December is always the busiest time of year for me. Right now, I have a big product launch in January that is consuming almost all of my time. Currently, I am also working on a local advocacy project that will be part of an upcoming presentation to our city council. Between family, work, and other activities, my time is spread pretty thin right now. Most likely my posts for the rest of this month will be pretty sporadic. Today, I just want link to a few other people’s posts that I have found interesting in the last week or so. In no particular order, here they are:

White Elephant posted a link to an article that warns about bootleg Chris King headsets that are currently in circulation. I found the upside logo on the fake to be a bit funny.

Bikingbis posted Kona’s preliminary frame design for Bicycling magazine’s Bike Town Africa project. Kona has a blog that will track the design and development of the bikes for this project. I look forward to following the progression.

I always love seeing bikes from around the world, so I was drawn to these pictures of people and bikes from the island of Java, Indonesia by Jonathan McIntosh. I originally spotted this link on the Core77 design site.

Here is an interesting approach to traffic calming in the UK from the No Garlic Please blog.

Lastly, I thought that Tim Grahl of the Crooked Cog Network posted some interesting thoughts on Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid about the reluctance of the bicycle industry to embrace 29ers? I can’t say I have embraced the idea of larger wheeled mountain bikes, mainly because I have never actually ridden one, but I certainly have an open mind about them. I don’t know anyone around here who owns one, so my prospects for trail riding a 29er soon are not very good. The post makes some great points, but I still believe that most consumers think the 26 inch standard was developed for a good reason (whether it was or not) so they are reluctant to accept a new platform without some skepticism. At any rate, I would love to try out a 29er here on the rocky, root-covered trails of the southern Appalachians. Does anyone want to swap mountain bikes for a day?