Natalie Portman looking very lovely on a bike cloning that French look
Tag: new york
Thursday rainy video day: Citibike as a BMX
There’s a lot of talk about the limitatons of Citi Bikes: they’re heavy, people say, they’re slow, and they’re more suited to boring workday commutes than cycling that’s exciting in any way. In the spirit of testing those supposed limits, street BMX king Tyrone Williams–co-owner of Chinatown bike shop Dah Shop and Animal Bikes team rider– takes one for a spin and shows everyone how it’s done. See the video above.
Ed Kashi – Saigon on wheels
May 30th – aug 18th New York
New York cyclist films blatant harassment and endangerment – what will happen prob nothing
Rafael Huerta was cycling along a South Williamsburg street, in New York when he was subjected to three bouts of harassment from a driver attempting to pass him.
What the driver didn’t know was that he was filming the entire scene – and later posted it to YouTube.
The video below shows Huerta repeatedly being squeezed into the parked cars at the side of the road by a grey Toyota minivan. The driver eventually gets out and accused Huerta of harassing him, and then a number of bystanders join in, blocking the cyclist’s path.
He panics and is forced to call 911 and is eventually helped out by a plain clothes policeman.
But Huerta urges viewers not to jump to conclusions about the altercation between the pair. He writes in the video’s description: “Please refrain from using racial comments…This man doesn’t represent the Jewish community…And I don’t represent the biking community either.”
But cyclists in Williamsburg are not unused to heavy-handed treatment. Cyclists have recently been ticketed by police for riding along a quiet pavement to get onto a cycle bridge, thanks to poor signposting.
And in 2010 there was a heated row between Hasidic Jews in the area and cyclists over pedestrian safety around bike lanes.
Monday Bike Style: Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel
Maybe it is the dashing NY velo man but this bike is really the style leader of the two. Love my bling ti bikes as you know.
Friday bike poster: well book
On bicycles
50 ways the new bike culture can change your life
Bike culture is exploding in cities like Portland, OR, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Montreal, and Vancouver, BC. Whether people are riding folding bikes to the commuter train, slipping through traffic on streamlined single speeds, or carrying children and groceries on their cargo bikes, bicycles are making urban life more dynamic and enjoyable — simply better.
Amy Walker has been at the forefront of this trend as cofounder ofMomentum magazine, which chronicles and inspires urban bike culture and transportation cycling. In On Bicycles, she gathers a wide-ranging group of cycling writers to explore the ways that biking can change, and is changing, people’s lives. From utility bikes that are becoming the primary mode of transportation for entire families to the artistic creations of freakbike riders, On Bicycles has something for everyone who has ever ridden a bike.
Topics include:
- cargo bikes * bike parties * a history of bike advocacy
- the bike-craft boom * folding bikes * recumbents * biking with kids
- handmade bikes * car-free streets * relocalizing * bike style
- collective bike shops * women and bikes * and many more
The Geek in me like this: Social Running Geekiness
It’s one thing to look at your own personal-fitness data and identify trends and tendencies. But what about crunching the numbers of 1,000 New Yorkers over a nearly four-month period? That’s the kind of project that requires some serious know-how.
Graphic designer Nicholas Felton enlisted 14 of his students at Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts to analyze the metadata aggregated by 1,000 Nike+ runs conducted from Sept. 7 to Dec. 21 of last year. The result is an incredibly detailed representation of New Yorkers’ running habits, where the most popular routes are, what time of day Nike+ runners are more likely to be outside, and more.
The above graphic (done by Cooper Smith) shows where the most popular running paths are in Central Park. The red lines indicate the highest trafficked areas, and as Smith notes on his blog, the lighter green and blue entrails extending from the east side of the park show that more people tend to enter the park from the Upper East Side. The same lines don’t show up nearly as often along the Upper West Side entrance points.
Felton’s team did more than just static graphical overlays. The video below (also done by Smith) puts the Nike+ into motion, illustrating where people are running during what time of day. (The actual date of the run is irrelevant in this analysis.)
Teammate Erin Moore opted for a more traditional day-by-day analysis of New Yorkers’ running habits.
In all, there were more than 500,000 data points to wade through, and you can see the rest of Felton’s students’ work at their SVA page. And although the visualizations end up highlighting shortcomings in the data collection, this effort and new fitness-tracking features being developed by the likes of Boston-based startup RunKeeper prove that the future of personal data tracking has never been more rife with potential.
