Every hour of every day, someone is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I have a very personal reason for wanting a cure for MS found. Multiple Sclerosis has had a direct impact on my life, and I don't want other families to go through what mine has. My mother passed away in 20002 from Progressive-Relapsing MS.
That's why have I registered for the 2009 Bike MS ride, the Tour de Vine, and that's why I'm asking you to support my fund raising efforts with a tax-deductible donation of any amount, great or small, which helps to make a difference in the lives of people with MS.
Please pledge your support to me today!
Click here to visit my personal page.
I appreciate your support and look forward to letting you know how I do.
From Friday, June 12 through Sunday, June 14, 2009, I will be joining 800+ cyclists who will (hopefully) enjoy various length routes passing through Virginia’s famous wine country and the beautiful landscape of the Blue Ridge Mountains and supported throughout by hundreds of volunteers, in this year's 'Start to Finish MS Bike Ride', better know as The Tour de Vine. Lengths include a 25, 50,75, and 100 mile option for both Saturday and Sunday.
My Goal is to ride the 50 mile route each day.
People living with MS overcome challenges everyday: to walk, to have energy to go to the store, to have the will power not to give up. That is why it is so important to me that I support the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and I need your help to turn my goal into a reality.I have accepted the challenge to raise funds in the fight against MS and you can help me get there.
Please pledge your support to me today!
Click here to visit my personal page.
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/VABBikeEvents?px=6297198&pg=personal&fr_id=10668&s_tafId=104521
If you would like more information about the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, how proceeds from Bike MS are used, or the other ways you can get involved in the fight against MS, please visit nationalmssociety.org
Gary Koenig, the Denver Cycling Examiner, has a great list for cyclists you should check out!
As part of the wide-ranging stimulus effort to get our great country back on the right economic track, it's your duty as a cyclist to go out and buy some stuff.
If you’re trying to figure out which pieces of cycling equipment you should be lusting after, if you endeavor to understand where you stack up in the rider hierarchy or if you’re just trying to pigeon-hole the rider you just blew by (or vice versa), here is a checklist of equipment choices that should help you get the US economy perking again.
Start paying attention to what other riders are riding, carrying and wearing to get a better sense for what you need to buy to more closely approximate the rider you think you are. Bicycling can be an incredibly simple and relatively inexpensive sport, but gear choices are almost unending, so get your favorite cycling catalog out and start planning your acquisitions. Right now you'll get some great deals and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you helped right a sinking economic ship.
Drinking caffeine before strenuous bike rides reduces muscle pain, a new study suggests.
Reporting in the April edition of the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, Illinois professor Robert Motl describes how java comes to the rescue. He says caffeine works on a system in the brain and spinal cord called adenosine neuromodulatory that is involved in pain processing.
“Caffeine blocks adenosine from binding so you stop part of the pain receiving process,” he says. “We do not have the data to show how caffeine takes effect, but we do know the physiology of caffeine.” He said one of the next steps for his research team would be to conduct studies with rodents in order to better understand caffeine’s role in reducing pain.
His study involved 25 fit, college-aged males. One group had low to non-existent caffeine intake. The second group routinely drank three to four cups of coffee a day. Everyone was instructed not to drink coffee 24 hours prior to the session. For one session, they were given a caffeine pill, the equivalent of two to three cups of coffee. For the next session, they were given a placebo.
During both exercise sessions, riders were asked to record perceptions of quadricep pain. Motl says the results surprised him. Both habitual and “naive users,” or people who didn’t drink coffee, experienced less pain after taking the pill.
A former competitive cyclist, Motl says he would always meet other cyclists at coffee shops before they would ride so “we could get all loaded up. And wherever you go in Europe, you’ll see cyclists sipping on a shot of espresso or drinking their latte before riding.”
Motl thinks people intuitively know to drink coffee before riding because it makes the exercise less painful and they can push harder.
Photo of Motl with his bike and a cup of coffee by University of Illinois.
--By Janice Lloyd, USA TODAY
Update: WebMD has pretty much the same story
AUSTIN, Texas — A new going green project in Austin, TX involves people power and balance.
The city on Thursday unveiled a bicycle-sharing program for municipal workers who need to travel short distances for meetings or other business.
