Yesterday was nepotism day here on Commute by Bike. Today it’ll be cronyism. Tobias Eigen is a friend from the years I spent living in the Washington, DC Beltway — Takoma Park, Maryland to be specific. (“Capital of hippie-land… home of the squirrel lady and that guy who walks around swinging a dead fox.”) I…
Matthew D. Johnson, Ph.D. is the director of the Marriage and Family Studies Laboratory and formerly the deputy to the president of Binghamton University, blah de blah blah… He’s my brother. Sounds like a smart guy, huh? Like I said, he’s my brother. Decide for yourself. –Ted I have been thinking about the advantages of…
It’s been a busy summer of sales at the www.CampfireCycling.com and the JOYBAG ® project stalled out of the gates a bit as our team got sidetracked from blogging with fulfilling all of those nagging orders that kept coming in. But like a caterpillar into its cocoon our collective JOYBAG ® mind has been weaving away and…
I wasn’t really using this basket to carry laundry. But zip tying on the back of the A2B Metro’s bike rack was a convenient place to get it home to where it was needed. I think there is an interesting collision of junk, tetchiness and consumer products in this photo bending in tones of grey.
One of the most common pieces of advice that newbie commuters hear is that you can never be too visible. From a mostly selfish point of view, I have to agree with this sage advice. If I'm riding at night through the streets of DC, I prefer to be as visible as possible so that…
With the launch of BikeTechShop.com, we are becoming quite familiar with electric bike and electric assist kits. Another direction in electric that we’ve always been interested especially given our roots with BikeTrailerShop.comhas been electric powered bike trailers. The idea of having an electric push from a bike trailer has intrigued us from multiple perspectives. It…
Carbuzz.co.uk is a UK-based a car research site, which momentarily lost command of their senses and published “What drivers can do to be more cyclist aware.” One of the authors is Chris Gidney, “a keen cyclist and technician at SRAM.” Carlton Reid also has some of his fingerprints on this. It’s hard to imagine a…
Last winter, I broke my pinky at the start of the cold season. I was riding a road bike at night, without bike lights, down a trail with the brakes a bit out of tune. I bailed out while dealing with a deep rut in the trail. Surgery ensued, with little pins holding my mangled…
If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been and why I don’t write more often, then you are my mom. But the answer is Bike Tech Shop. I’ve been pouring many work hours into launching this new online shop dedicated to “cycling with circuitry.” Clever, huh? Commute by Bike has been, well, slightly neglected while my…
We’re incredibly excited to be announcing the launch of our fourth specialty cycling accessory shop, BikeTechShop.com! BikeTechShop.com is a shop that will be dedicated to all things with circuitry that go on a bike. At the top of the list are bike lights, electric bikes and GPS systems. But a big part of what inspires…
BluesCat is a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, who originally returned to bicycling in 2002 in order to help his son get the Boy Scout Cycling merit badge. His bikes sat idle until the summer of 2008 when gas prices spiked at over $4.00 per gallon. Since then, he has become active cycling, day-touring, commuting by…
Here is an interesting adaptation of our in-house built bike trailer, the Wandertec BONGO. We designed this trailer with modification and customization in mind. It is a great platform for quite a few different uses. And it always seems that there are more unique uses for it. Using it for transporting a wheelchair behind a…
Americans tend to be very shy about asking for better prices. Maybe it’s part of the reason we accept having obnoxious pitchmen shouting Sale! Sale! Sale! at us. It compensates for our own reticence to initiate a deal on our own. When I returned from two-and-a-half years of living in Cameroon, I couldnt pay retail…
A customer from Japan sent us in this photo of his Xtracycle out for its first test ride, outfitted with the Flight Deck and Pannier Racks. We’ve heard and seen with increased sales that Xtracycle’s are becoming quite a hit in Japan in recent years. In Masahiro’s words: When doing a test ride to the…
Hey bike commuters! Want to scare your coworkers? Keep doing what you’re doing. I came to work today… [dramatic pause] … on a bicycle! Mwahahahahahah!!! You know, because ridiculing their fear of cycling just might work. Or you might be able to get away with it because it’s Halloween. Or if, like me, you work…
Batman, who apparently also moonlights as a keyboardist, sent in this photo of his bike trailer setup. I’m guessing that the somewhat blurry, dark photo was taken as Batman was jumping on his bike to chase after a criminal in between gigs. Or perhaps it was intentionally blurry to hide some of its alternative crime…
So a cyclist is cruising down the sidewalk, and there’s a close call with a pedestrian — or maybe even a collision. Harsh words are exchanged. You should be in the street, you mountain of mad flesh! I can’t ride in the street, you cockered dread-bolted strumpet. There’s no bike lane! Listen, you rampallian, you…
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. I’ve had the chance to review…
Frequent readers of Commute by Bike will know that we try very hard to be bike-partisan here. I like to think of this blog as a safe haven for cyclists of all political persuasions. I love the kum-bike-ya moments when I can find them. Lately, though, the Republicans in Congress are making it harder and…
Shawn Kielty is a Software Engineer, Artist, Photographer, and avid outdoor enthusiast, enjoying cycling and other human powered travel. Travel stories from on his blog Flat Tire Paradise amuse, entertain, and encourage readers to get outside and have some fun. A friend and I went out to Jack London Square in Oakland, California on Saturday…
Ruben Hekkens is a graduate student at the Delft University of Technology, in Delft, Netherlands. As a masters project, he is developing a “lifestyle bicycle helmet for use in urban environments.” Because very few urban cyclists in Holland wear helmets, Ruben sees an opportunity. It reminded me of an old marketing parable of two shoe…
I am a female cyclist. As a female cyclist, I do have to deal with one of the inevitable facts of being a woman approximately every twenty-eight days. However, considering how this fact of life affects transportation cyclists who lack the Y chromosome had never occurred to me until my editor sent me a link…
We all know that the aversion some people have to commuting to work is partially because of the logistics and planning involved — at least in the beginning. After a time, these logistics become as second nature to us as, say, stopping for gas, or texting while driving is to many motorists. Bike commuting has…
The theme for this weeks posts seems to be followups on previously submitted bike trailer posts. Last week I posted quite a few images of Steve’s innovative jumbo trailer. He sent in a few more images showing the rig he set up to haul his wagon around with. Appropriately enough, he’s got a new Surly…
on orders of $149 or more ***exclusions apply