Mountain Bikes Carrier for Motorcycles – An Impressive Story

Have you seen a mountain bike carrier for a motorcycle??? Until today I had not!  But live and learn, right…!  Now I have seen that too.

Fellow riders – I was amazed to see a story published by salsacycles.com on a couple of avid mountain bikers and their journey via motorcycle and mountain bikes through 5 states in the Midwest…. The impressive parts of the story are multiple, but what really caught my attention was the clever way in which the mountain bikes were transported on the BMW (I suppose the brand of the motorcycle is not relevant) motorbikes.   Take a look for yourself — the photos below are from salsacycles.com

Bike Carrier

BMW motorcycle with a bike carrier

Mountain bike carrier

Mountain bike carrier – another view

I have been experimenting with bike carriers for a number of years now – and I must admit this is my first for a motorcycle — very clever one indeed!

Mountain Bikes on Motorcycles

 

(Note: All the images above are from Salsa Cycles’s Web site – I posted here as the site was having intermittent outages over the last several days including today (Dec.7th))

So now that I have seen that – I decided to search for the carrier on the Web and yes, it is a productized item – 2X2 Cycles Motorcycle Bicycle Rack – so for those of you who need it check their Web site – describing the rack developed by Garrett Blake.

 

 

Austin Biking in November

How is biking in Austin in November?  Cold?  Warm?  Well, turns out November is as usual a great month to explore Austin and the Hill Country with a mountain bike.   To prove my observations I have decided to co-opt a blog entry from one of my other blogs

Austin, Barton Creek trail

Austin, Trails

Here is the link to the article

Enjoy!

Beijing by Bicycle: University Run

Beijing is a city famous for many things – one of them being its circle of universities.  Those include Qinghua, Beida, among many others.  So one good use of sightseeing time is to jump on your bicycle and explore those place in a good pace.  Here is a recommended trail for your exploration activity:

Start at Wudaokou Bridge Cafe (Address: 海淀区成府路35号华清嘉园12号楼) on the map below I have put a circle around the general area and a green balloon identified it on the Google map of Beijing.  From here you can bike along Chengfu Road and turn right on Zhongguancun East Road heading mostly North.  Bike along this road until you hit Tsinghua (QingHua DaXue – 清华大学)

Beijing University

 

You can bike around the university – go by various sports courts and interesting buildings of the various departments.  Eventually you need to find JinChun Lu and the Physics Tower and from there the JinChun Lake.  Then continue on Qinghua South Road until you come to ChengFu Road again.   You will turn right on ChengFu Road headed west towards BeiDa (北大 — Beijing University)

Soon enough you will encounter the East Gate of Beijing University (北京大学东门) – enter here and keep going West.  Soon enough you will see the University Library, then you will search for Weiming Bei Lu and here you will find a way to get to the Weiming Lake.  Then if you would like you can stop here and admire the serenity and beauty of the lake, flowers and plants….Or you can decide that you would like to explore more in which case, continue West and search for the West Gate of Beida on Yiheyuan Lu.

Then bicycle North and search for Qinghua Xi Lu near by from where you can continue and find the Yuanmingyuan – The Old Summer Palace.

This is probably enough of exploration for one day.   Now, how do you return the bike etc.?  Well, I advise a taxi 🙂  or based on your situation – a friend or bike back to your original destination.

Let me know with any ideas on this guide.  Hopefully it will be useful for you.  I will continue with another one next day or so.

Beijing by Bicycle

Have you traveled to Beijing ?  If you have, then you will know what I am about to say — getting around the city is a real hassle.  Why?  Because the roads are congested, the air is polluted, and the taxi cab drivers sometimes just refuse to take passengers (yes, I know that does sound strange but it is true).

So what is the alternative if you are just visiting the city and have time to spare – i.e. you are not rushing to a business meeting… Yes, you guessed it – the alternative I would recommend is taking a bicycle ride.

A photo from Beijinger Magazine Beijing bicycles

Years ago, bicycles were ubiquitous in Beijing.  There were waves of them moving about the city…Then its citizens discovered automobiles.  The standard of living went up and so did the number of autos in the city – the number of vehicles grew so fast that today you have to wait for your number to be picked up in a sort of lottery in order for you to receive a license plate and even once you get that accomplished you will be able to drive only on odd or even days based on your license plate.

So. with that in mind in the next few postings will introduce you to some Beijing areas which are very comfortably seen and explored by bicycle.

Those include:

Will cover those sections in the upcoming posting.