STUFFE

The Surly Troll.

Yes, I know it's been a while.

NEW SURLY
If you don't want to be spoilered before Interbike, look away now.

Surly have outlined the new things in their range in a blog post here. I guess the trailer is the big addition - with a hitch that attaches at the rear dropout, by the looks of things, and capable of carrying 300lbs. Blimey.

Also of interest is the Troll, for all the world this looks like the sort of classic steel frame rigid MTB that makes a great beater/commuter/trailer hauler &c &c, with modern touches like disc compatibility. Like the Cotic Roadrat, in a lot of ways.

REDBIKES
Is gradually coming back from his injury;

3 weeks ago I was starting to wonder if I would ever get back on the bike.
2 weeks ago I was cursing the fact that I couldn't ride over 5 miles.
Last week 10miles / hills seemed impossible.

Hopefully his recovery will continue in this speedy fashion!

THE PREDATOR
I really think that using masking tape as handlebar tape is taking thrift too far. Although, given the amount used, wouldn't regular tape be cheaper than buying twenty rolls of masking tape?

ARE MODERN BIKES FASTER?
...or what part has bike technology played in the increase in race speeds? Cozy Beehive looks at one examination by Bicycle Quarterly, and attempts to untangle the different factors involved.

BAILEYWORKS
Their "flag" messenger bags really look cool - hopefully these will move beyond the prototype stage soon. (Story at Urbanvelo.com).

ANOTHER DIY TRAILER
I like the idea of this one - its designer aims to make a "global" DIY trailer, i.e. one constructed from materials that are easy to source anywhere in the world, and simple to put together.

RETHINKING THE PENCIL
As someone with a drawer full of slightly too short pencil stubs, Lines and Colors' article on the Continuous Pencil concept holds great appeal.

LOVELY STUFF FROM VELO ORANGE (AGAIN)
Their fillet brazed Rando frame prototype can be viewed here.

STUFFE

WHO STOLE THE ROAD?
I hate bikes, they get right in the way, don't they?

Or maybe not...

A graphic illustration of how much road space is used by 35 people using different modes of transport.

PERIODIC F*****G TABLE
Flowing Data points out that we all secretly love the Periodic Table infographic - here's Modern Toss' take on the format, with the Periodic Table of Swearing. Surely it's obvious that the page beyond this link contains bad language?

You can buy a print of this too, although I'm not sure who would think a nicely formatted collection of swears makes a nice talking point.

EGGS, BASKETS &c
Cosmo has a good piece on why the "Lance vs Bert" take on this years' tour by US media was a stupid idea here, and more fundamentally why the focus on one rider's exploits to sell cycling to Americans is a daft idea. The killer paragraph for me;

Can you even imagine it? No more armies of dentists dragging the LBS out of the red each year with Lance-replica Trek purchases. No more Chris Carmichael promising phantom results to middle-aged racers about to train themselves out of love with the sport. No more laurel wreaths cast at the feet of DS whose prolific success in July has allowed him to brush years of downright miserable classics results under the rug.

What will the US bike industry look like post-Lance? Is the focus on one rider as figurehead a fundamentally flawed idea?

BANANAS
The first bike I can remember coveting was the Raleigh Team Banana. I didn't follow pro-cycling at the time, but knew instinctively that the black & yellow colour scheme, cutting edge 531 frame and 12 speed gearing was very cool. Re-living that youthful yearning without upsetting Mrs Monkey *or* the bank manager by adding yet another bike to the garage is easier now, thanks to Prendas, who are doing these replica Team Banana caps.

STUFFE

TOUR PODCASTS
The Velocast has gone daily for the duration of the tour - these are snappy little 15 minute or so 'casts reviewing the action of the day's stage, and are well worth a listen.

Also worthy of note is the latest Cyclingnews podcast, in which tour veteran (20 years!) Gary Imlach is interviewed. There are fantastic anecdotes and stories of the coverage and tour in this, and I highly recommend it.

NICE RACK
Bike Commuters reviews the Planet Bike K.O.K.O. rack - which looks nicely designed and well thought out - I particularly like the angled pannier supports, which taper in towards the seatpost from the rear. I'm not sure whether this serves a useful purpose, but it looks cool. More practically, the the rack struts will keep your panniers out of the wheel, and the light plate will come in handy for winter rides (Although I wish more manufacturers would drill these to allow the mounting of a couple of lights).

COMICS
Phil Plait looks at the work of Daryl Cunningham, who has a couple of interesting comics on his site examining Homeopathy, and the Anti-Vaccination movement. Well worth reading.

Less seriously, Nedroid.com looks at firework safety, through the medium of Reginald.

ASTEROIDS
Also from Phil Plait is a piece on Japan's Hayabusa mission, the first space flight to land successfully on an asteroid, and return to earth after doing so, an astonishing achievement, even without the trouble that plagued the mission.

MAD FIBER
Cozy Beehive has an excellent round up of links in his "Cycling Shorts" piece (see what he did there). It's very much better than this, (but includes fewer comics, so TAKE THAT, Mr. Bee). It includes, and expands on some of the misgivings I have about crabon myself, talking particularly about wheels.

THE MOST IMMORAL SPORT IN THE WORLD?
Sports Scientists have an opinion piece on this. His argument is that soccer lacks the redeeming aspects even of comprehensively tarnished sports like our own much beloved pro-cycling.

URBAN SKETCHERS
As interesting as ever, Urban Sketchers has a feature on Sports Illustrated artist Robert Weaver here. The link in the article takes you to a slideshow of Weaver's sketches. The pictures of the baseball players reminds me of the advice to "draw clear, not clean".

LE TOUR
Geraint Thomas is featured in Cycling News, sporting his new British National Champion's jersey. It looks great, and kudos to him and Sky for not doing anything wacky, or, for want of a better word, "Pippo" with it. Thomas has had a couple of good rides in his Tour debut so far, and deserves a hearty "chapeau".

