NEWS
They Almost Got Me
Author: Wizard Posted: 2010-09-02
On my 4th day of my Body for Life program, I just left the gym and was walking to my bike. The trusty E-bike was parked amongst many others, just like any other ol’ day. As I approached, the bike looked normal, similar as when I left it. Hmmmm, but suddenly, I went down to unlock the infamous (I’m not sure why “infamous” reminds me of The Three Amigos and El Guapo”) Kryptonite when I felt something odd. The end of it felt as if someone shaved a portion off. Sure enough, I unlocked and took a closer look. It was obvious that this was the work of a would-be-thief!!! After quickly looking around for anyone who looked suspicious (with a mean scowl for extra meanpowerness), I hopped on the trusty E-buddy and was off to go home for a much-deserved chicken and veggie dinner. Take a look at the picks and you be the judge. They almost got me,,,,the Wizard dodges another one☺ ha ha ha!!!
E-bike
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Forever Bike Rental System
Author: Dustin Posted: 2010-08-20
Upon my return to Shenzhen (China) after a summer holiday, I noticed a cool new bike rental system with installations all over the place! This type of system isn't exactly groundbreaking (although it is not incredibly widespread either)... but to see it here is pretty shocking. The bikes are all brand new, bright orange, and quite abundant. They are installed all over the city in various places (unattached or associated with any bike shops or anything really) and are even installed in private living communities around the city. Pretty cool huh? I haven't quite figured out how it works, but I'm impressed with the city... and also pumped to see new Forever-brand bikes out there. Very old (and beat up) Forever bikes are all over the place, but Mark and I had no luck finding new ones being sold anywhere... and we did a decent amount of searching last year. Well, they're back... Forever... or, well, at least for now. :P
Forever Bikes Rental system in Shekou, Shenzhen, China
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Pedaling for Lattes
Author: Wizard Posted: 2010-08-19
It all started one Saturday while walking through Seaworld, a place in Shenzhen known for its “hopping party scene”,,,NOT. Anyway, not to digress,,,Perched on the top patio/balcony seating area of Starbucks was a bicycle outfitted with a makeshift blender on the front. This was part of a contest to see who could blend the fastest frappuccino using their type II fast twitch muscle fibers in their quadriceps femoris. Well, I thought I’d give it a go and see what the 32 year old legs could pump out. To my delight, I clocked a time of 10 seconds, 6 seconds faster than the nearest competitor. They took the top 3 winners from this particular Starbucks branch(Hai Shang Shi Jie/Seaworld) and made a team of 3 to compete against other branches. Last weekend we finally got the chance to compete against the “best of the best”… To my surprise, this wasn’t just any ol’ competition of sheer/brute pedal power and strength, we were going to be awarded “style points” as well! Presentation, delivery, elegance, etc,,,,wow, I suddenly felt as if I’d stepped right into a beauty pageant, without gobs of super models around me though. So we’re at the contest, our second member never shows up and the third member is running late. The contest was a bit interesting, as I had no idea it was going to be right in the middle of the mall where everyone and their brother’s sister’s mother were walking by to give their 1 cent. Live band, magic show, clown(complete with nose, wig AND ballerina tights) and many other amusing acts served as appetizers for the main event. Ivy, my GF stepped in as our master blender/iced green tea latte maker extraordinaire. Ten minutes before show time, our third member, Eric arrives. Yeah…!!! We are 6 out of 6 in the line-up. So we had a bit more time to prepare (good thing). Ivy devised a plan that proved to be ingenious. Teamwork, moral support and positive reinforcement from the crowd were all tactics of her plan. We get on stage, introduce ourselves, barely and get ready to go. Eric, spoke Mandarin perfectly, Ivy spoke in Cantonese because her Putonghua is “bu tai hao”(not good..) and I was speaking my normal Chinglish But the crowd was indeed appreciative of my efforts! The MC says “Kaishi” (go) and away we begin. Ivy’s scrambling madly to dump the ice and get the proper ingredients, I’m waiting on the bike and Eric worrying about getting his “lines” right for the judges. The drink is brought over and I begin to pedal faster than Kevin Bacon in Quicksilver when he was being chased by the Edward James Olmos lookalike bad guy. The drink is brought back to the table, Eric and Ivy put the finishing touches on the drink and the rest as they say,,,,,(well you know). 10, 9.5, 10, 9.5 and 10!!!!! We were victorious,,,which gave us a 2 month VIP card(10% off all purchases), 20 free drink coupons(12 oz.), S-bucks bag, S-bucks mug and a shot with quite possibly the biggest picture of a green tea latte this side of the Yellow River ever seen. In the end it was a 5 hour contest which was fun, exciting, nerve-racking at times and successful. All of the competitors were great and positive too. By the time the contest was over, my stomach had seen enough. So we went to pig out at a Malaysian restaurant. I still have fond and frequent fantasies about that restaurant still!!! I’d like to dedicate my victory to all of the hungry supermodels out there in the world, Tyra, you go girl, be a size 6, it’s okay!!!
The Focus
The Presentation
The Results
The Celebration
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Bicycle Sharing Program Using iPhone App
Author: One Eye Goat Posted: 2010-08-12
In New York the Social Bicycle System (SoBi) is starting a bike sharing program that uses an iPhone App and a built in GPS unit to track available bikes for public use. The GPS unit in embedded in the rear tire and when the bike is locked it registers the bike as available and pin points its location using the App. What makes this program awesome is that the bike can be locked up to any ordinary bike rack, or anything else that is secure. This frees up the rider and makes the whole city scape a potential bike checkout spot. The only drawback is what happens if the bikes end up where no one can use them?
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Did you know?
Author: Dustin Posted: 2010-07-04
When I was in a bike shop a few weeks ago, I saw a standing sign made by Trek, which was interesting. Of course we all know that biking is good for your health and for the environment.. no surprise there.. BUT did you know HOW good it was? Check out these stats: * Just 3 hours of biking per week can reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke by 50% * If you bike 4 miles round trip each day instea of driving, you wills ave about 66 gallons of fuel per year. * That same daily trip will burn 36,000 calories per year - that is the equivalent of over 10lbs of fat. * 40 % of all trips are within two miles ofthe home. * You can park 14 bikes in the same space you park one car. * The US could save 462 million gallons of gasoline a year by increasing cycling form 1 to 1.5% of all trips.
Trek's "Go By Bike" effort
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