kids.

And who needs a bike lock when you’ve got fake bird poop?

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

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Rahsaan Bahati talks race and cycling, Gaimon’s tips for new and experienced riders, and DC bike jerk attacks young girl

June 5, 2020 / / One comment

Just in time for the social justice protest movement roiling the county, VeloNews offers a challenging conversation with LA’s own 10-time national road champ Rahsaan Bahati about race and cycling.

Here’s a small piece of what he has to say.

I’ve been on training rides where I’ve had older adults who didn’t like me because, one, the color of my skin, and two, I was better than them. This is as a kid, having a white guy in his 40s tell me to get off a ride.

You go to Europe and it’s the same level of ignorance and racism. When I was a year out of college, I was fortunate to get a job with Jonathan Vaughters, went over to Europe, my teammates were Danny Pate, Mike Friedman, Tyler Farrar, all those guys. They’d never taken a break to go to school and I had. I remember I had another month left to be there and I remember being in car, overhearing the director or someone saying, ‘he’s no good.’ It’s like, ‘dude, I just spent the last five years at Indiana University.’

Seriously, take a few minutes to read it.

Because Bahati’s not saying anything he hasn’t said for years. The only difference is, people are finally paying attention.

And if you want to make a difference in today’s LA, you could do a lot worse than supporting his work with the nonprofit Bahati Foundation.

Photo from Bahati Foundation website.

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Former pro Phil Gaimon is back with tips for new bike riders, while telling experienced riders not to screw this up with their obnoxious rules.

And yes, Gaimon’s typically tongue-in-cheek delivery will probably make this the funniest thing you watch today, despite his perfectly serious message.

Gaimon may have never reached the dope-fueled heights Lance Armstrong did.

But he’s become the bike advocate Lance has never been, but should be.

Especially since Lance owes a lot to all of us who bought his lies for so long.

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

Someone in a white van has been egging several bike riders in Yorkshire, England in recent weeks.

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

Talk about a jerk. This is about the worst behavior by a bike rider we’ve seen in some time, as a spandex-clad man assaulted a little girl on a DC-area trail, ripping flyers out of her hands demanding justice for killer cops, then ramming his bike into the man who was filming him.

https://twitter.com/VicStoddard/status/1268620623489560576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1268620623489560576&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.towleroad.com%2F2020%2F06%2Fviral-video-shows-white-bicyclist-assaulting-young-women-over-black-lives-matter-fliers-watch%2F

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Local

Long Beach’s Bixby Knolls neighborhood virtually celebrated eight years of Kidical Mass.

TMZLive host Harvey Levin is one of us. Although he may not be for awhile, after a “pretty bad” knocked him off his bike and off the air.

 

State

No news is good news, right?

 

National

The new transportation bill proposed by House Democrats contains $6.3 billion for biking and walking infrastructure.

A senior Sam Schwartz transportation planner says now is the time to rethink the right of way as the right to social movement.

US bike sales are up 30% over pre-pandemic shutdown levels. But if you can’t get a new bike, you can always fix up an old one.

Bike mechanics are in short supply, too.

A new service founded by a British expat living in Portland delivers tea, roses and handwritten notes or poems by bicycle.

Bike shop owners in Portland are hunting for dozens of bicycles that were stolen by looters during weekend protests. Just like bike shops pretty much everywhere else in the US.

There’s a special place in hell for the bike thieves who targeted a blind bike shop owner in Medford, Oregon, who’s crowdfunding money to stay in business after his shop was hit by thieves multiple times in recent weeks; the campaign has raised over $5,600 in just three days., more than making up for losing $5,000 worth of bicycles.

Ann Arbor, Michigan could soon be home to more protected bike lanes and fewer car lanes, along with more space for pedestrians, as the city responds to the coronavirus crisis. Which is a lot more than a certain SoCal megalopolis we could name is doing right now.

Bicycling profiles a 54-year old Detroit man who lost nearly 200 pounds after getting on his bike and discovering triathlons. And likely saved his own life in the process.

Not even bikes are safe from the NYPD’s aggressive policing, as charging officers indiscriminately confiscated bicycles belonging protesters and reporters alike.

Miami’s elite bike cops formed the front lines of the city’s response to recent protests.

 

International

FloBikes recommends the best bicycling books on the market right now.

Bike Radar offers advice on how to finance a new bike.

British pedicab company PedalMe has dropped their rates in an effort to get more cars off the streets during the pandemic, saying they’re now cheaper than Uber

Thousands of Brits are reaching out to local leaders to demand pop-up bike lanes, as a new survey shows 36% of UK residents would dump their cars if they felt safer biking and walking.

