I’ve been a fan of David Byrne’s going all the way back to his work with Brian Eno and the Talking Heads. What many people don’t know is that he’s a long time bike rider and advocate for cycling. Recently he’s been asked to judge a bike rack design contest in New York City. Being the creative fellow that he is, he couldn’t help but join in and design a few himself. Watch the video to see what he came up with.

My bike is basically a beater that I’ve pieced together. I was in the junkyard looking for parts for a street rod project I’ve been working on when I found this bike leaning against a tree. It had been leaning there quite awhile and the owner said “take it” so I did. I got it home, and over the course of a couple weeks, rebuilt it. When I began riding it I started looking for excuses to ride more and the next logical choice was riding to work, which I’ve been doing daily for the past couple of months. The street rod project is for the most part forgotten. I ride about 8 miles a day in a small town with zero bike culture. The drivers are, for the most part, nice and I haven’t put gas in my car since June!

The bike is a ‘80 Peugeot model Y09 with Surly hubs (single-speed freewheel) and dt-swiss rims. The rack was on my bike back in the ’80s when I was in junior high. The manufacturer’s name is illegible but it is very light. It is actually lighter than the bungee I use to strap my stuff to it! I included the pic of my rusty rat trap pedals to garner some sympathy. At first I tried to fix all of the original equipment but it turned out to be easier and less expensive to just strip all of the stuff off and go single speed. It’s more fun to ride now anyway. Maybe someday I’ll paint it but for now it is anti-theft rust (only surface) and blue.

People ask me all the time why I’m riding a bike and they look at me like I’m crazy sometimes. I always tell them I do it because it’s fun or I’m doing it because of gas but the truth is I do it because it feels right. —Daniel

How I use it: everyday, all the time! I don’t own a car, so my Xtra Surly goes to the grocery store, the thrift store, the community garden, the farmers market, the coffee shop, potlucks, you name it. Even Home Despot.

Make, model & other notes: I’m rollin’ on the ‘07 Surly Long Haul Trucker (with 26″ wheels) with the much coveted Xtracycle attachment. Other specs of note include a pink Chris King headset, Phil Wood bottom bracket, Mavic XC 717 Cross Rims 32h 3-cross pattern and shimano bar-end shifters tuggin’ on a 9-speed. Delicious. —RJ

[Visit RJ's way-cool blog: An Adventure Called Bicycling —ed.]

This is Pumpkin which is great for traveling more than 10 miles to our local health food store. —Joe

The perfect Wednesday morning bike for the trip to the Farmers Market. —Joe

When I need a lift it is “EDOARDO” to the rescue. Before I know it, I am out and back home. Old bikes never die they just get a new life. —Joe

Let me tell you about “EDOARDO’S” vixen girl friend. She sets the pace. —Joe

Did I mention “EDOARDO’S” girl friend has a half sister Goldie? —Joe

Having started to commute to work at least twice a week initially by mountain bike, I wondered if there was a better way. A week or two of research I began to wonder if lying down on the job seemed like a good idea. Though not sure if I would like it I didn’t spend a fortune, I bought a “Stick,” a USS 24 speed recumbent bike from a shop in Norfolk called Power & Leisure. Laced with various goodies to make the commute (a 25 mile round trip mostly on country lanes from my town in rural Aberdeenshire to Aberdeen city) as easy as possible.  The trip to work is over many a hill and finding my recumbent legs was a challenge. It took me a month of twice a week to get the same time as on my MTB, the time is now getting better!

The photos show it off with the accessory bag on the back of the seat and a double pannier, mud guards (fenders), mirror (which I find essential as I cannot turn my head far enough to see behind me and guessing is too dangerous), also attached is our Cargo II trailer which we use for some of our shopping trips to the local supermarket. So far I have upgraded the reat deraileur to a Shimano Deore LX and Shimano SPD pedals (what a difference they made), in time I would like to upgrade the rear wheel and hub but for now it does okay.

At work I am the CycleScheme co-ordinator, this is a UK govenment scheme to promote the use of bike for commuting, where the employees benefit from up to 50% off the retail price by the use of a salary sacrifice system. More details at www.cyclescheme.co.uk. Because of this I feel its important to my colleagues that I lead from the front and how better than using a recumbent as it promotes lots of questions about whether its “safer” “comfortable” “not for me” or whatever… it definately gets a lot of attention and starts many discussions about cycling so I think its working.

The “Stick” has now covered nearly 300 miles most of which have been commuting and I hope to continue to use it through most of the year hence the fenders. —Iain

This is the best piece I’ve seen on cycling to come out of the national media. It’s well worth a watch.

Got a really good deal on a brand new 2006 Cannondale Bad Boy Si from our Cannondale area rep. The bike is a stock build with the exception of 185mm disc brakes in front and (changed since photo) On-One Mary handlebars. We made a longbike out of it with an Xtracycle conversion kit along with 203mm rear disc brakes. Also added tandem-stoker handlebars for our snapdeck passengers.

The primary purpose for this bike is to transport our grandchildren to and from school. Of course we’ve been riding just for fun too. Our youngest is a shorty and his feet would just dangle so I made some mini-me footsies for him and attached them to the no longer used rear v-brake studs. Just as much fun are the grocery,  hardware store and post office trips we’ve made on it. It is one excellent machine! —Manny

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the colors and all too obvious play on words.

