bicycle.net -- cycling news, product reviews, original essays, podcasts & video

Join the forum discussion on this post
WASHINGTON, May 8, 2008 (AFP) - Seven-time Tour de France winner and anti-cancer advocate Lance Armstrong said Thursday he has discussed banning smoking in public places across the United States with the three White House contenders.
“I’ve asked all the presidential candidates whether [...]

Join the forum discussion on this post
Game theory helps to explain the pervasive abuse of drugs in cycling, baseball and other sports, says an article from the latest issue of Scientific American. In The Doping Dilemma, key concepts are highlighted:

An alarming number of sports—baseball, football, track and field, and especially cycling—have been shaken [...]

Join the forum discussion on this postCBS Channel 2 in Los Angeles has video about the Los Angeles Police Department Bicycle Team riding 50 miles across the San Fernando Valley in honor of slain SWAT officer Randal Simmons.
Link to video.
Story from the Los Angeles Times:

Thousands pay tribute to officer who touched — and saved [...]

Join the forum discussion on this post
As of 11pm Monday night January 21, this month’s Wired Magazine’s cover story had the following list: The Things That Suck.
Why bring this to your attention? The last item in the article is followed by a list of Things that don’t suck. Of these, as [...]

Monica Howe: Bicycle ‘activist by default’
By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 7, 2008
Monica Howe
Age: 32
Occupation: Outreach manager for the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition
Why she matters: Has made Los Angeles’ streets more accommodating for cyclists and, in the process, encouraged riders to discover — or rediscover — the sport.
HOWE never planned on being [...]

I read this article on the LA Times website and thought that it is a good article to spur some debate. Who is right, the cyclists, or the car drivers? I do not have the answer that will make both sides happy. But what I do know is that there is no answer that both [...]

Lose the Training Wheels
By Dave Shields
A couple of months ago the Wichita, Kansas chapter of the MS Society invited me to ride in their event and speak at their dinner. As those of you who have participated in charitable rides like this already know, the atmosphere is almost always electric and addictive. This particular ride [...]

Please read this article completely. Once you are finished get motivated to go out and get invovled to improve the safety on the roads where you live. We need each and every bicyclist to speak up and be heard to fight for our rights to ride the roads safely. If you have any ideas [...]

Join the forum discussion on this postLAist reports:
A More Bike Friendly LA On the Way?
City councilman ed reyes of the first district wants to make los angeles more bike friendly and introduced a motion that calls for dedicated bike paths, more bike lanes, and a bike rental programDedicated bike paths, more bike lanes, and [...]

TEAM 100 GIFT WRAPPING EVENT THIS SUNDAY
AT I. MARTIN BICYCLES IN LOS ANGELES

One of the most common questions we get this time of year at the shop is “Do you gift wrap?”
This Sunday, the answer is going to be “Of course we can gift wrap that for you.”
Thanks to the good folks at TEAM 100, [...]

One of the most common questions we get this time of year at the shop is “Do you gift wrap?”
Up until now, the answer has been no. It’s not that we couldn’t, it’s just we can hardly fathom the carnage that would happen if Jaime were turned loose with a pair of scissors, a roll [...]

Veloguy here. I am part of the very large “LA TriClub” in Los Angeles, CA. The club has something like 1,500 members, and still has that small club feel. The email below sent to the entire club and I thought that I would share it with you. We should keep in mind why [...]

As I was fuming about Villaraigosa’s neglect of my city, I decided to play with the Google Trends tool and look for my home town of Los Angeles vis a vis cycling news.
It was too optimistic to hope for it to appear for LA to appear among the top 10 overall, or even [...]

Disclaimer… Bicycle.net’s humorist and webmaster Velociraptor lives less than 200′ south of Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles and his office is on Olympic Blvd. The absentee mayor’s proposal affects him about as directly as it possible. I have young children, have lived in my house for 20 years, and now my street will [...]