A horrifying X-ray shows a knife embedded in the skull of a 60-year old Spanish man, who was stabbed in the head when he tried to intervene in an argument over a bicycle. Be sure you really want to see that before you click on the link, because that image will stick with you.

A pair of bike advocates in Bengaluru — formerly known as Bangalore, India — are encouraging more people to get out and ride in the post-Covid-19 era. Which hasn’t come yet, and probably won’t for a very long time.

A Kenyan news anchor urged drivers to be more careful after he was hit by one while riding his bike; calling Nairobi one of the world’s most dangerous cities for bicyclists.

Bicycles are helping raise Zambia’s female farmers out of poverty, shaving hours off their journey to get fresh milk to market.

Korean carmaker Kia used to be one of us, beginning as a bike parts maker, and producing the country’s first full-size bicycle in 1951.

Bikes are booming Down Under, too, with a 200% jump in Adelaide alone.

 

Finally…

Your next bike could run on rails. Your next ebike may not stop someone from stealing it, but at least it will tell you if someone does.

And now we know what that weird Turkmenistan World Bicycle Day globe was.

………

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

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Innocent victims pay price in Toluca Lake hit-and-run, zipping down GMR, and a sort-of group ride with Rahsaan Bahati

May 12, 2020 / / Comments Off on Innocent victims pay price in Toluca Lake hit-and-run, zipping down GMR, and a sort-of group ride with Rahsaan Bahati

This is why we keep calling for closing streets to cars and opening safe Slow Streets.

And what happens when that doesn’t happen.

As Los Angeles enters its third month of the coronavirus shutdown, more people than ever are taking to the streets while leaving their cars behind. 

People all across the city are walking and riding their bikes to get exercise and fresh air while maintaining social and physical distancing, often walking out into the street to avoid others on the sidewalk.

Unfortunately, though, the streets are just as dangerous as ever, as fewer cars on the road entice too many drivers to plant their right foot to the floor.

Case in point, two Toluca Lake pedestrians and a bike rider — or maybe the other way around — were injured when a speeding driver plowed into them around 8 pm yesterday, then fled the scene after stopping briefly.

An LAPD officer gave chase after spotting the driver speeding off, but lost him a short time later; police are looking for a silver Ford Fusion with Texas plates, last seen in the Universal Studios area.

Fortunately, at last report, none of the victims were seriously injured.

But it’s bad enough that Angelenos have to change our entire lives to keep ourselves and others safe from Covid-19 through social distancing.

We shouldn’t have to risk our lives just to get a little exercise and fresh air while doing it.

It’s long past time for LA’s city leaders to give us a little space to safely get outside — in every neighborhood.

Not at some vague, undisclosed time in a future that may never come, like most promises we’ve gotten in recent years.

But right now, when we need it most.

Because something like this will happen again. And we may not be so lucky next time.

Photo by Athena from Pexels.

………

Speaking of CiclaValley’s Zachary Rynew, he’s going downhill these days. And recording it during a high speed five-mile descent on a closed Glendora Mountain Road.

………

Here’s your chance to ride with South LA’s own former US crit champ Rahsaan Bahati. As long as you don’t, you know, actually want to go anywhere.

………

Sunset for All is continuing their Bikes Mean Business campaign to show Sunset Blvd businesses just what they’re missing to gain support for protected bike lanes.

And lucky for us, this week’s pick is one of LA’s rare Chicago-style pizza joints.

………

Mountain bike pro Christina Chappetta offers advice on how to ride safely during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Singletrack gathers “20 world champs, skills coaches and veteran amateurs” to teach you how to corner on a mountain bike.

………

Local

LA County will reopen beaches for active uses on Wednesday, but the beachfront bike path will remain closed.

 

State

No news is good news, right?

 

National

A writer for Jalopnik discovers you can bend the chainstays on a metal frame bike. But it doesn’t necessarily do any good.

Lime’s purchase of Uber’s Jump dockless ebikes and scooters makes it the world’s largest micromobility company. But it could be short-lived, as Uber has an option to buy Lime in two years.

Someone spray painted a Portland bike path, telling users to wear a mask or stay home. But they also drew a cute little heart, so there’s that.

Authorities are looking for a 49-year old Colorado woman who never came home after going out for a bike ride.

Some Texas drivers aren’t fans of the extra bike riders out on the streets.

Bike trails could spur economic development in Southeast Michigan. And pretty much everywhere else.

There’s must be something good in the water in Massachusetts, where a kindhearted state trooper bought a new bike for a little girl after hers was stolen, complete with handlebar basket and training wheels. And a group of bighearted firefighters bought one for a five-year old girl after they had to damage her bike to free her ankle when it got stuck in the frame.

