…or even if you don’t pray, wish our friend Ezra well in in fight against cancer. Read more here.

In response to last month’s ugly incident at Critical Mass, as well as for reasons all their own, people in Seattle have started Ride Civil.

According to their website, “RideCivil promots civility between motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. We signal and stop, smile and wave, ride 2 abreast and yeild to pedestrians. We won’t be corking or blocking traffic, just safely cycling our city.”

Washington DC bike blogger Gwadzilla reports that he’s seen SmartBikes on the streets of DC. The program has proven successful in France, Norway, Sweden and Spain. The United States is next on the list, and Italy is scheduled to follow.

SmartBike DC is sponsored by Clear Channel Outdoor, who will take advantage of the advertising opportunities created by the program.

I have no idea what was going through Nathan Wood’s mind when he (allegedly) sexually assaulted fellow cyclist Danika Bueno. Sure, she’s a nice looking woman, but besides being absolutely, inexcusably wrong to ride up to a woman and grab her breast, she was riding with her 10-month old son on her back!

Remarkably, Bueno didn’t just pull over and call the police. She dialed 911 on her cell phone while chasing her assailant down. The police caught up with the cyclists and arrested Wood, who was subsequently released on $1000 bond. Read more on The Daily Camera.

Former co-worker to both of us at Urban Velo, Chris Cosby (center) is one of the riders participating in the Fuller Center Bike Trip, scheduled to wrap up in just a few days. This cross-country bike ride was all done to strengthen the participants faith and to act as a significant source of fundraising to support the housing projects of The Fuller Center for Housing. A faith-based group that works towards providing safe and affordable housing to those across the world in need, the Fuller Center grew from Habitat For Humanity in the spring of 2005 and has swung many a hammer since. Believe what you want to believe; actions speak louder than words. These folks are making some loud actions possible. Here’s to ya, Chrispy.

The post a few days back of Charlie Kelly’s Weird Bike Stuff inspired me to look through the last year or two of Interbike photos to see what I could dig up from the B-shots. There is no shortage of weirdness on display at the annual tradeshow hosted in Las Vegas, this is only a small slice of the pie. We’ll start it off with the hand saddle, which truly needs no introduction. I went back on the last day of the show to see if I could buy this saddle, but it was gone presumably into the collection of some other lucky soul.

Car companies that label some cheap bikes as their own come through every year, with some department store quality Chevrolet bikes here. Equally as much home to the freakshow section of the show are the pedal-cars. This one can carry the whole family! More after the jump.
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Meet in downtown Calgary at 6pm this Saturday August 9th for the Rockabilly Boogie Poker Run. Plenty of prizes for both fastest and best-hand, all wrapping up with a showing of MASH.

Bike Portland reports that there’s a new bicycle blog in town, but it’s not all that bike-friendly. Bike Free Portland is mostly about Myra Walker’s disdain for other cyclists. Namely, the ones she calls “Bike Nazis.” Of course, it’s more than ironic that she applies the term “nazi” to freedom-loving cyclists when she wants everyone to conform to her belief system.

As Bike Portland’s editor pointed out, Myra would be considered little more than an internet troll (or a laughing stock, thanks to her relatively poor command of the English language), however she claims to be taking the law into her own hands. Her Red Lock concept is to punish cyclists who behave in a manner that offends her sensibilities by slapping a red lock on their bike once they’ve parked and left it unattended.

Thank you, Mr. Gwadzilla.

New black t, same old price of $9.50. This time around we went with a 50/50 cotton/poly blend shirt with a slightly updated logo design. Check it out in the Urban Velo Store.