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Does two wrong make a right? Perhaps not, but two fails do cancel each other out!
Cubiclebot has a video clip of a bicycle rider going the wrong way hitting a pedestrian who was jaywalking. Watch how two "fails" cancel each other out: Link
These scans of an old safety booklet for children called It’s Great to be Alive! are full of gruesome injuries that befall careless bicycle riders, pedestrians, and kids at play.
In fairness, adults didn’t have a lot of options in those days, so using abject fear was a common parenting tool. There were no reflective bicycle helmets or knee-pads for skateboarders, no designated bicycle lanes, many fewer supervised activities, and we didn’t even have seat belts in cars until the mid-1960s. When accidents happened, they were usually pretty grim.
See more mayhem in this article from Gene Gable. Link -via TYWKIWDBI
Last night, author Jami Attenberg returned to the place where she locked her bike and found it gone.
I didn’t cry but I jutted my lower lip out the entire way home. It was a genuine sad face. I tried to stop the sad face but I could not. I really love my yellow bike, and it is summer and riding your bike is the best, and also it is my main form of transportation around town. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to afford a new one, and seriously, I was super bummed. It is a material object, yes, and it can be replaced, but it’s MY BIKE AND I LOVE IT.
I sad-faced myself to sleep.
This morning I woke up around 9 AM and checked Craigslist to see if there were any reasonably priced bikes on there and lo and behold, there was a picture of my bike for sale for $75. They even had a picture of the scratches.
The story gets exciting from that point. Her friend did some detective work, and the police set up a sting operation. Then she had to meet the guy who had her bike. It sounds like a television show that wraps up in an hour, and it all happened just today. Link -via Buzzfeed
Did you hear the story about how Allie tried to learn how to ride a bike? She was deathly afraid of the contraption, and for good reason, which you can read about at Hyperbole and a Half. Link
Inspired by food-dispensing kiosks in remote European locations, a restauranteur in Madison, Wisconsin is planning to build a cafe that can ONLY be accessed by pedestrians and bicyclists.
Food would be served on plastic or ceramic dishes at seating made from tree trunks. Coffee and juice would be dispensed in purchasable mugs that would fit in a bike holder. And to capture the zeitgeist of the Wisconsin north woods, beer and wine would also be on the menu.
The proposed location near a golf course is “the one place where you can’t hear any cars in the middle of the city,” beside a bike path that sees 2,600 users/day. The city’s mayor has indicated he supports the proposal.
Link. “Type Bike” image available on t-shirt from Neatoshop.
Korean designer SungKug Kim made this bicycle and a couple of others which incorporate the shapes of antlers and horns and named the art project Bi-King. Link | Artist’s site -via Chris Tackett
At some point you have to grow up and leave your childhood toys behind. Or not! You could just remove Dapple Gray from his springs, give him a fresh coat of paint, and mount him on your bicycle for a distinctive ride that will never be confused with anyone else’s at the company bike rack. The artist is Flickr user carriepie, who made this piece to take to Burning Man.
Link – via nagonthelake
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Time lapse video from the fourth largest city in the Netherlands.
This is an ordinary Wednesday morning in April 2010 at around 8.30 am. Original time was 8 minutes that were compressed into 2 minutes, so everything is 4 times faster than in reality. The sound is original.
This is one of the busiest junctions in Utrecht a city with a population of 300,000. No less than 18,000 bicycles and 2,500 buses pass here every day. And yet Google Street View missed it. Because private motorized traffic is restricted here.
These cyclists cross a one way bus lane (also used by taxis and municipal vehicles), two light rail tracks and then a one way street that can be used by private vehicles.
Commentary at the link addresses the absence of helmets on the cyclists.
Via The High Definite.
In an effort to position itself as a green company, Volkswagen has introduced a folding electric bicycle.
