January 2011 Archives

Inspired by a “day of the dead” ceramic tile and drawn by Toms Cargo Bikes.

Uploaded by tomscargobikes.com | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Another Portlandia screenplay: obey the lanes!

Uploaded by gregraisman | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

A Kalavinka built up for a Tokyo Fixed Gear customer.

Uploaded by TokyoFixedGear.com | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

We announced Built last week and just published our Mobile Social SXSW 11.

Note this year we're just riding around Austin to bring back the ride as it was a few years ago. We'll end up where we like for beers and tacos, but no big kegger.

A remix

Photo: David Schloss

We're mixing it up this year with a new event and an old ride. See you there.

Details

• Event: SXSW 2011
• When: March 15, 2011, 5-7PM
• Where: Austin, Texas
• Who: SXSW Attendees, Austin Locals, cyclists
• RSVP now at Upcoming or Facebook

Two cyclists make a race. Three of them and it's a world championships. Race numbers pinned on your back or not, it's in our DNA to compete. I've seen it with commuters in Seattle, on the bridges of Portland, and even in Amsterdam. While they don't queue up for a sprint in AMS with their iron-age bikes, you do not want to get in their way.

Photo: Nikkatsu Corporation.

This photo captures the race on! spirit of cycling and is from the 1997 film Postman Blues by Sabu. The Japan Society is screening Sabu's films in New York. The films are about the modern Japanese man

paralyzed by feelings of inadequacy, in thrall to cartoonish yakuza fantasies and only coming alive when he’s drunk beyond the point of memory or volition.

I've never seen a Sabu film, but that description is like the Single Speed cross races I did last year.

Adelino has popped up on Flickr and into my newsfeed before. He's reportedly been riding his bike around the world for 7 years and 47,000 kilometers. There's no blog, Twitter, or Facebook records for Adelino. Just photos with him and his map busking for coins.

Photo: Amit Mendelsohn

Have you met Adelino? Seen him in your travels?

As it was told to me

There's this guy that invented new bike tools and stands. He took them to the Blue Tool People and they ignored him. So he made them himself and they're great!

Well that's a good story and this counterweighted stand can lift a heavy-ass cargo bike while keeping the mechanic standing upright.

Stand, clamp, and clamp innards

Visit EVT for more tools.

Did you know that Sugino makes high-quality road cranks? I mean, not back in the 1980s nor 1980s designs, but right now and in modern external bearing BBs?

A friend of mine brought me a fresh glossy bike mag back from Japan, one unabashedly dedicated to the incorrigibly retro and randonnuer crowd. I spotted the Suino OX801D crankset/BB as a featured item. What’s really cool about the OX801D is that it uses a chainring pattern that they call Compact Plus. Whereas road double cranks are usually standard road 130mm bcd (smallest ring=38-39T) or compact 110mm bcd (smallest ring=34T), these cranks are made in such a way that the inner ring can be mounted on either 110mm or 74mm bcd, which drops the lowest ring tooth count to 24T.

The late Sheldon Brown will surely be remembered as the first patron saint of internet cycling lore and has been for me personally an inspiration for technical writing. But none of that mitigates the fact that spelling derailleur as “derailer” is just stupid. The earliest derailleur was created by a Frenchman, the first widely available designs were French, the first commercially successful British products were from a company established through a French partnership, and everyone already spells it “derailleur”.

Sheldon Brown argued that there is a precedent in the English for a railroad mechanism called a “derailer”, but the supposition is that locomotives are more relevant to bicycles than a French invention to move a chain across a cogset.

There is L’Academie francaise (the French Academy), an institution in France, that among other things protects the Frenchness of the language from contaminants like the phrase “quarter pounder with cheese”. A few years ago, the French Academy decreed that the word “email” was un-French and mandated that France would use the word “courriel”. This is short for courrier electronique, the direct transliteration of “electronic mail”. Ever since then, all the French now have a cafe and a croissant in the morning before reading their personal “courriel”.

WAIT! No, they don’t! …because that’s STUPID and everyone knows it to be so. In a gratifying vote for pragmatism, the average Frenchman recognizes the primacy of the Anglo-American word “email” and choses both the status quo and universal clarity.

