Velocipede

C. E. Dayton’s Oct. 26, 1869 Patent for the Velocipede

Flood Bike

"A Thai man takes pictures with his son on a custom-built tricycle designed to go through floodwaters in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 28, 2011." AP Photo from The Atlantic's In Focus series.

I don't know if this guy just had this bike around in case of flood or put it together when the need, and the water, arose, but either way. . . awesome.

A Midlife Crisis Success Story

After training and racing on his Peugeot PX-10 for over 30,000 miles in the 1980s...

Michael Gill with his bike the first time around in the '80s

  ...Michael Gill upgraded to a Colnago, sold the Peugeot and moved on.

26 years later, he caught the old bike bug and went looking for a vintage ride to rekindle the joy he'd felt with his old Peugot.  Well, it turns out that while looking at a couple of vintage bike frames listed on Craig's List, he found not just a similar bike, but the remains of his old bike which he recognized by the "black helvetica letters spelling out CLEVELAND" that he had added to the fork.

Gill, reunited with his bike (or parts of it)

There are some great details in this NPR story.

Hard Hitting Herbivore

Just because an animal only eats grass doesn't mean it can't be tough.  

Single Speed Jumps the Shark?

I took this picture in a Walmart the other day:

Hipsters everywhere must be shaking in their skinny jeans.

A New Way to Ride Steel

Here's an interesting bike designed by Ron Arad that has wheels made of sprung steel.

Someone who rode it said it was a comfortable ride and got more comfortable as you went faster.

If you have airfair to London and £350 a night, you can ride if free at the W Hotel.  If go, I'd be curious to  know how it corners.

A Treasure Trove of Old Movie Footage

I came across the British Pathe site which hosts some truly remarkable old movie clips on an amazing range of subjects. For example, he's some footage of the 1969 Wimbledon Finals:

WIMBLEDON FINALS

Here's a French guy doing tricks on his skis with no snow:

MAD SKIER!

You'll also find film of Hitler ranting, of 70-year-old Bernarr MacFaddern heading off to a transcontinental airplane race, of beard research and a many more that are much cooler than those.

But since this blog is now almost completely dedicated to bikes, here's a clip about a 6 day team bicycle race held in Madison Square Garden in 1928:

6 DAYS ROUND A SAUCER TRACK