shake like mexico, rejoice.

ay. heard of the large earthquake in mexico today. seems to be minimal damage thus far according to various news sources.

so we just want to send a little love from our shake-prone part of the world over to guerrero and DF.

ok, carry on. pax y amor.

friday fun times: tijuana bike machine

so earlier this week, the crew and i rolled into oakland, had some muy fufi mexican food (seriously, their queso fundido was insane!), and saw nortec collective's bostich + fussible play the new parish.

aaaaaaaaaah. it was SO.MUCH.FUN. place was jumping up and down swaying to updated traditional mexican beats.

and guess what they had on stage as a video?

tijuana bike machine. bike machine. bike machine.

here's video for reference.

it's raining cats and dogs and bunnies and elephants out here y'all. if you ride this weekend, have fun living in the now!

la cumbia de la bici

ahhh!! i love me some cumbia y'all! and here's a youtube made by mexican musician david aguilar in May 2010 about la bici!

i LOVE it. <3 also in finding this video, i found more tributes to la bici en espanol, so i'm sure i'll be sharing those with you in the upcoming weeks.

until then happy wednesday y'all. i'm fighting some lame sick thing. you know you are truly not feeling well when you're still not tired of being in bed after 2 days. i'm not even stir crazy. imagine that. weird. i'm sure i'll be back to my 10millionthingstodo-self in a couple of days. :) and that's when i will have to show y'all joanie's holiday lights upgrade!

via here.

Peliculas

Videos from Mexico! Sent to us by friend of the blog, Alejandro. What happens when your bicycle gets stolen from the mall because they have no bike parking? This mall in Guadalajara finds out!

Our next video is from Mexico City (I think), from the blog Colectivo Camino, Haz Ciudad. The problem faced by the pedestrians in this film is one you can find in just about any city in Mexico- no sidewalks, no protection from cars and people forced to take their lives into their own hands just to get home from work.

Imagine the guts it takes, and the lengths you have to be pushed to to get out and paint your own sidewalk! I remember driving through small towns all over Mexico and how all of them had hand painted stop signs put up wherever the locals felt they were needed. I also remember playing dodge car like the people in this video every morning between my house and the University and it was not pleasant.

We complain here in the US about our lack of bicycle lanes, but I think that the Mexicans have us beat, not just for the lack of infrastructure but for the heart and soul the people who want to change the status quo are putting into their cause. We could all learn from this!

mexico city bike share

a reader/guest contributor went to mexico city during the recently holiday break and sent in a picture.

"they've got bikes here"

we've heard of this mexico city bike share (link in spanish) for awhile now. glad to see some fotos in the flesh. ¡¡viva méxico!!

thanks for the submission, and keep sending them in guys!

feliz diez y seis

hey guys, today is the 200th anniversary of mexico's independence. have fun out there in texas. i miss those celebrations so much.

in the meantime, maybe you can see me riding around with my flag on a basket later today. say hi.

besos desde califas...

c/s,
CTX

Driver To Biker

All of us here at CYLRAB are the same in one respect- we LOVE opening our email to find stories from the people who read this blog! We started "Change Your Life. Ride A Bike!" with the express purpose of creating a forum for people to share their tales and spread the message that bicycles are simply the best way to get around.

This latest submission comes to us from Mexico thanks to Leonel Altamirano.

In Mexico City many years ago, there was a desperate driver, who every day journeyed in his car 10 miles, from his house to his work, taking him him up to 45 minutes, sometimes longer, sometimes less; over the years, it keeps taking longer; for example when there are manifestations in the streets, it can take up to two hours.

He found a solution to this problem with a folding bike, If he could have owned one, the problem of leaving the bike in the parking lot would be solved (also paying for the parking).


Since he has to go on the subway and then into his office, he could carry it with him. He looked in various places for one of these extraordinary methods of transportation. And he found a 28 pounds, one made of aluminum from Mexico, with Shimano gear shifts.

Now two or three days a week he travels on his bike from his home to the subway one kilometer in seven minutes. When he arrives to the entrance of the subway he folds the bike, and enters with it. Once inside the subway car, the folded bike is so compact that it fits under the seat.


When he arrives at the station where he gets off, he takes his bike out and he leaves the subway, then he unfolds the bike to ride the last and short stage of his trip to his office on the bike.where it leaves it under its writing-desk.

In this way he saves almost half of the time of the trip subway-bike in comparison with the car. “to be or not to be in the transit”, is the question.

Now, the desperate conductor is a gladder being and satisfied one, since he arrives earlier at its work and at its home, he coexists more with its family; and by the way he does a little more exercise, contaminating less.



Unfortunatelly, is forbiden to pass your bike in the subway from monday to saturday, but with the spread of this history, we can push authorities to make a change in favor the health.

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Do you have a story to share? We want to get it out to the world! Every story touches someone and offers the opportunity to help another person change their life.

basket decorations

today is cinco de mayo. whatever your thoughts on that day are, please just be careful tonight as you ride around about your business. will possibly be lots of drunk people out there milling about masquerading as drivers, bikers and pedestrians...

anyway, this is a scene from this past weekend. flags make nice basket decorations i think.

have a good one!