So remember, kids: D-E-R-A-I-L-L-E-U-R.

Outside of the 70s, that must be some sort of record. 4 Schwinns at one time.

Uploaded by Randy Richmond Photography | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Note: I blame the cough medicine for this post not being funnier. I should've used Hans and Franz in place of Mr. T or better yet, "Justin Bieber walks into a shop to get a bike that matches his hair and." The post is about bike shops and meant to discuss a dynamic that's gone on since mail-order went online. I think that topic is important. I'm not going to update it now to increase the humor or satire, but hope this note frames it better than "I'm a dick and shop employees owe me." -- Byron

We should have a term for a bike shop redirect. That's when a shop employee ignores your desire to buy product X and instead wants to sell you product Y or ideally product Z that's not shipping yet. The employee isn't motivated by more margin on Y or even a spiff, he's just convinced that for whatever long list of reasons you're not privy to, Y is the only viable alternative. You unknowingly demonstrated a lack of cycling knowledge by asking for X. If you had walked in and asked for Z, you would've made the employee's day and validated his long-held beliefs. SWOBO built a business on this formula, but that's a topic for another post.

This bike shop redirect phenomena has gone on so long, I've adapted by saying things like

I want a Continental, 46MM racing tube and will accept nothing else. Do you have that in stock?

Then fake a cell call or indicate with body language I'm serious. I'll use Mr. T facial expressions with arms folded across my chest or crazy eyes.

No. Not a Ritchey-labeled Cheng-Shen tube or a Salsa version of that or XLC.

I come from a family of immigrants who worked in the Continental factory and I hope to find a golden ticket inside of a tube placed there by my cousin.

The redirect effect extends to people that ask me, "What to get" and that includes friends, colleagues, and spouses. I've gone as far as sending them into shops with a sticky note to hand to the shop employee. So when Pam went to get fit on her new bike, I knew that

1. Physical therapists will always make changes, even if the new bike is measured with lasers and robots to the old bike they fit
2. The changes include the stem
3. Stems are pulled from a swap box without regard for the design aesthetics of the bike

Knowing that Pam's PT would change the stem, I said,

Do not put a ghetto stem on an S-Works Tarmac SL3. When the PT decides what stem length makes the fit work, then go to a Specialized dealer and swap them for another stem of equal value.

You've already figured out the punchline of this post. It started with texts while she was at the shop, then a call, and finally a threat the employees overhead

Hand the phone to one of them right now. No Kore, Ritchey Pro, Ringle or Zooka.

The directions were based on keeping the S-Works design in place, but also because the stem includes a shim that adds or subtracts a degree of fit. It's a system with the stem, cap, and plug. I learned this myself after thinking the plus and minus symbols on the stem cap must indicate something more than your sexuality or if you're a climber (or not). Mark V validated this conclusion further by telling us, when he was building the bike up, that the - + indicators do not indicate, "Race mode or not."

Shims and Symbols

A stem that should ship with instructions

I’ve been out sick this week with what I’m calling a “twenty-year” flu—the magnitude of which is to be equaled or exceeded every twenty years on average.

Scheduled to join the Spokesmen Cycling Roundtable Podcast, I sent in this note and asked that it be read in the Golden Voice of a Homeless Man. Donna Tocci later confirmed @Fredcast read it. Cool.

I wasn’t able to muster much work besides laying sideways on a sick bed, watching daytime TV, and telling my family, “I’m not dead yet.”

I was eventually able to scroll through pages of Twitter on my phone, which is both easy and mind numbing at the same time. So I did what spammers do and the corporations who buy your tweets and followed the trends. I’m no sentiment analyst, but the trend on Twitter regarding the SI.com article was not, “So what if he did.” It was, “Saddest deception in sports history.”

A few days after the alter-ego Juan Pelota said, “That’s it?” the “Welcome a full investigation message” came out.

I’m guessing the Lance camp realized that being world-champion-winning-cocky to a grand jury wasn’t the best tactic, because the Feds will eventually drag your ass into court like Bonds or have you cry on the steps of the courthouse like Marion Jones. There is a very low threshold for a grand jury indictment and despite what Lance’s team is telling you, if true, there are new allegations in the SI.com article.

