London Singlespeed Society

…is actually not bad.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11598.aspx

I was initially disappointed to find the “Cycling Journey Planner” looks like a lazy modification of the standard TfL journey planner, with the word “cycle” instead of “walk”. However, click on the “start” or “end” maps and it actually gives you a full cycle route breakdown, albeit in multi-page PDF format.  I found it suggested some ‘I didn’t realise that was there’ routes as well as a couple of unnecessarily road-avoiding ones. However, generally as an initial guide to cycling from one place to another in London without being too caught up in traffic, it’s pretty good.

: P

Posted on LiveLeak, a video of some people “freeway cycling”:

What interests me is not the sports metal soundtrack accompanying what appears to be fairly banal footage of some cyclists riding down the gaps in near-stationary traffic (something most of us would simply refer to as “commuting”), but the comments. “These guys are roadkill waiting to happen”, “crazy”, “insane” and of course an obligatory “I wopuld of hit him just for fun…asswipe bike on a freeway…fuckin moron.”

It never seems like a good idea.

Thank you, FAIL Blog.

From Bikesnob NYC last week:

Of course, the truth is that on a lot of terrain a singlespeed mountain bike isn’t much of a handicap. In fact, often it’s an advantage. When confronted with a steep grade on a singlespeed mountain bike, you either have to stomp up it really fast, or you have to run it. Meanwhile, the geared rider will downshift eternally until he’s spinning a tiny gear so violently he simply falls over.

So while finding distractions from Actually Setting Up A Business, I’ve discovered Yehuda Moon, an online cartoon about a couple of guys who run a small bike shop in the middle of a small town in the U.S. – some amusing stuff from both sides of the counter:

Worth a look.