It’s been a while but here is another installment of Video Fridays, spanning the world (wide web) to bring you some top cycling video content posted on my favorite bike blogs.
First up, Urban Velo:
Title: Acer Wander Photo Tour with Dan Barham
Seen On: Urbanvelo
Description: Photographer Dan Barham and the Acre clothing crew headed into the Alps for a few days of film shooting, turning a product testing mission into an adventure photo project. Check the video and then full story, with more images and video clips, atwww.acre-supply.com
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Title: Road Bike Party 2
Seen On: Urbanvelo
Description: A bike is a bike, it’s all about the skill of the rider. So eat your heart out BMXers. Check out these road bike tricks. A video sequel to Road Bike Party, which has over 9 million on line views. Featuring the sick skills of riders Ashton, Danny Macaskill, and Chris Akrigg.
The video shows Ashton, Danny Macaskill, and Chris Akrigg doing tricks and students in multiple locations.
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Title:Dear Motorist
Seen On: Urbanvelo
Description: An letter to Motorists to help prevent cyclist fatalities.
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Title: Eskil riding a bike at 80km backwards, Trollstigen
Seen On: Urbanvelo
Description: Eskli Rønningsbakken is an extreme stunts artist from Strange, Norway. It’s one thing to ride a bike downhill on a curvy narrow mountain road at top speeds of 80k, but how about backwards.
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Title: Wolfpack Hustle: All Out War
Seen On: Urbanvelo
Description:
Wolfpack Hustle takes it to the track for a 24-lap elimination race at the Carson Olympic Velodrome. The streets are always exciting, but there’s something surreal about going all out in the velodrome. Hot.
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Title: Bike Tricks from the 1950′s
Seen On: Urbanvelo
Description:Saw this one making the rounds and thought we should share. From the video description, “Harry Kramer, a 76-year-old street entertainer, performs bicycle tricks on Main Street in Travelers Rest, South Carolina. This newsreel footage is from the 1950s and is still entertaining after all these years.”
Oopsmark.ca out of Montreal, Canada makes a great solution to how to carry your wine around.
They recently had this great post on their blog, which just made me smile:
The Science Behind Why Cycling Makes Us Happier (photo by: Kharied-flickr)
“You hear so many cyclists gushing about their daily rides that it might be a bit bewildering to imagine how biking could make so many people so happy. As it turns out, the reasons why are firmly grounded in science. Many people don’t realize that happiness emerges from the state of the body as a whole – how well we sleep, our energy levels, the stress hormones coursing throughout our systems all play a role in determining how happy we feel. So how does cycling affect all these different areas of life?”
I meet Bert Cebular in 2009 when I was researching all the bike shops for our book, Bike NYC. Super nice guy with real passion for niche biking especially foldups and electric assist types. He has a cute shop, NYCEwheels on the upper east side of Manhattan (1603 York Ave. between 84th and 85th) He also has a very thorough Youtube Channel with tons of tips and reviews of many of the unique products the shop sells, not to mention some pretty amazing arial photography using small helicopter devices…if your into that sort of thing.
It saddens me to find out Bert (age 47) recently passed away in a paragliding accident in upstate NY. There is write up on this tragedy from Montague Bikes which Bert was a dealer of.
There will be a memorial bike ride this Saturday, 12/14/13. From the NYCEwheels facebook page: Group Bike in Memory of Bert Cebular on Saturday 12/14:
On this Saturday morning I’d love to get as many of you out on a bike ride as possible to celebrate Bert’s love of cycling in New York City. Please share this portion of the invitation to as many people who ride bikes in NYC as you know.
Meet in the courtyard at Carl Shulz Park at 86th and East End Ave. at 11am.
We’ll head to one of Bert’s favorite spots – Randall’s Island – for a leisurely conversational ride maybe 2 hours in length. I’d love for this be be a rolling party of happy memories, jokes, and the sheer joy of being on a bike.
Looking for a smarter bike light? Introducing the Xlerad, Auto-illuminating. Starts working when you start biking.
Two designers from Arcata California, John and Kyle, are developing some bright new technology. Here is their kickstarter video:
Some of the Xlerad features:
Xlerad is our approach to making the world’s smartest bike light.
-No buttons- it automatically turns on with movement.
-Insanely bright when needed- up to 1000 lumens!
-Unmatched performance by almost every measure.
-No wasted power means a longer battery life and lower heat.
5000mAh Lithium Ion rechargeable external battery pack
Smart Mode – 3.7 to 45 Hours, depends how fast you ride!
Fixed Mode – 10 hours
In riding terms, we trust it on multiple night rides without a recharge.
