Monthly Archives: March 2011

Seattle Bike Expo 2011

The Cascade Bicycle Club’s Seattle Bike Expo is the largest consumer bike expo in the United States. Which is to say, it’s the largest expo open to the general public (versus giant industry events like Interbike, which are not). Each year, the Seattle Expo features a classic bike show, presentations and speakers, and exhibitors showing off everything from carbon super bikes to cargo commuters to magazines, accessories, and clothing. I took a stroll around day one of this year’s expo to check out the vintage bikes, listen to the Bike Snob’s self-deprecating humor, and look at some shiny bikes and components. Lucky for you, I had my camera with me. Unfortunately, I’m a mediocre photographer and my old point-and-shoot doesn’t do great in the dim halogen-glow of the convention center, so we’ll just call these snapshots of the expo.

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Bike Camping 1972-Style

I rely on Google for too much, arguably. My email, my calendar, the analytics for this site, searching the Internets. Now, thanks to their mad attempt to scan every published document in existence, I can use Google to get cutting-edge bike touring tips from 1972.

Laura and Russ of The Path Less Pedaled (two previous Bicycle Story interviewees) posted a link on Twitter to a Google books scan of the April 1972 issue of Popular Science. The issue contains an article by A.J. Hand with the straight-forward title “Bicycle Camping–What you need to know to join the fun.”

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Lucho: Cycling Inquisition’s Intersection of Snark, Colombian Cycling, and Metal


Lucho riding the famed Roubaix velodrome.

Lucho, the mystery man behind the blog Cycling Inquisition, is part sardonic, Bike-Snob-esq cultural critic and part Colombian cycling historian. He’s as likely to write about Mario Cipollini’s luscious mane as he is a sincere and in-depth post about Colombia’s first professional cyclists to race in Europe or the difficulties up-and-coming cyclists face in his home country. He was born in Bogotá and lived there until he was 12, which gave him enough time to discover cycling and metal (Lucho also writes for the blog Metal Inquisition) before moving to the United States with his family. Though he chooses anonymity and refused to tell me his real name, Lucho did tell me about his introduction to cycling, the interweaving of violent politics and cycling in Colombia, his work as a an unofficial historian, the evolution of his writing, and more.

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