This morning Westchester Cycling Club member Steve Carre and I met at The Journal News to borrow a delivery van which my employer was good enough to loan me for this charity pick-up. WCC Club President, David Wilson had set up with Jose Gonzolez, the superintendent at the Beacon Hill Estates in Dobbs Ferry for us to pick-up their abandoned bikes.

While Jose and Bob Robertson gathered up the bikes Steve and I loosened handlebars and loaded the 23 bikes and one unicycle into the cargo van. The bikes were of all types and vintages. Most of the bikes were inexpensive children’s bikes with pink and blue accents. The next batch was a number of mid-sized pre-teen mountain bikes. Last were the adult 3-speed cruisers and a few ten and 12 speed 1970’s racing bikes. In this batch there were a few J.C Higgins bikes sold by Sears in the 60’s and they would be sweet own and beach cruisers with some grease and new tires. The racing bike that jumped out was a classic white Peugeot A0-8. The leather saddle was still beautiful and the Simplex Prestige derailleur ready to roll. The Mafac breaks brought back memories as well, never liked them on my Peugeot PX 10 and switched them to Weinmann centerpulls instead. But the frame is a work of massed produced art. The log work is stylish but not over the top. While my PX 10 had Reynolds 531, this was lower grade steel, but I’m sure road nearly as nice, just a little heavier. The detail on the frame still stood out, the one nice touch is the peg to hold a frame pump to the downtube.

Enough about old bikes, the mission of mercy these bikes have just become part of is Westchester Cycling Club’s charity effort for the Pedals for Progress campaign. These 24 bikes are the first contributions for this year goal of 300. WCC has been collecting bikes since 2006 with a total of 900 bikes donated. The bikes will be shipped to Nicaragua where they will really have a positive impact on their new owners. With each donated bike a ten dollar donation is also needed for shipping.

The big day for donations is May 23, 2009 and the drop off point is Trinity Lutheran Church in Brewster.

Rockland Bicycling Club is also running a bike donation drive, here is Rita Joachim’s write up about their upcoming program.

For the last six years, thanks to the tremendous generosity of our members and our community, we’ve brought holiday fun and shiny-new-bike happiness to many children who were selected for People To People’s Santa Project. Earlier this year, we helped People To People and a group of elementary school students make the first Spring Bike Bonanza a hit, rehabbing donated bikes for 80 adults and kids. Fueled by both the success of the Bike Bonanza and the mad scale of the Santa Project, People To People is bringing some great changes to its annual holiday program.

This year, our RBC Bikes For Kids Program will be transformed, too. We love the looks on the kids’ faces when they see their new bikes! But we’ve always believed getting bikes would be more fun for kids in the spring, when they can get right on and learn to ride, undeterred by cold, snow and mittens. So, our Bikes For Kids program is moving to milder climes. Besides helping rehab bikes, we can be there to help fit helmets, teach bike safety skills, conduct a fun bike rodeo, and introduce the joys of cycling to a new generation. The Spring Bike Bonanza is slated for Saturday, May 16th, 2009, so now is the time to start lining up serviceable bikes for kids and adults. Clean out your garage, your neighbor’s garage, hit up your in-laws and your colleagues. Together, we can produce a crop of safe cyclists, make the Bike Bonanza a great success, and have a load of fun!

And there’ll still be plenty of opportunity to bring holiday joy to our Rockland neighbors through People to People’s renamed holiday program. Everyone’s invited to adopt a letter for Project Joy, and to volunteer in the multi-day effort, which will be held this year in a more central spot in the county. Stay tuned here and to the local news for more on Project Joy.

If you have a bike to donate or would like to help cover the shipping costs of these 23 bikes we picked up today please contact me. I’ll find away to pick up the bike or bikes. If you’re bike is in Rockland it will stay in Rockland with the People to People program. If it’s in Westchester or Putnam we’ll put it with the Pedals for Progress group.

