NYC Urban Bikeways!

Safe cycling on NYC bikeways.
Finally you can map out your ride on bike lanes!
Here's the link....To Ride the City!
http://www.ridethecity.com/

We decided to go shopping in Times sq after a day at the Eco-Fest in Central Park.
We take the bikeway to 68th st and go across 70th st to get to Central Park,
Exit the park at Broadway and take the bikeway right to Toys R us.It's hard to beleive how many tourists are jamming Times Square.I was getting dizzy watching!
BTW ,Thats another Playmobile Boat on the back of the Longbikes Recumbent Tandem!

Bicycles In The Movies

Byke Kultuur Never

Cycling Films Special Issue

Last updated 29th November 2002 
 

Contributions from; Séamus King, John Jermy, gNick Green, Buzz Starkbier, Steve Brandist, Dave Larrington, Roger Lovell, Simon Thomas, Stephen Donohue, Simon Withers and Tony Farrelly.
Finnish translation courtesy of Kape.

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Cycling Films

Originally conceived as an article for issue 16 of Byke Kultuur Never . I'd assumed there'd maybe be around 10 or so films but things soon got out of hand....
So far the list neatly breaks down into three sections;

• Films in which cycling features as a core element central to theme of the film.
  
  
• Films in which cycling features for only a small portion of the film but which are notable for some reason, probably included on someone elses list of cycling movies.
  The bit where the kids and the alien escape on BMX bikes in, "ET," springs to mind as an example; cycling, in a film but that's not what the film is about.
  
  
• Films which feature, for however short a time, recumbents. Something of a fixation of mine.
  
  

One of the problems with internet research is the possibilty of hoax. If someone claims a thing to be true it's hard to prove otherwise. Such being the case, if I've not seen a film listed I have at least checked it out on more than just one website.
Lastly, if it has, "Bike Right," next to it it's because it has been shown at the premier cycling festival of the year, Bike Right in Wooler, Northumberland.

The 40 year old Virgin
Triplets of Belleville


Don't forget...My two fav's
Bike Gangs Of New York
Wind in My Soul !

Cycling Films. Main List....

1. 6 Day Racer (1940's)
   A bike messenger wins the big 6-day race. Lots of 6-day footage, starring era comedian, Joey Brown.
   
   
2. The Bicycle Thieves (1948) Bike Right.
   Also known as, “The Bicycle Thief,” and it’s original title, “ Laudri de Bicicletta.”
   The film, one of the first to be made in post-war Italy, tells the story of a mans quest to recover his stolen bicycle which he needs for his job. Ultimately depressing, the film captures perfectly the mood of it’s time.
   
   
3. Jour de Fete (1949) Bike Right.
   Jacques Tati plays a village postman who goes through his rounds on his bicycle -- the old-fashioned way but when a travelling carnival comes to town, its proprietors show a film extolling the virtues of modern American mail delivery. Soon the townspeople start to wonder if their postman has fallen behind the times but they soon find out he still has a few tricks up his sleeve…
   
   
4. A Boy, a Girl and a Bike (1949) Bike Right.
   Diana Dors and Anthony Newly co-star.
   Based around the hills of Hebden Bridge and focuses around a love triangle between between working class woman and man from local cycle club and a middle class motor fanatic who finds love and joys of cycling. A slim Diana Dors amusing bit when she stuffs her face in a tea-shop. Out of the rain on a ride the cyclists take a break for a smoke, ripping stuff. Jimmy Saville appears somewhere in the film as a cycling extra.
   
   
5. Les Bicyclettes De Belsize (1969) Bike Right.
   A ‘swinging Sixties’ film set in London (Belsize Park funnily enough). A Hampstead shop owner's way to true love is found through his Moulton bicycle, features a hit song sung by Englebert Humperdink. Downloadble (I think)at...
   http://members.lycos.co.uk/jhfoster/xg_les_bicyclettes_de_belsize.mid
   
   
6. Hugo's Magic Pump (1970's)
   Hugo is the best 6 day racer in Italy, beating everyone, incuding the Mafia's 'fixed' riders. To stop losing gambling monies, the Mafia decides to wear Hugo down by throwing beautiful women at him, hoping to reduce his endurance and stamina.
   