Also from the Tour is the news that Mark Cavendish has been jeered by fans in Team Sky kit;

They yelled repeatedly, "Cavendish, you suck! Go home!"

With the reported arrival of the World Cup's Vuvuzelas at the Dutch stages of Le Tour, it appears some of the football fans' much admired attitude and "wit" has arrived too.

Bike Hugger, or David at Bike Hugger at least, is disillusioned with the tour. Whilst I appreciate that there are differences in the coverage between Eurosport & ITV4 here, and the seemingly very Armstrong centric Versus, I think his second point, about the doping coverage rings slightly less true with me. Although it's felt this way before (2008, anyone?) we do seem to be at something of a turning point towards a cleaner sport now. The fallout won't be pleasant, but it's fairly apparent that we can't continue looking the other way much longer.

SPACESUIT OF THE WEEK

Hunter Freeman is a photographer living and working in San Francisco. In an ongoing personal project, Freeman photographs astronauts exploring very pedestrian environments while fully dressed in Apollo Space Suits.

This, on Kitsune Noir is BRILLIANT.

MOVES
Pavé blog is now at http://www.pavepavepave.com/ , so update your bookmarks accordingly. (Oddly, feedly won't let me add the new site as a feed, must see if I can fix that that).

LOST
Lastly, Flowing Data brings us the Geography of Lost. Still no word on why I keep watching it though, sadly.

STUFFE

THE BEST CYCLING PICTURE EVER, CONTINUED
I have no idea what the story behind this shot is, or was, but no one can deny that this guy has it going on. Chopper bike, checked trews, and a lady looking on admiringly.

That's HOW I ROLL, BABY. (He might be saying).

(Found on Bike Hugger, original image from the Smithsonian)

HEART ON YOUR SLEEVE - AND CHEST
Of course, the sun has disappeared the very instant I began to think of these, but Howies have a stylish "Vive Le Tour" t-shirt as their t-shirt of the week.

Also worthy of note, and not so time limited, are Brian Opsal's lovely cycling inspired shirts, including this Bernard Hinault inspired number, and (perhaps for Lamby) this Pantani shirt.

And of course, no round up of bike shirts would be complete without the artwork of Richard Mitchelson, whose "Tete De La Course" series are really nice. (Series 1, Series 2)

Urban Cyclists could do a lot worse than check out City Cycling's Red Bubble store, which does include some pro-cycling shirts, one of which is a Maillot Pois (Polka Dot) shirt subtle enough to not write cheques your legs may not be able to cash...

HOW TO EMAIL
Nedroid Picture Diary has some invaluable advice.

ISO TRUSS FRAMES
Cozy Beehive blog looks at these unusual Carbon Fibre frames. in this post.

VELO ORANGE
They've updated about their "Grand Cru" cranks, in this post. One paragrpah caught my eye in particular;

I do apologize for being out of so many items. The super busy spring season really cleaned us out and we've once again seen growth beyond what I'd anticipated and planned for. The good news is that we should have two containers of products, including several new items, sailing in July.

In some ways, that's a pain, after all, we all want our stuff. But looking at it another way, a company like Velo Orange, who make nice things that they care about making well, is so successful that they (briefly) can't meet demand - that has to be a good thing, and more power, and more success, to them.

SHUTT & ALWAYS RIDING
It's also good to see nice chaps, and manufacturers of top quality gear Shutt Velo Rapide going from strength to strength - their latest venture is a tie in with Always Riding;

Shutt Velo Rapide, UK manufacturer of fine handmade Sportwool™ jerseys, has today teamed up with online e-tailor Alwaysriding.co.uk to create a new range of cycling jerseys inspired by the heyday of British Motor Sport.

BING MAPS TOUR DE FRANCE APPLICATION
Podium Café has an article about this, which will include commentary from Podium Café on the stages. Click a stage in the sidebar to see the route map and profile - move your cursor along the profile to see a rider follow the route. The application also includes weather forecasts for the stages!

It's better seen than described, so click here to check it out, it's very impressive.

SCIENCE OF SPORT TOUR DE FRANCE ROUND UP
If you don't already read the Science of Sport blog, it's well worth a look. They're looking forward to the tour like most cycling fans, and they've collected some relevant prior posts, and some new commentary here - do add them to your rss feeds if you're following the tour this year.

CYCLOCOSM
A single heading for two good posts, first a bit of pre-tour talk, including a look at the "Radioshack won't start" rumours, and an interesting snippet on pre-tour coverage in the US;

I’m sick of the sad-music-for-Lance, evil-music-for-Contador recaps of last year, the LA vs. AC previews...

Which struck me as a bizarre spin on things from the broadcasters, given that a lot of the acrimony and division in the Astana camp last year seemed to stem from the Armstrong camp either not supporting, or lending only half hearted support to Bert as the self evidently stronger rider.

Cosmo also looks at the rules related to bunch sprints in this post, unpicking what the UCI says about what it's ok to do, and not do in the race for the line.

LE TOUR DES VINS
For a different look at the Tour De France, you could do a lot worse than Jack Thurston's "Tour Des Vins de France", a meander through the tour's stages sampling hop and grape. Mrs. Monkey has personally approved this approach to the tour, and is following Jack's articles with great interest.

WOMEN'S CYCLING
Podium Café have an interesting round up of the field for the Giro Donne, which runs from 2nd to the 11th of July. It's a treasure trove of links, related to the Giro Donne in particular, and women's cycling in general - have your bookmarks folder open when reading it.

INFOGRAPHICS
Information is Beautiful looks at the work of "Always with Honour", a duo you may not have heard of, but whose work you'll almost certainly recognise if you're a fan of Good Magazine's "Transparency" features.

Also well worth a look is this FIFA player value infographic, examined by Flowing Data - what would you do to improve it?

