MetaFilter posts tagged with Bicycles

The first issue of The Ride Journal as PDF

You Should See the Other Guy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:03:33 -0800

The Ride Journal is a lovely mag by/about/for cyclists of all types: bmxers, fixed gear riders, road racers, tricyclists, casual riders... you name it! It's a beautiful publication--great photography, nice paper, good personal stories. However, it's a print mag. As their 3rd issue is being mailed out, they've made their first avaiable for download as a 26MB PDF.

My scraper bike go hard / I don't need no car

aniola — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:28:12 -0800

"There's people from literally across the world making these bikes, from Portland, Oregon, to Japan to Australia to Jamaica." The "Scraper Bike King" talks about the DIY community-oriented movement (YT), which started in Oakland was popularized with this video and covered by NPR.

Bikes as art as bikes as art as etc

ardgedee — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 08:01:29 -0800

The bike racing world has a tradition of attention-getting designs, but some spectators at this year's Tours of California or France might have done double-takes at some of the art on Lance Armstrong's rides. As it turns out, Trek and Nike have commissioned custom designs promoting Livestrong, and as I write this Lance is cycling into Paris on a bike covered with butterfly wings, courtesy of Damien Hirst. Along with the Hirst piece, TdF fans have been able to see Armstrong riding art by Shepard Fairey, Yoshitomo Nara, and Mark Newson. If you happen to be in Paris, you can attend the Stages (warning: Autoplay Flash video/audio) exhibition, which opened on the 17th and features some of the bikes and commissioned art by Ed Ruscha, Raymond Pettibon, Andreas Gursky, and more. After the show's over, the bikes will be auctioned off with proceeds benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

"This is dog manure in the shape of a bicycle." Hal grades your locking.

maudlin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:41:42 -0800

"This is the lock you got from your parents when you were 8." "I could chew through this lock." Hal Grades Your Bike Locking (2003). Hal (and Kerri) Grade Your Bike Locking (2008). Hal Grades Your Bike Locking 3: The Final Warning! (2009) Skip to the last one unless if you're not truly dedicated to locking minutiae. (via)

Fixies are the fashion but wait 'til they see de stijl

ardgedee — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:53:53 -0800

BauBike

Technomadics

Ogre Lawless — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:45:59 -0800

Inspiration to do something with your holiday weekend: Steven K. Roberts is an interesting guy with a bit of a hobby problem. In 1983 his recumbent bike sported "only" a security system, lights, a CB radio and a state-of-the-art TRS80/100 laptop. Winnebikeo would eventually evolve into BEHEMOTH, the "Big Electronic Human-Energized Machine... Only Too Heavy". BEHEMOTH incorporated (amongst other things) HUD, cooling system, small Sun SPARCstation, HAM Radio, credit card verifier, bubblejet printer, hydraulic disk brakes... Eventually Roberts discovered that BEHEMOTH was developing a life of its own as he worked through trade shows and talk circuits. Feeling that bicycling still constrained one to roads and rest stops, he turned to kayaking. Of course, not much room in a kayak for modding...well, enough. Roberts has more recently turned to a number of larger vessels, including the S/V Nomadness. In between kitting out vehicles he's made a portable universal comm device for the modern era, written a bunch of tech articles and keeps up a blog on his multitudinous ongoing projects.

If it ain't broke, fix it.

You Should See the Other Guy — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:51:09 -0800

I like watching videos of people riding fixed gear bikes in the city: Empire, MashSF, Macaframa, Fast Friday, Bootleg Sessions, Lucas Brunelle's crazy vids (linked on MeFi before). Don't like videos? Try Fixed Gear Magazine (pdf of vol 1 and vol 2) or CogMag (dead tree mag, but excerpts from each issue are on their site).

Bicycle Museums

box — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:36:45 -0800

I like old bicycles. High-wheelers, choppers, BMX bikes, mountain bikes and old ten-speeds. Especially personal bikes from personal collections. I like 'em all. Also Queen videos. (Previously.)

