After 3 years of helping grow the Campfire Cycling, our star employee Megan Fitch is moving on to new opportunities and adventures, pursuing her masters degree in Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. We had a going away shin dig for her last week. Here is the whole crew out at Beaver Street…
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Bontrager Race Lite Hardcase Tire Review
Disclosure: My full-time employer is an independent bicycle retailer, and we sell tires. Lots of tires, in all shapes and sizes, including the tires that are described in this review. I am announcing this fact at the beginning of this tire review because it may lead some readers to believe that I am biased. I…
Burley Child, Cargo, & Dog Trailers Sale!
ALLBurleyTrailersare 10% off through August 2nd – Extended to August 15th!
Deconstructing Burley
I was on the Burley Website recently while poaching images to use in this newsletter. When I found this guy. And I thought, I am such a dumb ass. I’m always wondering how to convince more people to take bikes seriously as transportation. Is it the economic argument? Is it the quality of life argument?…
Rolling with the Ebikes at the Flagstaff Farmers Market
This weekend, we had our 2nd appearance at the Flagstaff Farmer’s Market. For this go around, I had the inspiration to bring out my rollers. People were first perplexed and then entertained to see me balancing on the rollers, not pedaling at all (Ted should have some video up over at Commute By Bike in…
Baiku: Very Short Poems Made While Riding A Bicycle
Chris Brandt is a writer, activist, translator, carpenter, furniture designer, theatre worker. He teaches in the English Department and the Peace and Justice Program at Fordham University. Poems and essays have been published in Spain, France, Mexico and the US; translations in The New Yorker and by Seven Stories Press, UC Berkeley, and the Instituto…
A Fish's Wild Ride: Transporting Fish by Mountain Bike
Over the last two years here at Utility Cycling we have tried to research, explore, experience, and write about all of the different potential uses for a bicycle to accomplish a meaningful goal that is not sport or recreation focused. We have covered everything from emergency and patrol services by bike to bicycle messengers to…
Orontas Plant-Based Lube and Cleaner Review
Nathan Friedman specializes in living the good life and making it look easy. Mountain biking all summer and skiing all winter, Nate is a rock star of the outdoor opportunities in the Southwest. To get some inspiration on living life to the fullest, check out his blog, Handlebar Sandwich. Chain lube. It seems like such…
BOB Trailers at the Muscle Beach
What other kind of vacation would inspire a skinny guy like this to flex his muscles in the psuedo, macho revelry of the joy of freedom and accomplishment? Making it anywhere under your own power is always something to be satisfied by in my book. And from the look on our friends face, I’m guessing…
New Belgium Brewery: 'If it’s not fun, it’s not sustainable'
There is a vast array of reasons to commute by bike. People who choose to cycle for transportation do so because, for many, it is the most efficient, enjoyable and sustainable way to travel. At New Belgium Brewery, bikes are a natural part of the company culture, as the Colorado-based brewerys core values and beliefs…
Here Come the Bike Lights!
Next up on the agenda for Campfire Cycling is finding the best brands of bike lights to offer up at the new specialty shop that we’ve got under development BikeTechShop.com. There is an amazing variety of high quality cycling lights these days and we’re getting quite excited to wrap our brains around all the options…
Misery in the Median: The Quality of Life Argument for Cycling
We bike commuters specifically, and cyclists generally, like to talk about how being on a bike heightens our awareness of our environment and our communities. But this aspect of cycling remains one of the hardest to communicate to a non-cyclist. Your most poetic description of “heightened awareness” won’t convince sedentary habitual motorist to think, I…
Road to Ruin: A Transportation Bill Roundup
Since he introduced his proposal for the next surface transportation re-authorization bill late last week, John Mica (R-FL) has become public enemy number one in the bicycle advocacy world as well as in many other interest groups that would suffer from this proposed drastic reduction in transportation funding. The new bill calls for a 33%…
Peace, Love, and Tour Potatoes
This morning I swung by KickStand Kafé all in the name of testing a newly-mounted bottle cage on my Dahon for its compatibility with my commuter coffee mug. While there, I found a deeper purpose to my commute. The building occupied by KickStand used to be a bike/ski shop, and the owners very shrewdly have…
Clips of Faith
New Belgium’s Clips of Faith was in town last Friday, and even though it was threatening rain, my wife and I went. Clips of Faith is a beer sampling and independent film tour. And even if you’re not a beer lover, it’s a nice way to spend an evening. The whole story is that until…
Detroit Bike City
Detroit Bike City
Hell's Backbone Grill
Last weekend my wife and I took a road trip up to Bryce Canyon. On our second day there, we took an excursion up route 12 to Boulder, Utah.Our drive took us through some amazing country as we passed the Escalante National Monument. We took a detour onto Hell’s Backbone Road, a road built in…
Ebikes Rides at the Flagstaff Farmers Market
Here is our ragtag setup at the Flagstaff Farmer’s Market a few weekends ago. Art Babbot, a Flagstaff city council member and organizer extraordinaire welcomed us to set up a booth under the auspice of educating people about Electric Bikes. We were instructed to be low key on the marketing and focus on the educational…
Lazer Krux Helmet Review
Keith Earickson is a transient who is currently headquartered in Flagstaff, AZ. He writes a filthy, NSFA (Not Safe For Anything) blog at www.spacedriftin.blogspot.com and is enjoying his switch from a crappy, no-name beach cruiser to a fully loaded Surly LHT way too much. He has forgotten how to drive a car. Recently I was…
A Recovery Child Trailer Turned Cargo – P.2
Following up on a DIY bike trailer project that we published the first phases of last September, Harry sent us these photos of the next steps in the project. It’s done. Total cost: $75 ($50 for new tires, tubes, $25 for velcro). And a lot of time. The fabric is rip-stop nylon (donated by my…
Top 10 Reasons Sen. Chuck Schumer Opposes Bike Lanes
Tom Bowden is a bike commuter from Richmond VA, a "suit" – a corporate lawyer with an MBA, and a conservative "“ You betcha! He is also a board member of BikeWalk Virginia, a pro cycling and pedestrian group in Virginia that raises raises money to promote cycling, walking and active lifestyles. Tom’s lawyerly blogging…
Bin Feng Zheng's NYC Biking Story
Bin Feng Zheng’s NYC Biking Story
Ibera PakRak Commuter Bike Bag and Rack Review
Pete Prebus is the guy at Electric Bike Report, a website dedicated to getting the word out about electric bikes through e-bike news, reviews, guides, and general e-bike advocacy. Pete wants to encourage more people to ride bikes by providing good info about e-bikes and all the benefits (all the time) they have over driving…
CETMA Cargo Bikes
CETMA Cargo Bikes!