A new generation of bike rental is here, where you pick up the bike where you start your ride and drop it off at the destination. Vélib' and Vélo'V are the high-profile, wildly successful products of the JCDecaux ad firm in the cities of Paris and Grand Lyon. Velib' provides 10,000 bikes for cheap hourly rental beginning this past summer. In exchange for fully underwriting the €90 million of expenses, JCDecaux wins exclusive rights to all the city's billboards. JCDecaux' rival Clear Channel beat them out of the gate by a couple months, opening Bicing in Barcelona to similar success, although at a smaller scale. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee on Oct 8, 2007 - 17 comments

Stone Cold Saddles for hard ass cyclists.
posted by srboisvert on Aug 8, 2004 - 6 comments

Drag Race Ride through the streets of Manhattan with some of the fastest urban bicyclists in existence as they race in the wintertime. Thrilling and unbelievable. The mpg is from a head mounted camera worn by one of the racers. More here. Also don't miss the cameraman riding on top of a Jersey barrier here. And here I was thinking that Times Square to Park Slope in 25 minutes was pretty quick. Thanks to nervous.net.
posted by n9 on Jul 15, 2004 - 33 comments

This is your mission should you choose to accept it. You start at Victoria Peak with bicycles and ride all the way down to the Victoria Harbour without using the pedals, and see how far you can go. The rules are: No pedalling allowed. Keep your feet off the ground. Ride with safety. It's not a time trial. The winner is the one who rides the most distance. Sounds fairly straightforward, but here's the hitch... you'll be competing against Jackie Chan. A two part mpeg video from a Japanese TV variety show called Tetsuwan Dash.
posted by riffola on Apr 12, 2002 - 13 comments