Floyd A. O'Reilly Blog: Weekly Video Roundup: ending oppression, mathematical theories of driving, and more

Welcome to the weekly video roundup!

Cycle Oregon was great, and I’m still trying to catch up from that and other chaos. Thankfully I’ve had time to review a big batch of videos. I actually have more in the queue but don’t want to make this post too long, so I’ll continue catching up over the coming weeks. When I saw the above video I knew it was the right one to feature- what says overthrowing oppression and defying a fatwa better than a bicycle? It’s been happening for 135+ years, leading to women’s suffarage and women wearing pants, and perhaps even the entire feminist movement.

The brilliant mathematician Vi Hart (of hexaflexagon fame?) philosophizes about the properties of math seen in traffic, such as Zeno’s paradox. (there’s very little commentary about “bad driving”, unfortunately; derivatives really come into play when Vi talks about hovercars)

“Iceland Adventure camp”. If those words don’t get you interested, see if the first 20 seconds of the video do. Wow. This is just a 2 minute preview, there’s a short article too.

Dave of River City Bikes talks about a beautiful 1972 Colnago, which came in through Citybikes. By discussing it here, I like how this is a Portland-on-Portland-on-Portland story.

I’ve discovered the joy of seeing a city by bike. It’s a great speed to see buildings, parks, monuments, and so on. Here’s a great mode comparison in London. It’s a much better challenge than simply seeing who can get from A to B the quickest.

Related, this is a nice primer to cycling in the city from GCN. Some of the basics: it doesn’t matter what bike you use, it doesn’t matter what you wear, think about what route you take, bikes let you see pretty places and make stops… but it’s GCN, so they always wear helmets.

Staying on the “funny accent” theme, Islabikes is launching what they call the Imagine Project, sustainable bikes that are rented to families, rather than getting stowed in a corner of a garage when it is outgrown. I know there are some commenters who are very vocal about avoiding the throw-away economy. I like this. Their UK website bounces me to the US version which doesn’t have info on this, here’s a way to see the page about it. (h/t Maria Schur, aka BicycleKitty)

This is a fun compilation of MTB crashes (obviously, warning for people who don’t like that). They are submitted by the riders, which is why it’s funny and not mean to me.

I’m shocked that this series popped up- it’s a four-part series reminding Uber drivers about laws and etiquette surrounding cyclists in San Francisco. It feels about 90% correct and well-stated to me; two things I noticed was that while it says “it is illegal and dangerous to drive or park in the bike lane” and discusses right hooks, it avoids using that term and never explains that the bike lane has legal right of way. (ht @GeraldFitt)

PathLessPedaled had yet another fun adventure. This one is on Steens Mountain:

Winter is coming. Specialized is proud of their innovative new fenders, which seem to just be fenders with moveable extensions. Still, how they demonstrate it is interesting. (I found the head wobble interesting)

This Red Bull downhill MTB course is crazy. The upper section through the trees isn’t something I’d want to do except maybe at walking speed.

As always, Streetfilms has great videos for the BikePortland audience. This one shows Vancouver’s network of cycleways and interviews a few locals. The protected bike lanes look much safer than simply using paint. I wonder how much those plastic self-watering planters cost.

KymNonStop put up a (paid) PSA on the dangers of texting while driving. I think it’s aimed at ‘millenials’/the younger generations.

While we’re talking MTB, maybe the kids that went to MTB Day will like this video showing some skills you can learn- especially in a parking lot or on a street.

I held back on most of the racing vids this year because they were either in spoiler territory or it was late enough that those who wanted to know already knew. This is a great recap of the new Women’s WorldTour with commentary by USA’s own racer Megan Guarnier:

This MTB adventure is titled ‘Wandering’ and doesn’t have much product placement, despite being put out by Shimano. They are certainly riding through beautiful terrain.

This “how to stand with your bike” etiquette video is hilarious.. to me, at least.

Local WTF moments

Local Joe Rowe, an activist and one of Fallon Smart‘s teachers, has taken video showing one of the dangerous pinch points along a repaved section of (lower) Interstate. Both PBOTrans and pdxvisionzero commented on it, and it echoes the work done here in February for Gap Week. It’s unfortunate to see bike lanes on roads that (nearly) disappear when they are needed most.

Elsewhere: taxi driver texting.

Honorable Mentions

This week’s honorable mentions: behind the scenes with a photographer at a UCI downhill race, b-roll of cargo bikes in Vancouver BC from Streetfilms, three hours of amateur cross cup racing, three hours of pro cross cup racing (six hours of rare tl;dw for me), 5 new road bikes for 2017, innovations in MTB tech at Interbike, and gravelbike roundup.

Inclusion criteria: If I’ve missed something, post it in the comments! I prefer videos published in the last week or so. Note if there’s a specific point in a long video that is worth highlighting. Also note if there is colorful language. I will delay videos containing pro racing spoilers by 7 days.

– Ted Timmons, @tedder42