Bicycle Frame Nomenclature

Georgena Terry explains the parts of a bicycle frame in Youtube

History of the bicycle:

http://www.ibike.org/library/history-timeline.htm

Janak Mistry

check this historical footage out.. Some very very innovative ideas ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdlpJqHxLxk

And also


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2EqYP4IFdo&NR=1

And here is my favourite: The Bicycle Thief

[Ladri di biciclette][Italian Movie with English Subtitle]
The Bicycle Thief, is a wonderful film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of a poor man searching the streets of Rome for his stolen bicycle, which he needs to be able to work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7sUcDk7RGI

Here is a wonderful link shared by Christine de Baan
http://inhabitat.com/velomobile/

and another great Dutch animation film shared by Nupur


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIc92YM6le4

Todays catch! A plumber carrying a 1000litre water tank and pipes

Janak Mistry

Here is a cool way to negotiate Bengaluru traffic!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Cj6ho1-G6tw

Janak Mistry

Extremes

Very large, very small, slow as a snail and extremely fast: notions like that are always inspirational, for design as well as for potential cyclists. The world speed record on a bicycle by Fred Rompelberg, set in 1995 on the Salt Plane in Utah USA is 268 km/h. He rode behind a dragster to catch the wind. So it was more a matter of behaving dangerously.
Right now students in Delft and Amsterdam are preparing a hypercool bicycle for an attempt to break a Canadian record without the drag catcher. The record is 133 km per hour. The most important properties for such a vehicle are in aerodynamics and lightweight structure consisting of carbon fibre reinforced polymers.

I thought this was worth sharing

janak Mistry

Rotary wheels lead to better future

By Tonya Weger

For girls in south Asia, having a bicycle can mean the difference between going to school or not. Without an education, girls face illiteracy and the inability to support themselves.

The 26 December 2004 tsunami in south Asia destroyed major structures, such as schools, and washed away bicycles. Many students — but especially girls — then faced the possibility of a bleak future without an education. 

 

After the tsunami, students had to travel long distances to the area’s remaining schools. Without bicycles, the long commute by foot meant that the children walked home at night, says Dr. Rekha Shetty, past district governor of District 3230. For girls, the walk was not an option. “Families would not allow girls to go to school if they had to walk through remote areas after dark,” Shetty says.

In January 2005, Shetty and Dr. Peter Patel, of the Rotary Club of Birmingham, United Kingdom, took a trip to assess damage along the coast of Tamilnadu, south India. While at the Cuddalore District collector’s office, the Rotarians saw three girls petitioning for bicycles to replace those they lost in the tsunami.

The assistant collector asked the Rotarians to purchase bicycles for the girls “so they could continue their studies and not face a life of misery and drudgery,” according to Shetty.

She realized then what a difference a bicycle can make. “A bicycle changes a girl’s whole life pattern and determines her future,” Shetty says. With bicycles, the girls would be able to commute to and from school much faster.

Patel agreed to buy bikes for the girls at the office, but he and Shetty were informed that there were almost 800 more girls in need of bicycles. The Rotarians agreed to raise the necessary money and began the Rotary Education on Wheels project.

“We really didn’t know if we had bitten off more than we could chew,” Shetty says.

But in typical Rotarian fashion, districts worldwide contributed. The Rotary Club of Jerusalem, Israel, funded 100 bicycles, and Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Katmandu Mid-Town, Nepal, a country being torn apart by civil war and poverty, rallied to raise money for 95 more.

In India, members of the Rotary Club of Pune Central raised money for 100 bikes. The Rotary clubs of Madras Temple City, Ambattur, and Cuddalore Midtown pitched in by coordinating and distributing the bicycles.

“The bicycles are moving promotions for Rotary,” Shetty explains. Each of the bikes has the Rotary wheel on the fender and the name of the club that donated it.

The girls who received the bicycles have dreams of having careers as teachers, policewomen, or working in the medical field. “I was surprised by their ambitions,” Shetty says. “Not one said they wanted to be a housewife.”

Shetty believes women should have a choice of whether they want to stay home and raise a family or pursue a professional life. And education is the key that can open many doors.

“Illiteracy is a problem,” she explains. “Girls are the first to drop out of school in families.”

Rotary Education on Wheels is a long-term effort with 2,000 bikes planned for distribution in the coming year. Shetty hopes to expand the project to include more countries.