They see me co-opt'n They hatin'

wfrgms — Sun, 25 May 2008 13:56:00 -0800

We've discussed fixed gear bicycles before. In the intervening years the cycling phenomena has taken on new proportions. While those early adopters, bike messengers, maybe a dying breed they leave behind a design that gained some respected proponents. Almost overnight the fixed gear bicycle attracted a certain type who found that the messenger-imparted street-cred, not to mention the low cost of entry, fit nicely with a hip aesthetic and do-it-yourself lifestyle. It wasn’t long after that amateur videos and music began to circulate celebrating, or perhaps embarrassing, the fixed gear culture. Though the movement hasn’t been without its terms of derision it has relentlessly grown. Now major manufacturers churn out off-the-shelf fixed gears and at least a few in the entertainment industry have capitalized on the craze. All this commodification has led some to speculate that high gas prices have made urban bicycle commuting more appealing to a wider audience. So perhaps the fixed gear, or at least its more user friendly single-speed version is here to stay...

Encyclopedia of Transportation Planning Strategies

salvia — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:04:26 -0800

Too much traffic? Can't find parking? Choking on smog? Worried about climate change? Gas prices too high, but you still have to drive? Send your city planner a link to the Online Encyclopedia of Transportation Demand Management strategies. The Victoria Transport Policy Institute was mentioned in a comment back in 2005, but not the encyclopedia, which is one of the most complete online transportation resources that I've run across lately.

It's not a fixed-gear, either.

Wolfdog — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:21:50 -0800

Bikes: Steel? Aluminum? Carbon Fiber? Wood, and nothing but wood.

Pictures of Bicycles

From Bklyn — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:54:23 -0800

Pictures of bicycles. And previously. Please be advised, there some pictures of girls that might be considered Not Work-Safe, but mostly just lots and lots of really sexy bicycles.

Bike Hacks

brain_drain — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:32:42 -0800

Bike Hacks! Bored with your generic two-wheeler? Check out this collection of funky bicycle modifications. My favorite is the grocery cart.

'I think there is a good future for this type of system...'

ardgedee — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:01:44 -0800

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. These are far from the first bike shares. JCDecaux has older programs in Austria and Spain and Clear Channel started theirs in Stockholm and Oslo - but this may be the newest and biggest version of an idea that dates back decades. The successful operations require not only a well-designed urban program but also the massive cash outlay that only freewheeling multinationals can provide, for better or worse. The U.S. might not be completely left behind: San Francisco may sign with Clear Channel and Chicago's rumored to be talking with JCDecaux.

Put your money where your ideology is...

Arturus — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 19:22:32 -0800

Their factory was shut down three months ago. After occupying it, and reorganizing along anarchist ideological lines, the workers of Bike Systems GmbH are attempting to resume production. Now's your chance to place an order for a bicycle from a militantly anarcho-syndicalist, worker-occupied, self-managed factory in Germany. (via)

Amsterdam Bike Culture

craniac — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 08:25:33 -0800

Amsterdam's bike culture is jarringly different than the U.S. A photo essay.

Floyd Landis' Defense Online

fixedgear — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:20:37 -0800

Floyd Landis' Defense Onilne. Two pdfs of his defense, one zip file with a dozen documents supporting his claim.

Bicycle Love

R. Mutt — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 16:40:35 -0800

Taliah Lempert paints bicycles. If you were really in love, you would have your bicycle's portrait done.

Use suncreen.

fixedgear — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 14:41:15 -0800

World Naked Bike Ride (NSFW) Yes, it's that time again.

No Jaws of Life here.

fixedgear — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 04:33:00 -0800

How to build a bike. Much more inside.

This bike is a what?

fixedgear — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 11:00:09 -0800

Sticker causes panic. This bike is a pipe bomb sticker causes Ohio University officials to call the bomb squad. Pic here.

Bespoke furnishings

madamjujujive — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 09:41:56 -0800

Bike furniture - now that's recycling!

Million mile man

fixedgear — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 05:33:04 -0800

Freddie Hoffman is a geek. He's ridden one million miles on a bicycle, and he's still at it. More here (pdf).

The greatest athlete you've (probably) never heard of

fixedgear — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 04:41:15 -0800

Marshall W. "Major" Taylor. Bigger than Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods put together. He faced racism, wouldn't race on Sunday due to his strong religious convictions, and died forgotten. The Major Taylor Society has more info. A velodrome is named after him (one of only 12 in the USA) as well as several bicycle clubs. His thoughts on The Value of Good Habits and Clean Living is an interesting read.

The pen is mightier than the lock.

normy — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 09:44:48 -0800

Use one of those heavy U-locks to secure your bike? You might want to think again. It seems the barrel style lock mechanisms some of them employ can be opened by a Bic pen [.mov movie].