By RAF CASERT
AP Sports Writer

Ex-Tour king’s comments, concerns cement him as overexposed narcissist
OPINION
By Mike Celizic
updated 9:55 p.m. ET, Tues., Nov. 18, 2008

If Lance Armstrong wants to ride in the Tour de France again at the age of 37, I’ve got no problem with it. But for the love of derailleur gears, does he have to make such a mess of it?

I understand why he wants to get back in the saddle. He’s a racer. After winning seven straight Tour de France titles, he thought he’d gotten over it. He thought he was sick of the scrutiny and allegations and all the grief that came with being the American champion of a French institution. And after a couple years of retirement, he found out he was wrong.

He’s not the first great athlete who thought he was going to be happy with all his retirement activities only to find out that there was an enormous hole in his life that no amount of fishing, hunting, motivational speeches, charitable activities and golf could fill. There was no thrill that could replace winning a mountain stage and wearing the yellow jersey. There was no activity that could utterly consume him, that he could build his entire year — his entire life — around.

So he decided to go back, because that’s who he is and what he does.

Fine. Go back. Ride the race. Finish first or finish last, I don’t care. Just try to do it with a little dignity, OK?

Armstrong is the new Exhibit A for everything that drives us nuts about old heroes who can’t deal with retirement. From the get-go, when he first said he was coming back, it’s been one manufactured crisis after another.

That’s the top of Celizic’s column on MSNBC, here’s a link for the rest.

But here’s the last paragragh.

Once, he was Lance Armstrong, the greatest athlete who ever lived. Now, he’s a caricature of Lance Armstrong, a figure in a cartoon that we are forced to watch without knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Great column Mr. Celizic.

Westchester Cycling Club’s Pearson Constantino talked with Journal News Writer Ken Valenti last week about his cross-country cycling trip with his brother. Here is the start of the story, click here for the full report. The photos from the trip are by Megahn Sheridan.

It would be impressive enough to hear Pearson Constantino’s tale of the bicycle trip he and his older brother, Peter, just took across the United States. But consider this: Pearson made the trip two years after he was plowed off his bicycle in Greenburgh by a sport utility vehicle that crushed a vertebra, shattered his hip and gave him a concussion.

It left him with searing back pain that is still with him – and that accompanied him on the 3,500-mile journey he and his brother took from Newport, Ore. to Massachusetts’ Cape Cod. After 51 days on the road, they completed their trip Oct. 3.

Constantino’s back pain was only one of the troubles he faced.

“I had twenty flats,” the musician and lifelong cyclist said in his fifth-floor walkup in Pelham. “I fell off my bike seven times.”

In Iowa, he was struck with food poisoning, but kept going, and 20 miles outside Dubuque, he fell, spraining his wrist and shoulder.

“I rode that day – 98 miles that day,” he said. And the next, they rode an additional 80 miles, all of it in rains brought by Hurricane Ike.

“He was holding on with one hand for about two states, and he was beat up,” said Peter Constantino, 36, of Glens Falls.

Constantino’s June 29, 2006, accident remains unsolved. It’s a crime to leave the scene of an accident when someone is injured, but no one has ever been found and arrested in this case, said Greenburgh Police Chief John Kapica.

By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM
AP Business Writer

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Pedalers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.

If you’ve ever been riding down the street and had your pants cuff ripped asunder, there may be a revolution at hand.

Trek Bicycle is part of a movement to bury the finger-pinching, pants-munching, rust-prone sprocket and chain, and usher in an era of belt-driven bikes that might have the inventors of the self-propelled transportation Schwinning in their graves.

Wisconsin-based Trek is introducing two models this holiday season that are chainless, instead using technology most often found in things like motorcycles and snowmobiles. While some smaller custom bike makers have used them before, Trek is the first to use the technology for mass-produced bicycles.

The nation’s largest domestic bike manufacturer is hoping to capitalize on a new group of urban pedal-pushers who are trading their cars for a more low-tech way to get around because of gas prices as well as health and environmental concerns.

The U.S. bicycle industry was a $5.4 billion industry in 2007, including the retail value of bicycles, related parts, and accessories through all channels of distribution, according to research funded by the National Sporting Goods Association. More than 43 million Americans age 7 and older were estimated to have ridden a bike six times or more in 2005, the industry group said.