Here are some images I shot of a bicycle sharing system in New Delhi… I tried to rent out one but the attendant who was supposed to be in the green box was absent J…probably because it was too hot for him to hang around in it! Please read the board with the terms and conditions for rentals.

Janak Mistry

•In recent times, there is a resurgence of recreational cycling in India. Bicycle manufacturers are on an over drive developing new bicycle designs to cater to the recreational rider. However the Common Black bicycle still has the largest market share.
•The irony is that while the car owner wants to cycle for recreational reasons and spends on owning high end bicycles, the common man/woman can afford only the ordinary black bicycle and aspires to upgrade to riding a scooter or a motorcycle …if not a car.


























•In the last decade India’s economy has boomed, thanks to growth in all sectors. This, in turn has lead to increased consumption. The Indian Retail industry has penetrated the economic Pyramid top to bottom and as a result the Bottom up aspiration driven capillary action is in full force. Today even the migrant construction worker owns a cell phone and aspires to own a motor bike, branded clothes and a home. And why not? It is ironic that while the car owner is becoming conscious of his carbon footprint and wants wants to cycle again (at least for recreational reasons) and spends on owning high end bicycles, the common man/woman can afford only the ordinary black bicycle and aspires to upgrade to riding a scooter or a motorcycle …if not a car.
•It is difficult, if not Impossible to tell this person that his or her aspirations are not good for the well being of this planet! That his riding a bicycle is much more sustainable than me driving my car. He Aspires to go up the pyramid And no one has the right to stop him in our free economy...

Making cycling popular is easier said than done in the Indian context.
I am not concerned about the Upper middle class and the upper class ( for the lack of a better definition in the Indian context) becoming cyclists!
It shouldn’t become just another fad or a style or an option to stay fit.
To me the challenge lies in not losing the person who is already cycling, to motorcycling or automobiling! How can we make these peoples life better, respectable, comfortable, 'cool way to go'?

It’s a tough ask but when I see the density of cyclists in the Netherlands (image 42 attached shot at the central rly. stn) I wonder where, along the way did India, in its race to becoming an developed nation, lose its bicycling culture?

By Janak Mistry

Cycling as Tourism Concept, eg. in Germany

This was an old railway track of nearly 100 km length in a quite hilly countryside, now converted into a lane for cyclists and inline-skaters only

one cycles through medieval, small towns, where one can find enough places to stay

Tourism Industry has picked up a lot because of this cycling lane, which is connected with a couple of others to cycle for hundred of km http://www.vulkanradweg.de

Bangalore's First Critical Mass on 28th Nov 2008

Monday, December 15, 2008

Bangalore's first critical mass on 28th Nov 2008 (Reported by Deepa Mohan)

Some of the cyclists of Bengaluru decided to organise an event called 'Critical Mass' on the evening of 28th November in the city. They would like to reclaim the roads of their city for cycles and other forms of non-motorised transport. All over the world, the Critical Mass (CM) is done on the last Friday of the month. Even though it was a working day, the idea was to spread the message in a live form to a large commuter base. If it were to be on a weekend, it would simply be a weekend leisure ride. CM helps in recognizing the importance of respect that cyclists who commute daily deserve. The first Critical Mass event was organised on 25th September 1992 in San Francisco, USA. Over the years, citizens of 300-odd cities across the world have embraced the concept. It is known by different names, such as bike-lifting, corking and mass-up in various cities. Some Critical Mass events across the world have participants not only on cycles, but also on skateboards and wheelchairs.For more about Critical Mass seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Massi/Critical_Mass

India is still not convinced about promoting cycling as a means of urban transport but Amsterdam (Netherlands), New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Portland (in USA), London (UK) and Paris (France) boast of a flourishing bicycle culture. There are some Indian cities like Pondicherry, however, where cyclists form a large part of the traffic on the roads.


