The Archives
Poll: Where do you wash your bike?
Bike wash Originally uploaded by richardmasoner. Warren has wrapped up the parking poll, so let’s start a new one. Where do you clean your bike? I take my bike to the car wash and blast it with a pressure washer. The bike shop has a bike cleaning service I use. I wash it in my…
Parking Poll Results
The results are in for the CBB Poll: Where Do You Park. To all of you who replied, thank you. Of the 26 commuters who responded, 20 park indoors and 6 park outdoors. We split those into sub-categories as follows: Outdoor no rack – chained to whatever is available Outdoor, secured, covered Outdoor bike rack…
Ticking Over
Last week: 1:Redid the Template for my other blog BikeTrailerBlog.com. 2:Ran around like a headless chicken filling a steady stream of orders. 3:Got an account approved to start carrying Carry Freedom & Croozer trailers at the BikeTrailerShop.com. 4. Started advertising the BikeTrailerShop.com on CrazyGuyOnABike.com The orders have really started to pour in in the last…
Washington D.C. area Bike To Work Day
A quick pointer for those in the Washington, D.C. area: Washington Area Bike To Work Day will occur on Friday, May 18 in 2007. The Washington Area Bicyclist Association is sponsoring morning “pit stops,” convoys of bike commuters, and even free bike rentals for the day. Register with the WABA for prizes. Via DC Metro…
Raleigh Coasting photos
Raleigh Coasting: Chain Originally uploaded by richardmasoner. I tried out the Raleigh Coasting hybrid bike today. This bike is one of three currently available built around Shimano’s Coasting group, which features an electronic automatic shifter and coaster brakes. The Raleigh is a very pretty bike. I’ll have a more complete review soon. In the meantime,…
Bike To Work Day promotional video
From Stan Ng, producer of “Try Bicycling!”: Several Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) members have collaborated to produce and star in a local public access TV show to promote Bike-to-Work Day. That show can be seen on local, basic cable throughout Silicon Valley starting on Tuesday, April 17 and continuing to Bike to Work Day…
Commuting 101: Don't ride in the door zone
The door zone is the space within two to three feet of cars parked parallel on the roadway. If a driver suddenly opens his door in the path of a cyclist, that cyclist has been “doored.” As this recent tragic news from Australia reminds us, getting doored can get you killed. Sometimes the trauma of…
CBB Poll: Where Do You Park?
Noah, a fellow KC Area bike commuter, is trying to get some information on where we park our bikes. I’m interested as well and couldn’t think of a better forum than this to gather some data. Here is your chance to help; I’d like to get your location, which one of the following categories matches…
Bay Area Commuters Take Note
Attention Bay Area residents; the Bay Area Bicycle Coalition and Metropolitan Transportation Commission have started accepting nominations for the region’s 2007 Bike Commuter of the Year. Submit your nomination HERE According to the Bay City News Wire: In each of the nine Bay Area counties a bike commuter of the year will be nominated. Each…
Superfluous
Finally, an answer to the question I posed on March 14th: “Why would anyone NOT want to wear (a bike helmet)?” Well, it looks like sometimes a bike helmet doesn’t make sense…
Single Wheeled Trailers: Adding to the Art
The basic BOB Yak Trailers set the stage for imitators, as discussed in the last post, as well as trailers that owe their lineage to the BOB but have gone on in new directions. These inspired cargo haulers have evolved by adding suspension, different cargo configurations, different size wheels, multi-functionality and other features.
BOB’s Ibex trailer was introduced circa 2002. It offers suspension to improve the ride off road and on.
Go-Go-Gadget Helmet!
This is the Pulse Bicycle Safety Helmet – a Dyson Student Award finalist in the Australian Design Awards. Student Designer Julie-Ann Davies of Monash University has incorporated a number of cool features in a sturdy helmet, including: Built-in lighting Reflective surface materials Internal ventilation system – and my favorite – An Ear Drop feature which…
The Socks
This Week: 1. Got in the New BikeTrailerShop.com socks. 2. Layed out a cut pattern for the developing Wandertec BOB Trailer Liner. 3. Developed a new support brace for front-corner side panel on the CELLO bike case. Our BikeTrailerShop.com socks arrived from SockGuy this week. I had my girlfriend modeling them for the listing on…
Single Wheeled Trailers: The BOB Trailer Imitators
Imitation, the Greatest Form of Flattery
The BOB Trailer has first defined and then dominated the bike cargo trailer scene since it became available in the early 90’s. As evidence of its success there has been a significant train of imitators to follow. Some of these have brought added innovations while others are simply a lower quality knock off.
Commuting 101: Sun Glare in April and September
The Missouri Bicycle Federation has a press release on their site that reminds us that: “…near the first day of spring and the first day of autumn. At those times of year, the sun rises and sets directly to the east and west. Many of our streets are aligned east/west. With the sun low in…
Another New Mapping Toy From Google
Disclaimer: Although I am employed by Google, I have nothing to do with the Google Maps team. I don’t get any benefit from mentioning them – only the rationalization that I can, perhaps, play around with the maps at work a bit. With that said, there is a cool new feature on Google Maps this…
Clearing the air on San Francisco Critical Mass
There’s a lot of misinformation going around about the “attack” of a family in a minivan during San Francisco Critical Mass last Friday night. It started when San Francisco Chronicle columnists Matier & Ross (who are anti-cycling) wrote this very skewed editorial, claiming that a mob of crazed cyclists attacked an innocent family of vacationers…
Melanie Riding Big
This Week: 1. Worked on making the mLite available into the US in the next few months. 2. Capped off another record breaking month in Bike Trailer sales. 3. Tested out an Extrawheel bike trailer while watching my little sister take some names. Last weekend I was down in Phoenix to watch the opening round…
Mexico City: Commute by bike, or else
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard ordered city workers to commute by bike on the first Monday of each month, meeting with administration secretaries, sub-secretaries, and general directors and telling them not to take his cycling program lightly. Ebrard said a primary goal is to demonstrate the viability of bicycles as a means of transportation in…
We report, you decide
Reported variously in the Times of India, DailyIndia.com, Mumbai Newsline, Daily News and Analysis and Sahara Samay comes this whopper of a tale: Vinod Punamiya is an unusual sports lover. Last week, he made a world record by covering 140 km – from Mumbai to Dombivli – on his bicycle in 2 hours 20 minutes….
Commuting 101: Bike Shaped Objects
A Word about Bike Shaped Objects Bike geeks like me and the other authors of CbB often snicker about the “Bike Shaped Objects” (BSO) sold at the mass retail discount stores for less than $200. They’re heavy, ugly, inefficient, poorly engineered, poorly designed, and poorly assembled by the same guy who scoops the the dead…
Ride-Alongs
It has been noted here before, but bears repeating: one way to get more people out of their car seats and onto bicycle seats is to ride along with them on their initial trips. Makes perfect sense; strength in numbers and all that. With that in mind, I’ve seen some interesting spins on that idea…
Bike Trailer Videos Part 4
To wrap up this collection of bike trailer videos, I found a few videos that get into the message of bicycle transportation.
Selling the Revolution
This video was put together by the Xtracycle crew when they were first getting the Xtracycle out there. It tells the story of the Xtracycle by presenting the noble ambitions of the company and the product, the biases against it, and how the Xtracycle can improve your life.
Studded tires
Nashbar studded tire Originally uploaded by richardmasoner. Although my icebiking friends in Alaska continue to use their studded bike tires, most of the Northern Hemisphere has escaped the grip of winter. Al asks, though, about information on studded tires. This photo shows my Nashbar studded tire. Nashbar sells a 700×35 version also for CX and…