Biking Bis - Bicycle Touring and More

Stolen bike carries 56 years of memories

Gene Bisbee — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:13:56 -0700

A 1952-vintage Schwinn bicycle that carried Donald Deer and his family all around Evansville for a half-century was stolen from outside a McDonald's recently.

While that Schwinn might be a museum piece for some, it was just a way to get around town for Deer, 64.

The local newspaper tells how Deer won the bicycle as a fourth grader by penning the winning fire safety slogan (Fire prevention week is OK, but let's make it a practice every day)...

GM buying Specialized Bicycle company

Gene Bisbee — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Could General Motors be going green?

BikeBiz.com reports early Tuesday morning UK-time that the world's biggest carmaker is buying California-based Specialized Bicycles.

Maybe GM sees the writing on the wall; one day there won't be any more oil to put in its cars. GM's Flora Lopi, VP for environment, energy and safety policy attributes it to GM being in the forefront of developing new transportation choices with limited impact on the environment.

See the San Jose Business Journal for the full story. Be sure to check out the "Related News" on the SJBJ website for the latest developments to this story of interest to all bicyclists; and definitely check out Quickrelease.tv. Seriously. Check it out ...

Bike tour led to acting career for Richard Widmark

Gene Bisbee — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:12:31 -0700

All the obituaries for Richard Widmark, 93, talk about his roles as a villain in films, but I remember him mainly as Jim Bowie in "The Alamo" in 1960.

What I didn't know is that the Minnesota-born actor became interested in acting while giving lectures after a bicycle tour he made through Nazi Germany.

Apparently Widmark went on his bike tour of Deutschland in the early 1930s. He was unsuccessful in his attempts to visit a camp for political prisoners named Dachau, which later became one of Hitler's infamous extermination camps. However, he did sneak into a youth camp ...

Get your own Moon Dog Bobblehead in Wheeling

Gene Bisbee — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:00:00 -0700

Some pretty famous sports figures have been celebrated as bobblehead dolls. I don't know of any cyclists who have been honored this way except for Italy's Fausto Coppi.

Now there's another.

The Wheeling Nailers hockey team is honoring "Moon Dog," a local character who's known for riding his flag-festooned bicycle around town and appearing in local parades.

The first 2,500 fans who go to see the "AA" Wheeling, West Virginia, affiliate of the Flyers and Penguins play on March 22 will get their very own Moon Dog Mini-Bobblehead. ...

Are your cycling pants flame retardant?

Gene Bisbee — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:14:37 -0800

Better check the label on your bicycling trou before heading out for your next spin.

Police in Poland say a 55-year-old man suffered 2nd degree burns on his legs and stomach after his pants spontaneously caught fire.

"Witnesses said he was like a flaming human torch cycling along the road." ...

(Fill in the blank) is your new bicycle

Gene Bisbee — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:48:52 -0800

Something you'll be hearing a lot soon is that something "is your new bicycle." It started with a website called "Barack Obama is your new bicycle" which caught fire and already has a slew of imitators.

The term will probably reach a peak in a few weeks, when advertisers will start using it in their "hip" commercials. That's when we'll quickly get sick of hearing it, and the once-clever term will die out of use.

Here's what Matthew Honan, a San Francisco based writer for Wired magazine, told Eric Zorn at the Chicago Tribune about the website and how it got started....

January tale of the tape

Gene Bisbee — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:21:53 -0800

Bicycling is almost always fun for me, but I get tired of rolling over the same old routes. It's fun to visit someplace new where every bike ride is a new adventure.

I spent much of the past week in Sacramento for some high school functions with my son, and I made the best of my free time with some decent bike rides.

I googled "bike rental Sacramento" before I left, so I already had a map of area bike rental shops when I got there. Although the weather was supposed to be "Seattle-like," my days for rides were sunny. Lucky me ...

2008 Bicycle Film Festival seeking entries

Gene Bisbee — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 22:21:57 -0800

The 2008 Bicycle Film Festival is coming off its best year ever, entertaining some 100,000 people in 15 cities around the world.

As it enters its eighth year of celebrating all things bicycle, the festival organizer is seeking submissions for this year's festival. The deadline is Feb. 19. The 2-minute video at left splices together some trailers from last year's BFF films.

Founding director Brendt Barbur says they're looking for films representing a bicycle theme or character. "A fine thriller with one scene of a bicycle chase does not count...

Bicycle lost and found: Leaving your bike on the bus

Gene Bisbee — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:24:00 -0800

In the world of bicycling, one of the biggest mysteries to me is how someone can lose a bicycle.

I can understand a person losing track of a bicycle that is stolen and ditched, but apparently people will occasionally park a bike and then not retrieve it. Do they forget it? Did they die? Were they whisked away by aliens?

For instance, the Seattle Metro transit system reported that 863 people put their bicycles on bus racks in 2007 and forgot to remove them....

Georgia police arrest bicycling bank-bandit suspect

Gene Bisbee — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:44:15 -0800

A man suspected of robbing 11 mostly Atlanta area banks and making his getaways by bicycle has been arrested by police in Roswell, Georgia.

Police wouldn't say what led them to Carlos H. Arango-Mejia, 47, of Doraville. He was arrested at his home Wednesday night and immediately booked on two area bank robberies from last spring. ...