Author: Richard Masoner

Friday bicycle link love

Richard MasonerAugust 24, 20071 Comment on Friday bicycle link love

Before I start, I have to share this story: Dan Gertz of Los Angeles was found with three gallons of GHB during a traffic stop. Oops!

“Oficina Reloaded” photo by Yuri de Castro

These are the blogs which linked to Cyclelicious over the past week or so, so I’m returning the love. Thank you all!

Roger Kramer rides his bike in St. Louis, MO.
RocBike rides his bicycle in Rochester, New York.
Squeaky has bicycle musings near San Diego, California.
Graham mountain bikes near Reston, Virginia.
TaxProf blogs about tax issues. Do you remember the Canadian bike messenger who was able to deduct the cost of eating as a transportation fuel cost?
James rides a bicycle in Greenville, South Carolina.
Noah bike commutes in a Kansas suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. So does Warren.
Pedaleiro mountain bikes in Brazil. How cool is that?
Tommy blogs about bikes from Bellevue, Washington.
Dr. Logan is on his way to Oakland, California right now.
Frank ruminates on Life and Cycling from Illinois.
Cycling.Finial.Com in Boston.
Phil in Australia.
Fat Boy Biking.
Bryan’s Cycling Space.
Cyclosom Pro Cycling Blog.

Posted In Uncategorized

Hybrid GM / Chevy full size SUV

Richard MasonerAugust 24, 2007Leave a Comment

In the For Whatever It’s Worth Department.

Sold as either a Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid or a GMC Yukon Hybrid, it’s a full-size sport-utility with as many as eight seats and the capability to tow a boat that also delivers a fuel-economy gain and can even run on pure electricity.

The hybrid (which uses a 6.0-liter V-8 for better low-end torque) ought to get 19 to 20 mpg in the city and 21 or 22 mpg on the highway.

The target customer? “It’s clearly going to be the customer who needs an SUV’s five-, six-, seven-, eight-passenger capability. They tow their boats. They go camping. They really have a need for this SUV,” says Micky Bly, GM’s director of hybrid powertrain integration. “But they also want to make sure they’re ecology-conscious, that it’s important to get the best fuel economy.”

Posted In Uncategorized

Trek: One World, Two Wheels

Richard MasonerAugust 23, 20072 Comments on Trek: One World, Two Wheels

Update: See Jame’s thoughts on Trek’s commitment and 1000 Limes.

Trek’s Commitment: One World, Two Wheels.

Trek Dealers are working to get people to ride their bikes and make a more bike friendly world, one mile at a time.

We all know the world has some problems; gas is expensive and cars pollute, the roads are congested and humans are getting bigger. And not in a good way.

Luckily, there is a solution to these problems. A solution that burns calories, not gas. It doesn’t waste fuel sitting in traffic. Something that could even bring communities closer together.

The solution is the bicycle.

With 40% of non-work related car trips being taken being two miles or less, what would happen if more people took the short trips on their bike? What if more communities had a “Safe Routes to Schools” plan so kids could ride to school safely? What would the world be like with more bicycle friendly communities?

Imagine arriving at work fresh instead of frazzled. Parking within feet of the building! Your kids getting exercise to and from school. Better still, commuting by bike IS exercising! And there are no carbon emissions from burning calories.

We all can ride and we have only one planet. Trek and Trek dealers challenge you to join us in making the world a more bike friendly place. You can start by riding your bike. It’s the greenest thing you can do to help the earth.

Trek is committing cash for Bikes Belong (the industry-funded advocacy group) and The International Mountain Bicycling Association.

Specialized Bicycles took a big step for bicycling advocacy last year when they named Ariadne Scott as Director of Advocacy and Environment for Specialized. Her mission at Specialized is to develop and implement Specialized’s global green action plan and integrate it into the company’s culture, environment, products, marketing and communication. Specialized helped organize a bicycle fair at Yahoo! and provided Globe bicycles for giveaways. On Bike To Work Day 2007, Specialized provided California politicians with bicycles for the event. “We are working with the leaders in our retail channel, the environment and advocacy arena to demonstrate the benefit of bicycling as a great and valid means of transportation,” said Mike Sinyard, founder and president of Specialized Bicycles. “Riding to work can directly impact global warming.”

Bike parts company Planet Bike is famous for their support of bicycling advocacy. Planet Bike donates 25% of company profits to bicycle advocacy groups, primarily the Thunderhead Alliance. Since 1996 Planet Bike has donated over $500,000 to grassroots bicycle advocacy.

