Bicycle Report

bicycle

 If you’re giving a bicycle for Christmas this year, great choice! It’s a wonderful gift for anyone, as it combines fitness with fun and can be a lasting toy, depending on how fast the person you’re giving it to is growing.

But if you are giving a bicycle, you may want to make sure to keep safety in mind. About 300,000 kids are sent to the emergency room every year because of bicycle accidents, making bike safety a pretty important priority for families. Here are a few things you might want to get to go along with your bicycle. Read more

Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. Friends don’t let friends vote Republican (or Democrat—or at all, depending on what the case may be). Where’s the bumper sticker that says friends don’t let friends ride bikes without helmets—or better yet, parents don’t let kids do the same?

A bicycle helmet is one of the easiest things you can buy to protect your child from injury. You buy a car seat, right? Do you pay for a flu vaccination—or even other pricier shots, such as RSV prevention drugs? You’ve also probably got smoke detectors, outlet covers and other protective devices in your home—so why not a helmet? Read more

We already know the healthful benefits of riding a bicycle. A great source of low-impact aerobic exercise, biking can help elevate your mood, delay aging, improve your heart’s health, and burn calories. It’s also an eco-friendly form of transportation that’s easy on your body while still giving you a chance to build stamina, reduce your blood pressure and even hang out with friends. Those are some pretty decent reasons to take up biking if you don’t bike already.

But you can also help humanity by biking. Plenty of celebrities, from Lance Armstrong to Matthew McConaughey, have all biked for charity. Now you can, too! Read more

You never know what you're likely to see, when you bike-tour the more remote states. Sometimes the local wildlife may surprise the heck out of you, though.

Case in point:

WTF Montana Buck

In a totally unsurprising new study conducted by the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill, men who ride their bikes or walk to work are more likely to have a healthy blood pressure and less likely to be obese.

The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, didn’t find anything to report about women—but odds are that women who walk or bike to work probably get some benefit too, don’ t you think?

Penny Gordon-Larson, associate professor of nutrition and the lead author of the study, says, “Even if you adjust for other forms of physical activity, walking or biking to work really does add an additional benefit.” Read more

So, yesterday we had a general look at the tour, and at the phenomenon that is Lance Armstrong. Today, we’re going to look at some of the yellow jersey contenders. After this we’ll take a look at some of the riders going for the climbing and sprinting prizes, but the general classification is really where it’s at. After three weeks of racing, only one man can ride into Paris on July 26th with the yellow jersey on his back. So here we are:

Alberto Contador (Astana) Read more

Welcome to the first of our Tour de France previews. There’s going to be a few of these over the next few days, before the race starts on July 4th, in the principality of Monaco. Monte Carlo, of course, is known for its casinos and gamblers, which seems apt, given the risks that these riders will take over the coming weeks as they trek up and down mountains, through cities and villages, as they cross the French countryside en route to their final destination in Paris.

We’re going to look at the riders and runners in the coming days, but like it or not, far and away the biggest story of this year’s Tour is the grand return of Lance Armstrong. He’s nearing his thirty-eighth birthday, he hasn’t raced the Tour for four years, but still his name is the one on everyone’s lips. He would become the oldest winner since the Belgian Firmin Lambot won in 1922 at the age of 36. Read more

Just a quick note on some breaking news here in San Francisco; within the last hour, the MTA (Municipal Transportation Agency) has unanimously approved at least forty five new bike related projects around the city. Most are new bike lanes, or improvements to old ones. This follows a four hour meeting down at the Town Hall, into which were packed numerous representatives from the San Francisco Bike Coalition.

The SFBC has been campaigning for these improvements for a while, and this success represents three years or more of planning and lobbying. It will also double the number of bike lanes in the city, making the streets safer for all of us who ride along them. As someone who was almost doored on Monday night as I road home, I’m pretty happy about this. Read more

Miley CyrusBiking is a fun, eco-friendly way to travel, get things done, burn some poundage and just be with your friends. It’s a great activity for families, couples, or people who want to be alone. So why don’t all of us do it?

Sadly, most of us lead such chaotic lives that we feel like we may not have time to bike where we need to go. And while many people do use public transportation to help the environment, there are still lots of people who have to commute quite a distance for work and need to use a car.

That said, we can all still find some time to bike for fun! These celebrities do, after all…

Miley Cyrus—With Miley’s quirky “save the environment” YouTube series, you know the girl’s gotta have a thing for biking. Read more