Friday Link Love: A Potpourri

I’m liking the Friday link roundups. Below is another set of cycling-related highlights from the week’s blog reads and feeds:

• Bike Power Naps: A flickr group dedicated to bicycle napping. I’m not kidding, and the pictures had me in stitches. See the many facets of urban bike napping in the Bike Power Nap flickr group.
• Touring Cycling in Southeast Asia: Cyclist, writer, and artist Melanie Swanson wrote a beautiful memoir of her tour of southeast Asia. It’s visually appealing, amusing, and insightful. This quick read will appeal to many touring cyclists, and you can download for free it via the Going Slowly blog.
• Beautiful Bags: One of the many reasons we ride? The bags. Ruth Works of San Francisco is a one-man enterprise making bags I long to touch and feel. I also love the hearts he’s added to a few of the Ruth Works creations. One of my favorites is here, but you can see them all via the Ruth Works website.
• Chain Lube Experiments: I just go with Pro Link, but others are much more exploratory about the kind of lubes they want to use on their bikes. See what La Tortue and the Moose had to say about his latest experiment with paraffin wax as a chain lube, and don’t forget to scroll down to the photo memorializing his at-home experiment.
• Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiking: Any D.C. Randonneurs remember David L.? He accompanied Felkerino and me a few years ago on our 600K permanent. David and his wife have spent the last couple of years immersed in some epic adventures, one of them being a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. They wrote a two-volume on-line book to record their adventures, and you can read them (for free!) here.
• Bike Ride Photo Solicitation: There and Back Again is working on a blog project to document the upcoming weekend’s riding. Get on your bike, take a picture, and send it to him for posting. It’s that easy! Read all about this Group Project on his blog.
• Couture Reflective Vests: Did anybody see the Cycle and Style writeup about the Vespertine couture reflective wear? According to Verpertine, you can wear ruffles, fake fur, and 3M reflective fabric, all in one garment. Start saving your pennies, fashionable reflective gear isn’t cheap. My question: Is it EN 1150 certified?

Have a great weekend, everyone.