Biking Directions On Google Maps

In the US, Google Maps now offers step-by-step biking directions; bike trails outlined directly on the map; and a new Bicycling layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads.

Love the new addition but I wish they would get this system working on the phone app.  I’d prefer to whip out my phone just like I do for driving directions as opposed to printing it out on a piece of paper.   I’ll be waiting patiently Google. : )

The World’s First Recycled Surfboard Is Here

Business partners and surf industry veterans, Joey Santley and Steve Cox introduced two first-of-their-kind revolutionary endeavors, Green Foam Blanks and ReSurf Recycling, at the Action Sports Retailer (ASR) trade show in San Diego, Calif. earlier this year.

With deep roots in the surf industry, both Santley and Cox recognized southern California as an epicenter for surfboard manufacturers with more than 1,000 surfboards being produced per day between Los Angeles and the Mexico border. Additionally, nearly 20% of the foam needed to shape each board is rendered as waste and inevitably ends up in landfills.

This unusable foam, partnered with other somewhat toxic materials required to finish each surfboard, equaled an incalculable amount of waste coming from the surf industry. Green Foam took that waste and created the world’s first recycled surfboard blank.

Totally bitchin’ dude.

Source NY Times

Use Your Head

Gotta be safe while riding around town and doing your part to help the environment. Unfortunately, I don’t wear my helmut. It’s ugly. I hiss at the bike shop dude for always trying to sell me one when I come in to get my tires pumped. A few weeks back I bumped in to a friend that hit a big ass pothole while riding and ended up in the hospital. No helmut, messed up collarbone, arm and head. I think it’s time to rethink my ” I wouldn’t be caught dead in one of those” excuse.

Yakkay came up with a good idea. It’s a Danish company that created a standard helmut with various covers available, designed to transform your helmet into a hat and become an accessory to your outfit. They look a bit big and awkward on but I guess it’s better than a crack in your head.

Baddest Mom-Mobile On Two Wheels: Makes Me Want To Pop One Of Those Baby Things Out!

The Bridgestone Angelino Assista electric bike is a bicycle for parents: this one has no crossbar, a child seat (there’s also space for one on the back) and an electric motor to help with the pedaling. It’s range per charge is 37 miles. The handlebars are elongated so that the adult can see right over the top of the child.

There’s a long list of it’s features that can be found at the G Living link below. I’m too lazy to write them all out. The only one I care to mention is that the baby seat can be transformed into a basket! Guess I won’t have to join the Hollywood baby manufacturing alliance after all.

Asking price: $1312.00. Not bad IMO compared to the ones I saw at Best Buy recently.

Source G Living

Posted by thuy

Stash Your Goods While Riding

How cute are these pouches for carrying your personal items while riding?

Hambone Designs are a result of a brother and sister team that made a rule of giving handmade gifts for holidays to family and friends. Visit their Etsy shop to see the rest of the designs or to request a custom order.

Source Treehugger

Posted by thuy

Best Buy Gets Electric

Went to Best Buy the other day and tripped out when I noticed an entire section of electric scooters and bikes. Made me want to apply for their 0% finance card and get myself one.

Posted by thuy

Eco-Cup 2009 June 12-14

What: Harmony Festival, Rude Boyz Present, and Megaramp Productions announce first ever Eco-Cup Skate Competition with musical line-up at 31st annumal Harmony Festival.

When: June 12-14

Where: Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA

Some of theworld’s top skate legends including Steve Caballero and Christian Hosoi (holler!) will be present for demos, judging, and Meet and Greets. The Eco Cup trophy will be created out of recycled and repurposed mixed media, and the steel and plywood-constructed Eco Cup skate zone will be reused, making this a truly eco-friendly attraction.

Entrance to the skate zone is included with paid admission to Harmony Festival. $30 pre-sale and general Harmony tickets are available online now ($40 at the gate) and at participating Whole Foods stores and dozens of other retail outlets (see web site for locations). This year, kids age 7-12 are $10 and kids 6 and under are FREE!

Tickets and detailed Festival information is available at www.HarmonyFestival.com.

Watch the trailer for Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi. The rise, fall and rebirth of the “rock star” of skateboarding. From his early days in Venice Beach, his bad boy persona, revolutionary skateboard designs, record-breaking tricks, his abuse, to his current inspiration of today’s youth.

