Is Using a Bike for Transport the Best way to Avoid the Coronavirus?
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Monthly Archives: August 2020
NYC Restaurants Need Open Streets NOW
Water bikes
The power of bicycles is so impressive that one can understand people use it in mysterious, outstanding ways. Everybody have in mind bikes are suitable for solid surfaces like roads or paths. But what Judah Schiller invented in the San Francisco bay was amazing: Water bikes.
The idea behind this was to create a sustainable way of transport competing with rowboats and avoiding sometimes unnecessary detours. The fact which allowed this was the need he had to cross the bay bridge between Oakland and San Francisco to go to work. He had done so on boat and was tired. The first product was BayCycle, a portable floating device to pedal on water.
This initial idea evolved into a mix of bike and catamaran in which pedaling has an essential role. When a person pedals, it moves a screw which allows sailing. On the other hand, the handlebars are used as rudder. If you want to stop, just use the backpedal brake similarly as the Netherlander bikes.
Moreover, their creator claims these bikes are folded in 10 minutes in order to easily transport them, and carry it comfortably. It is no wonder that this new kind of bike has enjoyed success and more companies have decided to produce their own water bikes.
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Criteriums
Criteriums are urban races where participants ride their bikes to spin and complete a established round. Such events use to be done at night because of less car traffic and are popular among fixie bike lovers. Racers highlight adrenaline rush as a motivation in these races that are presented in lots of cities.
A special case is Singapore. In 2013, the first criterium took place there thanks to the tenacity of Zul Awad. Eric Khoo Shui Yan helped him and Holy Crit was the race name. They organized eight races up until November 2014 on closed roads or with little traffic. But also without the required permissions. Authorities fined them even if they explained them their unique objective was to increase the number of bikers. They did not receive any payment, nor did they have sponsors.
Ding Jie Ng, a young producer, noticed their troubles with justice and felt the need of telling it to the world. Thus, he made a documentary, Fixied, with little resources and inspired by the criteriums. As a results, he filmed a documentary with the help of Zul at night which is worth it from a cyclist and human perspective.