Saturday, June 16, 2007

Bicycle blog, transit news and a trip down the long tail

For you Macintosh OS X users out there: BART user Bret Victor created the BART Widget for use on the OS X dashboard. The widget is a completely self-contained application that tells you exactly when the next BART train is coming just by clicking on the widget. No network connection is necessary.

Thursday, June 21 is Dump the Pump Day. The American Public Transportation Association is promoting Dump the Pump Day to increase awareness of the benefits of public transportation, but I don't mind promoting it to increase awareness of the benefits of bicycling. Read more at Commuter Pages.

Javier and his folding bicycle
NYC Street Fashion blog The Sartoliast sometimes features NYC cyclists who look great. Includes nifty photos. Apologies to the blogger I found this too, because I don't remember where the link came from. Please comment if it was you.

John asked: "Why are tires black when rubber is naturally white?" The answer: Carbon Black added to rubber imrpoves its tensile strength and abrasion resistance. In other words, the carbon black makes the rubber stronger and more resistant to wear. Read the gory details.

The Great Divide Bicycle Race started yesterday. 20 riders started at the Canadian border in Montana and will ride Adventure Cycling's 2,490 mile Great Divide Mountain Bike Route without outside assistance(!). They carry food, water, and shelter on their bikes or backs. No support crews, SAG wagons, or massage teams are allowed. Follow updates at the Great Divide Race Updates blog.

Citizen Rider: What is it about fixed gears?

Bicycle safety and low hanging fruit.

A certain uncool bike shop in Illinois is creating folding bike spam blogs and then posting links to those spam blogs in Digg and elsewhere in a poor effort at SEO. Posting spammy links to your bike shop in spammy blogs is the WRONG way to go about it, folks. If you're going to blog, please do it right.

The next time somebody whines about arrogant scofflaw cyclists who all break traffic laws, show them this video that demonstrates motorists do it too.

2 comments:

Dr. Logan said...

Regarding the sartorialist link, it might have been yours truly. A couple of days ago I had a picture of a classy looking gal taken from the site and the words, "Beautiful women on bikes continue to inspire." or something similar. I accidentally erased the post and didn't bother to put it back up.

Yokota Fritz said...

I think you're right, Doc.