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May
14
NBC’s Today Show Commuter Challenge Video
Filed Under Advocacy, Cycling, Green Efforts, Interbike, Video | 5 Comments
I think we all know who wins all the annual “commuter challenges” put on by various media companies. Here’s NBC’s Today Show’s “Ditch the car for a healthy commute” challenge for this year with Al Roker turning the pedals (on a folding bike!), Matt Lauer taking the subway and a bus and Meredith Vieira braving the New York City streets in a car.
It’s a decent show of the common sense aspect of using a bike to get to work. They even have an “expert” on who highlighted some important stats such as how most Americans live within 5 miles of work. The focus is more on the health benefits, but I’ll take whatever positive mention of cycling the mainstream media give us.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Self Magazine, featured in the video, has a “Biking Guide” up on their site with tips and product suggestions for new cyclists.
Also interesting to note that near the beginning, Roker says it’s time to “break out the Schwinn” when referring to bikes. I wonder if “break out the Trek (or Specialized) would mean more to people under 40?
Nov
20
Urban Cyclists and the Outdoor Retailer
Filed Under Cycling, Deep Thoughts, Industry News, Interbike | 1 Comment
I’m always on the look out for coverage of cycling in the non-endemic media, and am especially interested in non-endemic trade media mentions, which are rare. Well, I just had one of these rare sightings and it’s an valuable read for bike dealers.
The September/October issue of SGB (Sporting Goods Business) magazine has an interesting article by Kate Siber entitled, “The New Morning Commute – Thrift, Gas Prices and Urban Style Make Cycling Hip Again.” The point of the article, given the reader audience of SGB–sporting goods and outdoor retailers–is to enlighten them to the evolution and growth of transportation and utilitarian cycling of the last few years that we in the bike industry are well aware of, AND the business opportunities they present to the outdoor retail channel. The article causes a lot of questions to be raised about what the existing bike retail channel is doing to serve or not serve the new cyclists’ needs.
“The take away is that now is an excellent time to tap the burgeoning bike-commuter market.”
The logic seems solid: who among us cyclists doesn’t also frequent outdoor goods stores? REI and, recently, Canada’s Mountain Equipment Coop have very visibly figured this out. What’s happening now is that the growth of the non-enthusiast urban cyclist means that potentially even more of the outdoor stores’ existing customer base are cyclists and in the market for gear and apparel to meet their new riding and style needs.
Is this a warning to the bike industry that someone else is looking to take advantage of a cycling segment that, as we’ve discussed in the past, we’re not adequately serving? Or, conversely, would the prospect of wider availability of cycling related goods help to broaden the “brand awareness” of the bicycle? That would help grow the pie for all of us. And make the world a better place. Right?
This opportunity is being missed by many outdoor stores, the article states. Despite the growth in urban cycling, “many outdoor stores do not identify the bike commuter as one of their core customers.” Upon calling a downtown Portland, OR, outdoor store, the author was told that they “weren’t involved with bike commuters.” I love her response to that:
“No bike commuters in an outdoor store in downtown Portland? Perhaps they were in disguise as regular old customers.”
The article goes on to say that many independent bike dealers are on to this trend and have begun to take advantage of this market. It’s good to hear that what had previously existed mostly outside of the manufacturer-to-retailer-to-cyclist ecosystem has started to move to the dealer channel best equipped to service the cyclist. Boston’s Wheelworks and Denver’s Salvagetti are IBD success stories called out by the magazine. Personally, I’ve also noticed many new “urban-centric” and “fixie-centric” shops opening up over the last couple of years to serve this market, answering the question that Bicycle Retailer asked last year, “Are bike shops selling the bikes new bikers want to buy?”. And for anyone who visited the Electra booth at this year’s show and saw their new Ticino line of components, it’s clear that manufacturers are really starting to step it up with gear to help IBD’s serve these emerging and trendy categories better.
