minimum 20 Miles per day
Official Coli Bike/Cycling thread
I try to do 250 miles/month which works out to 8 miles a day
pawdalaw
Superstar
Dope bike.
The Rise and Rise of Texas-Based BMX Superstar Brad Simms
When early pandemic lockdowns led to empty streets, Simms, a leader among Black BMX riders, catapulted himself to social media fame.
www.texasmonthly.com
The Rise and Rise of Texas-Based BMX Superstar Brad Simms
When early pandemic lockdowns led to empty streets, Simms, a leader among Black BMX riders, catapulted himself to social media fame.By Ian Dille
June 27, 20220
BMX rider Brad Simms.Ralphy Ramos
Brad Simms is sprinting toward the jumps. The freestyle pro and I are riding the mountain bike trails in Milton Reimers Ranch Park, about 45 minutes west of Austin. Specifically, a downhill “flow trail” with a sign extolling the dangers below: WARNING! SERIOUS INJURY IS POSSIBLE. RIDE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Simms rips around a berm, floats through a rhythm section on just his rear wheel, and playfully flicks his mountain bike up and over a shin-high limestone ledge. “You were going really fast!” I wheeze when I finally catch up to him. Simms smiles, “What’d you expect?”
A few miles later, we’re coasting down the park road toward the Pedernales River when Simms leans back, effortlessly pulling a wheelie without pedaling. As he rides in front of me, I notice his rear wheel wobbling slightly from side to side. The damage occurred before this ride, he says, when he “bottomed out” landing a jump. The force with which Simms performs tricks can cause bikes to crumple beneath him, which is part of the reason why many top mountain bike brands pay him to test their products—if Brad can’t break a bike, likely no one can.
Videos of the Waldorf, Maryland, native’s awe-inspiring BMX and mountain bike stunts regularly go viral on social media. His tricks seem to defy gravity—soaring dozens of feet from the ground to ride a vertical wall or floating off a two-story drop and throwing a bar spin on the way down. He moves with an athletic explosiveness and agility honed by boxing and playing football in his youth, as well as with a silky-smooth style that’s all his own. An online influencer with crossover cred, his hundreds of thousands of social media followers include everyone from hip-hop stars such as Benny the Butcher to middle-aged dads (like, well, me). Adidas and Taco Bell have planned marketing campaigns around him, and he even has a signature snack, a peanut butter and dark chocolate squeeze pack made by Split Nutrition.
Simms accrued most of his Instagram followers while using the infrastructure in and around Austin as his personal performance venue. Over nearly two decades as a pro, Simms had ridden BMX bikes in more than one hundred countries and won multiple X Games medals. But in 2020, at the age of 34, he found himself broke, without a major sponsor, and “full of excuses,” he says. He contemplated working construction or becoming a security guard. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
On Austin streets emptied by the lockdown, Simms’s creativity flowed. For audiences stuck at home and glued to their phones, he released clip after jaw-dropping clip. “Every time you looked at your Instagram, boom, [another] Brad Simms video and it’s insane,” recalled Dennis Enarson, a fellow pro rider. Simms developed a mastery of social media, revived his career, and successfully transitioned to mountain biking—becoming one of the few Black world-class riders in an overwhelmingly white sport. Amid our nation’s reckoning with race, Simms says, he found his voice as a Black athlete and didn’t shy away from making racial justice a part of his platform.
I was among the folks who felt inspired while watching Simms reinvent himself, riding his bike around the city where I live. We connected through a mutual friend in Austin’s BMX scene, and on the day I rode with him, Simms told me that 2020 wasn’t the first time that he’d felt his back was against the wall and then was saved by his bike.
Simms describes his youth in southern Maryland as unstable. “My mother was never content with where we lived, I guess because she experienced the same thing during her childhood,” he says. His mom’s brother, Mark Thompson, raced and regularly won at a local BMX track, and Simms soon started tagging along. From there, Simms quickly progressed as a freestyle rider. He began building and riding dirt jumps with an older BMX rider, Jon Saunders, with whom he remains close. “His parents were dealing with their own stuff,” Saunders says. “Which allowed Brad to be gone.” As a teen, Simms rode in BMX events around Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and then he began traveling around the country to compete. “I don’t think a lot of other kids would have gotten that freedom,” Saunders says.
As a teenager, Simms began putting himself in poor situations—“either out of boredom or frustration,” he says. In 2004, he got in a fight in Maryland and spent a week in jail. Saunders says Simms wasn’t known for starting trouble and that he was defending a friend in the incident that put him behind bars. Locked up with other men, eating prison food, Simms saw how “You pay with your time, you pay with your sanity.” He told himself, “When I get out, I’m riding.”
