I posted about Mike Burrows’ Ratracer VLR recumbent early last year. I’ve mentioned him on the blog a few times and have great respect for his work, so I was glad to see an article in the current issue of Velovision magazine that points to Mike’s member page on the British Human Power Club’s website. On that page, you can see a gallery of pictures (from which the one shown here was taken) of his latest version of the Ratracer. As he points out on the page, this is his first completely carbon fiber recumbent. The little pieces of yarn that you see taped all over the bike are there to determine airflow…sort of a poor man’s wind tunnel. Mike talks a bit about that in the Velovision article, which is worth reading if you can get a copy of issue 33.
I think I already mentioned this, but several readers have sent me links to the BauBike, designed by Michael Ubbesen Jakobsen. It has been all over the web lately, but if you haven’t seen it, take a look here, here, or here. This bike definitely looks like it was designed to appeal to those who are not currently into cycling. Just curious what you all think about it.
The magCulture blog featured “The Ride” in a recent post. If you have never seen “The Ride” , take a look. The magazine is beautifully designed and you can download a pdf of the first issue free from their website.
I was surprised to see bikes mentioned recently in the Garden and Gun magazine blog. The post was about beach cruisers by fashion designer Cynthia Rowley.
Speaking of fashion and bikes, Gruppo Bici recently released a new line of panniers and bike bags made of vinyl remnants from well-known fashion lines. D’Abria Versace, a spokesperson for the company, explains:
“Instead of ending up in a landfill as waste, we are able to upcycle vinyls that do not meet the stringent requirements of the designer. Though the materials are two- to three-times the cost of non-designer vinyls, we consider the scenario a win-win.”
Treehugger recently posted an interesting parking pod from Australia. The small, solar powered stations fit into a single parking spot and include lockers, two showers, two changing rooms, and ten bike storage facilities. Pretty interesting.
Lastly, Ecovelo recently pointed out The Guardian’s new bike blog. One of the first posts was a GoCycle review that may interest some of you.
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