Sep 03 2010

B-cycle bike rentals program adds third city

For those who want to visit the big city without a large carbon output or money output, there are many low-cost bike loan programs available.

With the swipe of a credit card bicyclists are able to borrow a bike for a half hour (free) to a whole day. It saves the planet, it saves money, and it saves the renter from facing all the traffic congestion on the road.
I know this isn’t a new program and similar bike rental schemes (as they call it in Europe) are in place world-wide. But it got me thinking…
Wouldn’t it be great to have a similar program available at rails-to-trails trailheads? I know it would have been immensely helpful on a couple of my trips to know there were bikes available, 24 hrs. a day, to be rented at one station and returned at another.
I think I’ll contact the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy about this idea. I’d say it’s worth a trial run.

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2010/09/03/b-cycle-bike-rentals-program-adds-third-city/

Sep 02 2010

New Hampshire may become the next best bike state

I visited New Hampshire on a bike trip last fall. I was impressed by their great rail trails and had a wonderful biking vacation.

Although NH may not currently be the biking capitol of the world, I predict it may become the #1 bicycle destination in the not-too-distant future.

A friend of mine was there recently and brought back some New Hampshire Bicycle Maps. I didn’t see these maps when I was there, so it was fun to peruse them and see the trails I missed. While I was there, I biked on the following trails:

After looking at the six regional bicycle maps from New Hampshire, I’m ready to go back and hit some more rails-to-trails. 
In addition to the awesome bike maps, I also recommend you look at  the New Hampshire trails web page by clicking on this link.
This fall, I recommend you visit some bike trails in New Hampshire. You’ll see the fall foliage from a whole new perspective.

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2010/09/02/new-hampshire-may-become-the-next-best-bike-state/

Sep 01 2010

Interesting facts about bike commuting

A recent newspaper article entitled Power Down: A numerical look at cars vs. bikes prompted me to search the California Bike Commute website for “FACTS ABOUT BICYCLING AS A COMMUTE OPTION.” (their caps, not mine)

Here are just a few of the facts I found in their bike facts PDF file. You can visit their site for the whole list.

• Only 1.67% of Americans commute by bicycle. 
• In Japan, 15% commute by bicycle 
• There are approximately 139 million automobiles in the United States. 
• The number of bicycles in the U.S. is estimated to be about 103 million. 
• One hundred bicycles can be produced for the same energy and resources it takes to build 
one medium-sized automobile. 
• The average cost of a new car in the U.S. is $13,532. 
• The average cost of a new bicycle in the U.S. is $385. 
• In China, bicycles outnumber cars 250 to 1.  
And here’s some good news:
• The number of bicycle commuters doubled between 1983 and 1990, according to the 
Bicycle Institute of America. 

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2010/09/01/interesting-facts-about-bike-commuting/

Aug 30 2010

My first Everytrail guide to Big Dry Creek Trail in Westminster, CO

It took me a while, but I finally got my first Everytrail guide published.

I’ve been working on a guide for the Big Dry Creek Trail which is located in Westminster, Colorado. Westminster has a lot of great trails, but the the Big Dry Creek Trail is probably the longest. It meanders from Standley Lake in the west all the way to I-25 in the east. As I point out in the guide, there are also lots of spur trails to explore along the way.

There were many steps involved in the creation of the guide. First, of course I “had” to ride the trail. Well I’ve done this numerous times, but this time, I had to stop a lot and take pictures, do research, and write lots of notes about waypoints along the trail.

While riding the trail, I also had to record the GPS information using an iphone app called Trails.

At the end of the ride, I sent the GPS coordinates/waypoints, pictures, and trail information from the Trails app to Everytrail. This was the easy part because I just had to press a couple buttons and, voila, it was sent.

Then, when I got home, I got onto the Everytrail website and compiled everything into a guide.

Finally, I published the whole thing. I had a few problems w/ this part, but a very nice technician from Everytrail gave me so good advice and, before I knew it, I was finished.

I sent the guide to Everytrail for approval on a Sunday and received my confirmation the same day. I was pleasantly surprised w/ this quick turnover time, especially on a weekend.

Now it’s your turn. Check out Everytrail. If you live in Colorado, download my Big Dry Creek guide onto your smart phone. It’s cheap ($1.99) and easy. Then get out there and enjoy the trail.

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2010/08/30/my-first-everytrail-guide-to-big-dry-creek-trail-in-westminster-co/

Aug 28 2010

Take your bike or rent?

