We were on the local bike path this Thursday with our local transportation agency TAMC to serve up breakfast, talk bikes, and share commute stories. We discovered that people are passionate about their bikes and we saw all kinds including a mom riding her daughter’s purple 20-inch wheeled stingray to work! We also heard a world of good reasons to ride your bike. Here’s an excerpt from our interview with Light & Motion employee Jarod Armer who rode by our booth en route to work:
“I started riding my bike to work because I have a 30-minute commute in my pick up with 20 miles per gallon so I decided I’d drive part way and ride my bike in 10 miles each way – that’s 20 miles (on the bike) a day which is one gallon of gas. I end up saving about $4 dollars per day, $20 per week, and $80 a month. It really adds up and it means less wear and tear on my car and it is better for the environment.”
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National Bike Month is an opportunity to celebrate the unique power of the bicycle and the many reasons we ride. Whatever the reason you bike, get involved with the Bike Month activities in your community and help your friends, colleagues, and family out riding too! www.bikeleague.org |
Photo by Solifesyle.com
What a way to kick off National Bike Month – two bike shows in NYC! The New Amsterdam Bike Show last weekend and now the Bike Expo New York this week are showing us that cycling is for everyone! These dynamic shows have something for everyone and give people a chance to share their love of bikes, celebrate the progress that has been made politically to improve bike lanes, and put the FUN back into riding a bike.
Check out the photo coverage of the New Amsterdam Show here: http://www.solifestyle.com/2012/05/new-amsterdam-bike-show-recap.html
We were at the Portland Bike Show this last weekend where 5,000 bike-riding enthusiasts converged to see and sample the best of bike gear, gadgets, and fashion. Portland based companies like Nutcase, Sweet Pea Bicycles, and Sugar Wheel Works, plus a plethora of small manufacturing industries showcased their high-quality and handcrafted wares. And for the kid in all of us there were brand-new bikes to ride, a fashion show by Molly Millar, and amazing stunts demonstrated by Ryan Leech! Portlanders know how to enjoy everything bike!
If you have not experienced a Consummer Bike Show you are in for a treat! A friend of mine summed it by saying, a bike show is “part art, part community, and all heart!”. Take a look at the shows coming up in the next couple of months:
The Scottish Bike Show, April 13 – 15th http://www.thescottishbikeshow.com
The Sea Otter Classic, April 19th – 22nd http://www.seaotterclassic.com
The New Amsterdam Bike Show, April 28th-29th http://newambikeshow.com
Bike Expo New York, May 3rd – 5th http://www.bikenewyork.org/bike-expo-new-york
Irish Cycling Show May 19th – 20th http://www.irishcyclingshow.com
With gas prices continuing to climb, more people are turning to bicycle commuting to reduce their fuel costs.
In 2008 when gas prices rose dramatically so did transportation cycling. When gas prices fell, cycling also declined.
Flash forward to the present: another rise in gas prices and transportation cycling. Will the current increase in bicycle infrastructure and well-designed gear keep people on the bike if gas prices slide? Let’s hope that people enjoy the ride and stick with the bike!
Check out these cool sites to inspire your commute by bike:
10 Lessons from the World’s Great Biking Cities
Donna McMurtry is the winner of a new Urban 180! Congratulations!
Urban shines the wayCommuter is visible See and Be Seen! -Light & Motion Here are a few of our favorite “baikus” this week:
The road goes upwards
conversation stops, puff, pant
the silence of hills.
-Steve Airey
Less light in my day
A bike ride still makes me smile
Beats driving a car
-Jeffrey Kuchma
Dark cold and quiet
Speeding shadows crushing leaves
Well lit corners grin
-Daniel Limburg
Thanks to everyone who entered the contest with an original haiku! Monday we launch another contest so stay tuned!
