SUBSCRIBE TO THE I.C. RSS 2.0 FEED     WE GOTS INFORMATIONS: MORE THAN YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW, AND LESS, ON THE BICYCLING RESEARCH PAGE DRILL FOR KNOWLEDGE AT THE ENERGY & TRANSPORT HUB THE I.C. ENCOURAGES COMMENTS, EVEN COMPLAINTS AS LONG AS THEY AREN'T TOO RUDE. EMAIL: ROBERT AT INDUSTRIALIZEDCYCLIST DOT COM READ A HURST BOOK		MIND SUCK THE PHYSIOLOGY OF BICYCLING PRAIRIE STEAMERS LISTENING TO TAILWINDS 1,2 UNDER THE BUS NEW ERA IN SIGNAGE 1,2 ONE FOOT

Over here you have the Truth. It's a crazy-looking, unidentifiable object. It's somehow slimy and gritty at the same time. It even smells like -- ah jeez what is that?! On the other hand we have the Easy Answer. It's a shiny, clean-smelling little box. Metallic, right angles, glistening in the sun. It even has a little handle on top for your convenience. Which of these will get picked up, and which will get carried to the back lot on the end of a stick and buried under some leaves? People gravitate toward the easy answer, even if the answer is wrong. Maybe even if they know the answer is wrong. For a few decades now, bike helmets have provided that seemingly easy answer for concerned parents and busybodies from coast to coast. It's right there at the top of every list of bike safety tips and directives, masquerading as the most important one. Wear a Helmet -- the triumphant tip. But it's far from the most important one. In fact there is plenty of evidence suggesting that the whole helmet idea could be counterproductive from a general public health standpoint. It's quite possible that Wear a Helmet shouldn't be on the list at all; it definitely should not be on the top.   READ MORE   RELATED: BIGGER THAN BIKE LANES , EDUCATING DRIVERS

 

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There's a new section brewing on the BICYCLING RESEARCH PAGE about the physiology of bicycling, a subject that has been neglected there for too long. I can tell from the search terms people use to reach this site that many folks are seeking information about the effect of bicycling and exercise on the human body. This really is the good news of bicycling, often neglected in favor of the more exciting bloody accidents and things of this nature. The Big Picture is that bicycling is good for you. Of course it's not all good news even in this new section. There's a disturbing amount of evidence that old bike racers have funked-up hearts, and then that whole perineal trauma thing. Which, by the way, has more to do with poor positioning and bike set-up than anything else. This is just the acorn of the mighty oak this section threatens to become over time. As with the other sections on the page downloadable pdf's have been provided when possible, otherwise there are links to abstracts. Get out and ride. When you get back, check out the BICYCLING RESEARCH PAGE: ACCIDENT SURVEYS AND STATISTICS - U.S. / - INTERNATIONAL / PATTERNS OF USE / FACILITIES AND PLANNING / HELMETS / LAW / TECH / PHYSIOLOGY / ADVOCACY

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I stumbled across this article about a steam-powered prairie hauler in the Denver Weekly Commonwealth of July 16, 1863 (p. 1). Steam-powered transport was an old idea by this time, even in the US. Steam-powered trains had been running in the US since about 1830; steam-powered ships and boats were crossing the oceans and blasting each other out of the water in the War of the Rebellion. Even steam-powered land vehicles had been built and used, perhaps as early as the 1600s but more famously by Cugnot in the 1700s. Such vehicles apparently existed in significant enough numbers in England in the early 1860s to prompt reactionary legislation. The Red Flag Law restricted speeds to 4 miles-per-hour and required any 'road locomotive' to be preceeded by someone waving a red flag. Later on, during the first decade or so of the automobile age, external combustion engines competed with gasoline and electric engines for supremacy, and tended to fare well. This article, however, is one of the earliest references I've ever seen to a steam-powered road vehicle in the United States. And it's the only reference I've seen to steam power on the wagon roads of the plains.   READ MORE ...