Posted In advocacy

Gary Fisher Simple City bicycle

Richard MasonerAugust 23, 2007Leave a Comment

“Simple City” is the name of the Gary Fisher mystery commuter bike. Cycling News reports in their Trek World 2007 report that the Fisher Simply City was “one of the showstoppers” at the show.

Product Manager Chad Price and his team of ‘Chads’ (three in total) collaborated with Gary Fisher to create a cool new city shopper that blends the best of Euro city bikes and classic Schwinn townie that are so beloved in communities like Madison, WI and Davis, CA.

“We wanted to create a bicycle that was unique and featured the best of two worlds; useful for transportation and shopping, but lighter and faster than the conventional city bike “, Price said. “Simple City says it all; a simple city bike that has the best features, like the unique geometry we created so the ride is stable and comfortable under load and the adjustable front dropouts that support the optional ‘two bagger’ front rack”.

Arleigh provides some additional information on the Gary Fisher Simple City bicycle, and Bike Hugger Byron gives his views on this bike.

Now for some unsubstantiated rumors I’ve heard from people who may or may not be associated with Trek:

Product release early 2008, perhaps as early as January?
3-speed will retail for $400, 8-speed for $800.

I’ll definitely look for this bike when I visit Interbike next month.

Posted In trek

Bicycle news

Richard MasonerAugust 23, 2007Leave a Comment

Truvativ founder to start bike parts company

Truvativ founder Micki Kozuscheck, who sold Truvativ to SRAM, has joined up with some of his former management team to work on a new bike parts company that they’re calling Lezyne. Lezyne will manufacture and sell pumps, multitools, saddle bags, and hydration backpacks, according to Bike Europe.

John Burke: More advocacy from Trek

At the recent Trek World meeting for dealers at Trek headquarters in Madision, WI, Trek President Johne Burke introduced Trek’s “One World, Two Wheels” bicycling advocacy program.

Details: Bike Biz, Bike Europe, BRaIN.

Bicycle news

Brits spending vacation time on bicycles. “Britain is becoming a nation of cycling enthusiasts. Cycling has been given a new lease of life by recent environmental issues, such as sustainable transport, carbon emissions and eco travel,” commented Richard Cope, senior travel consultant at Mintel.

Nice mountain biking video with beautiful scenery from Rock Shox.

Bicycling Euroblog: Some cities treat bicyclists better than others.

VeloNews: The medical risks of doping.

Eurobike starts next week. I’ll find the Flickr pools for all kinds of wonderful bike porn.

Free lift rides for downhill riding at SolVista ski resort at Granby, Colorado. Granby is just to the west and south of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Everything I know about business I learned from Mountain Biking. Uh huh. “I caught some big air on that last leveraged buy out. It was pure nirvana, dood, but then I biffed and face shoveled into a horizontal trackstand after the SEC started nosing around. Bummer.”

Construction signs: Bikes are traffic, too.

MAKE: Pedal powered washing machine.

Velorution on Free bike schemes.

Posted In Uncategorized

Gary Fisher commuter bike

Richard MasonerAugust 22, 200716 Comments on Gary Fisher commuter bike

Arleigh went to Trek World in Madison, WI, where she snapped lots of bikey photos. Dr. Logan noticed this prototype Gary Fisher Commuter bike in the photostream.

This Gary Fisher commuter bicycle has Shimano’s Alfine shifter, Bontrager Satellite Plus reflective sidewall tires, a huge basket on the front, separate fender and rack mounts on front and rear (!), leather saddle and handgrips, full front and rear fenders and a chainguard. I don’t believe Alfine comes with a Coaster brake, but I don’t see a brake cable going to the rear so they must use something else for the internal gear hub in the rear. A hand brake controls the rim brake on the front wheel. Trek’s designer sensibly put a forward facing rear fork end on this bike for easy rear wheel removal.

Guitar Ted talks a little about this and another commuter prototype that he saw in Madison. G-Ted writes:

Fisher was showing off two prototype “townie” type bikes with a retro-ish/hand made flair. Sporting wrap around chain guards, full fenders, and internal gearing, these bikes were quite different and maybe even a bit out of place at the show.

I got a chance to chat briefly with Gary Fisher himself and I asked about these bikes. Were they something that Fisher will actually produce? I got a resounding “Yes!” in answer. It seems that we will most likely be seeing more of this type of utilitarian, work bike coming from Trek and Fisher in the future. I applaud Trek and Fisher for making an effort in this area and the bikes are certainly looking great so far.

In fact, I might even go so far as to say that they look every bit as cool as anything from the North American Hand Made Bicycle Show, where these would have been right at home.

Please remember to click the Digg and CycleCluster links if you like this article.

Posted In trek