Urbana-Champaign Bicycle Commute

http://www.parkabike.com/campus.html hmmm... wondering if I could request one of these for outside of D wing.

*why* do bicycle commuters ride and maintain and ride and maintain ? Is it a self-perpetuating cycle? If there were good products for commuting, I would buy them. They aren't there.
One problem is the theft thing. There are huge advantages to a bicycle that appears undesirable. However, perhaps there would be a market for a nicer bicycle with good built-in security (hmmm.... and that could be creative - booby trap the seat so that if you don't enter the right four-digit code a little ink capsule explodes in two minutes? )

Hmmm.... p'raps the biker bloggers out t/here should form our own focus group and brainstorm desired product developments.

I for one would like to see - yea, turn signals, of course. That's not the end of the light story, though. Fact is that one little blinkie or even one big blinkie is utterly behind the times. Remember when cars just had little red lights at the back? Now there are big fat brake lights... oh, and they're amber, and we've got running lights and all kinds of froux froux. Welp, while part of me suspects that this is a path to maximal entropic visual confusion when light will no longer contrast, we're not there yet. There's that Down Low Glo setup and Hokey Spokes but both are overkill and therefore overpriced in their respective ways. I've got two Hokey Spokes that alas, i need to find the spoke attachments for to put 'em on again. I never use the funky features (scrolling letters) and while I *do* thoroughly enjoy the designs, they're not necessary. I picked up some other Bell spoke lights at Dick's Sporting Goods (my safe-surf rating just plummeted, but so be it) for I think 7$... but they didn't restock and I have not found them online.

I have ideas. Christmas lights with batteries work well - but if there were somethng designed for my needs it would be far superior, such as an at lesat slightly weatherproof much shorter string of LED lights (less batter drain - maybe even like a calculator and solar powered?) More thoughts soon...