Candy Cranks

Coming from the craziness of Honolulu’s streets full of potholes and terrible drivers, a vacation to Oregon was the Hawaiian cyclist’s paradise. Luckily with Hawaii powers, we brought the sunshine to Oregon and had fantastic fall cycling weather with wonderful friends. Our first stop was for a delicious Thanksgiving feast in Corvallis, home of Oregon State University. This college town is flat and comprised of over 90% bicycle lanes. We visited our part-time Hawaii resident friend and bike polo enthusiast Eilif, who lives at the Corvallis “Bike Haus”.

The Bike Haus residents graciously lent us polo bikes and took us on a mini bike ride on some paths and to downtown Corvallis.

Cuties Kevin and Shanna rocked the tandem bike!

Eilif even gave people rides on his bike rack.. Dave looks like he’s having tons of fun

And by chance, we ended up with the Corvallis bike and pedicab crew’s section in the holiday parade. The kids enjoyed the pedicabs, bike tricks and wheel guards on the polo bikes.. hopefully it made some of them want to ride bikes!

From Corvallis, we went to Portland for a weekend of bikes, beer, friends and good food. The Honolulu community bike shop KVIBE is getting a cargo bike from a local Portland framebuilder, so we went to the cargo-bike specialists at Splendid Cycles to check out the bikes, and pose for pictures.

The Ace Hotel where we stayed offered free bike rentals to hotel guests, which allowed us to explore the bike friendly streets of Portland with great happiness. Our friend Shawn gave us a tour of the North East Alberta district and other friends Brett and Megan biked us around the South East area.

Overall, a successful vacation from a tropical paradise to a cycling paradise!
Most photos by Sau Hsu.

Last year, Bikesnobnyc stuck a fork in “those directionally-challenged irritants known as bike salmon.”

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2009/05/smoked-salmon-lock-your-bike-dont-lox.html

Bike salmon are essentially those riders who ride the wrong way in the bike lane, risking collisions with those going in the right direction. On many occassions I’ve almost had a salmon smash into me while I’m riding or walking. Scares the begeezus out of me!

More recently, Reuters writer Felix Salmon (no relation to the other salmons mentioned) wrote a thoughtful theory about the cars-versus-pedestrians-versus-bikes mentality in NYC.

“Most bikers in New York have their fair share of road rage. Commuting by bicycle in Manhattan has many things to be said for it, but it’s certainly not relaxing. And bicyclists as a group have surprisingly little public support. The question is, why? And I think I’ve worked out something approaching the Unified Theory of New York Biking.”

According to Salmon, bikers have an identity crisis on NYC streets, because they are viewed as — and often act like — pedestrians. And bike salmons play a particularly devious role in adding to this chaos.

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/09/03/a-unified-theory-of-new-york-biking/

New York Magazine weighed in on Salmon’s article, including a scary salmon-in-the-bike lane visual.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/09/evil_bike_salmon_ruining_the_r.html

What do you all think of salmoning?

‘Keep it Wheel’, part of the 10:10/350 global day of positive action on climate change, aims to promote bikes as a fun, clean and attractive alternative to getting around town.

“We’re aiming to show Sydney that cycling is not just great fun, good for your health, the environment and the community, but also an opportunity for the business owners along the new cycle ways.” David Gravina

The ride begins at Single Origin on Reservoir St, Surry Hills at 10am and will fan outacross Sydney in 10 teams of 10. Each team will have a leader and the routes aregraded from newbie to pro so all cycling levels are welcome. Along the way riders willhand out ʻKeep it Wheelʼ bike love packs to local business owners which are designed to spread ʻbike loveʼ by thanking them for putting up with the cycle way.

As the day is about spreading the bike love message, anyone and everyone is invited to partake in the fun. To further promote European-style cycling, riders are being asked to favour style over speed, leave the lycra at home and dress in their ʻSunday Bestʼ.

The teams converge at midday in Centennial Park to join the VegOut picnic where a huge ‘350’ sign will be created from people and picnic blankets for an iconic photo to add to the global 350.org campaign. The picnic is BYO or lunch-packs can be pre-ordered from www.vegpledge.org/vegpacks.

Where: Single Origin, Reservoir Street, Surry Hills.

When: 10 AM, Sunday October 10

Wear: Your Sunday best!

Bring: A bike, some friends and lunch (or pre-order a vego pack before October 8).

More info here keepitwheel.org/

And this is why they’re doing it!

Hey Sydneysiders! Head to Sydney Town Hall 6pm Tuesday 3rd August (today) to show your support for future plans to introduce a people friendly cycleway network.

It also coincides with an Alan jones inspired protest that’s planned for the same time.

If you’d like one of the super cute tees, check out the Three Point Turnz shop.