Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try

Hamilton’s Campbell Buckingham, 6, had his Poppa Stuart Cottam, 69, with him for Saturday’s unofficial world record mass kick scooter parade attempt on New Plymouth’s Coastal Walkway. (ANDY JACKSON/Fairfax NZ)

From the Taranaki Daily News (New Zealand):

An unofficial world record breaking kick scooter attempt has fallen short, but no one seemed to be that concerned.

More than 489 scooter riders needed to muster at New Plymouth’s Te Rewa Rewa bridge and scoot to 3.2 kilometres to East End Reserve on Saturday for the city to break its own Guinness Book of Records record for the world largest kick scooter parade.

It didn’t quite get there but organisers weren’t too worried with the unofficial attempt falling short, saying it was still a good way to have a fun and celebrate how more and more kids choose to get to school.

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Here, I think, I’d rather be sitting

He smoked a Ferrari F430 Scudiera, a 503-horspower beast that hits 62 mph in 3.6 seconds.

François Gissy hit 207 mph on a bicycle powered by three rocket engines. From Wired Magazine:

The bike, designed by Gissy’s friend Arnold Neracher, is for the most part normal. Aside from those rockets, of course. The frame is elongated, probably to improve stability, but the pedals still work. It rides on a pair of fat tires, and the brakes are standard stuff, albeit essentially useless at that kind of speed. Gissy can use them to stabilize himself, but mostly leaves them alone. Yes, brakes are the type of thing you usually improve before subjecting yourself supercar velocities and 1.96 Gs of acceleration, but whatever.

Something new under the tum

Not much of a belt, you think? Wait; there’s more!

“Koheleth” might say there’s nothing new under the sun, but Ádám Török would disagree. He’s designed a scooter that you can wear around your waist! No, really!

And speaking of belts …

Dryland racing – doggie-style

Claudia Hanel with her dogs as she prepares them for a training session. (Western Star photo)

Dog-scootering is to traditional mushing as kicking is to sledding – an alternative and adjunct. From the Corner Brook, Canada Western Star:

Claudia Hanel’s foray into dog sled racing is off to a good start with an impressive showing in Bristol.

Hanel, a 46-year-old Germany native who lives in Frenchman’s Cove, participated in two races at the 2014 Bristol Dryland Canadian Championship Dog Race Sunday in the Quebec town.

{snip}

Hanel is expected to participate in two more dryland races over the next two weeks with both taking place in the United States.

Her dryland races will include testing her dogs in canicross — cross-country running with the dogs pulling her from behind — and dog scootering, which involves one or more dogs pulling a human riding an unmotorized kick scooter.

(‘Hanel holds her own at Bristol dog races,’ The Western Star)

No contest

The front (left) and back (right) of RocketSkates, motorized chariots for your feet. (Andrew Cunningham)

From Ars Technica: While they aren’t actually propelled by rockets, [these] motorized and battery-powered skates will scoot you along at speeds of about 12 miles per hour, and creator Peter Treadway has high hopes that they’ll compete with skateboards, bikes, regular skates, and plain old feet as a form of urban transit.

Baulkham Hills (Australia) man takes his footbiking to world championship

Optimum exercise: Michal Kozar: ”I get better exercise than riding a bike or running but it is less impact on your knees and joints. When you kick you have half of your body-weight on that leg instead of full weight when you run. Picture: Natalie Roberts.

One day Michal Kozar was browsing the internet looking for a new sport to take up, perhaps to help him train for his marathons or tennis.

Kozar, who lives in Baulkham Hills, found footbiking – a form of racing on a light, extremely fast scooter with large road racing wheels – and it quickly became his sport of choice. Running and tennis were suddenly helping him prepare for footbiking.

Continue reading on HillsNews.com »

Here’s WHY sitting is bad for you

Einstein could have been even smarter by losing the seat and pedals (From “Cycling is good for you”)

I first heard the notion that sitting is bad for you in 2010; then it was a hypothesis based on polling and observation. Now it seems that a scientist in Stockholm has come up with why it is so.