Mundo 18

Mundo 18, originally uploaded by LightenUpBikes.

Sweet Green Machine!

Do you mean "green"? Or do you mean "GREEN green"?

Chainlines Anonymous

Here's a funny product description from Hub Jub, across the pond:

You don't need chainring spacers. Your chainline is perfect. However, let's pretend, just for a second, that you have this... friend whose chainline isn't quite right. If your friend puts a set of these between ring and spider, they can move their ring a little, hopefully enough to shift it into the plane of the cog and correct the misalignment that's bothering you, ahem, them... Sets of five.

They sell too-cool-for-skool track bits, here.

Bicyclist Gets Away

I certainly don't advocate this behavior, but I did enjoy watching the video...

Diversity Wins Again

I've always said that one of my favorite things about bikes is their wild diversity. Someone else noticed this too. Here's their post:

It's how you use it

Wouldn't life be boring if all bikes looked the same? As a retailer, the thing I really like about catering to bike commuters here in Chicago, is the diversity of bikes they use for that purpose. There are probably as many types of commuter bikes as there are bike commuters...

The whole thing is here.

Mostly Monkey

I've got a lot of monkey DNA. So do you, I'll bet. We're in good company, too:

There's Monkeyjump, with it's practical Manifesto. It hasn't been updated in while, I think, but the pathos, ethos, and logos still stand up just fine.

We've got the Stokemonkey and the Big Dummy, both now in production, that will carry us safely into the twenty-first century. The Stokemonkey is clearly a pure breed, coming by way of the Cleverchimp, and while the Big Dummy is not explicitly monkey, its uncle, Karate Monkey, reveals a clear connection.

And we have MonkeyElectric, who have made some LED lights that we knew would come along eventually, and are really excited about. A good monkey has got to be seen.

If you've been monkeying around, engaging in, or just know about monkey business, be sure to let us know. Maybe we should have a monkey-mass.

[Apologies to TF, who is not Clever Chimp. -Ed.]

I Love Red Bikes

Everyone should have one, don't you think?

The SKS Chainboard chainguard

You heard it here first:

This is the Year of the Chaingaurd.

SKS sent out a press release yesterday introducing their new chaingaurd, called the Chainboard. They say it looks good, but I disagree. They also say it works well, and this I have no reason to doubt--I've been universally pleased with the design and durability of the SKS products I've used.

The Chainboard features the same black or silver Chromoplastic used in SKS fenders, and has a telescoping tail-end to fit a variety of bikes. It's available in several diameters in order to accomodate various derailleur configurations and chainring sizes. Ask for it at your LBS, and let me know what you think. MSRP $27.99.

SKS Germany is in my Favorite Companies list. It makes the best plastic fenders around (though Planet Bike makes good ones for less bread). SKS also makes the Rennkompressor floor pump, which has a fun name to say. For more information about SKS products, contact SKS USA at 618-395-2400 or crystal.trout@sks-usa.com

The Chocolate City Bike

DC bike-culture meets Mid-west marketing and Texan-size popularity... the result is a belt drive SS/FG !? If you say so.

Smarter Smart Growth

Home Builders and Environmentalists are on the same side for a change, Hooray! I hope they did the math right... From the Los Angeles Times (full article here): "One issue everyone has been afraid to touch is land use," Steinberg says. "Everyone understands about using alternative fuel. But land use has been the third rail. AB 32 changed the equation because now land use has to be part of the solution to global warming. You can't meet our goal just with alternative fuels. You have to reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled. "If people are going to drive -- and they are going to drive -- we need to plan in ways to get them out of their cars faster. That means shrinking -- not the amount of housing, not economic development, not growth -- but shrinking the footprint on which that growth occurs." ...Basically the bill would work like this: Each metropolitan region would adopt a "sustainable community strategy" to encourage compact development. They'd mesh it with greenhouse emissions targets set by the California Air Resources Board, which is charged with commanding the state's fight against global warming. And this is the key part: Transportation projects that were part of the community plan would get first dibs on the annual $5 billion in transportation money disbursed by Sacramento. (Projects approved before 2010 would be funded under the current system.) Another biggie: Residential home-builders would be granted relief from much of the environmental red tape for projects within the community plan. Local governments also would be required to expedite zoning and allow the builders to actually build. "We needed to create more certainty," Manning says. He adds that builders decided they'd rather help plan the strategy for the war on global warming than just wait for the state air board to act unilaterally. Environmentalists had the same attitude.

New Hampshire Ave, Multimodal Boulevard?

In the Montgomery County Gazette:

"We really need to rethink the entire way that we have looked at this road for the past 30 or more years to transform it into a classic urban street, or what we call a multiway boulevard," Stuart Sirota of TND Plannning Group told the Takoma Park City Council...