A Maryland TV station looks back at the first hour record, set in 1893. And no, it only seems like we’ve all been quarantined ever since.

The coronavirus bike boom could be saving a Florida bike shop, after the owner was forced to shut down everything but the store’s online sales.

A Florida writer asks who needs a boat to go fishing when you’ve got a bike?

 

International

Shimano wants to bring the equivalent of a check engine light to your bicycle.

Pez Cycling News offers a cyclist’s guide to surviving the Covid-19 quarantine.

Bike Radar examines the eternal question of how many calories do you burn on your bike? And concludes, it depends.

Treehugger’s Lloyd Alter says the actions cities take now will determine whether bikes or cars dominate the streets after the coronavirus crisis. At this point, it’s pretty clear which way Los Angeles is going, and why.

A Canadian man’s plan to bike across the country is back on after mounties recovered his bicycle eight months after it was stolen. Which is one more reminder to register your bike, and always report it to the police if it ever gets stolen, if you want any chance of getting it back.

Once again, a young bike rider has been impaled by his handlebars. A 17-year old British boy was lucky to survive after his brother put pressure on the wound when his leg was impaled when he fell off his BMX. It’s long past time bikemakers were forced to redesign handgrips to keep this from happening.

The Guardian asks if the coronavirus could cure Brussels, Belgium’s addiction to driving.

Melbourne, Australia is preparing to remove streetside parking spaces to make room for bike lanes, as residents chose bikes over transit during the coronavirus crisis.

Perth considers more bike lanes and wider sidewalks to reduce congestion on the city’s bike paths.

 

Competitive Cycling

Dutch Olympic road champ Anna van der Breggen announced she’ll retire after next year.

Former pro Phil Gaimon spent yesterday attempting to set a new world record for Everesting by riding up LA’s Mountaingate Drive over 60 times, to raise funds for No Kid Hungry.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can own the steampunk ebike from Westworld, if you have an extra ten to thirteen grand lying around. Look like you just stepped off a turn of the century pro team.

And when you’re with a group, it’s a naked bike ride.

Alone, they usually call it indecent exposure.

………

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

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Remembering late Disney star as son of LA bike rider Victor Boyce, and driving an expert cyclist off the roads

July 8, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Remembering late Disney star as son of LA bike rider Victor Boyce, and driving an expert cyclist off the roads

Sometimes the news hits a little too close to home.

And sometimes, it’s far too close.

That’s how Zachary Rynew is feeling today.

The man behind the popular CiclaValley website learned shortly before the world did that the son of one of a close friend had died from a seizure at just 20 years old.

Someone the world knew as Disney Channel star and rising young actor Cameron Boyce.

But Rynew knew him simply as Cameron, the son of LA bicyclist and LACBC member Victor Boyce.

And the grandson of Jo Ann Boyce, one of the famed Clinton 12 — the first black students to attend the previously all white Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee, following the US Supreme Court’s order to desegregate the school in groundbreaking 1956 Brown vs Board of Education case that sounded the death knell for legal segregation in American Schools.

Although in reality, far too many urban schools have become victims of de facto re-segregation in the years since.

As Rynew points out, Victor Boyce’s Instagram feed is devoted to two things: His family, and riding his bikes.

In fact, a video showing Cameron dancing in front of Boyce’s impressively organized bike collection last year has gained over 1.6 million views.

Though most of those are probably fans of his son, rather than his bikes.

And it’s with Victor Boyce that Rynew has gone gravel biking up Sycamore Canyon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NESXyJwMhjo

Rynew also adds that a few weeks ago, he was with Boyce when they spotted a couple of junk bikes someone had tossed out by the curb.

He had planned to take them home to repaint as ghost bikes. But Boyce claimed one first.

And later that same day, this photo appeared, after he had already fixed it up and given it to his wife.

So while the world mourns Cameron Boyce, the actor and rising movie star, maybe the bicycling community can take a few moments to mourn with a fellow devoted bicyclist and his family, who lost a loved one far too soon.

And remember that every tragedy touches someone, somewhere, very deeply.

I hope you’ll join me in offering our sympathy and prayers for Cameron and Victor Boyce, and all their family and loved ones.

Photo of Cameron Boyce, center, from the Pedalers West Instagram account. 

………

There’s something seriously wrong with our streets when a close encounter with a dangerous driver can make an expert cyclist and former national crit champ rethink his decision to bike to work.

………

This is the cost of traffic violence.

Fallen bicyclist Frederick “Woon” Frazier supported his disabled mother until a hit-and-run driver took his life.