—– even more info
check out his site here
where you can find his London Nike+ stuff … was apparently in Wired UK
RIDE JOURNAL story – My Bike is dead
Only discovered The Ride Journal at christmas when i got no 5 as a gift ….. fantastic – buy it and order older issues here
Loved this one – when the bike dies …
My bike died yesterday. Or maybe not.
A few days ago I noticed a creaking sound when I pedalled, but it wasn’t coming from the pedals. It seemed to be caused by some motion when I was on the saddle, so I assumed the seat post had become dry and crusty – that makes bikes creak. So when I got home, I relubed the post. I also took apart and reassembled the bottom bracket cartridge, just for good measure.
But riding to work yesterday, the creaking sound was still there, perhaps even worse. At Lex and 60th, I stopped at a red light and examined the frame. There, like a chasm in front of me, I saw a crack. The ragged line girdled the bottom lug of the downtube on my beloved Bianchi Alfana. I carried on to work but decided it would be stupid to ride home. I caught the N Train at 57th and 7th and took the subway back to Astoria. I went to the last car because it’s normally the emptiest. In the back, I stared at my frame, feeling melancholy. Here I was, with my beloved bike, knowing I may never ride it again.
I had half an hour to ponder. I’d never had a bike die of use and old age before. I was sad, but not angry. What if the bike had been stolen one day earlier? Then I’d have been pissed off. But really, what’s the difference? Either way, the bike had been taken from me.
Maybe it can be fixed – after all, it’s only steel. Tomorrow I’ll take it to my man at the Bicycle Repairman Corp and see what he says. With boats, they say the only defining characteristic is the line: from profile, the curve on the top of the hull. Everything else can be fixed, welded, repaired and replaced. But you can never change the line.
The frame is the line of the bike. Everything else can be replaced, mended, modified or changed. The frame is the bike. This frame has been with me for 12 years, through bumps and speed and curbs, plus a few spills.
I’m a heavy guy who rides a skinny-tired road bike to commute to work in New York City. Maybe the bike is just the victim of my return commute on 58th Street, one of the worst in Manhattan. It’s one I often take because, well, it’s not 57th or 59th Streets. Or maybe the crack started back in 2005 when I wiped out on the Triborough Bridge.
The frame crack is natural in a way. Organic. A fatal flaw, but also just a wrinkle of old age. It’s hard to be angry, the bike has been good to me, probably better than I’ve been to it. That’s the beauty of bikes: a bike is there for you no matter what, like a loyal dog. But I’m allergic to dogs; all I’ve got is bikes.
Do I want a new bike? No. But I still can’t help but think maybe things could be better. I mean, my shifters don’t really work well any more in temperatures under 40ºF; the chain ring is no longer perfectly true; 650B wheels would let me put full fenders on the wheels… But these are bad thoughts I don’t want to think – it feels somehow unfaithful.
Along with the real loss, what is so horrible is the anticipation of dealing with the life afterwards. Shock replaced with feelings of loneliness, soldiering on, the future, and replacement.
Guilt is a factor when one contemplates loss that hasn’t even happened.
After any great loss, life will almost assuredly be filled with joy eventually. Thinking of that too early seems to trivialise things. A couple of years ago I had to deal with the idea that my wife might die.
The thought crossed my mind. To cut a long story very short, she didn’t. My wife, hell, any person is more important than a bike. I don’t like personifying machines. You can’t buy love. But I can buy a new bike because I live a rich life in a rich country. Yet the feelings I have for the loss of my beloved bicycle remind me of the sadness of human loss. It doesn’t even come close in terms of magnitude or degree, of course, but in spirit, in the nature of loss, sadness cares not for the source.
My bike is dead. I love my bike. I am sad.
Peter Moskos. NYC, USA. Peter rides a bike in New York because it’s fun, really.
www.astoriabike.com / www.marklazenby.co.uk
Introducing SUBVERT BEATS: Post 1 Running the right way
BY BEN @ SubvertBeats.
A couple of weeks back, Rich posted a blog entry about HR (Heart Rate) zones, and calculating your MHR (Maximum Heart Rate) using generic formulae that will be pretty accurate for many folks.
