Cover of a book. White background, big black block letters BIKE ART, below that the subtitle in smaller letters, Bicycles in Art Around the World. At right, an image of a mass of leafy growth covering someone riding a bicycle, all rendered in shades of a medium-dark purple.

Think of this list as the liberal arts major roundup on my bookcase. I keep my bike books sorted in categories: travel, history, policy. And then there’s this group of books that got shelved together in part because some are…Continue Reading

Pen and ink drawing of a bicycle with each part made up of the words for that part, so the top tube is formed by the printed words "top tube".

Texting About Biking

Inspired by a tweet a while back on kids “texting about transit” (see below), herewith my guide to some of the messaging shortcuts that are really all about riding your bike. A couple of these are straight-up an accepted meaning,…Continue Reading

Happy Holiday + Awesome Alliteration

I Absolutely Adore Alliteration. My fondness for that particular form of wordplay is possibly exceeded by the joy of coming up with a clever acronym, but not by much. Thus when I served as “guest prof” for #bikeschool* on Thanksgiving…Continue Reading

Handwritten word "Adventure"

One Word for 2014 Bicycling

A related post of mine appeared on the Washington Bikes blog and another one on my personal random-life-and-stuff blog I haven’t made New Year’s resolutions for years because I recognize how quickly those good intentions start paving a road to somewhere. A…Continue Reading

Many thanks to QuickRelease TV for quite a few of these quotations. I’ve been saving for a while so I no longer know the sources of all of them. An engineer designing from scratch could hardly concoct a better device…Continue Reading

The Efficiency of Cycling The bicycle is the perfect transducer to match man’s metabolic energy to the impedance of locomotion.  Equipped with this tool, man outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines but all other animals as well. —Ivan…Continue Reading

This post is Part II, continuing yesterday’s diatribe meditation on use of the word “accident” to describe a preventable negative interaction between a driver and a cyclist or pedestrian. The conversations I often have after someone on a bike is hit tend to…Continue Reading