Cycling in the Dolomites

Welcome to the Bike Bulletin. Because every cyclist needs a good breakaway and good reading.

—Sam Westby @samcwestby

Here’s what we have today.

• 🌍 RIDE: The Dolomites

• ❓ RESEARCH: Negative Externalities

• 💡 TIP: Past Tips from the Bike Bulletin

• 📖 READ: Duffy is Dead Wrong about Bike Lanes

• 🚲 ARCHIVES: Massive Bike Wheels

• 📰 NEWS: New funding, automatic tickets, and more

RIDE ON MY RADAR

The Dolomites

You could pick any small town in the Northern Italian mountains and have the best day on the bike.

Here’s an example:

• 69 miles (111 kilometers) with 11,000 feet (3370 meters) of climbing

• Cyclist-focused lodging

• Constant views

• Loads of other cyclists

If I don’t feel fit by mid-June, I definitely will after this. Those numbers are nuts.

LESSON OF THE WEEK

Negative Externalities

Today, I’ll teach you about the phrase “Negative Externalities”. It’s the perfect way to describe driving versus cycling.

Does an activity get better when there are more people? Or does it get worse? An “externality” (root word — external) is the indirect effect that someone has on someone else.

Think about driving on a quiet road. It’s honestly relaxing. As more and more people drive on that road, the experience gets worse and worse. Traffic builds, commute times go up, you breathe in more exhaust fumes, and roads deteriorate faster. More people mean a worse experience.

We can say that driving has many negative externalities, because when more people drive, there are many hidden costs added to drivers.

What about cycling?

More people on bikes can improve your ride. When you ride with a big group, safety goes up, you feel like a part of a community, and you make friends. These are all positive.

Unlike driving, cycling has many positive externalities. When more people are on bikes, everyone reaps unintended benefits.

A quick note: when your actions have unintended effects on yourself, that’s called an internality. For cycling, those might include better health, improved mood, or even bragging rights.

BIKE TRIP TIP

Some Past Tips

With new people joining the Bike Bulletin every month, I figured I’d go back and highlight 7 past bike trip tips.

1. Chain care — oil versus hot wax, and regular maintenance (January 17th, 2024)

2. The top-tier bike trip food — it’s a frozen burrito (December 5th, 2024)

3. How to bikepack without buying gear? (December 19th, 2024)

4. Doing laundry on a bike trip (January 9th, 2025)

5. Training for your next bike tour (December 27th, 2023)

6. What is in my repair kit? (February 6th, 2025)

7. The ultimate beginner’s bike repair guide (February 20th, 2025)

WHAT I’M READING

Some good news and some bad news for urban cyclists. The head of the Department of Transportation is not a fan of bike lanes, but he could change his mind.

The good: “Duffy said he'd be willing to look at data to see if bike lanes save lives and reduce congestion - and if they do, he even said we should do more bike lanes."

The bad: “But in New York ... they want to expand bike lanes, and then they get more congestion. ... What are the roads for, and how do we use our roads? If we put bikes on roadways, and then we get congestion, it's a really bad experience for a lot of people.”

Duffy doesn’t trust the data. This StreetsBlog article goes on to share the science about how bike lanes increase cyclist safety, decrease congestion, and encourage ridership.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

32” Mountain Bike Wheels

We went from 26” to 27.5” to 29” mountain bike wheels. Now they’re talking about 32” wheels. What’s next? 6 feet???

• 57%. The percentage of bike sales in Austria that were e-bikes in 2024. (Bicycle Retailer)

• 500 streets. The number of additional roads the city of Paris plans to make car-free. They will replace them with public green areas, bike infrastructure, and pedestrian zones. (domus)

• £87 million. Transport for London’s planned investment over the next year to make streets healthier, greener, and safer. (traffictechnologytoday.com)

• Massachusetts. The next state to automatically ticket drivers parked in bus lanes. They will have the camera systems installed on MBTA buses by the end of the year. (WGBH)

• Pops of color. Students in Central Florida competed to create unique bike lane street icons. (See the picture below, WFTV)

A Note From Sam

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