CHAPEAU
To Karl on Sea, who completed his Ironman triathlon. You can read his race report on his blog, and still sponsor him (a surer proposition now, if you were wavering, as you know he's completed the race) here. Monies will be going to Macmillan Cancer Support, an excellent charity that provides practical, medical, emotional and financial support to people affected by cancer, and advocates for better cancer care.

STUFFE

I'M STILL NOT BUYING AN IPAD


But this is really cool. Lines and Colors features Brooklyn artist David John Kassan painting from life using an iPad. £600 is a lot to pay for a sketchpad, but people assure me that Apple's pricey rectangle does other stuff too.

FOCUS BOOKS
I really like this little productivity idea for cartoonists & artists from Kevin M at New Construction. To get over that "good book", or "first sketch" feeling (the hesitation before sketching in a really nice book, or before doing the first sketch in a new one). As he points out, it's also an inexpensive way to get into a particular thematic vein before starting work properly.

CYCLING INQUISITION AND RAPHA
In which Lucho articulates something many of us less stylish cyclists feel in the rarefied atmosphere of the big R. He also notes some disturbing trends in new "colorways";

If this is what cycling fashion is descending into, will someone please come over to my house and simply piss on my eyeballs?

Also on the subject of Rapha is this BSNYC piece, about Rouleur.

If you thrive on the history, imagery, and lore of the sport you will certainy enjoy it. However, I can't even take the Bible seriously, much less bike racing, so when I read Rouleur I generally feel like a child sitting in a religious service and trying not to laugh.

He has a point about the reverence of some of Rouleur's contributors, but it's often a fascinating read; the issue illustrated has a great piece about the Gendarmes who escort the tour that you'd probably not see anywhere else, and Tom Southam's piece about riding in the Tour of Britain is really good. Still, at least he takes the mickey out of Assos, so it's all good.

STUFFE

Look at all those lovely bikes! Pic from Garmin's Website.

TOUR PREP
Garmin-Transitions offer a look inside their Service Course, as they prepare for the Tour De France. The thing that strikes me is the sheer amount of stuff, and work to do. As the article says;

Each rider will head to Rotterdam with 6 bicycles: their race bike, one spare for each car, a roubaix bike, and two time trial bikes.

And every bike is being built up from new frames and equipment by the mechanics. The article gives a real insight into the behnid the scenes work of mechanics and soigneurs, and is well worth a look.

INFOGRAPHICS
Examining whether sequels live up to the original film, at Flowing Data.

TOUR PREVIEW #1

Well, let's face it and be honest about it: any time trial would put the jersey on Fabian Cancellara's back.

Over at Pezcyclingnews, this preview examines the first week of Le Tour.

Also, Pez have managed to get tour fixture Didi (The Devil) to pose with their range of kit, which is quite the coup...

TENNIS, AGAIN

Therefore, in 11 hours and 5 minutes, the energy burned would be around 8500 kCal. How much is this? Well, if someone like Isner, who weighs 110kg, were to run a marathon, he would burn approximately 4600 kCal. So, his 11 hour tennis match came at the cost of almost two marathons. Sure, it was "run" over 3 days in installments, but the numbers are extra-ordinary.

The Sports Scientists blog returns to Mahut vs Isner, and some estimates of the energy expended by the players. Interestingly, their commentary has been picked up by the Washington Post - it's good to see them being recognised in this way.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
Cycling Weekly rounds up the results of the various National Championship races that took place over the weekend. I'm very pleased to see Stijn Devolder in the Belgian champion's jersey, and doomed breakaway specialist Thomas Voeckler take the French championship.

Interstingly Sky took all the podium places in the UK race, with Geraint Thomas taking the win.

THE GREATEST CYCLING PHOTO EVER

Simon Lamb offers this picture of Coppi and Bartali as the greatest cycling picture ever. I've not given this a great deal of thought, but it seems to me that the shot above (Anquetil and Poulidor on the Puy De Dome) would be my choice - a graphic illustration of their rivalry.

PEDAL TO PROPERTIES
This is a brilliant idea, a realtor that offers bike tours to prospective house purchasers. A bike is a great way to cover distance quickly, but in a way that still allows you to get the feel of an area. I met a chap last year who was house hunting by bike locally to me (and was able to tell him where the local Surly dealer was, among other things).

DISC BRAKES IN CX
The news that the UCI has embraced a post-war technology shocked many of us last week, with their allowance of disc brakes in cyclocross. Bikehugger has a good piece about this, with the following being one of the conclusions I think they're absolutely right about;

...we are perhaps now on the eve of the next big revolution in bicycle equipment. Cyclocross is the doorway through which disc brake systems integrated into dropbar shift/brake reach the consumer as well as the natural path for discs to reach UCI acceptance to road racing.

VELOCLUB DON LOGAN
...becomes an investigative journalist. No, really.

CHARLES BURCHFIELD
I'd not heard of him either, but this post and lines and colors is a great introduction, and his work is lovely.

SPACESUIT OF THE WEEK
Or, features I wish I'd thought of. From Kitsune Noir (and my eternal thanks to Gem at Bianchista for introducing me to that blog) comes the spacesuit of the week.

STUFFE

THE JOURNEY THAT SAVED CURIOUS GEORGE
I'm not sure how well known Curious George is in the UK - my daughter loves him, and had several of the books (and the dvd on repeat) when she was younger.

Urban Velo points us at "Curious George Saves the Day", an exhibition of the art of Curious George, and the history of his creators.

the authors who created him, Margaret and Hans A. Rey ... were German Jews living in Paris when they fled Nazi persecution on bicycles Hans fashioned from spare parts. Their journey is documented in Louise Borden’s 2005 picture book, The Journey That Saved Curious George.

It's odd to think of such a joyful, innocent character coming out of the horror of the second world war, something Rey mused on himself;

At such a time, Hans A. Rey wrote in a letter, “it feels ridiculous to be thinking about children’s books.” But that is what they were doing, prolifically, including a book about a monkey named Fifi, who later became known as Curious George.

