Paul Dorn of “Bike Commuting Tips” fame was featured in today’s Sacramento Bee. From the article:

Read the full article in the Sacramento Bee →
Paul Dorn’s Bike Commuting Tips →
The Bike to Work Guide, by Paul Dorn →

If you’re serious about replacing your car with a bike, you’ll need some way to carry stuff. A rear rack and a pair of panniers is a good place to start, but eventually you’ll probably need more carrying capacity. Here are a few ways to increase the carrying capacity of a bike:

• Handlebar bags, baskets, and rack trunks are simple additions that can increase carrying capacity by 20% or more.
• Front cargo racks can easily double the carrying capacity of a bike.
• The ultimate cargo add-on is the Xtracycle Free Radical Kit, though it increases the wheelbase of the host bike which can be problematic for commuters.

Fully dedicated, production cargo bikes like the Big Dummy, Yuba Mundo, and Dutch Bakfiets are able to carry the largest and heaviest loads, though standard bikes with front and rear racks can carry a surprising amount and may be more versatile for everyday use than their cargo-specific counterparts.

The two bikes pictured above are a Civia Loring (right) and a modified Surly LHT. The Civia comes ready-to-go from the factory with a rear rack and a front cargo rack. The LHT is sporting an aftermarket Tubus “Cargo” rear rack and a front cargo rack from Pass & Stow. Both bikes are capable of carrying fairly substantial loads if packed and loaded carefully.

Rush hour on the Hawthorne Bridge. Gotta’ love Portland!

Streetfilms →

To kick off “May Is Bike Month“, our hometown of Roseville, CA is hosting their first ever “Roseville Bike Rally” on Friday, May 1st, from 4:00pm-7:00pm at John Piches Park in Roseville. The free event will include a casual, family-oriented bike ride at 4:30 followed by a spaghetti dinner served from 5:00-6:30. There will also be entertainment, prizes, and local bike shops on hand. It looks to be a fun event!

More Information
Roseville Bikeways Website →
Map to John Piches Park →

Rack trunks are cool. They’re convenient to get into, they fit almost any rack, and they don’t increase the width of the bike — a nice feature for commuters using transit and storing their bikes in tight quarters. Plus, hard-shell trunks offer the advantage of being water-resistant/waterproof and many are lockable.

I’ve been playing around with Planet Bike’s “Escape Pod” and I really like it. It’s a simple hard-shell trunk with a clasp on each side, a padded internal bottom, and an internal cargo net. It comes with a built-in lock and two keys, and the PB logo on the back is reflective safety material. Installation was easy and took all of about 5 minutes. There are other, more sophisticated hard-shell trunks on the market (at double the price), but the Escape Pod is perfect for daily rides back-and-forth from the office or errands in the neighborhood. Overall, it’s a really nice product at a great price.

Planet Bike Escape Pod →

I’d like to introduce a new builder out of Austin, Texas, and our latest sponsor, Violet Crown Cycles. Violet Crown builds beautiful, custom city bikes modeled after classic Roadsters and Dutch city bikes, with fenders, chain guards, internally geared hubs, heavy-duty racks, and dynamo lighting systems as standard features. Each lugged-steel frame is hand-built in Austin by Elliott McFadden and is sized to the owner’s physique. A wide variety of colors and options are available. Prices start at $2750.

From the press release:

View the full press release [PDF] →
Visit Violet Crown Cycles →

Bike Hugger’s latest “Huggacast” features an interview with PJ Ramstack of Civia.

Check it out @ Bike Hugger →

More sweetness coming out of Mike Flanigan’s workshop. His bikes just keep getting nicer and nicer.

A.N.T. →

A recent document published by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is recommending so called “no-nose” saddles for preventing numbness and SD caused by occupational bicycling. From the document summary:

The document cites NIOSH studies from 2004 and 2008 that concluded no-nose saddles can reduce pressure on sensitive tissues by at least 65%.

It would be nice to know how ergo saddles like the Selle An-Atomica would fare in this comparison. Of course, recumbents bypass the issue altogether with laid back padded seats that are nearly as comfortable as a barcalounger.