   
7. Ten Speed (1976)
   Two advertising executives compete in a 400-mile bicycle race from San Francisco to Malibu.
   
   
8. 20 Shades of Pink (1976)
   A middle-aged house painter, going through mid-life crisis, takes up cycling for exercise and meets up with an attractive young bike racer. The painter thinks she is interested in him on a personal level when she really only wants to help him prepare for an age-group bike race. Directed by Paul Stanley, with Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, and Keenan Wynn.
   
   
9. Boy & Bicycle (1978?)
   Director Ridley Scott’s first short film features his brother, Tony, playing a truant exploring the coast of North Shields on his bicycle.
   
   
10. Breaking Away (1979) Bike Right.
    This was Dennis Quaid’s first film but the lead character, Dave Stoller, was played by Dennis Christopher.
    The film is basically about a no-hoper with a passion for Italian cyclists.
    My two favourite bits in the film are;
    
    
    
    
    
    
    1. When Dave's chasing down a lorry he changes from the large chainring to the small one so he can go faster!
       
    2. The bit where one of the Italians puts his pump into the Dave's front wheel and he comes off. Best bit. Maybe I'm just not nice.
       
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. BMX Bandits (1983)
    A group of rad BMX-riding teens get involved in a madcap crime caper. Stars Nicole Kidman.
    
    
12. Bicycle Symphony (1983) Shown at Spokesfest 2002 (happy now Roger?)
    A nine minute short film. A conductor chains his bicycle outside the hall where he's conducting a symphony. His bicycle gets stolen , dragged along by a lorry and used by a wide variety of people - all in time to the music.
    
    
13. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985) Bike Right.
    Pee-Wee Herman at the Cement Menagerie, Branxton, Northumberland.
    Paul Reubens plays the disturbingly child-like Pee-Wee Herman on his quest, through a mythical working-class America filled with truck stops, waitresses and runaway convicts, to recover his beloved stolen bicycle. Hang on! Isn't that the plot of, "The Bicycle Thieves,"? 'Funny' film much appreciated by cycling photographer Jason Patient
    
    
14. American Flyers (1985) Bike Right.
    Brothers Marcus and David not trying too hard. Love the aerodynamic hat.
    Sports physician Marcus (Kevin Costner) persuades his unstable brother David (David Grant) to come with him and train for a bicycle race across the Rocky Mountains. He doesn't tell him that he has a cerebral tumor. While David powerfully heads for the victory, Marcus has to realize that the contest is now beyond his capabilities.
    Cameo appearance by lardy Eddy Merckx.
    
    
15. Quicksilver (1986)
    Kevin Bacon plays a yuppie who loses his job and becomes a cycle-courier to pay the bills.
    
    
16. Rad (1986)
    Teenage drama revolving around BMX racing and such dilemmas as: can the good guys beat the bad guys, who's got the fastest bike, must you cheat to win, and should our hero miss his SAT tests to compete in "the big race".
    
    
17. Off the Mark (1987)
    A young athlete suffering from a childhood affliction that causes spasms in his legs faces the ultimate challenge, he must overcome his handicap and defeat a talented woman athlete and a Russian student in a triathlon competition.
    
    
18. Bicycleran (1987)
    Also known as, "The Cyclist," and, "La Cycliste". The wife of Nasim, an Afghan immigrant in Iran, is gravely ill. He needs money to pay for her care, but his day labor digging wells does not pay enough. A friend connects Nasim to a two-bit promoter who sells tickets to watch Nasim ride a bicycle continuously for a week. The promoter brings in sick and aged spectators, haranguing them to find hope in Nasim's strength. Aided by his son, who feeds him as he rides, Nasim grinds out the days and shivering nights. Local officials believe this may be a plot and Nasim may be a spy; they try to sabotage him as do those who bet he won't finish the week. Will desperation alone get Nasim the money?
    
