TheWashCycle

Bike Polo, Still

It's been a long 11 months since someone at the Post covered the sport of bicycle polo, but luckily the drought has ended. [They also did stories in 2005 and 2007, and the Hillrag covered it in 2008] and this time, with a video.

Since I live a stone's throw from the court I see the bike polo players riding around all the time and I often walk by with my dog. They're out there playing all the time. It's good for the park and the neighborhood in my opinion.

Riding fixed-gear or low-gear bikes, one hand on the handlebars, the other holding a homemade mallet, players chase a street hockey ball around a rink about the size of a basketball court -- sprinting, stopping, starting and mixing it up in the corners, in a game that crosses polo and street hockey. The mallets are constructed from a short length of high-density gas pipe or industrial plumbing plastic bolted to an old ski pole. The low boards around the rink are also homemade. Each goal is defined by a pair of traffic cones. Most riders have installed spoke covers to deflect hard shots.

Almost everyone wears a helmet, and some wear knee and elbow pads, because collisions and falls are frequent, though the night ends with all collarbones intact. There are surprisingly few rules: no T-boning, give a competitor a fair line to the ball, no hard contact with new players. No quarter is given to women, who don't want it anyway.

While I teased above, I think it's a good article. And I love that Lenny Bernstein gets out there and plays a little. Even I haven't done that.

Bike Items that Have Little to Nothing to Do With DC - Binary Day

It isn't safe cycling, and I can't see LAB instructors teaching it, but it is pretty cool and could be the next parkour.

Over the years, he has torn ligaments in his ankles, dislocated fingers, broken his right wrist and been a fixture in X-ray rooms around Britain.

He is careful at school appearances to stress the importance of the basics, including road safety, bike maintenance and learning to ride properly. MacAskill is not a worrier by nature, but picturing thousands of youngsters trying to ride spiky fences without training would worry anyone.

Ian Aitken, the chief executive of Cycling Scotland, a government-sponsored group, said MacAskill was a superstar among youngsters ages 9 to 11.

“Danny has done more to help the organization than any celebrity we have ever had,” he said.

And hidden in the article is a factoid that David Koepp, who directed Ghost Town, is making a movie in which the hero is a New York City bike messenger. That may make real bike messengers groan.

Streetsblog is looking for photos of cyclist in the snow. And they have a story about bringing bike boulevards to Austin, Texas.

The New York Times, as part of it's fantastic series on Distracted Driving (which Webster's called the word of 2009) shows us what we should all fear.

Technology giants like Intel and Google are turning their attention from the desktop to the dashboard, hoping to bring the power of the PC to the car. They see vast opportunity for profit in working with automakers to create the next generation of irresistible devices.

This week at the Consumer Electronics Show, the neon-drenched annual trade show here, these companies are demonstrating the breadth of their ambitions, like 10-inch screens above the gearshift showing high-definition videos, 3-D maps and Web pages.

The Bike League is concerned too.

Richard Layman has a video up showing how difficult it can be for cyclists (and pedestrians for those who think the cyclists should be in the road) to cross at a roundabout.

As part of the climate summit, major world mayors meet to discuss how to make cities carbon nuetral.

It isn't easy getting Italy's city dwellers out of their Fiats, off their Vespa scooters and onto bicycles to ride to work, "like here in Copenhagen," says an Italian environmental official.

"It isn't a matter of painting a right lane and saying, 'This is a bike lane,'" explained Emanuele Burgin, a Bologna provincial councilor. "We realize we're far away from this."

But Copenhagen's lord mayor has her problems, too. Finding enough parking space for all those bikes is just the beginning.

"First, we must get rid of our coal plants, and we need to get that subway expansion built," Ritt Bjerregaard told The Associated Press. She also wants even more Copenhageners cycling than the one-third who pedal each day to the office or school.

Rows of scores of bicycles outside buildings are a common sight in this clean, modern city. Foreigners "laugh when they hear that bicycle parking also is a problem" Bjerregaard said.

Maybe he'll be a bike-friendly Republican (we could use more).

Another GOP candidate who is running on the anti-politician platform is Kerry Roberts, a Nashville businessman who owns one of the largest chains of bicycle stores in Tennessee.

“We have an opportunity to move away from politics as usual and toward fresh ideas and new leadership,” Roberts said in his official announcement Monday.

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has a guide to shopping by bike.

Bike Polo at CarFreeDC

_DSC0089, originally uploaded by Eric Gilliland.

Safeway Promotion ignores cyclists and pedestrians

GGW has the details of a contest that requires you to place a sticker on your car's windshield. But Mrs. Washcycle walks to the Safeway (when she goes to the Safeway at all), so we cannot win. Best line is from the comments in reference to their free gas promotion.

I asked the manager, "do you really think anyone in a position to drive to a supermarket would drive to this one?"

M.V. Jantzen, it's like they made a contest just for you

Enjoy your trip to Tuscany.

Bike Polo Article and Photos

The Post has a photo gallery of photos from the bike polo court on Capitol Hill (one block from my house).

(After I wrote the above I found the article that goes with it)

Bicycle polo takes the traditional sport and swaps the horses and preppy associations for battle-scarred bikes and hockey's rough-and-tumble mentality. Helmets and pads are optional; trash-talking is encouraged. Premack had a camera with him, so he started shooting, trying to stay out of their way. "It can get pretty intense. One guy must have gone down five or six times," he says. The teams are coed, and everyone on the court is fair game. "No one was saying, 'Go easy on her, she's a girl,' " Premack says.

Photo by Jay Premack