| HiWheel bicyclist puzzles police, but no tickets
Martin Krieg makes people smile when they see him riding his HiWheel bicycle, but police are often confounded. The bike Krieg rides is an antique with a 52-inch diameter front wheel. Krieg, who lives in south Palo Alto, has been stopped three times recently by police officers who wonder if his bike is legal. But he hasn't been ticketed yet. "I've been stopped three times in the last few months on my HiWheel for theoretically not being able to brake properly (I cannot reach the ground with my feet), for not stopping long enough and for not having proper lighting," he told friends in an e-mail. But, as he explains, the HiWheel is legal because it falls outside the California vehicle code definition of a bicycle that is chain, gear or belt driven.
City's two-wheel transformation
London is likely to become one of the most cycle-friendly places in the world, with a series of two-wheeler superhighways cutting a swath through traffic and congestion. Plans for the super-cycleways will be unveiled next week as part of an initiative to stimulate a 400% increase in the number of people pedalling round the capital by 2025. At a cost of £400m, the 12 routes are intended to be the motorways of cycling and are likely to be emulated by other cities across the UK. Londoners without bikes will be able to use one of the city's free bicycles. "We want nothing short of a cycling transformation in London," said the mayor, Ken Livingstone. "We are announcing the biggest investment in cycling in London's history, which will mean that thousands more Londoners can cycle in confidence, on routes that take them quickly and safely to where they want to go." The cycle scheme is one of several environmental announcements expected in the capital over the coming weeks, including a decision on plans for a £25-a-day congestion charge on the highest-polluting vehicles and a proposal to re-fit 900 civic buildings across the capital to make them more energy-efficient.
'Busycle' short of peoplepower for Saturday
The "Busycle" that occasionally lumbers around Palo Alto streets may not be able to get to the "City Ride" bicycling event at Mitchell Park Saturday morning because it's coming up short on pedal pushers, according to its owner, Martin Krieg. Krieg, who also rides a hi-wheeler "pennyfarthing" bicycle around town, created the Busycle, which uses peoplepower instead of horsepower to get around to special events. The problem Saturday is that most pedalers in town will be riding their own bikes to a Saturday-morning "City Ride" celebration of pedal-power transportation at Mitchell Park. The Buscycle is in Krieg's garage at 3329 Ramona St., just short of a mile from the park. The City Ride is part of the buildup to the Tour of California bike race that will kick off Sunday in a sprint from downtown Palo Alto to Stanford University.
On Movies: Austin fete braces for the Philadelphians
Yo, it's a Phillywood moment. In a couple of weeks, indie filmmakers from Philadelphia will be out in force - and out and about in Austin, Texas - at the 15th annual South by Southwest Film Festival. Running March 7 through 15 in front of the storied SXSW Music Festival, this year's screen program boasts hundreds of features and shorts, and more than a few prominent entries from the buzzing Philly scene. Anyone who has ambled around South Street, down the streets of Queen Village and the back alleys of Bella Vista, knows the work of Isaiah Zagar: His mosaics - mirror shards, broken china, clay figurines, wine bottles, tiles and bicycle wheels - adorn the exteriors of scores of houses and businesses, and his studio, on the 1000 block of South, has become a tourist destination. Jeremiah Zagar, Isaiah's son, has made a deeply personal documentary, In a Dream, about his father, his father's art, and his father's marriage to Julia Zagar.
Sheppard Industries Group to implement Lawson Software's Lawson M3 ...
Lawson Softwarehas signed a contract with Sheppard Industries Group.
The Sheppard Industries Group is a bicycle designer, contract manufacturer and owner and distributor of the popular Avanti brand, as well as distributor of the global specialised brand to the AvantiPlus retail bicycle store network consisting of over 80 stores throughout Australasia.
Under the deal, Sheppard Industries Group will deploy the Lawson M3 Enterprise Management System along with Lawson Business Intelligence suite and related maintenance and services. The contract was signed in Lawsons second quarter of fiscal 2008, ending 30 November 2007.
Based in Auckland, New Zealand, Sheppard Industries Group also sells and distributes casters and wheels across New Zealand for use in furniture, as well as in industrial and medical equipment such as hospital trolleys.
Harrington: Alcoa pair to peddle 'high-tech' bicycles
Over the last couple of years, Douglas Benton made a point to carry a rubber glove in a pouch on his Trek bicycle because the chain often would come off. Those days are over for the Alcoa resident, who recently bought a chainless bicycle that sells for about $500. Calling the bike "amazing" and hoping to get people "moving," Benton plans to begin selling it and other "high-tech" bikes when he and his wife, Trysh, open in a few weeks Wheels 4 Tomorrow at 215 Aluminum Ave., along a stretch of greenway that runs 11 miles in Blount County. "We've got some of the best food in the world in the South, but we also have a lot of overweight people. We just kind of decided that more people needed some exercise. What we will offer is an opportunity to get outside with these cool bikes on an underutilized greenway," said Benton, a 1980 University of Tennessee graduate who grew up in Northeast Knoxville.
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