Thanks once again to James Raia....

Here's a terrific little video of the 2010 Tour de France Route. I could ordinarily care less about these presentations, but this one is cool! After you watch it, you can subscribe to James's Examiner blog and you'll get these updates from him often. It's a great and easy way to stay aware of what's happening in high-level cycling.

Why we have a car...as if you cared

I've heard from a few blog readers who are surprised that after years of abstaining from car ownership, Tamar and I have accepted the gift from family of a...yes...SUV. Here's why we did it.

A year and a half ago, we moved Tamar's mom from Philly to Denver, where we live. Tamar's brother had migrated from Philly to the SF Bay Area and could no longer look after Rachel. So we uprooted her and moved her into an apartment house for older folks, some of whom need a bit of watching-over. The move has proved successful. Everyone's happier.

Just a few months ago, Rachel had a heart attack. She survived and is doing well, but she often visits doctors and other healthcare professionals. Because she does not drive, the responsibility of getting her to those appointments falls on Tamar.

We've been using share cars and that has been good, but now we have a car parked out behind our apartment building, our own car, and we hope that it will work out better.

I've owned cars in the distant past; Tamar has never owned one. We felt that our car-less life together allowed us to enjoy high-road feelings. Our road is no longer so elevated.

I'm sure that the commenters who chided us for selling out were teasing, but we fear that we've caved and disappointed ourselves and others. Watch, dear reader, for signs of encroaching main-streamity. God forbid....

Those damn cyclists! First they got bike paths...and now they get the entire street!

From the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, StarPhoenix, this writer is pretty fed up with trendy social engineering, and the inconveniencing of lots of car drivers to provide questionable security for a few pain-in-the-butt cyclists. Here's the link.

Nissan's tiny new leaning car

Okay, this isn't about cycling or motorcycling, but it charms the socks right off my feet....

From Dvice online (I think): the new Nissan Land Glider! Is it cute...or what? I watched almost the entire video, entranced by the music and the graceful moves of the little car.

From Slate: a near-poem about vintage Honda motorcycles

I'm just back from a very quick trip to Indianapolis. I flew there and drove back. My family in Indy, my niece and her husband, had a spare car....and gave it to us. So we have a white Acura SUV out in the parking lot. We plan to use it sparingly but we enjoy having it. Tamar has never owned a car and I haven't had one for years and years. We're in the lap of luxury now, huh?

This link will take you to a fine article from Slate about a man's love affair with Japanese motorbikes of the late '60s and '70s. Worth reading even if you could care less about Japanese motorbikes of the late '60s and '70s. See if I'm not right.

A British chap enjoys his cycling - from the Huffington Post

A bit of English humor....at the expense of almost no one but the writer....

George and his lovely old Jaguar

Clicking on this will take you to the Auto Ego section of the New York Times, to an article about a guy from NYC who drives the same '68 E-Type Jaguar he's driven for decades. I love the car and I like the guy, but the audio slide show, if you listen to him talk, describes a condition of cool-vehicle ownership that I have struggled with.

George Sweeper is far more gracious with passersby who ask questions about his car than I can be. It's a gift, I figure, that I was not given. I want to be nice, and in my best moods I can be nice. But I am not dependably nice. Hence this post. Enjoy the slide show....