Japanese interest in American bike commuters

While we go all ga ga over Danish bike commuters, the Japanese are fascinated with all things American, even American bicycle commuters.



The Asahi Shinbun newspaper in Japan printed this article today about bike commuters in Silicon Valley and about the increased acceptance in the Valley of the Clean and Green Action Plan. The article also mentions the bike commuting incentive at Juniper Networks, which has one of the top bike incentive programs in the Bay Area. Juniper provides bike racks at every building, bike lockers at the main building, private (!!) showers, and an emergency ride home program. In addition, Juniper offers a $20 spending card for every 10 bike commutes that can be used in the campus cafeteria.

Props to my Japanese cycling friend at Hole in the Wall.

Interbike Outdoor Demo East scheduled October 21-22, 2008

Interbike Outdoor Demo East - October 21-22, 2008. Roger Williams Park, Providence, RI

Interbike announced today that they will host the first annual Interbike Outdoor Demo East Tuesday, October 21 to Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Roger Williams Park in Providence, R.I.

The Interbike Outdoor Demo East event is based on the Interbike Outdoor Demo held in conjunction with the Interbike International Bicycle Expo in Las Vegas and will include product testing, National Bicycle Dealers Association (NBDA) seminars and networking events. The new event is aimed at servicing retailers who do not attend and/or additional staff members who are not able to participate in the Interbike International Expo and Outdoor Demo.

"We recognize there are members of the industry that have difficulties attending the Interbike Expo in Las Vegas," said Lance Camisasca, Interbike's industry consultant. "Interbike Outdoor Demo East is a hands-on, no-hassle, inexpensive regional style event that allows retailers to not only test new products but also educate staff members on the latest trends and network with industry members in a historic and event friendly location."

Manufacturers who have already committed to exhibit at the event include Advanced Sports (Fuji, SE Racing, Kestrel), Fox Racing Shox, Giant Bicycles, Kenda USA, Pacific Cycle (GT, Schwinn, Mongoose), Pedro's Total Bicycle Care and Santa Cruz Bicycles, with more expected to follow in the coming weeks.

"Interbike always produces a great trade event," said Pat Cunnane, president of Advanced Sports "We're confident OutDoor Demo East will be a great event as well and we are looking forward to giving our East Coast retailers another opportunity to learn about and test ride our products."

"The genesis of an opportunity to reach out to the other half of cycling is perfect," said Chris Zigmont, general manager of Pedro's Total Bicycle Care. "We will now be able to meet with the guys and gals who work the shop floor and who can't attend Interbike's Las Vegas trade show because of time and money constraints."

"We've had great feedback on our Super Seminars around the country and attendance has exceeded expectations," said Fred Clements, executive director of the National Bicycle Dealers Association. "By partnering with Interbike at Outdoor Demo East, we feel we'll be able to offer high quality sessions in a convenient setting that will allow us to reach an even larger audience in a region that deserves the support."

The 450 acre Roger Williams Park is located just south of downtown Providence and has been the host city for the 2006 and 2007 National Cyclocross Championships. In addition to being a great place for cycling, Providence is a central location for Northeast and Mid Atlantic retails and is easily accessible by most forms of transportation.

SF Bay Area: Learn to make metal fenders by hand

Ooh, you can learn to create your own Honjo-style fenders! From TechShop:

Learn the principles and practice of cutting and forming simple and compound curves and shapes from aluminum and light-gage sheet-metal material without molten metal, flames and expensive molds etc. Use an English wheel, shrinker/stretcher, air-planishing hammer, delrin shaping hammers and beater bags provided. Through tool demonstrations, you'll shape, form, harden and fabricate a custom bike fender in class. Other tools and techniques as well as your project and future classes will be discussed.

See TechShop for class schedule and more info.

TechShop is a fully-equipped open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own projects at your own pace. It is like a health club with tools and equipment instead of exercise equipment...or a Kinko's for geeks.

TechShop was founded in 2006 by Jim Newton, a lifetime maker, veteran BattleBots builder and former MythBuster. TechShop is located in Menlo Park, California, on the San Francisco peninsula 25 miles south of San Francisco.

Anyone can come in and build and make all kinds of things themselves using the TechShop tools, machines and equipment, and draw on the TechShop instructors and experts to help them with their projects.

TechShop is designed for everyone, regardless of their skill level. TechShop is perfect for inventors, "makers", hackers, tinkerers, artists, roboteers, families, entrepreneurs, youth groups, FIRST robotic teams, arts and crafts enthusiasts, and anyone else who wants to be able to make things that they dream up but don't have the tools, space or skills.

