Bike Hugger 

SpinDaily, a trends and styles video podcast, goes shopping for a custom bike at Orange20Bikes with Jorja Fox from CSI. In another edition, SpinDaily visited Freecity Supershop, a retail store we posted about last year.

Good thing to see bikes as stylish, especially with stars from hit TV shows!

I was begining to suspect an anti-bike slant at the Seattle PI until they ran the article on the Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club work on an urban mountain-bike course under I-5. The two previous articles this week about bikes brought out the tired and predictable arguments from motorists and cyclists and it was relief to read a positive article about an impressive project.

Newsday | Critical Mass ride interrupted

Three riders were arrested during Friday night’s Critical Mass ride in New York City. Two were charged with disorderly conduct and “obstructing governmental administration.” Newsday was unable to discover charges against the third rider at press time.

“What this is all about is the police department trying to get Critical Mass,” said Norman Siegel, the former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union who represents the Five Borough Bicycle Club, which sought to block the NYPD’s new rule in federal court this week.

About 50 riders were ticketed, some for traffic offenses.

Photo by dogseat.

Also:

flickr.com | Critical Mass-NYC 3/30/07 - a photoset by dogseat

Newsday | Mass bikers facing arrest

New York City police have declared any gathering greater than 50 people a parade, and are threatening to arrest riders at tonight’s Critical Mass if they participate without a permit.

Critical Mass is a monthly ride with no formal organization, where riders try to demonstrate that bicycles have a place on the roads by swarming one area of a city. The New York City ride, which starts at Union Square, has been targeted by police in the past, particularly during the Republican National Convention in 2004, and in January 2006, Judge Gerald Harris ruled that Critical Mass did not require a permit.

Rolling out of Solvang, back towards Santa Barbara, through a nice valley.

A reader sent us Jennifer’s List, a growing database of bicycle trails that uses the Google Maps API and a rating system. One quirk, when the maps are close together, it takes lots of clicking to see the details.

I saw several bike homes in downtown Santa Barbara and managed to photograph this one. Note the rust, the pillows, bedding, and goods in the back.

We rode the Santa Barbara to Solvang loop today

• 4:27 ride time
• 86 miles
• 20 mph average

On the roads of the Tour of California – read more in our Travel blog.

In what’s proving to be a big week for cycling haters, the Seattle PI reports on the progress the city is making with the bicycling master plan and the comments fill up with the standard bad cyclists in traffic rants. As I said in my comments, a car isn’t an entitlement to the roads and it’s the cities lack of action that’s causing the motorist tension. Let’s hope the plan gets done soon.

DSC03075.jpg, by jmk19662006.