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Thursday, December 24th, 2009
bikepirates
[ 3335 ]
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2:24a
So I've really gotten into the BBC series Top Gear, and in this clip from 2005, they pit a small car against a DH race bike through a small coastal town in Portugal.
I'm gonna have to be honest here, this is some of the best bicycle cinematography I've seen. This also the second time a bicycle has won one of their many silly challenges, out of the two times they've pitted a car against a bike.
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Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
bikepirates
[ xpacmanx ]
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1:54p
winter tires
all of a sudden i have a really nice road bike...which is awesome except i need to put some snow friendly tires on it, suggestions? im a city commuter, and i don't have alot of money so super fancy tires (read above 30-40$ a tire) is out of my price range.
thanks in advance.
also now that i have this bike thats stupid nice for commuting im debating ways of wrapping the frame to one: make it less desirable to thieves and two: not let it get all scratched to shit. the two ideas im tossing around are gaffers tape, which i hear doesn't mess up the frame if/when you decide to take it off and/or old tubes sewed on, which will take more time than i have but i think it might look ok. anyway, other suggestions?
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Monday, December 21st, 2009
bikepirates
[ damerell ]
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3:46p
Snow! Curses.
I hate this weather.
If you look closely you can see my homemade studded tyre. It takes a long time to put in 250-odd rivets. There's the tread of a second tyre underneath it to protect the inner tube.
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bikepirates
[ dj_flx ]
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7:10a
So apparently the cyclists are the bigots...
Or, WTF?
Religious bigotry of the day
A bunch of spoiled brats who want a bicycle path through an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn had a comeuppance from the weather.
The Hasidic Jews in the area wear clothing that covers them up. Bicyclists dress in scanty attire. Mayor Mike Bloomberg acquiesced to the request to end the bike path. Well, this did not go over well with certain people who got all huffy about it. The Associated Press reported on Friday:
NEW YORK — Bicyclists planning a protest ride through Brooklyn are calling it their “Freedom Ride” — free of clothing, that is. The activists want to go topless during Saturday’s ride. They said Mayor Michael Bloomberg has erased a bike lane from an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood because some residents don’t want to see scantily clad women.
But in Williamsburg, the well-covered Jewish faithful said skimpy clothing is not the issue.
Leo Moskowitz said the bike path keeps school buses from stopping near the curb, and his five kids can get knocked down by bikes.
A Bloomberg spokesman points out that the city is keeping another bike lane on another block in Williamsburg that’s safer — a two-way path protected by a row of parked vehicles.
So it is not about bicycling. If it were, they would ride the path. It is about how the people in the area choose to dress. This does not meet the standards of others who feel they have to mock the Jews.
...snip...
Yeah, whatever there, guy. There's more where he seems to think it's totally OK for people to force their religious crap on people passing through, but apparently calling bullshit on that is some kind of bigotry.
So glad I'm an atheist.
current mood:  cynical
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Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Friday, December 18th, 2009
bikepirates
[ dj_flx ]
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9:22p
HO HO HO xmas transporter
Cyclist caught with tree on handlebars
Authorities say they caught an Indiana man riding a bike while balancing a stolen Christmas tree across the handlebars.
Police in Portage say they spotted 48-year-old Phillip Menefee about 1 a.m. Friday riding the bike equipped with a homemade motor. Police had been investigating motor noise near a tree lot.
Police say Menefee had been drinking at a bar and told police he bought the tree. When told the lot was closed, police say he said he bought it from the bar.
current mood:  amused
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bikepirates
[ damerell ]
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1:21p
A couple of days ago I towed a high armchair over to Landbeach (on my Y-Frame trailer, not just on the castors it has not got). Apparently the way to keep cagers off your back is to have a damn great piece of furniture running along behind you.
I'm quite glad it held off snowing until yesterday, though. Last night I sat in the pub, snow whistling past the windows, putting a hundred-odd rivets into my homebrew studded tyre. I really should have finished it before now.
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Thursday, December 17th, 2009
bikepirates
[ blue_banshee ]
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3:55p
spindle hub
hi there. some of you longtime readers may remember my desire to make a spindle hub. I'd link to the posts I've made about it, but I'm not interested in wasting hours going through the archives.
suffice to say, I want to be able to pedal from the same axis around which my drive wheel rotates. I think this will allow me to design a prone position bicycle with aerodynamic, ergonomic, and structural advantages over modern upright bicycles. I think a spindle hub might be interesting to unicyclists and people who want to make recumbent bikes, too. anyway, after trying to get somebody to help me make this invention, I decided to go to college and make it myself. it's taken me a lot longer than I would have hoped, and I'm not finished yet. but I finished cutting the hub shell for my first prototype. I did it as an independent study, and the semester's over, so I needed to take pictures to document my work.
if you want to see more, click on the picture below:
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bikepirates
[ rebeccmeister ]
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12:31p
Looking for a bike-related 2010 calendar?
So, my friends and I over at the Bike Saviours in Tempe, Arizona, have put together a 2010 calendar that features all of the Collective members who staff the shop (we're a volunteer-run co-op). The calendar is a fund-raiser, so if you're looking for an awesometastic, bike-related holiday gifty-poo, look no further!
A preview and ordering information can be found here. If you are ever in the Phoenix area, get in touch and stop by the co-op.
On a side note, I'm in Seattle at the moment, riding around with my boyfriend on a pair of rusty old ten-speeds. Hi, Seattle Bikepirates!
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Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
bikepirates
[ sick_of_talk ]
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9:08p
Whiny Tale.
Let me tell you a sad sad story of me not being responsible and pissed as hell.
I live in Oakland, part of the SF bay area. One day, a few months ago, I went to do my laundry at pops house, and walked over to my truck. To my surprise, it was on the curb and the back end was smashed in! wtf? Some lady walks by and tells me, "ac transit hit yo shit". Fuck!. I was supposed to go see Noam Chomsky in Palo Alto that night, and after doing the police report bs, find it still runs. Sweet. So I drive over to pops house in Fremont, with my bicycle to bike over the dumbarton bridge to this spot in Palo Alto. I had no turn signals, and no lights, so I didn't want to get a fix-it ticket, or be a cop magnet. This is a considerable bike ride from Fremont. Nothing insane, and I had gotten back from a tour of the coast, but it was an hour and a half of trekking.
On the way back, in east palo alto(a lower income separate city), I am stopped at a light and notice a cop behind me. Whatever, I am biking and almost to the bridge! Then after a considerable time at the light, a light pops on from the cop and out the window they tell me to pull over. They pull me over because I had no front light (it got jacked). I am a little iritated because I have been pulled over, bicycling a couple times, all in lower income areas, so I know they just assume I am buying dope. Frustrated, pumped from Noam Chomskys speech, I tell them my feelings, instead of remaining silent like I have previously. "Man you just pulled me over because you think I went to this area to buy drugs!" I've found on a bike, it is really hard to defend yourself against police.
Long story short, I got a fix it ticket, at 10:30 at night, in east palo alto on a bike. I'm sure they couldn't be doing anything better. So in the spirit of civil disobedience, or maybe school, work, and living rather far away with no car, I ignored the ticket. Smash the state. No previous experience with this nonsense, I just got a 170 dollar bail ticket in the mail. Geez!
Has anyone ever dealt with getting pulled over on their bike? Whats your best defense?
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Monday, December 14th, 2009
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