While a crowdfunding campaign raised nearly $10,000 to give his infant son a better start in life, part of that was seized to pay his bills — including the hospital that did nothing more than declare him dead on arrival. Leaving his mother struggling to survive while she waits for any kind of justice.

Now a new crowdfunding campaign has started to help get her back on her feet.

Although sadly, in over a week, it’s received just $20 of the $10,000 goal.

We can do better than that.

Thanks to Sahra Sulaiman for the link.

………

If riding California’s coast highway is on your bike bucket list, maybe you should get a move on while it still exists.

Not the highway.

The coast.

………

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

Someone has been laying potentially deadly booby traps on trails in a British national park, ranging from a wall of rocks across a trail and tree branches hung at head level, to pins and carpet tacks placed where they could puncture bike tires.

When a driver deliberately slams into someone on a bike, police call it assault with a deadly weapon. So what do you call it when a New York cop uses his car as a weapon to make a traffic stop by crashing into a red light-running bike rider? Needless to say, the NYPD doesn’t think he did anything wrong. In effect, it’s no different than the officer firing his gun to stop a speeding driver. In either case, it’s using deadly force for what amounts to a simple traffic violation.

………

Local

This is who we share the roads with. A pair of street racing teenagers lost control after colliding in San Marino, killing an adjunct professor at Pasadena City College and his dog as they walked on the median on Huntington Drive.

A pair of public workshops will discuss plans to revitalize the upper LA River, starting tomorrow night in Sylmar and concluding in Glendale on Thursday. Thanks to Walk Bike Glendale for the heads-up.

WeHoVille offers tips on how to get out and about on a bicycle from some of the city’s most passionate bike riders, including members of the city’s West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition.

The Long Beach Post talks with Jo Manny Silva of Compton’s Manny’s Bike Shop, calling him the godfather of lowrider bikes.

 

State

San Diego residents turn out to fight for their God-given right to parking along 30th Street, where city leaders plan to remove 420 parking spaces to make room for protected bike lanes.

Thanks in part to its growing bike infrastructure, WalletHub has named San Diego America’s best city for recreation. Los Angeles checked in at a surprising number 10. But probably not because of our bicycle non-network. 

Sad news from San Jose, where a 62-year old man was killed by a hit-and-run driver as he rode his bike; police later arrested a suspect in the case. Thanks to Robert Leone and Al Williams for the heads-up.

A San Francisco newspaper says a new three-mile Lake Tahoe bike path offers magical views of the lake.

 

National

America’s “favorite oddball motorcycle engineer” is turning his attention to making a “handsome, cohesive and convenient” 32 mph ebike with a 125 mile range.

It used to be that a fraternity road trip meant bundling a few brothers into a car and driving to Florida for spring break. Now a fraternity from a Kentucky college is biking across the US, hoping to raise $70,000 for Alzheimer’s research.

A bighearted Massachusetts deputy sheriff better known as Bob the Bike Guy has founded a charity to give refurbished bikes to underprivileged kids, many of whom don’t look too kindly on cops; the group has given away 1,200 bikes in just two years, with another 2,000 bikes in the pipeline.

A Canadian man hops on a restored Schwinn, and revisits his old paper route in Upstate New York half a century later. I used the profits from my paper route to buy my first 10-speed bike.

A Rochester, NY newspaper editor explains why bicycling matters for “women, minorities and everyone.”

They get it. The New York Daily News says Mayor De Blasio’s temporary crackdown on drivers blocking bike lanes won’t end Gotham bicycling fatalities.

New York’s recent rash of bike-by shootings continued over the weekend, as a man on a bike fired multiple shots, injuring two men sitting on a Central Park bench.

A Philadelphia cop will take part in a 65-mile bike ride to raise funds for the children of fallen or severely injured police officers, three years after he was ambushed by a gunman while on duty.

Nominally bike-friendly DC ripped out a bike lane on one side of a street so local residents could get their parking back.

More on the late Lee Iacocca, early adopter ebike pitchman, when he rode one in a Florida parade nearly two decades ago.

 

International

The head of a Winnipeg, Canada bike advocacy group says better eduction is the solution to the city’s dangerous patchwork of bike lanes, not better infrastructure.

Um, no. The annual RideLondon sportive wanted to show that it wasn’t just for white men. So they just photoshopped a black woman into a picture from the event.

After 100 years, a British author says he’s cracked the unsolved murder of a 21-year old bike-riding woman felled by a gunshot as she rode on a country lane, calling it a case worthy of Sherlock Holmes.

The UK’s popular Deliveroo food delivery service plans to switch from bicycle deliveries to motor vehicles, even though bikes are often faster.