However, never one for being average, these calculated methods have typically been way off the mark for me.
In response to that post I commented about the fact that I seem to have a naturally fast HR, and even slow to medium paces would see me in zone 4, finding it nearly impossible to exercise in zone 3 or below (discounting walking).
I’d kind of resigned myself to this being just a part of my genetic make-up.
Well, since then, in an effort to increase my pace, I decided to focus on my running efficiency.
Like most people, I’ve never been taught how to run ‘correctly’.
You just lace up your shoes and leg it right? Apparently there’s more to it than that!
Having a high aerobic capacity helps (and at least I’m no longer crippling myself in this respect by smoking!) but is for the main part inherently limited by your genetic make-up.
Paula Radcliffe measured her VO2 max over a period of five years, and it was observed that she exhibited an 8% decline in her VO2 max. Yet over the same period her pace improved (to the extent of improving her 3000m time by 46 seconds!!). How did she manage that?!
Well, all becomes clear once you learn that over the same period, she became over 10% more efficient in her running.
As I understand, the two most important factors are to reduce wasted energy through vertical movement, and to reduce braking forces exhibited during the foot strike.
This analysis of 3 runners from the 2008 NY City Marathon is pretty insightful.
I was surprised to see such differences between these elite level athletes.
This reinforces how Paula Radcliffe has been able to become a faster running despite her aerobic capacity declining.
So, back to me…..apparently (according to studies conducted by folks like Jack Daniels (not of whiskey fame) for distance running, the optimum strike rate / cadence for maximal efficiency is around 90 paces per minute.
Not yet having a foot pod for my new Garmin FR610 (mini review to come), I had no idea what my cadence typically is, but I knew that it wasn’t near that optimal figure of 90. Turns out (just from counting) it was typically between 70 and 75.
So on the last couple of runs, I’ve tried to keep a higher cadence.
I haven’t really pushed for increased pace, as these have been (for me at least) fairly long runs of between 8 and 10 miles. Yet despite that, my pace has increased. But most notably, it’s been easier to maintain that improved pace.
Instead of running 12 minute / mile pace at around 160 bpm, yesterdays run averaged 9.42 minute / mile pace with my HR average being 158:http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/25576416.
I’m pretty chuffed with that!
Another benefit of efficient running style is reduced risk of injury – when you’re racking up the miles this is an extremely important consideration – next year I’m looking to do my first half marathon, and later on a full marathon – the last thing I want is to train for weeks only to be unable to compete due to injury….so I’m going to continue to work on running the right way. Of course it’s no guarantee of remaining injury free, but anything we can do to improve our chances has got to be worth trying, especially with the associated performance benefits.
For a funny video on (in)efficient running styles check out this recent blog post from Rich
Rapha Survey (via cork grips)
Watch out – an anniversary that bikers might not be aware of
1899: Henry Bliss becomes the first pedestrian known to be killed by an automobile in North America.
Bliss, a Manhattan real estate salesman, had just stepped off a streetcar at West 74th Street and Central Park West (a few blocks south of the American Museum of Natural History) when he was struck by a passing taxicab. It knocked him unconscious, crushing his skull and chest. He died the following morning.
The driver of the cab, an electric-powered vehicle, was arrested and charged with manslaughter. The charges were dropped after it was determined that Bliss’ death was unintentional.
On the centennial of his death, Citystreets, a safety-awareness organization, placed a plaque at the site:
Here at West 74th Street and Central Park West, Henry H. Bliss dismounted from a streetcar and was struck and knocked unconscious by an automobile on the evening of September 13, 1899. When Mr. Bliss, a New York real estate man, died the next morning from his injuries, he became the first recorded motor vehicle fatality in the Western Hemisphere. This sign was erected to remember Mr. Bliss on the centennial of his untimely death and to promote safety on our streets and highways.
Bliss was not the first pedestrian traffic fatality ever recorded anywhere, however. At least two other people are known to have died before him, including Irish scientist Mary Ward, who was run over by a steam-powered car in 1869 in County Down, possibly making her the first auto-traffic victim in the world.
Bike storage in flats – always an issue
Have highlighted a nice bike storage system before – There is a great rack that I highlighted here ….. but for large flats in the cities the cities the problems are bad – not everyone has a perfect Brompton or Bike Friday that collapses into nothing ….