The best bike commuting “how to” guides on the web are Ken Kifer’s and Paul Dorn’s. If you read these two guides you’ll know far more than what’s required to be a successful bike commuter:

• Ken Kifer – Bike Commuting and Transportation
• Paul Dorn’s Bike Commuting Tips

And if you’ve been thinking about trying bike commuting but there always seems to be a reason not to, Ken Kifer’s Problems and Solutions to Riding a Bike to Work may be just what you need to get jump started.

The EcoVelo Gallery is a community project comprised of photos of transportational/utility bikes* submitted by readers from all over the world. To show my appreciation and encourage submissions, I’m currently running a little raffle. Here’s the deal: I have 3 pairs of lightly used Speedplay Frog SS pedals that I’m raffling off to 3 lucky winners. All you have to do is send me 4-6 photos of your bike, accompanied by a brief description of how you use it, and your name will be thrown into the hat for the drawing. If you have more than one bike you use for transportation, feel free to submit multiple (separate) entries – I’ll enter a ticket for each bike you submit. When we reach 100 gallery entries I’ll draw three names and ship the pedals to the winners. The sooner we fill the gallery, the sooner I pick the winners, so spread this around and tell your fellow bike commuters. Let’s build a gallery!

>>Visit the Bike Gallery Submission Guidelines page to submit your entry.

*A “tranportational/utility” bike is any bike used for commuting, running errands, etc. It doesn’t matter what kind of bike it is and it doesn’t have to be “fancy”; what matters is that it’s regularly used in place of a car for some practical purpose.

Photo © New York Times

It looks like we might be part of a growing trend. According to a recent story in the New York Times, there appears to be an increasing number of families that are limiting themselves to a single car. The article states that these new one-car families are motivated by high gas prices, costs associated with owning a second car, and concern for the environment.

From the article:

The couples interviewed in the article discuss some of the complications associated with running a household, ferrying kids, and getting to-and-from work while sharing one car. Besides ride-sharing, some are using transit as well as walking and cycling to make it all work.

We’re using a similar mix of modes including cycling, walking, transit, and driving. We’re also more carefully organizing our schedules to avoid “double-booking” the car for times when it’s required.

Read the full article →

Princeton Tec has a new tail light dubbed the “Swerve” that is designed to compete with the popular Planet Bike Superflash. It features two high-powered LEDs (one with a diffused beam, the other with a focused beam), and two modes (one steady and one flash). It comes with a versatile mount that works on a fork, handlebar, seatstay, or seatpost, and it has a built-in clip for mounting on a helmet, jersey, or seat bag.

The Swerve, with its pair of 0.5 watt LEDS, should be brighter than the Superflash. I’ve seen side-by-side video beam shots comparing the two and it appears the baseline output of the Swerve may be brighter, but the strobe flash of the Superflash is definitely more eye-catching and intense. It just goes to show that there’s more to a light than numbers on a spec sheet. I was planning on picking up a Swerve, but after seeing the beam shots, I think I’ll stick with my Superflash for now. At $24.95 the Swerve is a great deal and a viable alternative, but it doesn’t look like Planet Bike has too much to worry about quite yet.

When I was a kid, the best thing about Cracker Jacks was the anticipation of finding the “Toy Surprise Inside”. I loved digging down in the box and ripping open the little envelope that contained the prize. Of course, the prize itself was usually a disappointment, but it never kept me from wanting another box when we went to the ball diamond the following weekend.

Panda Portraits are a little like Cracker Jacks. If you’re not familiar with Panda Portraits, they’re self portraits taken while riding a bike. Taking a Panda Portrait is pretty simple. If you have a camera that allows you to manually set the shutter speed, set it to around 1/25-1/30 of a second so the background blurs, then while you’re riding along, take a large number of shots of yourself and/or the bike from different angles. Of course, because you’re holding the camera away from you, it’s impossible to know what you’re capturing. That’s where the “Toy Surprise Inside” idea comes in. The anticipation of whether you’ve captured any good photos is like that old feeling of digging through a box of Cracker Jacks. Typically, most of the photos are completely blurred or framed poorly or show some other defect, but once in a while everything comes together and a real gem pops out. With some practice you eventually figure out what works and your keeper-to-reject ratio improves.

Here are a few Panda Portraits from this morning’s ride.

This one-of-a-kind Surly LHT was recently auctioned on E-Bay to raise funds for a school for indigenous youth in Australia:

The fundraiser was the brainchild of Australian bike distributor Dirt Works.

One of our friends from the blogosphere seems to be under the impression that we’ve given up on recumbents altogether, but nothing could be further from the truth. To prove it, here’s a photo of our Screamer tandem, our #1 touring and country-road-cruising ride. It’s still the greatest vehicle ever made for bringing out the best in a relationship (or the worst, depending upon who you talk to… LOL). It’s not much of a city bike, but we’re saving it for the day we’re able to take a tour up the coast or do some island hopping in the San Juans. In the meantime, we dust it off now-and-again and take a cruise just to make sure we haven’t forgotten how to ride it. It’s a wonderful machine.

Britain’s Conservative Party leader David Cameron is a bicycle advocate and regular bike commuter. According to the NYT’s LEDE blog, one evening recently, while riding home from work, he stopped at a local grocery store to pick up some things for dinner and while he was in the store his bike was stolen. Apparently he needs to work on his bike locking technique:

Mr. Cameron was reportedly quite upset at “losing an old friend“:

It appears that when it comes to thieves, political power has little pull. Let’s hope he gets his beloved bike back in good condition.

[via Streetsblog]