Off on hols

I'm winging off on hols today, but had to share one last brill invention with you: the portable shower. I think there's still some work to be done here, but you've got to admire them for trying: "The DIY shower uses items that are readily available on the high street, costs around £50, and once assembled transforms a standard loo into a fully-functioning hot water shower. Once finished with, the shower can be packed away in less than a minute." The site also has tips for commuters.
Thanks Folderman.

Anyone know what this is?

While we're on the subject of strange objets d'art around Perth. This is by the new building at City West station and has the remains of four bikes. Does it belong to anyone? Should we nab it before it gets disposed of as rubbish?

Shania?

The lady's had another makeover - a black jacket on her head, a bike wheel and a shag (avian variety) - apparently to celebrate Shania's birthday.

BYO Bike lane

Here's a novel idea - a mobile bike lane that you can reproduce anywhere. Check out the video. Thanks to Chris P for the lead.

Radio coverage of TdF

Geraldine Doogue interviewed Phil Liggett about the contenders for this year's race and the tension between LA and Contador. The interview is titled "Grand Depart 2009" if you want to pod it.
ABC Local is finally updating its cycling site and tomorrow's edition of Grandstand (14.40 WST on 720AM) will have an interview with Cadel's Mum.
SBS will cover the Tour on both SBS1 and SBS2. SBS1 will have the usual highlights and recaps segments, as well as some live stages, whereas SBS2 will have mroe thorough coverage.

Cadel says pieces are in place for TdF

Have look here at some footage of team press conferences and interviews with TdF riders. Cadel Evans is upbeat despite losing Thomas Dekker to a drugs bust.
Meanwhile Rupert Guinness writes that "all that Twitters is not told", analysing the rise of Twitter as a tool used by athletes, and others, to cut out the middlefolk - the journalists - who ask annoying questions or challenge the altheltes' verison of events. Twits at the TdF include LA, of course, George Hincapie (wow! he's got some new glasses and is talking to someone about getting a new phone! OMG!) and Levi Leipheimer. The Australians aren't missing the new media boat either, with Cadel Evans, Michael Rogers and Mark Renshaw twittering on tour too.

Lance puts final touches to TdF prep

Lance is joined on his last training ride by an 8 year old who makes climbing looks so easy.

Viva Vélib!

Earlier reports of the demise of Paris’ free bike hire system, Vélib, were greatly exaggerated. Vélib’s project manager Mathieu Fierling is reported in Bike Europe as saying that the city is not only committed to the current program, but is about to expand it significantly. A new and more vandal-proof Vélib bike is now being developed in the fight against vandalism problems and another 300 hire stations and 3,300 bikes will appear on Paris streets by the end of this year. Vélib is expanding outside the city for the first time. Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris, was the first with 21 docking stations filled with Vélibs. Before the end of the year the cycle hire scheme is to be extended to 29 suburbs surrounding the French capital. Each of the suburban towns will get an average of 10 docking stations, with a total of 3,300 cycles to be placed by year's end.

If New York can manage without cars, why can't Perth?

New York City has announced it will shut down 11kms of Manhattan roadway in a reprise of last year’s Summer Streets program.In its debut last August, the program attracted about 50,000 bicyclists and pedestrians on each of its three days to a path from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 72nd Street.
Photo by Suzanne de Chillo

Diabetics conquer Race of America

Further to our earlier post, Team Type One - consisting entirely of cyclists with Type One Diabetes - not only completed the 5000km Race Across America, they did it in five days, nine hours and five minutes. Their average speed was 23.41 miles per hour — 0.17 better than the winner last year, a Norwegian cycling team made up of professionals.
Tara Parker Pope, reporting the success of Team Type One, writes that the achievements of the Type 1 athletes come at a time of growing concern about changing patterns of the disease. While Type 2 diabetes is associated with an unhealthy lifestyle, scientists do not yet know what causes Type 1, although autoimmune, genetic and environmental factors appear to play a role.

Elite cyclists risk infertility

Emma Wilkinson writes for BBC Online that researchers say professional cyclists should consider freezing their sperm before embarking on their careers.They found sperm quality drops dramatically with rigorous training.The Spanish study of top triathletes found those who cover more than 186 miles (300km) a week on their bikes have less than 4% normal looking sperm. At such levels, men would have "significant fertility problems", the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology heard.
The researchers also point out that this isn't likely to be a factor for the average commuter or recreational cyclist.
Thanks for this lead from Chris P, who points out that on the plus side, there is no child rearing to inerfere with gruellng training schedules.

Be seen to be safe

An Australian study into drivers' and cyclists' perceptions of visibility and responsibility for crashes finds that their experience varies greatly. The researchers say the issue of visibility is vital since the average probability of a cyclist being seriously injured if involved in a crash is around 27 per cent. Cyclists also have the largest proportion of self-reported near misses. A consistent finding was that drivers don't detect cyclists until it is too late to avoid a collision; and that a proportion of crashes between vehicles and cyclists have been identified as "looked but failed to see" crashes, where the driver of the vehicle failed to detect the cyclist in time to prevent the crash, even though they reported that they correctly looked in the direction of the cyclist. The study also found that although cyclists are aware of the need for reflective clothing and lights, many failed to use them. Cyclists also overestimated by half the distance at which they believed that cars could see them.

Bicycle saddle pressure: different for blokes

A study published in Urologia has examined the effect of trunk position and saddle design on bicycle saddle pressure. Previous studies have looked at a variety of ailments resulting from pressure, ranging from impotence and numbness to hematuria. This Brazilian study ( and I ignore the opportunity for a waxing pun) found that saddle pressure can be relieved in men by moving the trunk forward - eg with hands on drop bars rather than on the hoods - but that it doesn't make much difference for women. Likewise, the use of saddles with a hollow section under the perineal area relieved the pressure for men, but didn't do much for women.

