This should garner a “best costume” award for you…If that’s not to your liking, here are some more ideas.

Subscribe to the BikeDenver RSS feed

Take a look at this brief slideshow review of LED bike lights from the New York Times. Monica Howe, the outreach coordinator at the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and an avid cyclist, tested L.E.D. lights from the new generation while riding at night in Los Angeles, downtown and on dimly lighted side streets. That the review is featured in the “Fashion and Style” section is another topic for discussion, but if you’re in the market for a new bike light to get you through the dark nights of winter, this is a good place to start.

Subscribe to the BikeDenver RSS feed

Was it a Schwinn? Red, purple, blue? Maybe a banana seat, a basket, and streamers coming off the handlebar grips? Mine was a yellow Huffy with a flowered banana seat. I never did get that Schwinn, and I wanted an Apple Krate in the worst way. Bikes Belong is capitalizing on the nostalgia we all have for our first bike. They are starting a “Remember Me” campaign, aimed at getting non-riders back on their bikes. Take a look at their ads for a taste of nostalgia.

Subscribe to the BikeDenver RSS feed

Now, if we can just get the City of Denver to realize this…

In “Wheels of Fortune” in Grist Magazine, author Alan Durning explores how and why building bikeways makes sense–both for personal and community economics. The article is loaded with references to other research, so even if you don’t agree with what the author posits, you can check out the data for yourself. Plus there are pretty pictures in the article and links to music videos. What more could you want? Of course, I’m preaching to the choir, given the likely readership of this post, but it’s always good to have data to support your cause.

Subscribe to the BikeDenver RSS feed

Here’s a fossil-free way to mow your lawn while getting in a ride! I can’t wait for the day that the lawn-mowing crews show up on these.

Subscribe to the BikeDenver RSS feed

This NY Times Article addresses some of the statistical features of bike riding to work, it does miss the mark.  As many of the comments illustrate, the high accident rate is due to bias introduced when they tally them by miles travelled, not by trip.  Most drivers put 15,000 miles on their cars per year, while I think only Race Across America cyclists and professionals put that many on their bikes.  The comments get into a good discussion of helmets, my favorite one is this one:

“I spent a lot of time and money filling my head with information that I really want to keep around. So I never ride without a helmet. It is really like a seatbelt, after you use one EVERY TIME for a while you don’t even notice it.”

Subscribe to the BikeDenver RSS feed

This week’s Westword features an interesting story about messengers, their organization, and the cultural implications of the messenger fashion fad.

Read the article:
Denver’s Bike Messengers Are a Union Divided

For those of us riding fixies and donning Timbuk2 bags, the question becomes:
Are we bike commuters making a difference for Denver’s health, traffic and air quality?
Or are we poseur wannabes, diluting the caché of a subculture to which we do not belong?

Subscribe to the BikeDenver RSS feed

Have you ever had someone tell you, “I would ride my bike but it’s too dangerous?” This article in Grist magazine looks at several sources of bicycle safety data to determine if bicycling is really that dangerous. The article also points out that we’re not entirely rational about our travel decisions, case in point being that if the danger of cycling seems excessive, consider that riding a bus or train is 10 times safer than riding in a car, per mile, according to the same researchers. Many people won’t bike because it’s “too dangerous,” but not many people refuse to drive because transit is so much safer. The article also makes some good points on how we can make bicycling safer here in the U.S. Now we just need to convince our policymakers that it’s a good idea, too.

Subscribe to the BikeDenver RSS feed