Join the Movement and Start to Finish MS
Hundreds ride for multiple sclerosis from Camarillo to Santa Barbara at the 2007 Southern California Start to Finish MS Bike Tour
Camarillo — The Southern California Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society held its Start to Finish MS Bike Tour, from
Camarillo to Santa Barbara on Saturday [...]

ANY TIME YOU SEE THE WORD “MOTORCYCLE”, EXCHANGE THE WORD “BICYCLE”. ALMOST EVERYTHING STATED CAN BE SAID OF A BICYCLE ALSO.
Motorcycle School: Be Very Afraid
Article Tools Sponsored By
By RICHARD S. CHANG
Published: October 14, 2007
Massapequa, N.Y.
HE first session of the Basic Rider Course at Trama’s Auto School is spent learning about everything that can go horribly [...]

In a historic first for New York City, the Department of Transportation has replaced three car parking spaces in Williamsburg with bike racks to accomodate about 30 bicycles.
The on-street bike parking, which is right next to the Bedford Avenue stop on the L train, will greatly benefit the burgeoning bicycling mecca of Billyburg. As any [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
VELO CLUB LA GRANGE NAMED OFFICIAL CLUB
OF THE START TO FINISH MS BIKE TOUR
LOS ANGELES, September 24th, 2007: Velo Club La Grange, one of Southern California’s largest and most established cycling organizations, has been named the Official Bike Club of the 2007 Santa Barbara START TO FINISH MS BIKE TOUR. In [...]

A cyclist westbound on Hollywood Boulevard hears a loud horn behind him as he rides in the right side of the #2 lane, alongside a row of parked cars and dangerously close to the door zone.

Lane numbers work by counting from the middle to the side of a street. In a four-lane street such as [...]

This is a great article about how the city of Pasadena that claims to be the most bike friendly city in California is handling the growing number of riders on the Tues/Thursday ride. This is why everyone of us who ride a bike needs to get involved in our community politics.

Floyd Landis: Up the River Without a Pedal.
Space for rent?

Gotta hand it to Floyd for plugging along…

There is nothing gruesome in this video but it should serve as a warning to us all.
On a side note, how nice would this world be if everyone drove a Mini, or a SmartCar, and not SUV’s.

_VS_

http://video.nbc6.net/player/?id=149887#videoid=149887

I found this blog post on the following website; http://laist.com/2007/09/04/beverly_hills_c.php
This is what most bicyclists have to face in big and small cities across America. I for one think that all cyclists should start to get involved in their local city governments so that we can start to change the attitudes of the politicians, and [...]

September 7, 2007
Beverly Hills Cycling - a Hint of Optimism and a Dose of Reality!
Capt. Curtis of the Beverly Hills Police Department appeared before
the BH Traffic Commission to address one issue, the “SUV vs. Cyclist”
incident on August 21, 2007 that resulted in a citation for the
cyclist and nothing for the motorist.
Also in attendance were 8 [...]

Statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Fatality Facts: Bicycles - 2005
Two percent of motor vehicle-related deaths are bicyclists. The most serious injuries among a majority of those killed are to the head, highlighting the importance of wearing a bicycle helmet. Helmet use has been estimated to reduce head injury risk by 85 percent.1 Twenty [...]

“Well, there’s about probably some 10 percent to 20 percent of the current spending that is going to projects that really are not transportation, directly transportation-related. Some of that money is being spent on things, as I said earlier, like bike paths or trails.”
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters offered these comments August 15 [...]

As far as I am concerned, anyone who lives in New Jersey better get on the phone and get busy calling their politicians. I am all for protecting kids, don’t get me wrong. But when the laws go to far and start to infringe on adults for no reason I get mad. Come on New [...]

The FredCast’s David Bernstein interviewed Dr. Paul Strauss of the Agency for Cycling Ethics for Bicycle.net, covering a wide range of topics including Floyd Landis, doping in the pro peloton, why it’s important for amateur cycling for pros to adhere to standards and the 5% false positive problem.
The Agency for Cycling Ethics aims to create [...]