So you’re going on a bike trip across the country and you face one of the dilemmas:

Bike trips are fun but take some planning.

Do you rent a bike or ship your bike there?

Of course that depends on numerous factors:

  • Are you inexorably attached to your bike?
  • Is your bike custom fitted?
  • Are you a bike snob?
  • Do you like trying out new bikes?
  • What are the financial advantages/disadvantages?
  • How do you get your bike from point A to point B?
Normally, I enjoy renting bikes on my many biking trips. I like trying out new ones, meeting the rental company owners, and helping out the local biking economy. Besides, in many cases, renting is cheaper and way less of a hassle than shipping your bike or taking it on the plane/train. Let’s take a look at the pros & cons of each option:
renting
shipping
taking on plane/train
pros
cons
pros
cons
pros
cons
sometimes cheaper
sometimes expensive
sometimes cheaper
sometimes expensive
sometimes cheaper
sometimes ex-pensive
meet locals
shop not available
use your own custom fit bike
can be a hassle
use your own custom fit bike
can be a hassle
service
your bike style not available
possible bike damage
possible bike damage
try new bikes & styles
bike not custom fit
ability to get bike from point A to B if it’s a one way trip
convenience
ability to get bike from point A to B if it’s a one way trip
Getting bike and/or box to airport
Some airlines/trains won’t take bikes
On my upcoming trip to ride the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal Towpath trails, I decided to ship my bike rather than rent one. Since my ride will be over 300 miles one way, renting just wouldn’t work. Here are the factors that went into my decision:
  1. If I rented a bike in Pennsylvania, it would have cost me more than the rental charge to get the bike back to Pennsylvania from Washington D.C.
  2. Taking the bike on the plane was a hassle because I would have had to get the box to the airport both here in Colorado and at Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. That would have been really hard in D.C.
  3. I’m taking an Amtrak train from D.C. to Connellsville, PA, and Amtrak wouldn’t allow me to take a bike off the train at Connellsville.
  4. Once my trail trip is over, I’ll spend another five days in D.C. I’d like to have a bike available to try out some of the D.C. paths, but it would cost a lot to rent a bike for ten days.
  5. The (little bit of) money I could save on shipping rather than renting would allow me to buy bike luggage for the trip.
So I made the decision to ship my bike. Then I researched the cheapest way to do that. For shipping alone, UPS would charge $133 with only $100 worth of insurance. For $100, I found out the REI will box my bike and ship it; and they include $1000 worth of insurance in that price.  In addition, if I shipped it to another REI store, they would reassemble my bike for free. (I won’t be taking that option on the trip there, since I assume there’s no REI store in Connellsville, PA. But I may choose that option on the way back and have them ship my bike to the Boulder, CO REI.)
I know, that’s a lot of information, but I hope it will help you make an informed decision for your next bike trip. The bottom line is, sometimes it’s better to rent and sometimes it’s better to ship. If you’ve got an expensive bike and a hard case for it, the airplane/train method may be best for you. I was able to save over $100 by checking around, so carefully weigh the options, then have a great bike trip.

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2010/08/28/take-your-bike-or-rent/

Aug 27 2010

Denver Bike Sharing is a great idea

I did another one of my Denver bike rides yesterday. It was a bit different than my other rides. As usual, I rode the RTD bus into Denver, but instead of riding my bike back to Boulder County, I headed south on my bicycle.

To make a long story short, I rode what I call the Southwest Denver Loop Trail which is a combination of the Platte River Trail, the C-470 Trail, and the Bear Creek Trail. When you combine them, you get the Southwest Denver Loop Trail.

But I’ll talk more about that in a later trail blog. My subject for today’s blog is the Denver Bike Sharing program. It is also called Denver B-cycle. I won’t say much about it in the trailsnet blog because their bikesharing.org website has all the information.

However, I intend to ride the RTD bus into Denver again sometime soon, but this time without my bike. Once there, I plan to try out one of the loaner bikes available at the kiosk found at the RTD Market Street Station.

If you haven’t tried it yet, join me in giving it a shot. If you have tried it, I’d love to hear about your experience. Share it here on the trailsnet blog.

Thanks to Kaiser Permanente for sponsoring the Denver B-Cycle program. It’s a healthy, environmentally-friendly program.

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2010/08/27/denver-bike-sharing-is-a-great-idea/