Gaynor’s Bike To Work Week Wisdom

May 17, 2012 Leave a comment

Our Head Spin Doctor (and all-around motivator) Gaynor has been busy reminding, encouraging and cajoling everyone here at our home office to participate in National Bike to Work Week, and especially on National Bike to Work Day (Friday, May 18th). His big goal is fulfilling our “Empty Parking Lot Challenge” on Friday – an ambitious target, but we’re certainly going to give it a try! Since Gaynor is so effective at rallying the bike commuting efforts here at our home office, we thought we’d share some of the bike to work wisdom he’s used to motivate us. Hopefully you can use some of Gaynor’s wise counsel to encourage friends or coworkers to give bike commuting a try!

Reason #1: According to the Mayo Clinic, “Exercise increases your overall health and your sense of well-being, which puts more pep in your step every day. But exercise also has some direct stress-busting benefits.”

Most of us know this but how do we find the time to exercise? It’s easy – commute by bike! By cycling to work, you are scheduling 2 exercise periods each day you ride. The ride in provides a quiet time to plan your day before the confusing onslaught of details and demands. The ride home gives you time to reflect, decompress and let the tension go. You’ll be healthier, happier and more productive.

But don’t trust me! Here again from the Mayo Clinic: “Physical activity helps to bump up the production of your brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins. Although this function is often referred to as a runner’s high, a rousing game of tennis or a nature hike [or a bike ride] can contribute to this same feeling.

Reason #2: Biking to work saves bucks. The average American commutes 33 miles each day. The average American car gets 22 miles per gallon. Regular gas costs $3.85/gallon. Average Joe spends $29/week, $115/month and $1500/year for gas.

If you only live an easy 5 mile commute to work, you’ll still save $8.75/week (the cost a six pack of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale), $35/month and $455/year.

Reason #3: Add some adventure to your day. Shake up your routine, try something different, spice up your life. Why settle for the same-old, same-old? Become the hardy, intrepid person you really are.  Commute to work!

Reason #4: Show the doubters. Think of all the times that someone told you that you could not do it. That you were too old, too young; too big, too small; too dumb, too smart; too thin, too stout; too loud, too quiet; too brash, too timid. You’re a girl; you’re a boy! It’s too long, it’s too steep; it’s high, it’s too deep; it’s too fast. It’s too slow. Ride to work! Show ‘em you won’t be stopped!

Reason #5: Join a gang. By riding to work you are joining a select group of mostly well-adjusted, fun, happy and pleasant bike commuters.

Reason #6: Save the planet. Each year, the average passenger car on an average commute of 33 miles produces 77.1 lbs of hydrocarbons, 575 lbs of carbon monoxide, and 11,450 lbs of carbon dioxide. Aside from a little methane from too much roughage, commuting by bike produces zero pollution!

Reason #7: If you ride to work you won’t get pulled over for speeding. Ride a bike = no tickets. Drive a car = tickets.

Reason #8: Beer Pressure. Cycling dramatically improves the taste of beer, especially good beer. Ride for beer but drink responsibly.

Reason #9: Peer Pressure. Your coworkers and friends will be cycling to work. What’s your excuse when others less fit but spunkier are riding? Ride and have no excuses!

And finally…

Reason #10: Because it’s fun! When you commute by bike you have another reason to ride your bike, and what’s not to like about that?

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League of American Bicyclists Guest Post: National Bike Month

May 14, 2012 Leave a comment

It’s National Bike to Work Week, so we’re turning our blog over to our friends from the the League of American Bicyclists, the driving force behind National Bike Month.  Read on below to find out more about what they’re doing to build a Bicycle Friendly America, and also find out what communities have been recognized as Bicycle Friendly Communities this year.

Whether you’re a daily bike commuter or just curious about the benefits of bicycling, May is your time to shine.