Posted by thuy

Fairey & Sharf For Livestrong

Here’s s a peek at Lance Armstrong’s Trek art bikes designed by artists Shepard Fairey and Kenny Scharf for his upcoming race (Giro D’Italia). The Giro D’Italia is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and it is considered the most prominent race behind the Tour de France.

Source Hypebeast

Posted by thuy

Have You Hugged A Cop Today?

Po-po’s in the happiest place on earth (Denmark) took to the streets to give out hugs and bike helmets to bicyclists to promote safety.

How sweet. You know that would never happen on the streets of LA.

Source Huffington Post

Posted by thuy

Automated Bike Valet

You don’t need to learn Japanese to understand how dope the Giken Eco Cycle is. Press play. You’ll get the drift.

Underground bike parking. No lock needed. You roll your wheels into the rail, swipe your pre-paid card and the magical little doors open and suck your bike right in.

Go to Eco Hookups for the deets.

Posted by thuy

Eye Candy

Aww. How cute. Some little kid in Venice Beach is serious about not getting their wheels jacked.

Posted by thuy

James Perse Bike

This beach cruiser bike by James Perse is modeled after the original cruisers of the ’50s and ’60s. Each vintage beach cruiser bike features stylistic fat tires that can handle sand, wide-style handlebars and coaster brakes.

Combining a vintage style with a modern look, each James Perse Cruiser is custom built and includes a limited edition serial number. Some of the features include: Hydroform steel frame, billet aluminum stem, triple-clamp fork, extra large aluminum sprocket, extra wide 2″ rims and 2.125″ tires, 1 speed coaster brake hub and a limited edition serial number tag.

Bikes are available exclusively at James Perse boutiques and come in black, dark orange, khaki green and anique white.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the 2,200.00 price tag. Hey, if you can afford his expensive ass t-shirts, I’m sure the bike isn’t that far of a stretch. Ride with care.

Source Broccoli City

Posted by thuy

Recycled Skateboards For Furniture

Newport Beach-based design firm Skate Study House takes its inspiration from contemporary design, California living and most importantly- skate board culture. Works like the Noguchi coffee table, the Nelson bench, the Eames Lounge and more are reproduced with the features of a classic skateboard deck. The “Jet Set Lounge” shown above, is a skateboard-inspired take on the original Le Corbusier Lounge. This version uses neoprene wetsuit material used by surfers and 8 skateboard decks as support.

A GearCrave favorite, the Noguchi coffee table inspired the skate style version by Skate Study House, theTokyo Lounge Table. Where the original employed dark, smooth, geometric wood as its base, the Tokyo table uses a split skateboard deck in the same fashion. The template for this skateboard deck is from the Jim Gray Pro Model, well known in the 80s.

Another all-time GearCrave favorite, the Eames Lounge and Ottoman are reproduced here with skateboard vision. The Godfather Lounge and Ottoman uses 7 walnut laminated skate decks with cushions on the metal frame.

Last, the classic, oft-copied Nelson wall clock has found its own inspiration from the half-pipe. The Skate Study House version, shown here as the Astro Clock, uses flourescent skate wheels and bearings in place of the bright painted wood pieces on the Nelson version.

More info and ordering details are available on the Skate Study House website.

Totally rad!!

Source ecofriend via Gear Cave

Postd by thuy

Kaws X Livestrong

Designed especially for Lance’s upcoming run in this year’s vaunted Milan-San Remo race, KAWS’ ultra-Pop graphic treatment was created to respectfully infuse a modern aesthetic into a truly classic competition.

Employing a vintage style paint scheme as his foundation in honor of the race’s storied 102-year legacy, KAWS then transformed the entire bike into one of his trademark characters with two giant spinning mouths for wheels (Bontrager 5.0s) and a sneering row of teeth snaking across the frame itself. His signature XX eyes appear at key focal points of the frame as subtle reminders of his aesthetic hijacking. Screaming yellow paint was employed to heighten awareness of the Livestrong mission at hand.

A painter known for his iconic character design and interventionist tendencies when using existing designs as a base, Lance’s bike proved an ideal opportunity for KAWS to create an unprecedented piece of rolling art. Fun fact: Lance had KAWS hide the legend WNW 2009 “Winners Not Whiners” on the bike’s bottom bracket. It’s Lance’s personal motto tucked out of sight but not out of mind.

NYPD Blue Fuzz Goes “Green”

According to reports in the New York Post, the New York Police Department (NYPD) is trialling hybrid cars as patrol cars starting with 40 Nissan Altima vehicles that will hit the streets over the next two weeks.