Late last year, you may have noticed the tone of the Lance and Livestrong tweets were also tuned down from the marketing at the Tour of the 28 campaign. The grand jury and public opinions aren’t mountains to climb or terrible diseases to beat. In this theater, Lance isn’t the boss commanding respect from fearful rivals. There is no “look” to throw at the Prosecutor.

Choosing Sides

What I’m concerned with is the effect of Livestrong and Lance in our community and not whether he’s guilty or not of doping. The cycling community has, I think, chosen sides. You probably have. I don’t know if he’s done dope, but do know it’s the topic we’re discussing in the bike shop, on rides, and online.

Respect

I respect Livestrong and what they do. I spoke with their CEO last year. Chris Brewer, Sr. Mgr Development Communications for Livestrong spoke with us at Interbike. I hope to hang with them again in Austin during SXSW.

But that respect is tempered with the need for cyclists to discuss the current topics — the SI.com story was hourly news for a day and made the local news.

Whatever the outcome of the Fed’s investigation, I expect we’ll soon seperate Lance the athlete from the philanthropist.

This time, it really isn’t about the bike. But it’s going to affect us all anyhow.

This afternoon we put out a Call for Speakers for Built, our flavor of a maker, hacker, DIY, Ignite-style event, with the bike as a backdrop. The call included a new logo designed by Scott Benish.

Last week we announced Built with SXSW and have been working on the details ever since. We'll announce more dates next week, including Bike Expo and WebVisions.

So what is Built exactly? It's a Make and Tell. If you're making gear, there's a story about it and we want to hear it.

The other day at the bike shop, the Vittoria rep came by. Vittoria shoes, not tyres. I’ve never owned Vittoria shoes before, but I might have to change that. What really caught my eyes were the “1976” series of shoes that Vittoria introduced with an eye for the fixie scene. The shoes are almost a straight re-issue of classic pre-1980s perforated leather cycling shoes, only with modern microfibre uppers, nylon sole and 2-bolt SPD mounts.

Though marketed at the fixed gear scene, I think these shoes aren’t quite right for the local Seattle crowd. The Seattle scene seems to be focused a bit more on the “CMX”/fixed-gear trick riding and a little less on the full-blown dandy fixed gear bikes. I see less of the keirin and Euro influences lately and more of the BMX and skateboard flavour. But what these Vittoria 1976 shoes really nail is the classic bike and maybe randonneur crowd. Realistically speaking, it’s an older crowd with more money anyways. At about $170 retail, they aren’t cheap per se, but the stitching and materials seem appropriate to the price point.

With its myriad of retention straps and wicked stiff sole, the modern competition-grade cycling shoe (eg Sidi Genius 5) is designed to receive and transfer all your power to the clipless pedals, not to coddle your footsies. One can’t expect a soft-top shoe like the 1976 to be the best conduit for high output riding, but for casual to moderately brisk riding I’d hope that these would be the bee’s knees for comfort and style. Congruent to this idea, the sole is a moderately stiff reinforced nylon with a fully walkable outsole.

I’m going to have to see about getting a pair of these in red. Though I actually prefer super stiff soles for my fixed gear (no tricks, always clipped in) and my bikes are hardly retro (downtube shifters=ok, but I despise friction shifting), these shoes just look so right. And the full gum sole looks like it should actually grip linoleum. I’m tired of nearly busting my ass in Sidi Dominators every time I stop at the grocery store on the way home.

Reports are in that the UCI will “modify” their approval label program that would have required labels issued on bike frames used in competition and introduced to the market after 2011 January 1. Apparently there was tense meeting between manufacturing representatives and members of the UCI technical committee; the result of which is a promise by the UCI to return with an amended program in a couple weeks.

On the one hand, an approval label program could guarantee that a bike would be legal in any UCI event, which would be a good thing for time trialists who tend to buy the latest carbon fibre incarnation of a windtunnel’s wet dream, always pushing the rulebook to within a millimeter of the limits. On the other hand, there are tons of TT bikes out there built by smaller companies for whom the testing fee for the approval label would not be affordable…and that’s just talking about TT bikes. What about road and cyclocross?

