Bicycle Friendly Community application deadline August 18

The next deadline for applications to be designated as a Bicycle Friendly Community is Friday, August 18. The application form has been amended to include more questions related to access to single-track riding and other mountain bike riding opportunities. New and renewing communities should go to www.bicyclefriendlycommunity.org for more details.

From personal experience, it may be a little late if your own community hasn't started the paperwork process already, but visit the BFC website anyway to get the process rolling for next year. If you are involved in cycling advocacy in any way in your community, the BFC program is a pretty good way to get bicycling on the minds of your city planners.

Name this tune

If you know this tune and who originally did it, leave a comment. No prizes this time. This partly just a random post, partly a test.

Update: I've replaced the MP3 of the Gary Jules & Michael Andrews with a link to the Tears for Fears music video on YouTube. I found the mp3 from this blog.


TJMG: Here's the code to make music play automatically. I'm not sure this is all correct -- somebody with a little more HTML knowledge than me feel free to correct this:

<EMBED src="yoursong.mp3" autostart="true" hidden="false"> <NOEMBED> <BGSOUND src="yoursong.mp3"></NOEMBED></embed>

Sock Guy blog

Sock Guy has a blog. I own this American Flag sock, along with a half-dozen more designs. My wife has about a dozen Sock Guy socks, with designs tending toward the cute. Via the Kook Aid Krew.
Photo info: Sock Guy socks by richardmasoner.

Pound says, "You're not trying"

As a result of the Spanish doping investigation a team was completely dismantled, and several top riders were summarily suspended from competing in the Tour de France at the behest of the UCI. The response from Dick Pound, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)? "I see no serious progress in the UCI's effort to gain control of the existing doping situation."

Read about the WADA and Dick Pound's comments here.

Monty Python: Bicycle repairman

This is more than a few years old but still funny.

Bicycles and Engineering & Life

Bill Hammack is a Chemical Engineer at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. When I lived in Champaign County, I used to listen to his three-minute "Engineering & Life" program on Illinois Public Radio. Bill tells the stories behind the material stuff that surrounds us - tupperware, spam, skyscrapers, and plastic bottles. His show is on hiatus right now, but he did a couple of stories about bicycles. In this story, Bill tells us the role bicycles played in creating our mass consumer society. And here, Bill talks about Terry Bicycles and designing for women.

I link to the transcripts, but the RealAudio are more interesting in my opinion. If you're a geek like me, enjoy a few minutes exploring his archives.

Tags: engineering, bill+hammock, public+radio, npr, bicycles, terry+bicycles, design, urbana, champaign, uiuc, university+of+illinois

Trek Singlespeed 69er

Trek's prototype "69er": A Singlespeed mountain bike with 26 inch rear tire and 29 inch front tire, seen at NORBA USA National Championships in Sonoma, California this weekend. Like PB&J says, "why carry one spare tube, when you can carry two?"