As a life-long cyclist, I have found many times that I’ve wanted or needed to carry one bike with another. The main reason I’ve needed to transport another bike is because I need to get the out of commission bike down to the bike shop. But there are all sorts of other logistical reasons where…
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In Tokyo a bicycle is faster than a car: Useless information or instructive tale?
“In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes.” Thus saith the Internet. Many of us who live or have lived in congested cities will find this easy to believe. This “fact” was brought to my attention by Ray, a reader of Commute by Bike, who found…
Amy's Trailer-Cycle and Her Son's Big Smiles
With our Adam’s Trailer-Cycle Sale running through next Tuesday, I wanted to post this submission from a family who has been able to share the joys of cycling with their son who has Down syndrome We were so grateful to find your “trail-a-bike!” Our little boy has Down syndrome and at age 9 still does…
Winter Trail Commuting by Mountain Bike
Emily is an outdoorsy sort at heart who was raised in the north of England, where, unlike London, they’ve actually heard of a great outdoors! Nowadays she spends too much time in front of a computer doing this ‘earning a living’ thing. When she gets time she likes to hit the trails and escape the…
Christmas Shopping For Cyclists
I hope that you have a cyclist in your family that you get to do some Christmas shopping for. Chances are if you are reading this, that you are a cyclist, but I don’t know what the chances are that that means there is another cyclist close to you who you suspect might be excited…
Lazy amateur bike mechanics, this is for you: Feedback Work Stand
When it comes to bike maintenance, I come from the school of Turn The Bike Upside Down and Fumble With It. Also known as self taught. Any bike shop that would hire me as mechanic deserves to go out of business. Yet, I occasionally find myself being thought of as a bike repair go-to guy…
Pedal to Properties
Pedal to Properties
League Seeks Bicycle Friendly America Local Reviewers
To assist in its review of Bicycle Friendly Businesses, Bicycle Friendly Communities and Bicycle Friendly Universities, the League of American Bicyclists is seeking knowledgeable cyclists for its local reviewer database. The Bicycle Friendly America program, which includes categories ranging from small businesses to states and universities, recognizes the efforts of people and organizations dedicated to…
Four Things I Forgot about Winter Bike Commuting (In Eight Short Months)
Today I did my first official slippery-road, snow-coming-down, winter-is-here, denial-is-no-longer-an-option commute of the season. I’ve been thinking about winter commuting in the abstract; from a blogging point of view. I’ve been thinking, Yeah, yeah. Every other bike blog is going to do the obligatory series of posts on winter bike commuting; regurgitating the same how-to’s…
Bike Improvements in Chicago
Bike Improvements in Chicago
Steerer Tube Mounted Cygolite
I needed to mount a front bike light to the Urbana Current that I am currently testing for the JOYBAG project. The Bionx kit has a light built into the battery so I was all set there. The bracket for this front light was not designed to lock down on the narrow gauge handlebars. Surprisingly…
Geek my Fixie – Part 2: Green Guru Dutchy Pannier
Josh King lives in Seattle, where he commutes by bike every day, rain or shine. He switched to full-time single speed commuting in 2010. You can read his thoughts on going gearless at www.singlespeedseattle.com Not content with a boring black grocery-getting pannier, I’ve added the colorful Green Guru Dutchy Pannier. It’s made from recycled material,…
Ortlieb Plus Saddle Bag
What does one consider about a thing as inert as a seat bag when preparing to review it? Does the seat bag hold stuff securely and with minimal rattling or damage? Does the seat bag stay on the bike and not fall off without warning? Does the seat bag mount to the bike in a…
World Bicycle Relief Impacts in Zambia
World Bicycle Relief Impacts in Zambia
Spreading Holiday Cheer, Bicycle Advocacy Style
For cyclists in Wisconsin, there were exciting modifications to some bicycling-specific state laws as Governor Scott Walker signed AB265 last week. The new set of regulations, nicknamed the "Bicycle Tune-Up Bill," was introduced by Representative Keith Ripp (R) and drew bi-partisan support. The Bicycle Tune-Up Bill addressed several antiquated laws, including regulations regarding hand signaling…
Bike Race to the Bottom — Amazon.com Style
Before you head over to Amazon.com to buy cycling accessories, do you mind if I gripe about how Amazon.com plays the price-matching game? You don’t mind? Thank you. Previously, I wrote about Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP), and how it means that bike shops that play by the rules can’t advertise below certain price points, but…
Adams Trail-A-Bike and a Bike Commuting Family
In the midst of our Black Friday thru Cyber Monday sales, we’ve also launched some sales on our trailer-cycles. We have both Adams and Weehoo Trailer Cycles on sale for 10% off through Dec. 13th.This photo was snapped riding along side a bike commuting family that I kept seeing towards the end of the summer….
20% off Chrome on a Small Business Saturday
You may or may not have heard of Small Business Saturday. Today is a great day to support small, local businesses.While we are not local to most of our customers, we can certainly qualify for your patronage today as a small business with a focus on community. And as of this May, we also do…
Small Business Saturday
November 26, 2011 is Small Business Saturday, a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which tend to benefit major big box retail and e-commerce stores. Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to buy from businesses that are small and local. I believe in shopping local, and supporting small businesses. But not all brick-and-mortar business…
Xuzhou's Bike Touring Smorgasbord for Black Friday Sales
I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving celebrations. Now that you’ve fueled up on some good home cooking, like the rest of retail America, we are encouraging you to burn up all those extra calories in a buying frenzy. We’ve got a whole bunch of Black Friday thru Cyber Monday Specials underway. Here is a quick…
Thanksgiving Turkey and the Many Hats of Robin Carlson
I thought today would be a good day to post some silly photos of Robin wearing some of his packing material based hats for two reasons. #1 Robin is our own in-house turkey keeping us all entertained with his antics and this is the day of Turkeys. #2 it just so happens today is Robin’s…
Green Guru Spinner Backpack
Zipper pulls. That’s really all I’m asking for. Zipper pulls. I’ve owned a lot of backpacks over the years. Messenger bags, too. And, for several years, mostly just so that I would be able to confidently tell people, I’ve commuted with a messenger bag for years, I’ve been commuting somewhat consistently with a messenger bag….
A Raleigh Traditionalist and The Raleigh Classic Roadster
I’ve been a Raleigh fan for as long as I can remember. My first 10-speed was a Raleigh Record, bought and paid for with hard-earned car waxing money. I knew all about “wax-on, wax-off” long before Ralph was just a gleam in Mr. Macchio’s eye. But for all the cars I waxed to earn that…
Paseo de Todos Ride in Guadalajara
Paseo de Todos Ride in Guadalajara