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That's a William Henry Jackson photograph of some of the sandstone formations near Perry Park. Perry Park is the forgotten sister of the grand rock gardens of the Front Range, overshadowed by rock-n-roll Red Rocks, glamorous Garden of the Gods, even remote Roxborough. The '59ers found the land among the towering rocks of Perry Park to be problematic for farming and ranching. It wasn't too long, however, before the central portion was developed as an early real estate scheme, with parcels arrayed around a lake formed by a dam on Bear Creek. It's a beautiful scene even today. Riding up 105 toward Perry Park not too long ago, on the first leg of one of my insufferable history rides, I had a very nice little tailwind pushing me along. I progressed at a good clip and every car that passed did so very smoothly and easily even though there isn't much if any shoulder along there and the road is moderately busy. The ride was a joy. On the way back, into the wind, the whole tone of the ride changed. Not only was I struggling more to maintain the pace, there was noticeably more stress involved in my interactions with passing drivers. The passes seemed closer; I had to spend a lot more energy keeping tabs on what was coming, and there was a general tension involved with the whole affair. That's when I realized some things about bicycling and wind that I had never grasped before.   READ MORE ... LISTENING TO TAILWINDS pt. 1

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Southward from the Colorado town of Sedalia (a place once known as Plum Station, and before that Round Corral, and before that something else I'm sure) the two-lane blacktop of Highway 105 stretches lazily up the valley of West Plum Creek toward the haunting rock formations of Perry Park and the tiny town of Palmer Lake. If you're ever in the area, take an opportunity to go for a ride. This route, also called Perry Park Road, shows up on p. 39 of Road Biking Colorado's Front Range, as part of a Denver-to-Colorado Springs route, but it really is a ride that stands by itself as a simple out-and-back. The land between Sedalia and Palmer Lake, although not totally unaffected by the march of time, remains substantially as it was one hundred, even one-hundred-fifty years ago. That is, if you can imagine that the hiss of tires on 105, which follows (exactly in some places) the route of the old wagon road, is actually the clomping of hooves. Then as now the land was irrigated with ditches cut from high up on Bear Creek, Spring Creek, Jackson Creek, and many little springlets, and used to grow hay; herds of cattle feed under the buttes and scattered stands of ponderosa pine. And if you were to accidentally wander into somebody's field, they might shoot you today just as they would back then, figuring you for some sort of horse thief or hippy lunatic.   READ MORE ... PIONEER PLATES: A 'DIGITAL NOTEBOOK' OF COLORADO HISTORY.   The painting above is Frederick Remington's "Last Call for Beans."

 

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One of the most ridiculous things that happened to me in '09, maybe the number one most ridiculous thing in fact, was an RTD bus driver's attempt to run me into some parked cars one fine November afternoon on Lincoln in front of the Chancery Building. It was one of the scariest and most unnecessary things that I have ever experienced while riding a bicycle.   READ MORE ... FROM THE INTERWEBZ: Fritz rants about RTD mall shuttle drivers maliciously maneuvering (CYCLELICOUS, Sept. 7 2007). TANGENTIALLY RELATED I.C. POSTS: 5/02/08 THE BIKE LANE DID IT , 6/05/08 COMMUTER ADVICE FROM THE P-I C PART 2 , 3/25/09 CYCLE TRAPS , 6/16/06 BIGGER THAN BIKE LANES , EDUCATING DRIVERS

THE CHRYSLER CHRONICLES PART 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY: KILL CHRYSLER As the (first) Great Depression came to a close, Walt Chrysler was able to glance around the big power table at the various leaders of his company and see men who had started their careers by fixing and building machines with their hands. Each and every one of them, Chrysler was proud to report, held perfect knowledge of the mechanical intricacies within the cars they were trying to sell. It was a company run by mechanics, just like him. Contrast that to what's happened in recent years. When the company was held by Cerberus, the investment fund aptly named for the three-headed dog-demon that guards the underworld, its officers had no idea how to sell cars, let alone build them. No exaggeration.     READ MORE ...

We'll still get some good rides in over the winter, but it's time to recognize the grim reality that the juiciest trails will be snowed in for roughly the next seven months. I compiled some of my favorite images from trail rides of the past year to make you freak out in your cubicle. The first row of photos is by Robert Reid, the second row by Christie and the rest by myself. Locations are scattered through central Colorado. (Click to view full size.)

 

READ MORE ABOUT IT. SHOP FOR IT ON AMAZON, BARNES N NOBLE, TATTERED COVER, POWELL'S.

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