Article here in the New York Times – interesting in how the bike movement is changing the mindset of developers and those marketing property …..
Posters that state
New York Police – the worst part of cycling there
Simultaneously sad and funny.. sadly. I’m just happy I don’t have to ride my bike in New York City. This guy was ticketed for not riding in the bike lane.. the video is explanation enough I think…. Stupid stupid cop
Dear Urban Cyclists: Go Play in Traffic – by PJ O’ROURKE
place tongue in cheek now
By P.J. O’ROURKE
‘Although the technology necessary to build a bicycle has been around since ancient Egypt, bikes didn’t appear until the 19th century. The reason it took mankind 5,000 years to get the idea for the bicycle is that it was a bad idea.’
A fibrosis of bicycle lanes is spreading through the cities of the world. The well-being of innocent motorists is threatened as traffic passageways are choked by the spread of dull whirs, sharp whistles and sanctimonious pedal-pushing. Bike lanes have appeared in all the predictable places—Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berkeley and Palo Alto. But the incidence of bike lanes is also on the rise in unlikely locales such as slush-covered Boston, rain-drenched Vancouver, frozen Montreal and Bogotá, Colombia (where, perhaps, bicycles have been given the traffic lanes previously reserved for drug mules). Even Dublin, Ireland, has had portions of its streets set aside for bicycles only—surely unnecessary in a country where everyone’s car has been repossessed. Then there is the notorious case of New York City. Not long ago the only people who braved New York on bicycles were maniacal bike messengers and children heeding an abusive parent’s command to “go play in traffic.” Now New York has 670 miles of bike lanes—rather more than it has miles of decently paved streets. The proliferation of New York’s bike lanes is the work of the city’s indomitable transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-(Genghis)-Khan. Her department has a horde of 4,500 employees and a budget nearing a billion dollars. The transportation commissioner’s job is—judging by rush-hour cab and subway rides and last December’s blizzard—to prevent the transportation of anybody or anything to anywhere in New York. Bicycles are the perfect way to go nowhere while carrying nothing. The bicycle is a parody of a wheeled vehicle—a donkey cart without the cart, where you do the work of the donkey. Although the technology necessary to build a bicycle has been around since ancient Egypt, bikes didn’t appear until the 19th century. The reason it took mankind 5,000 years to get the idea for the bicycle is that it was a bad idea. The bicycle is the only method of conveyance worse than feet. You can walk up three flights of stairs carrying one end of a sofa. Try that on a bicycle.
Almost everything that travels on a city street, including some of the larger people in the crosswalks, can crush a bicycle. Everything that protrudes from or into a city street—pot holes, pavement cracks, manhole covers—can send a bicycle flying into the air.
When the president of the United States goes somewhere in Washington, does he ride an armored bicycle? Given that riding a bike in a city is insane and that very few cities need more insane people on their streets, why the profusion of urban bike lanes? One excuse for bike lanes is that an increase in bicycle riding means a decrease in traffic congestion. A visit to New York—or Bogotá—gives the lie to this notion. You can’t decrease traffic congestion by putting things in the way of traffic. Also, only a few bicycles are needed to take up as much space as my Chevrolet Suburban—just one if its rider is wobbling all over the place while trying to Tweet. And my Suburban seats eight. The answer to traffic congestion is lower taxes so that legions of baby boomers my age can afford to retire and stay home.
