Viraj's Weblog

Yeh, that's right, my bike was stolen over the holiday. I had it locked to a pillar next to my car in my carport. They broke the lock and took the bike . There were even other bikes in the carport, but they decided to take mine probably because it was the most expensive.

So over the holiday I bought myself another bike, a Schwinn World Avenue. It was a recommended bike on a commuter bike review site. I like it a lot, and does much better on the road than my previous one. Let's just hope it doesn't get stolen as well. Sigh..

Here's an interesting 1-hour BBC docudrama on 'what if drugs were legal.'

Also came across this neat acoustic cover of Outkast's Hey Ya. I even put up an mp3 in case you want it.

Last but not least I saw an advertisement in the local newspaper for a cool electric bike. I liked everything about it except for the 'keep out of rain' warning.

Stop and get off your bike quick. If the beast looks like it wants to attack, try to keep the bike between you and it. Shout something commanding, like Go home!

Well I've been biking to work for over a month now. I love it, though roads can be quite dangerous at times. Here is a page with some good road biking tips.

I am still confused on one thing though: left turns at a left turn signal. Many times I'm the only one making a left turn, but does the traffic light 'sensor' detect my bike as if a car was there? It seems not to, because the light never changes, and I end up going to the crosswalk and using the button. Annoying as hell.

At some intersections, there is a bike drawing in the middle of the left lane right next to the crosswalk. I wonder if I need to put my bike here to get the light to change? Haven't tried that yet.

Update: A co-worker pointed me to a very interesting paper on detection of bicycles at traffic signals.