Oldfool: Old Fools Journal: Cargo Bike Update #4

Oldfool: Old Fools Journal: Cargo Bike Update #4: Old Fools Journal: Cargo Bike Update #4
"This bike is in use now and I considered it finished but is anything like this ever finished? I still have plans for a chain guard and I already have a new bell to install, then there are reflectors and mud flaps. I probably won't install lights because I don't ride at night at all."

Peugeot Becoming Single Speed

This is an old Peugeot I'd given to one of my son's friends to ride around campus.  After the rear wheel got "tacoed" it came back to me.  I took off the Sturmey Archer hub and decided to turn it into a single speed.  Here is the bike, now rideable, but only half way there.  I want to get some nice orange velo wheels and some other snazzier components (like a proper seat to replace the current one covered in orange duct tape).

Residents increasingly using more environment-friendly methods to get to work | News-Gazette.com

Residents increasingly using more environment-friendly methods to get to work | News-Gazette.com: Home » News » Transportation
Residents increasingly using more environment-friendly methods to get to work
Sun, 02/05/2012 - 12:00pm | Debra Pressey, staff writer, News-Gazette.com

CHAMPAIGN — More people in Champaign-Urbana are walking, riding bikes and taking the bus to work, even while Illinois ranks near the bottom of the heap when it comes to funding for bicycling and walking.

Faraday Utility Bike

Faraday Utility Bike

Julie Lasky

Nothing on the road is more prosaic than a vehicle designed for hauling loads. Unless, of course, the vehicle has been imagined by a leading industrial design firm working in partnership with an innovative American bicycle manufacturer. In which case you have Faraday, one of three utility bike prototypes to emerge out of a competition sponsored by the nonprofit Oregon Manifest, and the only model to earn not just the unanimous plaudits of a jury of hardcore bike nuts but also a People’s Choice Award.

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Rapid Transit Visit

In fall we went to Chicago and I got to visit Rapid Transit and test drive the 2010 Kona Ute. Very cool bike shop.

The 25 Smartest Things Steve Jobs Ever Said - Business - Motley Fool - msnbc.com

The 25 Smartest Things Steve Jobs Ever Said - Business - Motley Fool - msnbc.com: 24. "I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. Humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list ... That didn't look so good, but then someone at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And a man on a bicycle blew the condor away. That's what a computer is to me: the computer is the most remarkable tool that we've ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds."

GM pulls advertisement that offended cyclists [Updated] - latimes.com

Ok, now I know why I'm a "Ford man." Actually, I'm waiting for the Ford electric before I get another car. And although I'm from Oklahoma, I don't need a big truck to get across town in this little college town. And my bike is hip and chic and fun, compared to the colossal overkill of one person commuting 2 miles in some monster vehicle.

GM pulls advertisement that offended cyclists [Updated] - latimes.com: General Motors Co. is killing an advertisement aimed at college students after receiving complaints that it makes fun of people who use bicycles for transportation.

That ad has a headline stating, “reality sucks” and depicts a nerdy looking guy wearing a helmet and riding a bicycle being passed by a cute young woman in the passenger seat of a car. It then goes on to say, “Stop pedaling … start driving” and provides information about discount pricing for GM products such as the new 2012 Chevrolet Sonic subcompact sedan and the giant GMC Sierra 1500 truck.

A Surprising Town Is Now America's Top Bike City | | AlterNet

Champaign-Urbana is like Florida compared to Minnesota! This encourages me to ride a bit more this winter. I'm going to have to figure out if I'm going to go for some studded tires or just get a Surley Pugsley.

A Surprising Town Is Now America's Top Bike City | | AlterNet: A Surprising Town Is Now America's Top Bike City
Despite its cold weather and spread-out development patterns, here's how a Midwestern city beat Portland, San Francisco and Boulder for the title of #1 Bike City.