To link back to cycling, anyone arriving at the exhibition (which is at the Jewish Museum in New York) will get a $2 discount on admission throughout June.

CYCLING INQUISITION
I'm surprised more people don't know about Cycling Inquisition - the writing is great, and his focus on Columbian cycling and cyclists is, as far as I know, rare in English language blogs.

Yesterday saw another good piece on Columbian Cycling culture, the race report that runs long because riders have to tell their mothers they've finished safely, the rider who works as a coal miner. It's great, and you should read it.

THE ELECTRIC TRAILER

Power assist can make a lot of sense for Cargo Bikes - but if you're not hauling stuff all the time, you end up with an e-bike whether you need the assist or not. So what about an electric trailer?

COMMUTING IN THE HEAT
Bikecommuters.com rounds up its posts on riding to work in the heat - if our hot spell continues here, this could be one to bookmark...

CLAMPDOWN
The Police in London began a crackdown on road users who disobey traffic law yesterday. Whilst I question slightly the implicit assumption that an equal risk is posed by all of them, enforcing traffic law can't be a bad thing. Cycling Weekly has more.

COMICS
Nedroid Picture Diary, and Savage Chickens both contain valuable life lessons in their latest comics.

TENNIS
Not a sport I follow, but the epic match between Mahut and Isner caught my interest. The Science of Sport blog deconstructs the match here.

WWII URBAN SKETCHER
Wonderful stuff from wartime artist William A. Smith, over at the Urban Sketchers Blog.

FARGO ADVENTURE RIDE
Great pictures of what looks like an awesome ride.

This ride is about fun, adventure, challenge and friendship. It could be argued that the routes and adventures are designed to highlight the versatile and capable Salsa Fargo, but I would argue the routes and adventures are planned to challenge folks and that the Fargo is simply the right tool for the job.

More detail, and a link to Gnat's flickr set of event photos at Salsa's Blog.

YORK CYCLE SHOW
A great piece at Velovision with lots of pictures. Look at the lugwork on the Hetchins, for one thing (third pic down).

THANKS
To those of you who made kind comments about "STUFFE" posts - it's appreciated. I'm still figuring out what the format should be (just links, some commentary) and you may have noticed it isn't daily any more. I'm playing it by ear, truth be told.

STUFFE

TIPS FOR CYCLISTS

This is really very funny. I especially like the shouting out the window bit (that it comes out as un-intelligible garbage is entirely true, personally I always imagine it's a compliment about my bottom, or something.)

OUT RAPHA'ED

Moncler Gamme Bleu Spring/Summer 2011 Runway from LAT Videos on Vimeo.

Moncler launched a cycling themed haute couture collection at the Vigorelli velodrome. Whilst I'm not certain the gear will be as good for riding in as Rapha's undoubtedly is, (those bike pattern capes in particular look like a colossal pain in the arse) it's certainly going to be more expensive.

Cycling Weekly has its own take here.

The only problem I have with cycling being fashionable, is that at some point, it inevitably becomes unfashionable once again. Once the trendies ditch it, what happens then? The optimists hope that the majority of people keep pedalling, having seen the convenience of getting about a city by bike. I hope they're right.

COMMUNITY PACE CARS
I love this idea. As noted on the Urban Velo blog;

Basically you get a black and yellow diamond shape car window sticker with Pace Car on it. By having this sticker you agree to abide by the road rules and be courteous to cyclists (and obey the 1.5 meter rule) and pedestrians.

It's simple, and it's done by one of the few road users motor traffic will take notice of, i.e. other motor traffic. It's sad that everyone can't drive in the way the pace car programme suggests (after all, this is how they're taught to drive) but the idea of setting an example with your own driving is an excellent one.

NEW!
There's a new Velocast!

BELGIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

"But the riders make the race, and here's where Belgium is unique. Almost everywhere else the top riders are guarding their form. Only in Belgium can top international stars be planning as much for their home nats as for the Tour -- or more so, in some cases."

A good piece at Podium Café about the Belgian National Championships.

"NONE OF US IS THE FAVOURITE"
There seem to be echoes of last year's "The road will decide" attitude in this year's pronouncements from Mr. Armstrong about the tour.

STUFFE

WHAT CAR HORNS ARE REALLY SAYING
A great comic from "The System".

MORE NAKED THAN NAKED

...although work safe, I think. Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog has these oddly disconcerting X-Ray "pin ups", created for a medical equipment manufacturer's promotional campaign. Some good may come of them, as Mr. Plait points out;

Check out what stilettos do to your metatarsophalangeal joint between the metatarsal and proximal phalangeal bones! Perhaps one outcome of these pictures is that the next time I see a woman wearing 4 inch heels, this’ll be what I think of.

CLOSE TO FLYING
Cozy Beehive blog points you towards this interview with world champion Cadel Evans, partly promoting his book, "Close to Flying". It's interesting stuff, although I can't help feeling that the Cadel Evans story has more chapters to be written yet. Cozy Beehive has an older, interesting article about Evans that you can read here.

MAJOR THE MOVIE
Marshall "Major" Taylor was American and World Cycling champion in 1899, a feat that makes him the first black world champion of any leading sport, according to the film makers.

Urban Velo has a small piece linking to the preview of the Major Taylor film here.

CARGO/TRAILER CORNER

Moving House by bicycle, from the Utility Cycling blog.

Of course, moving your entire house by bike is pretty extreme - but a weekly shop? Piece of cake...

JIM DENEVAN

Lines and Colors blog has these amazing pieces by Jim Denevan;

...an artist who makes his works in the sand and earth, but in a much more elaborate and large scale manner. He makes his marks with a stick or rake, stirring up the sand to make it darker and walking carefully while making the pattern.

Given the amount of work he must put into them, I find it amazing that they're done in such an ephmeral medium.

Also from Lines and Colors are these beautiful posters for America's national parks.

THE LAST CITY CYCLING
Can be found here.