For the past 50 years, the League of American Bicyclists has hosted and organized National Bike Month to celebrate cycling and encourage new and longtime riders to get back in the saddle. For decades, we’ve designated and promoted Bike to Work Week — this week! — and Bike to Work Day, and the number of bicycle commuters has continued to rise.

How are you celebrating Bike Month this year? Check our website or contact your local advocacy organization to find an event in your area! And, no matter how you’re celebrating, don’t forget to sign up for the National Bike Challenge, a new friendly competition that kicked off May 1, aiming to unite 50,000 Americans to ride 10 million miles this summer!

But, while we’re all fired up about Bike Month, that’s just the beginning of the League’s efforts to make bicycling safe, accessible and enjoyable for all.  All year long, we’re working to protect your rights and make your ride better, wherever you’re going.

Just this morning, for instance, we announced the largest round of Bicycle Friendly Communities (BFC) in the program’s history. By evaluating and recognizing investment in bicycling promotion, education programs, infrastructure and pro-bicycling policies, the BFC program is revolutionizing the way communities evaluate their quality of life. With this impressive round, there are now 214 BFCs in 47 states — and the program works. While bike commuting rose 40 percent nationwide between 2000 and 2010, it jumped a staggering 77 percent in the largest BFCs.

The BFA program goes beyond cities and counties, too. The League also provides guidance and technical support through our Bicycle Friendly Business and Bicycle Friendly University programs, making workplaces and higher education more accommodating and accessible for cyclists. And we work with states, too: On May 22, we’ll release our latest Bicycle Friendly State Rankings, which showcases progress in areas like infrastructure, policies and education.

Beyond the Bicycle Friendly America program, we work with League members and organizations across the country to deliver our Smart Cycling education courses. From the basics of Traffic Skills 101 to targeted training, like Group Riding, the League curricula remains the gold standard for bicycle safety and skills for riders of all ages.

Based in Washington, D.C., the League is also your advocate on Capitol Hill. Each year, we convene the National Bike Summit, drawing hundreds of advocates, enthusiasts, retailers and policymakers to learn about federal transportation issues and lobby their members of Congress for funding and policies that meet the needs and rights of the growing number of bicyclists nationwide. This year we had a record crowd of more than 800 attendees. Mark your calendar now for the 2013 Summit, so you can tell your members of Congress that Bicycling Means Business.

And, of course, the League is committed to building the movement by connecting you to clubs and rides in your community, and sharing stories and innovations on our daily blog. Join the conversation by subscribing to our blog, becoming a fan on Facebook or following us on Twitter. We welcome your energy and ideas — with your help we’ll build a Bicycle Friendly America where every month is National Bike Month!

The League of American Bicyclists promotes bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation, and works through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America. The League represents the interests of America’s 57 million bicyclists, including its 300,000 members and affiliates. For more information or to support the League, visit www.bikeleague.org.

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People for Bikes Guest Post: National Bike Month

May 3, 2012 2 Comments

Our friends at People for Bikes are always hard at work to improve the future of cycling and are big supporters of National Bike Month. They love events like Bike to Work Week (May 14-18), Bike to Work Day (May 18), and the first Bike to School Day (May 9). So we asked them to put together a few ideas that you could try to make National Bike Month a success in your community.

As many of you already know, May is National Bike Month. With longer, milder days, May is a perfect time to recognize bicycling for the multitude of benefits it provides – improving America’s health, economy, and environment. Here are four ways to make the most of this year’s National Bike Month:

1) Go for a type of bike ride that you normally wouldn’t: If you’re a road rider, try a mountain bike ride. If you’ve never ridden your bike to work, give bike commuting a shot.  If the ride to work isn’t something you can tackle, ride your bike to run an errand you would normally do by car, even if it’s just a trip to the coffee shop or ice cream parlor. Remember—forty percent of trips Americans take are two miles or less, an easy bicycling distance.

