Follow Friday

Recap: I began the week by finding out this very blog had been listed among the Best of San Diego 2011 according to San Diego Magazine. They deemed Bike 21 as Best Cycling Porn, which is crazy, and I pledged to 1) post a new photo each day this week, and 2) propose other deserving sources of cycling-related visual media.

























Finally the week has finished, so I figured I would feature four fantastic photogs from the Twitterverse, ala #FollowFriday. Check out the timelines of these folks for some top notch cycling porn pics.

• @BikeCrave: read the tweets of local cyclist and wordsmith Jeff Bean and you'll be treated to scenic vistas from the coast to Palomar. This guy clocks the miles and he's got the photos to prove it. His bikes often are featured in the pics, too, so don't worry about that. One word: Moots. Oh yeah, his blog is (usually mostly writing) really good, too.
• @TimJackson: the former Masi Guy is a self-proclaimed bike nerd, marketing nerd, and social media wonk. Another San Diegan, Tim now shills for Pivot/BH Cycles. You could always count on Tim to tweet sneak peek pics at what was in the works at Masi and it seems to be no different at his new gig. Also: pics of his cute kids.
• @pathlesspedaled: now I'm stretching beyond San Diego. The couple behind The Path Less Pedaled, Russ & Laura, were based in Long Beach for a time, but they've ventured out on a bike tour all over the map. Russ is actually a professional photographer. More than just bikes, they tell stories of the people & places they visit. It's real photojournalism.
• @copenhagenize and @_Cycle_Chic: moving over to the Old World, we've got Mikael Colville-Andersen from the cycling paradise in Copenhagen, Denmark. He's got the trademark on "Cycle Chic" and is a renowned expert on urban mobility, so what more do you need to know? Beautiful people on bikes. But also just regular people on bikes, where it is actually regular to be on a bike. Still, the regular people manage to look hip & stylish all the same. Nary a helmet to be seen.
• Don't forget: All the sites I mentioned the other day are also on the Twitter, too.. @velocult, @ecovelo, and @bikehugger

To close out, I did an impromptu night shoot, as seen above and below.

























Thanks to everyone who has checked out the blog for the first time this week. And if you've been coming back throughout the week, thanks again for that, too. I don't think I can keep this pace up, but maybe I can get in the habit of more regular posts. Maybe.

You can usually find me on Twitter, so follow me @juanrcm

Mini Bike Commute

I had to bring our van in for service on Wednesday. As I've taken to doing in the past year when I get a car serviced, I bring my bike along and ride in to work. The auto shop is very close to my office. It is roughly 1.5 miles and only takes 6-7 minutes. I've been to the dealership nearby in the past and used the free shuttle. One time it took almost an hour for me to get dropped off, between waiting for the driver and having other customers get dropped off first. The short bicycle ride is definitely more convenient for me. Anyway, it was good to ride in to work again. I'll be back at the shop on Friday to get something else fixed, so I know I will get to ride my bike another time this week!

The photo of the day is a leftover from my twilight ride on Monday. No filters/post-processing on this image!

That ride reminded me that I still need to pick up a new rear blinky that will attach to one of my seat stays. I was a little under-lit with only that tiny Knog rear light (you can just make it out in the photo). I'm leaning towards the PDW Radbot over the ubiquitous SuperFlash from PlanetBike (or the new SuperFlash Turbo).

---------------------

I should learn not to foreshadow future posts, because then I end up not getting around to writing them, but...I'll have a couple more recommended blogs for Friday's post.

The Real Deal

It's pretty cool how much traffic the blog has gotten the past few days. I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't point you toward some real top notch "cycling p0rn," though.

I can start off by still keeping it local to the San Diego scene, but with perhaps some of the best bike photos you will find anywhere: Velo Cult Bike Shop. Their blog is tops, but you'll want to check out the online "museum." Better yet, drop by their shop in person. If that's not enough for you, take home the first volume Velo Cult Book. 79 pages chock full of the best images from resident photog Anthony Bareno.

By the by, owner Sky Boyer and his crew at VeloCult are also behind SDBikeCommuter.com, a great forum for local bikey people, and the Bike Commuter Discount program - another Best of San Diego highlight.

Another great cycling destination on the Interwebs is EcoVelo. This another great site for bike photos and the focus is on transportational cycling. As with VeloCult, you're going to mostly see steel bikes. While VC skews on the vintage side, the EcoVelo husband & wife duo, Alan & Michael, can usually be found testing late model commuter bikes and gear. There is also a large Flickr stream and a somewhat new Bicycle Commuter Profile section where people submit photos of their own rides. The site is updated almost everyday, it seems, so the content is always fresh.

My last recommendation for today is BikeHugger. This site has a staff of bloggers, lead by head Hugger DL Byron, covering the gamut of the bicycle scene from racing to commuting and more. They cover all the major industry events and product launches, so you'll find the best of what's new in bikes. New content is appearing all the time, and you'll also want to follow along on Flickr and Twitter.

I'll have some more links as the week continues, but I'll leave you with today's photo. I actually haven't biked to work much lately. I took this a little while back. Here's a tip: it's not the greatest idea to take photos from your bike using an iPhone. Especially self-portraits like this. I'm lucky I haven't dropped my iPhone. Yet.

Photo of the Day for Tuesday

Black Mountain Ranch sunset, originally uploaded by JuanRoman.

Here's a faux-HDR shot taken from my iPhone last night as the sun was setting. The colors in the sky are slightly exaggerated, but true.