This Sunday we turn back the clocks and equip ourselves for the short days and long nights. I’ve been counting down the days because this is my favorite time to ride. When I roll out into the night, I am more attune to my surroundings, I hear my breath part the air, the leaves crunch under the tires, and I feel like I am in my private bubble with my light leading the way. Night riding feels a little secretive/illicit and sometimes I catch myself thinking I am the only one out there quietly screaming with joy to be on my bike.
To celebrate the season and help you prepare for the long nights we’ll be giving away an Urban 180 light the next 3 Fridays in November!
Here are the details for next week’s contest:
- Like us on facebook and send us an original Bike Haiku to: hhall@lightandmotion.com.
- Follow the Haiku form of 5 – 7 – 5 syllables per line and have fun!
- We will post some of the entries on facebook and post the winner’s Haiku (chosen at random) on our blog next Friday!
Get your creative wheels spinning and turn out a poem or two!
Stars rush overhead
Ghostly light sets pace tonight
Cool air, warm breath, ride.
October is a big race month. The 24hr. MTB race season wound down with the 24hrs. of Moab and the 24 Hour Nationals at Colorado Springs. This year Light & Motion took a win at Nationals in the men’s 35+ Master’s Category with a team of superstars: Dax Massey, Ezekiel Hersh, Thane Wright, and Jeff Zurakowski. They completed 22 laps in 23:31:14!
The Adventure Race season culminated with the 2011’s USARA Adventure Racing National Championships in the rocky hills of Cumberland, Kentucky where our sponsored team, “Tecnu Extreme“, landed a second place finish after 20 hours of extreme racing!
And just when you think it’s time to lay on the fat for winter, Cyclocross is here! Autumn can be the best time for cycling and the sometimes-inclement weather is a hallmark of the cyclocross season. Rain, snow, mud, and ice are the conditions that make for the best cyclocross races!
Racing in pink from head to toe, sponsored athlete, Meredith Miller captured third place at the USGP “New Belgium Cup” cyclocross race! Follow Meredith as she races in pink in honor of breast cancer awareness month and raises funds in support of Hope Lives! The Lydia Dody Breast Cancer Foundation. This weekend Meredith races in the first two World Cups of the cross season in the Czech Republic! www.mmcyclist.com
All around the world people left their cars for a day and experienced the pleasure of alternative transportation for World Carfree Day. For many people transportation cycling is a choice they make everyday.
We want to hear why you choose to commute by bike! Please send your story (no longer than 300 words) with byline, to hhall@lightandmotion.com by Wednesday 9/29/11. We will select one story for our Lightlife Blog next week and the winner will receive a Light & Motion Urban 180!
Interbike is a celebration of bike culture and this year the Industry dazzled us with more creative, lighter, faster, brighter, and better designs to enrich our cycling experiences. The more altruistic folks at the show I.M.B.A., Adventure Cycling, Bikes Belong, League for American Bicyclists, Trips for Kids held meetings and mixers to promote trail building, cycle touring, cycling safety, cycling programs for youth, and bike-lane building campaigns. For anyone seeking higher education, Interbike offered a series of seminars where you could learn, for example, “How to Run a Social Media Strategy for Your Bicycle Business in an Hour a Day”. And just for fun there was Momentum Magazine’s bike fashion show, the Cross Vegas race, and Bike Hugger’s Mobile Social Ride.
If you were not there this year – try to go next year!
Your weekly dose of our favorite links:
- Bike share has a chance to come to Portland. If you’re a PDX local speak up and voice your support.
- Speaking of bike share, San Francisco just launched a pilot program.
- Team DART-Nuun-Sport-Multi has been rocking it at Raid the North Extreme Race. Follow along in the last few days of the race.
- Need a good new bike blog to read? We’re digging Elly Blue’s Taking the Lane.
- New Yorkers can rejoice in the fact that biking is up 14% in the Big Apple compared to last spring.
- Can’t figure out what to wear on your next ride? How about some new People for Bikes schwag?
Happy Friday!
Image: Eugene Hood Photo
Fran on 
Chantel Touryan on 
jacob on