If the pilot scheme proves to be a success, the department is expected to phase out their fleet of Ford Crown Victorias and Chevrolet Impalas in favour of the Altima which can achieve 35mpg in New York City traffic compared to the 16mpg achieved by the existing models.

The transition to green cars has been slowly progressing for some time. The police are already using hybrid saloon cars and SUVs for parking enforcement and now they are testing them to see if they are suitable for wider use on the beat.

As part of the pilot scheme, 18 hybrids will be used as marked patrol cars, 20 will be unmarked and two will be disguised as yellow cabs for anti-crime work.

The department ‘s park patrols and traffic and street demonstration control units presently use 329 Piaggio scooters and 104 smaller Yamaha scooters that run on gasoline.

The Vectrix is heavier than the Piaggio, but with a top speed of more than 60 miles an hour is nearly as fast. And the electric scooters can be recharged simply by plugging them into a standard outlet for as little as two hours.

via Edmunds and NY Post

posted by thuy

Blinged Out BMX Bike – What Recession?

We love two wheelers and we love shiny gold things but DAYUM- this 24ct gold Hutch Star is craze! Especially in these times. If you happen to have $12,378 saved up for a bike, mosie on over to this site to get your very own.

Whoever gets one of these better get the AVID Microchip Identification System for animals put somewhere up in that mug along with a LoJack system, The Club and about 20 Kryptonite bike locks for it, otherwise we’ll be seeing it in the next Cash4Gold commercial.

Source Auto Motto

Posted by thuy- Vietnamese/French

WhyTF Is This Dog Riding A Bike?

So I’m getting my nightly dose of CNN while blogging and this story comes up on the screen. My fingers stopped typing and my jaw dropped. WHY do humans insist on training their animals to do things that do not come naturally to them?

The part where he’s getting on the bike and they pan onto his ass as he takes a seat is not right. Can’t this poor Dalmation chase balls, sniff butts, lick faces, eat, sleep, bark and walk like dogs are meant to do?

Posted by thuy

Biking From LA To Inauguration

Ran across this story a while ago but never really looked into it until now. Ryan Bowen decided to bike from LA to DC for the inauguration. He left on Dec. 2nd and is estimated to arrive in a few days..on the 18th. He even has a blog to document his journey. Car accidents, racist encounters and all.

I need a cocktail and a nap just thinking about biking to my local farmers market. Homeslice is putting all of us to shame. Two-wheeling for 4000 miles.

Determination is S-E-X-Y.

Source la metblogs via biking for obama

Posted by thuy

LV Skateboard $8250.00 Um..It’s For A Good Cause

When I first saw this story on Ethical Style, I was like, DAMN the LV people went and lost their damn minds. Ok, I get it, the boards are really exclusive- only 3 made, and I’m down with it being a tribute to Stephen Sprouse and of course I love that it’s for a good cause. Proceeds (doesn’t say how much) will go towards Free Arts NYC which delivers creative art programs directly to low income, homeless, abused and neglected children.

But for 8 G’s that mofo better have one of Dave Stewarts $1400.00 black diamond encrusted vibrators hidden under it as well as an IOU coupon for a sex tape to be made by Johnny Depp and he better be riding me in it and not that board. We love alternate forms of transpo, but this shit is ridiculous.

And for your viewing pleasure I’m throwing in a few pics of that hot piece, vintage, present and an ass shot from his 1985 flick, “Private Resort”. Fast fwd to the 1:40 mark for the pubescent eye candy. Please don’t call Chris Hanson or CPS (Child Protective Services) on me.

Posted by thuy

Special Delivery

UPS won brownie points with me when I read that they were using paperless shipping stickers. Now I’m learning that they’re going to offer deliveries on bikes for the holiday season to go green and reduce costs. Environment loving, bicycle riding, man in a uniform + me = a match made in poo poo colored heaven.

This was going to be a gift-free year for me, but now, I may need to call my bro and ask him to send me something. Got that Tommy? Send your big sis some socks or an empty box. I don’t care, just send me a package and request it be delivered by bike.

Ok, I take that back. I was envisioning a hot Critical Mass type dude knocking on my door with a package and his bar code reader thingy, but after reading this account from a girl that witnessed the brown goodness, I’ve changed my mind. Beefy types aren’t my steez.

“We saw a UPS bike delivery on Union and 23rd in Seattle yesterday, Dec. 11. The bike was a Trek Mt. bike. The trailer was clunky and aluminum. I had never seen one like it before but it looked okay. The delivery guy did NOT look like he was from the bike scene, he was beefy and looked like… a UPS driver.”

