We asked this question in Facebook and a lively discussion is happening. Asking it here too. If you are getting one, what are you doing it with it? For what we do here, we are, but I’m struggling with the role of a third device.
Photo: velodramatic
As I’ve written about in the Lightness of Computer, I travel with a bike, iPhone, and Macbook Air. So I’m like, well what would I do with the iPad?
Eric Wicks and I meet each other periodically at events like SXSW and FITC. He’s an Austin-based artist, designer, strategist, and fellow cyclist. Earlier this week, I tweeted his Designing Bicycle Cities post. We share similar big bike ideas and agree on the need to return to simplicity on the web. Last year Eric wrote about about design challenges
For a solution to be truly sustainable and good it must have a positive return to the environment and society. At the heart of any design problem is a question: Are we trying to make something less bad or are we trying to make things better?
and makes his case for better problem solving with the bicycle and the example of the Copenhagen Wheel
... Read more »It’s when a cyclists gets the hunger that they think of things like toaster tacos (and when your spouse isn’t around to comment on your culinary genius). Burning off calories, means you can eat more, and in fun ways. Note the toaster heats tacos up very well, just pop them up when they start to sizzle.
I’ve ridden with cyclists that’d eat almost anything, including nacho-cheese dogs during a stop on a long ride. Others are finicky and stick to waffles and Nutella.
What’s your ride food before and after?
Serious Eats picked up our Toaster Tacos in a post and is considering it a kitchen hack.
“Bicycles and itinerant photography finally enjoyed a healthy and prosperous relationship by the mid-1890s from two key innovations: safety bicycles (widely regarded as the most important development in the history of bicycles) and small self-casing, folding cameras.”
As long as there’s been bikes, photographers have attached cameras to them. Lost to history are probably lots of photos, right before impact, when the photographer did an endo on those penny farthings.
From Copenhagenize …
Uploaded by Mikael Colville-Andersen / Zakka | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
It’s cyclists v. construction on Alaskan Way and by the Stadia in Seattle. Bike lanes to danger, railroad tracks, and misleading signage that puts you onto a overpass that isn’t complete.
A Hardhat put this sign up after our "conversation" about the Bike Lane to Danger. Before I rode over it, 5 cyclists came the other way. It’s encouraging to have the bike lane on this new overpass and it’s likely a new urban sprint spot that winds up from Royal Brougham, bypassing all the game-day traffic. However in the interim, it’s presenting cyclists with all sorts of hazards.
The issue is that bike advocacy in Seattle has drawn a line in the sand over Stone Way and the Missing Link while everyday, elsewhere in the city, cyclists ride in these conditions.
Just was saying …
We’re waiting for, and still haven’t seen, any freestyle fixie tricks better than Neidert’s from a hundred years ago!
Death Pedal is working on that situation and so is Keo Curry. We’ll see the Redline Urbis soon and expect to have it with us at the The Bicycle Show and Webvisions.
Also see Heavy Pedal. Maybe we’ll launch MEGA PEDAL in this niche…
One of the bike travel rules is to never travel with, or limit, the amount of carbon you pack in a case. This bike folds, but we wouldn’t recommend it for travel. The Vellix costs $2600 and weights 15 pounds.
Note: our Dahon Mu EX weighs 20 and the SL weights 18 pounds without any crazy carbon. The Brompton, don’t even weight it, cause it’s iron-age heavy, but whatever.
Do like how it resembles Trek’s Y Bike.
Don’t know either, but have been studying this photo from Tokyo Fixed Gear.
It’s like a reverse penny farthing. Also see this take on that.
Photos uploaded by TokyoFixedGear.com | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Publisher note: @alien8 hosted our Mobile Social Worldwide in London last year. We rode with him and London Fixed Gear crew with lorries next to our ears. The recent spike in deaths has the community reacting.
“Too many cyclists are being killed each year by lorries on the streets of London. Something has got to be done.”*
The call went out after the third HGV (Lorry/Truck) related death occurred in London.
Cyclists killed by HGV this year in London, UK
Professor David Vilaseca-Perez, 46 from South Bank (February 2010) Muhammad “Haris” Ahmed, 21, a 4th year Medical student (March 2010) Shivon Watson, 28 years old, a designer and musician from Bow (March 2010)
There has been more press coverage of this issue: The Evening Standard and London SE1 with some interesting observations in their forum
Online Cycling Community call for action.
