Need to ride safely!

I set up a Google news alert for "bicycling" (just that one word) and have been surprised and unhappy to see how many stories appear about cyclists being killed by motorists. For example, this Green Party candidate in Maryland was killed several days ago while riding in early morning, before sunrise.

Cyclists need to be careful. Helmets are good but don't solve the "hit by a car" problem.

A Wheel Within a Wheel

A wheel within a wheel : how I learned to ride the bicycle, with ... published in 1895, by Frances E. Willard. Published by the Woman's Temperance Publishing Association of Chicago.

Below, a rather overly dramatic photo showing her learning process (posed, one assumes).



Eventually it works out ~

Car Free Day

Yesterday (9/21) was "Car Free Day" although one would not have known it from looking at the roads that I saw. And I didn't even known it until after the fact when a Google news alert brought it to my attention. Apparently this is an international "event" that isn't so well known in the U.S. - certainly not as well known by cyclists (or me) as the "Bike to Work" day in early May each year. Of course, bicycles are just one of the alternatives celebrated by Car Free Day.

Even Moscow marked the event according to the Moscow Times.

Park Tool Downloadable Catalog

The Park Tool Catalog in PDF for extensive perusal - what does one really need??

2010 Bicycle Friendly America guide

Arlington, Virginia is on page 20 - a "silver" community.

Cycling in the Netherlands . . . (booklet)

Travel by Bike to Central Asia from England, 1900

Fellow describes his travels from England to Central Asia by bike at the turn of the last century.



Author with Hungarian cyclists (or "wheelmen"). Image not very good since taken from poor Google Book Scanning.

The full book is available here: A new ride to Khiva by Robert L. Jefferson, published in 1900.