When I started riding to work, City Cycling was one of the resources that I used a lot - once you get past the basics, sites like City Cycling provide other people's real life experiences of riding in traffic, and beyond that, food for thought about cycling's place in your life, and in society generally. I was also fortunate to have some of my writing published in it, thanks to tireless editor Anth.

Although this is the last monthly issue, City Cycling will live on, albeit in a different form, so keep your eye on the site for news.

"THE LITTLE GUYS LIVE HERE..."
From drawn.ca, Kevin Huizenga's blog about cartooning practice. I like the illustration that leads the article, it says an awful lot about the difficulty of transferring your ideas to paper.

R.I.P. FRANK SIDEBOTTOM
I'm from Timperley originally, so Frank Sidebottom has flitted in and out of my consciousness from time to time throughout my life. I remember once seeing him wave from a house on one of the Timperley bus routes (as we all waved back).

Chortle and BrokenTV both have good pieces about his life and work.

STUFFE

FIRST THINGS FIRST
Richard Mitchelson has another run of "Legends" shirts on the way. This time, the roster includes Bernard Hinault and Robert Millar, among others. I love these - Richard's talent in this limited format is evident if you look at the Hinault portrait, I think - it's recognisably Bernard, even without the more commonly portrayed "La Vie Claire" colours.

To use a phrase from the Velocast, "I'm havin' one".

THAT WORLD CUP FEELING
Comes to Monkey Photo Manchester. (Or any other website you fancy).

STIPPLE
Lines and Colors blog has this piece on Noli Novak, a staff illustrator at the Wall Street Journal.

Contrary to what you might think if you haven’t tried it, you cannot apply stipple mindlessly; the dots must be laid down carefully, with attention to the spacing between them. Get two dots too close to each other and you have a glaring error, dark enough to stand out in your otherwise smooth tone.

Given the difficulty of the technique, it’s a delight to have a bastion of modern stipple illustration in the form of the “hedcuts” (”headline cuts”) that have graced the pages of the Wall Street Journal since 1979, when the style was codified by Kevin Sprouls. The WSJ hedcut style, in which stipple is used in conjunction with engraving-like cross hatching, is employed for small portraits of well known figures, and has become an identifying characteristic of the paper.

You can see Noli's "Hedcuts" blog here, and her flickr art set here.

"I DON'T BIKE TO THINK"
The System has a great comic today - which is also going to become a t-shirt.

It reminds me of what (I think) Murakami said about distance running, that he did it to create a void in himself, where running was all there was. Of course, you are thinking when you ride, about how far you've gone, what route you're taking and about the traffic, but it's very focussed, and not about the worries of the day, in general.

THE HAND OF FRIENDSHIP
Nedroid Picture Diary shows us, once again, that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. IN COLOR!


GLASSES
I've no idea of the original source of this, but it features on Flowing Data - the difference a pair of glasses can make. A great idea, executed beautifully.

FISHER, CARGO BIKE
James at bicycle design has a piece that muses on the changes to the Gary fisher line. It also features a look at a bike that first appeared in concept form as the "El Ranchero", a longtail cargo e-bike, that looks rather nice (it's also available as an all human powered bike). The name is now the "Transport", and the e-bike version is the "Transport +" more detail on those bikes at cyclelicious.

HOW THE RACE WAS WON
Cyclocosm covers the Dauphiné in this video post.

Pavé has a Dauphiné wrap up (among other things) in text form here, as the "Monday Musette".

STUFFE

ENGINEERING CORNER
Cozy Beehive has an interesting piece on the forces experienced during a sprint crash.

Is that a lot of force? Depends whom you talk to and which industry they belong to. But for the Boy Racer, it would really seem he were getting slapped hard on his back by a Sumo wrestler applying 10 times the former's body weight in force, roughly about 6 Kilo newton or 1300 pounds.

You can read the article here.

THE DAUPHINE
Cosmo wonders in this piece whether it's time to re-examine the one week "tour tune up" races. I was a bit busy to follow the Dauphiné properly, but rather wish I'd made the time now.

REMINDER CORNER
Karl On Sea's Ironman is looming. He's doing this particular piece of lunacy (an Ironman is 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run) in aid of a fantastic cause, Macmillan Cancer Support, and you can sponsor him here.

SHARE THE JOY
A nice piece at the end of Cycling Inquisition's latest article, about remembering to tell the nice stories about your commute, as well as the horror stories too.

TRAILER CORNER

Burley have a guest post over at the bike trailer blog, with a bit of company history, and some information on their "Travoy" trailer. The idea of the Travoy is that it mounts to a seatpost hitch, and can be removed & wheeled with you when you get to your destination (a bit like a cool shopping trolley, if you can imagine such a thing). As they say;

Since you can take the new Burley inside with you, there’s no need to worry about locking up what’s in your pannier bag or leaving anything outside. And if you don’t want to stand the trailer up in your office or a restaurant, it folds down to briefcase-size to fit under your desk or in your cramped downtown apartment.

It's another neat solution in a growing number of neat solutions to carrying large things on a bike. How large? Well, there's a list in the post itself, but my favourite is pictured above...

STUFFE

THE VUVUZELA
Science of Sport today;

I was going to crack on with the science series, looking at fatigue, but something that I almost have to discuss is the controversy that is rapidly building momentum regarding the vuvuzela. This is the name of the traditional horn that South African football fans blow at football matches. If you have watched even one single minute of the action so far, you know exactly what it is. Either that, or you are concerned that every match is about to be halted by the world's largest swarm of bees.

I rather want one, to be honest. The Science of Sport blog article is here, and their other coverage is worth reading too.

UK ANTI-DOPING
Cycling weekly covers the new agency which is;

"responsible for ensuring sports bodies in the UK are compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, running an education and information programme, managing intelligence and processing possible cases of anti-doping rule violations."

I must admit, I'd not heard about this, CW's articles on it are here and here.