In commuter terms, it will easily last you all week.
Handlebar Mount:
We are using a multi-holed rubber strap, so it will accommodate all bar sizes and shapes.
Interested in funding this project or getting one of these bad boys? Visit the kickstarter page: here.
(photo from: getoffmybikelane.com )
Alright you finally decided to ride in the bike lane and help be another person that is actually using the infrastructure that the city has provided to make biking easier in NYC. After dodging the confused cars turning into them, the pedestrians thinking it’s an extension of their cell phone communication zone sidewalks, or the joggers, or the baby strollers, or the delivery trucks parked in them, or your supposed allies (fellow biker) going the wrong way in them, or the cops parked in them giving tickets for not using the bike lanes, or that scrapper with the stolen shopping cart packed high with metal treasure…finally a little clear space. Then all of a sudden your passed by something that looks like a cross between a Vespa scooter and a bicycle with pedals that are never used on a sort of taxi looking thing straight out of Thailand or Vietnam. That’s no bicycle, it’s electric…boogie woogie woggie.
E-bikes seem to be preferred vehicle choice for food delivery but they have also ruffled more feathers of pedestrians then even us pesky cyclists. Now there are much more heat seeking missiles on the side walk, strapped with plastic bags of take out food only faster and more silent. Giving us annoying bikers even more of a bad name.
But here’s something even I just found out…they’re illegal.
Brian Lehrer on WNYC had a whole show on today (12/9/13) which takes a look at illegal E bikes with bike friendly soon to be-Manhattan Borough President, Gale Brewer.
One of the guests who called in was a “Steve” who no doubt was alternative transportation advocate Steve Stollman.
Steve made some really excellent points that from an environmental aspect we should be encouraging low horse power electric assisted vehicles as ways to get more people to use them and reduce carbon polluting motor vehicles.
Borough President Gale Brewer seemed to agree, only they would have to be registered with the State. This could be a slippery slope as a gateway to getting all cyclists to be registered.
I honestly don’t have a problem with them. If anything, their popularity in the food delivery world helps reduce bike theft since stolen bikes are most often turned around to the restaurants. Many of these workers have low-income and are minorities, who should be encouraged to make more money and not have to work on strengthening their quads ore practicing for alleycat races. However, with faster e-bikes, it should motivate them to ride more careful and not freak out pedestrians. No one should have to get injured because lazy New Yorkers want their General Tso’s chicken in a hurry.
Now their seems to be a crackdown on E-bikes, so it may be a good time to lay low for a while, at least till they aren’t the token quota of the moment. I mean anything to keep the NYPD busy ticketing these “broken window” offenses of rampant bad cycling behavior instead of those silly automobiles killing 9 and 12 year old pedestrians.
Join us for our annual celebration of T.A.’s neighborhood activist leaders at Brooklyn Brewery. Enjoy delicious brews, snacks, remarks from New York’s new class of elected officials, and more.
Event Details
Monday, December 9, 2013
7 – 10 pm
Brooklyn Brewery Tasting Room
79 North 11th Street
Brooklyn
I remember seeing this fake commercial for an electric assist wheel in an episode of Showtime’s long running series Weeds.
Andy Botwin, a character played by Justin Kirk, was trying to go legit after the suburban drug dealing family fled to Copenhagen. This was going to be Andy’s new product.
Here is the ad that played on weeds back in 2009:
Being a tv show about a widowed house wife who shacks up with a Mexican drug cartel kingpin and evades prison and murder while cornering the weed trade, I assumed the “Copenhagen” wheel was just part of the “over-the-top” plot.
Well, it’s not fiction. This is a real product developed by MIT super bike nerds and has just gone on sale to the public (pre-order) for $700.00. Here is a preview video showing how the product works and incorporates your smart phone (of course.)
More about this product from the all things green blog, Treehugger:
Copenhagen Wheel bike booster rolls out, available for pre-order
I’ve never been able to get fully behind the electric bicycle movement. It kind of takes away the simplistic human powered reasons I love cycling. Not to mention ascetically it’s like loving snowboarding and hating those hard boot one-directional boards. Also if biking is truly a carbon neutral environment aid, why would you want to mess with AC power and non-disposable lithium batteries?
That being said, the technology behind this wheel is very innovative and it looks like the developers have done some smart things. The open source aspects, the smart phone connectivity and the sleek logistics of the central hub could make for a game changer to increase cycling. The company does have plans for making both the wheel and bike but for now this may be a big push for the more in expensive internet drop ship bikes like Public,Strada, Republic,Sole, Big Shotand Pure Fix.