When Jack Thurston says ‘Please come to Critical Mass this Friday’ it pays to listen. Not the biggest fan of CM he has a compelling case for attending this time.
Side note: I highly recommend The Bike Show Podcast
Mark who writes iBikeLondon published an analysis of stats that can be summarised as:
“Collisions with HGVs were the cause of 69% of London’s cyclist deaths last year. In 2008 this figure was 88%. There can be no doubt that lorries are the primary source of cyclist’s deaths in London.”
Rob of Real cycling has his own take on the events and links to CityBeast’s cycle accidents map
Io of VeLo LoVes the City has a very interesting post with respect to the time restrictions of HGVs and a scary video of the London Mayor narrowly avoiding injury or worse from an HGV as well as a link to that video of the truck pushing a sideways car down a road.
The more cheerful reason to be out tonight is that it’s the LFGSS Rolling Birthday Party. with over 100 riders planning to be there.
Southwark and Hackney Cyclists are going to try and lead the Mass to the 3 sites.
For these reasons - for the first time in quite a while - I’ll be at Critical Mass tonight.
Taking a bike, camera, and gear to the track with a bike.
Uploaded by lovely_bicycle | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
That’s not even the craziest stuff we’ve seen on a bike and we’ve seen a lot.
Uploaded by a.pic.a.day | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Last night we noticed during the annual grade school variety show all the healthy and happy kids. They entertained us parents with dancing, juggling, tumbling, and unicycle riding and they were quite good at it
especially this one
I don’t know that there’s any particular, concerted effort at the school to get the kids in shape, but they’re doing something right to burn off the calories of the school’s lunch program. Jamie Oliver is working on improving our school’s food. He did it in the UK and now here. Sure it’s wrapped in a dramatized reality show format, but the message is the same. Ever look at what they’re feeding kids in schools? When I walked through the lunch line it was made by about 12 lunch ladies. Now there are two and it’s all premade in a corporate factory somewhere from corn.
I’m just a gender-confusion issue away from buying these shoes. Someone had to do it: women’s heels with a clipless pedal cleat mounted. If this is a joke, it’s pretty funny. If it’s even halfway serious that you might actually ride in these at all, I would have think that some sort of strap is warranted and the heel should be higher. As silly as these seem, can they really be that much more impractical than a pair of stiletto shoes?
Just this week, Target started selling designer bikes
and bike dresses are available at Anthropologie.
BMW is expanding their bike line with more choices.
Besides spotting the trend, we’ve got our theories on the emergence of bikes in pop culture. What do you think is going on?
This happened last year with fixies at Urban Outfitters, and in New York’s haute couture districts.
While many dissed bikes in speciality retailers, we saw it as consumers buying bikes where they wanted to, regardless of traditional, independent bike shops. Hey if a bike matches a purse or a car, cool, right?
Zuca is a company that makes travel bags that take the load off your body when you walk and your weight off your feet when you’d normally stand. They seem to have a following among ice skaters and some other sports, but I think cyclists who travel a lot might really like them. Long ago one of my old teammates had passed along sage advice for the competitive cyclist when not riding:
“Never run when you can walk, never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lay down”
Sure this seems like a recipe for sloth, but it really points out that some of the most tiring activities we do are tedious tasks that have nothing to do with our favourite pastime. And traveling through airports or other modes can be exhausting. I actually put a lot of thought in the ergonomics of my bags, trying to carry all my stuff without putting too much strain on my body. I gave up on messenger bags for airline travel because they just wrecked my back with the weight of my personal items.
... Read more »Sippey tipped us to PUBLIC Bikes, a new Rob Forbes’ company. He founded Design Within Reach who have been dabbling in bikes, including the Biomega we reviewed a few years ago.
Next month they’re launching simple, Dutch-style bikes with a modern look. The bike trend we spotted that started this blog continues to grow in 2010 and when guys with the juice of Rob get involved, that makes us happy.
It’s always interesting, the serendipity and connectedness of the Interwebs. Just when we announce the (un)Wired Future of Bicycles at Webvisions, where we’re presenting a series of Ignite-style presentations regarding the future of mobile bike apps, a story about a N900 phone turned into a bicycle computer hits the newswires.