BASIC SKILLS FOR BIKE COMMUTERS
The Bike Commuter blog is mulling a "Bike Commuting Basics" series - if you've anything you think they should feature, add to the comments in this post.

Also at Bike Commuters is this look at the Soma Double Cross (which is a nice looking bike). I have my doubts about mudguardless commuters, but that aside, their build looks like a practical, fun bike.

SURVIVING THE ETAPE
Via Gem at Bianchista is this excellent series of tips for riding the Etape du Tour - well worth looking at if you have this (or any other large event) in your sights.

FROM HARE KRISHNA, TO PUNK SINGER, TO DRUG DEALER, TO VEGAN CYCLIST
In fact, that hardly does John Joseph McGowan's story justice at all. A great interview over at Cycling Inquisition;

Back then, people I knew would ask "how much did you spend on that bike?", and I'd tell them...but then I'd tell them they could have bought three of those bikes with the money they spent on beer and cigarettes.

SCOTT PILGRIM'S WORLD OF PAIN

A preview of the upcoming Scott Pilgrim game. As one of the commenters points out, it's very reminiscent of classic side scrolling beat 'em ups like River City Ransom, Streets of Rage and others that consumed my early teenage years and I'm rather looking forward to it.

URBAN SKETCHERS
Introduced to me by the fabulous drawn.ca blog, I love urban sketchers.

STUFFE

BIKES, BEER, TRAILERS

Have Keg, Will Pedal from marty benson on Vimeo.

Biketrailerblog has this nice story about a group of friends transporting a beer keg from their local craft brewery. The trailer used is a Wandertec Bongo, and the film made about the trip, and the brewery is above.

WORLDS COLLIDE DEPT
Karl on Sea has a series of nice modifications (calling them hacks does them a disservice) featured on bikehacks.com today, in this article.

The modifications were all carried out on his wife's Raleigh shopper, and vary from the sort of modification I've seen up to now...

RICHARD MOORE
Podium Café has a great interview with the author of "In Search of Robert Millar" here. It also mentions Moore's next project, which sounds like a must read;

PdC: So your next book is about the 1986 Tour? When is that coming out?

RM: It’s going to come out next June for the 25th anniversary for the 1986 Tour. Couple things, some of the people who read the book about Millar said they’d love to read a book about Hinault, another fascinating character. But rather than just write a book about Hinault I thought could I structure this book around an event.

MUSIC/PHILOSOPHY/QUOTES
From the System comes this wonderful site, "Music Philosophy" which is;

"a weekly graphic/typographic interpretation of philosophical song quotes. All the posters look great as an iPhone desktop wallpaper, so feel free to download them. Hope you enjoy."

STUFFE

Locals & Tourists #32, Manchester, by Eric Fischer

LOCATION
Redbikes has found a useful tool for visualising your GPS tracks.

Flowing Data covers an interesting project based on geotagged photos. Initially, it showed where most photos are taken in a city - the author has, however, extended the project to differentiate between visitors and locals - really interesting stuff. See the picture above for local (to me) interest.

Lastly, Brendada was kind enough to point me in the direction of this interesting project, "Uncertain Eastside" again using GPS/Geotagging.

COMICS
If you follow Nedroid Picture Diary, you'll know that Beartato is the steady rock to Reginald's mercurial flightiness. What you may not know is that he had a rebellious youth...

DEALING WITH NEGATIVE PRESS
This article from Bicycling tells of a novel way for cyclists to respond to Daily Mail style attacks in the press - make your donation to cycling charities in the correspondent's name. The correspondent in question may be on his way to becoming the Bicycle Coalition's biggest supporter...

SHAVING
Karl on Sea has a guilty secret... (Don't forget, you can still sponsor Karl's Ironman triathlon, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support here).

LIGHTS
I know it's the wrong time of year, but Velo Orange covers some interesting lights from Dutch company "Spanninga".

"most interesting is their "Reverse-Beam Technology". They claim it's one of the most efficient LED systems available. The LED bulb is mounted just behind the lens and aimed rearward at a mirror that focuses and reflects the light. This minimizes light loss and gives a strong focused and lateral beam."

I think this is similar to Busch & Muller's designs (although I could be wrong).

JOCHEN GERNER
Features in this post from drawn.ca. His densely populated sketchbook pages are fascinating, as is the pared down, schematic style of his published work.

STUFFE

DEPT OF WOW
A couple of things from Phil Plait's excellent "Bad Astronomy" blog;



This amazing picture shows the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

Secondly, he discusses the finding of evidence that life *could* exist on Saturn's moon Titan. It's not so much that, as the fact of Titan itself, the solar system's second largest moon, and bigger than Mercury or Pluto (PLANETS, ffs)! The universe is an amazing place.

COMICS
Today's "The System" is pleasingly recursive.

PVP comments on today's landmark release of "Invincible Iron Man" (digital and print editions on the same release date). The fact that the digital copy is priced at *more* than the print edition shows just how badly publishers are still missing the point (imo, anyway).

WORLD CUP
I have to admit, I'm already sick of the World Cup, largely because everyone keeps telling me how much I love it (thanks, popular culture). When the tournament starts, I may start to feel better disposed towards it, admittedly.

However, there will almost certainly be something of interest at the Science of Sport Blog, which is beginning a series related to football and the World Cup this week.

Non-fans may also find this "World Cup Translated into American" guide of use.
Germany, for example, are The Dallas Cowboys;

"They may not have won the big game the most times, but they’re close. And no one’s been to that game more than them. They’re hard to root for if you’re not from there, moreso than France, even. That’s partly cultural, sure, but it’s mostly because they do so much damn winning (especially in the '70s and '90s). The team is always made up of a combination of straight-laced leaders and absolute looney-tunes. It’s dysfunctional but seems to work. One of the all-time great squads, like ‘em or not."

Also related to the world cup, I saw Greater Manchester Police's "Football Hero" campaign on a couple of busses today. Reading the poster, it seems being a Football Hero is easy, just don't get plastered, and if you do, don't then kick someone's head in (although on the experience of last time, even this may be beyond some "fans"). You can read more about the campaign, and get a free World Cup planner/poster here.

