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Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas. 🚴‍♂️👍

Onlookers caught glimpses of the Titan submersible wreckage as its crews brought its remains ashore. These provide clues to what may have happened while a formal investigation is underway. Though it's difficult to know for sure, an expert said the carbon-fiber hull likely failed first. Photos of the Titan submersible wreckage support the theory that the vessel's carbon-fiber hull may have led to its catastrophic implosion, an expert told Insider. The US Coast Guard brought debris from the Titan submersible ashore this week, giving onlookers a brief, imperfect glimpse as it was taken away for analysis. ... Though it is...

The SpaceX Dragon capsule was observed breaking apart above the area of Australia where the farmers found the debris. Its re-entry was seen and heard by people from Canberra to Bendigo, with many sharing it on social media. ‘At first it kind of looks like a burnt tree … and then you come up to it, it’s like this alien obelisk almost,’ says astrophysicist Brad Tucker of the space debris that he believes to be from a SpaceX mission. Photograph: Brad TuckerSpaceX has not yet confirmed to Tucker that the debris belonged to SpaceX Dragon, and has not yet responded...

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas.

A truck driver plowed into a group of bicyclists during a race event in eastern Arizona, and police said Saturday that an officer shot the suspected driver, who had fled the scene in their vehicle. The Show Low Police Department said that at approximately 7:25 a.m., a black Super Duty Ford F150 struck multiple bicyclists during a "Bike the Bluff" race event. Six victims were taken to the hospital with with injuries — four of whom were in critical condition, while two were "critical but stable," police said. Police said at least two other "walk-in" victims at Summit Healthcare were...

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas.

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas.

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas.

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas.

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas.

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas.

Yes! Le Tour is here. The 106th edition of the race begins Saturday, in next-door Brussels, a nod to the stern-faced Belgian cycling titan Eddy Merckx, who won five overall Tours and 34 stages beginning in 1969... It’s got a case as the craziest and most beautiful event in sports, but it’s clearly an acquired taste. I’m really super-duper into it. You know this. ...the four-time Tour winner Chris Froome, was badly hurt in a crash, suffering a broken leg and other injuries. Froome would have been a favorite for this year. One of the more intriguing newbies is Mike...

The stakes are high – will we be able to keep our much envied “antiquated” American way of life, our very freedom and mobility which defines who we are? Americans hold constitutional elections in order to choose, among many positions in government, the local mayor. But a non-governmental organization (NGO), Bycs, which created the bicycle mayors’ program, wants to change that. How can an unelected ‘mayor’ be constitutional? “It is nice to have one, centralized voice,” … “And, honestly especially in the U.S., it’s so much easier to do as a party of one, than a committee, meeting, month to...

When JoJo McKibben was the victim of a hit-and-run on April 3 as she biked to work, she wasn't all that surprised. She was hit while biking by a drunk driver last summer and has come to expect that cars won't realize she's riding on two wheels. McKibben's boyfriend Brendan Sharpe said he has also been seriously injured by cars while he's biked in Austin, once in 2009 and again in 2015... Katie Delleoz, the executive director of Bike Austin, said she personally has nearly been struck at the same intersection McKibben was hit at last week

Credit: Timothy Strobel ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scientists have found a way to make carbon both very hard and very stretchy by heating it under high pressure. This "compressed glassy carbon", developed by researchers in China and the US, is also lightweight and could potentially be made in very large quantities. This means it might be a good fit for several sorts of applications, from bulletproof vests to new kinds of electronic devices. Carbon is a special element because of the way its atoms can form different types of bonds with each other and so form different structures. For example, carbon atoms joined...

A gooey substance normally wouldn’t seem like it could stop a bullet, but an Air Force Academy cadet has created just that. Air Force Academy Cadet 1st Class Hayley Weir created a goo-like substance that can stop bullets. Cadet 1st Class Hayley Weir’s interest in bullet-stopping materials was piqued when she took a chemistry class at the academy in 2014. The class was given three materials to combine in a way that could stop a bullet. “Up to that point, it was the coolest thing I’d done as a cadet,” Weir, a senior at the academy, told Air Force Times....

The four mega-trends shaping the global auto industry over the next 15-odd years are undoubtedly vehicles with lower emissions, new powertrain technologies, autonomous automobiles and vehicle digitalization. Reflecting these mega-trends, one can anticipate more developments in lightweighting, drivetrain optimization, car computerization, infotainment and driverless transportation in 2017. Here PlasticsToday gives its take on some of the key developments expected in 2017. Staying connected, and entertained Rather than being interested in the size of the engine and the shape of the car, consumers are now more interested in “infotainment” systems, being connected, autonomous driving and diverse mobility, notes consultant McKinsey. Traditionally,...

In 2014, a small start-up shook SOLIDWORKS World with a game-changing technology capable of reinforcing nylon 3D-printed parts with continuous carbon fiber. Markforged, out of Cambridge, Mass., demonstrated that for about $5,000, any machine shop, manufacturing facility or lab could produce carbon fiber–reinforced parts on-demand. The company has since upgraded its system with the Mark Two 3D printer and released a number of new materials, including Kevlar reinforcement and a chopped carbon fiber-nylon composite. Now, however, Markforged aims to change the 3D printing game once again with a new printer dubbed the Mark X. ENGINEERING.com spoke to Markforged CEO and...

Incredible strength and stiffness, chemical and temperature resistance, electrical conductivity, and low weight on par with plastic parts: carbon fiber 3D printing has it all, and its poised to be the next major trend in industrial additive manufacturing. While metal 3D printing has been skyrocketing in terms of popularity, market share, and high-demand applications for the past year, and will certainly continue to do so, 3D printing with carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) offers unique properties that are increasingly sought out in the aerospace, military, motorsports, robotics, automobile, and energy sectors. Namely, carbon fiber composites, which are made of extremely...

The Mark One 3D printer from MarkForged caused a bit of a sensation last January when it was announced that it could extrude continuous fiber using the FFF process.The Mark One 3D printer, featuring a build volume of 320 x 132 x 160 mm, can print using carbon fiber, Kevlar, fiberglass, and nylon, and in doing so creates very strong parts. Now 3 HTi has announced they’ll be offering, through a partnership with the Cambridge, MA-based MarkForged, the Mark One 3D printer as one of the first companies authorized to sell the revolutionary technology. 3 HTi is a technology solutions...