Because he had some money set aside, he was able to hire a lawyer and pay his court fees. While he was still on supervised probation, Simms got an opportunity to ride in the Shook video series, known for launching pro BMX careers. When the video came out, Brad’s reputation grew as a rider who could hop higher and grind further than almost anyone else. He joined a BMX team with a budget for international travel, fulfilling his dream to see the world. Between per diem payments and the generosity of friends and fans around the globe, Simms managed to extend work trips for months at a time. He waded through herds of goats on the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan, gazed across the ochre rocks of the Fish River Canyon in Namibia, visited American troops in Iraq, and studied Slavic languages in Russia.
But of all the places he’d been, Simms had never ridden downtown Austin, a hub of the street riding scene. By 2020, his income from appearances in BMX magazines and DVDs had mostly dried up. So Simms made a plan. He gave himself six months to increase his social media following and learn digital marketing. He knew that in Austin, there would always be local riders game to pedal with him and film his tricks. He scraped together some money and moved to Texas.
Then the pandemic hit, and the world went into lockdown—which wound up benefiting Simms. Locations once filled with people and vehicles were now open season, with no security or police in sight. With every clip he posted to social media, Simms knew, “I was in your face. You couldn’t avoid me.” He adds, “I had a list of spots to hit, and the tricks I wanted to do there.” He rode every day, ticking places off his list and posting videos along the way. There was Simms, jumping up two flights of stairs on the University of Texas campus. There was Simms, in front of city hall, leaping a granite boulder the size of a small human. There was Simms, pulling a manual to three-sixty at Third Street and San Jacinto. “People thought everything had been done in Austin, and then here comes Brad,” says Sandy Carson, an Austin-based photographer and former BMX pro.
Simms’s Instagram following grew from just over 100,000 followers to well over 300,000. (He’s now pushing 400K.) Two leading BMX outlets named him the 2020 Rider of the Year. One of his goals was to land brand deals beyond the BMX world, and in January 2021, he secured a partnership with Adidas. The brand’s Five Ten line of shoes is an established product in the mountain biking world, so transitioning to bikes with bigger wheels and ample suspension made sense for Simms. Though he had little experience with mountain biking and was in his mid-thirties already, he saw the discipline as a way to extend his career and venture beyond BMX. A few months after the Adidas deal, he became an ambassador for the German brand Canyon, makers of some of the world’s most revered bikes. Other major mountain bike companies—SRAM parts, Maxxis tires, RockShox suspension—soon joined team Simms as well. A couple years prior, Simms had been struggling to pay rent, and now he was house shopping in Central Austin.
Simms and I are beneath a tall bluff, rolling our bikes along the Pedernales River when I overhear a conversation between two middle-aged women wading into a nearby pool: “My nephew did quite well in his gravel bike race last weekend.” Brad and I start up a conversation with the women, who want to know all about Simms’s mountain bike and if he gets hot, riding in jeans. Encounters like this are part of his job as a brand ambassador, whether they occur serendipitously or at industry events.
Simms is still figuring out how to differentiate himself as a mountain bike rider, and the right content strategy for his new discipline. People ask Simms if he intends to ride the Red Bull Rampage, the world’s biggest freeride mountain bike event—he doesn’t have a death wish, he jokes. But he’s certainly feeling pressure. He’s suffered online abuse and racist memes suggesting that his success in courting global brands is because of his skin color, not because he’s one of the world’s best riders. Over the past decade, Simms has led the way for a wave of Black BMX pros, including Adidas’s recent addition of BMX talent DeMarcus Paul. Simms could have a similarly positive effect in attracting a more diverse group of recreational riders to mountain biking, a sport in which fewer than 1 percent of participants identify as Black.
Back in January 2022, while driving home to Maryland to celebrate his grandfather’s one hundredth birthday, Simms stopped in Richmond, Virginia. He felt the city’s monument to Confederate general Robert E. Lee would make a good spot for a trick. He rode up the structure’s concrete embankment, planted both tires on the pedestal and threw a tailwhip on the way back down. A photographer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch snapped a shot of Simms in midair. The next day, he appeared on the paper’s front page, along with a story about the planned removal of the monument’s pedestal. When Simms posted his video of the trick online, he also included his many failed attempts to stick the landing, he says, “Because no one does something perfectly on their first try.”
San Diego sued over cyclist death on Pershing Drive bike lane
SDSU faculty member and architect Laura Shinn was hit and killed on July 20, 2021 while riding in a Pershing Drive Bike Lane. The driver now faces murder charges.
Author: Dorian Hargrove
Published: 4:09 PM PDT June 28, 2022
Updated: 4:09 PM PDT June 28, 2022
SAN DIEGO — The husband of a woman who was struck and killed while cycling on Pershing Drive in July 2021 is suing the city of San Diego over unsafe conditions.
