Matthew Paris apology

Matthew Paris is the London Times writer who joked about decapitating cyclists. He apologized in his column today. Via Dave Moulton. More stuff below the cool bicycle montage.


Paul Tay's latest venture?

L'Equipe: Compelling evidence shows that the entire T-Mobile squad doped.

It's COLD and SNOWY in big swaths of the United States and Canada, with more cold and snow on the way. Maybe it's time to finally get some studded snow tires.

Site of the Moment: Last night I met Uriah. He took Amtrak from his home near Tahoe to San Jose and was on the bus to Santa Cruz. After geeking out over the Strida I was on, he told me all about the Center for Appropriate Transport in Eugene, Oregon. Uriah used to work there. CAT works to manufacture, use and advocate sustainable modes of transportation. I think this mostly means they recycle bicycles, but they also build cargo bikes, family utility bikes and the like for sale to the public. The famous "Long Haul" cargo bike comes from these people -- this is like the Bakfiets cargo bikes, except they're made in America with CroMo tubing and decent components for the American market. Check their online catalog for other useful, made in the USA human powered products.

Only 45 more days to the Tour of California!

Photo: "Winter Road" by Stefan Jansson in Tungelsta, Sweden.

Bike production costs going up

I've been sitting on this story since September and now Bike Europe has broken the news: Bicycle production costs are going up significantly in China. The Bike Europe article notes that labor costs are increasing in China, along with other costs of doing business such as new pension requirements and new taxes.

Bike Europe mentions a six to seven percent increase in the cost of bike components, which just happens to match the seven percent drop of the value of the dollar against the Chinese yuan. Bike Europe also fails to mention the skyrocketing cost of raw materials used to build bikes, fuel shortages in China that make it increasingly difficult to manufacture product there, along with rapidly rising costs of energy and fuel. While the cost of transporting product from China to the rest of the world is still negligible, this is also increasing.

I expect more demand for bikes in the USA, Canada and Europe, especially for the low end bikes that are typically produced in mainland China. Some of these cost increases will be passed along to consumers, but the increased production cost of bikes will eat somewhat into profit margins.

SF Bay Area: rain Rain RAIN RAIN. And wind, too.

This is for all of you bicycle commuters who neglect to check the weather forecast (and you know who you are) -- three storms systems are barreling down from Alaska with two to four inches of rain forecast in Santa Clara valley and up the Peninsula into San Francisco beginning Thursday at noon. On Friday, 20 to 30 mph winds gusting to 50 mph are expected throughout the Bay Area and coastal areas. Up to ten inches on rain is expected in the Santa Cruz Mountains (where I live) over the weekend, with snow falling as low as 2,500 feet.

As the storms move east over the Sierra Mountains, the snow is expected to fall in crippling volumes. "They could see up to eight to 10 feet [of snow] by Sunday," Weather Service Meteorologist Steve Anderson. "It's going to be a major winter storm with white-out, blizzard conditions, winds up to 100 miles per hour on the peaks and around 50 miles per hour down on Interstate 80," he says.

Although big swells are expected through the storms in Santa Cruz, surf conditions will be too choppy for it to be any fun.

Before you break out the bikes for your commute to work on Thursday morning, break out your rain gear.

Photo: "Cycling through the rain" by Annemiek van der Kuil. With expected high winds, an umbrella is not recommended this week.

2008 Bicycle News

I hope you all are having a great day. Here's the day after New Year edition of the Bicycle Blog Roundup.

• Tres cool Dragon Bicycle. Via.
  
  
• Urban Velo Magazine Issue #5 is available for download.
  
  
• Bikes banned from Melbourne (Australia) trains. Boo. More news below the image.
  
  
  
• Seattle Most Visible Cyclist contest December winner. Submit your photo for the January contest.
  
  
• Solar rechargeable bicycle lights.
  
  
• Bicyclists In Action: 2 cyclists in Saskatoon rescue a man from icy South Saskatchewan River.
  
  
• I kinda like Velopaint.
  
  
• RESOLUTION: Zandria plans to buy a bike and ride it.
  
  
• Some more on new Illinois laws that benefit cyclists.
  
  
• Our pal Jill in Alaska made Velonews site of the day today. Woo hoo!
  
  
• Pez Cycling Toolbox Series shows you how to become stronger, faster, fitter.
  
  
• TOP 10: CycleDog has his Top 10 books. Biking Bis does a unique Top 10 of Top 10 lists.
  
  
• For some reason, Kirsten Gum is popular again. It must be that Travel Channel show that she hosts.

$100 per barrel

NYMEX benchmark light sweet crude for January delivery broke through $100 per barrel for the first time ever today.

That is all.

明けましておめでとうございます

I wanted to take a quick break from my New Years Eve festivities to wish everybody and Happy New Year. I really appreciate all of you who've visited and contributed to Cyclelicious in 2007. A shout out also to those I've met in the meatworld during my bike riding in the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Cruz. I hope to run into more of you all over the next year! Whatever type of bicycle riding you do (or don't yet do), the best wishes for a wonderful 2008 to all of you -- I really mean that.

Later this week watch for my predictions on bicycling, politics, business and the economy for 2008. In the meantime, Happy New Year, or as they say in Japan, "明けましておめでとうございます !!"