“People are really finding bicycles to be a very simple solution to some very complex problems that they face every day,” said Eric Bjorling, Trek’s lifestyle brand manager. “Anything we can do in our design to really help them and help them live that lifestyle is probably better for both the consumers and us.”

Bjorling said the new belts are a low-maintenance solution to a chain, which has roughly 3,000 parts including all the links and connectors.

Aside from the whisper-quiet ride, the lighter and longer-lasting carbon-fiber composite belts won’t rust, can’t be cut, won’t stretch or slip and won’t leave grease marks around your ankles. A guard over the belt-drive and the construction of the system makes getting your pants stuck an unlikely scenario, Bjorling said.

One version of the chainless bike, called the District ($930), is a single-speed, complete with a silver body, orange accents and brown leather seat and handles. The other, called the Soho ($990), is an eight-speed bike that uses an internal hub to adjust the speed rather than gears.

Bicycles have come along way from the “boneshakers back in the 19th century,” said Orin Starn, a professor at Duke University who teaches a course on the anthropology of sports. Some companies have used direct drive or drive shaft bikes that provide some of the same benefits as Trek’s chainless bikes, but those models have yet to replace the age-old chain.

“Certainly for the last 40 or 50 years we have this iconic image of the traditional bicycle that includes the chain,” Starn said. “We’ve seen this evolution in different styles and stuff, but the chain has been a cultural constant.”

Bjorling admits chain-driven bikes are still efficient, but said an urban rider won’t have to worry about greasing or cleaning the chain. The belt can be cleaned with a normal cleaning agent and rag, and the bike sprocket is designed to push through any snow, dirt or grime. And one belt will typically last three years — the life span of three chains.

How riders will take to the new bikes remains to be seen, since they are not out for sale yet. The District model will go on sale in December, followed the next month by the Soho. There may be those in the biking community that may take issue with swapping bike chains with newer technology.

“Bike purists are going to take a look at it and say ‘oh, you know it’s another option to a chain,’” Bjorling said. “Are we going to see a ton of people switching from a chain to a belt drive? I think in some urban environments yes, but it’s definitely not the coffin that’s gonna bury the chain.”

Over the years there have been many changes in the bike industry, specifically materials that have made products lighter and stronger, said David Oakley, a manager at Agee’s Bicycles, which has been in business in Richmond since 1910.

While some may question the chainless bikes, Oakley pointed to the initial skepticism, and eventual success, of mountain bikes.

“We all know that putting gears on a beach cruiser to be able to ride back up the hill turned out to be a pretty good thing,” Oakley joked of the bike industry’s most popular segment.

Oakley said there’s a general excitement behind the new technology, but cautioned that the notion may not ring everyone’s bell.

“From a maintenance standpoint, it’s huge,” he said. “If this really, completely takes off, the lubricant industry is probably not going to be excited.”

LONDON (AP) _ Lance Armstrong fears he could be attacked by spectators if he returns to the Tour de France next year.

The seven-time Tour champion, who is making a comeback after three years in retirement, said in an interview in The Guardian on Tuesday that he is concerned about his safety.

“I don’t want to enter an unsafe situation but you see this stuff coming out of France,” said the American rider, who has many critics in France. “There’re some aggressive, angry emotions. If you believe what you read, my personal safety could be in jeopardy.

“Cycling is a sport of the open road and spectators are lining the road. I try to believe that people, even if they don’t like me, will let the race unfold.”

Armstrong was asked if he specifically fears a physical attack.

“Yeah. There’re directors of French teams that have encouraged people to take to the streets … elbow to elbow. It’s very emotional and tense,” he said.

It’s unclear why Armstrong is worried about his safety now, given that attacks on riders are extremely rare. Organizers have in recent years taken additional steps to protect riders from spectators, including increased use of crowd barriers.

The Tour has its own police force to guard the route and ensure safety, and French police paid particular attention to Armstrong’s safety when he was riding.