Ms. Siber also discusses the growth of fixed gear bikes and fixie culture and lifestyle. The importance of style to the category, she writes, could be very well addressed by outdoor retailers because of their experience with selling fashion and apparel. The perception of different store types’ strengths by casual and urban cyclists is critical to note. IBD’s are still perceived, for the most part, as purveyors of lycra and spandex. As apparel maker Sheila Moon is quoted in the article:
“These customers tend not to expect these types of duds in bike shops. Whenever they think of bike shops and clothing, they think of spandex.”
We definitely saw a noticeable increase in attendance by non-bike dealers this year at Interbike in the form of outdoor recreation and performance sports stores. Bikes continue to be sold in bike shops, mainly, but customers will look to a variety of other stores for apparel. At Interbike, we have tried to directly target this situation with the launch of the Urban Legend fashion show. The concept was to put these casual, urban apparel brands and styles and bikes in front of the industry and retailers to educate them on what’s happening out there.
Now I don’t necessarily take the knee jerk reaction that these new sellers of bike gear are bad for the IBD. As I mentioned earlier here and in previous posts, I think that we need to put bikes in front of the non-cyclists in the places they shop because that’s not necessarily in bike shops. I think we also need to continue to work to soften some of the enthusiast focus of retailers if we want to appeal to a broader audience. That’s not to say that there’s no place for our beloved pro shops. But as for taking advantage of new categories of riders (customers!), we need to address the aspects of our existing retail experience that may be intimidating, at best, or off-putting, at worst, to them. Maybe Shimano’s Coasting project uncovered the right challenges that we need to address, but ended up with the wrong solution. Instead of new displays inside of existing bike dealers, maybe they should have been placed in the habitats of the non-cyclists that we all want to reach. (Heresy?)
I’ll leave with a final quote from the article that is encouraging if only because it seems to equate bike lifestyle with that holy-grail of predominantly non-enthusiast customer categories: surf wear. Only a few short years ago, this statement would have been laughable.
“Much like the surf market, bike style appeals to a demographic far broader than just the enthusiasts. It represents an ethos.”
Jun
30
The Bike Racing Community and Advocacy
Filed Under Advocacy, Deep Thoughts, Interbike, Racing | 3 Comments
I’ve had a feeling for some time now that there is a very large wasted resource in the cycling family when it comes to bike advocacy issues. Maybe “wasted” is too harsh a word, but the fact is, though, that there is a huge group of cyclists that are as passionate about cycling as the most fervent and active advocate, but that don’t appreciate how important – and relevant to them – advocacy efforts are.
I count myself as a part of that group who has seen the light. My entry into cycling was just about riding my college roommate’s bike for fitness, but quickly evolved into cycling competitively. Cycling was a sport – a recreational activity. A very serious one, though, that I devoted an insane percentage of my waking hours thinking – no, obsessing – about, and invested too many dollars in. You may know the feeling…
Racers complain about unsafe drivers, or poor road conditions, but for the most part, our contribution to advocacy has been limited to complaining to the police officer who has pulled us over for not riding single file. Riding, most of the time, involved loading up the roof rack with your bike and driving to a training ride or race. Commuting to work on your bike was a way of getting a few more training miles in.
I’ve given passing thought on how the industry could harness the racing community or at least open their eyes to how impactful and important advocacy is to all cyclists. I remember getting mail from the League of American Wheelmen (the old name of the League of American Bicyclists) back in the day and actually thinking that it had nothing to do with me. That was for those wacky bike nuts. It just never clicked until much later. Advocacy was for those wacky bike nuts. There was and still is a big disconnect between the passion of the typical racer and that of the advocate for cycling rights, access issues and cycling friendly legislation.
So about a week ago, a friend of mine at LeMond Fitness, Eric Stobin, forwarded me a link to an interesting article on VeloNews.com that struck a chord. Rick Crawford, who wrote the article (Circles: Wasting energy in an energy challenged world), expressed a similar train of thought in his piece.
With gas prices so high, I’m looking at the bike quite differently these days. For 32 years now, I have viewed the bike as my sporting medium; my racing tool and speed fix. Rarely have I viewed it as the extremely viable form of transportation that it really is. Now that regular unleaded is more than four bucks a gallon, I don’t take the car for granted. From sheer necessity, the bike has become my primary form of transportation.
