So Many Bikes!

This morning riding through Cambridge was like a bike parade.  There were times when the number of people on bikes outnumbered the people on cars 2 to 1 or even 3 to 1.  It felt…revolutionary.

We are entering into a new territory, where more people are riding than driving.  Maybe just on the nice days now, but soon perhaps on the not so nice days, and then all year round.  We have a long long way to go, but seeing the hundreds of cyclists ride made my morning and put a big smile on my face.

Did you ride today?  Did you see the masses?!

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Do You Hear That?!

That is the sound of my mind exploding right out of my head….amazing. This is fantastically useful knowledge my friends.

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Yes It Is Possible To Ride Your Bike All Winter, Even At The South Pole

While I know its technically their summer down there right now…its all relative. But this lady rode her bike TO THE SOUTH POLE!

Shortly before Christmas, we heard about 35 year-old British adventurer Maria Leijerstam’s planned attempt to ride to the South Pole on a recumbent fat-tired tricycle. On December 27th at 1am GMT, she achieved that goal, becoming the first person to ever successfully cycle from the edge of the Antarctic continent to the Pole.

ICE used its Sprint trike as the basis for the extreme build, including standard component…
ICE upgraded the design from a US$3,000 stock trike to a ~$33,000 extreme polar-cycle
Maria’s route took her approximately 400 miles (644 km) long, stretching from the edge of …

Leijerstam used a modified version of the commercially-available Sprint trike, made by recumbent tricycle manufacturer Inspired Cycle Engineering (ICE). She chose to go with a recumbent trike because it would allow her to maintain stability in the often very-high winds. This allowed her to concentrate simply on moving forward, instead of having to waste time and effort keeping her balance.

The strategy paid off, as she not only made it, but also beat two other cyclists who had set out for the Pole on two-wheelers, days before her Dec. 17th start date. Her victory wasn’t just due to the fact that she could move faster, but also because the stability of her trike allowed her to take a different route that was shorter but technically more challenging.

British adventurer Maria Leijerstam has braved savage conditions to become the first person to cycle to the South Pole from the edge of the Antarctic continent.
Maria, aged 35 from Wales, raced two men for the title and arrived at the pole hundreds of miles ahead of her nearest rival.

After 9 days cycling Maria completed the 400 mile expedition at approximately 1am GMT on the 27th December 2013.

Despite starting days later than her competitors Maria made quick progress on a recumbent trike designed specifically for the challenge by Inspired Cycle Engineering. The custom-made trike is stable and aerodynamic, which has allowed Maria to focus her energy on progressing through the gale-force winds and hazardous terrain.

Amazing, proving once again that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. More here, and here.

Thanks Charlie for the tip.

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This…This…This Is Amazing!

As a wise person once said, “haters gonna hate.” But Hate aside, this is amazing. I am SOOOO SICK of the same old boring ass stick in the mud shit that comes out all the time. This, and the recent urban cycling guide, both display a sense of humor that is sorely lacking in these gloomy times.

Do the MBTA safety dance!

(And yes I know this has nothing to do with cycling, but just look at it! How could I not post this?!)

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Can Someone Build One Of These For The MBTA

The bicycle barometer takes data about the weather, the status of the tube lines I use to get to work, and whether my local station is open or shut.

It then reduces all that data down to a single value and displays it on a dial with a bike sign at one end and a tube sign at the other.

For example, if it is raining a bit the dial will move a bit towards the tube sign, but if the tube is suffering delays, it will move a bit back in the other direction.

Different data points get different weightings. E.g. snow is more important than a bit of drizzle; the tube station being shut trumps everything.

It is built using a Nanode and an old clock I found at a flea market. The data comes from the Met Office’s Datapoint API and Transport for London’s line status and station status API’s.

(I’ll make the code available once I’ve cleaned it up a bit, follow @richardjpope for updates.)

Via Thanks Oisin for the tip.

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