BBC Radio took a poll recently on what listeners thought  was the best invention since 1800.

The bicycle came in at #1 in the BBC poll with 59% of the vote. It was chosen for being an ecologically sound means of transportation, its simple design, and its widespread use. ...   more »

When I set out on my cross-country bicycle tour 21 years ago, the one thing I didn't expect was to meet a host of unforgettable people along the way.

There was Lazy Louie in Missouri, the preacher in Elk Garden, Virginia, and a Navajo Code Talker in Arizona. But the first, and most memorable, was June "The Cookie Lady" Curry. ...   more »

Schwinn, Murray, Huffy ... the names of bicycle manufacturers that have closed factories in the US and moved overseas goes on and on.

Even Wisconsin-based Trek makes about 80% of its bicycles abroad, mainly in Asia. In all, only 1% of the bicycles sold in the US are made here. ...   more »

Bicycle tourists spend part their time riding on the edge. I’m not just talking about the edge of the road, but the edge of their limits for physical and mental stress. Veer over the edge, and there can be a crash. End of tour.

That’s especially true for the so-called self-contained cycling tourists. No sag wagons. No mechanics. No large group for support. And, in the “old days,” no cell phones. ...   more »

Check out the standings in the Vuelta a Espana, and you'll find three US cyclists competing -- Tom Danielson (Discovery), Chris Horner and Freddie Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto) -- not just Danielson and Horner like I reported Friday.

Thanks to Frank Steele at Tour de France blog 2006 for pointing out that error. The official Vuelta a Espana website still lists Mario Aerts and Christophe Brandt on the Davitamon roster, but they've been replaced by Rodriguez and Pieter Mertens ...   more »

(Update: "It's 3, not 2, US cyclists in the 2006 Vuelta")
The Vuelta a Espana begins Saturday with a 4 1/2-mile team time trial around the city of Malaga. The final three-week European classic bike race of the year ends September 17 in Madrid.

The race features 21 teams and 209 cyclists, including just two Americans. Chris Horner is riding for Davitamon Lotto, and Tom Danielson competes as the team leader for the Discovery Channel team.

Why so few Americans ...   more »

Border Patrol agents call it el Tour de Los Estados Unidos. The winners of this Tour gain illegal entry into the US from Mexico on bicycles they use to cross the border.

The rundown bikes cost $20 to $25 each. They run the gamut from mountain bikes to Chinese models with wing handlebars. The reflectors are removed; one bike was painted camouflage green, while others are spray painted black.

The immigrants ride the bikes at night on hiking trails or unused desert roads. The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, right, is a favorite route.

"Usually you hear what sounds like off-road truck tires coming toward you down the road 'cuz there's so many of them" ...   more »

Did it seem that you read more about bicycling deaths last year? That's because you did.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration reported this week that 784 "pedalcyclists" died in traffic accidents in 2005; that's an increase of 57 deaths over 2004.

While overall highway fatalities rose 1.4% in 2005 ...   more »

Police across Indiana are mourning two cyclists killed on a cross-state bicycle charity ride to raise money for fallen comrades.

State Police Lt. Gary Dudley, 52, left, and former Lake County Police Chief Gary Martin, 63, right, were killed in the collision as they rode their bicycles on Tuesday. A third cyclist, retired Indianapolis Police Officer Spencer Moore, was airlifted to a hospital for treatment. ...   more »

The Tour of Benelux ended on Wednesday in a finish more reminiscent of a roller derby match. Stefan Schumacher swung into the path of George Hincapie about 60 yards from the finish line, nicking Hincapie's front wheel and sending him crashing to the ground.

Awarded a time bonus, Schumacher made up his three-second deficit and beat Hincapie by one second in the Tour of Benelux, an eight-day stage race through Belgium and the Netherlands. ...   more »

Principals in a Kansas school district are prohibiting children up to third grade from riding their bicycles or scooters to school. That might not sit too well in some Oregon school districts, which encourage children to walk and ride to school.