Laura Shinn, an architect and Director of Facilities and Planning at San Diego State University, was riding her bike in the northbound bike lane on Pershing Drive when she was struck from behind by a man suspected of being high on methamphetamine and fentanyl.
In a newly filed lawsuit, Shinn's husband says the city of San Diego and SANDAG failed to ensure the street was safe for cyclists and that motorists were allowed to travel at high speeds, resulting in a risk for cyclists using the lanes.
"The speed control and monitoring on Pershing Drive [were] negligently and recklessly identified and delineated as a bicycle lane, bicycle route, and/or bicycle path," reads the lawsuit. "Dangerous conditions created a concealed trap to foreseeable users of this roadway, including the decedent, Laura Shinn."
A month after Shinn's death, and days after a scooter rider was also killed on Pershing, Mayor Todd Gloria ordered temporary bollards be installed along Pershing Drive in order to make the roadway safer for pedestrians.
“I brought to this office a firm commitment to creating safe and easily accessible ways for San Diegans to get from Point A to Point B without a car,” Gloria said in a September 2021 statement. "Traveling around our City without a car should not be life-threatening. I will continue to work to make active transportation safe for all residents in all neighborhoods.”
In January of this year, the regional planning agency San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) began construction on the Pershing Bikeway Project, an effort to "transform Pershing Drive into a “low-stress” street that will be more convenient and comfortable for people biking, walking, and rolling."
Credit: SANDAG
Map of Pershing Bikeways Project
However, attorneys for Shinn's husband say it shouldn't have taken Shinn's death to make Pershing safe for cyclists and other pedestrians.
"[The City and SANDAG] had actual knowledge of the existence of...the dangerous nature and character of the road...and taken reasonable steps to protect against the foreseeable harm of serious bodily injury caused by the dangerous condition," reads the lawsuit.
The driver, 39-year-old Adam Milavetz, now faces murder and vehicular manslaughter charges. Prosecutors say Milavetz was high on methamphetamine and fentanyl at the time of Shinn's death. He is set to appear in court in early July.
In a statement, a spokesperson for SANDAG said the agency is not able "to comment on any ongoing litigation; SANDAG wants to send its sincerest condolences to the Shinn family.”
The San Diego City Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment.
^^Lol at the video being called 'the group-set of the people'. I think I saw in the comments that the price is 1,800 pounds. What in the "let them eat cake +$2,000 bike parts"
Florida remains deadliest state for bicyclists
Florida averages a deadly bike crash every two days. Fox 4 Investigates looks to see what's behind the deadly spike.
www.fox4now.com
Florida remains deadliest state for bicyclists
Florida is at the top of a lethal listFlorida averages a deadly bike crash every two days. Fox 4 Investigates looks to see what's behind the deadly spike.
By: Ryan Kruger
Posted at 6:53 PM, Jun 21, 2022
and last updated 5:49 AM, Jun 22, 2022
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Every day, on average, 18 people are in a bicycle crash in Florida, according to numbers from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
Every two days, a person dies from their injuries in a bike crash, so far in 2022.
The Sunshine State is the most dangerous state in the country for bike riders.
Lee County, according to numbers analyzed by Fox 4 Investigates, is one of the leading counties in the state when it comes to injuries and deaths from bike crashes.
A normal bike ride on the shared use path along Six Mile Cypress Parkway nearly took Diana Giraldo’s life six years ago.
The lifelong cyclist was hit by a fellow rider when she crashed into a post.
Diana Giraldo
“I was wearing a helmet, (the) helmet hit the post. If I wasn’t wearing my helmet, my head would have hit the post. And I wouldn’t be able to talk with you right now,” said Giraldo, the President and co-founder of Streets Alive of Southwest Florida, a bike and pedestrian safety advocacy organization.
Even though her injury from the crash means she can never ride again, she now passionately talks about protecting bicyclists.
She constantly carries bike lights and other safety features in her car, just in case she sees a rider in need of protection devices.
“It is a dangerous state. We may be able to contribute some to tourism, but I think our awareness all together, if they’re driving, they don’t know where they’re going,” said Giraldo.
“We have so many needs in our community for outreach and education for awareness for bicycle and pedestrian safety education.”
According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, last year there were more than 6,300 crashes involving bicycles.
182 people were killed.
Lee County’s eight deaths were some of the highest totals in the state.
The Tampa Bay, Orlando and Miami metro-areas topped the list.
Officer Alain Gagnon, FMPD
State officials say Florida’s year-round warm weather and large tourist numbers are two reasons to attribute to the deadly trend.
“The driver didn’t see them. That’s number one,” said Officer Alain Gagnon with FMPD’s Bike Unit. “Either (the bicyclist was) traveling an unpredictable way, the wrong way. Or (the driver) couldn’t see them, meaning they weren’t visible, because they didn’t have lights.”