Urbana Installs Bicycle Repair Station | City of Urbana

Urbana Installs Bicycle Repair Station | City of Urbana: Urbana Installs Bicycle Repair Station

The City of Urbana has installed a Dero Bike Fix-It bicycle repair station in downtown Urbana, just inside the Main Street entrance of the downtown Urbana parking garage. The station is a do-it-yourself bicycle repair station consisting of a variety of tools, such as wrenches and screwdrivers, tethered with woven steel cables to a metal stand bolted to the ground. There is also a hand-operated air pump. Cyclists hang their bikes on the stand and use the tools to make repairs.

This is a great new addition to the bike infrastructure in town.  The Dero company makes some interesting products, including custom, stylish bike racks.

Rebecca Bird, with City of Urbana says there will soon be 6 total Dero bike repair stands in Urbana: 1. Downtown Urbana - parking garage 2. Campus - near the Union 3. Campus - outside the Campus Bike Project 4. Campustown - near corner of Sixth & Green Streets 5. Downtown Champaign - Illinois Terminal 6. Downtown Champaign - parking garage Gary Cziko's Flicker slides of new bike stand

Portland, Ore., Developments Cater to Bicycle Riders - NYTimes.com

Portland, Ore., Developments Cater to Bicycle Riders - NYTimes.com: PORTLAND, Ore. — Christian Ettinger, the owner of Hopworks Urban Brewery here, is a longtime bicycle enthusiast. He grew up riding around the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego, and now owns six bicycles — ”two if my wife is asking” — and races in cyclocross events. So when he decided to open a second brewpub this summer, he settled on a location that reflected his passion: North Williams Avenue, one of the most-used commuter cycling corridors in a city already mad for all things two-wheeled.

How to make Grocery Panniers for $4

How to make Grocery Panniers for $4: How to make Grocery Panniers for $4

Most of us have lots of eco bags laying around that can be beefed up to become bike panniers. I've tried similar hacks, but not this one. I will try this one next as it looks pretty simple and is, by far, the most economical.

The Swiss Alps on an Electric Bicycle - NYTimes.com

The Swiss Alps on an Electric Bicycle - NYTimes.com: Over the Alps on a Bike With a Boost
Tomas Van Houtryve for The New York Times

By TIM NEVILLE
Published: August 26, 2011

Just finished Neville's article and it is a great piece of short travel literature and would inspire anyone to visit Switzerland at least once.  Best of all, it is a frontal assault on that demographic of the bike clan that sees electric-assist bikes as just another form of SUV.  As a serious cyclist who can pedal without electric assist, Neville's tour and the rapidly expanding electric bike infrastructure in Switzerland make it very clear that e-biking across the Alps remains more like biking and physical engagement with the countryside than any other form of transportation.  And makes us wonder where, eventually, in the States we'll be able to go 100s of Kilometers in a day and get off the beaten path.

Robert Baird

When Wheels Pile Up - Plant a Bike - Save the City - NYTimes.com

What do 15,000 dead horses a year in 1880s New York City have to do with the current bike explosion in NYC? Hint, what did poet Baudelaire do with death?



When Wheels Pile Up - Plant a Bike - Save the City - NYTimes.com: “In 1880, New York City removed 15,000 dead horses from its streets,” the historians Joel Tarr and Clay McShane wrote in an essay called “The Centrality of the Horse to the Nineteenth-Century American City.” Horse carcasses, they added, “were sometimes dumped with garbage into the bays or the rivers, often floating there or washing up on the beaches.”

Falling in Love with Billie Samuels

Ok, the New South Wales "bicycle" photo collection led me to a spontaneous infatuation: Billie Samuels! Note the Koala Bear on the handlebars. I know, vaguely, that Australia has a long history of long distance bike riders, and lots of bike rides all the way round the continent, some in the early years by men and women. A favorite bike touring/travel book of mine is Cold Beer and Crocodiles: A Bicycle Journey Into Australia, by Roff Smith, who decides to quit his job and get healthy and attempt to ride all the way around Australia. That's nine months and 10,000 miles. The funny thing is that early in the book Smith is humbled a bit when he does his research and learns how many people already did something this impressive. Well, now I'll need to do some homework and find out more about this Billie Samuels.

Short description of Billie's record-setting ride from Sydney to Melbourne on July 4th, 1934.