View the document →

An article on the financial website Seeking Alpha paints a rosy picture for the future of the bicycle industry. The article states, “The global bicycle market shows significant growth revenues exceeding $61 Billion through 2011.” They list Dorel Industries (owner of Cannondale, Schwinn, GT and Monogoose), Giant, Trek, and Shimano as the leading global bicycle manufacturers. Aptly named Giant is the largest, with an 8% profit growth this year and global output expected to reach 10 million units by 2014. Electric bikes represent one of the fastest growing markets.

The article is an interesting read if you like this sort of thing.

Seeking Alpha article →

The Bike Arc “Half Arc” (shown above) is an interesting bike parking solution. Bike Arc produces other racks based on this same theme, from the simple “Rac Arc” (essentially a Half Arc without a cover), to the fully enclosed “Tube Arc” that is adaptable from 16 bikes to upwards of 60+ per unit.

From the Bike Arc website:

Bike Arc →

Bike by Pashley, bags by Queen Bee.

Breezer Finesse Specs →

The Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen is a volunteer-run, do-it-yourself bicycle maintenance and repair shop doing great work in the heart of Midtown Sacramento, CA.

Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen →

My Bike Lane is a website that allows users to upload photos of bike lane parking violations. Approximately 7,200 reports have been posted from around the world. New York City takes the cake with over 4,000 entries!

My Bike Lane →

Steven Chu (center)

Steven Chu is an avid bicyclist, bike advocate, and bike commuter. He also happens to be the new Secretary of Energy in the Obama Administration. Ironically, his new position is forcing him off of his bike and back into an automobile.

From Grist:

[via Streetsblog.org]

I posted the other day about a rear rack mounting bracket for the popular Planet Bike Superflash:

I ordered a pair of brackets a few days ago and they arrived today. One of my racks has a Euro-style horizontal tail light mount and the other has a vertical mount. I’m happy to say the bracket fits both mounts and took just a few minutes to install with the supplied mounting screws.

Planet Bike Tail Light Bracket →

I have an Arkel Metropolitan pannier (“Metro” for short) in-house for review and I took it out on a real commute for the first time today. Here are a few first impressions:

• It’s a sharp looking bag.
• It looks business-like and fits in well at the office.
• It rides a little higher than some bags, making for more heel clearance.
• Even though it appears to be smaller than the Arkel Bug (review here), it holds about the same amount of stuff.
• The single shoulder strap is well-padded, but if you carry a lot of junk like I do and you have a multi-modal commute that involves getting on and off of transit and walking long distances, the Bug with its double backpack straps is likely to be more comfortable for you.
• It has a flat bottom and stands up nicely on its own.
• The overall quality and workmanship is vintage Arkel – in a word, superb.

I also have a matching Metro handlebar bag on test. I’ll publish full reviews with detailed photos of both once I’ve had more time to give them a real workout.

Arkel Metropolitan →

A bicyclist is outfitted with a flashing red tail light, yellow jacket, booties with reflective strips, but no headlight. The rider is struck by a motorist, and the judge dismisses the charges against the driver because of the lack of a headlight, even going so far as to call the bicyclist “an accident waiting to happen”. The kicker? The bicyclist was struck from behind.

I thought this kind of bias against bicyclists was unique to the U.S, but apparently not; this took place in Australia. Protecting yourself from technicalities like this is reason enough to thoroughly outfit yourself with protective gear and obey all traffic laws.

Read the original story in the Courier →

We had a nice day at the Green Machine Bike Fair today. The setting was beautiful, the weather was gorgeous, and it was great fun meeting some of our blog readers in person. Jeff rode all the way over from Rocklin on his beautiful 67cm Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen (thanks Jeff!) and it was great to finally meet Eric from Sac.

Highlights included the Bike Blender smoothie booth, John the trike riding “sign swinger” (more on John later), 50 cent fresh limeade, and a nice collection of raffle prizes. A number of local bike shops were in attendance showing their goods as well.

The Belle of the Ball was Rick’s Greenspeed GT1 trike. Practically every person who walked by wanted to take it for a spin; I think he should sell tickets next year. The darned trike was such a distraction that the gorgeous two wheelers surrounding it were relegated to the sidelines for a good chunk of the day. Most of the test riders were college students and I doubt their budgets have room for a $2,350 trike, but maybe a seed was planted for the future. If nothing else, the trike rides created a stir and made some people smile.

Overall, turnout was light as might be expected for a mid-day, mid-week event, but it’s always good to get out and talk with people face-to-face about bike commuting and how they’re using their bikes for transportation.