The Lawrence school district enacted the ban last spring after a 6-year-old kindergartner was struck and killed by a minivan as he rode his scooter to school. Police said a shrub at the intersection obscured the motorist's view. ....   more »

American George Hincapie held onto his overall lead in the Tour of Benelux on Monday, while Belgian cyclist Tom Boonen won the sprint stage from Hasselt to Balen.

A Discovery Channel cyclist, Hincapie took the overall leader's claret jersey with a time trial win on Sunday. ...   more »

You want pictures of touring bikes? Fully Loaded Touring Bikes has pictures of touring bikes --  nearly 100 of them.

Ron W's "tribute to the fully loaded touring bicycle" gallery shows the many makes and styles of touring bicycles out on the road and the different ways their owners load them up. ...   more »

With the ongoing controversies about drugs, drug labs and drug-enforcement czars, it's easy to forget that most cyclists are still cranking away out there on the blacktop.

One of those is American cyclist George Hincapie, who has taken the lead of the 8-day Tour of Benelux in Belgium and the Netherlands. The Discovery Channel cyclist did it by winning the 10-mile Stage 4 time trial on Sunday. ...   more »

I'm testing out my newly acquired Yakima trailer the other day, and a guy on a singlespeed comes up alongside and shouts, "Nice rig!"

It didn't occur to me then, but I realized later that I've stepped up from riding a bike to piloting a rig.

I'm planning (probably not too carefully) a few days off for a bike tour in a couple of weeks, and my LeMond Tourmalet isn't really designed for carrying much gear. ...   more »

OLN bicycling commentator Phil Liggett was interviewed about the Floyd Landis affair last weekend by Carlton Reid of UK-based BikeBiz, a bicycle industry newsletter. Reid posted the interview online at YouTube.com in his Cycling News & View series.

"I'm still very skeptical about the whole thing," Liggett says. "The Laboratory (Châtenay-Malabry) is unscrupulous to say the least, because they shouldn't know the sample they're testing." ...   more »

If you're looking for something to do on the last Saturday night (Aug. 26) of the month, roll on down to Seattle's Bike-In at Magnuson Park. Presented by the Cascade Bicycle Club and the Northwest Film Forum, the free event features bicycle-themed films on a big outdoor screen, live music and biking demos.

We're not talking "Breaking Away" or "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" here   more »

Bike police have been around for awhile; now fire departments are using bicycles to get their emergency medical technicians into crowded events.

The next innovation for the bicycle is its use as an ambulance.  Non-governmental organizations in developing countries are building trailers for bikes that can carry patients to medical clinics. ...   more »

It's all over for the bicycle racing team sponsored by Phonak.

Owner Andy Rihs is disbanding the team after Phonak earlier decided to pull its sponsorship at the end of the year and iShares decided not to pick up the ball, as earlier agreed.

Rihs, unable to find a sponsor, said the doping scandal surrounding former team member Floyd Landis led to his decision. "For this reason, today I see myself forced to do something I have never done in my whole life as a businessman: I have given up!" ...   more »

After all these years and thousands of miles in the saddle, I can now give an authoritative answer to the question: What keeps a moving bicycle from falling over?

It's all about physics. That's what Deborah Byrd and Joel Block tell us from the Earth & Sky radio show heard over many National Public Radio stations.

They explain that spinning bicycle wheels have a "special property" called angular momentum. Physics demands that angular momentum be maintained unless its acted upon by an exterior force. ...   more »

The Eugene, Oregon, company that makes those distinctive kiddie trailers -- as well as bicycles and other cycling equipment -- is no longer a worker-owned cooperative.

Burley Design Cooperative is now Burley Design Inc., a privately held corporation. The change is a "last ditch attempt to save Burley," according to a letter from the board of directors ...   more »

Could amateur cyclist AJ Smith be the next Lance Armstrong?

Who knows, but the bicycle racer from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, did win the "Race to Replace" contest Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway sponsored by the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. ...   more »

“And the more you get out there and talk about it, I have to talk about it. The best is just to let the process play out and get out of the media. ... I would have encouraged him just to lay low. ...   more »

Bill Cook's cross-country bicycle adventure ended in Washington, D.C., this week.