There is a good FAQ page with more explanations and specs like the wheel weighs 13 lbs. (hard to carry up 5 floors in an apartment building)
Cranksgiving fever has spread across the country, even as far South as Puerto Rico.
Photo from @luispr199 from Instagram.
A video from Puerto Rico’s event:
The idea behind this event is to hold an alleycat messenger style race in live traffic and add an element to the checkpoints besides just having a manifest signed. Riders have to acquire food from grocery stores and delis, types of items that make up a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Those who complete all the checkpoints and gather all the food wins. This is really an “everybody Wins” event because all the food is donated to local charities for the hungry. It also makes for a less competitive race which encourages riders of all ages and skill levels and maybe gives participants an entry level of an alleycat race.
Races have already been held in Seattle: (November 23rd, 2013)
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From Seattle Bikeblog: 126 Cranksgiving riders haul 1,443 lbs of food to Rainier Valley Food Bank
By: Tom Fucoloro
November 23, 2013
2013 was the year that Cranksgiving broke. Seattle’s Fourth Cranksgiving exploded in size, with a stunning 126 people biking to grocery stores and food stands all across the city, buying food for Rainier Valley Food Bank.
And Santa Cruz: photo from Richard Madoner @cyclelicious.
Start of Santa Cruz race:
And Portland, Oregon. (
From bikeportland.org: Portlanders Raise $1,500 For Charity With Cranksgiving Bike Ride.
By: Michael Andersen
November 25th, 2013
Organizers Tom McTighe and Laura Recker with the afternoon’s haul.
(Photos by M.Andersen/BikePortland)
In an event organizers said might be the first of a new tradition of charity-oriented bike fun in Portland, 96 cheerful people pedaled across the city Saturday to gather an assigned list of goods from the city’s grocery stores and co-ops.
The alleycat-inspired game, which was part of a 14-year-old American tradition called Cranksgiving, brought in $1,573 worth of dry goods for Outside In, a local nonprofit that helps homeless young people and other marginalized Portlanders.
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NYC’s was held last Saturday (November 23rd, 2013) and hosted by the prolific bike organizer, Ken Stanek.
photo by: Sara Kinney on Flickr.
305 riders came out and raised food and money for neighborhood food pantries and hunger fighting organizations in NYC: City Harvest, NY Foundling and Nazareth House. These are very active organizations looking for more donations and volunteers especially through the holidays. You can also follow along the action on twitter using the search hashtag #feedourpeople.
How well do you know NYC? The Winter Alley cat is TrackOrDieNYC’s largest and most difficult alley cat of the year. 8 check points throughout NYC. Registration begins at 1pm at the Naumberg Bandshell-Central Park (same location as the 2012 winter alley cat), race starts at 2pm. $5 to race, numbered spoke cards will be handed out at the FINISH LINE. Prizes awarded to top 5 riders, 1st female, 1st Santa and DFL. Fixed gear/Single speed ONLY!!! Helmets are strongly suggested. After Party location TBA. Time to start studying NYC.
More great artwork courtesy of: Cordell Murray @BlankExperiment
Here is a video from last year’s race:
Besides being a super talented artist and kick ass bike mechanic, Krys Blakemore is also an all around nice person. In March of 2012, this experienced cyclist had a crash with car on Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn and was seriously injured. This event was a sad reminder that this could have easily been any one of us in the cycling community of NYC. This Saturday she is hosting a benefit race to raise money for medical costs connected with her crash and recovery.
Here is more info from her facebook event page:
As riders we have to stick together. Sure, in a city like New York that’s easier said than done. But in the end we’re all one huge family, albeit a sometimes dysfunctional one.
As a family, we look out for our own. Now, one of our own needs our help. On March 15, 2012, Krys Blakemore was struck by a car on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The accident left her with serious injuries in her right leg, and four operations later, a serious medical bill.
Now is the time for riders all over New York City to come together to show we care. Unbreakable: A Race To Benefit Krys Blakemore is an effort organized by the Do Good Crew to help alleviate some of the costs related to Krys’ injuries.
Do Good Crew will hold an alleycat race on December 7, to not only show show support and solidarity for Krys, but to also come together as a family and enjoy a great event together. There will be prizes for first, second, and third place, as well as first female rider to make it to the finish line. Registration will be $5.00, with all proceeds going towards Krys’ medical expenses. The event will be full of good people, good vibes, good times (and some holiday cheer thrown in for good measure).
MUST WEAR HELMET! – You don’t wear a helmet, you don’t race. No exceptions.
*NOTE-Rain will push event to Sunday, December 8th. Use the Facebook event page for further updates.
