It’s been a long, cold winter for many of us, so it felt like the perfect time to add a little bicycle fun to the world. The challenge: Build a bike that will smoothly roll over ice. The result: Success! Mostly. Check out the video to see more. Follow Shifter on Youtube, Facebook or Medium. Follow Tom Babin on Twitter, Facebook or Medium. …
Read more “We built an ice-bike to ride on frozen ponds. And it’s amazing”
When should I ride a bike? Here’s a guide for choosing the right trips.
If you ever doubted the global appeal of the bicycle in winter, today’s third annual Moscow Winter Bike Parade ought to disabuse you of the notion. More than 3,000 Muscovites braved the snow and cold to ride together in the shadow of the Kremlin. For cyclists in this megapolis that is just beginning to look …
Read more “The wonderful (and inspiring) bike lovers of the Moscow Winter Bike Parade”
Call it baby-steps bike infrastructure: the kind of urban design that takes a step toward bike friendliness, but doesn’t quite take the full leap. Twice in recent months, new infrastructure has been built near me that falls into that incremental category, and it’s something being seen in many North American cities. It’s a mashup of …
Read more “These civic improvements are taking only baby-steps toward bike friendliness”
It didn’t strike like lightning. It was more like a subconscious feeling created by its absence until one day I finally noticed. Hey, I thought. My feet aren’t cold. That was a good day, as have many since then. It seems a small thing, and I didn’t realize it until I realized it, but toasty …
Read more “How to keep your feet warm while cycling in winter”
As a rootless, tribeless and bike-agnostic cyclist, I ride anything with two wheels. My daily rides can range from fast road bikes when I’m looking for a workout, to a city cruiser when I’m on a slow roll to the pub. But I’ve often wondered which method was best for my commute to work. So …
Read more “The bicycle commute test: Cruiser, road or mountain bike – which one is best?”
Remember the war on cars? The hyperbolic and mostly mythical idea that cyclists, a “special interest group,” were successfully ramming such horrors as bike lanes down the throats of unsupportive legions of car drivers? Since the peak “war on cars” battles of four or five years ago, the hot war has cooled a bit because …
Here’s a novel new idea for making cycling safer: Ban men’s bikes. Seriously, this is a real idea, but don’t stop reading yet. Since the recommendation came out of the Netherlands, where they know a thing or two about biking, it’s worth a closer look. It wasn’t exactly “men’s” bikes that were targetted, rather bikes …
Read more “Here’s an idea to make cycling seem safer: Ban the crossbar”
My home city of Calgary made waves last year by installing an entire downtown network of separated bike lanes, all at once. Here’s a spin through the city a year later, to assess its success.
In the past decade, Peter Walker has seen a fundamental change in London, the city in which he lives. In that time, Walker, a writer for The Guardian who has for years penned the paper’s popular bike blog, says people on bikes have gone from a marginal place on the city’s streets (he says he …
Read more “This British writer just wrote a totally convincing argument in favour of urban cycling”