Additionally, though I can see how the label would make sense for a moulded, monocoque carbon bike frame which represents thousands of dollars of development costs, a label would be largely meaningless for bikes made of a joined sub-frame methods, such as welded tubes. For instance, it wouldn’t take much effort to create a welded aluminium one-off frame that technically violated the UCI rules, and then paint it exactly like a production model. A UCI commissaire would need to know both the UCI rulebook to the letter AND know the manufacturer’s production spec’s to the millimeter to catch that one, though it should be noted that riding a demi-freak bike does not necessarily (or even typically) yield a competitive advantage.

So for the UCI it’s back to the drawing board…a drawing board behind closed doors apparently.

First ride went like this

How do I shift it?

Kick back with your heel

Brake?

Press hard with your heel and hold.

Cool.

It is cool and we've got more riding to do on it.

Cyclo Route

There was a French Cyclo company and a British Cyclo company. The British company somewhat copied the French company's designs, and became the dominant supplier in the UK in the 40s and 50s. Backwards, bolt-on shifter, friction, and cable pulled. 4 speeds.

A Steampunk artist could connect this to copper tubing and a steam generator to increase the shifting time by a second or more.

Video

Bolt-on, top tube lever and a Simplex suicide shifter.

Campy Super Record 11

This one goes to 11, made with titanium and carbon fiber. This is a derailer you sacrifice yourself for in a crash.

Looks like a part that fell off of Robocop's suit and shifts like magic.

Spotted this cyclist and thought, that kit is like RCA composite video cables!

That or Mark Rothko No. 13.

Photo: RCA cables via Wikipedia.

After seeing my workbench, Mark V said

You need a Spoke Poke.

A spoke poke is an indispensable tool found at better bike shops. It's a spoke bent into a tool shape with a sharpened tip. This one time, a spoke poke was used to retrieve a broken piece of carbon out of a carbon wheel. That's just one of its many uses.

Spoke poke with protective tip

White Kit

Nothing says ride me in a punishing Pacific Northwest rainstorm like white rims, bar tape, and saddle. I took the Lapierre Xelius 400 out for a quick ride in the rain today before the Seahawks played Chicago. This post is an initial review.

Stiff and Compliant?

Like all mid-to-high end carbon bikes yes the bike is stiff and compliant. It also flexes. Lapierre makes Grand Fondo style bikes. That means a bike that performs for a clientele who ride fondos and charity events. It's built to race, but also comfortable on long rides. The first Lapierre I wrote about did this, as does the Roubaix, the Museeuw I ride, and more. Flex in this context is not bad. It's a characteristic and does not mean mushy like a noodle or unstable and whippy.

An example of the flex I noticed, is when pedaling, the rear brake cable moved with my body. The bike was transmitting my pedaling motion up into the bars. That's a bike you don't describe as "wooden," but lively and active.

Expect to feel the road with this Xelius. All of it.

At home on the path, races, tours, and events.

You've Got Personality

If bikes have a personality, this one is anxious and busy. One ridden by a cyclist that talks nonstop on a ride, promises to keep it together, and then drops the group at the next rise in elevation. The bike is distinctively different then others I've ridden. It's French and wants to go fast. When it does, take care with it in the corners, on rough road, and descents. You can win a Livestrong ride with the Xelius, as long as you stay in control.

Attractive paint and graphics with curious touches like a thumbprint on the top tube and a chicken on the chainstay.

Photos from the Red Bull Minidrome in London’s East End.

The purpose built track has been engineered in Germany by Velotrack, the team that built the velodromes for the Atlanta Olympics and the Delhi Commonwealth Games. The Red Bull Mini Drome track will maintain race-worthy dimensions in the smallest possible size to enable a single pursuit. Red Bull Mini Drome will challenge both body and mind as riders will need to navigate themselves around a unique, and technically challenging, course reaching speeds of up to 80 km/h.

In other words: start, pedal as hard and fast as you can, before the whistle blows to stop. Don’t look down, up, or back. Just ahead so you don’t fly off that first bank.

