bicycle.net -- cycling news, product reviews, original essays, podcasts & video :: tour de france 2008

Going to RAGBRAI again, God Bless!
The cyclist’s version of Woodstock is once again, gratefully, at hand, and I’m positively stewing in anticipation of the chance to get together with a couple tens of thousands of cyclists and a five-hundred miles of nearly constant SAG support.
For those of you who haven’t heard of it, the acronym [...]

Being a longtime supporter of and innovator in the bike community, PUMA® releases the I-Cycle Film Series, a collection of short films exploring bike culture and the people who influence it.
The I-Cycle Film Series focuses on some of today’s biggest advocates for two-wheeled life, including - Matthew McGuinness, a cofounder of The 62, a Brooklyn-based [...]

The Bike MS: Southern California Ride 2008 is a fundraising event for the National Multiple Sclerosis, Southern California Chapter. The bike tour offers various route options for all levels of cyclists over two days. This year’s event will return to Camarillo, head north through Ojai Valley, over Casitas pass and finish at Leadbetter [...]

The 2008 Planet Ultra King of the Mountains Century Challenge was awesome! 3 days, 323 miles. And 30,800 ft. of climbing; what more could any cyclist ask for? From the beautiful Malibu hillsides, to the highest paved road in SoCal, and all the way to the frigid cold of the Los Padres National Forest, this [...]

With No More Tears, No More Fears
First, a moment of gratuitous, self-indulgent bragging:  I’m certainly not Superdad, but I tell myself I’ve got redeeming qualities.  Like, I’m the parent kids come to when they need a splinter removed.  I know how to do it with minimal pain.  And I’m the one they come to when [...]

Friday , April 25, 2008
LA PAZ, Bolivia —
A packed SUV collided with a group of cyclists on Bolivia’s “Highway
of Death” on Thursday, killing nine people — including a British man
who was the second foreign tourist to die this week along the
notorious road.
The accident took place just minutes after the cyclists began their
tour on a [...]

Davy and Daryl Vogel, ten-year-old twin brothers from Boise, Idaho, will pedal away from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska starting in June 2008. Approximately thirty months later, they plan to arrive at the southern tip of South America and become the new Guinness World Record holders as the youngest people to cycle the Pan-American Highway. [...]

Originally, I thought the Tour of California sounded like a lovely family-friendly vacation involving, perhaps, an RV and the Redwoods while my children were galloping through fields of poppies.
There must be a big bicycle race coming to California. I can tell with almost complete accuracy when there are exciting happenings in the cycling world. [...]

For the third year in a row, Sausalito hosted the stage one start of the Tour of California. Also for the third year, the crowds were enormous in the quaint seaside town. As the team busses pulled into the staging area ahead of the race a few hours before start time, crowds were already on [...]

The article below was written by Bob Rasner’s daughter. I found out about Eleanor from Bob, who is a member of the same bicycle club that I am. Bob put out an email to the club looking for a trail-a-bike so that he can take his granddaughter on the Thanksgiving Meals On Wheels annual ride. [...]

Bicycle.net has a new contributor from an extremely cool bike shop in Southern California. They are a cruiser bicycle store only. Their first editorial contribution is below. read the post and then check out Chubby’s One Stop Cruiser Shop. My favorites are the stretched out singlespeed cruisers.

How a Beach Cruiser can keep you fit
Working out [...]

Race Date: November 5, 2007
Event: Muddy Buddy
Where: Los Angeles, CA.
Team Muddy Buddy: Jonathan Tessler & Josh Futterman - 2nd In Age Group (86 to 95)
If you have never heard of the “Muddy Buddy”, then now is the time. If you have heard of the “Muddy Buddy” then sit back, read on, and enjoy.
About 4 [...]

He’s already wearing yellow diapers to get into the mood. And he does his own stunts.
He likes french fries and french toast.

As cyclists, we’ve had almost as tough a run lately as your neighborhood mortgage banker or your favorite post-teen Hollywood starlette.  Seems we just can get no respect. 
More troubling, is that we often don’t exactly give it, either. A short and vastly incomplete list of Some Things We Don’t Like would include –
-          [...]

In one word, BULLSEYE! This is the product that I have been waiting for:

If you have kids, or were ever a kid yourself, do you remember being in the car going somewhere for over an hour and hearing “Are We There Yet”? Well when my wife and I take our three kids on a [...]

Three years ago my neighbors across the street asked their bike racing neighbor if I wanted to join them for the Acura Los Angeles Bike Tour X. My response was “isn’t that one of those fun rides where like 20,000 people who haven’t ridden in like a year gets their dusty bike out of storage [...]