Vote For Follmer

Posted on Oct 3rd 2008 | Bike Life, Blog,

Not for president or anything substantial, the Austin Bike Blog has been running a contest called “what’s the biggest thing you’ve carried on a bike?” It sounds like they had quite a few pictures submitted, and they narrowed them down to the final 10. Well I got in, so the more votes I can get, the better! For what it […] read more...

Lighting up the Velorution

Posted on Aug 28th 2008 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog,

The Ripon College Velorution Project got rolling a few days ago. Ripon College, in our home state of Wisconsin, has given 180 bikes to incoming freshman who pledge to leave their car at home for the school year. Ric Damm, the project’s coordinator, and I connected at the National Bike Summit back in March. To help k […] read more...

Use it, but don’t lose it

Posted on Aug 21st 2008 | Bike Life, Blog, Learn, Product,

I currently live about 12 miles from the office; past the edge of town, through the country and into the next town. If, for what ever reason, I’m riding back after dark, it is VERY dark. I permanently installed a prototype Blaze Dynamo light on the front rack of my bike, and since I always ride with the same Chrome ba […] read more...

A toast to Charlie

Posted on Aug 12th 2008 | Bike Life, Blog,

Charlie was, up until last September, one of the local bike shop employees here in Madison. On Sept. 15th of 2007 he set off for home, the long way around the earth. He’s been on the road for almost a year at this point, and has under his belt a ride down the length of the eastern seaboard of the US, a tras-Atlantic v […] read more...

What Would A Tree Do?

Posted on Jul 29th 2008 | Bike Life, Blog,

As one of the marketing guys here at Planet Bike, I tend to take long hard looks at what others in the industry are doing with regards to marketing cycling. During my search today I came across this image. It is compelling if nothing else. […] read more...

A time for fenders

Posted on Jun 13th 2008 | Bike Life, Blog,

If ever there was a good time to have a decent set of fenders, it would be this last week. Since last Friday, old Ma Nature has savagely dumped several inches of rain on the Madison area, and I gotta say, we’re getting off easy compared to others in Wisconsin and Iowa. Other than a little water in all of our basemen […] read more...

Tulips in the Back 40

Posted on Apr 30th 2008 | Bike Life, Blog,

Head down, tap tap tap, Eyes fixed sting on glowing screen, Tulips burst at my feet.

Commuter Chris

Posted on Apr 14th 2008 | Bike Life, Blog,

Chris rides to work more than anyone here at Planet Bike HQ, and that’s saying a lot. Read what he has to say in this interview by bikecommuters.com.

It’s Friday!

Posted on Apr 4th 2008 | Bike Life, Blog,

Needless to say I have the Clash turned up really loud!  

April showers

Posted on Apr 1st 2008 | Bike Life, Blog,

Heavy rain and occasional hail on the evening commute last evening forced me to tie on the classic DIY dry-foot solution: plastic bags.

Two Wheeled Way Of Life

Posted on Mar 25th 2008 | Bike Life, Blog,

Below is a picture of the Planet Bike employee parking area. It isn’t uncommon to see it jammed full of our bikes. Today is a special day for me as all of these bikes are made to not just ride, but haul stuff. (I’m kind of into that kind of thing.) Both Chris and Erik are big fans of the Xtracycle Free Radical, I’ve g […] read more...

Dick Burke Part 2 – Revolution Now, The father of bike advocacy

Posted on Mar 15th 2008 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog,

Thanks for the nice emails and comments about my Dick Burke blog. Beyond the personal stories about Dick, I did mention he was a visionary and that is the subject of today’s blog. I consider Dick the Father of Bicycle Advocacy in the bike industry. Many do not know this about him, but here is why I feel this way. Dic […] read more...

Bob’s Planet Bike blog

Posted on Mar 12th 2008 | Bike Life, Blog,

I guess I am compelled to write my first blog on a very sad note. Yesterday the founder and owner of Trek Bicycle Dick Burke died after complications from heart surgery. I have been depressed about this since last Friday when I learned he did not have long to live. The reason this affects me so much is that I spent ov […] read more...

Warm fuzzy from Vancouver

Posted on Feb 25th 2008 | Bike Life, Blog,

Hello Planet Bike, I was stopped by the police last night; me and another guy riding up adark street (we don’t get much winter here, so evening rides in Februaryare often fun). There was a car coming toward us, so we were making room for it whensuddenly it started flashing lights and gave us a couple of whoops ofsi […] read more...

Xtreme office work

Posted on Dec 6th 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

Last night we had the electrical hooked up for our new ten kilowatt solar panel installation. How much power is ten kilowatts? To my dismay, not enough to send Marty McFly back to the future. It will, however, reduce 15 tons of carbon emissions annually. We had to cut the power to Planet Bike HQ to set up the electric […] read more...