Race photo uploaded by TokyoFixedGear.com, Munich photo from Red Bull | more photos from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

I pack and ship bikes a few times a year at Hugga HQ. The bikes are going back after a review or I sold them on eBay or direct. I took a couple photos with my iPhone during the last pack on Friday. As our readers know, I pack my travel bike in a case like a demonstration project of spatial relationships.

The technique for a bike box is to pack it like the factory does. Save the packing from the last bike received or use pipe insulation, construction paper, and thick cable ties.

Cable Tied

Packed like a pro.

• Bars removed and turned into the fork, wrapped in a plastic bag.
• Thick cable ties hold it together.
• Front wheel tied to frame -- foam protects tubes.
• Fork drop-out protector.
• Axle protectors go into the front wheel and on both sides of the rear stays.
• Shift chain to big ring and then release the tension on the cables.
• Turn stem inward.
• Packed in box retrieved from a bike shop.

Construction Paper on Cranks

Protects the finish on the crank.

The workbench gets cleaned up periodically, but mostly looks like this.

Gear comes and goes. Cassettes swapped, flats fixed, and mudflaps put on fenders.

What's your bench got on it?

It is bad enough that the newly-formed team of cycling superstars Andy and Frank Schleck is burdened with the unfortunate name “LeopardTrek” but we have (as have many other members of the media) just received word from Trek outlining the official use of the team’s name.

I’m not just talking about how to spell team’s name (all caps)—there are guidelines here for use of the word Team (we’re not allowed to say it), how to punctuate it (no hyphen, one word), but Trek went so far as to detail how we’re supposed to pronounce it as well.

Let me put this delicately, Trek. We love you, but no god-damned way are you going to tell me how to pronounce the word “Leopard.”

First, let’s look at their guidelines—below is their actual email, we’re not making this stuff up.

**Hello all,

It’s been an exciting week for Trek as we announced our co-title sponsorship of LEOPARD TREK. The anticipation behind this launch is understandable, considering the fire power in the roster. There will undoubtedly be a significant portion of media coverage surrounding the team as the season kicks off next week at the Tour Down Under.

Please follow these naming standards when referring to the team in the media:

The team name is LEOPARD TREK. Please do not insert the word “Team” before LEOPARD TREK, in writing or conversation, as that is not part of the official name.

Please do not hyphenate LEOPARD TREK.

In written communication, LEOPARD TREK must be set in all caps.

In spoken communication, please use the appropriate pronunciation: LAY-oh-pard Trek.

INCORRECT: The new Team Leopard Trek includes… CORRECT: The new LEOPARD TREK team includes…

INCORRECT: Leopard-Trek was presented to the media… CORRECT: LEOPARD TREK was presented to the media…

INCORRECT: Trek announces sponsorship of Team LEOPARD TREK… CORRECT: Trek announces co-title sponsorship of LEOPARD TREK…

Thanks for your help in establishing the proper team name standards. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.**

Bits and pieces of a new bike.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

His posse is Team Cthulhu.

Uploaded by joseSANDOVAL | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Every time I see a still of Daniel Craig, who is slated to star in a 3rd James Bond movie since the Casino Royale reboot, I see legendary hardman Andre Tchmil, winner of the epic 1994 Paris-Roubaix. Tchmil, ex-Soviet/ex-Ukrainian/ex-Moldavian/current Belgian citizen(?), directs Russia’s Team Katusha. This optical illusion fails for smiling photos. When Craig smiles, he comes off as suave; when Tchmil smiles he just looks goofy.

from Tchadmag

from Wiki

Tonight SXSW is in town for a networking party, so it's a good time to announce what we're doing this year at their annual music, film, and interactive conference festival in Austin.

Since last year, we've been working with Shawn O'Keefe on bringing what we do and a maker, diy, hacker event to Austin. This is it:

Built: A Series of Talks by People Who Create. Built is our flavor of an Ignite with the bike as a backdrop. It's on Tuesday, 3/15, at noon on the Next Stage in the new SXSW Trade Show.

We'll have a booth at the tradeshow too where we'll feature the work of the Built speakers, our gear, street art, and mingle with the conference-going crowds.

Booth Happenings

Expect schwag-a-thons, street art mashups, photos, and maybe even cupcakes ...

Cupcakes!