No bias here. A new documentary examines the British bike rider who records distracted drivers using their cellphones behind the wheel, while drawing a false equivalency by showing clips of scofflaw bicyclists. It’s as if they think a single bike rider bears responsibility for every other bike rider on the roads, while failing to draw the same conclusion about lawbreaking drivers.

Bicycling experts tell Irish leaders that if they have the courage to reduce the number of cars on the street, people won’t want their traffic back.

 

Competitive Cycling

Fifty years later, the Cannibal continues to cast a long shadow over Belgian cyclists. Meanwhile, forget today’s high-tech wonders; VeloNews says the coolest bike on the tour is the orange, steel-framed classic Ernesto Colnago built for the legendary Eddy Merckx.

Sometimes it takes a pretty good bunny hop to avoid crashing in the tour.

https://twitter.com/RenaudB31/status/1147606446525296640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1147606446525296640&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cyclingweekly.com%2Fnews%2Fracing%2Ftour-de-france%2Fwatch-tour-de-france-rider-pulls-off-incredible-bunny-hop-avoid-high-speed-crash-stage-one-429920

Now you, too, can buy the same Pinarello Dogma bike defending champ Geraint Thomas rides in the Tour de France for the low, low equivalent of a mere $15 grand. But no, it won’t make you as fast as he is.

Pakistan’s Tour de Khunjerab claims to be the world’s highest bike race, starting at over 9,000 feet and rising to 15,400 feet above sea level; over half of the 88 competitors in this year’s second edition failed to finish in the allotted time. 

 

Finally…

Oh, nothing. Just your everyday, garden variety, bike stealing, armed to the teeth antichrist. Don’t use Civil War battlements for mountain bike jumps.

And if the new bicycle you stole won’t fit in the back seat of a Kia, just dump it at a gas station.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Road rage death in San Bernardino, Hernandez hit-and-run trial starts, and Bahati races RAAM

June 5, 2018 / / One comment

It’s election day in California. So stop what you’re doing, and get out and bike the vote already.

We’ll wait.

………

KNBC-4 reported last night that a bike rider was killed in San Bernardino as collateral damage in a possible road rage dispute between two drivers.

Unfortunately, the story does not appear to be online as of this writing.

………

Testimony has started in the trial of Ventura tow truck driver Hermin Martin Henderson, accused of running over 14-year old bike rider Jonathan Hernandez, then fleeing the scene without stopping.

Hernandez was seen on security video running the red light while riding without lights, so Henderson wouldn’t have been at fault if he had simply stopped as the law and basic human decency requires.

Hernandez was riding to a friend’s house when he was killed; he was reportedly troubled after joining his family to mark his sister’s birthday, who had died of leukemia a few months earlier.

He was struck by second driver as he lay in the road after getting hit by Henderson’s tow truck; that driver was never found.

………

South LA has a stake in this year’s RAAM.

Compton’s own ten-time National Crit Champ Rahsaan Bahati will compete in the 3,000-mile Race Across America, one of the world’s toughest ultra-endurance races. He’ll be riding to raise funds for his own nonprofit Bahati Foundation, as well as the Jessie Rees Foundation and Augie’s Quest.

The race starts a week from today in Oceanside, California and will finish in Annapolis, Maryland roughly eight days later.

………

Local

Councilmember Mitch Englander is calling for an emergency moratorium on dockless bikeshares and greater regulation, after complaining about bikes being haphazardly strewn about. Because it’s just so darn hard to pick up a bike and move it if it’s in the way. And he couldn’t be more wrong about the “failure” of dockless bikeshare in China, where its overwhelming success has led to problems of oversupply as competing providers try to capture the market.

Bike SGV has a full slate of events this month.

Santa Clarita will be reviving its “Heads Up” safety campaign this summer in an attempt to educate bicyclists and motorists to improve safety. Although all the advice appears to be aimed at the people on two wheels.

 

State

An Op-Ed in The Daily Pilot says more people in Costa Mesa would bike or walk if they felt safer on the streets. In other words, pretty much like everywhere else.

A new online Bakersfield bike map hopes to pinpoint dangerous areas where riders feel unsafe on their bikes.

I want to be like her when I grow up. A 73-year old Los Altos woman is writing a book, and spending the next week riding down the coast on the AIDS/LifeCycle Ride.

As San Francisco struggles to decide whether to allow e-scooters, Wired says don’t ban them, redesign the streets to make room for them. And save the city in the process.

Sad news from Nevada City, where a 68-year old cyclist was killed in an apparent fall while riding in Bosnia with his wife and another couple.

 

National

A 57-year old widow trades her bicycle for a Harley.

A woman on an around-the-world bike ride says you have to tackle America’s greatest road trip, riding down the Left Coast on the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route.