Photo: Reuters Pictures via Daylife
Brett Peterson and his wife Sarah won Nokia’s Push N900 MOD in the USA contest. Their bike dashboard adaptation turns the N900 phone into a bicycle computer displaying speed, location and distance travelled.
That’s exactly what we’re interested in — smartphones on bikes and hope to see that from the new Windows Mobile, as well iPhones and iPads.
We’ve been talking about this for years now, with lots of good discussion.
... Read more »
A heavy-duty WorkCycles bakfiets at a Corus Steel mill. Not unlike the bikes we saw in India moving steel.
Uploaded by henry in a’dam | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Some gear comes in and the reaction is, “I don’t know, I mean, I get it, but not sure.” A good example is the Squivvy, we tested last night at the local Tuesday Night World Championship.
That’s a pop-up “changing tent” and for those of us who’ve spent an inordinate amount of time changing in the car in parking lots, it’s got potential. Would you rather wiggle around in the car, change real fast outside, or use a kilt?
The Squivvy works well — open it up, unzip, step inside, and change into your gear standing up. Then somehow flip, turn, and twist it back into a folded shape, which is about the size of a wheel. Inside the Squivvy are pockets, hooks, and lines to hang and store stuff.
The Squivvy did get its share of laughs, from “honey come in here, wink wink” to “I can just stand outside and change without a tent.” Sure, but on a brisk or raining morning it’s useful and for warming up in the pouring rain.
We liked it and we’ll test it more. Also on test, Buff Headwear, which also garners snickers from the crowd. More on that in another post.
The Squivvy sells for $89.95 and provides a 4’ x 4’ room that’s over 6 feet tall.
Translated: “go by bike.”
Uploaded by Tinymeatâ„¢ | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
The Seattle PI reported today on a Bike Chop Shop in North Seattle.
When officers got to the roughly 10-by-10-foot unit, they found it “stacked floor-to-ceiling with disassembled bicycles (frames, wheels, accessories) and recognized them as mostly high-value and some specialized bikes,” North Precinct Detective Dain Jones wrote in an affidavit used to obtain a search warrant. “The bikes and parts were stacked in jumbles without any reasonable effort at organization or for concern of damage; they were literally piled in heaps against each other.”
Sounds more like a crack house than Chop Shop.
The Mobile Social is back in Portland for WebVisions and this time we’re bringing Ignite-style presentations about the (un)Wired Future of Bicycles with us.
The bike rack outside the University Village Apple Store always has interesting bikes like this Motobecane
and Volume
I missed this earlier with all the recent traveling, but Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced on his blog that
People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning,” LaHood wrote on his Fast Lane blog March 15. “This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized. We are integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects.”
Setting a “mode share target for walking and bicycling” is a major change in policy yes and one our readers and the bike industry are certainly interested in. We talked livable cities, making cycling safer and sustainable, amongst other topics in Austin, during SXSW. Our Mobile Social attracted hundreds of cyclists in a fun, social ride. For an afternoon at least, cyclist pwned SXSW and rode all over that town.
In his response to the ESPN Run Cyclists Down radio show, Lance quoted the same statistic that John Burke does
... Read more »When I grew up in the 1960s, 50 percent of kids walked or rode their bikes to school. Now it’s 5 percent. The obesity rate was 14 percent. Today it’s 50.”
Ready to roll — would need a matching outfit for this bike.
Uploaded by Hayley999 | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
AngloMex spotted an interesting 3-speed shifter that I’ve never seen before either. Huh.
Uploaded by AngloMex | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Anna, a student, wrote to us to say
I have this dream bike in my head, but I’m not sure if it exists. I need something light and fast like a road bike, but that can also handle a little off-roading once in a while. It’s got to be comfy, fit me and be super durable (I’ll probably keep this one through college and beyond if it makes it). It would be awesome if I could go long-ish distances on it, and it wasn’t ridiculously expensive. It would also be awesome if it had a brown leather seat and was…oh, say, candy apple green (I’m a teenager, this stuff matters.) It would be SUPER awesome if I could order it online, since I’ve already snooped around in my local bike shop.
and asked,
Got any recommendations? Does my dream bike exist?