Rick goes off on a different tangent from me at this point here about harnessing the power generated by cyclists on exercise bikes and trainers as a new source of renewable energy (sort of like Lance Armstrong in that old ESPN Sports Center ad), but his initial comment on how a bike racer views the purpose of his bike is spot on. So, too, his description of the epiphany that has happened with so many casual or sport cyclists recently. I have to say that many of the new commuters that I notice on the roads are cyclists on road bikes wearing racing outfits. I guess that’s somewhat logical as a cyclist would be more naturally inclined to switch to his bike as a mode of transportation before a non-biker. He also already owns a bike – an important detail if you plan on riding one to work.
I’m not sure of the latest membership numbers for USACycling (the governing boady of racing in the US), but I’m sure that it’s in the multiple tens of thousands. Wouldn’t it be great to get them all involved?
Jun
20
Surprised to see a photo of a bike commuter on a a train on the cover of this morning’s North County section of San Diego’s Union Tribune newspaper. “That’s great!” I thought at first. Then I read the headline: “Cutting back on bikes onboard – Officials cite safety in limiting number to 4 per car on train” Just what I was afraid of with the huge growth in bike/train commuting recently.
Photo by CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune
The story deals with the recently inaugurated Sprinter light rail line launched earlier this year in northern San Diego County. I haven’t had a chance to ride it yet, though I suppose I could take it to my current Metrolink train in Oceanside. There’s been criticism that the line is a “train to nowhere” from Escondido to Oceanside, California. As a result, apparently many more than expected (upwards of 12 per car, according to the article) are bringing their bikes on board to complete their journeys at either end.
“We have really been overwhelmed with bikes so far – more than we expected,” district spokesman Tom Kelleher said. “It’s a pleasant dilemma.”
I agree – this is a “pleasant dilemma” to have, right? This is a great sign and takes the mission of a light rail system one step further: people leave their cars behind even to get to and from the train. With the encouragement of this great participation by cyclists, all that’s needed is a creative and “pleasant” solution. Unfortunately, we’re dealing with government bureaucrats here. Their answer to so many bikes on the trains: limit them to 4 citing safety reasons. The transit district is also proposing that bikers just use the 278 bike lockers installed at the stations along the route. Yeah, no need for your bike at the other end of the line in a suburban setting…
The limit is planned to go into effect on July 1st.
“On July 1 there are a lot of people who just won’t ride the Sprinter anymore, which is just going to be unfortunate,” Keehan said. “It’s not good for the transit rider or the transit district to not accommodate those riders.”
The commenter “Left Coast” summed up the situation best and provided the best solution:
so let’s see, right at one of the MOST significant times in public transit history, where they have the greatest opportunity to increase ridership, and help the environment, what do these dummies do?!
ENCOURAGE people to bring bikes… many, many bikes. make one of the cars one big bike rack. think you idiots, THINK! stop being bureaucrats for once in your lives.
I just hope Metrolink doesn’t get any ideas from their peers to the south and try something like this. I really like the idea of making one of the cars “one big bike rack.” I chat with a fellow bike commuter on the platform, but when the train comes we have to split up so that we won’t compete for the limited bike racks. Would be great if we could ride on the train with the other bikers.
To end this post, I’ll leave you with one final comment to help frame the situation with a bit of humor:
Pack the train with bikes and people! It is not about comfort it is about saving fuel!
In 3rd world countries you could be setting next to a box of chickens or a pig head.
Jun
19
Is More Bike Culture the Answer?
Filed Under Deep Thoughts, Interbike | 11 Comments
I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the last couple of posts here that dealt with the rise of bike commuting have generated so much interest and feedback. I guess this isn’t surprising considering the attention to commuting by bike that I’m increasingly seeing in all areas of the media (and the huge increase in bike commuters I see on the roads).