This folding, pedal-free electric bike designed by VW, made its debut at Auto China 2010 and is designed to fold up and fit in your spare tyre comparment. The Bik.e is capable of 12.5 miles on a full charge with a top speed of 12.5 mph, and it’s designed to draw a charge from the car itself so you won’t need to worry about plugging it in.
The idea is not particularly to use the bike for emergency breakdowns; it’s more for helping you reach a destination that the car alone cannot access, or where parking is not available where you want to go. Apparently this is not just a concept – the bikes will be marketed, although pricing information has not been released. A video at the link shows the bike in use.
Link.
The city council of Cardiff, Wales, has installed what is possibly the shortest bicycle lane in the world:
Kevin Hughes, 47, a cyclist from the Welsh city, said: "It’s just hilarious. I saw it as I was cycling past and couldn’t believe my eyes.
"Obviously nobody could cycle in it because it is so small. You just have time to get in the saddle before getting off again."
The bureaucrats, of course, have a perfectly logical reason:
A Cardiff Council spokesman said the lane is intended to "highlight the interface between the eastbound carriageway and the beginning of a new contraflow facility".
He said it would help cyclists cross the busy city centre and give them somewhere safe to stop before turning.
He said: "The purpose of the new facility is to enable cyclists to ride safely and legally in the opposite direction to the flow of traffic.
"The marking helps to highlight the point at which cyclists can turn left off the carriageway to join the contraflow facility."
Link (photo: Wales News)
Chariot skates are the invention of Australian electrician Michael Jenkins. They consist of two wheels, one large and one small, attached to each foot:
Costing up to $11,000 for a pair, the wheel-skate features two large carbon fibre wheels. The skater’s feet are suspended below the axle, which is believed to enable a smoother ride than skiing or cycling and can be worn for hours without discomfort.
It can also reach a top speed of 40km/h.
To pull up, skaters need to do a “t-stop,” where one foot is dragged sideways on the road surface.
Mr Jenkins, 50, came up with the idea by combining his favourite forms of transport – skiing, cycling and skating.
Link via Geekologie | Video | Official Site | Photo: Sunday Mail
I’ve always wanted to get me a cotton candy maker, but my teeth will probably rot from all the cotton candy I’d eat.
So perhaps it’s better if I just limit myself to adoring this ingenious bicycle and propane-powered mobile cotton candy maker in China. The sugar is heated with propane, and the cotton candy is spun using the bike pedals.
Wonderment blog has the video clip [embedded YouTube clip] | MAKE blog has larger pics (Photo: Kai over at MAKE) – Thanks Amie!
Bill and Amarins packed up their three young daughters Cheyenne, Jasmine, and Robin and set off on a 7,000 mile journey from Mt. Vernon, Kentucky (just up the road from me) to Alaska. What’s different about this trip is that they are traveling on a bicycle built for five! They call themselves the Pedouins, which is combination of pedal and Bedouins, meaning nomadic people. The journey included a detour to Mexico, since the purpose of the trip is to teach their children about the world. The family began the trip in October of last year, and they’ve made it to California so far. You can follow their adventure on their website. Link -Thanks, Hanan!
Welsh artist Pete Fowler, who created the really cool artwork for the band Super Furry Animals, made a "Twike" – a bicycle that will tweet its location as you bike around. It’s an art project for the Chance Collective for London’s EAST Festival that’s going on now (March 4 to 11).
Emma of Cakehead Loves Evil blog told us:
The decision to create the ‘Twike’ came with the festival’s ongoing theme of cycling. We are going to be personally cycling loads of fantastic events for cyclists in this year’s EAST including the Cycle East gig tour where you can travel to three gigs taking place in splendid East London locations all in one afternoon, on your bike, for free. Pete was chosen as he works and lives in the very heart of East London. [...]
Working with The Greenhouse Group, the bike will be fitted with a mobile which is programmed to tweet out messages when it comes within range of key areas of the festival, encouraging people to not only follow the bike online but also offline around the festival; there will also be a google maps mashup which shows the path of the bike through East London.
Link | Pete Fowler’s official website and blog | Making of the Twike video – Thanks Emma!
