Bike Intelligencer » tour divide

News Cycle: Reinventing the wheel 24/7

BikeIntelligencer staff — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:48:24 +0000

Welcome home to the Mountain Turtle! Back from the grueling Tour Divide. Besides Kent’s blog, he’s featured in a Montana Standard interview.

Could this be the year a solo rider wins the B.C. Bike Race?

In the bicycle capital of America — Portland — there is a war going on over bicycle access.

Just the opposite in Issaquah, where everyone seems on board with becoming a mountain biking destination — more along the lines of Moab than Whistler.

Sun Peaks is open, and check this out: The trails are tacky.

We’ve all had bicycles worth fighting to keep, of course. But attempted murder? That would seem to be carrying things just a bit too far, wouldn’t you say?

It’s just a short blurb in the local paper. But you have to wonder what might have been going on in Hiromi Monro’s 41-year-old existence that led him to do a stunt drop off a loading dock without so much as a helmet on — causing him to die from blunt-force trauma (see comments queue as well).

Death on the Tour Divide: Investigation in order?

Paul Andrews, BI editor — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:15:22 +0000

It seems the unlikeliest place of all for a car-bike accident: A days-long, 2,745-mile mountain bike race along the Great Divide on trails, fire roads and rugged back country.

But that’s what happened, and a husband and father is dead.

Dave Blumenthal

Dave Blumenthal of Montpelier VT died June 24th of injuries suffered when he collided with a pickup truck on a remote dirt road. Police say the driver was not at fault, but police usually say that. It remains, and may always remain, a mystery as to how the noise and commotion of an approaching pickup truck would not be enough to warn an experienced cyclist of danger. We would encourage race organizers or a cycling advocacy organization to investigate the circumstances further if warranted — it’s difficult from press accounts to mentally reconstruct this accident.

In the meantime, our thoughts are with Blumenthal’s family. More from the Tour of the Great Divide Web site, and a moving account of Dave’s final days on his own blog.

News Cycle: Monday morning spin session

Paul Andrews, BI editor — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:16:28 +0000

One more reason to consider anti-cycling invective a hate crime.

It’s turning out to be a hard year for the Tour Divide race.

More on-street bike racks, my favorite kind, are on the way for Seattle.

Wheelsmith founder and Wheel Fanatyk blogger Ric Hjertberg eulogizes his friend Phil Role.

Vancouver debuts a two-way bike lane.

The worst JRA … ever!

Can Issaquah become a mini-Whistler?

Police chief recovers stolen bike in record time. Are we surprised?

When it comes to riding a mountain bike in Forest Park, Portlanders can’t get no satisfaction.

Have a great week!

News Cycle: All bike, all the time

Paul Andrews, BI editor — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:30:05 +0000

Good piece from Issaquah Press on local bike blogger Kent Peterson and his return to the Tour Divide.

And Kent isn’t the only Seattle-area cyclist in the Tour Divide. Altogether there are half a dozen.

The Colorado town of Black Hawk has banned bicycles for safety reasons. For some reason we think of Gandhi, and what he would do if he were a cyclist.

Police have returned a specially constructed bicycle to the autistic girl from whom it was stolen. For some reason we think of Carl Hiassen and the novel he would write (e.g., Strip Tease where the villain steals wheelchairs from the disabled).

If you’ve ever been chased by a bear on a bike and wondered how fast a bear can run, you know the age-old answer to that age-old question is itself a question: How fast can you ride?

Pump tracks are spreading all over.

When Team Spam and its irrepressible leader, Traveling Software’s ingenious Mark Eppley, did the famed Telluride-to-Moab hut-to-hut tour in 1996, Eppley hooked up his cell phone recharger to his rear wheel generator and by God it worked. For awhile anyway. Most of the time we couldn’t get a signal. Nothing stopped our gang from reporting updates on the fly though.

Nearly 15 years later, Nokia makes it all just another day not at the office.

Mayor of Los Angeles says video of bicyclists getting knocked around by LA cops is “disturbing.” No, a 16-year-old girl trying to sail around the world is disturbing. Carly Fiorina’s inability to tell when a microphone is on or off is disturbing. The fact that Haagen Dazs no longer offers Swiss Almond Chocolate ice cream is disturbing.

Cops beating up cyclists is indefensible. It’s unpardonable. It’s unlawful. It’s cause for termination from the force.