Readers, considering Anna is a student that limits her options on budgets and a custom builder, so what can we recommend to her? My first response is a cyclocross bike.
I’m sitting in our Bike Expo booth, while the Mobile Social is going on in Austin — trying to relax a bit, get caught up, and in walks Joe the Metal Cowboy. I don’t know him yet and over the course of a few minutes, I was sucked up into his world. I think that’s how Joe works. He wears you down initially with a flurry of stories about himself. When he stops for a breath is when you can say, “ok” and get in a brief response, like, “how did you hear about us, now what?”
Joe and I agreed to a book swap. His for mine and I read Mud, Sweat, and Gears, during the flights last week. It’s an enjoyable, easy read, and recommended. Last year, the focus of the talks I do was “do epic shit,” and by that I meant, “make meaningful, interesting stuff, challenge yourself, and work hard.” Taking a family of 5, including a nursing newborn, across Canada on bikes qualifies as epic.
Using the Square app we can take credit card payments with our iPhone. A killer app yes and also good for us with the Mobile Socials, events, and traveling we do.
We sold goods with it at the Seattle Bike Expo, like this book. During the transaction, you can take a photo of the item, customer, and it also assigns GPS coordinates. The Dongle reads the strip and sends the data to the iPhone. You can also manually key in the numbers.
Square is in beta now and we expect it to work for many small business, such as ourselves, when it’s in full production. It’s simple and works.
The talk with @livestrongCEO Doug Ulman @sxsw was a highlight of the past week. I was on the road talking Twitter, bike culture, changing the world with bikes, and web design at 4 different events.
Doug told us how Livestrong started as a bike ride — the Ride for the Roses.
After some rest over the weekend and bike rides, it’s back to work on a new event with Webvisions in Portland. It’ll have big ideas, thinking, and bikes.
Doug Ulman and Byron photo uploaded by Mathowie.
Spotted a game of bike polo being played on the i-90 lid today.
Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
A refurb project, to be Jessica’s ‘Leeds bike’, for bombing around the city on. Very nice.
Uploaded by AngloMex | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Spotted @mellowjohnnys, that’s a Singular built by Marty Larson at the Prairie Peddler in Wisconsin.
Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Saw these in Austin as well. That’s a taxi trailer for an ad-hoc pedicab and we could use these for our fans and party attendees that don’t ride so much. Could parade Zeldman et al around on one as maybe a ride MC.
Then we’d probably go to fast around a corner and bounce one of them out, but the fun we’d have!
Uploaded by davidjschloss | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Delta is running an airport kiosk ad with a happy cyclist who rides through the country, arrives at home, and books a flight. He’s in a good mood and the well-produced ad exemplifies how easy it is too fly with Delta.
The ad doesn’t show the shock that cyclist will get when he checks that bike at the airport — his beeming smile will quickly dissolve to a pissed-off grimace. I know many good people at Delta (well the NWA peeps), and the marketing group that produced this ad is totally unaware of how mad cyclists are at airlines.
During the talk with Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman at SXSW, I was asked about traveling with bikes and many in the room had stories of airlines ripping them off. Doug tweeted a request to Southwest, Lance Armstrong retweeted it, and lots more tweeting ocurred.
Following up with Doug today, he told me in email:
SWA says they do ship bikes for free but the problem is that their size limits don’t fit most bikes. If the bike is too big they charge 50.00. I think they could change their policy with enough pressure.
Oversize is a reason I travel with folders or coupled bikes. I agree with Doug. We should put the pressure on. Event to the point of reasonable fees. $175.00 one way is inexusable.
Hey Delta, us cyclists want to ride happy and book flights like your kiosk ad. Fix your fees and keep us happy.
Introduced at the Taipei Bike Show, SRAM’s new X7 mtb group is “aimed at mid-level XC to entry-level downhillers and freeriders.” No pricing announced yet, though. The group has many of the features of the vaunted XX group, SRAM’s pricey pro-level XC group. Both groups use a double chainring crank coupled with wide-ratio 10sp cassettes, including choices with 36tooth cogs.