At 106 miles, Utah now has the longest continuous bike trail west of the Mississippi.

Colorado officials plan to confront a rising bicyclist and pedestrian death toll with a social media campaign saying “Safety Starts with All of Us” on Facebook and Twitter. Sure, that will work.

This is the cost of traffic violence, as a Texas family cries out for justice, and wonders how anyone could be so cruel that they could leave a bike rider dying in the street. Thanks to Stephen Katz for the link.

A St. Louis sports reporter traded his car for a bike, and doesn’t regret it a bit despite the Missouri winters.

Two years after she was paralysed from the waist down by a distracted driver on a Bike & Build ride, and her riding companion killed, a Michigan woman is planning to use a handcycle finish the ride she never completed. The driver who hit them got just two months behind bars.

Milwaukee officials say they need more bike riders on the streets.

A Manhattan congressman is the definition of windshield bias as he blames bike lanes for traffic problems, and not the illegally parked SUVs. Seriously, some people just can’t see the traffic for the cars.

Don’t do this. A New York cyclist traveling with a group of around 12 riders crashed into a woman and a child as they were crossing the street, although it’s not clear from the article who had the right-of-way.

If you’re going to observe the annual World Naked Bike Ride — in any sense — New Orleans is probably the best place to do it.

 

International

That runny nose when you ride could be a sign of Exercise Induced Rhinitis, or EIR. Or it could be a sign that it’s time to give up that coke habit.

A lifelong Winnipeg bike rider is working to get more indigenous youth on bicycles.

The war on bike continues, as a Toronto mountain biker suffered cuts on both arms when he crashed into barbed wire that had been strong across a trail.

Toronto bike advocates worry that progress has stalled on a key bikeway, despite a city council vote to make it permanent.

A London driver observed World Bicycle Day by abandoning his car and running away after crashing into a bike rider on a designated Quietway, leaving the victim to die in the street.

London’s former cycling commissioner says bicycling improvements are sure vote winners, in the UK or the US. Maybe someone should tell that to the LA city council.

First it was a bike rider in the UK threatening a driver with a knife, now a man with a knife threatened a pair of bike riders.

A British bike advocate says their local Parliament member is wrong; it’s drivers who pose a risk to pedestrians, not people on bicycles.

For the first time, an all-women’s bike ride is rolling across the kingdom of Bahrain, complete with a sag wagon for rest and security.

A Nigerian government official marked World Bicycle Day by saying that encouraging more people to ride bicycles is one of the surest ways to minimise traffic congestion.

A Moroccan man has ridden over 13,000 miles across the African continent, only to have his bike stolen ten minutes after he locked it up outside a mosque in South Africa.

Caught on video: An Aussie bicyclist can thank a driver for his quick action in avoiding a crash, after the rider slipped when he hit a patch of gumnuts and fell in front of the oncoming car. And no, I didn’t know what they were, either.

Another bike race, another crash with a race moto. But at least this time, no one was seriously hurt.

Electric bicycles have shed their mamachari image in Japan, as “sporting ebikes” have suddenly developed a cool factor.

Tragic news from Singapore, where a 60-year old woman is on life support after a 17-year old bike rider allegedly crashed into her from behind on a shared-use path.

 

Competitive Cycling

Nearly two dozen cyclists were treated for injuries when bad pavement caused a mass crash in a Maryland bike race.

Once again, a pro cyclist has been sidelined by a collision, as Dimension Data’s Lachlan Morton suffers a broken arm when he’s struck by a driver while training in Colorado.

Amgen Tour of California winner Egan Bernal is preparing to make his Tour de France debut riding in support of Chris Froome. Assuming the doping cloud over Froome’s head doesn’t come down on him, that is.

A Cycling Weekly writer says he’d like to see a little more silliness on the pro tour.

A Wisconsin paper profiles 33-year old ultra-cyclist Brett Stepanik, the first rider to finish the 750-mile Arizona Trail Race, the 2,732-mile Tour Divide Mountain Bike Race and the 580-mile Colorado Trail Race on a single-speed bike in a single year.

 

Finally…

This story seems to be saying if you’re going to ride drunk, wear a helmet. If you ride naked with a group, it’s the World Naked Bike Ride; if you ride naked by yourself, you’re just a perv.

And no, we don’t have to accept that cars will kill anyone, with or without a driver.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: More on Monday’s Vision Zero event, and a rider’s eye view of the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix

August 26, 2015 / / 3 comments

More on Monday’s Vision Zero announcement, as KNBC-4 says LA Mayor Eric Garcetti is determined to bring the city’s more than 200 yearly traffic fatalities down to zero.

