Monthly Archives: April 2016

Bikes and obesity

Biking has been define as a good way of practicing aerobic sport. This type of exercise allows burning calories and avoids what the WHO has defined as the pandemic of the XXI century: Obesity. This disease provokes a lot of cardiovascular problems, among others. Its mechanism is simple, if you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. Conversely, if you burn more calories than you eat, you lose weight. The fact of riding helps you to lose weight as well as to enjoy the environment and relax yourself. It also avoids injuries which can be produced in other aerobic sports like running. So it makes up for the sedentary life we live, the TV, seated or playing video games hours we spend.

Paint Allergy

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Strange as it sounds, I often see people driving in the middle of a two way road. They can easily cause an accident, but they aren’t drunk or high. So what’s happening?. Simply put, the white lines that guide us in our journeys are not there, and this is often found around the city.

And the crazier thing is that in order to solve this issue all we need is some paint, to make sure our roads look like roads, instead of minimalist abstract paintings.

paintAllergy

The 5 minute super-tuneup

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Do you want to stop sweating while biking, avoid your chain getting stuck and bike nice and easy? Then you need the 5 minute super-tuneup!.

All you need is an air pump and bicycle chain lubricant, and here is how it goes:

Pump air into your wheels until they’re 5-15psi bellow the maximum, which you can find written on your tires.
On your handlebar, use the brake barrel adjuster to make sure your brakes work flawlessly (specially if you’re bound to bike in the rain). Tighten the adjuster locking ring after you’re done.
Also on your handlebar, find your derailleur adjusters and, little by little, play with them until there’s no friction between your chain and the derailleur itself.
Slightly lubricate your chain and let it dry for an hour or two.

Depending on how often you bike you, may want to do the 5 minute super-tuneup once or twice a month. Trust me, it’s really worth it! And if you want to know more, check this bicycle maintenance wikibook.

Green is the wrong orange

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greenIsTheWrongOrange1

Every couple of days I witness a biker or a walker on the brink of being run over by a car. How come?: Seattle’s orange traffic lights are green!.

Incredible as it sounds, Seattle gives green lights to cars turning into crosswalks which have a green light too, resulting in a very dangerous situation that could be solved easily by making sure cars are given an orange light when turning into crosswalks with a green one, like the rest of the civilized world does.

This is a simple fix that requires no additional infrastructure, so please, Seattle, fix it!.

greenIsTheWrongOrange2

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Biking and health

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Biking is considered a valuable sport since it protects your heart. This aerobic way of moving improves your health because it helps oxygenated blood to be pumped by the heart to deliver oxygen to the working muscles, mainly those in your lower part in your body. For this reason it forms part of the “cardio-sports” which improve your cardiovascular fitness. Another characteristic is that it benefices your muscle formation and toning. Also, by practicing it regularly your life-years are increased (wow!) (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/?term=10.1289/ehp.0901747) as well as you better your mental health (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17314466?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum) and your immune system (http://familyonbikes.org/blog/2011/06/the-health-benefits-of-cycling/). Moreover, you coordination improves as your are constantly moving both your legs and your hands. There is no need to spent hours and hours on the bike to feel its benefices, just a few minutes. Nevertheless, aerobic exercises such as biking can become anaerobic if performed at a too high intensity level.