Go Green message on one participant. Pic: Deepa Mohan.
Bangalore's maiden Critical Mass started out on rather a damp note, with the rainy weather making the twilight arrive earlier than usual. When I arrived at Lalbagh West Gate, I found several bikers (as these cyclists like to call themselves) already there. Many of them are young men who commute regularly from home to work and back on their cycles, and do long weekend rides for recreation as well at the weekends. There were a variety of mountain and road bikes that they came riding to the venue on; brand names like "Trek","Merida", and "Strida" spoke of their owners' commitment to serious cycling. I spoke to several of the young men like Go Green Rao, and the young woman, Nupur Sista, whose email on the Bangalore Bikers' egroup had sparked off the whole event. It helped that Delhi was also having a Critical Mass event simultaneously. Unfortunately, the Mumbai event was put on hold due to the terror attacks of last week. One unusual supporter and attendee at the event was Nagendra Babu, the MLA from Mahalakshmi Layout. A keen cyclist himself, he wants to make his constituency the first one in Bangalore to have cycle paths, to popularise cycling among children. Several people who cycle, but not necessarily commute to work, and several non-cyclists, too, came along to show their solidarity with the event. Bikers setting off on the 'Critical Mass' event, Lalbagh. Pic: Deepa Mohan The police constables posted at Lalbagh took objection to the participants' cycles being parked on the pavement before they cycled off. As more cyclists arrived, they shifted their starting point to the bus stop just past the Lalbagh West Gate. At about 7 PM, thirty cyclists took off, in single and double file, in orderly fashion, along a route that was only just made up! The route ultimately taken was: Lalbagh West Gate - JC Road - Hudson Circle - Kasturba Road - Anil Kumble Circle - MG Road - Brigade Road - Residency Road - Bangalore Central - Garuda Mall - Vellara Junction - Adugodi - Forum Mall. The bikers dispersed, finally, at about 8.30 PM The map of the route. The cyclists of Bangalore hope to make the Critical Mass a regular event, and hope that cyclists of all types will join in and help them succeed in getting the message over to the administration, that cyclists too, matter. To see a list of other Critical Mass events, visit http://www.criticalmass.wikia.com/
Deepa Mohan 02 Dec 2008 Deepa Mohan is a freelance writer who fell in love with Bangalore when first she moved from Chennai, and has been both enthused and worried over the rapidly changing city. She is also a Bangalore metroblogger.

WORKSHOP: Ideas for a Content Structure (by Ed van Hinte, Janak, Sabina)

There are three levels of themes: target, context, and planning.

Target themes

These involve three approaches to bicycle use: 
- personal, professional transportation, leisure or sport cycling. 
They require suggestions for bicycle configurations (but let us not get caught up in too many technicalities), but also in cyclist identity, looks, fashion, subculture formation (as an example I'm thinking of women in Ahmadabad wearing a colourful veil around their head and sunglasses, originally for dust protection, but now an identity matter. An other example would be skate boarders).  

1.a)Personal transportation.

People go to work and back, they do groceries, they bring children to school, they go places.

There are three interrelated assignments:

• A one person means of transportation
• A city rental bicycle
• A family/ shopping bicycle

1.b) Professional transportation.

Cycling as a part of daily work. There are, again, three types of bicycles to be proposed, relating to specific types of professions:

• A police bicycle (civil)
• A transportation bicycle (trade, transporting bread, human transport)
• A service bicycle (bicycle repair, a chai-kadai, which is a 4-wheel bycicle)

1.c)Leisure or sport cycling

This is fun because students could develop leisure activities to match what people in Bangalore like or feel familiar with, and which may be better fitting to local circumstances than copies of the existing. Every activity includes a bicycle idea

• An individual Bangalorean sport
• A Bangalorean team game
• A special bicycle design challenge 

2. Context

2.a) Historical Perspective, Ethnographic and Market study
of the cycling culture amongst various socio-economic groups as well as the cycling market. This document could become a sort of an exhaustive research and reference document for future work. The other groups can feed out of the work of this group too.

Additionally there need to be ideas for bicycle peripherals, parking, protection, repair, etc.

2.b) Traffic situation, mapping Bangalore's traffic situation and may be developing a utopian perspective for cyclers, network of cycle lanes, modes of sustainable transport, tourism concepts

2.c) Planning for the future:
• Product development: involvement of design and production businesses
• Infrastructure development: interest parties in creating optimal cycling conditions, including rental shops, bicycle repair, parking,
• Campaign development: develop a strategy to translate all ideas and suggestions into a cycling promotion project for the entire country. 

I remember that in the 1960s this was a very common sight in small towns in India: There would be a huge pit dug in the ground and somebody would be cycling inside it round and round. There would also be a signpost saying how many days he had been cycling for. The cyclist usually from a poor background would be doing this to raise money - for a family member or friend who was ill and couldn't pay hospital bills. Usually there would be a crowd encouraging his efforts. Sometimes, a friend would run alongside the cyclist as he did his rounds inside the pit, giving him a drink of water. I haven't seen this in a long time.