French designer Julien Bergignat has some images of a folding bike helmet he created posted here. Somebody remarked that it looks like head sushi. But still pretty cool.

Check out all the images of the folding bike helmet

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The keys to being safe on a bike are almost entirely in your hands. As outlined here, these five layers of bike safety lay out those simple things that make you a more effective, predictable cyclist and that go a long way to ensuring many happy miles on your bike.

Read the five layers of safe riding

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I'm not sure which part of this whole deal that I stumbled across is cooler . . . that Lance Armstrong apparently likes British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, or that Iron Maiden's manager, Rod Smallwood, is a cyclist who just completed a century fund-raising ride for charity through Egypt, or that Lance made mention of the ride yesterday in a twitter message, just one of the torrent of tweets he blasts out to his fans about almost anything that crosses his mind.

It makes me think again of the link between bikes and music, and how passionate people can be about it. An earlier blog entry talking about best riding songs -- you know, those tunes that really make your wheels fly -- brought over 45 comments from people listing music that really gets them going.

And other piece discussing the best songs actually about bikes had ever 30 suggestions. That was especially impressive to me, since I could only think of the two obvious ones: "I Want to Ride My Bicycle," by Queen, and "Bicycle Built for Two," a true oldie from 1892. Frankly I planned to be surprised if the list even got over ten songs about bike riding.

With that in mind, it's time for a poll:

And please chime in the Comments below to share your thoughts about the kind of music that inspires you to ride.

• Best Bike Riding Songs - what fires you up!
  
• Best Songs about Bikes

Shhh. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Did you know that those little nuts that come on Presta valves are unnecessary for most cyclists? In fact, for many new riders, they cause more problems than they actually solve.

Here's the thing: Presta valves always come with that little nut on them, and for a long time I dutifully screwed the nut on and off whenever I had to change out a tube. But what does the nut actually do? It certainly does not hold the tube in place. The tube is inside the tire and will not go anywhere. And the valve sticking through the hole in the rim does a fine job of staying put right where it is. That nut neither prevents it from coming out or falling back into the tire when you're actually out riding. Some might say that it helps hold the valve in place when inflating, particularly a completely flat tire. If that's true, it's not much of a help and certainly not worth the extra hassle of keeping track of it.

The problems it can cause a primarily related to people cranking it down too tightly. Doing that can pull the valve stem too high into the rim and cause the valve to tear away from the tube, and/or cause a rip or puncture.

Summary: those nuts they include with Presta valve tubes are unnecessary. I've been riding without using them now for a number of years and have had no problems. Feel free to discard them and shed a couple of grams and have one less thing to worry about keeping track of when you're changing a tube.

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