Contact

Free Bike Ads

Mayors' Ride | NBG Biking Cities | Podcasts Bicycles: Recumbents | Busycle | Hiwheel Movements: Car Free | Trailer | Greenway | Books

M a p  Y o u r   R i d e   !

Why Society May be Forced off the Wheel

After seven esteemed engineers here in Palo Alto discussed ways we can make the Busycle better, Bob Schneeveis mesmerized all those present for the next few hours as he talked about everything from Busycle 2.0 to the spider legs he magnifies for study. An engineer who makes microscopes and testing equipment for some of the departments and their professors at Stanford University, during the day and amazing robots at night, HE TOLD US how the wheel has brought problems that my threaten the very survival of mankind.

6/21/07
6:33

We visited with the owner of a bike shop in Southern California who sells and services only one kind of bike. T-Ryx of San Marcos, CA, has determined that the time is right for a retail institution to specialize in only high performance adult tricycles. And toward that end, Hoppy Dean is fulfilling a lifetime dream of getting people on bikes to help save the planet. In his own words, LISTEN to Hoppy tell you about his new place of business, where all his fun names come from and all of that which motivates him.

Here from her factory in Santa Cruz, CA, we present the Grand Dame of the recumbent cycling industry, Melanie Vizzusi. With her company, Free Form Fashions, Melanie has been making apparel for cyclists and their bikes since 1982. HEAR how much fun Melanie has in her work as a high tech seamstress and you will know why her customers come back over and over again.

Celebrated San Francisco cyclists

Author, TV commentator, public speaker, radio news producer, and jazz-trained vocalist, judy b. talks about how Critical Mass introduced her to her cycling way of life.

Chris Carlsson, Longtime, SF Cycling icon: "One of the original founders of Critical Mass - editor, "Critical Mass: Bicycling's Defiant Celebration" SF Historical bike tour leader Speaks!

Andy Thornley, SFBC Program Director, formerly of Boston, a qualified and knowledgeable presence at the SFBC, as you will soon hear, his understanding of the bicycle streets of San Francisco also runs very deep.

See MIT grad, former Oracle engineer & current SFBC Operations Director, Frank Chan, pedal SF's steepest hills Listen to him talk about SF & bicycling.

Swiss-born and Car Free all of her life, Mona Caron has been biking to her work as an illustrator and muralist in San Francisco since 1996. Hear how she makes it work on a bike.

Leah Shahum SFBC Director San Francisco Bike Coalition Director (SFBC), talks about cycling in her city and how her organization has grown to meet the many challenges facing San Francisco bike riders.

National Bicycle Greenway director, Martin Krieg, spent some time talking to five different people who work in San Francisco as professional bike messengers. He set out to learn more about an occupation that few people know very much about. Hopefully you will go away with a better understanding of how what looks like glory and fun to some is a lot like any other kind of work where responsibility, discipline, patience and people skills are important keys to success.

July 2006

Chris 14:51 | Jody 10:57 | Lon 10:03 | Shark (pictured at left) 14:42 | Wendy 12:01

Martin Krieg, took Cal Train, from Palo Alto to San Francisco yesterday, a Friday at 4:11 PM. The most heavily used bike commuter train in the nation., it is a work station library for many, and on this ride a low key Friday nite party for a few others, Cal Train with a bike is truly a fun experience and you will hear that in the voices of the five bike riders he spoke with. Nor does all the noise you will soon hear seem anywhere near as loud as when you are actually in transit.

04-28-06
14:06

At Boston NBG Day w/Jim Muellner & Scott Camppbell

We spent some time on the phone with the first Latino ever elected to the Boston City Council, Felix Arroyo. The council's strongest environmental advocate, Felix touches on his early beginnings in Puerto Rico, his biking there and here and his long time reliance on both walking and public transportation. LISTEN.

04-26-06
22:02

Here the week before our 5th Annual National Mayors' Ride begins in Boston we spent some time on the phone there with fascinating recycling artist Matthew Mazzotta. Matthew is the main driving force behind the amazing 15-person Busycle that will be touring the San Francisco Bay Area with us this July where this year's campaign ends. Listen

04-21-06
42:09

We visited Frank Cownie, who as the Mayor of Des Moines, Iowa, sees the bicycle as an important part of the sustainable practices that he is so committed to there in the center of the United State. LISTEN to this fun man as he tells us why his city is truly one of America's best kept secrets.

