“We have this picture of cycling commuters as being like supermen, and that discourages other people from doing it,” said P.M. Summer, transportation alternatives coordinator for the city of Dallas. “When I came into this job, our thinking was we needed to enable cyclists to make 40-mile bike trips. Now my thinking is we need…
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Bicycle Fenders
Fenders or mudguards protect your bike and your clothing from grit and grime when the roads are wet from rain and melted snow. Although they won’t keep you completely dry when it’s actually raining, fenders help tremendously to keep your backside and bottom side dry and clean. Good Fenders also protect your bike by helping…
Christmas lights on the bike
I bought some inexpensive battery powered LED Christmas lights from Walgreens, secured them to the Raleigh One Way with electrical tape and the result is a new incentive to ride! Right now, the batteries are strapped underneath my seat bag. If you run lights along your chainstay like I did, ensure the wires and lights…
Winter Riding Tips From Someone Who Knows
I’ve been sidelined by the Midwest ice storm so I’ve had to delay the inaugural ride of my XYZ Bikes Beach Cruiser. Actually, tomorrow marks a week of not riding for one reason or another. I wimped out, mostly; so here are some tips on riding in snow from one of the people who inspired…
New Shop on the Verge…
This week at Wandertec Bicycle Cargo Design: 1: Dug out from 2ft of snow. 2: Watched as the workshop is getting achingly close to completion. The shops is in a bit of chaos now as the buildings are being joined together. Once completed, I’ll be moving the ShopBot and sewing machines all into the same…
That's the way, patriot.
I posted about this video a couple of years ago, but it’s marking the rounds again and is worth a repeat. “That’s the way, patriot. Let the OPECs keep their gasoline. We’ll just tap into a far more efficient energy source.”
Bicycle commute news
Snow and ice has gripped part of the U.S. Midwest, but there’s still plenty of bicycle commute action happening. Seen in the news recently: Cycling is becoming more accepted among the middle class in India, where workers in the high tech industry are now seen bicycling across the traffic clogged streets of Bangalore. Since the…
How Was Your Commute Today?
A weekly question to hopefully inspire and motivate. So how was your commute today? There was no commute for me today. While the significant other is out of town it is my job to take care of our two dogs, one of them is only 6 months old and can’t last inside as long as…
Commuting 101: Roundabouts
In The Art of War, Sun Tzu advises you to “know your enemy.” I’m not saying that motorists are a cyclist’s enemy (though some of you would disagree,) but I am saying it helps to think like a motorist at times. Back in 2000 a group of researchers studied how motorists interact with cyclists at…
Carry Freedom's DIY Bamboo
Carry Freedom has offered up plans for building a bike cargo trailer with locally available materials. They offer their plans for no cost. Their goal is to encourage the use of bike cargo trailers. By making these plans available, those who cannot afford a manufactured bike cargo trailer are better enabled to build their own trailer.
Carry Freedom is particularly interested in evolving a good Do-It-Yourself design for use in 3rd World areas with poor transportation resources. Bike cargo trailers can be used as an essential transportation tool in poor, isolated areas. While bicycles can be found in these parts of the world, bike cargo trailers are often very hard to come by. A basic bike cargo trailer is essentially a simple devise from an engineering and manufacturing view point. It is the type of devise that can be built by its user much more easily than a bicycle itself.
How Cold Was Your Commute Today?
As you might of seen from the comments from our post earlier in the week some people ride in rather cold weather! What was the weather like on your commute? What is the coldest you have ridden or commuted in? How did you dress to keep warm and dry? Share your stories!
XYZ Bikes Men's Cruiser – Out of the Box
I took a little heat a while back when I reviewed the Gary Fischer Mendota. A few of you were disappointed that that bike cost around $1,000. What about people who are considering commuting by bike but don’t want to shell out a bunch of money in the event they decide it isn’t for them?…
Saw my first hokey spokes up close
I’ve seen them on large group rides, but this is the first time I’ve seen them in the wild up close. Wow, they are very very noticeable from the sides! This photo from my point-and-shoot camera doesn’t do it justice — the camera flash completely washes out the image created by the Hokey Spokes. The…
How Was Your Commute Today?
Here in Charlotte, NC its still in the 50’s with sun most days. Where are you and what was your commute like? Photos and stories are welcome.
$75 Bike Trailer Dreams
There is a growing selection of bike cargo trailers available to cyclists. However, bike cargo trailers are still a niche/specialty product. Because of this, their price is relatively high as compared to the majority of bicycles sold. A new bicycle trailer will cost between $200 and $400. For someone who is poor, on a budget, or just not interested in spending very much on bicycling equipment, $200+ is cost prohibitive.
Bike cargo trailers are a great enabling force for bicyclists. Many bicyclists discover that they hardly use a car anymore once they have discovered all the loads they can transport by bike trailer. For bicyclists with less money to spend, the advantage of being able to get oneself and all of one’s stuff around by bicycle is even more greatly appreciated.
Floats Away
This week: 1. Sold some demo CELLOS bike trailer shipping cases. 2. Worked on some ideas for updating the CELLO design for its next incarnation, hopefully sometime next year. 3. Picked up some pallet shelves for stacking bike cargo trailers on. 4. Wished I could have done more but time sometimes floats away.
Commuting 101: Winter Cycling? Don't Get Cold Feet!
I was talking with a fellow cyclist at church the Sunday morning after Thanksgiving. I asked him if he was still riding and he told me he had hung it up for the season; he said his feet get too cold. What a coincidence! A little over a year ago Jason left a brief comment…
Weather Channel: Ride your bike in the winter
The Weather Channel featured this “Ride your bike in the winter” video recently in their Top Stories video section. Weather Channel reporter Jorma Duran visited a Chicago bike shop where they talked about how to keep cycling in the winter. Their tips? Fenders, layering, and lights. See also Chicago Bike Winter for more Chicago winter…
Ideas Wanted For Holiday Gift Lists
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. I can’t tell you how relieved my family was when I took up commuting by bicycle. Finally, they had something they could use as a foundation for gift ideas for someone who had been a rather elusive person to buy a present for. So, last Christmas I…
Google Top 10 in the Top 3
This week at Wandertec: 1. Started the final cap-off to the BikeTrailerShop.com marketing campaign: My buddy Ben, my web-marketing guru, and I were discussing the success of the marketing campaign for BikeTrailerShop.com. We concluded that things were looking very good. The key components of the campaign are high results in Google Searches, a well constructed…
Black Friday Shopping
As everyone you know is getting up early to frantically shop for that perfect gift – sit back and relax as the boys at Twin Six have you covered! It is my duty as a friend and sponsored rider of Twin Six to announce their Black Friday One Day Sale. (Yes some people would call…
Thankful cyclist
Note: Thanksgiving Day is a major U.S. holiday. Many of us have four day weekends where we eat too much, watch too much football, shop too much, and shoot a lot of woodland and prairie creatures. In the old days when I was a teenager — you know, the simple days when dinosaurs roamed etc,…
Conspicuity for color blind drivers
Most of us have “normal” color vision. For those of us who like to dress for conspicuity or visibility, we judge the visibility of our clothing based on our vision. About seven to eight percent of the male population in Western nations, however, are color blind to some degree. Is your blaze orange hunting vest…
My Birthday was Last Week
The 13th was my birthday. I’m not a huge fan of birthdays, why celebrate getting a year older? Why is this day different than the last? The best thing to do on your birthday? Ride your bike! I have been riding into work a couple times a week since I started my new job a…