Much like with the XX group, most of the components are branded SRAM instead of the cranks being labeled Truvativ. The hydraulic brakes still bear the Avid logo, but all the components are stylistically integrated with a dark, matte finish. Also interesting is the matching hubset, since SRAM hasn’t in the past marketed hubs.
I work in a shop that is more than a quarter century old, housed within a building that is more than a century old. The nooks and crannies are teeming with mice and forgotten things. I lost a Rock Shox SID fork for about 7 months, and my favourite crankpuller went MIA last year and has yet to be heard from again.
Then I found this tool: I have no idea what it is. Readers? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
(Oh, I just know I’m gonna get a lot of off-colour hypotheses.)
I presented Design the Ordinary, Like this Fixie with @ktamura @mixevent today.
A fixie is used as a prop in the talk because it represents a simple, ordinary bike that serves a specific function. Fixies were made from parts bin by cyclists and I asked what if websites were like that? What if we made them as simple as possible to just deliver content like a messenger with packages.
Specialized provided us Globe Rolls for the talk. I’m riding one of them around Vegas later today.
The two most common questions from new road bike buyers is “what does it weigh?” and “how much does it cost?” And really, these two questions are inter-related, but the function isn’t linear. Moving upmarket from the entry-level to mid-level, bikes get a lot lighter, but weight reduction gets much more expensive after that.
Why?
... Read more »
Road racing season is almost here, and another round of gluing tubular race tires begins. Here are some of tips for making the operation less messy.
1) A truing stand allows you to layer glue on the rim easily. You can do it without one, but you’re making your life more difficult.
2) The fingertips from latex gloves. I can’t get a really good grip on a tubular with gloves on and often get the gloves pinched between the rim and tire. But I’ll cut the fingertips off and use them to apply the glue. You get good control, and the clean up is quick. I usually use a new fingertip for each glue layer as the tips get fouled with clumped glue.
3) Hand lotion. Since I don’t have good luck wrestling stubborn tubulars with latex gloves on, I apply a liberal amount of lotion on my hands, especially to the backs, before I go for it. Allow lotion to dry so that it won’t rub off on the work pieces. The lotion helps prevent the glue from sticking to the skin, easing with post-job handwashing. Actually, I usually wear gloves for the first half of mounting the tire, then I pull them off for the final bit. It depends on how many gloves I have and if they are snug enough.
Here we have the oldest bike on the Mobile Social and the tallest. Bikinis too.
Uploaded by kk+ | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
See this outside of bars all over Austin.
Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
I’m talking today with @livestrongCEO Doug Ulman @SXSW about Changing the World and Lives with Bikes:
This core conversation will talk about how cycling, the bike, and social media are changing the world and lives. You’ll learn about Livestrong’s community and Bike Hugger’s blog, events like the Mobile Social, and the millions who follow Lance Armstrong on Twitter. It’s a discussion of bike and pop culture and socializing the good with these Interweb tools.
A core conversation is just Doug and no audio/visuals discussing the topic with the audience. It’s at 11:00 AM in Room 7. We’re both looking forward to it and seeing you there.
Last night Doug and I met, over a few beers, at the Livestrong party
also met Chris Sacca who told me a very funny fat-boy rides bike story — fat boy being him.
We’ll post on that one soon.
By all accounts, this was our best Mobile Social so far and we’ve got more coming with dates being announced soon in Toronto and Portland. This year, Cyclefilm made this film for us
Rode over this morning from Fremont to the Bike Expo — whole time talking about mapping, directions, routes, and bike safety. On the left is Andy Schwerin. He coded the Rev 1 bike directions algorithm. To the right is Andrew Gove. He’s an engineer on the project.
Andy told me his original idea was to help cyclists get from point a to b. Much later, Google released Bike Maps.
Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
An Urban Commuter Trailer that rethinks urban cargo. Or as we like to say it, “in your face cargonista!”
Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
I’m honestly too exhausted to write a big post (it was a long day). I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who came to our SXSW Mobile Social today. Here’s just a chunk of the people who showed up.
And here are some photos from my gallery, more coming from our other Huggers soon.
Here at the Seattle Bicycle Expo James is bringing out all the Bike Hugger gear you could possibly want, and it’s all for sale. Swing by our Blogger Lounge upstairs and check out our gear.