2) Sign up for the National Bike Challenge and ride with thousands of Americans from around the country.  This first of its kind challenge is being promoted by the Kimberly Clark Corporation, Bikes Belong, and the League of American Bicyclists to encourage healthier lifestyles and will run from May through August.

3) Introduce one other person to bicycling. Whether it’s your partner, a coworker, a family member, or just a friend, help someone find a bike and go for a fun ride. Bicycling is a pretty amazing thing, right? Why not encourage someone else to discover the activity that brings you so much happiness.

4) Sign the PeopleforBikes.org pledge. PeopleForBikes.org is the movement dedicated to improving the future of bicycling. Already, half a million people have signed the pledge. It is free and only takes a quick minute to sign. Joining PeopleForBikes.org is a way for bicyclists in this country to speak with one powerful, united voice to ask for more safe places to ride a bike. By signing the pledge at www.PeopleForBikes.org, Americans can raise public awareness and demonstrate a commitment to our leaders in Congress and in cities and states throughout the country that bicycling is important and should be protected.

This May and this summer should be an amazing time for bicycling in America. An increasing percentage of our national leaders recognize bicycling as a simple solution for transportation challenges, jobs and economic development, and health and obesity issues. Communities are investing in bike lanes and paths more than ever, helping bicycling to become safer and stress-free. PeopleForBikes.org encourages Americans to take advantage of these new places to ride and to not only participate in National Bike Month, but to also incorporate bicycle trips into their daily routines.

To join 500,000 other Americans in signing the PeopleForBikes.org pledge, visit http://www.peopleforbikes.org/pages/pledge.

To learn more about National Bike Month and find events in your community, check out http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bikemonth/.

To register for the National Bike Challenge, visit http://www.nationalbikechallenge.org .

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Tour of Light & Motion in Monterey, CA

April 19, 2012 Leave a comment

Since I’m already out here in California to see what this Sea Otter excitement is all about, I thought I would drop by our friends at Light & Motion – makers of great cycling lights, including their impressive commuting lineup. The Light & Motion headquarters (and factory, and design studio, and manufacturing facility, among other things) is located in a converted cannery warehouse in Monterey, CA – near the famous Cannery Row, and right on the ocean.

The first thing that you notice when you walk into their headquarters is the open layout – you can see almost all aspects of the operation, from engineering to assembly, in this one shot.

Here’s a shot of an assembly station (which is located down on the lower level of the previous wide-angle photo). The CAD printouts above each station show the steps in the assembly process, and the workers meticulously assemble each light from dozens of pieces to create, in this case, an Urban 300 LED Headlight.

Here’s a close-up view of an LED and the circuit board that controls the light, before they are assembled into the finished product.

The folks at Light & Motion are proud of the fact that almost everything that goes into their lights is manufactured right in their factory headquarters – in addition to being assembled there. One step in that process is this rapid prototyping machine, which lets them go from computer drawing to a physical object to test in moments.

Once the design is worked out, an automated milling machine is used to create aluminum molds for any of the myriad molded parts that are needed for the lights, from buttons to outer covers.

Here’s a shot of some of the finished molds:

The resin that is heated up to smoothly flow into the molds comes in the form of little pellets – but the key to the process is finding the right mixture of raw materials, as different plastics have different properties of elasticity that need to be balanced in the proper recipe (don’t worry, they’ve got people who know how to work that out).

While down in the machine shop area, we passed by the employee dive locker – I did mention that they are literally right on the ocean!

But having certified divers on their staff is actually good business, as half of the lights that Light & Motion builds are for underwater use, like this 4000 lumen monster (don’t turn this one on while staring at it!):

Of course there was also ample space allotted for employee bikes as well:

I want to thank the folks at Light & Motion for showing me around their factory headquarters – it was great to see a company that designs, manufactures and assembles such high quality products with pride right here in the US. 