    
19. Beasts of Burden (1993)
    It depicts the hard side of the bike messenger's life and society. It may be realism, with emphasis on the unhappy side, but it certainly makes you want to avoid that life. It shows drugs and alcohol, insufficient money, an alienated approach to living, a very hard job.
    
    
20. Unhappy Without A Woman Too (1996)
    A German film, "Auch ohne Frau ungluecklich," is the story of Jonas,26, still lives at home, doesn't watch any horror films and is afraid of snakes. He is a careful driver, doesn't take any drugs and is pampered by his mother. Jonas is happy until his girlfriend leaves him because she thinks he is the biggest coward of all time - and she's right. As Jonas is afraid of making a fool of himself again with a woman, his friends' attempts to set him up with a new partner are all miserable failures. He is all alone until he meets Lena; she is a cycle courier, good-looking and an eco-terrorist. He falls in love with her on the spot, but Lena has a »softie trauma« and will only sleep with him when he can prove to her that he isn't a wimp. Jonas follows her into another world, helps her with her campaigns, fights a jealous rival and fights a horde of pissed off skinheads. At the end he has learnt two things. Firstly, what real fear is, and, secondly, how hard it is to tell his mother that he'd like to move out.
    
    
21. 2 Seconds (1998)
    When a two-second hesitation costs a Quebec cyclist her race and her pro career, she is obliged to re-invent herself as a bike courier.
    
    
22. Le vélo de Ghislain Lambert (2000)
    Belgian comedy set in the 70’s. Ghislain Lambert, played by Benoit Poelvoorde, born the same day as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian cyclist whose ambition is to become a champion but without much success. Antoine de Caunes narrates.
    
    
23. Beijing Bicycle (2002)
    Guei works as a cycle courier who has his loaned bicycle stolen shortly before he finishes paying for it. By chance Guei spots schoolboy Jian riding the bike and attempts to get it back. Plot of, "The Bicycle Thieves," ? Unfortunately Jian and his gang of bully boys have other idea ideas. Exciting, eh!
    The film was directed by Wang Xiaoshuai and stars Cui Lin as Guei and Li Bin as Jian.
    
    
24. Cyclomania (2002) Shown at Spokesfest 2002
    is a story about three bicycle couriers -- K, Eetu and Oona -- which takes place during a couple of weeks in the summerly Helsinki. The main character K is a competetive bicyclist possessed by his/her own ambitions, who has to proritize ex tempore between friendship, love and his/her crazy dreams. Finnish dialogue with English sub-titles.
    
    
25. Courier (?)
    30 minutes. Luke is an artist and cycle courier who becomes involved in a world of murder. After unwittingly delivering a package implicating him in a murder his art and life merge into a in a crescendo of paint & blood.
    
    

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Co-starring A. Bicycle....

• The Wizard of Oz
  Nasty woman dissapears into the Whirlwind on her bicycle. In Oz she's the Wicked Witch of the West.
  
  
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  Classic buddy western. Paul Newman rides a bicycle, does a few tricks with song Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head.
  
  
• ET
  Friendly alien film. Kids and the extra-terrestial escape on BMX bikes that fly.
  
  
• For a Lost Soldier
  Jeroen evacuted to the countryside from wartime Amsterdam meets a Canadian soldier, Walt, and his life changes forever. Bicycles all over the place.
  
  
• Laissez Passer (2001)
  Also known as, “SAFE CONDUCT .” A French film set in Paris, March 1942. I have no idea what it’s actually about but it does have a really good website with a bicycle used to navigate the screen!
  
  

Recumbent Bicycles in the Movies

Recumbent Films    
1. Bugsy Malone (1976)
   Features a whole load of pedal-power cars, a bit like a Brox with a big body built around it.
   Childrens musical set in the days of prohibition Chicago. Songs dubbed.
   
   
2. Americathon (1979) Set in the not-so-distant future a desperate president tries to save the USA by raising money with a telethon! Features several hpv's and a prone tandem. Directed by Neal Israel.
   
