Boing Boing » bicycles

Pedal-powered scroll saw

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:16:59 +0000

My little brother and I went to the Blue Ridge Parkway Folk Art Center in Asheville, NC, today and ran across this very cool piece of maker history — a scroll saw operated by a pulley powered contraption resembling a stationary bicycle. Pedal punk?

Pee-Wee Herman cycling skinsuit

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:10:31 +0000

Podium Cycling sells this boss Pee-Wee Herman skinsuit for your Big Adventures. They also do Spider-Man and various other novelties (light-up Tron, "hipster," etc), but Pee-Wee takes the cake.

Pee-wee Inspired Skinsuit (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

UK transport secretary broke a cyclist's neck through careless driving

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 23:17:29 +0000

What's worse than a new UK health secretary who believes in homeopathy? How about a new transport secretary who broke a cyclist's neck while recklessly driving a 4x4 through the streets of London? (via @bengoldacre)

BICYCLE: 2m long, detailed, grotesque bike-ride through London

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:41:03 +0000

A new bit of wonderfulness from the good folks at Nobrow press: Bicycle, a concertina-folded, 195cm, two-sided grotesque and highly detailed bicycle ride through London by artist Ugo Gattoni.

Inspired by the 2012 London Olympic Games, young artist Ugo Gattoni intricately illustrates a cycle race through the streets of London. From elite athletes to cycle couriers, commuters, bankers, delivery boys, mums with kids, youths on stolen mountain bikes to fashionistas and hipsters on fixed gear bikes – pretty soon you will realize this is no ordinary road race!
A recent graduate of one of Paris’ top art schools, Ugo Gattoni wowed the public with an incredible intricate pen drawing measuring approx 10 x 2 meters. His first foray into the London arts scene saw him drawing on the walls of the prestigious Hayward Gallery on London’s South Bank.
This Leporello project for Nobrow Press is his first publication. Nobrow Leporello have become one of our most popular products, selling to all ages and demographics, their dual purpose: as a book and as a frameable print have become a fun way for people to own great art affordably as well as enjoy fun and innovative narratives and educational content (e.g. High Times).

BICYCLE

PoV documentary on underground bike-messenger racing

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:13:21 +0000

Here's a trailer for "Line of Sight," a documentary on underground bike-messenger racing that uses helmetcams to capture some pretty insane (and often terrifying) examples of cycling skill:

Line Of Sight is a rare view into underground bicycle messenger racing which has become a global phenomenon. For over a decade Lucas Brunelle has been riding with the fastest, most skilled urban cyclists around the world while capturing all the action with his customized helmet cameras to bring you along for the ride.
This is bike riding like you've never seen before, in gripping first-person perspective through the most hectic city streets, on expressways in Mexico City, over the frozen Charles River, under the Mediterranean Sea, across the Great Wall of China and deep into the jungles of Guatemala.

LINE OF SIGHT - Official Trailer

Critical Mass 20th anniversary poster

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 26 May 2012 00:00:16 +0000

Hugh sez, "San Francisco muralista Mona Caron has created a stunning to poster to mark the 20th anniversary of Critical Mass in San Francisco this September."

Critical Mass 20th Anniversary Bike Angel Poster by Mona Caron (Thanks, hughillustration!)

National Bike Month: Draisines are the new fixies

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:00:23 +0000

Cycling Hipsters, if you were truly worth your ironic sideburns and artisanal grease stains, you'd abandon that fixie and mount one of these bad boys. The Smithsonian honors National Bike Month with a dive into the image archives for this photo, the forerunner of the modern bicycle: a draisine from around 1818. More about this "dandy horse," below.

In 1817, Karl Drais, a young inventor in Baden, Germany, designed and built a two-wheeled, wooden vehicle that was straddled and propelled by walking swiftly. Drais called it the laufmaschine or “running machine.”
A forester for the Grand Duke of Baden, Drais used his laufmaschine to inspect the Duke’s forest. The laufmaschine soon became a novelty among Europeans, who named it the “draisine.”
By 1818, the draisine craze reached the United States. Charles Wilson Peale, a well-known portrait artist, helped to popularize the draisine by displaying one in his museum in Philadelphia. Many American examples were made, and rentals and riding rinks became available in Eastern cities.
By 1820, the high cost of the vehicle, combined with its lack of practical value, limited its appeal and made it little more than an expensive toy. The two-wheeled vehicle would not become sustained until pedals were added in the late 1800s.
Donated to the Smithsonian in 1964, this draisine is the oldest cycle in its collection of 61 cycles. They reflect social trends and technological developments that have shaped the growth and popularity of riding since 1818.

Lots more wonderful old things like this in the Smithsonian's exhibition, "America on the Move." (thanks, Jessica Porter Sadeq)

Cyclists would rather ride a bike than have sex

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:53:53 +0000

In a recent survey of 5000 Bicycling magazine readers, 50% of men and 58% of women said that—if pressed to choose between sex or bikes—they'd pick the bikes.(Via Maria Popova)

Bicycle repairer pets his doggie, in Beijing (photo)

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:04:24 +0000

A bicycle repairer strokes his dog inside a storage box on his tricycle as he waits for his customer in Beijing November 24, 2011. (REUTERS/Soo Hoo Zheyang)

Bicycle with USB ports to charge devices off a built-in dynamo

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:03:12 +0000

German bike-maker Silverback has a new bike that incorporates a dynamo into the wheels that powers a recharging USB port on the handlebars, so you can charge your phone or tablet while you ride.

The Starke 1 and 2 models come with a USB port that uses power generated from a dynamo front hub to provide a charging point for gadgets like GPS units and smartphones

2012 MODELS - SILVERBACK TECHNOLOGIE GMBH (via O'Reilly Radar)

On 50lb bicycles and the lockability thereof

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:18:47 +0000

Mike Estee responds to the cyclist's old saw: "All bikes weigh fifty pounds. A thirty pound bike requires a twenty pound lock. A forty pound bike requires a ten pound lock, and a fifty pound bike doesn’t need a lock, because really, who wants a fifty pound bike?"

What is the utility of a fifty pound bike? Would anyone ever ride it? What if we took the idea of building the fastest and lightest bike, and flipped it on its head. What if we designed for more weight instead of less? How heavy would a bike need to be to not require a lock? How would this change our social interaction with the humble bicycle?

And MAKE:'s Michael Colombo takes the question seriously: "Short of mechanically hoisting your bike up a lamppost, what else could be done? Are all bikes really fifty pounds? In most large American cities a burly U-Lock and/or chain is essential. The Kryptonite New York U-Lock weighs in at 4.5 pounds, and the Kryptonite New York Noose chain is a hefty 6.8 pounds. This doesn’t quite live up to the fifty pound joke, but it can drastically increase the weight of your ride. Most urban cyclists keep both a chain and a U-Lock for versatility’s sake, since they can never be sure what they’ll be locking to. Let’s hear it in the comments. If you had an extra twelve pounds to make your bike theft-proof, how would you do it?"

The resulting discussion is pretty interesting.

Bike Theft: Thinking Outside of the Lock

(Image: Never enough, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from rednuht's photostream)