Bike Hugger 

James wrote us to say

I read bike hugger in a feed reader and I was disturbed to see a Jimmy Dean sandwich ad appear below a story on bike commuting in the rain. I went to the BH front page and there’s a big ol’ Viagra ad posted below the same story.

Besides being really tacky these ads aren’t apropos of cycling or in my opinion any healthy lifestyle.

Can you guys be more selective about who you let advertise on your site?

and I responded, “at Bike Hugger we’re friendly to all sorts of cyclists, including those that eat sausages or take erection pills.”

A month has passed since 2 cyclists and a dump truck had a fatal interaction at the intersection of Eastlake and Fuhrman here in Seattle. I went past the site on the way home tonight to see what’s changed in the last 4 weeks. What’s there is mostly paint “ painted ghostbike up on the street sign, painted signs on the sidewalk and roadway, and a touching memorial to 19 year old Bryce, the cyclist who was killed.

What is going to make this intersection safer? It only took the 10 minutes I was at the corner for me to see another close call between a car and bike. If history’s any guide, we’ll be lucky to get paint. Unfortunately I don’t think paint would have made any more difference than if the cyclists had brakes (they did), freewheels (they didn’t), or if they were wearing helmets (they weren’t, and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway).

Update: SeattleLikesBikes.org plans a memorial ride for Nov 3rd.

The torrential rains earlier this week sparked a nascent memory – my worst ever commute. I sometimes ride a short stretch along the south side of Greenlake here in Seattle. The route’s very nice, bike lanes, slow park-bound traffic, beautiful old trees, and of course the lake itself is just a few dozen feet away. This particular late fall/early winter season had seen endless rain and I was getting used to plowing through puddles rather than trying to ride around them. I even found a set of postman’s golashes to keep my feet dry. I should have recognized water freely flowing across the entire roadway as the first sign of trouble. Instead I rode bravely on, diving into larger and larger puddles, and hey, I was starting to enjoy the challenge. All that came to an abrupt halt at the last and deepest puddle. Somewhere about 1/4 way across the water got so deep it came in over the top of my rubber overbooties. My choices were limited: Keep pedaling and get your feet soaked, or get off and get your calves soaked. Needless to say I pedaled through, barely making enough speed to stay up right all the way across. The post-puddle options weren’t much better, and I wet-footed it the rest of the way home.

What’s your worst?

StreetFilms.org has a cool post about the bike scene in NYC. One of my favorite artists - David Byrne is a big bike advocate in gotham.

Next week Jason and I arrive in Taipei. We’re there consulting with a client and attending the IDF.

We’re also meeting and riding with Dahon, and I’m bringing the Flyby. Considering that Taiwan is a leading manufacture of bikes, I thought that many of our readers have probably been there before.

So tell us: what must we do? What’s to see? And where to ride?

Like the trip to Beijing, we’ll blog Taipei by bike.