Armstrong, who has a home in Aspen, Colo., announced his comeback in September and joined the Astana team. He is reunited with Astana team leader Johanna Bruyneel, who teamed with Armstrong for all seven Tour de France wins from 1999-2005.

Armstrong plans to meet with Tour officials before deciding whether to compete in the 2009 Tour.

Previously, he had expressed doubts over trying for win another Tour title because of the problems he might encounter with French organizers, journalists and fans.

Armstrong is scheduled to race the Giro d’Italia for the first time. The 100th anniversary edition of the Giro is scheduled for May 9-31. The Tour de France starts July 4.

The 37-year-old Armstrong said in the Guardian interview that he is in better shape at this stage of the season than in past years.

“I’m much better physically now,” he said at his home in Austin, Texas. “And mentally there is no comparison. I’m far stronger and more motivated. The motivation of 2008 feels like the motivation of 1999. I was back from cancer then. I had the motivation of vengeance because nobody wanted me or believed in me.”

Armstrong reiterated his denials of the doping allegations that have dogged him during his career.

“I understand people in France and in cycling might have that perception, but the reality is that there’s nothing there,” he said. “The level of scrutiny I’ve had throughout my career from the press and the anti-doping authorities is unmatched. I’m not afraid of anything. I’ve got nothing to hide. I won seven Tours through hard work.

“This next year won’t be any different — even if people hate to hear that. I’m going to be focusing on every aspect of the bike, the team, the strategy, the training, the hard work, the sacrifice. There are no secrets. To the critics, I would say, believe it or not, there are exceptional athletes out there. Michael Phelps … Paula Radcliffe.”

Armstrong also restated his rejection of the French anti-doping agency’s proposal that he agree to retest his 1999 urine samples to see whether the French newspaper L’Equipe was right when it reported they contained the banned substance EPO.

“I’m all for drug controls, but if the athlete cannot defend himself, what kind of kangaroo court is that?” he said.

AP photos

Really enjoyed leading a ride today from Fort Montgomery and back via the Newburgh-Beacon bridge and Bear Mountain Bridge. Most of my weekend rides start at 09:00am but this late in the season I set the start at 10:00am thinking the sun would be up and add a few degree in that hour. Well that didn’t work out today, but it was still a good temperature. The wind on the other hand was tough early blowing us to a stop a few times as we climbed our first and hardest hill out of Fort Montgomery. Mine and Mine Tome roads hit hard at the start, but build the body temp to make the rest of the day more comfortable.
I pulled my car into the parking lot and saw Rockland Bicycling Club member Steve Brehl waiting. He rode from central Rockland County. Steve led a ride first through Bear Mountain and then south to NJ over Skyline Drive back in August. That was hard hilly ride where I sucked his wheel the past third of the ride to get back to the lot. It was good to ride with him again.
Next to park was Jonathan Winn. Jonathan had not ridden much in the past few years but has made fantastic progress in the past four months. He started riding July 15th to get ready for The Golden Apple. He rode the 50 mile loop. He’s been going strong losing ten pounds a month, 40 pounds total. Wow!
Mike Demis pulled next as we also waited for Kate Marshall and Victor Urvantsev also riding from Croton.
We headed out shortly after ten enjoying the climb up Mine and Mine Tome on our way to Rt 293 over to West Point and Rt. 218 around the edge of Storm King Mountain. This is my favorite stretch of road in the area. The cliffs drop down to the roads edge and the views of the Hudson Highlands are just spectacular. We stopped at the pull off for a group photo.
Down the fast descent, wind in the face and back to the river’s edge through Cornwall on Hudson. We worked our way to the bridge. The trip was fast along the bridge’s walkway with a 15 mph wind at our backs – sweet.
The Muddy Cup was a welcome stop for coffee, snacks and conversation as we talked bikes training, past rides, and school taxes.
The trip south on Rt. 9D turned out mostly with a favorable tailwind. I stayed with Jonathan as the B+ pace was a little high. But he dug deep to keep his pace up and hold my wheel enjoying being last on this ride instead of in the front on a C+ ride. I’m sure next year with a few more miles he’ll being pulling strong and I’ll be on his wheel. Either way it will be good company as the miles pass by.