One particular comment from Justyna on this recent post made some great points about where she sees the problem with getting more people to commute by bike – and it’s “not about the stuff”, as she puts it. She linked to a post she wrote following her trip to Interbike last year where she caught an interview we did on our “Good Morning Interbike” show from the Media Center with Tim Parr and Sky Yeager of Swobo. (Here’s a link to the video – you’ll have to sit through Ned Overend and John Tomac, Lennard Zinn and Jonathan Vaughters…lots of enthusiast candy in there).
This discussion of what it is that is keeping more Americans from cycling is complicated and very interesting at the same time. Same goes for the issue of why people do cycle already. I don’t want to go through the whole Coasting thing again, but Shimano has spent a lot of time and effort trying figure this out (yes, so they can sell these people more stuff, I know…) and, among many insightful observations from their research, determined that the culture and environment of bike shops is off-putting and intimidating to many non-cyclists.
Justyna wrote that what is needed is more of a “bike culture” here in the States. While more awareness and acceptance of cycling and cyclists by society is always welcome (and what I guess she really means), I would hazard to guess that the nature of the existing bike culture (that most shops are great at nurturing) is one of the reasons that many don’t currently ride. As a commenter on blogger BikeSnobNYC’s great post today, “Get Over It: Surmounting Obstacles to Cycling”, mentions:
No “culture” is as inclusive as it thinks it is. It’s only a few individuals that make it inclusive.
It could be the fear of looking silly in lycra, of complicated bikes, of fixie hipster attitudes, of riding in traffic, of small hard bike seats, of confrontational critical mass’ers, of the arrogant racer shop clerk, of expensive bikes, of not being accepted by experienced cyclists – all these are bike culture components whether real or perceived. What needs to happen is a lessening of some of these cultural components from the general image of cycling held by society at large. As the Snob himself writes:
If I’m hard on the fashionistas and the gear whores, it’s because I think one of the greatest obstacles to new cyclists is the uniform and equipment it seems necessary to own in order to join in the fun. From the outside you’d think you can’t own a fixed-gear bike without having full sleeves and a HED tri-spoke, and that you can’t own a road bike without having an SRM and a pair of wheels that costs over $1,000.
As the Coasting project determined, we (as an industry) have done such a great job of framing cycling as a sport or fitness endevour, that people who just want to ride feel intimidated, or worse, don’t even give cycling a moments consideration. My point (and Bicycle Retailer’s in the article I discussed in my post) on the question of whether bike shops are selling the right bikes, is that (most) bike shops are set up to service the enthusiasts (think the “Lance Effect”, etc.) very well and cater to that culture and as a side effect, turn off many of the non-cyclists who aren’t part of the clique. To these people, a skate shop, fashion boutique a friendly website or even (gasp!) a Wal-Mart or Target could provide a more welcoming environment to take the plunge into cycling. They just want to buy a bike and ride, right?
A final note: I know there are many great shops out there doing a wonderful job at encouraging new cyclists. In my work in the industry, I calculated once that I’ve visited about 350 of the best shops around the country, and have seen many awesome shops and met many passionate cyclists. By no means is this an indictment on all bike shops, but a critical look at ways in which we as an industry can take feedback from a group of outsiders newly interested in being “one of us” and ways we can encourage them.
Enjoy the ride!
Jun
13
Are Bike Shops Selling the Bikes New Bikers Want?
Filed Under Deep Thoughts, Gear, Green Efforts, Interbike | 14 Comments
Great new article (actually, a “Special Report”) in the latest BRAIN that came in a couple of days ago. Matt Wiebe’s story is titled “Alternative Retail Channels Cater to New Cyclists.” It’s a very well written article that brings up some great points for retailers – and manufacturers – some things to chew on. Make sure you read it when it arrives in the mail – it doesn’t seem to exist on BRAIN’s website.
Matt begins with an observation that is probably a very widely held assumption across the industry and biking community currently:
A perfect storm is building of people who cannot afford gas, who realize they have to change their lifestyle to save the planet and believe bikes are the answer.
