Gates' bid to reinvent the bicycle

"The chain is probably the only element of the bicycle that hasn't changed in 150 years," says Todd Selden. Selden is an engineer who has been with industrial giant Gates Corporation for 25 years and is now director of Carbon Drive Systems, which produces carbon belts for bicycles. In other words, he's in a decent position to judge a perceived lack of innovation in bike parts.

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Farmer bikes fom China to London to see Olympics

A Chinese farmer has spent the last two years biking more than 30,000 miles across 16 countries with one simple goal in mind: to see the London Olympics.

BBC News reports when 57-year-old Chen Guanming watched the Olympic flag get passed to London's mayor in 2008 in Beijing he was inspired to attend the 2012 games. He decided to travel the only way he could: by rickshaw. 



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A Bamboo Bike!



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Tampa Police buys 200 bikes for RNC patrols

Fox 13 WTVT reports that during the week of the Republican National Convention, many Tampa Bay area officers will park the police cruisers and pedal while on patrol.


During the last Republican convention in Minnesota, a team of 110 bike officers were on duty at all times. The bikes allow officers to better deal with angry crowds and weave through riots if needed.


Native Bikeworks in Riverview was chosen to provide the 200 bikes as part of a more than $300,000 contract. The RNC will be held in downtown Tampa Aug. 27-30.


Each bike will be fitted with LED red and blue flashing lights and will be used by patrol officers even after the convention ends.

How NOT to repair your bike!

College student bikes cross country for charity

Matt Stoltz isn't earning his arm and leg tan lines while at the beach this summer, but by biking on the side of the road.

Since July 1, the 19-year-old has been on a 1,700-mile bike ride through eight states to raise money for sports equipment for underprivileged children around the world through the National Alliance for Youth Sports Global Gear Drive program. Tuesday's stop in Huntsville marked the halfway point in his trek to NAYS headquarters in West Palm Beach, Fla.

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Europe embraces bike-based urban delivery with new cargo bike lobby group

Portland has made lots of headlines in the past few years for our growing crop of cargo bike based businesses; but all the exciting momentum is coming from the grassroots and from individual entrepreneurs. Ironically, the most energy-efficient mode of urban freight delivery is being ignored by state and federal programs designed specifically to reduce emissions.

In Europe however — where a pervasive car culture doesn't cloud political thinking quite as much as is does here in the states — leaders are moving forward with programs that support the development of a bike-based urban freight delivery industry. According to the European Cyclists Federation, over 30 companies from across Europe came together in Cambridge, England over the weekend to form a cargo bike lobby under the rubric of the "European Cycle Logistics Federation". Their aim is to, "improve urban delivery and act as a lobby group to promote cycle based delivery solutions."


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Wellington twins who helped start bike give-away program look forward to doing more

Twin sisters Laura and Megan Kohner wear matching outfits on a daily basis. They sometimes complete fragmented pieces of each other’s sentences. But most importantly, they share the same passions.


Like the non-profit organization they started together as seventh-graders. The Wellington girls — along with their older brother Andrew and his friend, Cody Ellsworth — came up with Bikes for Kidz as a way to “incorporate literacy, learning and physical fitness.”


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Zak Pashak, Detroit Bikes Entrepreneur, Buys 50,000 Square Foot Factory On City's West Side

Zak Pashak had heard a lot of negative stories about Detroit. Still, for some reason, the Canadian entrepreneur felt compelled to check out the city for himself. And after he visited in October 2010, Pashak realized that he really liked this place -- so much so that he picked up and moved from Calgary the following July.

And once he got here and bought a home in Boston Edison, his next challenge was even more radical -- opening a bicycle manufacturing plant in the city.

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Center city to host state's first bike-sharing program

People who want to ride a bike to work in Charlotte, or just run a quick errand, will soon be able to rent a cycle from one of 20 stations in and around uptown.

Charlotte Center City Partners is expected to formally unveil Charlotte B-Cycle, which they say is the state’s first bike-sharing program, at an event Thursday. The first stations have been installed uptown at Trade and Tryon streets and outside 7th Street Public Market.

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Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/12/3377479/freewheeling-in-the-city.html#storylink=cpy

The OCD Science Behind a Perfect Fitting Bike

The bike fitting was once a mysterious process. You'd get your limbs measured, saddle up, and ride off. But there are so many variables in a bike's fit, and some have nothing to with the length of your limbs.

Fresh ideas on how to measure a rider's needs has given rise to a new breed of bike fitter. One of the most sophisticated labs for this kind of cycling science is at Acme Bicycle Co., a Brooklyn, New York shop run by Jonathan Blyer. Gizmodo visited Acme for a data-driven fitting, and a closer look at how the mix of robots, computers, and motion-capture video come together to find you the perfect bike.

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London Mayor Boris Johnson on how bicycles and smooth mass transit can make people happier

London Mayor Boris Johnson is among many things an urban transit nerd.  Since taking office in 2008, he has introduced a new generation of double-decker buses, built a cable car across the River Thames, and has dreams of making improvements to the city’s airports. And when it comes to getting around himself, his favorite mode of transit is the bicycle.

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Chicago police train hundreds of cops to patrol on bikes

Chicago police Lt. Richard Plotke steered the bicycle around an obstacle course of eight cones designed to give him an idea of how it will be to maneuver around pedestrians and through narrow gangways.

"I've been riding obviously my whole life, but this is tough. This is very tough training," Plotke said, his voice slightly muffled as he spoke through a gas mask he donned as part of the training. "You've got to know how to ride. You've got to have balance."

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Arizona fans, sellers seeing more electric bikes

Hal Mansfield bought his electric bike about two months ago and already is seeing savings.

When knee problems threatened to keep Hal Mansfield from riding his bike, he started looking for a solution that would keep him on the road but wouldn't be quite as rigorous.

"I had knee problems so I had to give up my other (traditional) bike," said Mansfield, 80, a Green Valley resident since 2005. "I still wanted to use a bike."

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Muskegon's 'mystery bikes' return for third year

Muskegon's anonymous artist is at it again.


The 'mystery bikes' that sparked wonder and debate around Muskegon are back for the third year, with as little fanfare as ever and no explanation....


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Recycle Bikes For Kids

Any child who rides a bike will be able to tell you about the feeling of freedom and power they get from riding. The rite of passage that is learning to ride a bike is one so important to children and adults alike, and as they say, 'it's like riding a bike -- once you've learnt, you never forget.'

However, for those unable to afford a bike, this childhood experience is denied to children eager to speed through their neighborhoods, as well as to adults looking for a more affordable means of transport.

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Making Way for More Bikes in National Parks

The debate over who should use the roads and paths of the country’s national parks is consistently fraught. In California’s Sequoia National Park, unkind words are sometimes exchanged when pack animals with their wide panniers encounter hikers kitted out with the latest R.E.I. gear on the trails behind Mount Whitney. The code of etiquette and safety governing such encounters is sometimes ignored, And there have been continual efforts to ban horses, burros and llamas because of their impact on the trails.

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Public Bikes Booming in China

For anyone who loves a good bike story, here’s one for you: public bikes are booming in China. “There are 39 public bike schemes in China—dwarfing all other nations,” TheCityFix writes....


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Brazilian prison incentivizes prisoners to provide pedal-powered energy

Brazil's Santa Rita do Sapucaí prison has found a new source of alternative energy: its own prisoners. The prison has offered to shave time off of prisoners' sentences if they'll charge batteries using special bikes and their own two legs.

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