BikeRumor.com

NY TIMES: On the hour they come, great clouds of cyclists pulsing between classes along the street called Serra Mall — the main axis of Stanford University — like so many slowly charged particles in a physics experiment.

Campus is flat enough — and large enough — and the weather so brilliant that nearly everyone cycles. And whoever all these cyclists are, as individuals, their individuality is burnished by the bikes they ride and by the way they ride them. It’s as though the bikes are only partly transportation, as though they were really machines for differentiation.

And what aids the differencing is that few people wear helmets, and everyone is wearing ordinary clothes — none of the sleek and gaudy costumes you see on cyclists pumping through the peninsular hills and whistling down Sand Hill Road to the Caltrain station. They are themselves on wheels.

There is a deeply pleasing randomness about the campus cyclists… read the rest at NYTimes.com

Found this in a round-a-bout way following a story about 10 ways to become a cycling activist.  It’s a classic James A. Fitzpatrick Traveltalks: The Voice of the Globe movie about bicycle traffic in Copenhagen.  Quite interesting given how old it is, and has some history on the city as well as the bicycle culture, as well as some socialist commentary.  If you’re interested in that whole activism thing, here’s the breadcrumb trail…

Urban Simplicity –> Planet Green –> Slow Bicycle Movement

Cannondale has leaked some concept photos of their Duchess women’s cruiser bicycle, and it’s got some nifty features.

Check out the massive diameter of the “bottom bracket.”  I guess their BB90 just wasn’t big enough…they must be expecting some mom-zillas to be cranking this thing up some major hills.  BikeBiz reports that the Cannondale Dutchess is a result of the final year graduation project of Wytze van Mansum, from the Delft University of Technology.

Using a unique swooping toptube-cum-chainstay that integrates the rear fender as a structural element and has a nifty LED rear light smoothly finished into the curved tubes.  Hit ‘more’ for additional photos…

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Here’s the poster for the 2010 North American Handmade Bicycle Show, this year held on the East Coast (yay!) and pretty close, relatively speaking, to Bikerumor’s office.  We’ll be there covering all the sweet bicycle goodness from the growing list of exhibitors.

Who’s exhibiting?  Well, just click ‘more’ and you’ll see the current list as of Friday, Nov. 13…

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Sexy Bicycles is a new brand out of Perth, Australia, that’s put together a collection of limited edition single-speed, fixed gear and internally geared urban road bikes.  They come in a rainbow of colors and are designed to be as much a fashion statement as a mode of transportation.

Above is the Purist Green, a “cool classic styled urban fixed gear,” of which only 18 will be made. Other models are only available in limited editions, too, of 9, 18 or 27, and they’re only available for direct order through their website.   MSRP is $1,650 AUD (€ 965).

Hit ‘more’ to see the other eight models…

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The new 30 Seconds to Mars video for Kings + Queens features some sweet bicycle riding action, costumes and fixie tricks.  Oh, yeah, and a decent song, too.  Thanks to Brian for the tip!  Find it on MySpace here.

Warning: It takes a bit for the music to come in…don’t turn your volume all the way up thinking it’s not on or it may surprise you when they start jammin’.  That, and then your boss’ll know you’re not working.

Yuba Bicycles released its all-new V3 Mundo Cargo Bike last week, with numerous upgrades and usability improvements, making this already beloved bike a true tool for mobility, fitness, and community. Stylish, tough, and highly customizeable, the V3 Mundo stands at the ready for all sorts of missions. The new 21-speed drivetrain and the impressive weight savings — 9 pounds lighter than the original V1 Mundo — mean more riders can enjoy a true cargo bike, in more terrains, with no sacrifice in the Mundo’s legendary stiff ride quality.

With a max payload of 440 lbs, the Mundo is still the heavyweight of the longwheelbase cargo bike world. Riders have raved about the predictability and surefootedness of the frame, which become all the more apparent when the bike is loaded down. The 48-spoke tandem-strength rear wheel with its new cartridge bearing hub and oversized axle, is a big part of why the Mundo feels so stable when hauling loads.

The chassis-style loading system has evolved, with welded strap guides, ensuring your straps won’t slip from road vibration. The Mundo is now easier to customize to your unique cargo applications. Threaded braze-on points positioned throughout the cargo rack allow customers and businesses to integrate specific cargo racks, signage, tools, etc. Yuba’s huge and water-resistant GoGetter Bag is a great way to carry smaller and softer loads like food.