Check out Pete’s vinyl toy, previously featured on Neatorama: Full Vinyl: The Subversive Art of Designer Toys
Update 3/4/10 – Flickr photoset here.
For a class project, nine mechanical engineering majors at Yale built a bicycle with a spokeless back wheel. One of them, redditor zhoalander, described the design in a thread at reddit:
It’s a single speed setup. We used two cranks and two bottom brackets in the front to gear up the ratio. It goes from (IIRC) 53 to a 13, which is connected to the second crank and another 53 which connects to the rear hub. The rear hub is just a normal ratcheting rear hub that we mated to our belt pulley. Not sure if all these bike terms are right, but that’s the general idea.
The front wheel would be almost exactly the same as the rear wheel except that it could be a little lighter. Some of the aluminum can be shaved off since there’s no powertrain to connect to.
At the top of the thread, there are imgur links to more pictures of the bike.
Link via CrunchGear
Bike riding can get a bit boring after a while. So why not read a book while you’re at it? The Performance Book Caddy attaches to your bicycle’s handlebars, letting you focus on your text while riding. What would possibly go wrong?
Bergmönch is an interesting idea! Now you can climb a mountain with a backpack, and then unfold the backpack into a scooter of sorts so you can wheel your way down. The question: is a speedier descent worth carrying the extra weight up?
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
Engineer Carl Morgan’s son complained that a certain hill was too hard to climb on his bicycle. Could his dad invent a machine to help him power over these inclines? The answer came in “Joules”, an electrically-powered robot that rides in the back seat of a tandem bicycle:
Morgan spent months modeling how to transform a motor’s spin into pedal-pushing legs. The motor inside Joules’s torso turns a series of linked belts and chains that transfer power from one area of the robot to the next. Each upper leg pivots at the hip, raising and lowering its knee and forcing the lower legs to turn the pedals. He also added “bones” (rods on the outside) for needed stiffness.
Morgan was nervous when he climbed in front for the final test, but Joules easily cruised to the top of the hill. The bike could probably do more, even hit 30 mph, but Morgan says he doesn’t plan to find out: “Abject cowardice on my part means we’ll never know for sure.”
Max Hirschberg missed the last dogsled out of Dawson, Yukon because he was recovering from tetanus. So he rode a bicycle for two months to get to Nome, Alaska in order to join the Klondike gold rush in 1900. Hirschberg was 19 years old when he started the trip.
The day I left Dawson, March 2, 1900 was clear and crisp, 30° below zero. I was dressed in a flannel shirt, heavy fleece-lined overalls, a heavy mackinaw coat, a drill parka, two pairs of heavy woolen socks and felt high-top shoes, a fur cap that I pulled down over my ears, a fur nosepiece, plus fur gauntlet gloves.
Along the way, Hirschberg suffered from exposure, snowblindness, and a broken bicycle chain. He came close to drowning. His money was gone. Still, he made it to Nome. Link -via Metafilter
(image found at Center Scene)
While it seems most establishments with drive-thru windows are in agreement that bicycles are forbidden, and refused service, Washington-based restaurant Burgerville is leading the way to change that. All 39 of their stores now allow cyclists in their drive up lanes, giving free smoothies to the first batch earlier this month.
The intention of our Bike Friendly Service program is to create a consistent policy and experience for our guests in the drive thru. To support this program, a cross-functional team, including members from Hawthorne Burgerville and community members from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, have designed and are beginning the implementation of the first phase of the program.
Link via BikePortland
This working bicycle is also a work of art! The Forkless Cruiser is a graduation project by Olli Erkkila, a student at the Lahti Institute of Design in Finland.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
James Bowthorpe of London pedaled his bicycle 18,000 miles around the world in 174 days, 20 fewer days than the world record holder. He arrived back in Hyde Park to complete the journey on Saturday.
Mr Bowthorpe cycled through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States – taking flights where necessary – before coming back to Europe.