GET THIS
There is a new Velocast. Do I really need to say more?

There's also a new As It Occurs To Me (AITOM!) - it should be said that this isn't for everyone, within the first ten minutes there'd been blasphemy, sexual swearwords, fictional incest (you get the idea) it is VERY funny though.

RIDE TO EAT?
Salsa Cycles have interviewed nutritionist Namrita O'Dea about eating for riding. Apparently it goes beyond sticking some winegums and a bit of soreen in your jersey pockets, who knew?

PRE TOUR TUNE UPS
Cosmo has a good round up of the pre tour races here. As he points out Vacansoleil continue to show the UCI & ASO that they're deserving of a place that sadly, they don't have.

STUFFE

LANDIS
This is old, but on the off chance that you've not seen it, it's well worth a read. The Science of Sport Blog reviews reaction to Floyd Landis' allegations (as of 27th May). It's full of good stuff;

However, the point is that cycling has slowed up, and while there are numerous factors (race situation, conditions etc.) that contribute to this, the suppression (not the removal) of doping is one strong possibility.

Lots of good commentary and links for further reading, highly recommended. Personally, I really like that they take the "So what?" attitude to the oft repeated "defence" of cycling that other sports have doping problems too (on which less harsh spotlights are cast).

For those of you who cross train, there's also a good piece on the Barefoot Running movement here.

MOTORISED DOPING
Two good debunkings of the allegations against Mr. Cancellara from Cosmo, and the Cozy Beehive (here, here and here).

BIKEHACKS "BECAUSE IT'S THERE" DEPT

Using a bike wheel to store your pans, and the MONSTER BIKE (strictly speaking, isn't it a trike?)

BIKE COMMUTING ESSENTIALS?
There's a nice post on the Utility Cycling blog about clothing for bike commuting. Predictably, it's brought out the hair shirt brigade, who balk at the very notion of bike specific clothing being thought of as essential.

Here's the thing. People are different - for me, anything up to about 5 miles is doable in my regular clothes (and I run errands of that sort of distance regularly on the Brompton without bike specific gear). Past that distance, sweat starts to make cotton uncomfortable, and the benefits of bike specific kit become more apparent. As Dave Moulton points out here, people didn't wear "racing" gear in the past because it was expensive, hard to care for and uncomfortable. That's no longer the case, and you have the choice, if you want it. As Dave says;

I would not dress up in Lycra for a short trip to the post-office or store, but if I am riding for an hour or more, I love it and would not go back to wearing regular clothes for a long ride. The modern clothes are so comfortable, and the great thing is, I can throw the shorts and jersey in the washing machine, they are almost dry after the spin cycle, and air dry in a few hours.

WOODCUT
Lines and Colors blog features these wonderful woodcuts by Canadian artist Lisa Brawn. There's something about the fairly modern subjects & colouration, rendered in a medium we associate with aged prints that's undeniably appealing. The commitment required to work in this way astonishes me too.

Also from Lines and Colors is this wonderful look at the backgrounds from animated films.

COMICS
A bumper harvest of three panel strips at "Hark! A Vagrant" demands your Lols.

Also, if you know me, you'll be unsurprised to learn that I was unable to resist the lure of Hyper Monkey Force.

STUFFE

WOMEN & THE BIKE INDUSTRY
An interesting piece on Bikehugger today;

"For all the “women-specific” bikes (which are nothing more than men’s bikes with shorter stems and short-reach levers) there just isn’t enough of an understanding of a women’s cycling needs in the biz. Take any new-to-cycling woman or even an advanced amateur and throw them into a bike shop that carries a few women-specific frames and generally they come out more confused than satisfied."

I'm not entirely sure that this is too different to "a new cyclist" walking into a bike shop, full stop, a conclusion the author seems to come to as well;

"I’d like to suggest the idea that shops dedicate a person to be a custom fit guru, regardless of the gender of the client. Think of it like the Genius Bar, but about fit."

It's a great idea, but would push costs, I imagine. My own bikes have been (and in some cases still are being) tweaked to find the "perfect" combination of parts for me. Getting the "feel" of a new bike is easier now, but that only came with a lot of experience and trial and error. The "Fit Genius" might cost you more up front, but it seems to me that a bunch of money would be saved in the long term.

CHAPEAU!
67 Year old Man rides 1,600 miles to his high school reunion. (Story found at Urban Velo).

"It's a great way to see the country," said Goldman, 67. "You get to see the best and worst of America at 13 miles an hour."

Or, indeed, of any place. That's the beauty of the bicycle, quick enough to make good progress, slow enough for you to feel involved in what's around you. I can't think of anyone from my old school that I'd ride 1,600 miles to catch up with though.

LANDIS
A good round up of the story so far at Bicycling Magazine here.

GIRO D'ITALIA
Another astonishing, punishing stage yesterday for the riders with a frankly bonkers time trial - not only astonishing gradients (up to 24% in parts), but a final 5km on dirt roads. As I said on twitter, I think Zomegnan, the course director, must stroke a fluffy white cat and cackle as he plans the course.


Video Preview of the Stage - Not sure about the techno, but gives an idea of how tough the stage was.

In further Giro commentary, Cosmo over at cyclocosm examines the home court advantage afforded to Italian riders for the race - the accompanying picture is a great spot.

OVERBOARD WATERPROOF BACKPACKS
Bike Commuters has a review of this, a waterproof backpack (along the roll top closure model that will be familiar to most of you). I don't like backpacks on the bike, they're not as nice a solution as a saddlebag, or panniers (and will make you sweat in all but the chilliest conditions). The clincher for the Overboard pack is the price though, nearly half that of the very cheapest waterproof panniers. I'm not sure where these are available (if at all) outside the US, but as a budget option they seem like a good bet for short journeys.