The TechShop workshop provides a wide variety of machinery and tools for the open and unlimited use of its members, including milling machines and lathes, welding stations and plasma cutters, sheet metal working equipment, drill presses and band saws, industrial sewing machines, hand tools, plastic working equipment, electronics design and fabrication facilities, tubing and metal bending machines, electrical supplies and tools, and pretty much everything you'd ever need to make just about anything all by yourself.

Props to Alison for this information.

Dan Yergin fan club

People who know about Peak Oil know the name Daniel Yergin. Yergin founded the Cambridge Energy Research Energy Associates (CERA) to provide analysis and research on energy issues. Every major oil company, most minor ones, and almost any government and private agency with energy planning needs purchases research from CERA.

Apparently, CERA and Yergin are apparently an inside joke among oil experts who seemingly take his numbers and predictions with a grain of salt. Yergin consistently forecasts lower oil prices and consistently gets it wrong. Last June, for example, CERA predicted $60 oil by the beginning of 2008 because that's what the "fundamentals" support. As everybody knows, we're at $100 with no hurricanes or other large disasters affecting our supply. Yergin and CERA consistently promote the fantastic idea that oil companies can producers 110 million barrels per day within the next decade.

In spite of CERA's dismal track record, the media consistently turns to CERA as a "highly respected" expert on oil prices and oil futures, with Yergin cited as "one of the world's foremost experts on energy." There doesn't seem to be a sense of history or accountability for journalists who accept Yergin's credentials (a PhD and a Pulitzer) without checking his history. He's undoubtedly a brilliant guy, but the facts are clear that the numbers from CERA just don't add up.

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Inspiring Green Leadership

Speaking of Peak Oil, I met Andre Angelantoni yesterday at the Eco Summit yesterday in Santa Clara. Andre is the founder of Inspiring Green Leadership, which seeks to encourage individuals and businesses to make the changes that will be required in a world that is increasingly resource constrained. Andre introduced the idea of Peak Oil to the program participants.

Angelantoni encourages everybody with an interest in sustainability to become leaders during this time of coming change. He encourages these leaders to help create communities that are self sustaining, with roles in transportation, food production, power use reduction, and health care. Besides his own website, he pointed conference participants to The Oil Drum, Relocalize and Oil Depletion Protocol.

Pedal powered spud launcher

Thanks to Fat Boy Biking for this: a human powered spud gun. Littleton, Colorado rocket scientist Bill Llewellin is a founding member of the Denver Mad Scientist club and likes to build all kinds of human powered contraptions from garage sale parts.

See the video of the spud gun in action.

While we're talking geeky gadgets, Bike Hugger has posted a handful of reports from the Consumer Electronics Show, where Vegas traffic is so gridlocked and parking so unavailable that bicycling is the only way to travel.

Team BMC dinner

While I was getting stuck in the mud on the newly opened section of the Guadulupe River Trail in San Jose, my buddy Ken made it to the Team BMC dinner at Hobees in Palo Alto tonight. He took some photos and got their top secret training plans for the Tour of California.


According to Ken, you can find them cycling up Mount Hamilton on Friday afternoon, and scoping out the first stage route from Sausalito to Santa Rosa on Monday. Read Ken's blog for details.

Those are BMC Team cyclists Jackson Stewart (by the window), Mike Sayers and Taylor Tolleson in the photo above. Photo courtesy Ken Conley.

Innovation with bicycles

What a really really cool idea: Ride your bike to the store, grab a shopping cart and fill it with groceries, pay for the groceries, then roll the cart out to the parking lot, where you hook it to your bicycle.

Shoppers at a Cambridge supermarket are being asked to saddle up for a new green initiative.

Waitrose in Hauxton Road, Trumpington, has teamed up with the city council to provide special trailers to allow cyclists to transport their shopping home using pedal power.

Shoppers will be able to fill up a trailer as they walk around the store and simply hitch it onto the back of their bikes when they have paid.

The free-of-charge trailer will then have to be returned within three days.

Read the full story here. Via Grist.

A fun bicycle powered tennis ball launcher. Via.

Here's something cool I saw today: A backpack with a built in solar panel.


I can potentially use this to recharge batteries for my lights or camera while I'm cycling to work. It will be available at the company store in a few weeks, I'm told. Seen at the 2008 Eco Summit.

Urban Velo describes Bilinky's S & S couplings, while James @ Bicycle Design contemplates breakaway frames for biking during his travels.