Call for Speakers

Polish off your best talk about what you make and the creativity that goes into it because we've got 10 slots on stage. The call will start when the page goes up for it (next week).

Our speakers are badasses.

Torker KB2 is ready for some test rides with its Sturmey Archer Kickback 2-speed rear hub.

Also a good bike to compare to the Traitor Luggernaut, 3 Speed. We posted on the Kick Back earlier this year, when we first saw it.

The good news is that we've built a robust community here at Bike Hugger. Good traffic, conversations, and a steady publishing pace are all thanks to our readers and hard work. With that traffic has come problems for us on the server and our applications. That's the bad news. You've probably noticed the periodic outages and the hang time when saving a comment. We're working on the issues right now and appreciate your patience.

To further address the problems, besides immediate fixes, we're working on a design refresh and moving to a new host. Except for our gear, partners, and promotions, our updated design is ad free. We're doing that to focus on our brand of bike blogging and make a better community for you.

A recent topic of bike shop talk is the new UCI rule requiring approval labels issued by their technical committee for bike frames in races. Manufacturers are up in arms about the suddenness of the rule, which was announced last month and will be put into effect…like last week. So then, a bit sudden it is.

Damn them UCI bastards. Always holding us down with their obsession with 19th century aesthetics. If not for the shackles imposed by those Swiss autocrats, Specialized would be able to lead us all to the promised land aboard Cancellara-replica Shiv TT bikes, Trek road bikes would weigh less than a Big Mac for the price of a single with cheese, and AOL would stop bombarding me with so-called news stories involving Justin Bieber. It’s all been explained before…the UCI hates shiny bikes. End of story.

Right?……….

From @thomashawk, neon from a giant company that likely made the carbon bike you’re riding. When we ride in China, there’s a Giant store around every corner. They’re like 7-Elevens. This one time, @bryanrhoads bought a single speed Giant to ride with me and then left it behind like an orphan in the airport. It cost a bout $34.00 US. To this day, he wishes he’d not left it. During our rides, we saw lots of crazy shit, including a bike with a meat bucket.

Uploaded by Thomas Hawk | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

While a car-related photo from us isn't expected, above this tunnel is the i-90 lid and on that the bike path.

I ride that path at least once a week with other Seattle cyclists. Below us are cars in what looks like an artificially-lit, concrete bunker.

Ryan Iddings, a Redline-sponsored Cyclocross racer, just got back from Belgium and told us some quick stories about racing there. He was at the Zolder Worldcup and for a time on Sven Nys' wheel.

Ryan will continue these stories at Greggs Greenlake on Thursday Jan 27th, 6PM.

A bike rack outside the Volvo dealer, Capital Hill Seattle.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Today, I read a seemingly anti-helmet statement posted via Alex Bogusky's (@bogusky) Twitter stream that read:

The culture of fear and why we shouldn't bike with a helmet. If we were rational we would wear helmets in our CARS. http://t.co/g3iRyKZ

It links to a blog post by Bogusky on his FearLess Revolution blog with an embedded video of Mikael Colville-Andersen's recent TEDx talk in Copenhagen. The video is 16 minutes long, and asserts, essentially, that the bicycle helmet industrial complex and their use of fear tactics to encourage sales is directly responsible for a decline in the growth of cycling, promotes unsafe cycling behavior, and claims that cycling with a helmet is less safe than riding without a helmet.

A real conspiracy or just sartorialist helmet hatin'?

Colville-Andersen is better known as @copenhagenize on Twitter and is responsible for the popular bike culture blogs Copenhagenize and Copenhagen Cycle Chic. In his video (link in Bogusky tweet above) and related blog post, Colville-Andersen's reference to facts and statistics seem tenuous, at best. Maybe he's totally right and there IS a direct correlation between helmet scare tactics and reduced cycling uptake. I'd like to see some real proof of that, though. My sense is that there's more of an anti-industry, sartorialist underpinning here than empirical evidence. I totally dig the sartorialist coverage of cycling by Colville-Andersen and others, and I do feel that our consumerist society is out of control (more on that below).

BHSI's Response to the video

The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute (BHSI, a part of that evil bicycle helmet industrial complex) responded with a post on their site, offering rebuttals much of what Colville-Andersen claimed. They offer some compliments for the presentation's entertainment value, but contend that the claims Colville-Andersen are inaccurate or without merit.