NEW YORK (AP) _ Officials are proposing new rules that would greatly expand bicycle parking in apartment and office buildings around the city, the latest step in a plan to make New York one of the most bike-friendly places in the nation.

They believe making bicycle parking more available in buildings will motivate more New Yorkers to cycle to work or perform errands on bike.

Surveys show that the lack of secure bicycle parking prevents New Yorkers from riding bikes. Some people are leery of leaving even locked bikes on the street for fear they will get stolen, and many places restrict people from parking bikes on the sidewalk in front of buildings.

The rules would require one secure bike parking space for every two units in new apartment buildings and one space for every 7,500 square feet in new office buildings.

“It will really transform the culture of the city from a car-oriented city to a bike-oriented city,” Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden said.

The rules proposed Monday follow up on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2007 blueprint for a more sustainable city, which includes a push for greater bicycle use.

Transportation officials are doubling the city’s bike lanes and expect to have 420 miles in place by June 2009. They also are installing thousands of on-street bike racks.

“We have found that one of the greatest impediments to more biking is the lack of space to store your bike long term at home and at work,” Burden said.

Burden said the proposed regulations are comparable to those enacted in bike-friendly cities such as Portland, Ore., and San Francisco. “We have tried to be as aggressive as anyone and more,” she said.

The rules would require weather-protected, lockable bike parking spaces at apartment buildings with at least 10 units, commercial office buildings, stores, hospitals, universities and automobile parking garages. They would apply to new buildings, enlargements of 50 percent or more and residential conversions.

Bike advocates hailed the proposal but said they hoped the rules could be broadened.

Elizabeth Kiker, vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based League of American Bicyclists, said the league “applauds New York City for answering one of the biggest challenges for cyclists in the city with this progressive set of bike parking requirements. We hope that these will be extended to cover existing buildings in the future.”

Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a New York group that promotes cycling and public transportation, said: “Mayor Bloomberg’s push for indoor bike parking in the zoning code is an investment in the future. We need to match it with bicycle access to the office buildings of today.”

Burden said the rules would not burden developers unduly.

“You can fit 150 bikes in 1,800 square feet,” she said. “It’s not expensive to build at all.”

But Mike Slattery, senior vice president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said some in the real estate industry fear there may not be enough demand for all the bike parking the regulations would require.

“It’s driven by the right set of goals,” he said. “We just don’t want to see space set aside for uses that there’s no demand for.”

The Planning Commission will vote on the new rules after a public comment period lasting several months. If approved, the regulations will become part of city zoning law.

WhiteHouse2.org has a simple goal—help plan president-elect Obama’s first 100 days in the white house. The site allows people to vote on agenda items for the president to consider when he gets into office. One of the items is better bicycle-pedestrian infrastructure for our oil-addicted country. Want to push this up the roster? Visit

Here is the full report on two adventurers riding the Al-Can highway on a fixed gear. Talk about hard core! This is impressive.

By BILL RAUTENSTRAUCH
The (La Grande) Observer

LA GRANDE, Ore. (AP) _ There’s a lot to be said for being young, strong, footloose and fancy free. You can just dream yourself up an adventure, and go.

Take Matthew Baxter and Alex Weaver. They made their minds up a couple of years ago to ride bikes 1,800 miles across Alaska and Canada via the fabled Al-Can Highway.

They did it this summer. It was a feat that took courage, stamina and a willingness to suffer through hardship.

Hardship, in fact, dogged them the whole way. Still, they say the trip was fun.

“We were anxious to go. Everybody told us we’d never make it on the bikes we had,” Weaver said.

Riding the Al-Can is an incredible physical feat, but it’s not so rare a thing for people to do. Dozens if not scores of cycling enthusiasts try it every year. Many complete the journey and emerge with bragging rights to last a lifetime.

But Baxter and Weaver did the ride with style all their own. No fancy 30-speed touring bikes for them. No motor vehicle tagging along, carrying their gear.

They made the trip on a couple of aging bikes modified into “fixed gears,” lugging everything they had either in packs or panniers.