In fact, in 2019, the most recent year this statistic was available from the National Highway Safety Administration, only one person killed on a bicycle in Florida was wearing protective clothing.
The other 164 people killed in bike crashes were not.
Despite spending every day of the last 14 years on a road bike, Officer Gagnon has never been involved in a crash.
“I try to be predictable,” said Gagnon. “I try to anticipate vehicles opening. I deal a lot with parked cars, doors opening, so I try to drive a few feet out.”
Gagnon says many drivers aren’t aware that Florida law treats bicyclists with the same laws as cars on the road.
“From my experience, morning rush hour is (the worst) people are late, they’re on the phone, doing their makeup. They’re distracted,” said Gagnon.
Lee County has invested millions of dollars in recent years to build new bike lanes and shared use paths.
In Cape Coral, the city has created 90 miles of road paths that purposefully guide riders off the main thoroughfares.
But the crashes keep coming.
Giraldo says while the improvements to cycling facilities help, ultimately, she believes changes in driving will save more lives than changes to the roads.
“We also have to be mindful of the road,” said Giraldo.
“The people driving, we have to be aware of the people around us.”
Florida remains deadliest state for bicyclists
Florida averages a deadly bike crash every two days. Fox 4 Investigates looks to see what's behind the deadly spike.
Florida remains deadliest state for bicyclists
Florida is at the top of a lethal list
Florida averages a deadly bike crash every two days. Fox 4 Investigates looks to see what's behind the deadly spike.
By: Ryan Kruger
Posted at 6:53 PM, Jun 21, 2022
and last updated 5:49 AM, Jun 22, 2022
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Every day, on average, 18 people are in a bicycle crash in Florida, according to numbers from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
Every two days, a person dies from their injuries in a bike crash, so far in 2022.
The Sunshine State is the most dangerous state in the country for bike riders.
Lee County, according to numbers analyzed by Fox 4 Investigates, is one of the leading counties in the state when it comes to injuries and deaths from bike crashes.
A normal bike ride on the shared use path along Six Mile Cypress Parkway nearly took Diana Giraldo’s life six years ago.
The lifelong cyclist was hit by a fellow rider when she crashed into a post.
Diana Giraldo
“I was wearing a helmet, (the) helmet hit the post. If I wasn’t wearing my helmet, my head would have hit the post. And I wouldn’t be able to talk with you right now,” said Giraldo, the President and co-founder of Streets Alive of Southwest Florida, a bike and pedestrian safety advocacy organization.
Even though her injury from the crash means she can never ride again, she now passionately talks about protecting bicyclists.
She constantly carries bike lights and other safety features in her car, just in case she sees a rider in need of protection devices.
“It is a dangerous state. We may be able to contribute some to tourism, but I think our awareness all together, if they’re driving, they don’t know where they’re going,” said Giraldo.
“We have so many needs in our community for outreach and education for awareness for bicycle and pedestrian safety education.”
According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, last year there were more than 6,300 crashes involving bicycles.
182 people were killed.
Lee County’s eight deaths were some of the highest totals in the state.
The Tampa Bay, Orlando and Miami metro-areas topped the list.
Officer Alain Gagnon, FMPD
State officials say Florida’s year-round warm weather and large tourist numbers are two reasons to attribute to the deadly trend.
“The driver didn’t see them. That’s number one,” said Officer Alain Gagnon with FMPD’s Bike Unit. “Either (the bicyclist was) traveling an unpredictable way, the wrong way. Or (the driver) couldn’t see them, meaning they weren’t visible, because they didn’t have lights.”
In fact, in 2019, the most recent year this statistic was available from the National Highway Safety Administration, only one person killed on a bicycle in Florida was wearing protective clothing.
The other 164 people killed in bike crashes were not.
Despite spending every day of the last 14 years on a road bike, Officer Gagnon has never been involved in a crash.
“I try to be predictable,” said Gagnon. “I try to anticipate vehicles opening. I deal a lot with parked cars, doors opening, so I try to drive a few feet out.”
Gagnon says many drivers aren’t aware that Florida law treats bicyclists with the same laws as cars on the road.
“From my experience, morning rush hour is (the worst) people are late, they’re on the phone, doing their makeup. They’re distracted,” said Gagnon.
Lee County has invested millions of dollars in recent years to build new bike lanes and shared use paths.
In Cape Coral, the city has created 90 miles of road paths that purposefully guide riders off the main thoroughfares.
But the crashes keep coming.
Giraldo says while the improvements to cycling facilities help, ultimately, she believes changes in driving will save more lives than changes to the roads.
“We also have to be mindful of the road,” said Giraldo.
“The people driving, we have to be aware of the people around us.”
Not surprised at all.
People drive way too fast in Florida. At least compared to NY (I don’t live in the city tho).
They need to make bike lanes protected with barriers. These drivers are savages.