Although LA Observed seems more interested in the desk Garcetti left behind after signing the order.

………

Somehow, this one flew under the radar earlier this summer, as David Wolfberg forwards a first-person riders-eye view of the last five laps of the Manhattan Grand Prix, courtesy of LA’s own former national crit champ Rahsaan Bahati.

It’s a shame Bahati never got a chance to show what he could do on the international stage.

………

Alejandro Valverde announces his presence at the Vuelta by winning stage four. A rider with the IAM team describes the carnage of the race.

American rider Joe Dombrowski considers the race a rite of passage, while fellow American Ben King learned you have to watch out for bike thieves everywhere, after spectators try to make off with his Garmin, and possibly his bike, after a minor crash.

This is what it was like to ride in the inaugural women’s USA Pro Challenge.

And as it stands now, the seven-event national cyclo-cross competition won’t get any closer to Southern California than Reno.

………

Local

If LA gets the ’24 Olympics, we could see mountain biking events in Griffith Park and road racing down Hollywood Blvd. That’s a big if, however; Paris is the odds-on favorite to win the Games.

An apparel website recommends taking your bike or walking through the Fashion District for the next several days, as MTV takes over for their annual Video Music Awards,

LA Metro’s planned bikeshare system will extend to USC next spring; not surprisingly, it will probably be incompatible with the Santa Monica/West Hollywood system that will open on the UCLA campus.

CiclaValley explains what’s involved in becoming a League Cycling Instructor from a first-hand perspective. You can attend a bike safety class this weekend in Culver City to learn the same skills the LCIs were taught to teach.

 

State

Coronado residents fear a simple bike path on the beach will somehow turn it into Venice, drawing hordes of tourists to destroy their pristine community. Sure, that could happen.

San Bernardino County approves plans to extend the Santa Ana River bike trail another 3.8 miles from San Bernardino to Redlands.

A Hanford couple out for a ride on their BMX bikes were struck from behind by a speeding hit-and-run driver; the man was thrown 176 feet by the force of the impact, while thankfully, the pregnant woman rider was not seriously hurt.

Forget a bike bell; sometimes even an air horn isn’t enough to get people to make room for a bike on a shared San Jose path.

A Berkley man gets one of his two stolen bikes back, in part thanks to registering it with BikeIndex. That’s the same free bike registration and bike theft reporting service you’ll find at the top of this page.

A driver in Shasta Lake does the right thing the wrong way, driving off after driving an 11-year old boy home, after she crashed into his bike. That’s still considered hit-and-run, though, since she didn’t exchange ID and insurance information.

 

National

Caught on video: A Portland driver was ticketed for careless driving and unsafe passing after a high-speed close pass that nearly took out another rider coming in the opposite direction.

The rich get richer. Portland considers approving plans for five new neighborhood greenways, aka bicycle boulevards, as well as improving six additional bike routes.

Seriously, what kind of city would approve a road diet to widen bike lanes like they did in Boulder CO, without anticipating that some people would be pissed off about it?

So wait. Did the bike collide with the car in Omaha, or did the car collide with the bike? Or did they collide with each other?

This is why you should always just ride away. After a Mississippi cyclist kicked a Jeep during a road rage dispute, the driver pulled out a gun and shot him; fortunately, the rider didn’t suffer life-threatening injuries. I should talk; I’ve gotten into it verbally with a-hole drivers more times than I care to admit.

If you’re planning to be in Rhode Island any time soon, five pretty nice sounding bike paths await you.

New York police are looking for a hit-and-run bike rider who left the scene after slamming into a toddler on a shared pathway.

City Lab says the threat by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and police chief — and former LA chief — Bill Bratton to tear out the hugely popular pedestrian plazas in Times Square shows a fundamental misunderstanding about the impact of public space. It’s also a ridiculous overreaction to a relatively minor problem — costumed characters and body-painted boobs — which calls the mayor’s judgment into question.

Atlanta’s rail system is installing bike repair kiosks at seven train stations.

 

International

Bicycling is the third most popular fitness activity worldwide, after walking and running. Evidently, sitting on your ass behind the wheel of a car is not considered a fitness activity.

A cool looking Kickstarter project promises to make your bike smarter, with directions, metrics, alarm, automatic headlight and text notifications. Another project promises you may never have to lube your chain again.

Caught on video: In a frightening assault, an angry pedestrian catches up to a bike rider and pushes her down in front of oncoming traffic; the jerk later turned himself in after police released the video.

A British couple get their stolen 76-year old Olympic style tandem back after they spotted it for sale on eBay.

Northern Ireland unveils a 25-year plan to turn the UK country into a cycling society.