This week he pedalled through Spain and France before catching a ferry across the English Channel to Portsmouth where he met his mother and father.
He finished his ride back at his Hyde Park starting point accompanied by his brothers and 20 other cyclists.
The trip around the world raised £55,000 for research into Parkinson’s disease. Link -via Unique Daily
Linsey Pollak, Brendan Hook, and Ric Halstead comprise The Cycologists, an Australian band that bases its preformances on a bicycle theme. They’ve fitted their instruments into their bicycles, as the video above demonstrates when the musicians use their seats as clarinets. Other instruments include tuned bicycle bells, flutes that work as handlebars, and panpipes powered by tire pumps. The Cycologists’ stage shows are quite complex and you can see videos of them at the link.
Forget Lance Armstrong! Carla and Henriette Hochdorfer, German Artistic Cycling champions, certainly take bicycling to a whole new level …
– via carla-henriette
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Christophe.
Humans may not be able to walk on water, but an invention by Li Weiguo let us bike on water! Behold the amphibious bicycle, made by water containers jerry-rigged into pontoons:
Li Weiguo’s daughter Li Jin rides the human-powered amphibious bicycle on the water in Wuhan of Hubei Province, China on May 30, 2009. The amphibious bicycle made by Li Weiguo is equipped with eight water buckets as pontoons and adjustable vane wheels as driving power. This kind of bike can walk on land and on water.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by coconutnut.
The Schweeb is an experimental transit system in New Zealand that combines the bicycle and a monorail track. Users lie down individual pods and work the pedals to move forward:
Our proposal to get you safely and quickly from one point in the city to another would be to elevate you onto a network of interconnected monorails where you never have to stop at traffic lights. The ideal vehicle for such a system already exists. Fully faired recumbent cycles, because of their low aerodynamic resistance, are breaking all bicycle speed records and currently reaching speeds of 90 kph (56 mph) in sprints. Suspending these comfortable and highly efficient machines from monorail tracks has the added advantage of taking away the rolling resistance of pneumatic tyres. Trains of Shweebs can further reduce the aero drag – ten people travelling at 40 kph will each have a lot less work to do than a single rider at the same speed. A single rider requires only a fraction of the energy to achieve the same speed as a normal cyclist – thanks to the significant reductions in both aero drag and tire friction. The vehicle is completely weatherproof, you can’t derail or fall out while on the cellphone or blackberry!
Photo: frankh
Remember the mobile treadmill posted on Neatorama a while ago? Well, Flickr user frankh spotted a DIY version at MIT (where else?). Apparently, it’s what you get when you cross a bicycle with a treadmill – via GadgetLab
Most of us can ride bikes, but I bet you not like Inspired Bicycles team rider Danny MacAskill. Here’s a video tape of a collection of what can only be described as parkour on two wheels: Link [YouTube clip]
Kids, don’t try this at home. Or on the streets, either.
Contrail is a fun little gadget developed by Studio Gelardi to let bicyclists "mark" their bike paths. As more an more bikers ride on the same path, the contrail lines get brighter. Ostensibly, they say that the gadget allows other bicyclists the path that is safe to ride on but I’m sure that a big part of the appeal is the sheer fun in making roads look like Skittles rainbow.
Link – via Gadget Lab
Ever sport has got its hardcore fan, and cycling is no different: it has Didi Senft, a 56-year-old cycling superfan better known as "El Diablo" (yes, he wears the devil’s cape everywhere he goes).
Didi is quite famous in the cycling world; he has over 100 unusual and record-breaking bicycles. Deborah of Life in the Fast Lane has more on this guy:
Didi Senft has also built a recumbent double-decker tandem, and a giant rickshaw 42 feet (12.4 meters) long, on which the passenger sits at a dizzying height of 21 feet 10 inches (6.65 meters) above the ground.
Didi made the world’s largest soccerball bicycle out of more than 100 footballs and rode it around to promote the World Cup 2006 in Germany.
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