The Circle City Bicycles blog contains info on bicycles, cycling events, pro racing, bicycle touring, and just about anything else cycling related. Since our bike shop is located in Indianapolis, we focus on biking in the Midwest, but cycling fans anywhere in the world should find this blog interesting. We try to post daily Monday through Friday, but we occasionally miss a day. Each Friday we try to have an interesting bicycle related photo.
Here's the ultimate fat tire bicycle. I wonder how much the rear tire weighs. I bet that when you get going on this bike you don't want to stop and accelerate up to speed again. I don't have any information about this bike, I found it (surprisingly) on the website 1947 to Current Chevy & GMC Trucks. Under "Alternate Tinkerings" there is a thread for "Hot Rod Bicycles."
Here's an interesting wheel cover I found out on Tumblr. It looks like the owner of this bike is a bicycle polo player. They all have wheel covers so that balls and mallets don't wind up in their spokes.
Here's a cute video. There's a bike hanging outside, and one little raccoon jumps onto the back wheel and hangs on. It's not very long before his friend comes along and pushes him off. The two then begin to fight, and a third raccoon comes along. It quickly turns into a free-for all, with each raccoon alternately fighting and jumping on the bike wheel. This is short video, only 50 seconds long:
There have been a number of amphibious bicycles that have been developed. The Bike Boat is a little different than most. Instead of continuing to ride the bike when you enter the water, it's time to break out the oars and start rowing. It's basically a recumbent trike with a detachable hull.
I'm guessing this idea didn't make it past the prototype stage. In the "News" section of their website, they have a 2015 entry that says they are getting ready to start a Kickstarter campaign, and nothing after that. I don't know if they never did the Kickstarter campaign, or if they failed to raise enough money to launch the product.
Here's a short video of the Bike Boat in action. One thing I notice is that the top of the hull is not much above the waterline. There are some other videos on the website, but they all show the Bike Boat in still water. I don't think you would want to take it out on a fast flowing river.
Here's an interesting ride coming up June 2 through 8. It's called Ride the Fault Line, and travels through four states over six days. For those of you who don't remember your earthquake history, New Madrid, Missouri was the epicenter of a magnitude 7.5 - 8.0 earthquake in 1812. The earthquake was so powerful it caused the formation of Reelfoot Lake in northwestern Tennessee. Several earthquakes above 7.0 had preceded it in the prior two months.
The ride begins and ends in Sikeston, Missouri. Highlights include:
Shawnee National Forest
Thebes courthouse - This 170 year old courthouse alledgedly held the slave Dred Scott for a short time
Hunter-Dawson Home State Historic Site
Ferry ride across the Mississippi River
Discovery Park of America - You can see what it was like to experience the New Madrid earthquake in their earthquake simulator
Better speed up - Emus can run 30 MPH (photo courtesy of Bicycle SA)
Here's one of those "Only in Australia" problems for mountain bikers - Getting chased by an emu. Apparently for half an hour during a race, it would chase every biker that passed through a stretch of the trail. The organizer said "It was great for the spectators but a bit of a shock for the riders." Apparently the problem was serious enough they had to put up this sign:
This week's video features the 5 best saves in professional cycling. Sometimes it isn't a charge up a major climb that is the most critical move in a race, but a split second reaction to avoid a major crash. This video features:
Sagan and Cancellara avoiding a crash. Watch how Cancellara throws his back wheel to the side.
In track cycling, Laurine Van Riessen rides on the wall of the velodrome to avoid crashing.
Sagan and Cancellara again - This time Cancellara goes down and Sagan bunny hops over him.
Sam Bennet makes a great save while weaving his way through the support cars.
Danny Van Popell narrowly avoids disaster at the end of a race. They show video from a couple different angles and it doesn't look that impressive, until they show a still photo.
This week's photo comes from the website Groundhog Dude. This is the bicycle parking outside the train station in the Belgian town of Leuven. There were an estimated 5,000 bikes parked here at the time. I hope this guy was able to find his bike.
Robin Williams had an addiction to cocaine early in his career. After John Belushi's death from an overdose, he quit drugs and alcohol and began cycling. He once told a bike shop owner that cycling saved his life. Over his lifetime, he acquired quite a few bikes. 1n 2016, his heirs sold 87 of them at auction, and donated the proceeds to charity.
The video below shows some of his bikes, but for a complete listing you need to visit the Paddle 8 website. There you will see that he had some really nice bicycles of all makes and types. He also has some collectible bikes, like a Pea Picker Krate Stingray. There were also a few oddities in the collection, including a clown bike, a Schwinn unicycle and an electric scooter.
The auction was a big success, raising over $600,000. That was triple what experts expected from the auction. The money raised was donated to the Challenged Athlete Foundation and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation charities.
The Women Bike Indy meetup will hold its first meeting of 2018 at 7:00 PM on Tuesday at Circle City Bicycles. New store manager Joe Bucksot will cover basic bike maintenance. There will also be a discussion of upcoming activities for 2018. There is no cost to attend, and cookies and punch will be provided by Circle City Bicycles. Come to the meeting and make some new friends.
Since today is Groundhog's Day, I went looking on the Internet for an image of a groundhog and a bicycle. Unfortunately I couldn't find one, but I thought this little guy could fill in. He's a Quokka from Australia, so he's a marsupial. They live in southwestern Australia and on some offshore islands. I wonder if they have Quokka Day in Australia instead of Groundhog's Day.
We all know the weather prediction rule - If the groundhog (or quokka) sees his shadow, it's another six weeks of lousy cycling weather. Let's hope for a cloudy day.
