Riding a bike is a great activity for most children.  If you are a cyclist yourself you know there are many benefits from riding a bike for yourself and the environment.  By making sure a child has a bike that fits, is safe to ride, and they have great places to ride you are getting them started right on a lifetime of fun and memories.  We’ve put together some tips to assure the bike you buy for them is a good choice for wherever they are at this phase in their life.

Bike lights have two purposes: to see where you are going and to be seen by others.  There is a misconception that if you ride a bike in the city you do not need bright lights because there is ambient lighting from street and car lights which allows you to see and be seen.  While any small powered bike light is better than nothing, a bright light will improve your safety by extending your ability to be seen from a greater distant and providing better illumination of the road.    

​Now that ebikes are becoming more popular,  people are enjoying them for getting around and with good reason.  They are a clean, efficient means of mobility for commuting, recreation, and fitness and are safe when used as they were designed.   But unfortunately along with increase usage there has been a corresponding increase in incidents due to the battery.  There have been increasing reports of ebike battery fires.  If you own an ebike, or are considering purchasing one, it is a good idea to be aware of best battery safety practices to ensure maximum safety, utility and life of your new ebike and it’s battery.

There is a lot of innovation in the electric bike (ebike) space right now.  Significant investments are being made by companies in diverse industries as well as individual inventors around the world to improve the ebike designs we have today.   While two-wheel transportation has evolved steadily over the past 100 years, the pace of innovation has recently sped up exponentially as a result of the addition of a motor and battery to a bike.  The electrical components on an ebike and the refinement of these creates new opportunities for features not possible before.  Following is  some of the  technology we’ve noticed is available in some leading edge ebikes today and might be prevalent in the future plus social trends indicating acceptance of ebikes. 

Even though it is fun and practical to ride an ebike for recreation and transportation, no one likes to ride in the rain.  Sometimes you have no choice.  You might be out riding and a shower rolls in or a mist turns into something more, catching you off guard.  Or you find you just need to get somewhere and your ebike is the best choice, weather be damned, so you just roll out.  You can ride an ebike in the rain, but there are some steps you can take before, during, and after your ride to make a ride in the rain safe and enjoyable.

Let’s say you’ve had it with high gasoline prices, are not happy with riding buses and trains, and you want to try something new for your health.  You are a candidate for commuting by bike!  This may be to your job, school, or running errands.  The health and environmental benefits of commuting by bike are well known and these new incentives may just push you to take action and try it out.  It may take some experimenting to develop a new routine, but the following six tips will help to get you started.    

If you use your bike to commute or for transportation, you will probably need to carry more gear than when you are taking a recreational ride on the weekend.  You will need a way to carry the items you will use when you arrive at your destination, such as  a change of clothes, a laptop, work papers, locks, bike tools in case of a flat tire, and your lunch.   If you run errands on your bike you will need a way to comfortably carry your purchases.  Hanging plastic bags from your handlebars is unstable and risky!  The most popular bike bags if you bike for transportation are a backpack, messenger bag, panniers, trunk bag, or a handlebar bag or basket. 

In the third and final week of the 2022 Tour de France (TDF) a new overall winner of the 109th event was crowned with a yellow jersey but not before a lot of drama and intrigue.  Jonas Vingegaard from Denmark won the Tour de France for the first time ending the dominance of two-time defending champion Tadej Pogacar and signaling the rise of a new super bicycle racing team.

​Some things stayed the same during week two of the 2022 Tour de France (TDF) such as the favorites for the general classification finishes and number of teams.  What changed was the size of the mountain climbs requiring long periods of sustained climbing often at high altitudes, additional opportunities for sprinters to win points, withdrawal of some key riders, and the dominance of Tadej Pogacar who was tested and came up short.    

One third of the 109th edition of the Tour de France (tDF)  is now in the books.  Even though this is an event steeped in history, the race organizers were not afraid to mix things up starting in the first week.  Deviations from the norm included starting the race on a Friday, instead of the usual Saturday, the first three stages held in the Scandinavian country of Denmark for the first time ever instead of France, an early stage on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, and the first ever mountain finish at La Planche des belle Filles.