   
3. The Shining (1980)
   Based on the novel by Stephen King and directed by Stanley Kubrick. Jack Nicholson shines as aspiring novelist Jack turned psycho by the ghosts in an isolated hotel but it�s seven year-old son Danny (Danny Lloyd) that gets to noisily ride a recumbent tricycle, looking rather like a Razor Scream Machine, around the corridors of the hotel.
   
   
4. War Games ( ? )
   Professor Falken riding an Avatar with a Zzipper fairing.
   
   Such much for this. He does not ride a recumbent or any other bicycle if the film.
   
   
5. Brainstorm (1983)
   Science-fiction film in which Christopher Walken's character, Michael Brace, is twice seen riding an Avatar 2000 recumbent bicycle.
   
   
6. A Night in Heaven (1983)
   Stars Christopher Atkins and features an Easyracer Tour Easy.
   
   
7. 2010: Odyssey Two (1984)
   (Often known as, ten past eight) Early on the hero is seen jogging down a road with son riding alongside on a recumbent trike approximately the size of Rutland. Sequel to classic science fiction film 2001: a Space Odyssey.
   
   
8. Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (1991)
   stars Kevin Costner, previously seen in American Flyers doesn't actually feature any recumbents but Neil Coles from Kilham, nr Wooler, Northumberland, was an extra in it and he rides a Ross Festina and his partner Sue rides a Kingcycle!
   
   
9. The Fire Next Time (1992)
   Global warming, eco-disaster movie set in the near future. Initially set in Louisiana with occasional glimpses of fully faired recumbents. Later stars Craig T. Nelson and Jurgen Pruchnow are seen riding a pair of LWB Linears with ASS.
   
   
10. The Flintstones (1994)
    Features a working, yet slightly stoneaged looking recumbent trike.
    Live action version of the original cartoon.
    
    
11. Mixed Nuts (1994)
    Comedy with Steve Martin. Possibly a Rans Rocket makes an appearance.
    
    
12. Get on the Bus (1996)
    Black men on a cross country bus trip to the Million Man March. Directed by Spike Lee. Various SWB�s are seen.
    
    
13. Who am I? (1998)
    �Ngo si sui.� Jackie Chan directed and starred in this comedy action film about a secret agent who loses his memory following a helicopter crash. At one point he rides one of two wholly different recumbents. It's generally reckoned to be either an HP Velotechnik Streetmachine or a Kingcycle, or maybe an M5, Challenge, Optima or even a homebuilt. Opinions differ as to which.
    I recently saw this film on TV. There are two recumbents featured; a red, USS bike ridden by some bloke which I very briefly saw out of the corner of my eye and the bike Jackie rides.....
    A yellow, USS, bicycle with 20/700C wheels made by M5 called the 28/20. The rather unique rear suspension is the giveaway.
    
    
    
14. The Straight Story (1999)
    There is a sequence when a group of cyclist pass Straight's ride-on mower. The group includes "more than one" recumbent. Directed by David Lynch
    
    
15. Bicentenial Man (1999)
    A faired BikeE makes a brief appearance.
    Robin Williams stretches his skills playing an android called Andrew. Andrew the Android? Doh!
    
    
16. The Lathe of Heaven (2003)
    Based upon a book by Ursula K. Le Guin, this is a remake of a 1980�s TV Film. Set in the future, James Caan plays a psychiatrist whose dreams alter reality, as do those of a patient. In the first few minutes of the movie they show a recumbent tandem and a bunch of people riding other recumbents... apparently, in the world of the movie, recumbents are the normal bicycle transportation used by everyday folks.
    
    
17. I, Robot 2004
    Wil Smith chasing a robot that thinks killed someone.
    An the start of the film he chasing a another robot. In the city the an lots of bicycles include recumbent tricycles and bikes. 
    

Recumbent Catrike on Martha's Vineyard

Lucinda Chandler's PinkPanther Recumbent Trike morphs into the PinkMobile for fast, warm and efficient cycling with a velo-kit made by Krash (www.velo-kit.com)!

