MetaFilter posts tagged with bicycle

we heart electric bikes

Brian B. — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:10:52 -0800

Bicycles are the most efficient mode of transportation; walking is a distant second, followed by crowded vans and motorcycles, with everything else being relatively equal. This may change soon. WSJ online jokingly tests a new plug-in electric bike versus a standard racing model.

Ines Brun rides a track bike

dobbs — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:40:23 -0800

Ines Brunn and her bike. {mlyt}

Bicycle Lock / Planter - get your bike out of the hall

priorpark17 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:32:11 -0800

Bicycle Lock / Planter This is a very simple invention. It is a big planter that you put in the waste of space at the front of your house and lock your bike to it. I had seen them popping up here and there in London but only found out today where they came from. Great video of the strength test - esp the freeze and then hit with a big hammer.

The Bicycle Tutor

Effigy2000 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:46:01 -0800

The Bicycle Tutor is a site with lots of video tutorials designed with a sole purpose; to teach you how to fix your own bicycle. [via mefi projects]

Steampunk recumbent.

fixedgear — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:32:22 -0800

Steampunk recumbent. That is all. I'm speechless but awed.

Giant Vulva Bicycle Taxi

GuyZero — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:59:18 -0800

Giant Vulva Bicycle Taxi. [via Jalopnik]

It's not your dad's bicycle.

maudlin — Wed, 28 May 2008 05:07:59 -0800

If Wile E. Coyote entered the Tour de France, this would be his ride. Brought to you by some guy who always wanted to be a human missile. No word if he's going to move from eBay to Acme one day. (The bike running briefly at ear-shredding volume. The slightly more elegant European version. And, of course, Jeremy Clarkson on a jet-powered bike with a pretty basket in front.)

More than just a sore taint?

Toekneesan — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:38:37 -0800

Does riding a bike really help the environment? Mr. Green at the Sierra Club says don't over think it, but a couple of folks trying to measure the energy cycling uses aren't quite sure. There are plenty of excuses for not to riding your bike, but is there a rationale? If you want a go at calculating this yourself, here's a handy guide to the variables. "Mankind has invested more than four million years of evolution in the attempt to avoid physical exertion. Now a group of backward-thinking atavists mounted on foot-powered pairs of Hula-Hoops would have us pumping our legs, gritting our teeth, and searing our lungs as though we were being chased across the Pleistocene savanna by saber-toothed tigers. Think of the hopes, the dreams, the effort, the brilliance, the pure force of will that, over the eons, has gone into the creation of the Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Bicycle riders would have us throw all this on the ash heap of history." —P.J. O'Rourke "After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go. You ride through Dreamland on wonderful dream bicycles that change and grow....When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." —H.G. Wells

American da Vinci

tellurian — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:02:27 -0800

Viktor Schreckengost who died last year at the grand age of 101, was regarded by some as the father of industrial design. Every adult in America has ridden in, ridden on, drunk out of, stored their things in, eaten off of, been costumed in, etc… and there is no going past his gorgeous pedal cars. Some of his work can also be seen online at The Cleveland Museum of Art.

My chrome is shining just like an icicle

tractorfeed — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 11:30:51 -0800

Many European cities have instituted bicycle sharing programs, with mixed success (Amsterdam, Lyon, Cambridge, Paris). Now that many of them have worked out the kinks (including vandalism and outright theft), cities in the US are taking notice. San Francisco (previously on MeFi), Portland, and New York are among the cities with plans in the works, but it looks like Washington D.C. will be the first when 120 red three-speed bicycles become available next month for members who pay an annual fee.