If you live in California, Washington or Oregon and are looking for a seasonal job ($17/hr,) visit their career section after the jump. JUMP!

*Note: The picture above is an old school version of their delivery bikes. UPS started as a foot and bike delivery service. I believe they look different today, with a bike and a cargo carrier attached to the back. Couldn’t find a pic, but thats the description according to peeps that have actually received this service.

Posted by thuy

BIKEHERO

Good, clean and pollution-free fun.

Posted by thuy

Street Art

Peter Gibson (aka Roadsworth) began painting the streets of Montreal in the fall of 2001. He was motivated by a desire for more bike paths in the city and a questioning of “car culture” in general.

In the fall of 2004, Roadsworth was arrested for his nocturnal activities and charged with 53 counts of mischief. Despite the threat of heavy fines and a criminal record he received a relatively lenient sentence which he attributes in part to the public support he received subsequent to his arrest.

Since that time, Roadsworth has received various commissions for his work and continues to be active in both visual art and music.

source ecocraps via toxel

GOOD Business: Comet Skateboards

Comet Skateboards teamed up with e2e Materials to produce these dope biodegradable skateboards. The decks are made from bamboo, Forest Stewardship certified wood, non-toxic glues, water based coatings and inks. Want to know what else this bad ass company does? Watch the video here.

source treehugger & GOOD

Posted by thuy

Alva Is Totally Bitchin’ Costume Party

Alva Los Angles is haunted by the dead . . . and the 1980s.

Saturday, November 1st, 2008 6pm to 11pm
Opening reception for artist VOTAN
Music by DJ Tony Alva and Jackson Howard
Live music by “El Mariachi Sexorcisto”
Tony Alva costume contest!
Winner will receive a custom painted deck by Tony Alva.
Via-T.M.D

Source Daily Dose

Posted by thuy

What’s A Girl To Do?

By now you know that we here at GG&S love furry animals. We also love bikes. Furry animals on bikes… not so much, with the exception of this video featuring Bat for Lashes.

Check out the hypnotic Donnie Darko-esque bmx riders with animal heads.

Two Wheeling Kung Fu

Dang! Boss lady got skills.

Treehugger via Cyclelicious

Get Connected At The Abbot Kinney Festival

Next Sunday, the 24th annual Abbot Kinney Festival rolls into Venice, CA. Abbot Kinney Blvd. will be closed to traffic from Main St. to Venice Blvd to accommodate the festivities. There will be 3 stages of live music, dancers and performance artists, a spectacular Family Courtyard, Traditional festival and ethnic foods, a Beer Garden, a Green Living Area and over 300 vendors featuring original handcrafted goods.

Pink Cloud Events has been commisoned to curate and produce a young and engaging green lifestlyle area called CONNECTED.

The “CONNECTED” concept focuses on the motivation for living a green lifestyle: to be connected to your community, your environment, your future and your self.

The Green Living Area will feature a multitude of delicious healthy food and beverage options, a bike valet, eco-art workshops, environmentally focused tours of the surrounding neighborhood, and a community music piece.

The goal for this year is to be a zero waste event. They are encouraging recycling and will not be allowing vendors to use plastic bags or Styrofoam, so bring your fashionable reusable totebags. In the “Green Living Area” there will be environmentally conscious vendors and non-profits, interactive events, workshops and innovative ideas on Green living. They’re asking everyone to bike to the event (there will be a bike valet), or take public transportation.

If you care about the environment and want to connect with others that do as well, you won’t want to miss this event. We’ll be there throughout the day so be sure to come visit us in the Green Lifestyle Area, which is located on Milwood Avenue, next to the G2 environmental art gallery.

• Where: Abbot Kinney between Main and Venice
• When: Sunday, September 28th: 10 am- 6:30 pm
• Link here for the Green Lifestyle section of the Abbot Kinney Festival

Let’s Get Physical @ The Green Microgym

Coming from someone who has been in the workout game for at least a decade, I feel like I’ve seen it all. We’ve all tried the fad diets such as the Master Cleanse (I lasted a day), Atkins Diet (I don’t eat meat so a diet that advocates all the bacon you can eat wasn’t really my cup o’ tea), and the Blood Type (that one actually kinda worked, surprisingly enough, go figure).

We also fell victim to ridiculous exercise gimmicks… who can forget the Thighmaster, Ab Roller, Chuck Norris Total Gym (Dear Lawd, did we actually buy this crap??).