Is there a conspiracy?

Yes and no. I believe there is definitely a concerted effort by those within the automobile-centric ecosystem that would prefer to see the status quo maintained. This is evidenced by recent policy statements by AAA Mid Atlantic suggesting that Highway Transportation Funds be shifted away from alternative (non-motor vehicle) transportation projects. Huffington Post covered it well in this interview between Larry Cohen and Dick Jackson, M.D., M.P.H. But, I doubt very seriously there is any conspiracy between the automotive complex and the helmet industry.

Consumerism is rampant and planned obsolescence--along with lofty claims of performance and/or safety--is as prevalent in cycling as every other aspect of our "modern" consumerist societies. Who really needs a 3D TV, or an iPhone 6XLi? I doubt, though, that the marketing, from what I see in the U.S., is something that turns people off of cycling. If there's hard evidence of that, I'd love to see it exposed more clearly so that we can legitimately rail against it.

Can we get more dialogue on this from both sides of the argument?

Helmet lovers and helmet haters who all care about bicycling should come together and discuss what the issues really are. What's the evidence behind the claims being made? Is there a better way to promote safety for cycling that's holistic, beyond the basics of using a helmet, lights, and brakes? Of course there is. So let's get together and hug this shit out. If you're not into hugging, talking/writing is OK, too.

@bogusky, @copenhagenize, and BHSI: (Why don't you have a Twitter account, BHSI?) Can we have an open, civil dialogue/debate that covers these issues in a factual, helpful, possibly even mind/policy-changing way? I would personally sponsor a site to host the dialogue--virtual or in person.

To all cyclists: What are your thoughts about helmets and the fear factor mentioned by @bogusky and @copenhagenize? Are you a helmet hater? Any stories to tell to support either position?

Byron emailed me to point out this article in the Bike Biz, explaining about the British doctor who has been widely quoted within online media that carbon bikes are no faster than steel. Carlton Reid makes an effort to explain that the “study” was meant as more of a humour piece than a rigourous analysis of frame materials. Yet I fear that some people I might encounter in the future might still be misinformed about the article in question, so here is my very unambiguous explanation:

Ok, so an anesthesiologist (not a sport science PhD) owns exactly 2 bikes and timed himself as he rode them to work and then subjectively evaluated the experience. The geezer wrote the piece as a lark for a bit of humour in a medical journal, and then suddenly cycling media are all, “Oooh, doctors say carbon no faster than steel.” It’s a joke, not even remotely a scientific study; only the general public just might be too dense to get it. I don’t blame the anesthesiologist; I blame the public’s insatiable appetite for tabloid-style journalism and media’s eagerness to oblige.

Personally, I think the anesthesiologist’s write-up is actually funny, though I am kinda over the cult of steel. But the moment you want to talk to me about that article as evidence to back up any side of a “rational” argument, you’re stupid, and I refuse to talk to you anymore. Feel free to wiki the terms “scientific method” and “statistical significance”.

This public service message has been brought to you by Mark V.

The first batch of orders for the new year being delivered by cargo bike to Alki Mail & Dispatch and eventually shipped to:

• Denmark
• Germany
• Ireland
• Spain
• USA

The packages include iPhone Mounts and Tees.

Leon Van Bon getting ready for the Rotterdam Six and an inspiration for those of you sweating inside on trainers. A Six Day is a “six-day” track race and they were enormously popular in the US until the Great Depression.

Uploaded by Leon van Bon | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

The day after in Amsterdam -- via Amsterdamize on Flickr.

With baklava balaclava and a “lip warming” pelostache. Here in Seattle, we wait a few hours until it gets up to freezing before the ride.

Uploaded by BR!AN QU!NN | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

We start the new year with a Traitor 3 Speed, the Luggernaut.

Sturmey-Archer

Columbus Thron Steel

In 2010, our YouTube videos with the most views include

• Trek District Carbon
• Huggacast Episode 49: Bianchi Oh-Nine
• Valencia+ Trek's Electric Bike

and our fav video is from Cyclefilm. It's about our Mobile Social SXSW.