Enginerve : Bikes

10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% pain…a 100% reason to remember the name

  • From Slashdot this morning.  One imagines that one does understand the comments even before they are posted.  Trot on out there and look at the billion comments if you dare.

    This much I see in Portland: whenever folks gather and try to stop any sport or activity they turn to an attempt to require helmets.

    Hugh Pickens writes in about the detrimental effects of mandatory helmet laws (at least as applied to adults):

    "Elisabeth Rosenthal writes that in the United States the notion that bike helmets promote health and safety by preventing head injuries is taken as pretty near God’s truth but many European health experts have taken a very different view. ‘Yes, there are studies that show that if you fall off a bicycle at a certain speed and hit your head, a helmet can reduce your risk of serious head injury,’ writes Rosenthal. ‘But such falls off bikes are rare — exceedingly so in mature urban cycling systems.’ On the other hand, many researchers say, if you force people to wear helmets, you discourage them from riding bicycles causing more health problems like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Bicycling advocates say that the problem with pushing helmets isn’t practicality but that helmets make a basically safe activity seem really dangerous, which makes it harder to develop a safe bicycling network like the one in New York City, where a bike-sharing program is to open next year. The safest biking cities are places like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, where middle-aged commuters are mainstay riders and the fraction of adults in helmets is minuscule. ‘Pushing helmets really kills cycling and bike-sharing in particular because it promotes a sense of danger that just isn’t justified — in fact, cycling has many health benefits,’ says Piet de Jong. ‘Statistically, if we wear helmets for cycling, maybe we should wear helmets when we climb ladders or get into a bath, because there are lots more injuries during those activities.’"

  • A friend of the family is working here. Looks like a great place to be.

    Young man rode with my son through the midwest on his trip home in 2008 and again on motorcycles around the US a year ago.

     

    Psimet Custom Wheels from Robert Cawthorne on Vimeo.

  • bikes_big1_1024x1024I keep waiting for the Faraday Porteur to arrive.  From it’s beginning at the Oregon Manifest to the fundraising on Kickstarter I have found it a fun item to anticipate.  I look at the picture and I know that I might want one, although the picture indicates the designers have little confidence in an upright position despite the urban styling. 

    April of 2013 is the current delivery target and like all electric or simply new vehicles, ymmv, so I wait patiently to actually see a production one and have an opportunity to buy one.  But then, I am still waiting for a decent electric car as well.

  • Danny MacAskill spent several months riding the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland in 2009, demonstrating his unique set of talents on the mountain bike. It was all captured in a video called Inspired Bicycles. Did you catch it? If so, you’re not alone. The video has clocked more than 31 million views. Now, Danny is back, this time taking on the mean streets of San Francisco. It’s all about, as Remington likes to say, precision, power and control. You can find more of Danny’s videos on his web site.

  • ResampleImg.ashxI take no advice on saddles anymore.  Brooks.  Yes, I may have cracks around the copper hand hammered rivets on one of mine, although it is most likely my fault not Brooks.  But I have them on all my bikes.  I really don’t regard others opinions on saddles of any use whatsoever.  I have ridden great distances at speed and long hours on day after day trips, and I won’t ride anything else.  It simply is wrong.

    I would have excluded my silly little Dahon folding bike which I got to join my partner’s folding bike in the rear of the Subaru or Westy on trips.  But that silly little folding bike began to see more and more mileage and the stock saddle was always painful.  Worse, on my first double digit ride, I developed a sore, and I ride enough that shouldn’t happen.  On the same ride, riding behind my partner, I ovserved that she stood on the pedals from time to time to alleviate the suffering from her saddle.

    I have seen that before, and I vowed to never watch it on more than one day again.  I would rather pay Brown to find me on the side of the road.  New Brooks for both of us. A Black B17 Standard for me, and a Black B17 S Standard (the women’s version) for her.  Even during the break-in period they have been more comfortable than the stock saddles.

    I would have said they were simply too high a price for this type of bike, destined to be ridden shorter distances, but from sores, to sore rears, the stock saddles made the bikes not nearly as rideable as they should be.  The Brooks make any talk of saddles disappear and bikes are extremely comfortable and ridden a great deal.

    ResampleImgMOTORCYCLES: I know someone who is outfitting his Motorcycle, a Honda CB750K with a Brooks, read about which Brooks he selected and why.  The principle is the same though, nothing was ever engineered about those bike seats and they are rather hard to sit on, painful after less hours than he put on his Brooks each day riding across the country.  So why not simply rip off the seat and weld on a seat post and install a Brooks.  While it may appear less conventional, I imagine that he will put on a lot more miles in greater comfort than the old seat provided.  Pictures provided when they become available.

    Until then, I will look at this one from the Brooks site.