Bike lane advocates also claim that bicycles are environmentally friendly, producing less pollution and fewer carbon emissions than automobiles. But bicycle riders do a lot of huffing and puffing, exhaling large amounts of CO2. And whether a bicycle rider, after a long bicycle ride, is cleaner than the exhaust of a modern automobile is open to question. If drops in pollution and traffic congestion are wanted and if discomfort and inconvenience are the trade-offs, we should be packed into tiny circus clown cars. These fit neatly into bike lanes and provide more amusement to bystanders than bicycle wrecks. In fact, bike lanes don’t necessarily lessen car travel. A study by the U.K. Department for Transport found that the installation of “cycle facilities” in eight towns and cities resulted in no change in the number of people driving cars. Bike lanes don’t even necessarily increase bike riding. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the Dutch government spent $945 million on bicycle routes without any discernible effect on how many Dutch rode bicycles. “The bicycle is a parody of a wheeled vehicle—a donkey cart without the cart, where you do the work of the donkey.” But maybe there’s a darker side to bike-lane advocacy. Political activists of a certain ideological stripe want citizens to have a child-like dependence on government. And it’s impossible to feel like a grown-up when you’re on a bicycle if you aren’t in the Tour de France. All but the most athletic among us get on and off a bicycle the way a toddler goes up and down stairs. Wearing bicycle shorts in public is more embarrassing than wearing Depends. Exchanging briefcases for backpacks takes us from the boardroom to the schoolyard. And it’s hard to keep a straight face when talking to anyone in a Skittles-colored, Wiffle ball-slotted bike helmet that makes you look like Woody Woodpecker. Bike lanes must be intended to foster immaturity or New York would have chosen instead to create 670 miles of bridle paths. Being on horseback has adult gravitas. Search plazas, parks and city squares the world over and you won’t fine a single statue of a national hero riding a bike. This promotion of childishness in the electorate means that bike lanes are just the beginning. Soon we’ll be making room on our city streets for scooter and skateboard lanes, Soapbox Derby lanes, pogo-stick lanes, lanes for Radio Flyer wagons (actually more practical than bicycles since you can carry a case of beer—if we’re still allowed to drink beer), stilt lanes, three-legged-race lanes, lanes for skipping while playing the comb and wax paper, hopscotch lanes and Mother-May-I lanes with Mayor Bloomberg at the top of Lenox Hill shouting to the people on Park Avenue, “Take three baby steps!” A good, hard-played game of Mother-May-I will make us all more physically fit. Fitness being another reason given for cluttering our cities with bike lanes. But why is it so important that the public be fit? Fit for what? Are they planning to draft us into forced labor battalions?
Bike lanes violate a fundamental principle of democracy. We, the majority who do not ride bicycles, are being forced to sacrifice our left turns, parking places and chances to squeeze by delivery trucks so that an affluent elite can feel good about itself for getting wet, cold, tired and run-over. Our tax dollars are being used to subsidize our annoyance. Bicycle riders must be made to bear the burden of this special-interest boondoggle. Bicycle registration fees should be raised until they produce enough revenue to build and maintain new expressways so that drivers can avoid city streets clogged by bike lanes. Special rubber fittings should be made available so that bicycle riders can wear E-ZPass transponders on their noses. And riders’ license qualifications should be rigorous, requiring not only written exams and road tests but also bathroom scales. No one is to be allowed on a bicycle if the view he or she presents from behind causes the kind of hysterical laughter that stops traffic. Bike lanes can become an acceptable part of the urban landscape, if bicycle riders are willing to pay their way. And if they pay enough, maybe we’ll even give them a lift during the next snow storm.
Brompton Bike in the snow
Another one on the Brompton from NYCE wheels
Peter rides his Brompton folding bike around New York City’s snow bound streets. The Brompton gives you the flexibility to stop in where ever you go.
A way to a better future in cities – Bikes
In the second chapter of Streetfilms’ Moving Beyond the Automobile series, we’re taking a look at bicycling.
The benefits of cycling are simple: It helps reduce congestion, meet sustainability goals, and improve public health. With Portland leading the way, many American cities have seen the share of people biking to work rise substantially in recent years [PDF]. For this video we spent some time with leading thinkers in New York, San Francisco and Portland to discuss how safer cycling infrastructure is helping more people make the choice to bike.
This series is made possible by funding from The Oram Foundation’s Fund for The Environment & Urban Life.
New York Velodrome Film
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A late afternoon at the track, never had so much fun on a bike ;). Shot with the Panasonic GH1, for more info how this video was shot and if the camera survived please visit my blog mikekobal.com/blog/?p=531
Rider: Thomas Hassler
Music: “Let’s push things forward” by the-streets.co.uk/
An oldie but a goodie
Wouldn’t load from vimeo but found it on YouTube …. a video on the Brompton from NYCE Wheels – makes me want to be a tie wearing city boy.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/17197113 w=600…
Broadway Bombing happens almost every year in NYC. This year it was planned last minute so not a huge turn out, but still a competitive race. Enjoy.
Filmed with a Go Pro @ 720p 60fps Z( setting r3).
Kite*Surf*Bike*Rambling 