These guys in Suzhou had a cool set of bells using an old gear to hold more than one bell. The circle of bells were struck by an armature in the center, turned by the rotation of the front wheel. It made a great big ring!

Link

Ellsworth have created a couple of nice looking bikes that use a continuously variable planetary (CVP) drive as a rear hub. This is a device which allows you to change gear in a continuous movement - there are no distinct gear ratios. The video above explains how it works better than I can. You can get your hands on it for $3995 with the belt drive, or $2995 with an old fashioned chain drive.

Lights are essential, but can be a pain. Batteries need replacing and aren’t very green, and dynamos suck every ounce of energy out of you. This tutorial, from Freelights, teaches you to make a nifty frictionless dynamo that works on electromagnetic induction/magic.

They still won’t work when you stop, but you can’t have everything.

According to the Guardian, Google are giving 2,000 of it’s Europe employees a free bike. The health and safety people have also got involved, so each bike will also come with a Google branded helmet.

Holger Meyer, Germany’s first Google employee, came up with the idea and staff will be able to choose from a range of models including a “cool cruiser” - a folding bike for those that only make part of their trip to work under pedal power - and men’s and women’s hybrids.

Now I want to work there even more.

TreeHugger has a post on these interesting pedal-taxis in Rome. They’re like the ones here in London, but more streamlined.

According to an article from the Islington Tribune, 21 cyclists were been killed in accidents involving lorries in London between January 99 and May 2004, 85% of which were women.

Velorution suggest that this odd statistic is because women tend not to ride as aggressively as men, and therefore are more prone to being forced to the side of the road or hit by lorries. Whatever the reason, they are spot on with this;

But we are aware that as a society we cannot and should not expect everyone to reach quickly a high degree of confidence on the road. It is the duty of traffic authorities to protect vulnerable people from the violence and intimidation of bullies on wheels.

The folks at the Graffiti Research Lab are a group of artists and electronics tinkerers who have put together some great visual projects. In this video they show off their mobile soundsystem built into a tricycle. Some of their other projects are worth checking out while you’re there too.

I’ve recently started writing for Treehugger, and my first post, on how pollution affects cyclists, is up now. Head on over and have a read.

Give Cyclists Room is a campaign to make drivers more aware of cyclists. If motorists were more aware, then the number of accidents and near-misses could be reduced, and cycling in the city would be a far more attractive proposition.

We are cyclists and citizens. We have the same right to be on the road as anyone else. The single greatest cause of accidents and near-misses is when other vehicles fail to give us sufficient ROAD-ROOM, whether it be when overtaking us too fast or too close, or underestimating our speed, then cutting across us at junctions.

Radical, ‘motorists are evil’, rants are innacurate, and don’t help anyone, but this campaign is a sensible and practical attempt to simply make drivers more aware of just how intimidating it can be to be forced towards the pavement by a car.

Cyclists and drivers are, of course, not mutually exclusive groups. If you’re a cyclist who also drives, then get one of these in the window.