Archive for the ‘General’ Category

The Cyclist Pariah Paradigm

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

Here is a tremendous example of judicial insanity. According to this article, a clearly unhinged man took it upon himself to attempt to murder a cyclist because "he was angry the man was riding with his child on a busy road".   Fortunately for the cyclist and his son, ...

Bringing Bikes Back

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

As a follow-up to a former post on stolen bikes, an article in the Jpost details some success against the bike thieves and their nefarious ways. The article states: "To nab the culprits, police implanted tracking devices in bicycles and left them around the city in the hope that they would be ...

Less Stolen Bikes?

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

According to Ha'Aretz, the Tel Aviv police department are providing a registration and engraving service for cyclists who wish to deter thieves.   The officer will etch a number into your bike's frame that should deter thieves from snatching a branded bike. The bike branding didn't appeal to everyone, "'I thought ...

Cycling Zeitgeist: Performance or Fashion

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Most people are cyclists by necessity.   It's much more efficient to ride a bike than to walk and so on.  However, for those serious cyclists who take themselves seriously, it is much more than that.   Cycling is a fashion with a myriad of sub-cultures each of which considers ...

Whither Alleycats

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

One thing I miss about cycling in New York are the informal messenger races called alleycats.   Basically, alleycats used to be - before the messenger scene was polluted by the hipsters - anywhere from 10 to 30 messengers meeting somewhere in the city for a race. Someone would have mapped ...

An Apology for Running Red Lights

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

Riding in Tel Aviv isn't the safest venture since the bike lanes are often broken and divided by any number of obstacles such as bus stops, trees, motorcycles and scooters and should be avoided. The safest place to ride is in the street even considering the maniacal and aggressive ...

Cheap Locks Yield Stolen Bikes

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Despite my deleterious and deliquent attempts at updating this site, I do plan on adding some new material sometime soon. At any rate, it seems that Tel Avivians simply don't understand the rationale for spending money on a good lock. Having lived in New York City and worked as a ...

New Bike & Maybe Some Upgrades

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

I finally got my replacement frame from Cannondale.  It's the 2008 Cannondale Capo frame which is better than the 2009 abomination.  I covered up the Capo logo with some electrical tape because as I previously mentioned, I don't find the name "Capo" terribly tasteful. I'm trying to fix the maps section; ...

Updates, Browser Fixes and a Broken Frame

Friday, September 12th, 2008

First the good news.  Bike Tel Aviv should be displayed properly in all modern browsers.  I cleaned up the code and it's been validated by the W3; hence the two certification icons on the sidebar.  So all browser issues should be taken care of unless you're using Lynx; in that ...

Tall Bikes: Mutant Bike Culture Not Yet in Tel Aviv

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

This is old but funny. First, some background: For those who don't know, tall bikes are part of the nebulous bike culture and residing somewhere in the subculture scene bordering the hipster and fixie lifestyles. Part of the philosophy of the tall bike movement is to recycle and reuse old bikes ...