Well now there’s something that isn’t a gimmick and it’s the exercise gift that keeps on giving… You get in shape and lower your carbon footprint at the same time.

Portland’s Green Microgym is the first gym in the country to use solar power, as well as human-powered cycling and cardio machines to create renewable energy. This eco-friendly gym doesn’t stop there, the yoga studio is lined with cork flooring while the rest of the gym flooring is made from recycled rubber. The treadmills use one-third less energy then traditional ones, and the ceiling fans, lighting and television are energy efficient. The membership system is mostly paperless, and lights and exercise equipment will be turned off when not in use.

This is all a breath of CLEAN fresh air, compared to conventional gyms which are by nature, energy-sucking, sweaty-smelling and not to mention creep infested pick-up joints. Now all we need is one of these eco-friendly gyms in my hood!

via greenlagirl via l.a times

Posted by jen

The Race Is On And Poppin’

We all know of Queen for their classic songs- We Are The Champions, Bohemian Rhapsody, and We Will Rock You. I found another anthem from their collection and it rocks! Bicycle Race was a hit single from their album Jazz and was written by Queen’s frontman Freddie Mercury.

To release the song, Queen staged a bicycle race with 65 naked girls. A clip from this race was used as the single cover. The video was originally banned, and had to be re-edited with colour added to censor out any offensive imagery. The song is famed for its ‘bicycle bell solo’, which fans would often replicate live at Queen concerts with their own bells. Watch it at the 1:47 mark.

I want to hear Christopher Walken say, “I gotta have more bike bell.”

Posted by thuy

Rock The Vote

Rock it proudly. I am loving this ring and the bike necklace from the line Renee Frances. Click it. Click it. Click it.

via ladies lotto

Posted by thuy

David Byrne Gets Racked

In an effort to promote bike riding, New York City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) teamed up with the art gallery PaceWildenstein for the CityRacks Design Competition. Here are the 9 designs that were created by bike enthusiast and frontman of the Talking Heads, David Byrne.

Animal New York via City Room

Posted by thuy

Carmen Is Ridin’ Dirty

Well if dudes (and gals… hey, nothing wrong with a good ol’ girl-crush) didn’t already have enough reasons to be feeling Carmen Electra, you can add environmentalist to the list…doing her part to save the environment by rockin’ the blinged out gold lowrider bike (or more likely she was just posing on it), but either way, it’s a good look. Holla!

Via people

Posted by jen

The Green Campaign

Big applause to the Democratic Convention for taking steps to green an event with an expected attendance of 100,000 people. Here’s a short list of how the DNC will be the most sustainable convention in modern political history.

• Freewheelin: 1,000 bikes are available free of charge to volunteers and delegates. There will be bike stations surrounding the convention as well as around key hotels.
• The buses that are assigned to transport the delegates and media to and from their hotels and the Pepsi center will run either on hybrid, alternative fuel or biodiesel.
• Free parking near the convention for all hybrids.
• There will be no fried food. Each meal will include “at least three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white.” At least 70% of ingredients will be organic or grown locally. Cups wll be made of biodegradable material.
• The Pepsi Center, where the convention is to be held, has committed to offsetting its energy use with wind power.

Bamboo Biking

Looking for a bicycle with the lowest carbon footprint? Well look no further. Calfee Design uses the least amount of carbon dioxide emissions in the production of their frames. I have always had a soft spot for bamboo so this was definitely love at first site. Check out their site for more details.

Also, here are some blogs for two wheeled enthusiasts.

1. Bike Girl Blog
2. Gary Rides Bikes

Beware of Barracudas and Cobrasnakes!

In a continued celebration of Earth Day festivities, we decided to hit up the Barracuda store (on Melrose Avenue in L.A) for a launch party in honor of legendary graffiti artist, Claw Money’s, latest project. She has teamed up with the good people over at Boosted Mobile’s Artist Series and created a line of low toxicity, vegan approved, artificial leather mobile carrying cases. The collection includes fanny packs, laptop cases and backpacks which come equipped with nifty pockets for your blackberry, ipod, iphone etc.

We shopped around, had a cocktail, and bumped into man about town, not to mention photographer to the famous (and to the not so famous), Mark Hunter (aka The Cobrasnake). We were stoked to find out that he doesn’t own a car, he bikes to photography gigs, and created a line of recyclable totes. Yay Cobrasnake!!!

Posted by jen