last night i was looking at my bike and thought this, and what would I do, how would i describe my bike on a *stolen bike alert*, listing all the specific parts..

• 650x25 wheels/tires. the rear has a long presta valve (like for deep v’s but I don’t have deep v’s), the front has a schrader valve
• black bullhorns. the grip tape on the left side near the corner is ripped and held together by a yellow rubber band
• …

lol

i’d be so devastated if someone stole my bike (or parts of it). fuckers don’t know how difficult it is to find a 43cm track/triangle/diamond frame! 

anyway, yeah, everyone make sure you have up-to-date photos of your bike, and the serial number jotted down just in case shit happens.

also, it helps to deter bike thieves if you stick a bunch of stickers on your bike, making it more easily identifiable (and difficult for the thief to remove them all).

his creative initiative, which launched this week, is in response to the prevalence of illegal firearms and rising rates of homicides. The small South American nation, known for its quaintness, ranks 9th in number of guns per capita in the world. More than a million firearms are in the hands of the country’s 3.3 million residents, and half of those are unregistered.

treehugger, 06.02.13.

hmm would new bikes persuade oakland gunowners to turn in their guns?

In the United States the notion that bike helmets promote health and safety by preventing head injuries is taken as pretty near God’s truth. Un-helmeted cyclists are regarded as irresponsible, like people who smoke. Cities are aggressive in helmet promotion.

But many European health experts have taken a very different view: Yes, there are studies that show that if you fall off a bicycle at a certain speed and hit your head, a helmet can reduce your risk of serious head injury. But such falls off bikes are rare — exceedingly so in mature urban cycling systems.

On the other hand, many researchers say, if you force or pressure people to wear helmets, you discourage them from riding bicycles. That means more obesity, heart disease and diabetes. And — Catch-22 — a result is fewer ordinary cyclists on the road, which makes it harder to develop a safe bicycling network. The safest biking cities are places like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, where middle-aged commuters are mainstay riders and the fraction of adults in helmets is minuscule.

nytimes, 30.09.12.

the other day i posted on fb that i nearly got doored, and a friend mentioned wearing a helmet, and two other friends seconded/thirded that post. -____-;;; (i have one, but only use it on rare, long rides [like 70 miles a day, not just in one city sort of ride]). it’s not like wearing a helmet would have alerted drivers to not open their doors before looking.