The 70-year-old retired journalist's 3,248-mile recumbent bike tour ended 49 days after it started in Seattle, where he left with a supported tour organized by the Adventure Cycling Association. ...   more »

A Tacoma, Washington, couple's ride of a lifetime ended on a rural road in north-central Wisconsin earlier this week when Bob Burton, 55, was struck by a car as he rode his touring bike.

His wife, Anita, who had ridden ahead a little while before the collision, said:

“It was an instant thing. We had a beautiful road. Two feet (of shoulder) and then the white line. The person who hit him did not see him.” ...   more »

City officials in Toronto are investigating whether their distinctive post-and-ring bicycle stands have a flaw that enables thieves to steal bike locked to them.

The city has installed some 16,000 of the bike stands since 1985, making them a common landmark of the Toronto streetscape.

But bike thieves may have found a way to break the ring and remove the bike, lock intact.

Toronto's transportation services division issued a press release on Friday seeking information from cyclists who believe their bikes might have been ripped off because of defective post-and-ring. ...   more »

If you happen to be in Indianapolis with your bicycle on Saturday, you might want to head down to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to ride with Lance Armstrong in the "Race to Replace."

"Race to Replace" was initially coined as the slogan to find a Discovery Channel teammate able to lead the team at the 2006 Tour de France after Lance Armstrong's retirement from the sport.

This "Race to Replace" being ridden at the home of the Indy 500 is the public relations and cancer fund-raising event ...   more »

Bicyclists are taking to the cross-country highways this year to gain experiences at a slow pace and to promote and raise money for charity.

One awesome example is the Bike for BJ tour.

In high school 10 years ago, friends Nick Blankenburg and Sean Ryan made plans to ride their bicycles cross-country. Before they could accomplish that goal, however, Blankenburg was injured in a car accident at age 17 that left him paralyzed from the chest down. ...   more »

This is sad news. BikePortland reports that Michael Wilberding, the founder of Cycle-Pak, died on Saturday from injuries he suffered when he was struck by a car in Beaverton on Aug. 1.

Those of you who attended this year's Seattle Bike Expo in February might remember visiting Mike's exhibit, at right. He had designed a double-walled cardboard box that could be used for shipping bicycles. This was his first show, and he was proudly handing out business cards and talking about his invention. ...   more »

A motorist intentionally shoved a cyclist off the road and into a ditch in Oregon on Saturday during the MS 150 bike ride. The rider suffered cuts and bruises; the motorist left the scene and is being sought by police.

Pro cyclist George Hincapie was among the 900 bike riders in the two-day fund-raiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society that rode out of Forest Grove on Saturday and Sunday. ...   more »

Floyd Landis appeared on Jay Leno's Tonight Show to offer still another possible reason why he tested positive for a high testosterone level in the Tour de France.

"I don't know if it's somehow or some way I ingested something that caused the tests to be that way,'' Landis told Leno. ...   more »

I've noticed several searches on this site regarding a death during the Marin Century bike ride last Saturday. The Marin Independent Journal reports that Judith Harmon, 49, of Lafayette died at about 11:15 a.m., about halfway through the 100-mile event.

The newpaper quoted the county coroner as saying Harmon completed a 100-mile bike ride two weeks previously and appeared to be in good health.

I made light of some grassfires sparked by a bicycle dragged behind an RV last week in Idaho, but wildfires are serious business for bicycle tours.

In addition to the obvious danger of being caught in a conflagration, there's the hazards of emergency equipment speeding along winding mountain highways and lung-choking smoke from fires that could be many miles away.

The Red Eagle Fire, pictured above, in Glacier National Park, Montana, is just one of four fires in Montana and 40 large fires in the western states reported on Tuesday that are burning about a half-million acres. ...   more »

P>With one day to go in the Tour of Germany, it looks unlikely that American cyclist Levi Leipheimer will repeat his 2005 overall victory in the nine-day bike race.

