Icycle Bicycle 2016; Cyclops Bike Headlight

1.1.2016
10m
mtd:10 ytd:10

If it's New Year's Day it's also Icycle Bicycle time. This year the ride started at 1100, which I think is a bit later than previous years. It was a good weather day: 30F, dry, light blowing snow. It was a bit windy.

Although this is an "obey the law, stop at red lights until they turn green" event, this is also an uber-casual ride as far as route and distances go. I love the way Jim Logan described it on Facebook:

The basic concept is we are riding down to the west end bridge and loop back. We are all adults, so pick your own ride. As soon as you turn around it will feel warmer. So turn around if you get too cold. The course is to the 16th st bridge up the Allegheny. If you want to get back faster, use the Fort Duquesne walkway through Point State Park. If you are faster want to go farther, go to the 35th st bridge. Or the 40th. Or so on.

Photo by Lance Letterio
The nice folks at REI put out some cookies and hot chocolate. My wife Karen and I met RC at Big Dog Coffee before the ride. After the start, we rode northwest along Carson Street and crossed the West End bridge. Karen and I deviated from the route to cross the Roberto Clemente bridge. Market Square, Blvd of the Allies, Jail Trail, back to base. A great ride as it always is, a chance to see a lot of compagnon de route (which is to say, fellow travelers) and exchange good will at a time some folks are still recovering from the previous night.

Got into surfing some FaceBook, got into a discussion of front-fork mounts for lights. Ended up looking at this 1900 US patent, for a rig that turns the front headlight left-or-right when the bike turns, so that the beam slightly inside the curve and illuminates where you're going rather than where you're pointed now.



I think I could implement this on my bike, it would be pretty cool.

This is, I think, the same function as the center Cyclops headlight specified in the Tucker car design, which had the adjusting/dynamic headlamp at the center of a three-bulb array:

Kind of interesting that a revolutionary and ahead-of-its-time 1950 innovation comes from the bicycle realm in 1900.

Videos of 2012 Icycle Bicycle Ride

01/11/12 #239 No Ride

2012 Icycle Bicycle Video-1. This shows the pre-ride meet and greet and some footage of the ride itself. Really excellent sound track, too.

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2012 Icycle Bicycle Video-2. This is a significantly longer video, seems like it was taken with a helmet-cam. And if this is what helmet-cams can do, Wow. It's a good documentation of all the different types of bike and bicyclists that came out, and of the non-hectic tone of the New Year's Day ride.


There's some great Dave Brubeck music in the second half of this video, which shows the entire ride route.

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2012 Icycle Bicycle Ride

1/1/12 22m 45F

Rode the Icycle Bicycle Ride today. I've missed this ride the last five years, either working or weather or slothy ennui. I'm real glad I got out there. (see images)

It was raining as I packed up and left, but the rain stopped for the ride and for a brief period the sun shone. I met S and S to ride with them, but I also got to say hello to several other people I've met, and that was kind of cool. It was kind of a cyclist year-in-review.

The ride itself was about 10 miles at a conversational pace. There were quite a few people participating with all manner of bicycles - tandems, folders, recumbents, road bikes, mountain bikes, touring bikes. Mary Shaw and Roy Weil were there on a green Cannondale tandem with a Jolly Green Giant figure as a head badge.

We started as a group from Southside REI to facillitate picture taking. We rode from REI across the Hot Metal Bridge, which presented an interesting challenge as the mass of riders negotiated the switchback ramps in two columns.

There were an awful lot of interesting bicycles. I met M, a rider with frame-mounted glow tubes and some excellent lighting - two P*0 flashlights on the front and a L&M 180 on the back, and saw another rider on a brand-new Surly Ogre which the goods folks at Thick Bikes had tweaked for him, it looked like a very cool bike - 29" wheels, disc brakes, very sharp looking bike.

Took the Jail Trail to the Ft. Duquesne Bridge, then along the Allegheny to the 16th Street Bridge. We rode into Downtown in two or three columns in the right-hand lane, it was an inkling of what a morning commute might look like in Copenhagen.



Had a nice conversation with a gentleman named Leo about the MS150 and changes in this year's route options, that was pretty interesting.

We passed by Occupy Pittsburgh, then took the Smithfield Street Bridge and the SouthSide Trail back to REI. Hot chocolate, floor pumps, rest rooms and then we three rode to the Greenfield Bridge, then back to where the cars were parked.

This was a very pleasant ride, more aesthetic and social than utilitarian and that's a nice atmosphere to start a new year off with.

After the ride, the wind really picked up and there was some heavy rain, we were fortunate to get a good ride in the sweet spot of the weather.

Mileage so far this year: 22 miles.

1/1/12 Icycle Bicycle Ride, REI @ 1100

12/09/11 #234

from: Western Pennsylvania Wheelmen
2012 Icycle Bicycle Ride

When: January 1st
Where: REI Southside Works
What time: 11 a.m.

"REI Southside will again be our sponsor with coffee, hot chocolate, tea and cookies the morning of the ride to help get the ride off in its 4th decade. REI will open at 10:30 a.m. to accommodate those who have last minute ride shopping needs.


"The ride will leave REI at 11 a.m. Parents and small kids can head across Hot Metal Street on the South Side Trail while big people can cross the Hot Metal Bridge and head towards town. The ride will cross the Ft Duquesne Bridge and up the trail to the 16th Street Bridge. From there its down Penn to Smithfield St Bridge and over to the South Side Trail back to REI.

"Ride goes no matter what the weather.
Helmets are mandatory.
For more information contact Marc Yergin 412-559-0054