Let’s start off with handful of bike videos to get your holiday weekend going.
………
Bike video #1: I’m all for lo-fi cinema, but this low budget remake of The Birds can’t match the original.
………
Bike video #2: Rapha rides Los Angeles with artist and designer, Geoff McFetridge.
………
Bike video #3: This is probably not the best way to win friends and influence people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw_WRKZoaao
………
Bike video #4: It was Ridiculous Day at Thursday’s Stage 12 of the Vuelta, where Maxim Belkov was shoved off his bike by a spectator, going over the barriers and into a ditch.
………
Bike video #5: A policeman guarding the Vuelta route apparently shoved a fan into a Shimano race moto, causing the rider to crash.
………
In today’s mostly spoiler-free Vuelta update, the race leader was vertically challenged during Thursday’s stage 12.
The team bus belonging to Ireland’s Team Aqua Blue Sport went up in flames before the 12th stage when someone shoved a mattress under the bus and lit it on fire; fortunately, no one was in the bus at the time.
Kiwi cyclist George Bennett pulled out of the Vuelta after struggling with the same virus that made him drop out of the Tour de France six weeks earlier.
Former Senator, Secretary of State and presidential candidate John Kerry has been working the phones to find a new sponsor for the Cannondale-Drapac cycling team.
……….
Local
Great piece in The Argonaut about the weekly Venice Electric Light Parade, where people on colorfully lighted bikes ride through Santa Monica, Venice and Marina del Rey. Thanks to Audrey Kopp for the heads-up.
KCRW’s Frances Anderton responds to critics of the station’s piece on the anger over road diets in Playa del Rey.
CiclaValley gets dirty on the way to the Mount Baldy ski lodge.
Helen’s Cycles hosts a pair of group rides tomorrow, along with another in Arcadia next weekend.
The LACBC hosts their monthly Sunday Funday ride this Sunday, with a slow, family friendly ride from Gilbert Lindsay Park to the Washington Blue Line Station.
State
Santa Ana has opened a 1.1 mile network of bike lanes and sharrows connecting the south side of the city to the downtown area; the project was funded by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Partnerships to Improve Community Health program.
More than 11,000 people have signed a petition demanding that homeless camps be removed from the multi-use Santa Ana River Trail. Evidently, living on it is not one of the approved uses.
An apparent Bakersfield bike thief was killed in a collision with a flatbed truck moments after making off with a bicycle when the owner left it unlocked outside a convenience store.
The district attorney in San Luis Obispo County will attempt to try a 17-year old girl as an adult after the collision that killed a bike-riding Cal Poly student; she could face felony vehicular manslaughter, DUI and hit-and-run charges. The victim was a graduate of Murietta’s Mesa High School.
Santa Cruz has completed the final segment of a five-mile bike and pedestrian pathway along the San Lorenzo River.
The city manager of Daly City believes trash cans belong in the bike lane, in clear violation of CVC 21211(b).
These are the people we share the roads with. A San Francisco driver ran a red light and struck several vehicles, some parking meters, a tree and at least eight pedestrians; fortunately, no one was seriously injured. Should we really be surprised that no arrest has been made?
More sad news from the northern part of the state, where a man in his 50s was killed while riding his bicycle in south Sacramento County.
National
Streetsblog sums up the Governors Highway Safety Association report we discussed yesterday by saying the transportation establishment is finally beginning to understand bicycling.
Now your Oakleys can protect your skull, as well as wrapping points south.
A Madison WI program is working to get more Spanish-speaking immigrants out on their bikes.
After recording a series of bicyclists crash on the railroad tracks outside his window, a University of Tennessee civil engineering professor solves the problem by discovering that riders wheels won’t get caught if they cross at a 60 degree angle.
Pittsburgh got its first bicycle traffic signal to improve a dangerous intersection in the city’s Oakland neighborhood.
The New York Post explains how a bike delivery guy who was new to the city followed his Uber GPS to illegally ride the Lincoln tunnel, but still arrived in New Jersey in one piece.
The Washington Post looks at how China is exporting its dockless bikeshare revolution to the world.
A DC bike shop replaces an in-house coffee shop with a gourmet vegetarian taco stand. But no burritos, due to a non-compete clause with a nearby Chipotle.
Virginia police bust a wanted sex offender who’s been on the run for three years after he popped a tire trying to make his getaway by bike.
International
Five Vancouver rides to add to your bike bucket list.
A Canadian man was egged as he was riding his bike, the second time in two years he’s had food thrown at him.
You know you’ve got a problem when the roads are too dangerous for a former world and Olympic champion cyclist; Britain’s Chris Boardman says he won’t ride on the country’s streets, preferring to only ride offroad.
Apparently, even walking your bike home under the influence is against the law in the UK.
An Irish bike commuter says he’s acutely aware of the dangers of his 20 mile ride each way to and from work.
Finally…
When Lance Armstrong gives you a bike, you need to “lock your shit up” — especially if you’re the sheriff. Now you can have junk in your trunk on your next bike ride.
And as long as you’re riding behind the Google Maps car, you might as well bust a move.
………
Unless there’s breaking news, we’ll be taking the holiday weekend off. (And you can sign up for email alerts over there on the right column to make sure you don’t miss anything, just in case.)
Get out there and ride, but be careful in the heat; if possible, limit your riding to the cooler hours of the day, and drink more than you think you need.
And that remember three-day weekends and the start of college football season bring more drunks out on the roads. So ride defensively and watch out for careless and distracted drivers, because they’re not watching out for you.
We’ll see you back bright and early on Tuesday.
