The Pedal-Driven Life of the Day: In honor of his dad, an avid cyclist with over 120,000km of bike riding experience, Montrealer Guillaume Blanchet spent 382 days “living” on his bicycle, “being sometimes quite cold, sometimes quite hot - and sometimes quite scared.”
[doobybrain.]
(Source: piubici)
Bottle Cap Bike
via thebicycleisart
Joy ride every ride by Mary Kate McDevitt
via thebicycleisart
this is one of the best missed connections ever.
text:
I did a ride by high five on you on 6th Ave - m4w - 26 (6th ave and 53rd)
I was pedaling hard up 6th ave, feeling ecstatic from just having received $150 to show up to a focus group and then not be needed after all and still getting paid in full for showing up. And then I saw you. You were a block away, standing on the north east corner of 53rd and 6th. Your shoulder length hair was billowing in the light summer breeze. Your slightly tanned and toned arm, waving oh so gaily in an effort to attract the attention of one of the city’s beloved car hires whom no doubt speaks no more than 12 words in English. You had a small rolling luggage suitcase in your left hand and I remember wondering to myself if you were traveling for work, or perhaps maybe getting an early start to the weekend and heading out to the Hamptons, or.. now this is a scandalous thought but dare I say heading to your on again off again lover’s apartment over in Brooklyn Heights for an all night ‘jam session’!? He’s a talented cellist, however for him that means months of constant traveling which makes him an ineligible candidate for the position of boyfriend. But I digress, I saw you and I made a snap decision. I decided I was going to make your day. Maybe you were having a terrible day or maybe you were having the 217th best day of your life. Wherever this particular day lied in the ranking for awesome days you have had, it was just about to get 9% better. Why 9% you ask? Well if we were starting with 100, I would deduct 20 points for my hand being sweaty, and 71 points for me not realizing I was going so fast that my momentum which was then instantaneously transferred into your hand, would spin you around and almost knock you over. But I will give myself credit where credit isn’t due and say that I did a masterful job of delivering a near perfect high five, covering over 90% of the surface area of your hand. Because we all know that a high five lives and dies in how much surface area is covered. Nothing is more embarrassing than a spontaneous high five between two parties and then they whiff. If ever there were two better candidates for natural selection than those who lack the hand-eye coordination to slap their hands together in midair, then I would like to hear about them. So yeah… I wasn’t assaulting you or anything, I was just adding some spice to your day. Your welcome. Oh and as I sped past, and through you, I think I heard you call out to me “Shoot the duck” but due to the sound of traffic but more so to the earbuds in my ear blasting NWA straight outta Compton, I’m afraid I couldn’t quite catch all of what you said. Cheers!
DAY 176 - September, 11, 2011
Not sure if this is a Ghost Bike or not
“Those who wish to control their own lives and move beyond existence as mere clients and consumers- those people ride a bike.” - Wolfgang SachsVancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Fish biking in Williamsburg
The Scaly Scales of Justice »
Sure, cyclists should ride intelligently, but having respect for the power of a car is the driver’s job. If they lack that respect then the car should be taken from them.
Being only as interested in the taxonomy of American cycling subcultures as I am in baseball statistics, I have never been a Bike Snob reader. (And sorry, mom in law, I haven’t read that book you gave me.) But as Brooklyn Spoke pointed out, this is a righteous post.
The “power” that Snob is talking about is at the crux of everything that happens on our streets, from the subculture of masochistic cycling to the grateful nod that pedestrians give to motorists for being allowed to enjoy their lawful right of way.
In our society’s submission to this power, we’ve even corrupted the principle of responsibility such that it is far more often critically applied to pedestrian and cyclist victims than the people controlling the powerful vehicles that killed them. In the not-so-old days this social norm meant the very opposite: an obligation of those with power to use it with honor, respect, and care.
But anti-collective, anti-social, mechanized America has almost privatized responsibility out of existence. That noble ideal was rebranded as “self-responsibility”, an obligation not to be maimed or killed (so that no one else has to endure the unpleasantness). But we already have a lower, truer apprecation of that in our bones: it’s called survival. Survival is what’s left, when laws and social conventions are brushed aside.
Is this how we want to live?
via n8han, whose posts are always insightful and well phrased. very often i find myself reblogging him because i agree with his analysis and he sums up nicely my thoughts on the matter. i reblog him often.
Take flight
via thebicycleisart
Sent to me with the caption, “found your bike.” I died.
Early success of Hub bike sharing surprises even program’s backers »
In its first month, Boston’s European-style bicycle sharing-system pedaled past expectations, attracting riders more than twice as fast as similar programs in Denver and Minneapolis.
As of Aug. 28, the one-month mark, the program known as Hubway had attracted 2,319 annual subscribers and witnessed 36,612 station-to-station trips. At its current clip, the system is on track to surpass 100,000 rides before Halloween.