Recumbent Trike

Our friend Lucinda will give you a personal or group tour of our favorite cycling destination, Martha's Vineyard. All tours are done on Catrike Recumbents!

You can contact her at Trike Panther Travel Adventures!

Our fist meeting at Martha's Vineyard Family Campground. She seems to have the groups attention.

 

Winter Bicycle Commuting in New York City

Winter / Summer

Head ,Hands and Feet!

Helmet Covers keep out wind. Bear Claws for your hands are great. They can be bought at any motorcycle shop.The Zziper front fairing really keeps the wind off, but the key is the little motorcycle face shield I have mounted to the top of the fairing. Keeping the wind off your face will make you sweat!!

I also have about eight pairs of socks on with water resistant ski socks as the top layer! Notice the frost under my leg, that's from sweating.

I think the temp was about 16 deg's that day. I may even have been a little over dressed.

I'm riding a great winter bike for New York City urban commuting the Easyracers, EZ 3 Recumbent Trike! It also works wonders in the SNOW & ICE!

The other photo is the Zigo Leader Child Carrier in New York's Central Park, its summer no big deal.

Oh yea the Zigo is also a trike!

Never too cold to ride if you dress right, its worth the extra time!

Bicycle Beats Out Subway, Taxi in Commuter Race

The Everything Guide to the Bike Commute in New York City

• Oct 4, 2009

Urban Mobility Project Brasil/Amazing Recumbent Pedicab

Fabulous Pedicab,wish I had a workshop in my NYC apt!

Cycling to School with Children in New York City

On our way to school I was reminded about two previous articles I posted just below this one.

Lots of kids ride bikes to school in our neighborhood. Hope we aren't breaking any laws! I've been harassed riding the pedicab on the promenade.

One of the park police told me that my pedicab was classified as a "motorized vehicle". I told him We have no motor and that if he found one, I'd be happy to obey his request.

I was going to take my son to school and he could arrest us if he liked.
He kinda shrugged and told me to move on.

Hope there are no State Troopers waiting for us.

We arrived at school with no incident.

Cycling to School

Children face cycling bans over schools' safety concerns

New academic year sees children discouraged or banned from cycling short distance to schools

• Tuesday 8 September 2009 10.39 BST

Students are coached for the cycling proficiency test known as Bikeability at Queens Mead Primary School, Braunstone, Leicestershire. Photograph: David Sillitoe

Significant numbers of children face active official discouragement and even bans against cycling to and from school, cycle campaigners have warned as a new academic year gets under way.

As state pupils in most of the UK returned for the new term over the past week – those in Scotland went back earlier – most travelled to school in cars, on buses or on foot. Just a tiny minority did so on a bicycle, despite rising levels of obesity and inactivity.

Many would actively like to ride but are prevented from doing so by a mixture of parental worries and school policies which range from warnings about safety to effective bans through a refusal to allow bikes to be kept on school grounds, campaigners say.

Debra Rolfe from CTC, the UK's biggest cycling campaign group, said: "It's very hard to say exactly how big a problem this is. We often get contacted by parents raising this as an issue, but they don't want to make too much of a fuss because their children aren't keen on standing out.".

The issue appears to be most acute in primary schools, some of which refuse outright to allow pupils to travel by bike even though most generally live within a radius of a mile or so.

Sam O'Shea, now 11, has become a reluctant local cause celebre in Portsmouth, Hampshire, after his school refused to let him ride, even though he was a keen weekend cyclist who had passed the government's new cycling proficiency test, known as Bikeability. His mother, Angela, spent months arguing that Sam's one-mile journey to St Paul's primary school, nearly all on cycle paths, was safe, a view supported by an official risk assessment. Even after she successfully petitioned the council to convert the narrow road outside the school to one way traffic the headteacher and governors refused to budge.

"Whatever objections they came up with we provided a solution, but then they'd move the goalposts again. It soon became clear that they just weren't interested," she said. "The best they could offer was that I would drive behind him and take the bike home when he arrived, and then come back with the bike in the afternoon. It was crazy."

