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SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2011
VOL. 3 NO. 53
PORTLAND, ME
PORTLAND’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
699-5801
FREE
‘Spokesmen’ address new bike trends Three Portland bike shop owners run down the pros and cons of each style and share local cycling secrets BY MATT DODGE THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN
With temperatures rising fast and gas prices rising even faster, this spring offers some perfect excuses to ditch four wheels in favor of two. But there are many styles being peddled. New-bike shops abound with shiny inventory and spring cleaning often yields garage treasures. With yardsale season on the horizon – along with the always-shifting Internet marketplace – there seem to be plenty of sizes, styles and speeds available for the fairweather cyclist. Or, for that matter, the fashion-forJosh Cridler of Portland Velocipede, Chris Carleton of AllSpeed Cyclery and Snow ward crowd. and Peter Wool of Port City Bikes display their favorite rides at their respective At least three style categories are shops. (MATT DODGE PHOTOS) prevelent the Portland streets this spring: the “new-old” city bikes, the mountain bike in all its modified incarnations and the road bike with all its the world’s utility bicycles, and other advances vintage and vintage-ish offspring. in bike engineering quickly left the city bike The European or Dutch style “city bike,” is behind. the grandaddy of them all. A utility bicycle, city “They stopped updating [city bikes] in the 70’s bikes were designed in the late 1800’s for practiwhen race boom came up with 10 speeds,” he cal transportation, as opposed to bicycles which said. “The derailleur came about because people are primarily designed for recreation and comwanted to shift in smaller increments.” petition. “The race bike killed the city bike, then the Since the 1890s only incremental mechanical mountain bike killed the race bike, but the city advances have taken place for the majority of
bike was invented for a specific reason,” Cridler said. “I would also add the BMX bike to that list,” said Chris Carleton, owner of AllSpeed Cyclery and Snow. “Mountain bikes were huge in the mid-80’s, then sponsorship dollars started to dry up in the racing scene and went to BMX biking,” he said. see BIKES page 2
Bill to block federal REAL ID provisions advances BY DAVID CARKHUFF THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN
A bill to remove Maine from federal REAL ID mandates cleared a legislative committee Friday and will advance to the full legislature. The Joint Standing Committee on Transportation voted unanimously in favor of LD 1068, “An Act To Protect the Privacy of Maine Residents under the Driver’s License Laws.” “Having the unanimous report makes it unlikely it will be derailed,” said Rep. Ben Chipman, I-Portland, sponsor of the legislation. The Legislature is on break next week, but the bill should come up in the Maine Senate the following
week, he said. “I’m really excited that the committee voted the way they did. After all these years of trying to do this, we’ve finally had some success,” Chipman said. The Maine Civil Liberties Union and Secretary of State Charles Summer both attended Friday’s committee vote. Congress and the Bush administration adopted the Real ID law mainly as a result of findings by 9/11 Commission investigators that the hijackers from the 9/11 attacks carried many driver’s licenses issued by various state-level motor vehicle departments, according to background information from the National Conference of State Legislatures, an opponent of REAL ID.
“It’s a huge unfunded federal mandate,” Chipman said. States continue to struggle to meet benchmarks imposed by REAL ID, officials agree. On March 4, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano extended by 20 months — to Jan. 15, 2013 — the May 10, 2011 deadline for states to be in full compliance with theREAL ID Act. Chipman said he sees no need for a REAL ID mandate when the state last month unveiled a new driver’s license with enhanced security features, designed based on suggested guidelines published by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.