If you have a Bike Beam LED pole light, but don’t have a safety flag (or some other flag/pennant etc) on it yet, here’s how to add one. Having a flag generally helps with dynamic daytime visibility, they’re fun, and you can add your own message to your bike ride as well. They’re useful to help people visible on kids bikes and cargo bikes, or to add some fun to your commute. Some people have used them for Bike Party, Loud and Lit, and Thursday Night Rides. Step 1: Find or make a flag for the LED pole light that is the right size The Bike Beam has poles that are about 5/16″ or 8mm in diameter, so consider this when figuring what to fly on the LED pole. The Bike Loud PDX and Pedalpalooza pennants I have are sewn […]
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What’s new about biking to school this year
Biking to school is pretty much the first part of getting back into the school routine. In a week where some golden retriever failed to stop a bike thief and Portland gets ready for the World Naked Bike Ride, we’re starting to head back to school. It feels different to be back at school, but as far as bike-related things go, not too much has changed. There were a decent number of people biking to school There appeared to be more parent bikes at the bike racks this year, but a similar number of kids’ bikes. I saw more cargo bikes than I had before. Lots of Tern bikes – 2 HSDs and one GSD. I saw an Xtracycle, a RAD, and a Surly Big Easy as well. I didn’t see too many while biking to school, because I think […]
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Fun Bicycle spoke decorations for your Bike Bus to school
Spoke decorations! To get ready to celebrate our Bike Bus for this upcoming fall, I made some spoke decorations to give to the kids as a celebration of our rides to school and as an incentive to continue doing so. About our Bike Bus We run our Bike Bus to school at least once per month, and more often when other kids decide that they want to join in. We have a rough schedule of “stops” and when we’ll be there. Kids join in along the way, usually with parents, though some of the kids are now old enough to ride with less adult supervision. It’s the most fun and joyful way to get to school. You get to skip the car dropoff line, get healthy physical activity, hang out with friends, and help promote cleaner air, all at the […]
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U-Pick Cherry Picking by Bike in Brentwood (2023)
This year we rode our 3rd annual bike ride to Brentwood, California to visit G&S Farms to go cherry picking in Brentwood. Our original ride to cherry picking was great, and we’ve wanted to continue the tradition every year. Getting there isn’t very easy by transit, but it can be a neat multimodal trip from Oakland and other parts of the East Bay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbpQBpZXD0U&feature=youtu.be Cherry Picking by Bike in Brentwood 2023 – Some stuff was different than years past. BART Bus Bridge This year, due to track work that was being done on the BART tracks between Rockridge BART and Orinda BART, there was what they call a “Bus Bridge” between stations. There was no direct train service, but there were free courtesy shuttle buses at both Rockridge and Orinda stations. This is normally a bit of a hassle, […]
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A tale of stolen bike recovery
Having a bike stolen can be frustrating and heartbreaking. We don’t always have success stories, but here’s one about a stolen bike that was recovered: The bike theft One of our bike bus friends had their bike stolen. It was a custom build that they had spent a lot of time and money on, and they rode it with their child with our Bike Bus. Their garage door was left open by mistake one day, and within a short amount of time, two of their bikes had been stolen. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a hidden AirTag Mount (I make them in here in Oakland) or some other type of holder or tracker for locating their bike. They emailed our Bike Bus and Bike Parade groups, telling us what had happened and asking us to keep an eye out for their […]
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Kids Bay Area bike rides: Dirt World in Richmond
Kid Bay Area Bike rides: Dirt World Bike Park in Richmond I decided to take a different route home after teaching a bike class that ended at Richmond BART, and headed to Dirt World in Richmond (4 21st St, Richmond, CA) to check it out. I’d heard for a while now that it was a fun place to take kids to ride on some dirt and do some small jumps. But I hadn’t had the chance to go. (here is their Facebook page, which appears to be their main information hub) Dirt World was finished in 2018, 4 years after Dennis Hoskins II and Jasmin Malabed conceived of the idea and led construction. They wanted to build a place for their son and other kids to practice BMX skills and mountain biking. Construction companies donated dirt, and a large group […]
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Moving up a size: Switching from a 20″ to a 24″ kids bike for a growing child
It finally happened – after talking about the next bike for 6 months, we finally got a new (to them) bike for our kid. Why buy the next size up kids bike? What is the next size up? Our kid was riding a bike with 20″ wheels, and we opted to go the next size up, which is a bike with 24″ wheels. I’ve found that a bike with 20″ wheels seems to work for most kids aged 6-9 or so. And 24″ bikes work for most kids aged about 8-11. So there’s some overlap around the 8-year-old mark. This all depends mostly on how tall your kid is and how long their legs are (their inseam is the critical measurement). Kids who are 8 and on the taller side might need to size up sooner. One of our friends’ […]
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How we stay visible at night (Which bicycle lights do we use?)
Riding with your family is a great way to be outside, get exercise, have fun, all while traveling together. Sometimes you end up riding home after the sun goes down – we found ourselves doing this after riding back from a recent event in Berkeley. Being visible is an important component of safety. Though the burden shouldn’t be on you to ensure that others use the road safely, it helps to make sure others are aware of your presence. We use a couple of different types of bicycle lights and reflectors to stay visible. https://youtu.be/TQ9zlj9eXik Here’s how we stay visible at night (while riding as a family) Headlight Headlights are essential and are required according to state law. Basically, the headlight needs to be: A lamp emitting a white light that, while the bicycle is in motion, illuminates the highway, […]
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Kids Bay Area bike rides: The Albany Bulb was so much fun!
Kid Bay Area Bike rides: The Albany Bulb The Albany Bulb is an area on the San Francisco Bay that bulbs out as a small peninsula in Albany, California. Like a lot of places along the shore, it was built from landfill – construction debris was dumped into the Bay in the 1960s-80s to create more land. There are walkable and bikeable gravel trails there and a lot of interesting informal outdoor art made using found materials. There’s also a lot of bird and aquatic life. including a habitat for burrowing owls. If you’re wondering where you can take kids for a bike ride, the Albany Bulb may be a good option. Albany Bulb Riding Overview (for kids) The trails at the Albany Bulb are mostly hard-packed dirt with some rocks and gravel. There are not really paved paths, though […]
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People want to ride bikes more. Why don’t they?
Here in Oakland, 57% of people want to ride a bike more than they do now, according to a NACTO survey conducted in 2019. And biking makes a lot of sense for short to moderate distances. A 2-3-mile bike ride that takes 20 minutes by bike may take the same amount of time or longer by car – because of traffic and parking. I timed this recently. Here’s a 2.1 mile bike ride that took 10.5 minutes. Google maps estimates a 12 minute car drive, that doesn’t include parking time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDJ27-AfMm4 Many trips are distances that one can easily bike The Federal Highway Administration keeps data on automobile trip distances. 45% of trips are under 3 miles, and 35% are under 2 miles. More than 1 in 3 car trips could be replaced by a bike ride! This would be […]
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