Bike Hugger 

I’ve been looking for some new pedals recently and stumbled across Speedplay’s Platform/Quill Pedal museum. They’ve got some amazing specimens, including the Ramsey Swing and the Phil Wood ‘CHP’ pedal (yes, as in CHiPs). The earliest is from 1860, and would look right at home at a lamp or two we have at our place. No trace of the Wellgo’s I’m trying to replace, maybe they’re still accepting donations? They’ve also got timelines for road and mountain clipless pedals, and toe clips and straps. Looks like the site’s been around for a while, but it’s new to me and blew me away.

Laek House makes casual clothing inspired by cycling’s rich history and the realities of urban riding; like getting doored, brushed by a pink-haired-lady on her way to Bingo, and f’ing SUVs. Visibility drove Laek to develop ELVS, a retro-reflective ink that appears grey in ambient light but blasts bright white in focused light. Nice, but wearing a super-reflecto hat doesn’t show too much under a helmet, so Laek also offers a limited edition black ELVS Deep-V.

That’s Kevin “Squid” Bolger testing the wheels. And while those ain’t as splashy as these DIY sparkly wheels from SpokePOV, drivers are def going to see you at night.

It looks like the P. I.’s stumbled on one of Seattle’s little secrets – R.E. Load bags. I’m still shocked at the number of people in Seattle riding around with bags made elsewhere when we have great bag makers right here in town. Out in Philly, where R.E. Load originated and still has the original branch, it sounds like the bags are endemic. R.E. Load makes the most unique, most stylish bags I’ve ever seen. Not good enough? Tell ‘em what colors you want and they’ll run you a custom anything. Bags range from huge, professional courier bags to more manageable sizes for those not hauling boxes of medical records around.

Amazingly, you can only see these bags in person at a few locations world wide, so I encourage you to drop by the E. Pike St (I haven’t checked out the Philly Store yet, please let us know if you have!). There’s plenty beyond bags inside – lots of clothing, art and culture that you can’t find on their site. R. E. Load’s just turned 10 years old. Personally I’m looking forward to seeing their bags for many more.

We wouldn’t expect much to blog about during the Super Bowl, but the Amp Human Energy spot got our attention. Like the human-powered, Mion booth we covered earlier, but on a much larger scale, Amp Energy is uploading 30 minutes of power for the Fox Pre-Game show.

I’m thinking that spin classes across the country could get plugged in and offset some carbon or just recharge cell phones. Joking aside, the Amp Energy site has all the background videos and more. There’s a drill sergeant yelling at the cyclist to pedal harder and a Monkey game.

There probably hasn’t been stronger evidence that cycling is ubiquitous in pop culture (like the cycling mom Volvo commercial) than a monkey-pedaling game. Well, ok, a DKNY Neon Orange Bike is pretty good as well.

In time for Fashion Week in NYC are these DKNY Neon Orange Bikes … noted on

* Women’s Wear Daily
* Portfolio
* The Moment

The Neon Orange bikes are part of DKNY’s efforts to support cyclists and include a custom folding bike sweepstakes.

Photo posted to Flickr by SINCEAGAIN.

A reader tipped me to the Crossbeed, a folding bicycle wheel. As our readers know, I’ve traveled extensively with both little-wheel folding bikes and regular-wheeled, S&S-coupled road bikes. There’s also MTB folders, but we’ve yet to try those (we really need to add a MTB blogger). In all those travel miles, I’ve never really thought of a need to fold a wheel; I’ve wished for a carbon-folding bike, just to get the weight down, wished that Brompton was slightly less industrial-age influenced, and that Dahon made a better travel case. But the Crossbreed is certainly interesting and innovative, check the video

Also posted on

• Core77

• Bike Radar

• And coincidentally, Halfbakery a site for various, half-baked ideas, posted on this [topic way back in 06](http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Folding_20Wheel_20(collapsable).

From the Telegraph is a guide to the 50 great things to do in the USA. Cycling in Sonoma is ranked 39th; now we’d rank that much higher than say, visiting Dollywood, but still that’s good to see cycling make it in. We’ve ridden in Sonoma, back in the pre-hugger days, and the riding is great.

It also made me wonder what our readers thought were the best places to ride?

Lapierre, Mr. Giles LaPierre that is, was in town last week showing off their latest bikes. Great bikes, but if you live in the states you may not be familiar with the name. Lapierre is based in France, and has been in business for 60 years and 3 generations of Lapierres. They provide the rides for the Française des Jeux cycling team, and are also a leading manufacturer of mountain bikes. Already a major brand in Europe, they’ve decided to raise the level of their game in the US.

That’s one of the Hotspur tubes before it was fabricated last week. It’s being built up this weekend, with a hotspurian theme, and readied for the Handmade Bicycle Show on 2/8.

More details are coming and, as an aside, before naming the bike, I consulted the Naming the Bicycle section of the Bike Cult Book. I didn’t crowdsource the name though, as Merlin Mann jokes about in this 5ives post.

There are several bike charities – for AIDS, micro-economies, and so on – and all of them are offering bike hope. Check this article from the Nambian on the Bicycling Empowerment Network that created Bicycle Empowering Centres

This is a shipping container, which is filled with 300 secondhand bicycles, spare parts and tools which can be delivered to any town or village in the country. Local volunteers from the community are trained as bicycle mechanics and project managers. The BECs are now run as bicycle workshops: bicycles are overhauled for distribution to volunteers, as well as for sale to the community at an affordable price.

In 07, Bike Hugger supported World Bicycle Relief with bikes purchased in lieu of holiday gifts for friends, family, and partners.