Show #461 – July 13, 2019

Guests: Steve Frothingham; Rob Sulaski

First up is a conversation about the safety of three helmets from three different manufacturers.

I’m not sure how much I faith I put in Consumer Reports, but I do know that a lot of people look to the organization for assurance that they are making a good choice about a purchase.

So, when an article titled, “Who should you trust? Helmet makers dispute Consumer Reports findings” I get curious.
Three helmets were called out for alleged safety problems and issued “do not buy” warnings.

Steve Frothingham, editor in chief of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News as well as BicycleRetailer.com wrote that article and offers us a deeper look into how these helmets failed CR’s testing, what the makers of these helmets had to say, and what we might want to do if we have one.

We have some news this week, including a sighting of what one journalist is calling the coolest bike at the Tour de France, and then we speak with Rob Sulaski who is working for two companies this summer – Strong Towns, which we know really well from conversations with its founder Chuck Marohn – and Urban3 a geo-analytics company – we’ll tell you what that means when we speak with him.

Rob details the two articles that attracted my attention, one titled “The Lake Effect” which is NOT about snow storms off of Lake Erie; and the other about Palm Bay, a town in Florida that has miles of roads, lots of infrastructure, and almost no residents.