It was a real coup. With fixed gears, there’s no shifting when the climb gets steep. And there’s no coasting, either. The pedals turn round and round for as long as the bike is in motion.

“You can’t cheat,” said Baxter. “Hundreds of people use bikes with gears. This set us apart.”

Baxter and Weaver, both 21, are students at Eastern Oregon University. Baxter studies business and history; Weaver is enrolled in the nursing program.

Baxter is from Alaska and knows plenty about the Al-Can, that long lonesome stretch of highway that connects the contiguous United States with Alaska through Canada.

A couple of years ago, the two friends started talking about a long trip, an ultimate bicycling adventure. Somewhere along the line, the talk turned serious.

“It started out kind of like a joke. It was Matt’s idea. He said we should try the Al-Can some summer. Then, we started training,” Weaver said.

Both happened to be fixed-gear aficionados, and almost from the beginning they knew they were going to ride that way. One of their first jobs was to replace the progressive gear systems on their stock machines with a one-gear, no-shift system.

The two did the conversion themselves, with technical assistance from the Mountain Works bike shop in downtown La Grande and Speedway Cycles in Anchorage, Alaska. Shop experts gave sage advice and loaned out hard-to-find tools.

Baxter and Weaver started their training with day rides around the Grande Ronde Valley, testing the bikes and looking for the most efficient ways to pack and carry gear.

The more they rode, the more they felt compelled to ride. The training trips got longer, and longer still. In May 2007, the two rode all the way to Portland.

“We went through Ukiah, Heppner, Condon, Biggs, The Dalles, then over Highway 14 to the city. We did 120 miles the last day,” Baxter recalled.

They continued training and dreaming of the good times to come until they finally felt ready to take on the Al-Can. On Aug. 3 of this year, near Anchorage, the adventure began.

Times weren’t so good at first. The tone was set early as the riders passed through a construction zone and Weaver had a flat, or “popped a tire” as cyclists are fond of saying.

It was the first of many tires that popped during the arduous journey.

“We probably got a flat every day. There was a lot of construction going on, and a lot of rocks in the road,” Baxter said. A journal the two kept states that one construction zone was 47 miles long.

Packing just 25-30 pounds of gear apiece, Baxter and Weaver rode 115 miles that first day. For most days after that, they averaged around 100 miles.

Besides flat tires, they had to deal from time to time with mechanical malfunctions. Most were minor in nature, and fixed on the spot.

Once, a bolt on Baxter’s handlebar broke, and was replaced with a bolt from a highway sign.

“The bikes definitely had their problems, but they made it the whole way,” Baxter said.

The Al-Can, constructed during World War II, runs from Delta Junction in Alaska to Dawson Creek, British Columbia, via Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. It crosses the Continental Divide.

There are small cities along the way, including Whitehorse and Watson Lake in the Yukon and Fort Nelson and Fort St. John in British Columbia. Between towns, the country is high, wild and lonesome.

Baxter and Weaver encountered plenty of wildlife along the way, black bears and a grizzly, moose and caribou, and a herd of bison that according to local lore began its life domestically but was later left to run wild.

The riders also encountered bad weather, and lots of it. Rain fell 10 out of the 18 days the pair was on the road. Both men agree weather was the harshest challenge of the journey.

“It would rain all day long, till your rain pants were soaked through. It made it really hard to keep going,” Weaver said.

Added Baxter, “It was always cold until you got into your dry sleeping bag at night.”

There were times when they thought of turning back. They resisted the temptation partly because they didn’t want to ride back over the same mountains they’d just crossed, and partly because they were too stubborn to give in.

“We did think about it, but it was never like we really would. We decided to do this, and we were going to get it out of the way no matter what,” Baxter said.

And so they kept at it day after day, laboring uphill and flying down, the pedals turning every single foot of the way.

On Aug. 20, they cranked out their final 30 miles, quitting at Hudson Hope in British Columbia.

They’d done what they set out to do. And coming to a final stop felt oh, so good.

“I was excited and relieved that we’d made it with only minor troubles. It was great to take a shower,” Weaver said.