I’ve been riding bicycles for a long time without ever having used a helmet mounted mirror, 33 years to be exact. And I know plenty of cyclists with far more miles under the belt who scoff at the idea of attaching a shiny piece of metal to their brain bucket as a matter of principle….
The NRA convention just concluded a few days ago, and let me say that I had a great time — not being there. But I’ve been thinking about the NRA for the last week because of the ongoing fuss over Volvo “Life Paint” — the amazing new reflective paint that Volvo thinks will bolster their…
Prelude. Cars can be habit-forming. I lazily slid into the All-American habit of driving my car to work as I navigated a series of changes in my career, domicile and personal life. So when I received the email from Commute by Bike asking for someone to review a bike, I thought, Hey, that might be…
I bought a bike in Madagascar.I met a kid in the town of Mahajanga. Five years old and full of attitude. I couldn’t understand much of what he said in Malagasy, but bicyclette came through loud and clear.He wanted one, bad. I told him I’d work on it.A month later I heard from the kid’s…
There are lot of photos of my left hand and arm in this post. But if you look closely, you’ll see a couple of bikes. Some bicyclists do need to carry water — a few yards, or even miles from where the water will be consumed. It’s the way of the world, but maybe not…
I spent one week bicycle commuting and mountain biking with a front-wheel mounted Monkey Light M204 a wheel light that offers (mostly) 360 visibility. The M204 is the less expensive model of Monkey Lights from MonkeyLectric.After watching the installation video, installation went fairly smooth. A quick peak of the user guide then I was off…
In 2011 we decided to explore the opportunity of selling electric bicycles and e-bike kits online. It didn’t go well, but we learned quite a bit along the way. I’m here to tell the tale and while I’m at it announce our 25% off BionX Clearance.As you may already know the business behind this blog,…
Let me just cut to the chase; I dont normally wear clothes made for bike riding. However, Vespertines reflective Vespert vest intrigued me as a fashionable solution to my recent concerns about being visible on Phoenixs often inhospitable streets. When I started blogging about my experiences commuting by bike, one of the points that…
We all know for a fact that toilets and drains swirl counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. (And by “fact” I mean “falsehood.”)But did you know that south of the equator riser bars become drop bars? That’s right. I have the scientific proof from Madagascar.Check it out: I think…
More than ten thousand miles from where I sit, there is a storage unit filled with the other 99 percent of my life’s accumulated crap; the stuff I left behind when I shipped off to Madagascar. This includes all four of my bikes. I crammed that unit full of my material attachments like a minor…
Its beginning to look a lot like Black Friday, soon it will be Cyber Monday. Take a look at our bike gift recommendations, glistening once again with exactly what the cyclists in your family really want. I’ve broken down our gift recommendations into a few main categories. As this is CommuteByBike.com we’ll start with bike…
Here at Commute by Bike and our sister site, www.CampfireCycling.com, we get a lot of happy folks who are very excited to share how they use their bikes for tours, commutes, and all other fun adventures. Today, we’ve got a round-up of some of the creative and epic uses of some great gear. DIY Trailers…
Anything that combines two of my favorite things – geography and bicycling – is something I can’t help but share with you all! Hooray for bike maps! Earlier this month, at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, geography professor Dr. Trisalyn Nelson launched a new bike mapping website called BikeMaps.org. The website is a…
Car Free Day from Riga, Latvia
Before coming to Madagascar I spent a lot of time organizing my storage unit – and getting pulled into the kind of distracted, time-consuming reminiscing that happens whenever I get near all my old junk. I came across this booklet: “Transportation Patterns in Nairobi & Programs to Improve Opportunities for Bicycling [PDF]” published by the…
An article recently came out in The Guardian titled, “The reason fewer US women cycle than the Dutch is not what you think it is.” This title grabbed my attention immediately, as it was meant to do, and I began to wonder if there was something I already thought about this matter as the title…
In some past lifetime, long ago, in other words, before I had a child, bike commuting was pretty much what it sounded like: riding my bicycle to get from point A to point B and back again. I used racks and panniers, front and rear. Simple. Then I had a child. And bike commuting looked…
After a week in Madagascar, I finally got a bike! I rode home to my apartment, taking selfies all the way. That week without a bike served me well. I spent some time on foot, in taxis, taking small public transportation buses (taxi brousse), and bumming rides from various colleagues with their SUVs. I observed…
Note: This was written on September 21, 2014Not too long ago I announced that I would be working in Madagascar for a number of months. Well here I am, in Madagascar. I arrived today.Ever since that announcement the one topic that has come up repeatedly has been…Can you guess it? Ebola! Almost to a person,…
For the last 4 years I have been dedicated to living a car free life. Four years ago I sold my last car, bought a bike and said goodbye to gas forever. Over the years I’ve added pannier racks, Panniers, commuter bags, trunk bags and rack top cargo boxes in an effort to be…
The name Cherokee Schill is going viral this week. If you haven’t heard of Cherokee yet, here’s her story (as I have pieced together from the Interwebs).Earlier this year, Cherokee first made the news after she was ticketed three times for “reckless driving”. Cherokee is a single mother of two who bike commutes 18 miles…
Bike Lane Buffer Zone
Recently, I was riding to a friend’s house to do some bike part swapping. I was a riding the route I typically use to his house. I was nearly injured or killed by a driver on a cell phone because they some how thought the bike lane was also a right turn lane. I came…
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