In response to such cases the CTC has produced a Right to Ride to School leaflet for the start of the new academic year, noting that schools cannot issue outright cycling bans and advising parents how to lobby.

"In some schools it can just be a waste of time," said one senior official involved in government efforts to promote cycling, speaking anonymously. "They start off sounding interested, but then you meet the headteacher and he says, 'Well, my niece was knocked off her bike and it's clearly too dangerous. I'm not having my pupils cycling.'"

Other schools openly state that cycling is discouraged due to safety, said the CTC's Rolfe, while others provide nowhere secure for bikes to be stored. "A lot of bike sheds have disappeared over the year. It's difficult to pin down statistics but that seems to be the case."

The paradox is that this battle is taking place while the Westminster is spending tens of millions of pounds a year sending so-called cycling champions into schools to encourage the practice, while helping to fund Bikeability courses. The bike advisers are now working in more than 400 English schools through a scheme run by Cycling England, a body funded by the Department for Transport.

"It's not a quick fix. The hope is that it becomes a virtuous spiral – as more and more people cycle, more children will be encouraged to take it up," said Phillip Darnton, the chairman of Cycling England. At present, he said, well under 1% of primary school pupils ride to work with about 2% doing so in secondary schools, figures Darnton concedes is "pathetic".

His organisation has warned the government that without official intervention there could be a "lost generation" who never experience cycling: "If you look at parents who are, say, aged 22 to 35, many of them haven't really ridden bikes. If their child has a bike they don't know how to mend a puncture, or adjust the brakes, they don't know the right height for a saddle. They can't teach their children."

Meanwhile in Denmark...

For Mikael Colville-Andersen, taking seven-year-old Felix and Lulu, nearly two, to their school and adjoining playgroup in Copenhagen is simplicity itself.

"Sometimes he'll ride on his bike and I'll take her on mine, sometimes I carry them both on a cargo bike," says Colville-Andersen, who writes a series of cycling blogs from the Danish capital. "It's completely normal, everybody does it. There are bike lanes everywhere. If I look out of my window now I can see maybe 100 cyclists."

His children, like all others in Denmark, will receive comprehensive bike safety training before leaving primary school. "It's in the curriculum and it's in the culture, and it has been for many years."

Cycling England's Darnton, however, fears that comparisons with such countries is "not terribly helpful" due to the amount of work still needed in the UK: "I once asked a European official how we could copy what they had done and he said, 'Start a long time ago.'"

Bicycle Riding to School

Mom & Son Bike to School. State Trooper Awaits!

Posted on September 15, 2009 by lskenazy

Hi Readers! In defiance of a policy that seems to forbid biking to the local grammar and middle schools in Saratoga, New York, a mom and her middle school son did just that last Wednesday. That is, they ignored “a phone call placed to students’ homes by school officials, asking parents not to allow students to walk or ride bikes to school,” according to The Saratogan. And then?

Upon arriving at school on Wednesday, Adam and Janette Kaddo Marino were met outside by school officials and a New York State Trooper, who were on hand for the first day of school. They were informed that they were “out of compliance,” and had a lengthy discussion over where Adam’s bike could be locked.

And you thought State Troopers were the strong, silent type.

What’s cool is that the next day, mom and son were joined by several supportive adults. Friday was too rainy for a ride, but we can only hope more and bicyclists will be converging every day. (I can see the Disney movie now!)

For its part, the school district is said to be “reviewing” its bike policy.

Good. Once again, it’s not that any of us here are in favor of danger: If we were talking about kids riding their bikes up slippery slopes frequented by ice road truckers who drive while texting, that’s one thing. But The Saratogan reports that the road in question is actually designated a bike route by the New York State Department of Transportation.

Let’s hear it for folks who defy laws that make no sense and don’t even make us safer. (And for a middle school student who is still willing to be seen in public with his mom.) — Lenore

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: bike, biking, law, middle school, New York, police, safety, school, state trooper, transportation