Rocking the Google Maps t-shirt for the Mobile Socia SXSW. See you there
Come hang with the Bike Hugger team this weekend at the great Seattle Bicycle Expo. We’re hosting the Bicycle Bloggers Lounge upstairs where we’ll be talking to fellow cyclists, hunting down the coolest exhibits & new bike tech, and reviewing all those experimental new energy bars/drinks (hey, somebody has to be the guinnea pig).
Track the excitement as we live blog here here at on the community board and be sure to follow us on twitter at @BikeHugger The hashtag for this weekend is #bikexpo
This year’s Expo is on the northern edge of the waterfront up in Magnolia:
Smith Cove Cruise Terminal 91 2001 W Garfield St Seattle, WA 98119
Door is cash only ($10 for one day,$12 for two days) The ATM is bound to have long lines so plan ahead. Saturday the Expo is open 9am-6pm, Sunday 10am-4pm.
See you there!
The Mobile Social SXSW is tomorrow and of all the MoSos we do, this one is El Guapo, the Mucho Moso, where we do bike culture Texas style. The crew at Social Cycling ATX is leading the ride with ride guides. They’ll make sure you all get to Mellow Johnnys for the party and have a fun, safe time.
Scan this code for quick access to the MoSo details. You need a wristband or SXSW badge to get into the party. Get a wristband from one of us at the start of the ride.
There are turnoff points for those that want to ride shorter. The route is 14 miles and it’s a relaxed, cruiser, fun ride, no-dropping-anyone pace. We stop at red lights and don’t block traffic.
Google is riding with us and at Mellow Johnnys to show you their Bike Maps. You’ll know who they are because they’re wearing these shirts.
Snuggled comfortably into the Juan Pelota coffee shop inside of Mellow Johnny’s bike store, we’ve just checked in on the logistics of our Mobile Social event. The folks at MJ’s couldn’t be more gracious, which is why we like working with them so much.
If you’re in the Austin area for SXSW and have never seen the shop, come here and look around. It’s easily the prettiest bike store I’ve ever seen and it’s the only one with multiple Tour de France winning bikes hanging casually from the ceiling. While drinking my coffee smoothie I’m looking over at a wall full of signed yellow jerseys.
Unfortunately for my wallet, they’ve also just gotten in a shipment of Merino wool jerseys, and I’m buying one before I leave today. They will do nicely with my limited edition MJ’s mountain biking gloves.
Tomorrow we go all party-time-excellent on Mellow Johnny’s—they’ve been nice enough to give us their parking lot for a massive party. If you haven’t read about our event, check it out here.
Today starting at 2pm is TweetHouse, a big meeting of the “twiteratti” and other SXSW’ers and they’re setting up here at the shop, so if you were hoping to grab a nice carbon Madone, you might need them to move the stage to get access to it. But the District Carbon is available.
I picked up this nice video from a friend’s Facebook post. It’s a message from peopleforbikes.org - a great site with stated mission of “Uniting a Million Voices to Improve the Future of Biking”. I’m in!
Sign the Pledge: “I am for bikes. I’m for long rides and short rides. I’m for commuting to work, weekend rides, racing, riding to school, or just a quick spin around the block. I believe that no matter how I ride, biking makes me happy and is great for my health, my community and the environment we all share. That is why I am pledging my name in support of a better future for bicycling—one that is safe and fun for everyone. By uniting my voice with a million others, I believe that we can make our world a better place to ride.”
During SXSW, Jason will have this nifty gadget that turns him into a WiFi cloud. That’s right, he’s a cycling hotspot with Wimax bandwidth to share with you. He’s roaming around, attending the Mobile Social, various panels, and is quite happy to connect with you.
So when ATT’s 3G network crashes, find Jason.
The Jason Cloud is brought to you by our friends at Intel.
We’ll have these Official Mobile Social Party Hats for the ride attendees @sxsw and in Seattle during the Bike Expo.
Note: limited edition and quantities.
Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Google built their new Bike Maps right here in Seattle and Product Manager Shannon Guymon posted on the Official Google Blog this morning with instructions:
Let’s say you want to bike to work, or maybe you want to drive less and spend more time outdoors. Biking directions can help you find a convenient and efficient route that makes use of dedicated bike trails or lanes and avoids hills whenever possible. To find biking directions, select “Bicycling” from the drop-down menu when you do a directions search:
I’m riding over to the Bike Expo this weekend and tried a route …
... Read more »
Before heading to Florida on a work trip several years ago I lay sprawled across my den with a giant road map of the area, a set of highlighters, a guide book and my laptop. A frequent traveler, I like to bring my folding bike with me, and I like to head out on bike rides between meetings or trade show stops.
As I looked up cycling routes in my guide book I’d compare them to a Google Map search of the area and then stencil in the most suitable rides with my various highlighters. Guidebook, Google, map, guidebook, Google map. It took me about two hours to sketch out the various trips from my hotel room to the surrounding environs, none of which would be necessary if Google Maps included the feature the company is rolling out today, a new bike layer with directions in major metropolitan areas.
Google, who is joining Bike Hugger at the Mobile Social in Austin at SXSW to talk about this exciting new feature (more on that in other posts) has taken a lot of time to develop the much-requested cycling layer for their popular Google Maps tool. No mere add-on, the new functionality provides cyclists with some impressive features thanks to an overhaul in how Google Maps works.
In many ways, Google’s technology will be more accurate and more detailed than anything that regional planning groups or municipal governments tend to provide as it will indicate not only state-designated or city-designated bike lanes and routes, but trails and other bike paths as well.
... Read more »Google is joining the Mobile Social SXSW for the ride and party at Mellow Johnnys. Meet the developers who built the new bicycling layer for Google Maps.
Google’s Bike Maps were built right here in Seattle by cyclists like us and for those of you in Austin for SXSW, you can ride with and meet the developers. Look for these shirts on the ride
and for Google at Mellow Johnnys.
More on Google Bike Maps:
Howdy, from Austin, TX! I’m Jonathan Carroll, Community Manager, Biz Dev guy and all-around Killer Robot at Gowalla. I have the pleasure of guest-blogging today.
Gowalla is a location-based social service, and we think it’s the easiest way to share places you go with friends. It uses the GPS and location services on your mobile device to help you discover new places and events in your area, and is integrated with social platforms like Facebook and Twitter to make it easy to share with your friends. We’re partnering with Bike Hugger for the Mobile Social SXSW in Austin this year to create a sponsored trip using our service. A ‘trip’ on Gowalla is just a collection of spots you can visit that are all linked together and which, if all visited, reward the user with a special achievement pin. The trip we’ve implemented for the Mobile Social SXSW features just 3 spots, all of which will be easy to obtain on the group ride:
... Read more »
Back from the Twitter Conference and next up it’s SXSW, Bike Expo, and then onto Mix 10 in Vegas. We ride wherever we go and you’re welcome to join us.
Our ride in Austin is part of the Mobile Social and we’re expecting 500+ cyclists. Look for this badge that identifies the Social Cycling ATX ride leaders, all 50 of them, and they’ll take you around Austin arriving at Mellow Johnnys for a party.
I arrive on Monday to speak Tuesday with @livestrongceo. We’re riding Tuesday morning. Not 500 of us, just a few and will announce more on Twitter.
... Read more »In Japan, they’ve got the Skycycle and in Rotorua New Zealand, the Schweeb — that’s a ‘bent monorail.
That rollercoaster looks scary and this monorail looks fun!
A moment to mention our partners with thanks for bringing the Mobile Social to SXSW in 2010.
| Mobile Social SXSW Partners | 2010 |
|---|---|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
We’ve been posting on this SRAMANO drivetrain on Flickr and Twitter and time to bubble it up here. That’s the best of both, according to the owner, and it’s Di2 pared with SRAM Red/Rival.
Details:
I suggested he add a Campy something on it somewhere. Would like to see how our friends at Mavic would react to a request for Technical support on this bike.
Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
No indication other than “looks like spycraft” in this photo, but do think spies could move through a city plying their trade all stealthy like on bikes.
The Associated Press reported over the weekend on MI5 papers that show Britain feared Nazi spyclists.
Newly declassified British intelligence files reveal the ripples of alarm that spread through the country as Hitler Youth cyclists toured Britain in 1937. Reports of sightings poured in from local police amid fears the teenagers might be two-wheeled “spyclists” scouting the country for a future invasion.