Ten years ago, a Santa Cruz shop owner’s dog got him thinking. Now he hopes his concept will take root in Africa.
By J. Michael Kennedy, Times Staff Writer
June 18, 2007
Funny where an idea will take you. Ten years ago, Luna the dog — part pit bull and part Labrador retriever — was gnawing on a [...]

Nine years ago, shortly after graduating with his MBA, my brother told the company that was hiring him that he wished to start his new position after he fulfilled a dream of riding his bicycle from coast to coast. He started in Santa Monica, dipping his rear wheel in the Pacific and ended in [...]

The LA Times catches up with Bicycle.net partner Josh who wrote here Cycling Needs An Amnesty? - Doping No More - What Do You Say? days ago.
Lesson for our readers, see it here on Bicycle.net, first. Links and boldface added for emphasis, below.
Amnesty for doping cyclists
Encouraging riders to come clean with little punishment [...]

Valet Parking Now Offered For Santa Monica Bikes
(AP) SANTA MONICA, Calif. Valet parking in Southern California is routine.
But a new kind of service is catering to people who need to park their bikes.
Santa Monica officials are hiring parkers to handle up to 350 bikes at the Sunday market.
Long Beach is offering full service parking for [...]

Don’tcha just hate it when some well-meaning clod sends you the following… annually:
> Subject: : Dont pump gas on May 15th…]
> > > >
> > > >Passing it on, tell your friends..
> > > >
> > > >NO GAS…On May 15th 2007
> > > >
[...]

The LA Times reports an hour ago:
Synthetic testosterone found in Landis’ “B” samples
by Philip Hersh, Special to The Times
9:45 AM PDT, April 23, 2007
Evidence of synthetic testosterone has been found in “several” of the other urine samples Floyd Landis gave while winning the 2006 Tour de France, the French newspaper L’Equipe reported on its website [...]

Tons of typos in this news blurb which misses that it took place in Houston, Texas:
Cyclist Landis raises more money for doping fight as tests go on
Emabattled 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis made a fundraising appearance at a suburban bicycle store here Tuesday even as retests of his doping samples were being done [...]

BREAKING HEADLINE:
American cyclist Landis wants new tests at UCLA
NEW YORK (Apr 13, 2007)
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency will test backup urine samples from Tour de France champion Floyd Landis over the cyclist’s protests about the need for the tests and the credentials of the French lab where they’ll be analyzed.
Landis, who tested positive at last year’s [...]

Um, once evidence is demonstrably mishandled, exactly how can a subsequent test be trusted?
Thursday’s LA Times (reprinted here because it’s a subscribers-only article) writes:
Arbitrators rule against Landis
Panel gives U.S. anti-doping officials permission to retest urine samples
April 12, 2007
An arbitration panel has ruled against Tour de France champion Floyd Landis on two procedural issues, complicating his [...]

Jason Lewis
2007 CSUN HPV Team
Who wouldn’t like to go faster, and ride in greater comfort? How would you like to be able to run errands, maybe pick up some groceries, and not have to carry them in a backpack? The need for speed, comfort, and utility drives the development of new technology in transportation. Many [...]

We featured an article about Monica Howe early last month, Street Safety for Roadies, when she was featured in the Los Angeles Times.
I’ll repeat what I said then: We should all strive to make our cities more bike friendly. Lets get busy, raise our voices, and be heard. We have a right to roads [...]

So have you ever wondered who is trying to make our cities safer for us Roadies. Well in the Los Angeles Times newspaper there is an article about a woman (Monica Howe) who has become the voice of cycling in Los Angeles. She is fighting everyday to make the politicians create safer roads, create bike [...]

PARIS, Feb 29, 2008 (AFP) - Cyclists due to compete in the Paris-Nice stage race have asked organisers to make amendments to a proposed teams’ contract, which in midweek prompted anger from the sport’s world ruling body.
The first major European stage race of the season will be held under a cloud after organisers controversially [...]