STUFFE &c
I'm about to start a particularly busy week or so at work and home, so it's likely that this will be the last "Stuffe" for a little while - I'll be around less elsewhere too.

STUFFE

ME


I've managed to get around to sorting out some photographs (from 2007!) - if you're interested, there are four more "new" ones in my flickr stream.

THE ENVIRONMENT
Or at least, that's HIS excuse. This comic from The System also features one of the neatest ways of representing pant-lessness iconographically I've seen.


BARBIE BARBIE
I knew about Plastic Peloton People, but somehow Barbie Barbie had entirely passed me by. It's

"a photo-comic inspired by cyclist Heinrich Haussler--nicknamed "Barbie"--featuring him, other members of the pro peloton, and Barbie doll herself. I created Barbie Barbie to help get through the last cycling off-season, and continue to produce episodes, although less frequently, now that the season is back in gear."

THE RAS
There's details of the first stage results of Ireland's FBD Ras over at Cycling Weekly, there are no second stage results because of a collision between riders and a jeep pulling onto the course which resulted in the stage being neutralised. The Ras' own site is here, including galleries from the current and previous editions, and a nice section "Stories of the Ras".

I'd also highly recommend Jack Thurston's Bikeshow programme about the Ras, which is here.

PSYCH COMMUTER BAG
Reviewed by bikecommuters.com, the Psych commuter bag is a different take on the frame bag. It's interesting, but is any solution for commuting luggage more elegant that Brooks + Carradice? I'm also fairly certain that my knees would rub the Psych bag and that would drive me crazy. I'm very jealous of the organiser pockets inside though, one of the few things I'd add to my Lowsaddle longflap, given the chance.

JAMES HINDLE
Drawn.ca featured "Little Wolves" on its site recently - click through to James' site and you can read his other stories - "Unsettled" in particular is a fantastic series.

JEALOUSY

"The Dirty Kanza takes place in a few weeks down in Emporia, Kansas. It is a 200-mile gravel grinder through an area called the Flint Hills. We're sending the Dirty Six...plus Lucky Seven...to take it on.

Each of these guys has his own motivations, and his own fears, for this event. Today they introduce themselves, their goals for the DK 200."

Which is all very interesting - however, what made me green with envy was the look at the setups the "Dirty Six" are riding - lovely stuff, the article is here, and the droolmaking pics begin down the page.

STUFFE

POSTER CABARET BICYCLE PRINTS
From Urban Velo, these lovely bicycle prints, produced by the Poster Cabaret company to celebrate Bike Month (May, in the USA).

RAPHA FOR LADIES
Gem at Bianchista has reviewed some of the new range from the big R.

Whatever you think of Rapha, they do little details extremely well - this should be how women's kit works, attention to stuff that matters rather than producing pink flowery versions of mens kit.

COME AS YOU ARE
A good piece for new commuters on the Bike Commuters blog, boiling down pretty much to not worrying too much about bikes, kit &c - just ride!

So, what should a potential new commuter do to give this thing a try? Here it is in a nutshell: find a reliable bike (it doesn’t need to be anything special), take a look at some maps to find an enjoyable route and GO FOR IT.

There's links in the piece to articles about changes to make if you need to carry things, and considerations like rainwear &c too. They also tackle one of my personal bugbears, the notion of the "perfect" commuting bike as a heavy, changuarded internally geared tank.

GIRO D'ITALIA
Yesterday's stage on the Zoncolan was a fantastic day's racing for fans, and Cyclingnews has rounded up some of the rider reaction in this piece here. Cadel Evans seemed to ride so far beyond the pain barrier that I began to wonder if he might just keel over - the World Champion's jersey seems to weigh heavy on him at times, although he's ridden a champion's race every time it's asked of him in this Giro. My favourite piece of commentary came from from the Velocast's John Galloway on twitter;

[J] I don't care if he looks like he's trying to strangle his bike, @CadelOfficial is a GREAT world champion.

I was also pleased to see Sastre put in an amazing ride to recover from being distanced at the bottom of the climb.

STUFFE

One panel from "One Day in July"

ONE DAY IN JULY
This piece will be in Rouleur 18, and is the work of Richard Mitchelson (find his blog here). It's a wonderful piece, and I love the way the panel reproduced here captures the colour and motion of the race. Richard continues to make Rouleur an essential purchase every time I decide I'm going to skip an issue, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of "One Day in July".

BICYCLE PORTRAITS SOUTH AFRICA
Covered on Urban Velo, "Bicycle Portraits South Africa" is the project of photographer Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler. They've taken pictures of their fellow south African bike commuters with their rides, and hope to finance a book of the portraits via Kickstarter. As ever with this sort of work,a large part of the interest for me is in how the subjects choose to present themselves. You can see the photographs, and sign up to support the publication if you wish here.

VELO CLUB DON LOGAN
How can you not Rofl at this?

"I conjured my inner Belgian. Perhaps Filip Meirhaeghe (on or off the juice) or Bart Bretjens? (No, Bart's Dutch.) Tornado Tom on the cobbles or maybe even late-era Eddy? Alas, my inner Belgian would appear to have been standing on the first climb at Houffalize, eating frites, drinking beer and abusing other riders..."

From a race report in parts beginning with part one here.

GIRO D'ITALIA
Cosmo at Cyclocosm continues to bring it with his commentary - he looks over the momentous stage 11 in this post.

"I’ve heard riders complain about conditions before, but never in the terms that came up yesterday. The train of haggard human wreckage that trickled across the finish line on Stage 11 was enough, at least for a few hours, to inspire faith in clean bike racing."

THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE WRITTEN DOWN
From the Velo Orange Blog;

"I think white Pasela these tires look really cool, especially if you ride in a Panama hat."

FLOYD
I'm still getting my head around all this.

There's a good round up at the Cozy Beehive blog of the story so far, and the Velocast have recorded a special edition of their podcast covering the revelations so far. I'd recommend both.