We’ve all witnessed it: the train in the morning is overflowing with bikes, buses are turning bikers away because the Sportworks on the front is full, and retailers are seeing more people dusting off old bikes and bringing them in for service to start riding to work. More and more politicians and celebrities are being photographed on their bikes and Barack Obama just granted a private meeting with bike industry leaders last night. These are new riders from the proverbial 161 million non-riders we’ve all been trying to reach, right?
As Matt goes on to write, though, the “storm wind should be blowing these new consumers into the nation’s bike shops … but it’s not happening.”
Tim Parr of Swobo supports that statement early in the article by saying, “these new customers cannot find the product they want because it’s not an enthusiast’s bike.” Bicycle dealers are great at serving the needs of enthusiasts but not so much the needs of these new bikers.
I think we can all agree with Matt’s line that “the enthusiast market is not where the growth and excitement is now.”
In addition, alternative retailers and retail channels have sprung up to serve this new, market. These include surf and skate shops, apparel boutiques and – brace yourself – internet direct sales. That last one is a taste of a topic for a whole other post: how retailers are still not fully embracing the internet to grow their businesses and how certain manufacturers are “holding back” retailers from taking advantage of the internet. Talk about a hot button issue…
So what are these bikes that these “neo-bikers” are looking for? How about the urban fixie trend? We’ve all read enough BikeSnobNYC posts and have seen fixies turn up under suburban teens farther and farther away from the city centers where the category was born to know that these are huge. While a few manufacturers have stepped up with models to serve this market (and their dealers with product), for the most part, consumers are forced to look to alternative channels to get what they want. The fixie trend is also bringing with it an opportunity that the bike industry has longed for for eons: a lifestyle market, the likes of which the surf and skate industries have enjoyed since the dawn of their sports. Non-enthusiasts are not going to – or even thinking about – bike shops for this.
Another type of bike that the neo-biker is not finding is a $300-$500 “just-a-bike” bike. Many bike shops have been profiting from $8,000 custom road bike sales over the last 10 years or so and can’t serve the needs of the neo-biker. I can remember my dad balking at paying the $800 for a mountain bike that the shop salesperson proposed years ago when I convinced him to try cycling. He told me that $300 was about what he wanted to pay for a bike to ride around town. We enthusiasts and industry members would consider $800 about right for an entry-level bike. How many people are turned away by the higher than expected prices for bikes.
I don’t want to give away the whole article before you have a chance to read it, but I tend to agree with Matt on so many of these aspects that contribute to the challenge that bike shops apparently are facing in addressing this surge of new riders. From manufacturers increasingly encouraging dealers to make larger commitments to their brands that in turn causes the dealers to lose the ability to change quickly with the market place to non-cycling brands like RVCA (and here from a non-bike blog) and Paul Frank making inroads into the bike market through their networks of non-traditional bike retailers, there are some great points to think about.
What I have seen in my limited exposure to this market is that on the train every day that I commute, I see alot of inappropriate bikes being used. Obviously, they’re all bikes and it’s great that they are being ridden, but I think we can do better for these neo-bikers.
I don’t know, am I wrong?
May
16
It’s Bike to Work Day in SoCal
Filed Under Advocacy, Deep Thoughts, Rides | 4 Comments
As if you didn’t know, bike community members, today is Bike to Work Day in Southern California. I guess other regions have it on different days. Judging by the number of bikes on the train platform this morning, I going to guess that its will be a pretty successful BTWD. The ongoing challenge, of course, is to keep everyone going beginning Monday. MasiGuy’s blog had a comment this morning that describes this well here.
A side effect of BTWD is the crowded trains. I guess it’s a positive sign for cycling, but the 2 racks per car on Metrolink here don’t cut it. There were 5 bikers on my train home last night. Can’t wait for tonight’s crowds.
On a positive note, there happened to be a “market research” person from Metrolink on my car. I commented to her about the need for more racks. She smiled and handed me a survey to fill out and suggested that I use the comment area to mention the problem. Also was able to put down that the bike is my mode of transport pre- and post-train ride. Bonus.
