Light & Motion sponsored athlete Rebecca Rusch wins the 2010 Leadville 100 setting a new time record for the women and beating her winning time of last year by 27 mins. Congrats Rebecca! Check out the new video produced by Specialized on her 2010 win.
Big choir, 6 stunt bikers and 3 beatboxers and only 4 weeks preperation time with a cast & crew of over 160 people.
Via http://www.mojomedia.be/blog/
The Bicycle Portraits project was initiated by Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler early in 2010. Whenever they can, together or separately, they’re on the lookout for fellow commuters, and people who use bicycles as part of their everyday work, to meet and photograph. They’re finding out who rides bicycles, why they ride bicycles, if and why they love their bicycles, and of course why so few South Africans choose bicycles as a transport option. There is no specific range of questions asked, they’d rather just establish a conversation around the rider’s life and where his or her bicycle fits into it.
If you’ve never seen footage of the Copenhagen people riding bikes during rush hour – get ready – it’s quite a site, as nearly 38% of all transportation trips in Copenhagen are done by bike. With plenty of safe, bicycle infrastructure (including hundreds of miles of physically separated cycletracks) its no wonder that you see all kinds of people on bikes everywhere. 55% of all riders are female, and you see kids as young as 3 or 4 riding with packs of adults.
Post via Streetfilms
Oakland, California’s Scraper Bike Project has done amazing work to give kids a positive outlet that promotes the green movement through customizing bikes. Founded in 2007 by 20-year-old Tyrone Stevenson (aka Baby Champ), the project has engaged over 250 youths in building, repairing, and customizing bikes. The name “Scraper” comes from the slang for custom painted, low-rider cars with over-sized rims so large that they sometimes brush the wheel well. These Oakland kids may not be able to own an expensive, tricked-out gas guzzler, but Stevenson’s intention is to enable then to have the same empowerment and artistic expression by customizing a more sustainable mode of transportation.
Scrapertown from California is a place. on Vimeo.
The Scraper Bike Project invites Oakland residents as young as 7 years old to customize their bike using upcycled materials like candy wrapper and soda cans. But in order to be eligible to remain in the crew, the member must keep a 3.0 Grade Point Average and follow bike safety rules, such as riding single file. Once a rider has ridden their bike ten times with the crew, Stevenson, known also as the Scraper Bike King, and his “Captains” can decide if the two-wheeler is up to par, or if it needs more creative flare.
A viral Youtube video (with almost 3 million views) featuring local rap group Trunk Bois has helped the project gain notoriety and funding to purchase bike parts for the crew. The Scraper Bike crew also has generated publicity by rallying for rides against gun violence or other initiatives that promotes healthier lifestyles. Stevenson has been invited by universities to speak about motivating youth culture, and was also named the “ Best Green Transport Innovator” by the East Bay Express. Most recently, the Scraper Bike project was shortlisted for the NAU Grant for Change.
“Oakland has been taken over by scraper bikes,” says Stevenson. The media has been paying attention too. Sharing the crew’s interest in tinkering, Make Magazine and Instructables covered the project, and the crafting of Scraper Bikes has spread internationally. “There’s people from literally across the world making these bikes, from Portland, Oregon, to Japan to Australia to Jamaica.”
Stevenson has bigger plans for Scraper Bikes as the non-profit evolves. In a video interview, he speaks passionately about his vision for a green-tech education facility and bike shop headquartered in Oakland. With the project’s green innovation, and guerrilla marketing as effective as critical mass, we think this dream is not too far off.
VIA: Inhabitat
While the phrase, “there’s an app for that?” has been inspired by everything from disgust to amazement, The New App, TRAILHEAD, is sourced in appreciation. Sure, there is an app with a cow’s face that will moo when you touch it, and another that allows you to choose from seven different types of bellybuttons and voice combinations that will ‘giggle’ when you touch it, but every once in awhile the apps are actually useful. Hmm, just saw another one called Hang Time that measures how long your iPhone is in the air as it is free falling back to Earth. Depending on your opinion of the Iphone, that one could be considered useful. ANYWAYS, thanks to the The Adventure Blog for the heads up on this one.