NPR says riding a bike in India is a little different than in the US. Like fewer cows to bump into, and tune-ups cost a lot more.

Google plans to provide 1,000 internet-connected smart bikes to women in remote Indian villages.

The poor get poorer. Sydney, Australia is said to be decades behind other cities when it comes to providing for cyclists, even as the state roads minister moves to rip out a $5 million protected bike lane.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to use your bike as a getaway vehicle after burglarizing a few houses, don’t leave it in a driveway where someone could back over it. We only have to watch out for LA drivers cutting us off; a Minnesota bike rider t-boned a deer that violated his right-of-way.

And whatever you do, never repeatedly punch a teenage boy — or anyone else, for that matter — in a bike rage assault after colliding in the rain.

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , ,

Morning Links: Bike rider collateral damage in Compton drive-by, moving memorial to fallen cyclist Milt Olin

July 8, 2014 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Bike rider collateral damage in Compton drive-by, moving memorial to fallen cyclist Milt Olin

Sad news from Compton, as a woman riding her bike was killed in a drive-by shooting on the 800 block of West Cherry Street around 1 pm Monday.

LAist suggests she may not have been the intended target, but just happened to be riding by when the shooter(s) targeted a group of people standing in a driveway.

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After the ghost bike for fallen cyclist and former Napster CEO Milt Olin was removed recently — over the wishes of local officials — family members install a new one with a moving message for all of us.

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Former winner Andy Schleck is out of the Tour de France after crashing into a spectator, while Chris Froome may have dodged a bullet and the peloton rides through the ghostly remnants of the Great War.

Just thinking the other day I was thinking the Tour should ride through the Channel Tunnel — aka Chunnel — from the UK to France. Now it turns out Froome just did.

Meanwhile, the world’s best women are racing, too, as Marianne Vos wins stage four of the Giro Rosa and retains the leader’s jersey.

A little closer to home, Erica Allar and Ken Hanson win the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix, as Rahsaan Bahati puts you right in the middle of the last three laps; thanks to Jim Lyle for the heads-up.

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Local

The LACBC offers free ride marshal training this Saturday.

The third annual Clitoral Mass — yes, you read that right — rolls on August 16th.

What a difference two feet make, as Pasadena gets a new buffered bike lane.

Long Beach’s Third Street needs a facelift to improve safety for cyclists and motorists.

The Beach Babe Bicycling Classic comes back to Long Beach this weekend.

Pedal Love and Women Talk Bikes talk bikes on Bike Talk.

 

State

A Saratoga drunken hit-and-run driver gets out of prison with orders to never drive again for leaving a bike rider with permanent injuries. And immediately goes back to driving drunk and fleeing the scene.

A San Francisco supervisor considers lowering speed limits in the City by the Bay.

We’ve mentioned this one before. But if you haven’t yet, sign the petition to support Andy’s Law to increase penalties for hit-and-run; thanks to Mario Gastelum for the reminder.

 

National

How to pay for innovative bicycling infrastructure (pdf).

Bike share programs reduce the risk for all riders, despite a misleading study suggesting the opposite.

Off-duty Albuquerque fireman uses the inner tube from an injured rider’s bike to save her life, if not her leg.

Louisiana prison inmates fix bikes seized by New Orleans police to donate to children.

New Jersey considers a $500 fine for any motorist who commits a traffic violation resulting in a collision with a bike rider.

Jerry Seinfeld rides a bike in New York, but the Mail can’t get over his toned arms.

Evidently, any DC bike rider who doesn’t want to get killed — or needs a boost up a steep hill — is a bully.

Confused — or maybe just confusing — Athens GA writer says there must be some truth to the scofflaw cyclist trope, even though he’s never seen one. And even then, not all bike riders should be held responsible for the actions of a few, unless maybe they should.

 

International

Ghost bikes come to Uruguay.

A British Columbia bike thief returns a boys stolen bike with a note apologizing for being such a drunken fool.

Toronto gets serious about parking in bike lanes.

A London bike rider says hell isn’t other people, it’s other bike riders. Especially the ones on Boris bikes. Then again, maybe other bike riders aren’t really the problem after all.

Caught on video: Gut-wrenching first-person view of a head-on cycling collision; fortunately, the rider survived with broken bones.

Dressing up in spandex beats sleeping with the secretary. Then again, who says you can’t do both?

 

Finally…

When you’re carrying homemade bombs on your bike to celebrate the 4th, don’t ride on the damn sidewalk. Esquire says Lance may not be in hell, but at least he’s in Purgatory.

And ride without fear; it turns out bike riding doesn’t cause erectile dysfunction or infertility after all.

 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , ,
 
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