04-10-06
33:01

Listen

Carl Kurtz | Steven Miller|
Jeff Rosenblum
Phil Goff | Arik Greer
Vance Edwards | Dorie
Clark | Jasmine Laietmark

We went to Boston to talk with some of the people who bicycle Boston which as one of America's very first cities is now home to 540,000 people. From the kids at Bike Not Bombs to some of the people who influence policy decisions that affect the way two wheelers move about there, we gave 8 Boston cyclists a chance to help us see Boston roads through the eyes of a cyclist. It is our hope that, in conjunction with the Boston Biking report card and the "About Boston" chapter from my upcoming book, "How to Bike America" , that you will go away with a better feeling for what its like to bicycle Boston.

03-06
Various

A couple of days after he took the keys to the Easy Racer factory, we spoke with Fast Freddy Markham, a man who has broken innumerable speed records both on uprights and on a bike made by one of the early pioneers of the modern day recumbent movement, a man who recently passed away, the legendary Gardner Martin. And as fate would have it, the company Gardner built, Easy Racers is now owned by the man who made the Easy Racer name synonymous with speed. Here is Part ONE of our two part interview. Here is Part TWO!

03-22-06
31:50

Yesterday, we completed our long scheduled interview with a man who has had more to do with making it fun for humans to move about than any man alive today. It's no small wonder that he got his beginning selling plans for what was arguably the first recumbent bicycle since they got banned from racing in 1934. Laugh with us as we TALK with Robert Q. Riley, a man whose life is so huge it could fill an entire set of encyclopedias.

03-20-06
29:08

See his pictures and accounts from the road to Iran NOW!!

Last week, we visited with a a true living legend at his

03-19-06
35:35

Click for jumbo scrollable image

Join us as Cary Lieberman and Paul Schwyhart of the Eugene based Burley Design Cooperative TELL us how, as as a worker owned collective, and one of Oregon's top employers, they are keeping jobs in America as they meet the growing national demand for their trailers, recumbents, tandems, road bikes and rain gear.

03-06-06
38:54

NOTE: Burley stopped being a Coop 6-06, stopped selling bikes 9-06

The Kevin Johnson story is a true David and Goliath story. A window cleaner by day and a jazz pianist and composer by night (his album - the band he plays with), he also produces a revolutionary brand of sunglasses, SlipNot Eyewear, that he is fighting to get known about. Listen to this humble man speak!

Kelvin Clark of Angle Tech Cycles. Kelvin is widely revered in the recumbent industry for his encyclopedic knowledge, his cutting edge products and for the unprecedented quality of his work. Join us in our visit with him as we show you why he is so admired.

02-17-06
38:15

Jacques Graber, the ride leader for our annual 60 mile Folsom to Davis Gold Run Relay ride, has has been riding HiWheel bikes for over two decades.

02-10-06
26:13

Join us as we go to Alfred Station, NY to TALK with Peter Stull, a man who wanted to be a bike shop owner from the time he was 11 years old. Along the way, he'll tell you about the odds he overcame to actually become the owner of the Bicycle Man and the manufacturer of the Linear Recumbent.

02-05-06
48:11

An early 1970's Peter sits on the porch at his first bike shop, also home to Willy, a man who remembered where he was at when Pres. McKinley was shot. Be sure to click on either for a full size photo.

Former Bike Threads owner and longtime NBG Volunteer and supporter and bike club officer, Scott Campbell, who rode from Boston to San Francisco as a part of our 5th Annual National Mayors' Ride TELLS us about his past and how he came to want to pedal across the Ñation.

01-20-06
40:36

Gene Smith the man behind the widely revered name

Jack Castor, former engineer, TransAmerica HiWheel legend, survivor of internet famous Jack's Crash , and present day collector of antique bicycles and bike memorabilia as well as vintage and racing automobiles TALKS about his collection, his coast to coast crossing and the spectacular bike accident he survived.

2005-12-16
38:14

Randy Schlitter, one of the pioneers of the present day recumbent movement, a man who among other things, under the company name, Rans, manufactures both bicycles and airplanes, TALKS about the products he manufactures, the Sail Trike that got it all started back in the '70's and even the book he is writing that also has the capacity to provoke another whole new way of thinking.

Jan Vandertuin, the Renaissance Man, who among other things, brought the Pedalers Express and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movements to America, is also the inspiration for for the Eugene, OR based Center for Appropriate Transport (CAT). LISTEN as he tells us about the bee hive of bicycle activity that excites and formally educates the youth up his way in his massive 8000 square foot facility .

2005-12-2
34:14

San Francisco Mechanical Engineer and Metal Artist, Max Chen, TALKS about his bicycle art, his long involvement with the NBG including the TransAmerica ride he did for us in 2000 and the on line mapping project he is working on for us now. Coast to coast and up and down both seaboards, it will chart the route that connects our Mayors' Ride cities to one another.

2005-25-11
22:09