Astana implodes?

If the rumours are true, Alberto Contador will step out of the shadow of Lance Armstrong and join Garmin-Slipstream, while Astana morphs into Livestrong-Nike. OMG check out the team line up statement on Astana site. Makes Independence Day look subtle.

RAATA urges Govt to rebalance transport budget

A new report by the Rapid Active & Affordable Transport Alliance (RAATA), Investing in sustainable transport: Our clean, green transport future, urges the Federal Government to catch up on years of neglect by investing two thirds of the transport budget in public and active transport measures.

Speaking today at the report launch in Canberra, ACF executive director Don Henry said public and active transport infrastructure has been neglected for too long and some money allocated to roads should be spent on public and active transport infrastructure.
"Climate change and peak oil are key challenges for Australia. Investment in public and active transport infrastructure will help make Australia more sustainable, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help wean us off our addiction to oil," Mr Henry said. "For the same amount of money currently being spent on roads, we can provide more transport services for more people."

Heart Foundation National CEO Dr Lyn Roberts said we must change the way Australia moves.
More than 16,000 Australians are estimated to die prematurely each year, mostly from heart disease and stroke, because they are insufficiently physically active. Physical inactivity also costs the community an estimated $13.8 billion a year, Dr Roberts said. "We need to make the healthier transport choices walking, cycling, public transport the easier choices. And we need to replan our communities to promote physical activity not obesity."

Diabetes Australia CEO Matt O Brien also talked about the benefits of active transport. "Active community environments that encourage walking, bike riding and incidental exercise can help reduce overweight and obesity. People who are overweight or obese are at a much higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This is of grave concern in Australia as the number of new cases of diabetes each year would fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground; that is 275 new cases every day," said Mr O Brien.

Chairman of Bus Industry Confederation Scott Grenda said the Government should be congratulated on the first steps towards addressing the public transport shortfall, announced in the recent budget. "It's clear Australia requires a national moving people strategy. It's in the national interest for the Commonwealth to be involved in the provision of public transport to address the congestion, climate change and social isolation to name a few," said Mr Grenda.
"This joint initiative will hopefully be the start of not only the Government addressing these issues, but also the Opposition. This issue requires a bi-partisan approach where political parties all agree on the importance of getting right how move people."

RAATA comprises the Australian Conservation Foundation, ACTU, Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO), Bicycle NSW, Bus Industry Confederation, City of Sydney, Diabetes Australia, Environment Victoria, Get Up, Heart Foundation, Conservation Council of South Australia, Conservation Council of Western Australia, Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Queensland Conservation, Public Transport Users Association, Rail Tram and Bus Union and International Association of Public Transport (UITP).

Poor most vulnerable on roads

Poorer nations compromise the majority of road deaths despite having less than half of the world's registered vehicles, according to a new report. The World Health Organization study found that almost half of the estimated 1.27 million people who die each year in road accidents are pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists, and that number is set to nearly double in the next two decades.

"More than 90% of the world's road deaths occur in low-income and middle-income countries, while these countries only have 48% of the world's vehicles," says Dr Etienne Krug, director of WHO's Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability.

The study found, people from poor economic settings are disproportionately affected by the 20 to 50 million road traffic injuries per year, even in high-income countries. Low-income countries, such those in the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa had the highest death rates, averaging 21.5 per 100,000 people. High-income countries, such the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom averaged 10.3 deaths per 100,000.

The report shows Australia's road fatality rate has fallen from 30 deaths for every 100,000 people in 1970, to approximately seven per 100,000 in 2007. Males made up three-quarters of road traffic fatalities in Australia, while one in eight were pedestrians and almost half were drivers.

Mainroads doesn't measure up

The WA Auditor General has released its report Maintaining the State Road Network. The conlcusions of the report are that the condition of the state road network has deteriorated since Main Roads contracted out its road maintenance function. Although the road surface is generally smooth, the average age of the road network is steadily increasing with nearly one third of the network having now reached the end of its design life.
The road maintenance contracts have not delivered adequate levels of planned maintenance
and contract costs have increased. Addressing the overdue planned maintenance will be expensive and eff ectively targeting any restoration will be diffi cult for Main Roads due to a lack of some key information about the condition of the road network. Such information is essential for deciding where, when and what type of maintenance is needed to ensure optimal cost eff ectiveness. Main Roads responds that it has learnt a number of lessons from the existing approach and will need to apply these to new maintenance contracts.
The road environment is critical to safety and is a factor in about one third of road crashes.

Paul Frank summer bike range

Paul Frank makes interesting, if expensive, bikes and the company also has a serious love for dogs and the environment. Not only are Paul Frank employees able to bring their dogs to work, the company provides a dog park built to keep the dogs entertained while their human companions are hard at work. Check out the latest bikes here.

Horillo leaves hospital

Pedro Horillo, who suffered extensive injuries after a fall down a ravine during the Giro, has been released from hospital, but fears that he may not be able to return to pro cycling.

Why do people cycle?

DPI has released the results of its survey into cycling in Perth. It's good that DPI is researching cyclists' attitudes but I'm not sure how much real value this study is. It is the result of an online survey of 400 people, and a lot of this report is taken up with marketing faffery, and not a great deal of specific, qualitative data. The questions asked of people seemed vague and too narrowly focused with their replies. You would find quite different results if you got cyclists out there talking to people about cycling and then getting feedback from them, rather than paint by numbers marketing surveys.