“The North Face has launched a new app for the iPhone entitled Trailhead that serves as a database of more than 300,000 trails from around the world, offering up suggestions for hiking, mountain biking, backcountry skiing and more. The free app also uses the iPhone’s built in GPS and compass for route tracking no a real time, interactive map, and measures speed, distance, and elevation as well. As if that wasn’t enough, the app also allows users to search for a trip based on location or activity, and share photos and notes from the field with Facebook and Twitter integration.
Trailhead joins the company’s first endeavor into the app eco-system, The Snow Report, which offers up the latest information on the amount of snow at your favorite ski resort. That app is also free, and includes 24, 48, and 72-hour snow fall reports. It also has avalanche advisories, resort Twitter feeds, plenty of more information specific to the resort of your choice. It’s a great option for skiers looking to hit the slopes this winter.”
Yep! We’ve been making some big changes around these parts, the website being one of many. Truth is, we love hearing from all the Light and Motion fans out there and the new website will keep us better connected. So to keep your Lightlife bright, visit the blog often for news, updates, and maybe just a bit of perfect randomness.
We’ve seen our lights used in just about everything from caving to cross-country skiing to cycling to adventure races to geocaching to, well – the list is becoming endless. With busy schedules these days, some people can’t find the time to do what they love in the daytime, so they click ON their L&M Light and turn the night into day.
Perhaps our proudest development this year are the new Vis Commuter Lights that have essentially created a new category of lighting safety for the bicycle lifestylist, uh huh, we know you’re out there – with “bumper stickers” on your bike that says, “my other bike is a bike” and run errands with a strap around the bottom cuff of your pant leg and a bike lock secured in your waistband. The kind of people that carry their kids in trailers and tail-a-bikes until they’re big enough to ride on their own and that ride to work rain or shine or sleet or snow. Yes, there is a special place in our heart for you and we have spent a tremendous amount of research and development to provide the safest lighting system to date. With 360 degrees of light visibility and a 115 lumens shooting out front on the VIS 360 and awhoppin’ 35 lumens flashing out of the Vis180, even the biggest SUVs will see you on the road.
Across the board we have upgraded our other lighting systems, including the introduction of the Seca 1400, one of the brightest lights on the market. Additionally, we have expanded our offering on the Stella line, giving you more choices to help find the light that perfectly suits your needs. I suppose you can say we’ve been pretty busy this past year.
So, I want to welcome you to our new site and encourage you to click around: learn more about our company, check out the nitty gritty on our lights, and even learn more about what is important when buying a light. Oh. And we’re not stopping there, this is just the beginning….
Twice a year, all the outdoor gear companies meet in Salt Lake City to showcase their products and meet all the other people in the industry. As the day moves on and the coolers once filled with microbrews become more and more empty, it becomes increasingly difficult for many to feign ‘business’ as their purpose, but when it comes down to it, they’re sort of in the business of fun, so they deserve some slack. From the updates I’ve seen, business has gotta be good, because everybody there has had a great time.
Trailspace.com has done a great job covering the event this year and I suggest you jump on over to their site to get the full scoop of new products and innovations from this year’s Outdoor Retailer
In a mere 3 hours, hole created by Oil Drilling mistake drains 3.5 billion gallons of water:
Early in the morning on November 21, 1980, twelve men decided to abandon their oil drilling rig on the suspicion that it was beginning to collapse beneath them. They had been probing for oil under the floor of Lake Peigneur when their drill suddenly seized up at about 1,230 feet below the muddy surface, and they were unable free it. In their attempts to work the drill loose, which is normally fairly easy at that shallow depth, the men heard a series of loud pops, just before the rig tilted precariously towards the water.
Concluding that something had gone terribly wrong, the men on the rig cut the attached barges loose, scrambled off the rig, and moved to the shore about 300 yards away. Shortly after they abandoned the $5 million Texaco drilling platform, the crew watched in amazement as the huge platform and derrick overturned, and disappeared into a lake that was supposed to be shallow. Soon the water around that position began to turn. It was slow at first, but it steadily accelerated until it became a fast-moving whirlpool a quarter of a mile in diameter, with its center directly over the drill site.
After three hours, the lake was drained of its 3.5 billion gallons of water. The water from the canal, now flowing in from the Gulf of Mexico, formed a 150-foot waterfall into the crater where the lake had been, filling it with salty ocean water. As the canal refilled the crater over the next two days, nine of the sunken barges popped back to the surface like corks, though the drilling rigs and tug were left entombed in the ruined salt mine.
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