Austin bought 15 bicycles, at a cost of $256 each, as part of the Climate Protection Program funded by Austin Energy.
City spokeswoman Charlotte Blum says Austin is providing helmets and locks.
Workers can reserve the bicycles via the city's Intranet Web site, then they receive an access code.
The bicycles must be returned to the same location, with six sites available, as part of the city's pilot program to also ease traffic congestion.
Matt Furber over at the New York Times has written a pretty good article of cycling in Portland, Ore. Good enough to make me want to take a trip out there just to see if he is correct.
"Careering through streets on a bicycle in Portland, Ore., this time of year can be an easy weekend adventure that mixes showers, sunbursts, cafes and a robust bicycle culture. And equipped with a sturdy rain jacket, booties, fenders and a bike map (a waterproof version that folds to the size of a credit card is handy), visitors can enjoy the city the way locals do."
Check out the rest of the article here
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Wouldn't it be great if there were long-distance trails specifically for bicycles? Basically -- roads without cars?
Well, there are! A quickly emerging network of abandoned railway lines are being converted by regional governments into superb bike paths. In addition to offering very gentle grades that are ideal for bikes, many of these new trails are satisfying long. The longest rail trail is over 300 miles long, and the longest off-pavement bike trail in the country stretches 2,500 miles. On these bike roads you can cruise along for weeks without ever encountering a car, or worrying about being bumped off the white line by an oblivious motorist. These are not paved roads, but packed gravel or dirt. Many sport spectacular tunnels and bridges courtesy of the former railways. At the same time these trails pass through small towns affording local eateries and rural lodging, as well as the usual camping spots along the way. I tell you, there's nothing like arriving at the soft pillows of a B&B after a long day of pedaling.
Many of these trails did not exist as bike paths even a few years ago. More are being opened every day. There's great effort to sew short sections together into long haul bike-primary paths. Eventually you will be able to cross the country via a series of interconnected car-free roads. In the meantime, the clearinghouse for the latest additions to the bike-road network is the Rail to Trails Conservancy.
But you don't have to wait to enjoy some fantastic overnight tours on roads without cars. Here are six of the longest continuous bike trails in operation right now, in ascending order of length on Kevin Kelly's Website KK.org/cooltools.
When the world runs out of gas, we'll all be riding carbon fiber bicycles, weighing 15.4 pounds and hooking our bodies up to telemetry systems that rival the space program. With The Factor001, you don't have to wait for such inevitabilities — if you happen to have a spare $27,724 lying around, that is.
Designed by Formula One race car engineers at BERU F1 Systems, it's the most advanced bicycle in the world. You'd think it was a Ferrari, with its carbon ceramic brakes controlled by a hydraulic system, and then there's that flashy metallic finish. It's also packing a built-in GPS transmitter, and like a good Garmin Forerunner, gathers up "laboratory quality" biometric and performance data for you to peruse on your PC when you get home.
Besides all that, it looks so cool I thought it was some design-concept-y prototype bike. But no, it rolled out at London's Science Museum on March 11th, and is ready for prospective buyers to be measured up for this custom-fitted machine of the future. Now if they can just bring that price down to under $1000, I'm in (that is if some wealthy reader can loan me the cash).
Factor001 Press Release, via Inhabitat, Via Dvice.com
Tensegrity is a word coined by Buckminster Fuller to describe structures where strength and integrity are achieved by balancing members under compression, with other that are in tension. In creating a bike frame where most of the members are under tension, Romanian designer Ionut Predescu's Wire Bike replaces most of the tubing with high strength carbon fiber and Kevlar cables, saving lots of weight in the process.
WhileI don't doubt the Wire Bike's basic strength, I wonder whether it will have sufficient lateral strength to avoid flexing when a rider really stands on the pedals. Especially when a 'BOB' (Big Ole Boy) like me hits it....
Yanko Design, via Treehugger.com
Regular bike helmets protect your head when you fall, but do they intimidate and terrify everyone around you? No, they don't. That's not so with the Gladiator Helmet, which looks like it does a questionable job of protecting your melon but does a bang-up job of making you the most intimidating cyclist on the street.
While the helmet/goggles combo doesn't look too comfortable, and while it looks like it would julienne your head rather than protect it in a fall, it has a certain look to it. You know, a look that says "I'm not above murdering you if you get in my way." And there's certainly something to be said for that.
