MBM Spring Classic

Posted on Apr 7th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

It must be spring time as the MBM (Madison-Basco-Madison) Spring Classic otherwise known as the Hater 100 is upon us! For a lot of us this race is the entrance to the long season ahead – a tune-up after the drawn-out cold winter. There is nothing quite like exhausting yourself for 100k so year after year we sign up […] read more...

Sometimes Safety Requires Creativity

Posted on Apr 2nd 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

I’ve always been attracted to the intensity of large cities. I recently returned from New York City earlier this week. New York projects an explosive motion of color and noise and amidst all of the screeches, horns, sirens, and mobs of people all modes of transportation flow in unison, amazingly. Whale size buses rumb […] read more...

Atomic Light

Posted on Apr 1st 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, Learn,

I’d like to introduce our new line of minimalist bike lights. Inspired by the growing DIY movement, we are offering a kit that includes the LED, battery and electrical tape. The prototype shown below utilizes a standard CR2032 watch battery, but production models will utilize liquid metal nuclear batteries. Run-time i […] read more...

California Bicycle Coalition reboot

Posted on Mar 31st 2010 | Advocacy, Blog,

I thought I was going to a meeting of state-wide bike advocacy groups. I tagged along with Jeff Miller, Prez of the Alliance for Biking & Walking, thinking we were on the same page. In fact we ended up at a bar in Union Station in Washington, DC. We arrived at some sort of critical point as people were jumping up […] read more...

High Cost of Free Parking

Posted on Mar 29th 2010 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog,

Free parking hurts everybody: parkers, pedestrians, business owners and bikers. Studies in NYC have shown that 29% of downtown drivers are just looking for a place to park. In the process they consume gas, exhaust pollution and snarl traffic. An innovative solution proposed by Don Shoup is to price on-street parking s […] read more...

Behind the Scenes

Posted on Mar 26th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Here at Planet Bike, we love all types of riding. Many of us are partial to a nice mountain bike ride though. Some of the best trails in Wisconsin are are just 50 miles from our HQ. The Southern unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest houses around 50 miles of uber sweet singletrack. Every great trail system requires […] read more...

1,254 miles in 365 days

Posted on Mar 25th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Today’s my one year anniversary tracking my daily bike miles ridden. As the screen shot below shows, I’ve ridden 1,254 miles since March 25, 2009. This is a big increase over previous years, though compared to my Planet Bike colleagues, that’s barely respectable.) That’s an average of 3 miles per day. Greenlight is a […] read more...

In Search of the Lost Cyclist

Posted on Mar 22nd 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, News,

We’re really excited about David Herlihy’s new book,The Lost Cyclist which will be available June 18th of this year. The story follows American Frank Lenz, one of the first people to attempt riding around the world on a bicycle. Today it’s still an accomplishment but setting out in 1892 definitely takes the cake. […] read more...

1,000,000 bikers

Posted on Mar 18th 2010 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog, Video,

peopleforbikes.org launched at the National Bike Summit last week. It’s a national campaign to sign up 1,000,000 people in support of biking. They’re at 4000 so far. Check out the sweet video poem. And sign up. […] read more...

Spring 2010 Super Commuter – Jason Lummis

Posted on Mar 16th 2010 | Super Commuters,

Pinckney, MI – A super commuter rides through every season, in all types of weather, day and night. Choosing the simplicity, health and pleasure of bicycling, a super commuter simply prefers to ride a bike to the grocery store, to work, to a concert or the cafe. Planet Bike’s winter Super Commuter is thirty-nine y […] read more...

The Numbers Are In!

Posted on Mar 16th 2010 | Advocacy, Blog,

The growth of the 10th National Bike Summit has generated positive vibes across the nation this week. Over 700 bike enthusiasts marched up “the hill” to lobby for national issues related to our favorite mode of transportation – the bicycle. The League of American Bicyclists did a nice recap on the top ten highlights. […] read more...

Spring Cleaning

Posted on Mar 15th 2010 | Better World, Bike Life, Blog,

With temperatures peaking well above freezing the past few days it seems we have begun our spring thaw. Spring is a beautiful time but with that thaw comes the exposure of months and months of accumulated debris and trash. Our main man Walt at QBP takes it upon himself annually to make this world a better place by clea […] read more...

Ringing Madison’s bell at the National Bike Summit

Posted on Mar 15th 2010 | Advocacy, Blog,

National Bike Summit, Day 2: Krista Rettig of Trek moderated a panel discussion about the lessons learned here in Madison about making our city bike friendly. Mayor Dave, Chris Fortune of Saris and Kevin Hardman of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin were the panelists. See the pix below. Mayor Dave gave a droll revi […] read more...

The floors are hard and the corridors long

Posted on Mar 12th 2010 | Advocacy, Blog,

National Bike Summit, Day 3, 10 am: Below is Chris Kegel, owner of Wheel & Sprocket, outside the office of Representative Gwen Moore of Milwaukee. Chris is a summit veteran. (I think he’s been to 9 of the 10 National Bike Summits.) Below that is a part of the group that met with Rep. Moore’s staffer. Wisconsin had […] read more...

