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).

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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.

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.

Best of San Diego?

Well, well...if you are visiting my blog for the very first time after seeing the mention in San Diego Magazine, welcome!

I think there's been a mistake. Or someone is messing with me.

In case you missed it, the August issue of the aforementioned San Diego Magazine (and this is a reputable magazine, mind you) has listed this very blog among its Best of San Diego highlights for the month. And what exactly is it best of, you say?

Best Cycling Porn


That's right. I know. It sounds weird, but it means they think I've got drool-worthy bike pics.

In any event, I'm hugely flattered and honored that this little blog would get picked for 'Best of' anything. I never dreamed in a million years that this blog would gain any recognition whatsoever. I'd like to know what writer, editor, or intern selected my blog for the list. I'd like to buy that person a beer, or a coffee, or a gallon of gas. No, probably not the gas. I'm supposed to be advocating bike commuting here. And never mind that they cribbed my Twitter bio for half the write-up. It's all good.

I get props for all the "caress-me hipstamatic pics" of my bike. Again, flattered. I don't even feel like I've posted that many photos of my bike. Especially recently. But let's get this right. My photo app of choice is Camera+, not Hipstamatic. Though that's a cool app, too.

I'm getting long winded here, but in light of this honor that has been bestowed upon me, I am going to make an extra effort to live up to this cycling porn title. My goal is to post a new photo every day this week. After that, all bets are off.

To get things started, here is Monday's cycling porn of the day:

Rules of the road

Sunday afternoon the kids rode their bikes to the park. I explained to them that bikes really belonged on the road (even though it was OK for kids to ride on the sidewalk) so they wanted to give it a shot. This was my first primer with them on the rules of the road: stay to the right, stop at the stop signs, and a brief introduction to hand signals for turning. Other than cross-traffic at the intersection, I don't think we came near a single moving car (that's for mommy when she reads this).

I need to work on the training wheels situation. It's killing me that they are not past that, yet.

Earlier in the day we had fun on this bike rack.