Along with the four other bikes there were four other bikers on the train. Had a nice conversation with one who was on a really nice carbon road bike. He’s definitely one of the industry’s “VIP Customers.” So much so, that after he found out that I worked for Interbike (did the jersey and socks plastered with the logo give it away?), he mentioned that he loves Interbike and goes every year. When I asked him how he gets in, he said that he’s a very good customer of his shop and they get him into the show. Now this volatile topic is worthy of a whole other post, but suffice it to say that if any type consumer should be let into the show, this is it. He doesn’t ask for price lists or deals or sponsorship, knows that the show is for the dealers and manufacturers to conduct their business and he buys everything he sees there from his local shop.
I’m not advocating at all that it’s ok for retailers to do this. They still need to respect the exhibitors and those other retailers who are uncomfortable with this and have expressed a desire to keep the show for the trade only. I do have to admit that this guy’s passion and love of bikes and cycling is strong enough to get him to drive 5 hours each way to Vegas and pay for his own hotel and expenses just to ogle cool new bike gear.
Continuing the trend of interesting conversations that happen when you bike and train to work instead of driving, I met the publisher of Skateboarder magazine this morning (they’re also based in San Juan Capistrano and are the sister mag to Bike magazine). He bikes to work most days of the week. Great talk about the future of traditional media and the web and also nuances of the various core “tribes” within the skate world. Good stuff. Would never happen in a car by yourself.
Finally, here’s one more pic for Carlton Reid (congrats on your award, btw!) who enjoys seeing where people live, work and ride. I was bit early this morning to the train and rode a couple of blocks over from the station to the beach. Another beautiful day to ride.
May
15
Scenes from a Bike Commute
Filed Under Cycling, Interbike, Photos, Rides | 6 Comments
In the spirit of Bike to Work Week, I thought I’d show a few scenes from my bike commute. I live in northern San Diego County and my commute is multi-modal: 14 miles by bike to the Oceanside (California) train station and then a 25-or-so minute train ride up the coast to San Juan Capistrano in Orange County – mostly through the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base. I try to leave the house by 6:15 when I commute by bike. I can be showered and ready to go by the 8:30 start of our work day.
For simplicity’s sake and to protect my nice camera, I just used the camera on my cell phone. Not bad, but not exactly stunning color repro – there was actually beautiful blue sky this morning that doesn’t come out in these photos.
That’s my bike in front of a piece of sculpture in Oceanside. This is near the start of my own version of the “Stupidest Bike Lane.” It’s seperated from the street (as you can see in the photo above), is perfectly paved and striped, has nice signage but it is only about 500 feet long through a residential neighborhood and has 2 stops signs along its route. At either end of this path there’s nothing more than some of those “Bike Route” signs. Not lane, no path. This is just a random piece of bike facility that lives in a vacuum.
This is my local shop. It’s not the closest to me by any stretch, but it’s the one I chose to frequent. I have two bike “super centers” – one that I can even walk to – and while they’re nice and all, I still prefer the old- school independant shops like Pacific Coast Cycles in Oceanside. Chuck, the owner, used to work for Masi Bikes years ago and is a great guy to chat with and he’s got a bunch of cool classic bikes and parts in the shop. He’s also very opinionated about what he likes and dislikes in bikes and the bike industry. Worth a visit if you’re in the area. I try to make a point of stopping in to say hi on my ride home.
The Oceanside train station is near the beach and pier (visible in the background). Also near the station is this blue house that you may recognize from a little old movie called TopGun that took place in and around San Diego. This is where Charlie (Kelly McGillis) lived and was visited by Maverick (Tom Cruise). It’s in pretty bad shape and is scheduled to be torn down, the last I heard, to make way for a big resort complex. Pity. Not exactly a significant piece of American heritage, but a neat part of American pop-culture.
There’s my bike on the train now. The Metrolink trains have room for two bikes on each car. Not a problem in the morning as I get on at the first stop, but it can be a problem going home at the end of the day since the train comes down from LA with lots of commuters. I have to guess which car will be emptiest and hope for the best since there’s no time to “browse” all the cars to see which has room for me. More often than not I’m stuck holding my bike the whole trip in a crowded car. No telling what Bike to Work week crowds will be like.