That reads like a movie script.
Uploaded by falsalama | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
If Bike Hugger were a dog blog, we’d probably post a lot like this from Hipster Puppies
Trigger says the words “bike culture” out loud at least once a day
ari stayed up all night drinking beer and playing old 7”s, so he’s gonna have to sit out this month’s critical mass
Maybe that’s a new thing: dog bike culture blogging. Hat tip to @naomimimi
Now for something completely different, a fixie underwater
and a Bicycle Hearse.
Hat tip Wend blog.
Also see the Wheelburro for another take on cargo.
Never a dull moment in bike blogging. Hat tip to the Daily Undertaker.
Uploaded by cosmicmotionstudios | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
This Southpark neighborhood kid noticed us roadies showing up on his turf. Within seconds of our stop to wait for another cyclist that was joining us, he arrived.
We respectfully denied his repeated requests to race. We also humored his various Q/As, including:
The scene was like a bike version of a Fat Albert cartoon. He even did some wheelies for us.
Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Thank you Bicycling, for making a bicycle buyer’s guide that’s actually enjoyable to read. The 2010 issue just arrived and I was expecting it to be the usual page-after-page list of bike models and prices. Nope, it’s actually full of great information, lust-worhty bikes and categories that seem useful.
Sure, the big feature photos take up a lot of page space so there aren’t that many shots for the smaller listings, but that’s a trade off I’m willing to live with. Happily.
So thanks again Bicycling, nice job.
With the economy still not fully recovered, we’re always looking for ways to save money and have started using Cap’n the Studio Pug as a courier.
Tuck a note, check, whatever into her curled tail and she’ll run off to the next stop, like a Carrier Pigeon Pug. Reward with a treat afterwards. Hope she doesn’t see a cat or another dog along the route or the plan fails.
Also with those little legs, a pug’s range is limited, so we’re looking at the cargo bike option.
The Mobile Social @sxsw is next weekend and it’s El Guapo, the Mucho Moso, where we do bike culture Texas style. We’ll ride around Austin arriving at Mellow Johnnys for a BBQ and Variety Show. If you’re not riding, that’s ok, just show up at Mellow Johnnys around 4 PM when all the MoSo magic goes down.
For my 40th birthday this year my wife and I headed to the paradise of Maui and got a nice 30 mile downhill bike ride in. There are not many better ways to celebrate a birthday than with a nice ride and a sunrise atop a 10,000 foot volcano. If you’d like to find out about riding down from Haleakala crater check out my posting about it over on the Trailcrew site.
While a Hugga crew is riding in Austin with Social Cycling ATX and partying at Mellow Johnnys during the Mobile Social, Scotty and I are hosting the blogger lounge at Bike Expo next weekend. Bring your newest new to the booth and we’ll blog it on up.
We’re there during show hours, attending the after parties with Baron Bicycles, and riding to and fro each day. Then on Sunday, I’m talking bikes:
Bicycle Culture Coffee Talk 1:45 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. This round-table chat with author and former pro cyclist Joe Parkin, artist Jeff Mallet, local author and actor Willie Weir, and Amy Walker of Momentum Magazine, hosted by the hip Bikehugger.com, is bound to entertain!
Also,
All you Bike Bloggers, you’re welcome to join us. We’ll have fun and talk shop.
A Burley Travoy just showed up at Hugga HQ and we’ll attach it to various bikes for Bike Expo. Looks like a golf cart? Well yes, but we think it’s gonna do much more than that with its quick release hitch. Like transport beer, groceries, or bike medivacing your bro home.
Uploaded by BurleyTrailers | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Interesting debate on Flickr resulting from this photo Carlton Reid posted of Geoff Apps Range Rider, a mountain bike that hasn’t found itself in the Hall of Fame (yet).
Uploaded by carltonreid | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
An old Novoflex camera case and repurposed it as a saddle bag/tool box — very nice compliment to that Brooks saddle.
Uploaded by darkandstormyday | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
![\"Store](\"http://bikehugger.com/images/BikeHugger-storeTout_03.jpg\")
\n";
// Pick a random ad
$idx = rand(0, count($amazonads) - 1);
// Display ad
print $amazonads[$idx];
?>
