Bike Lanes From Around the World
By spokesman | February 5, 2010
The Huffington Post recently published a slide show featuring bike lanes from around the world. Although the slide show did feature one fictitious bike lane, the real ones illustrate how bike lanes can be integrated into cities and make bike commuting much safer and easier. The slide show gave me some potential ideas from my neighborhood. In the Washington DC area, many of the suburban metro stations are surrounded by large roads. During the morning rush hour, these roads are busy and are dangerous for cyclists. The result is that the garages are filled with cars that are driven by who live within 1 or 2 miles of the station. Many potential commuters who could take the metro drive instead because they can’t park at the metro. If the stations were more bike accessible, it would free up parking spaces and increase ridership. A network of bicycle lanes radiating out from the station would be cheaper to build than more parking garages.
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Topics: Bike Commuting | No Comments »
Cyclists and Body Mass Index
By spokesman | February 1, 2010
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person’s weight and height. It provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems. Nationally, almost a third of American adults are obese and nearly two-thirds are either obese or overweight under the BMI criteria. However a key drawback of the BMI is that people who are lean but well muscled (like many athletes) can have the same BMI as somebody who carries too much fat. Below are some professional cyclists with their height and weight based on internet searches. I have also calculated their BMI using the Center For Disease Control (CDC) BMI calculator below. Use the calculator to see how you compare. Although all of these cyclists are lean, all are within the normal range. Levi Leiphemier who is very lean based on the published height and weight falls in the middle of the normal range. Even Andy Schleck fell in the normal range, although his is bordering on underweight according to the BMI thresholds. Lance Armstrong had the highest BMI but I don’t know if the height and weight is correct.
- Levi Leipheimer: 5′7, 136.7 lbs - BMI = 21.4
- Lance Armstrong: 5′10″, 165 lbs - calculated BMI=23.7
- Andy Schleck: 6′1″, 140 lbs - calculated BMI =18.5
- George Hincapie - 6′3″, 170 lbs - calculate BMI =21.2
- Mark Cavendish - 5′9″, 150 lbs - calculated BMI = 22.1
Topics: Training | No Comments »
Chelsea Clinton Is Spinning For Haiti
By spokesman | January 19, 2010
This past week, Chelsea Clinton led a spinning class to raise money for Haiti. While it is a well intentioned effort, I think it is stupid.
- If you want to give money, just give money. Don’t think that if you do some pseudo-suffering in a 90 minute spin class, you are somehow suffering along with the true victims.
- Chelsea is not even leading the class alone - she is co-leading it (and not with one of the Bush kids)
- It is $1000 for a front row bicycle, $500 for the second row and $100 for any other bike (however the press release didn’t say you couldn’t move your bike)
- No word if Bill will be there, but given all of the girls in bike shorts that are expected, I’d say there’s a good chance he’ll show up
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Topics: Humor/Satire, Bicycle Culture | No Comments »
Cyclists Are Tougher Than Football Players
By spokesman | January 19, 2010
This past weekend, the Minnesota Vikings beat the Dallas Cowboys by a score of 34-3 in a playoff game. After the game, Dallas Cowboy linebacker Keith Brooking complained that Minnesota had run up the score. Brooking said “I thought it was totally classless and disrespectful. This is the NFL, that’s not what this is about. I don’t think there’s a place for that..”.
Hey Brooking - you’re a wimp. You’re paid to stop them from scoring. If you can’t do it, get out of the league. In the Tour De France, there is a time cut-off each day. If a rider can’t keep up, he is thrown out of the race.
As I see it, those spandex wearing, shaved leg cyclists are tougher than the 6′1″ 241 lb Brooking - and if I had his e-mail I would let him know it.
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Topics: Humor/Satire | No Comments »
2010 Mileage Log
By spokesman | January 2, 2010
I have used a custom excel spreadsheet to track my mileage for the past several years. The 2010 version can be found on the Potomac Pedalers Bike Club website. It is a great spreadsheet organized around a calendar. It provides weekly and monthly subtotals. Thanks to Mark for going to the trouble to develop it.
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Topics: Training | No Comments »