Here’s a little nod to our friends at Timbuk2 bags. I love this backpack they made for us with the Interbike logo. It’s a nice change from the messenger bag I usually use. This is also a nod to the guys at Bike Hugger that recently had a discussion about the best bags for laptops and bikes. This one holds a MacBook Pro very nicely, by the way.
This is a typical view out the window of the train during the commute. What you see here is the pier in San Clemente and some nice waves. I tried to catch some of the many surfers in action, but the phone camera makes them look like specs. Suffice it to say that this is probably one of the most beautiful train rides you can do: along the beaches and coastline of Southern California. Dolphin sightings are common, too.
We’re there! Waiting for the train to pull away so I can cross over the tracks to roll to the office.
This what’s on the other side of the tracks: the Los Rios district of San Juan Capistrano. I believe that it’s the oldest neighborhood in California going back to the time of the missions (don’t quote me, though). Very cool old neighboorhood that feels more like something you’d see in Disney World’s frontierland – but it’s authentic.
From the station, I hop on the San Juan Creek bike trail for about a minute. I runs along a small canal that looks like the ones they always had car chases in in 70’s police shows and the movie Grease. Being a non-native Californian myself, I always enjoy seeing this type of Hollywood-inspired California imagery. Along the same lines, I still chuckle when I see CHiPs officers on motorcycles.
That’s our office as seen from the bike path. If you keep heading down the path, you’ll hit Doheny beach in a couple of miles. That’s the way we usually head during our lunch time rides.
So door to door, it’s about an hour and forty minutes. At 14 miles of riding each way, it’s a decent enough workout. And the shower at work helps make the commute more enjoyable for my co-workers.
What’s your commute like?
Update: Per Carlton’s request in the comments, here’s where my bike I live between commutes:
The bike lives just around the corner from my cube during the day. Jennie, our art director, keeps her Electra beach cruiser on the other side of my cube. During any given week, you can see a Fuji (mine), an Electra, a Giant, a Burley, a Ridley, a Trek, and a Felt. Sometimes I break out the old Bridgestone RB-1 with Campy C-Record and Delta brakes for fun and style on the commute. Downstairs in the bike rack are a couple of rusty cruisers that a couple of people use for running errands or getting lunch.
My cube. Not much to say about a cube. Actually, looking at it in this photo, it looks pretty sparse – even for a cube. We moved cubes earlier this year, so there’s not much decoration other than the Eddy Merckx being interviewed in the Interbike Media Center poster on the left and the Bikes Belong musette hanging on the wall. Up on the shelf there’s a team High Road/Shimano/Giant pint glass that I got at the Tour of California, a Trek shot glass and cowbell from Sea Otter and a travel mug from the Interbike/Bikes Belong coffee giveaway at last year’s show. That’s about it. Feel free to send me some schwag to help decorate the cube…
Apr
4
This is a Good Thing, Right?
Filed Under Deep Thoughts, Green Efforts | 1 Comment
Leaving work at the end of the day earlier this week, I snapped this photo while stopped at a light just around the corner from our offices here in San Juan Capistrano in Southern California. This particular station has always had obscenely high prices, but now premium gas is well beyond the $4 per gallon threshold. And this morning I noticed that they’ve adjusted the price up to $4.13 with super at over $4 now.
While I never buy from this station, the overall trend is now REALLY starting to play with the economics of bike and mass transit commuting options versus driving. SoCal is not exactly designed for easy mass transportation use given the infamous suburban sprawl of the region and car-centric mentality of the original urban planners (effectively the developers and politicians), but I think it will finally start to noticeably affect pocketbooks and wallets.
I’ve got to start up the bike commute again now that there’s enough daylight at the end of the day for the 14 mile bike leg of my multi-modal commute (which includes a train ride up the coast to Orange County). With my kids’ school schedules in the morning and wife’s work, I can only do it two days per week, but gas prices should now make it a financial win as well as a Wilford Brimley-esque “right thing to do”?
So the high gas prices are painful, but it’s a good thing for the bike industry, right?