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Product Profile: Light & Motion Commuter Bike Lights

March 26, 2012 1 Comment

Light & Motion has been designing and building lights for over 20 years from their home in Monterey, California – from lights that are designed to go 200 feet below the ocean, to lights that shine the way for a midnight ride on the trails. But one place where they really decided to apply their lighting talent is lights for bike commuting. In typical fashion, Light & Motion did their research, and then created a series of compact, USB-rechargeable, and seriously powerful commuter lights that are unlike anything else on the market. Light & Motion took the concept of “see and be seen” to a whole new level with these commuting lights, incorporating advanced LED lighting technology and amber side lights to make your commute brighter and safer!

The Light & Motion Urban 300 LED Headlight and Vis 180 Tail Light combo packs a serious visual punch, but they both also incorporate brilliant amber side lights to give commuters and road cyclists complete visibility in traffic – especially important at intersections, where having increased visibility from any angle is essential. Of course ease-of-use is also handy, so both the Urban 300 LED Headlight and Vis 180 Tail Light feature Micro USB charging ports and tool-free mounting for quick and easy attachment and removal. The Urban 300 LED Headlight is powered by 1 white LED with a 300 lumen output and the aforementioned 2 amber side lights that provide 180° of visibility and project clean patterns of light. There is also a battery charge indicator that accurately reports the charge status (so you know when its time to recharge), all in a package that weighs only 112g – even though the lights are housed in a solid-feeling metal body. Runtime for the Urban 300 LED Headlight is 2½ hours on High, 4½ hours on Medium and 8½ hours on Low, with an empty-to-full recharge time of 5 hours.

The Light & Motion Vis 180 Tail Light, also available individually, blazes forth with 3 red LEDs with a 35 lumen output, along with its 2 amber side lights to provide 180° of visibility. To put those numbers in perspective, that’s about 10X the power of a common AA powered tail light! And the Vis 180 Tail Light is not just another blinky light in another way, as it doesn’t blink, but instead pulses in a concentrated pattern that attracts attention from anyone on the road. You can cycle through 4 modes on the Vis 180 Tail Light: Pulse High, Pulse Low, Steady and Paceline (which eliminates the top pulsing light), with runtimes from 4 hours on high to 20 hours on the Paceline flash setting. The built-in Li-Ion battery charges in only 4½ hours, and like the  Urban 300 LED Headlight, there is a battery charge indicator to accurately report the charge status. Mounting the Vis 180 Tail Light is simple with a tool-free, adjustable mount that easily attaches to your bike frame, seatstays or seatpost without compromising the viewing angle. Alternatively, you can utilize the locking mount clip to slip the Vis 180 Tail Light on your favorite messenger bag or backpack. You can read what Bikerumor thought about this powerful tail light when they reviewed it here.

The Light & Motion Vis 360 LED Headlight and Tail Light package is the first all-in-one light with a powerful LED headlight, amber side lights, and a four lumen tail light, that delivers a full 360° of visibility to the rider. Easily mounted on your helmet with an easy-on, easy-off snap mount, the Vis 360 LED Headlight and Tail Light improves your visibility while riding, even to passing SUV’s! At only 130g, its balanced fore/aft weight makes it barely noticeable on your helmet, but the 1 LED headlight with a 110 lumen output (and amber side lights) combined with the 3 LED tail light with a 4 lumen output means that you will definitely see and be seen out on the road. Runtimes vary from 2½ hours on High, to 5 hours on Low and 20+ hours on Flash (all settings adjusted via the single headlight button), with a recharge time of 4½ hours. To get a better feel for the Vis 360 LED Headlight and Tail Light in action, check out this video from Chris, who has been commuting 15 miles each way with this lighting system for the past few months, and is a big fan of it’s versatility and power:

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Wordless Wednesday

February 22, 2012 2 Comments

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Wordless Wednesday

December 14, 2011 13 Comments

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Product Profile – Burley Travoy Urban Bike Trailer

May 20, 2011 1 Comment

Since today is National Bike to Work Day, the culmination of Bike to Work Week, we thought it was the perfect opportunity for a product profile of the new Burley Travoy Urban Bike Trailer.  If you’ve been commuting by bike this month, you have probably already tried hauling your gear with a set of panniers, or in a backpack or a classic messenger bag. While those are all good commuting options, the Travoy bike trailer is a great alternative to transport just about anything – from a week’s worth of groceries, to a change of clothes for the office, or up to 60lbs of cargo!

