Goldstream Sports Fairbanks Alaska

Here is a fun quiz you can take to find out if you are a real cyclist, hosted by RealCyclist. Of course, his criteria for being a Real Cyclist is the best part:

Real cycling is fixing your second puncture on a windy night.

It’s buying a three-metre curtain pole, then realising you have to bike it home like a medieval jouster.

It’s crunching your way to work through thick snow, arriving half an hour late icy-toed and white-fingered – to find everyone else has taken the day off because their cars wouldn’t start.

Real cycling is frustrating, inconvenient, exhausting – and huge fun.

Dandy Tweed and a Simple City

The New York Times ran a story about rising bike usage in the city, and ran a bunch photos of people in suits on city bikes. One of which was the Gary Fisher Simple City you see above. The only time I ever rode my bike with a necktie was the day I graduated from college. But man, if I had the need to wear ties, I suppose I wouldn’t bother to ditch them before riding. It would probably result in a lot of dirty ties – just like when I don’t bother to change my clothes before riding and they end up dirty and with holes in them. From the article:

The civilized pedigree of the Dutch bike is matched by its old-fashioned design: it comes with fenders, chain guard, generator and rack — standard, as they say in Detroit. With a bike kitted out like that, a man can wear almost anything he likes to work and not worry about getting grimy — no kamikaze messenger-wear required. Luckily, the new look of men’s wear, with its slimmed-down, sporty shapes (even in suits), is tailor-made for a bicycle commute. And since Dutch bikes are ridden upright, not hunched over, and you move at a safe, slow gait, sweating is not the issue it is when you’re careening on a road bike.