fun

Yehuda in 2008 with headwind versus Yehuda in 2011 with tailwind

Rick Smith has laid down his pen indefinitely, and his comic strip, Yehuda Moon & The Kickstand Cyclery, is no more. Smith's comic strip covered the tough-but-rewarding life of bike store owner / cycling activist / tilter-at-windmills Yehuda Moon and other friends, including former owner (but now a ghost) Fred Banks; unibrow co-owner / mechanic Joe King, Amish fixie-rider Sister Sprocket; sometime employee, engineer, mother Thistle Gin and many others. From its start in 2008 until just last month Smith dedicated a lot of free time over three and a half years to making a successful comic, if not financially, at least culturally. Ultimately, however, Smith found it too tough to make the comic financially sustainable, and drawing and writing, in addition to holding down other jobs, became too much.

Yehuda was loved by many people, whether they worked in the bike industry, cycling advocacy or just liked to ride their bike. Having spent time Inside the interesting and imaginative world of the Kickstand Cyclery where an Amish community built exclusive frames for Yehuda's shop, where a ninja existed that threw sharpened chainrings, and where Yehuda instigated many projects of DIY bike lanes, bike share and racks, there were a lot of aspects that rang true to the issues faced by both bike stores and advocates trying to gain a toe-hold for bikes in a continent dominated by automobiles.

50 No-handed bike moves. Favorite: approaching Squid. Thanks to Mark Shouldice for heads-up.

The Toronto Bicycle Music Festival is taking place September 18th with the first set at Trinity Bellwoods Park at 2 pm (facebook page).

Toronto's second annual pedal-powered, mobile music festival is featuring Jeremy Fisher, The Strumbellas, Lenni Jabour, Abigail Lapell, Amélie & Les Singes Bleus and more!

September 18, 2011 starting at 2 pm at Trinity Bellwoods Park (south end near Queen St.)

They're looking for "bike roadies" to help out at the festival. If you've got a bike trailer or cargo bike and time ping them! All roadies have to do is to help move a musician's instruments and gear from various Toronto locations to one or more west-end parks, and back. All the locations are close together. In exchange there will be food and a small surprise gift.

Contact Adam at adampopper@gmail.com or (416) 476-4806

A sweet video. Now how are they going to actually get people to ride their bikes? Maybe some proper bike infrastructure?

Kick off Bike Month with the Dandyhorse magazine May launch party, Monday May 30th at the Gladstone Hotel.

$10 cover, includes magazine. Music by DJ Triple-X. You could win an Opus Cervin Bike

[Update: I've linked below to the casa map, due to popular demand. Thanks Antony]

Some people (particularly those without cellphones) have been asking for a printable map of BixiTO stations. I've cobbled one together - nothing pretty but functional.

Credit goes to Ride the City which is producing a great bike mapping site for a whole slew of cities. And credit to Bixi for publishing their data so other applications can easily be created to show the station locations as well as the activity at those stations. It enables Ride the City to show all the stations and it also allows us to look at cool activity maps like the following shot of Toronto, Saturday, May 7, 2011. Compared to other Bixi locations, Toronto is doing really well, especially given that it's not even a week old:

The Toronto Cyclists Union was in Velo City, Sevilla 2011 last week (represented by staffperson Andie and board chair, Heather). The quote in the title means "Progress might be as simple as two feet on a pedal." With a bit of help of my fading Spanish, Google Translate and the subtitles I think I got the phrase pretty close. But I still don't understand why both feet have to be one one pedal. Hmm.. Maybe Guillermo (Gil) Peñalosa (Executive Director of 8-80 Cities) can explain it.

Via BikeLaneDiary and Urban Country.

-Música / Music: "La cumbia de la Bicicleta". Por / By: David Aguilar.
-Animación / Animation: Luz de Mente

SPIN is on right now (March 15-27) at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. The play, written and performed by Evalyn Parry with musical accompaniment by Brad Hart (playing the bicycle) and Anna Friz. Parry had a short run last year at the Tranzac Club, where I had the chance to see this unique and engaging musical excursion through cycling and women's history. The bicycle features large in the play in its role as "agent of social change".

Through a series of songs played live on a vintage bicycle, SPIN recounts a theatrical cycle of stories about bikes, women and liberation. Inspired by the incredible true tale of Annie Londonderry, the first woman to ride around the world on a bicycle in 1894, SPIN blends theatre, music and technology in a unique tribute to the bicycle as muse, musical instrument and agent of social change.