Additional pics, specs and details after the break…

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Found via BikesBelong, this is from David Hembrow’s blog about cycling in the Netherlands.  Recently, one local school banned vehicles from stopping at its curbs, effectively discouraging parents from dropping their kids off by car.  Even so, he claims the rate of car drop offs was pretty low, especially when compared to U.S. or UK trends.

Granted, the music in the video above makes it watchable, but can you imagine seeing bike traffic like that anywhere on our shores?  *dream*

FROM LEAGUE OF AMERICAN BICYCLISTS: Great news!  FTA has published a federal registry notice describing the eligibility of pedestrian and bicycle improvements for FTA funding and proposes a formal policy on the catchment area for pedestrians and bicyclists in relationship to public transportation stops and stations.

The proposed policy would expand FTA funding eligibility for bicycle and pedestrian improvements beyond the current threshold distances of one-half mile for pedestrian projects and within three miles for bicycle improvements.

To view the registry and provide comment, click here.

Electra Bicycles is offering a $25 rebate on any new bicycle priced $399 and up purchased between Nov. 9 and Dec. 31, 2009.  Just purchase from any authorized retailer and send in this rebate form and you’ll be all set…in about 8-10 weeks.

NYC’s not the only major city making headway.  On Thursday, November 17, San Jose, California’s City Council will meet to (hopefully) adopt its new Bicycle Plan.

The plan would reverse decades of traffic engineering focused almost exclusively on the automobile and shift priorities to bicycles, pedestrians and public transit.  The plan includes policy objectives to double the number of on-street lanes from 250 to 500 miles, add 5,000 new bike racks and bring bicycle mode share to 5% in an effort to achieve League of American Bicyclists’ Gold level bike friendly status.  And they want to do all this by 2020.

SF.Streetsblog.org reports that San Jose has tripled bicycle mode share in the past three years to 1.2 percent, putting the city 15th among the 70 largest U.S. cities (SJDOT statistic).

According to Cyclelicio.us (which is based around San Jose), that translates into 11,000+ cyclists riding to work, and it represents a 206% increase of bicycle commuters from 2005 to 2008.

A New York City transportation study released Monday claims the number of people riding bicycles to and from work rose 26% from last year, mimicking an increase of 32% from the same period 2007 to 2008.

“Cycling in the City continues growing rapidly as our bike network expands and becomes safer,” said Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

Besides the obvious (the 200+ miles of recent bike lanes), the city continues to show it’s fully behind improving cycling opportunities with little touches: They handed out free light kits Monday to cyclists as they exited the Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges to help with the dark commutes home.

Full story on NY Daily News.

No, it doesn’t mention cycling, but it’s eye opening as to why highways are so dominant and public (mass) transportation suffers for it.  Quick takeaways:

• Mass transit accounts for 40% of transportation in areas that it serves, but only 1% of total trips by Americans.
• Half of Americans have access to public / mass transportation, and only half of those say it’s satisfactory.
• 80 years ago, the privately owned/operated railways began being taxed to subsidize the government run highways, leading to the current dominance of car-centric transportation.
• There is a misconception that transit requires subsidies, but in reality, both highways and public transit require about 50% of their operating costs to come from subsidies.

Kudos to Streetfilms.org and the other cycling bloggers for putting this out there.

Raleigh Bicycles will tip its hat to its history by reintroducing its historic Heron head badge on all 2010 and beyond bikes.

BikeBiz quotes Mark Gouldthorp, MD of Raleigh UK, as saying: “Returning to the traditional logo is the best way to show the company’s pedigree and its historic commitment to Nottingham.

Brodie’s 2010 lineup carries over a lot of the models we liked from 2009 (like the Section 8), but they’ve spread some updates across the range.  Here are the changes:

The Remus, above, takes the same butted Chromoly steel tubing from their used-to-be-a-cyclocross bike Romulus and welds it into a simple single speed road bike.  The Remus comes with a flip-flop rear wheel, so you can run it as a fixie or keep it as-is.  For $699, you get the complete bike with Chromoly fork, Brodie-brand seatpost, bar and stem, Tektro brakes, Suntour cranks, Wellgo pedals and Formula hubs laced to Kore rims with Kenda tires.

Hit ‘more’ to see the rest of the new stuff…

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