Culture, not color

Posted on Mar 12th 2010 | Advocacy, Blog,

National Bike Summit, Day 2, 9:30am: I moderated a panel discussion titled “Lessons Learned Reaching Out to Communities of Color”. I was honored to facilitate a discussion among Alison Mannos with the LA County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC), Anthony Taylor of Minneapolis with the Major Taylor Cycling Club and National Bro […] read more...

(700 x biker) + Congress = Action

Posted on Mar 11th 2010 | Advocacy, Blog,

Summit Day 2, 8am: I’m in Washington, DC this week representing Planet Bike, Wisconsin and Madison to our members of Congress. Wednesday things really got rolling with a full day workshops and education on “the issues”. Over 700 bicycle advocates are getting ready this morning to take our message, our “asks”, to congr […] read more...

Is There an App. for That?

Posted on Mar 10th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

The bicycle is gaining more and more steam in being seen as a viable means of transportation. Many of us have viewed the bike in this way for years, but it’s always nice to see the “mainstream” start catching on.Google announced today that they have added biking directions to Google Maps. This will likely prove to be […] read more...

National Bike Summit

Posted on Mar 9th 2010 | Advocacy, Blog,

Today marks the opening day of the 2010 National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. Our man Jay headed out over the weekend to shake hands with the folks on Capitol Hill and explain how transportation by bicycle can help shape our nation. We’re happy to support this great event as well as Jonathan Maus from BikePortlan […] read more...

Join the Fun

Posted on Mar 4th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Ride your bike, win swag. It’s as easy as that. Go sign up at Greenlightride and create a 1 person team, then join the Planet Bike St. Paddy’s Day Challenge. Average 3 miles a day and you get a set of bar tape. 8 miles a day and we’ll add in a light. 12 miles a day gets tape and a light set. To top it off, the top 3 … […] read more...

Rude Awakening

Posted on Mar 2nd 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

With temperatures hovering in the mid-thirties, spring fever has begun in Madison. Being an optimist (perhaps overly), I shed the studded tires from my commuter bike. I went with a small knobbed mountain bike tire just in case we get another snow or ten. The lack of resistance and lack of the studded tire buzz made fo […] read more...

We like bikers with skills

Posted on Feb 24th 2010 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog, News,

I’m glad to read that Bikes Belong has awarded a $5,000 grant to the City of Middleton, WI (Madison’s neighbor) for the Middleton Pump Course & Single Track Facility. C.O.R.P. (Capitol Off Road Pathfinders) has been doing a great job bringing mountain biking to the urban areas of Madison and Middleton, WI. The pum […] read more...

Employee Bike Feature

Posted on Feb 18th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Mark had this custom 953 stainless singlespeed built several years back by the infamous Bob Brown. It carried him to the 2007 singlespeed cyclocross national championship. Interestingly this bike does not have rear eyelets or a drilled brake bridge but Mark worked his magical mechanical skills to outfit this rig with […] read more...

Employee Bike Feature

Posted on Feb 10th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Heath’s titanium commuter is as functional as it is aesthetically pleasing.

Automatic Hill Lift?

Posted on Feb 5th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

I’ve always been intrigued by how much of an impact the bicycle has on European cities. Dave came across this video the other day and it definitely takes the cake. It comes from a website called Eco-Ideas.net which focuses on ecological ideas from around the globe. […] read more...

Biking Contributes to State Economy

Posted on Feb 2nd 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, News,

Kevin Hardman, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Bicycle Federation was kind enough to share the following information with us today: “A report released today by the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that bicycling tourism combined with Wisconsin’s world-class bicycle industry contributes $1.5 billion to our st […] read more...

One Step Closer to Rail Transit in Madison

Posted on Jan 29th 2010 | Blog, News,

The city of Madison and Southern Wisconsin are one step closer to making rail transit a reality. Wisconsin is to receive $822 million for passenger rails – which would allow you to leave your car at home the next time you want to travel between Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago. The project is still in its developmental […] read more...

Things That Get us Excited

Posted on Jan 28th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Mark’s new Nimatsu Scorpion proves he’s a force to be reckoned with on the table!

Employee Glove Choice

Posted on Jan 22nd 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, Learn,

When the weather fluctuates, so does our choice of gear. Next to boots, gloves are one of the most important choices to make when commuting in the winter. Keeping the extremities warm can be tough. This past week has been nice. It seems that we’re experiencing our mid-winter thaw with temps in the lower 30’s. Below yo […] read more...

Employee Bike Feature

Posted on Jan 21st 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Chris built this rigid 29er Salsa El Mariachi just before the snow started to fly. It makes a great commuter for the winter and will be a blast through the single track come summer. The 1×9 gear configuration is perfect for winter commuting whether the streets are clear or covered in ice and snow. […] read more...

Homemade Boot Inserts

Posted on Jan 11th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, Learn,

Mark brought a great winter biking tip to my attention this morning. Seeing as how we just reviewed a few pairs of winter cycling boots, I thought a follow up boot post would be appropriate. On really frigid days, I found that my toes were still getting cold regardless of what I did to try to keep them warm on the mor […] read more...