German cyclist Jens Voigt has won three stages and has a firm grasp on the overall leader's yellow jersey. ...   more »

If you still want to believe in Floyd Landis, then you'll want to read his interview in USA Today.

Landis, who's holed up at his home in Murrieta, California, blamed the leaks from Union Cycliste Internationale for his having to scramble to try and come up with an explanation for the out-of-whack testosterone-epitestosterone ratio. ...   more »

A bicycle scorched 250 acres of grassland along an Idaho highway on Friday.

The six grass fires along a two-mile stretch of Highway 52 near Payette were ignited by a bicycle that had come loose from an RV. It apparently was dragged along the pavement, showering sparks into the dry brush at the side of the road.

The Argus Observer reports the fire was reported at 4:15 p.m., and crews remained on the job until after 1 a.m.

 

Looking for a new American cycling hero after Floyd Landis has crashed and burned in his Tour de France doping scandal? Try Levi Leipheimer.

The native Montanan who currently lives in Santa Rosa, California, won Stage 5 of the Tour of Germany on Sunday, moving up to 4th place and getting a chance to duplicate last year's Deutschland overall victory. ...   more »

It's a black day in cycling. As most everyone expected, even Floyd Landis, the much-anticipated "B" sample came back positive.

The 30-year-old Tour de France winner was immediately fired by the Phonak team. He'll probably lose his Tour de France championship as well, depending on the action of the US Anti-Doping Agency. ...   more »

Greg LeMond is getting out on the road to participate with thousands of recreational cyclists in the Pan-Mass Challenge bicycle tour this weekend.

As Lance Armstrong joined RAGBRAI last week, and George Hincapie is scheduled to ride in the Oregon Wine Country MS150 ride this weekend, LeMond will join 4,000 other cyclists on the nation's biggest fund-raising bike ride. ...   more »

The next time you're driving down the freeway, set your cruise control at 54 mph. Glance out the side window at the scenery zipping by. Now imagine doing this under your own power.

Amazing? Now imagine yourself doing this under your own power for an hour. That's what Fred Markham did on an outdoor track in the Arizona desert the day before July Fourth.

Now slow down to 26 mph on a residential street. That's still pretty fast for self propulsion. Could you do that for 24 hours? Greg Kolodziejzyk did, on July 20. ...   more »

If Lance Armstrong could ride RAGBRAI, could George Hincapie be far behind?

Hincapie won't be riding across Iowa, but he will be cycling in Oregon this weekend at the Oregon Wine Country MS 150 Bike Tour. ...   more »

While we all sit around waiting for the French lab to test "B" sample from the Tour de France, here's what's happening on the Floyd Landis front.

Nothing. But that doesn't stop the flow of information. Here's a news item, a blog about organic chemistry, the reliability of lab tests, Bob Roll asking questions and a video from the Steven Colbert Report:

Landis has hired Howard Jacobs of Los Angeles as his attorney. Jacobs specializes in athlete-doping cases and was Tyler Hamilton's attorney. ...   more »

You probably already knew that good times in the aerospace industry has caused a shortage of carbon fiber. Given the ol' law of supply and demand, that means the price of carbon fiber bikes has gone up.

But did you know that the carbon fiber makers are slammin' the bicycle makers in deference to aerospace giants? This isn't a level playing field. ...   more »

This is one of the best snapshots I've seen from Lance Armstrong's visit to RAGBRAI last week.

It's posted over at 2 Wheel Commute, and the blogger has quite a story to go with the picture.

I don't want to repeat it all here, but let's just say it involves four Bloody Marys. Nice work.

 

Synthetic testosterone was detected in the Floyd Landis urine sample taken after Stage 17 at the Tour de France, an unidentified worker in the Union Cycliste International's anti-doping department told the New York Times.

If true -- none of this is official, the latest comes from an unidentified source -- it would fly in the face of the Tour de France winner's contention that the high ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone was a natural condition of his physiology. ...   more »