Via Yanko
This is a concept right now, but I really like idea...
Having a bike lane on the street that you're pedaling down is a great thing. It makes drivers aware of you and it gives you your own space to travel in. Unfortunately, that is rarely an option. What to do? Just take a bike lane with you!
The LightLane is a concept design that uses lasers to project an illuminated bike lane all around you wherever you go. It keeps you visible to cars and it keeps you safe. Until all cities put in bike lanes for cyclist safety, we might have to rely on clever devices like this to stay safe.
Good, via The Daily What
In an effort to bring their hydrogen fuel cell expertise to small electric vehicles, Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies' HMX — that stands for Hydrogen Mobility X-Tender — has finally made the moped cool.
At a top speed of 15 mph, the bike gets 180 miles on a single hydrogen charge. The bike's 36V engine does allow it to operate "pedal-assisted," although with a $3000 price tag, it's unclear why an owner would want to do any work at all.
Recharging the solid-state hydrogen fuel cell takes 30 minutes, but the six-gear motor does take 10-15 seconds to warm up. Because you wouldn't want a bike this unique-looking to be a bank robbery getaway vehicle anyway.
The HMX comes to the US later this year.
K, so why is that top bar sticking out either end? Turns out that there is an LED integrated into each end, evidently solar powered too, though I can't see any solar cells. Or perhaps you can open it up and fill the thing with a dozen D batteries.
If you go biking at night, it's a smart idea to have reflectors on your bike so cars don't accidentally run you over. But what if, rather than slapping reflectors on your bike, you made your entire bike a reflector? Oh, and you did so invisibly?
This is entirely possible thanks to retroreflective vinyl. It's a material that looks black in normal light, but turns completely white and reflective when a bright light, such as headlights, is shone on it. It's totally awesome, giving your bike a cool black exterior that also keeps you totally safe by acting as beacon when light hits it. You can get the material and do it to your own bike if you want.
BrightBike, Via Core77
Biking is a great way to get around, but what if you're lazy? If that's the case, biking isn't that great, what with it demanding physical exertion to work. And who likes exerting themselves physically? (I do, Ido) But if you don't then that's why you might like the Optibike OB1. Powered by a lithium-ion battery, it allows you to sit back and pedal as little as you want, even enjoying a delicious Subway sandwich while riding if you so choose. It also has built-in GPS to ensure that you know where you're going, and a PDA to keep track of your rides. It's the perfect bike for those individuals who would rather be sitting on the couch, doing anything they can to avoid exercise.
Engadget, via Ubergizmo
Biking is a great way to get around, what with it providing exercise and being totally eco-friendly. But what if it could be even more eco-friendly?
Well, not only does the Grasshopper not use any energy, like all bikes, but it actually generates surplus energy that can be used for other things.
In addition, it folds up into a compact, carryable size, making it perfect for city dwellers who don't have much room to store their bikes and have to lug them up flights of stairs every day.
Oh, and did I mention it can also be converted into a stationary exercise bike? Yeah, it's that awesome. I want one right now.
Via Yanko Design
A few days officially into Winter for the Northern Hemisphere, and many cyclists are probably thinking about hanging up their cycling helmet for the season. The bicycle is however a very adaptable beastie, than can be ridden in a myriad of conditions, including snow.
One such never-say-die trusty stead is the Pugsley. No doubt named after the chubby child from the Addams Family TV series, this bicycle version is also easily recognised by its sizeable girth, particularly those ginormous 4” tires. These give the bike incredible float over what would otherwise be very awkward terrain.
Article continues: Ride Anywhere: Pugsley, the Bicycle SUV
Guim Valls Teruel is almost ready to go. His goal: Travel all 5 continents on an electric bike. The project is called the Electric Bicycle World Tour.
Guim decided to choose this alternative form of personal transportation to promote the use of cleaner energy and the non-reliance on fossil fuel. According to him, one person has never done this before. However, many people can participate in this “one kilometre – one hope” sponsorship program set up by an NGO, by showing solidarity and hence become part of the tour. So why go electric?
Article continues on Treehugger.com: A Resolution for 2009: Around the World in an Electric Bike
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