Here is an unscientific, apples-to-oranges comparison of Google Trends search volume over the last 12 months for “fixed gear” in blue vs. “road cycling” in red:

There are lots of interesting things here, but two that jump out at me are how much of a bump “road cycling” gets during the Olympics around point C relative to volume during the Tour de France in July, and how quickly it falls off afterwards.

I spent most of the PSFK’s San Francisco conference furiously typing on my phone about Riccardo Ricco, so I’m glad that they’re putting the sessions online. Here’s a panel talking about social media use for brands:

There was a lot of talking about how awesome social media is, but here are the two most useful points that I’ll be working into my projects:

• Be valuable to consumers and be very specific. Example: Special K created a microsite called “2 weeks, 10 pounds” instead of a general nutrition portal.
• Look outside the PR/marketing team for employees who are fluent social media users. Social media is conversational, so look for people who are used to talking to customers.

The panelists were George Parker (AdScam), Rohit Bhargava (Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence), Lynn Casey (Team Noesis), Adrian Ho (Zeus Jones), and Mark Lewis (DDB). More videos from the conference are here.

I came across this framed 2006 Kodak Gallery/Sierra Nevada jersey at SRAM’s offices; it brings back a lot of memories, including how long it took me to lay out those cards. That was a fun year.

A: Toyota’s Winglet, “a personal transport assistance robot ridden in a standing position.”

Basically, you stand on it and drive around. Toyota claims a range of 5-10km at a top speed of 6km/h, like a smaller, lighter, slower Segway. No word on the Winglet’s price, but it will likely be less than a Segway and more than the $250 price tag for the used bike that I got on Craigslist for my girlfriend.

For urban transportation, that bike has a range of maybe 10km and a top speed of 30kmh with an inexperienced rider. Not that much better than the Winglet, but the difference is that you can get better at riding a bike. A more experienced rider might have a range of 20-30km and top speed 50kmh, but the Winglet will never go farther than 10km without a 1-hour charge or faster than a brisk walking pace.

Plus, you can put racks on your bike to carry stuff. With the Winglet, you’re limited to what you can carry on your body. There’s also the whole exercise thing. And fun.

The Winglet might be great for elderly or disabled people, but the rest of us should probably stick to bikes and self-respect.

via Gizmodo

A DJ and a bike shop from Montreal built up a bike with stock frame and components! The custom head tube badge is neat, but otherwise it’s just a regular pieced-together track bike like anything you’d see around town. Can someone at Cool Hunting please explain what the big deal is? Thanks.

Puma has released I-Cycle, a series of video shorts featuring the founder of the Recycle-A-Bicycle program in New York, actor Matthew Modine’s Bicycle For a Day, the guy who had the first pedicab in New York, the organizer of the Bicycle Film Festival, and Puma’s bike collecting CMO.

One thing that jumped out at me immediately was that the interviews were done on the bike, not in the studio. Being able to see the person talking instead of just hearing a voiceover during a riding shot makes it feel so much more personal. Also, Puma branding is almost non-existent. I noticed a shot of the Bike Film Festival guy wearing Pumas and there are obviously some kicks in the video with their CMO. But Puma has smartly told interesting stories about bike culture, not about their products

via PSFK

Last night was the opening of the “Pressure” art show, a collaboration between RVCA and Cinelli. The show featured bike-themed works by some really well known graphic artists like Barry McGee, KAWS, Phil Frost, and others. MASH was given the corner window display to play around with, and Mike came up with this giant dreamcatcher made of used tires and broken bike parts. (that’s his photo, too)

Check out Mike’s blog on Honeyee to see the rest of his photos of the other pieces and the opening reception. Wow, there are a lot of links in this post.

TechCrunch reports that garbage and recycling company Waste Management has launched a social network called Greenopolis that encourages users to “Learn. Act. Reward. Together.™” It’s a full-on social network with user profiles, friends lists, blogging and media, forums, etc. It’s also an example of a company hopping on the social networking bandwagon a bit too eagerly, even if a $20 billion dollar company like Waste Management can afford to throw some promotional weight behind Greenopolis.

Still, the site is unlikely to have nearly the impact of the (Lil) Green Patch Facebook application. As a user, all you need to do is add the application, plant something in your friends’ patches, and get back to doing whatever else you do on Facebook. There’s no new profile to create, new blog to write, new media to upload, new forums to use, etc. With 5.5 million profiles and over 615,261 daily users, the (Lil) Green Patch reaches a lot more people than it looks like Greenopolis ever will.

For whatever reason, green social networking hasn’t taken off, at least not in proportion to the size of the population that cares about environmental issues. The sites are out there but they haven’t really gained traction with users. Maybe the problem is that we’re already doing as much social networking as we can handle in a 24 hour day, so a niche social network is a tough sell to new users unless there’s already a thriving community in place. Like Dogster.

In any case, brands - whether green or not - are probably better off taking a cue from (Lil) Green Patch and tapping into existing social networks rather than starting their own. If Waste Management had done that, maybe they’d have more money for their U-23 cycling team.

Michael Z from SRAM was telling me in Philly about a private fundraiser for Barack Obama that was organized by Stan or F.K. Day. (I forget which, sorry guys). It turns out that at the event, Obama promised to “increase funding for cycling and pedestrian projects,” according to Bicycle Retailer & Industry News. My girlfriend pointed out that it’s just another example of money driving politics, but at least money is driving politics in the right direction.

Anyways, something in the BRAIN article that jumped out at me was Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) saying that “it’s important for [the bike] industry to understand that it is a force.” Even in a strong economy, the rising cost of gas alone would make cycling more attractive. But when the economy’s bad, everything else that makes cars so expensive becomes more of a concern for drivers: car payments, insurance, repairs, etc. Then there’s the whole “green” thing, which is quickly becoming a mainstream value. Also, urban living is coming back into style and bikes are getting to be pretty fashionable.

Those are powerful economic, social, and cultural forces coming together that favor the use of bicycles, so it’s smart for Obama to align himself now with the bike industry and show everyone that it’s ok to look dorky on a bike.

picture via LAist

After a year off, I spent this past weekend in Philly for the Commerce Bank Philadelphia International Championship testing hardware and web tools to produce content for my project with SRAM. I’ll post some of the results soon, but I came across this giant wooden track bike in the airport and it’s arguably the coolest thing I saw all weekend:

Looks like a 150cm frame with a Corima front and a Spinergy rear (yikes). I’m curious about the left-side drivetrain though.

More evidence that bikes are cool, this time courtesy of Cannondale and jeans maker G-Star Raw. They get a little carried away talking about coolness (”The Cannondale BAD BOY, cycling’s original benchmark in coolness just got cooler.”) but this bike is really, really fresh. Check out the microsite.

This video, however, is not so fresh.

via PSFK

Check out Cool Hunting’s list of “12 Bikes for Girls“, as selected by Sarah Huston. I’m not sure that the flat, swept-back handlebars on this Specialized Langster Seattle “scream racing style” as she claims, but it’s nice to see another notch in cycling’s Coolness Belt.