Here David demonstrates how the Travoy Trailer hitches effortlessly to your seatpost and travels at a 45° angle, redistributing the load’s weight for easier riding and offering better stability than standard panniers or backpacks.

Setup is quick and easy, as all you need to do to get up and running is to clamp the trailer quick release bracket to your seatpost, and then mount or remove the trailer itself by pulling a little spring-loaded arm out of the way of the hitch pin.

And did we mention that the Travoy trailer can carry up to 60lbs! You can carry some serious loads in the included tote bag:

The tote bag has a nice wide opening and sturdy construction, but you can also upgrade to a waterproof Burley Dry Bag if the forecast calls for heavy downpours.

And when you’re done with your commute, just twist the 2 grips and fold the Travoy down into a convenient size for storage (you can even store the folded Travoy in its own tote bag). The whole setup weighs less than 10lbs, so you can easily just bring it inside with you when you get where you’re going.

Check out the Travoy in action in this video by Burley:

If you’re serious about commuting by bike, take a look at the Burley Travoy Urban Bike Trailer - it’s a great option to haul your gear in comfort and style.

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Bike to Work Week Employee Profile: Tony DeRubeis

May 20, 2011 Leave a comment

Here’s our last Bike to Work Week Employee Profile about one of the many commuters who ride to work here at Performance HQ. They ride different bikes and different routes, but they’ve all got great advice on how to make your commute easier and more fun!

What’s your name?

Tony DeRubeis .

What do you do at Performance?

Spin Doctor Pro Bike Build Coordinator.

How often do you ride to work?

1-2 times per week.

How far do you ride?

42 miles round trip.

What bike do you ride?

I ride a Scattante XRL cross frame with a Frankenbike parts kit.

Why do you commute by bike/what’s your favorite part of commuting by bike?

It’s a good workout, plus it’s more enjoyable than driving, it saves money and it’s better for the environment!

Any advice for someone who’s thinking about commuting by bike?

Any distance commuting by bike is better than driving – driving half of your commute and biking half is better than driving the whole thing.  And commuting by bike is like stealing time – if your 30 minute drive takes 60 minutes to ride, you get a 60 minute workout while only taking 30 minutes out of your day.

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Bike to Work Week Employee Profile: Chris Danz

May 19, 2011 Leave a comment

Here’s another Employee Profile about one of the many commuters who ride to work here at Performance HQ, in honor of Bike to Work Week (May 16-20).  They ride different bikes and different routes, but they’ve all got great advice on how to make your commute easier and more fun!

What’s your name?

Christopher Danz.

What do you do at Performance?

I’m a Merchandising Assistant in the Hardgoods Components division.

How often do you ride to work?

Most days.

How far do you ride?

17 miles each way.

What bike do you ride?

I usually commute on my trusty GT Peace Tour.

Why do you commute by bike/what’s your favorite part of commuting by bike?

I love not being in a car. Cagers (people who spend half of their lives in their steel cages) are always so angry, I like not being a part of that culture. I race in endurance mountain bike events so the extra training time that I don’t have to take from my family time is also key.

Any advice for someone who’s thinking about commuting by bike?

Just go for it! For me, I can’t value my waterproof panniers enough (I use Ortlieb Back-Roller Classic Panniers). I also always keep a good rain jacket in there as I never know when I’m going to be caught in an unexpected storm. Otherwise, just riding is most of my secret. The more you do it, the easier it gets as it starts to become part of your routine and your fitness increases.

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