Keirin Culture will be presenting the Velo Sanaa silent art auction and party the weekend at Blue 5 in Roanoke, VA to raise money for the Nianjema Secondary School in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. All art is cycling themed. A percentage of food and drink sales at Blue 5 (next door to Keirin Culture) will go to the charity.
There is some pretty great stuff up for auction, including this hand painted track bike by Natas Kaupas: Details: 56cm Kazane track frame/fork, hand-painted by Natas. Kazane KZ1 cranks Kazane track hubs handbuilt onto Deep V rims Nitto bar/stem Cane Creek 100 headset Rolls saddle Vintage Superbe Pro post.
Garmin-Transitions rider Cam Meyer will be riding these points race-specific bars that 3T designed for him at track world championships. They are designed specifically to allow the flat-forearm position often used during points races. They look pretty wonky to me, but I'm sure they ride well.
Lot's of stuff happening in Roanoke(!) this weekend. The kickoff starts with the Rides of March alleycat Lot's of great prizes from some awesome sponsors. If you're within driving distance, be sure to check it out!
A nice idea from Chrome, a jersey you can't buy, but must win. Alleycats, sprints, rollers, whatever it is, if Chrome sponsor the event then there's a chance you could win one of these limited edition "winners jerseys." A great way to support local, grassroots, unsactioned racing. Details here.
The Bicycle Film Festival is extending it's submission deadline to March 27th- so don't miss an opportunity to get your film in the festival! Submit now through the BFF website.
Brendt and the worldwide BFF team will be celebrating their 10th anniversary this year! So you can surely expect this to be the biggest and best festival yet. Be sure to go ahead and make your arrangements for getting to NYC June 16-20. If you've never been before, this is definitely the one to be a part of- and if you have been before, you already know!
And if you haven'talreadyheard, this year BFF is teaming up with Defgrip for the BMX program:
Monocle recently released this short video on modern bicycle design. Personally, I think they really missed the mark and I disagree with pretty much everything that is said. I think the entire idea of beautiful bicycle design is that it is not designed as a piece of furniture would be, but rather as something dynamic and almost organic in it's origin. Designing a bicycle from an industrial perspective essentially eliminates the heart and soul of the bike that makes it desirable in the first place. And that is just aesthetics- all of the proprietary parts required when completely "rethinking" the bicycle makes maintenance and servicing them financially prohibitive if not impossible. But it's worth the watch regardless. Watch the video here.
I love this painting by Steve Dennis of Velopaint. It's of a British track racer at the UCI Track World Cup event in Melbourne last year, head down and going for it. It really nails the speed and excitement of track racing, in my opinion. Keep up the good work, Steve!
BFF vet Daniel Leeb recently shot this race of Austin Horse vs. a GLK for Mercedes. Not sure what market Mercedes is trying to break into with this, but it was intertaining none-the-less. Kinda felt like I was watching an Andy Samberg SNL sketch (only funnier?)
As I previously mentioned, Urban Velo were the kings of NAHBS coverage. In the off-hours, while the rest of us were out riding, partying, and resting (ha!), Brad and Jeff worked tirelessly taking awesome photos and updating their site with coverage and massive photo-dumps. It was so cool of them to come down and put so much work into covering the event. Even above and beyond the awesome pro photography he was cranking out all day, Brad took a couple photos with a vintage 35mm twin-lens reflex camera that really turned out great. I was fortunate enough to be one of the guys he shot: of course, photo by Brad Quartuccio of Urban Velo
Ok, I won't go into great detail about the coverage of NAHBS. I didn't really get a chance to even walk around and take many photos, so I'll leave that to the folks who have been doing so well with the coverage. Of course, Urban Velo killed it as always. Tracko's recent post had some great videos that gave a good sense of the event. Also, the guys from Outofprintmag were there and really did some good coverage/wrap-up. Check it out here. However, I would like to take this opportunity to say what an honor it was to have won the "Rookie of the Year" new builder award. I was up against some really tough competition and it was really amazing to have been selected by such and incredible panel of industry experts. Photo by OUTOFPRINTMAG.COM
It was such a great time. I couldn't have asked for more. I can't wait for next year, which if you haven't heard, will be in Austin! So good!
Local Athens is a blog about reclaiming public spaces in Athens, which, if you've been following the news, is an important practice right now. Bikes feature heavily, but I don't read Greek, so I can't tell you more than that. Check out the blog here.
Keirin Culture will be hosting a bike art show on March 27th in Roanoke, VA., to raise money for an education project in Tanzania, so if you're in Roanoke check it out. More details here.
Beauty and the Bike is a great film/book/project from the UK about encouraging young women to ride bikes more. Focusing initially on why British girls give up cycling once they reach a certain age, the film makes the case that bad infrastructure (lack of cycle lanes) and certain cultural notions (that bikes are for kids and men, not women; that roads are for cars and trucks, not bikes) are preventing young women from experiencing the fun and freedom that cycling can give. Taking their cue from the more cycle-friendly cities of mainland Europe, the project organisers have a two pronged approach to making cycling more appealing to young British women: fix the infrastructure to make cycling safer and less stressful, and combat the idea that young women can't or shouldn't be interested in bikes.
Of course, in many ways, changing the physical infrastructure of a town or city to facilitate cycling is much, much easier than changing people's cultural notions about women on bikes. Harass your town council enough and they'll probably put down a cycle lane or two, but try to convince people that women should be riding bikes more, that's a different story. However, by making cycling accessible, stylish and fun, the organisers of Beauty and the Bike show that it is possible to convince young women that they belong on bikes as much as anyone.
Now, we're not talking about completely subverting gender paradigms here. It's very much about making women on bikes feel attractive in relatively normative ways. However, it is, I think, an important first step to show young women that they can "look good" and ride bikes at the same time. After all, in the 19th century the very idea of women on bikes was revolutionary, because cycling constituted a physical activity (the sovereign sphere of men) felt to give women too much independence (through mobility). Thus a whole range of cultural norms were conjured up that attempted to curtail female bike riding by suggesting that the activity was undignified at best, unladylike at worst. Are these cultural norms, formulated in the repressive era of Victorian sexuality, the root cause of the reluctance of young women in Britain today to ride bikes? Maybe. Are the people behind Beauty and the Bike directly challenging the notions of femininity and beauty that undergird society more generally? Maybe not. But, by making cycling appealing to young women in 2010, they facilitate something that might be every bit as revolutionary as it was in 1899. As the American civil rights leader Susan B. Anthony said, "I think [the bicycle] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance."
The Women's Keirin final. Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images.
Sireau versus Baugé in the Men's Sprint semi-final. Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images.
Pendleton versus Mears in the Women's Sprint semi-final. Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images.
Cameron Meyer and Leigh Howard of Australia celebrate winning the Men's Madison. Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images.
Baugé versus Hoy in the Men's Sprint quarterfinals. Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images.
Big crash during the Women's Scratch finals. Photo by Bob Strong/REUTERS.
Hoy in the Men's Sprint. Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images.
Australia in action during the Men's Team Pursuit. Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images.
Taylor Phinney in the Men's Omnium scratch race. Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images.
Varnish versus Pendleton in the Women's Sprint 1/16th round. Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images.
