I managed to forge a cycling purpose into a non-cycling vacation in August, 2011, using the brute force of a big-ass 1996 GMC camper van. Here are the posts: Vapid Transit, Snap Judgements, How to Blow $20 in Boulder, Public Art You Can't See from a Car, and How does your town say "˜No Bicycles?' This is not a biking vacation. My wife and I are driving a big-ass 1996 GMC van borrowed from…
I rode a fixed-gear bike for the first time the other day (after Matt’s photo shoot). I went about 50 yards and it did not weird me out as expected. And there you have my review of fixies. From now on, I can talk about them from experience; with expertise, no less. Yesterday I saw…
Campfire Cycling is up three blocks and to the right from this spot on South San Francisco Street in downtown Flagstaff. Notice Mount Elden on the upper right which is still topless from a burn that set it ablaze about 25 years ago.
This video is getting a fair amount of play on the Internet. You may have already seen it. A thief, caught on a security camera, begins to take off with a bike. Someone, identified as Kristen, runs out and thwarts the thief. Kristen is the employee of a communications company that knows the value of…
We have covered a wide range of Emergency and Patrol Services by Bike here at Utility Cycling, but it recently became apparent that we were missing one major component of this topic: military bicycles. The use of bicycles by military groups has been around for nearly as long as the bicycle. Bicycles provide an effective…
Yesterday my Levi’s 511 Skinny Commuter Jeans arrived at work toward the end of the day. These are the ones that have had several bike bloggers salivating. But salivating is okay, because the Nanosphere ® technology on the fabric makes the pants drool-resistant. I ripped open the FedEx envelope, and… the pants were khaki colored. That’s…
I’ve heard inferences, rumors, and hearsay that bike seats are bad for man parts. I didn’t take them too seriously, but nonetheless I made a mental note to look into it one of these days. One Of These Days arrived yesterday morning with the first bike-related thing I read: Standard bicycle seats, it turns out,…
Stuart’s been working hard on organizing the assembly/repair area of the shop, building a variety of metal tables for work surfaces and organizing all of the tools. With this project completed, he is back to wrapping up the massive bike rack sculpture project before diving into bike trailer prototyping mode. Stu is pictured here with…
I was happy with how the light contrasted the black and silver in this photo of an Urbana Current Electric Bike. Pete of Electric Bike Report has recently wrapped up his 6 week test and should have a review up on his website soon. With the bike back at our shop, we are getting underway…
The United States Postal Service is ready to again give us our day in line with stamps celebrating bicycling–having already honored The Simpsons, Cinderella, E.T., countless cars, motorcycles, aircraft, trains, plus real and fictional spaceships. (Not to mention the Gambling-Addicted Twin Sister of The Statue of Liberty). The stamps will be available in 2012. Each…
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…
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…
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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?…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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%…
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…
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