New cyclocross photo gallery

Posted on Nov 29th 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

2007 marked the first year Planet Bike sponsored a racing team. We started small, and with a type of racing that is close to our hearts: cyclocross. We hit up races all over the country, grabbed a few podiums, got muddy, and had a blast. Thanks to Mad Cross, Robin Davies and Djonn for the photos.Here are a few photo […] read more...

Fall is here, and that can mean only one thing!

Posted on Sep 13th 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

Its true. The time has come once again to put in the toe spikes and dust off the cow bells for cyclocross season! And once again, Planet Bike is proudly the title sponsor of the Wisconsin Cyclocross Series. There are 11 races slated for this year, and it’s going to be awesome!You can go to the WCA cross page for all t […] read more...

Aero Monday

Posted on Aug 6th 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

Dan found a way to reduce the drag caused by a full inbox this Monday morning. I wonder how many watts his fingers are generating on the keyboard?

24 Hours of 9 Mile

Posted on Aug 2nd 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

It’s officially mountain bike season around Planet Bike HQ, so last Friday we loaded up the Planet Bike Sprinter Van and pointed it northward to the 24 Hour National Championships. Once again this year, the 24 Hours of 9 Mile was the arena where solo riders and teams met to duke it out for the coveted stars and stripe […] read more...

New Swag For Your Feet

Posted on Jul 23rd 2007 | Bike Life, Blog, Product,

We just got a shipment of new red wool socks from Sock Guy today. I’m pretty stoked about how they turned out. You can buy a pair for yourself, or for the feet of someone you love.

Second City, first rate

Posted on Jun 19th 2007 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog, News,

About a week ago, we got a call here at Planet Bike HQ informing us that we were winning some type of award. We were all pretty perplexed, but after a few hours of phone tag, we figured out that indeed, we had been tapped to receive an award from the City of Chicago. Mayor Daley’s Bicycle Advisory Council 2007 award fo […] read more...

Busy busy busy

Posted on May 25th 2007 | Bike Life, Blog, News,

It’s been a pretty busy time around Planet Bike World HQ the last month or so. It’s finally spring, well, now it’s almost summer and we’ve been riding, and working like crazy. We hired a new member of our team, Chris Follmer, to handle our warehousing and shipping duties. Chris has a background in warehouse manageme […] read more...

It Makes You Think

Posted on May 8th 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

I happened across a series of images by artist Chris Jordan that depict various statistics (fifteen million sheets of office paper are used every five minutes) in a very striking way. I encourage you to let the images load and scroll down through the series. […] read more...

A Dirt Sweat And Gears Race Report

Posted on May 2nd 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

Lee Unwinn has spent the last few seasons trying to break himself and a few handfuls of our products in the insane arena that is Endurance racing. We listen to his feedback to help design better products for you. This season, aside from being sponsored by us, Lee is also riding for Van Dessel bikes and Ergon grips. He […] read more...

SlowFastSlow

Posted on Apr 27th 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

Most of the time we aren’t really car guys at Planet Bike. But living in Madison, you kind of have to have a soft spot in your heart for this guy As you can see, Erik couldn’t help taking a run at the champ. […] read more...

Planet Bike Races Into Spring

Posted on Apr 20th 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

The first Planet Biker to hop into a road race this year was Founder and El Presidente, Bob Downs, who rode in the Great Dane Velo Club Criterium. He managed to get into the breakaway group and snag a podium spot in the sprint. You can check out the action below (Bob is center in the first shot and far left in the s […] read more...

Fast and Furious M-B-M

Posted on Apr 16th 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

Getting pumped about a 30+ mile race that has about 12 miles of unknown in the middle of it is tough. Throwing in a snowstorm 4 days before the race, adds an element of surprise. But when Saturday dawned sunny and warm, the 16 racers gathered at Madison’s Orton Park were visibly happy with how the weather shook out.Th […] read more...

Madison-Basco-Madison an instant classic?

Posted on Apr 10th 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

In the spirit of classic European one day races, some of the riders around Madison came up with the idea for the Madison-Basco-Madison. The idea was to have an out and back competitive ride that mixed as many cycling disciplines as we could think of into one tough day in the saddle; a healthy dose of road, some mountai […] read more...

Equality amongst the fendered

Posted on Apr 3rd 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

In the beginning, there was a bike; and it was good. But in the wetter climes, the riding was muddy. And the people cried out for their bikes and yea, their own selves were wet and covered in mud and grime such that their likenesses were unto a herd of swine. And the gods heard their lamentation and created the f […] read more...

Is it spring or not?

Posted on Mar 28th 2007 | Bike Life, Blog,

Yeah, this is a rant, but I’ll keep it really quick. We had nice weather this weekend, and we all got really stoked to ride. But since then, the weather has steadily deteriorated….well out like a lamb and all that. Here’s to spring weather.