10 Things to Do for Great Outdoors Month

By sarajean on 6/12/10 8:33am
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June is Great Outdoors Month, a perfect time to get on your bicycle and take off. Here are ten things everyone should at least think about doing this month in celebration of summer and nature.

10. Get on Your Bike

Get on and go! Travel down your block, use your bike as your primary mode of transportation, travel a new path you’ve never tried at the park, or simply see where the road takes you.

9. Go Camping

Check out a new campground you’ve never been to, or return to a childhood family favorite. If all else fails, simply camp out in the back yard with the kids or your sweetheart. You can often rent equipment (or borrow it, as we do) if you don’t have any, too.

8. Get Active

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Bike to Work Week

By sarajean on 5/28/10 5:53pm
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If you can do it, go for it! Biking to work has many benefits. Not only does it save you money from gas and car repairs; it also gives you a healthy workout during your daily commute, effectively taking care of two tasks at once. Who couldn’t use some extra time in their day?

Want to get more people to bike to work in your area? Here are some ideas.

Make it an office project. Accumulate points to win a prize, start a money pool for the person who rides the most days to win at the end of the month, hold a raffle where entrants get a ticket per each day they ride to work, etc. Make it part of an office fitness program and add in amount of weight loss for a “Biggest Loser” touch.

Ask for more bike parking spots at work. Do the same across town to get people to bike to more places.

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Buying a Bike for Christmas

By sarajean on 12/14/09 11:48pm
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 If you’re giving a bicycle for Christmas this year, great choice! It’s a wonderful gift for anyone, as it combines fitness with fun and can be a lasting toy, depending on how fast the person you’re giving it to is growing.

But if you are giving a bicycle, you may want to make sure to keep safety in mind. About 300,000 kids are sent to the emergency room every year because of bicycle accidents, making bike safety a pretty important priority for families. Here are a few things you might want to get to go along with your bicycle.

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Why Your Kid Needs a Helmet (And You Do Too)

By sarajean on 10/30/09 3:19pm
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Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. Friends don’t let friends vote Republican (or Democrat—or at all, depending on what the case may be). Where’s the bumper sticker that says friends don’t let friends ride bikes without helmets—or better yet, parents don’t let kids do the same?

A bicycle helmet is one of the easiest things you can buy to protect your child from injury. You buy a car seat, right? Do you pay for a flu vaccination—or even other pricier shots, such as RSV prevention drugs? You’ve also probably got smoke detectors, outlet covers and other protective devices in your home—so why not a helmet?

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Watching this video it hit me. I am not alone.

By Dave on 8/13/09 10:37am
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Wildlife Viewing Opportunities

By macallister on 7/18/09 3:25pm
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You never know what you're likely to see, when you bike-tour the more remote states. Sometimes the local wildlife may surprise the heck out of you, though.

Case in point:

WTF Montana BuckWTF Montana Buck

Men Who Bike are Healthier

By sarajean on 7/14/09 8:04pm
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In a totally unsurprising new study conducted by the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill, men who ride their bikes or walk to work are more likely to have a healthy blood pressure and less likely to be obese.

The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, didn’t find anything to report about women—but odds are that women who walk or bike to work probably get some benefit too, don’ t you think?

Penny Gordon-Larson, associate professor of nutrition and the lead author of the study, says, “Even if you adjust for other forms of physical activity, walking or biking to work really does add an additional benefit.”

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Le Tour de France 2009; the race for yellow

By legerdemain on 6/30/09 2:27pm
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So, yesterday we had a general look at the tour, and at the phenomenon that is Lance Armstrong. Today, we’re going to look at some of the yellow jersey contenders. After this we’ll take a look at some of the riders going for the climbing and sprinting prizes, but the general classification is really where it’s at. After three weeks of racing, only one man can ride into Paris on July 26th with the yellow jersey on his back. So here we are:

Alberto Contador (Astana)

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Le Tour de France 2009; the Lance Armstrong conumdrum

By legerdemain on 6/29/09 9:34am
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Welcome to the first of our Tour de France previews. There’s going to be a few of these over the next few days, before the race starts on July 4th, in the principality of Monaco. Monte Carlo, of course, is known for its casinos and gamblers, which seems apt, given the risks that these riders will take over the coming weeks as they trek up and down mountains, through cities and villages, as they cross the French countryside en route to their final destination in Paris.

We’re going to look at the riders and runners in the coming days, but like it or not, far and away the biggest story of this year’s Tour is the grand return of Lance Armstrong. He’s nearing his thirty-eighth birthday, he hasn’t raced the Tour for four years, but still his name is the one on everyone’s lips. He would become the oldest winner since the Belgian Firmin Lambot won in 1922 at the age of 36.

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San Francisco to double number of bike lanes

By legerdemain on 6/26/09 2:24pm
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Just a quick note on some breaking news here in San Francisco; within the last hour, the MTA (Municipal Transportation Agency) has unanimously approved at least forty five new bike related projects around the city. Most are new bike lanes, or improvements to old ones. This follows a four hour meeting down at the Town Hall, into which were packed numerous representatives from the San Francisco Bike Coalition.

The SFBC has been campaigning for these improvements for a while, and this success represents three years or more of planning and lobbying. It will also double the number of bike lanes in the city, making the streets safer for all of us who ride along them. As someone who was almost doored on Monday night as I road home, I’m pretty happy about this.

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