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Welcome to Velo Vision magazine, covering specialised bikes, cycling as transport and human power. It's a quarterly dose of cycle inspiration.The current issue is Issue 16. The next issue is out early March 2005.
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Cycling to work - a view from the outsideAn interesting article appears on the website of the well-known publishers of programming books, O'Reilly. The writer, who cycled 12 miles to and from work for a week, makes some good points from a 'non-cyclist' perspective. Check it out at: www.oreilly.com/news/bikeweek_final.html This is the summary page for an article from Frank Willison, Editor in Chief at O'Reilly, who commuted 12 miles during the SF Bay Area Bike to Work week in May last year. While he obviously found such a long ride rather hard work - anyone would - he has a lot of positive things to say about his experience. But the bit which caught my eye was his advice to employers - site your factory in a convenient location for your workers to cycle there! Some might say it would be more practicable for employees to choose houses near their place of work... The other interesting thing about this article is where it appears and who wrote it. O'Reilly are hugely-respected publishers of computer books - particularly for programmers, but they also do a number of 'end-user' guides. I've always thought there's something similar in the mentalities of computer programmers (especially the open source/Linux community types) and cyclists. Both love their independence, like doing cool things (Ok, toys for boys), don't like been controlled by big business and lobbies out to get them, and both are fiercely loyal to their communities. Strikes me that if a recumbent manufacturer were to advertise in, say, Linux Journal, with picture of a cool, high-tech looking bike, and a tagline like "Recumbents - the Linux of cycling", it would pay back pretty fast... the other thing about programmers is that they're often rather well paid :-) Posted on 31 January 2001 Your comments ...
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