A wing is a bridge. Flight is a ride on that bridge from take-off to landing. Dinosaurs became bipedal, balancing their large bodies on two legs via counterbalancing tails. Eventually the same biological process—or set of processes between biology and environment—morphed wings, and thereby, flight. Using this transition as a metaphor is an trip we might do well to take.

Read the full post on roychristopher.com.

In “Wheels of Change: How the Bicycle Empowered Women,” Brain Pickings‘ editor Maria Popova reviews National Geographic‘s Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way). Both the book and the article tell the story of the bicycle’s role in equal rights for women.

And if you’re more interested in the evolution of bicycle technology and what it meant for women, The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (MIT Press, 1989) edited by Wiebe Bijker, …

Traveling on a plane with a bike is expensive. Bicycles are one of those “special items” that airlines have “special fees” for. A long time ago, Chris Moeller claimed that S&M was going to make bike bags that read “Camping Equipment” on the side to avoid just this problem. I don’t know that they ever did, but Fat Tony does a good job of illuminating the options in this piece for Ride BMX. Here’s an excerpt:
Don’t ask me why, but if an airline knows you have a bicycle in your …

That is all.
Happy 2011, everyone.
[Art by Cartlon Reid]

For the literary-minded bicycle rider, I wrote a bit over on my main site about David Byrne’s new book Bicycle Diaries, and a book about him as well. Here’s an excerpt:
If you know me, you know that one of the only things I love as much as music is bicycles. Well, David Byrne’s own Bicycle Diaries (Viking, 2010) explores and explains why they’re so seductive in ways I never could.
This book was written almost by accident. That is, Byrne’s fascination with bicycles and writing about seeing the world from …

I was walking to class today, and I was almost mowed down by a guy on a fixed-gear. I was crossing a street, in the crosswalk, where I clearly had the right of way, but he rang his bell and blew by right in front of me, running the stop sign on the corner. I’d already been conceiving this post in my head and that was the last straw. Being a frequent rider of bikes on the streets of many cities, as well as a frequent pedestrian, I have come …

Longtime BMX homie and amazing photographer Sandy Carson has a show on display here in Austin at Okay Mountain Gallery. The opening on October 23rd was a bicycle scene reunion. We all gawked at Sandy’s photos, and geeked out on bikes, parks, and trails. A good time was had by all.

Here’s what the Okay Mountain site says about the show:
“Paradise Has Relocated” attempts to capture the lifeless remains and emptiness of a once thriving and historic island devastated by Hurricane Ike in September of 2008. Ike was the …

I built this bike from pieces left over from other projects, bikes I found in garbage piles, bikes left next to dumpsters, and a few small but crucial parts from The Austin Yellow Bike Project. After completing it and riding it for about a month now, I am convinced that it’s a viable set-up for more than just trips to the grocery store.

This build centers on a Spalding “Blade” ladies hybrid frame that was left in the garbage at my old place here in Austin. The geometry is not super …

My girl Jessy passed this one along from Kotaku:
Portland is a serious bicycling community. But not so serious that it can’t have some fun with its bike lanes. Some wag painted a whole bunch of Mario Kart items along a stretch of North Williams Avenue in the city.
The symbols include speed boost arrows, bananas, mushrooms, and stars. So far nothing exotic or offense-based, like the shells. They’re there to provide a little humor and inspiration to cyclists commuting home.
Here’s the full story.

In the early 90s, AT&T ran a series of commercials that posed some futuristic, technologically enabled task (e.g., “Have you ever borrowed a book from thousands of miles away?”), and then answered it emphatically (”You will.”), claiming they’d be the company to technologically enable such a task. I believe they’ve all come to pass except one. As Stewart Brand once said, “Technology marches on, over you or through you, take your pick.”

I can’t help but think that many of the technological advances we debate and marvel about were downright inevitable. …