Forget bottles. Kan it.

Posted on Oct 13th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

I just picked up some Klean Kanteen products and they are great! The insulated coffee mug / soup container will be awesome in the cold weather to come. The big bonus is discovering the snug fit our button cages provide for these burly stainless containers. […] read more...

Free Upgrade!

Posted on Oct 7th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Our office mail box got a free upgrade the other day, courtesy the USPS. You can see our old box on the left and the new one on the right. In the two years I’ve been here, we’ve used that same old cardboard box. Sometimes the little things in life can make your day. […] read more...

Fall is in the Air

Posted on Sep 27th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, News,

The 2010-11 cyclocross season went off with a boom this past weekend at the U.S. Grand Prix Planet Bike Cup held in Sun Prairie, WI. Saturday and Sunday racing catered to all levels of racers with the marquee events coming at the closing of each day with the pro women’s and men’s races. Planet Bike team member Katie C […] read more...

Container Jenga

Posted on Sep 1st 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Planet Bike HQ is powered by a handful of employees, 7 to be exact. We all help out wherever needed. When a container of product comes in, everyone helps unload the boxes to stock up the warehouse. Today’s container seemed especially brutal. We were all moving a little slow, maybe it’s the dreary weather. However, Da […] read more...

Back 40 Haiku III

Posted on Jul 26th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

From green morn stubble, Launch sunward baby petals! Fresh, bloom. Tired, fall. Back 40 haiku I Back 40 haiku II And many thanks to Dragonfly Chai for the hand-crafted green tea chai that powered this endeavor. Read their “chai-ku” here. […] read more...

Cycling Copenhagen Through American Eyes

Posted on Jul 23rd 2010 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog, Video,

See one of Streetfilms latest productions following the 2010 Velo-city Conference which was held in Copenhagen this summer. […] read more...

Planet Bike Endorses

Posted on Jun 24th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Laplander Roll-up City Bicycle Panniers. We’re constantly seeking out new products to make our commutes more enjoyable. Recently, we came across Laplander, a two-person company in Pennsylvania who designs and hand-makes classic aesthetically pleasing bicycle bags. They’re good enough for a day of pounding gravel or des […] read more...

6/23

Posted on Jun 23rd 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

With this week’s weather we’ve been getting our 2010 cyclocross training in sooner than we thought.

Bacon on the Bike Path

Posted on Jun 14th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, Events,

We had a great turnout last Thursday for our 4th annual Bacon on the Bike Path. 25 pounds of Nueske’s Bacon was consumed. Thanks to Willy Bikes, 20 by 2020, Bike Federation of WI, Nueske’s Bacon, Just Coffee Coop, Greenbush Bakery, and everyone else that stopped by to enjoy the great day! […] read more...

Ride to Work with Mayor Dave

Posted on Jun 9th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, Events,

Several of us took part in the annual Ride to Work with Mayor Dave event. It kicked off this morning at 8:30 a.m. at Hillington Green and followed the Southwest and Capital City Bike Paths to downtown. The ride ended with a press conference on King and Pinckney.A quick reminder that tomorrow is Planet Bike’s 4th Annual […] read more...

Ride the Drive

Posted on Jun 7th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, Events,

Planet Bike participated in Madison’s annual Ride the Drive this past Sunday. The event was the first of two Ride the Drive events that will happen in Madison this summer. About 30,000 riders participated yesterday. Planet Bike had a tent offering cold water and ping pong. Thank you to everyone that stopped by! If you […] read more...

Sprint Finish

Posted on Jun 4th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, Video,

Our man Marko made his seasonal debut in the Wisconsin mountain bike scene last Sunday at 9-mile State Forest near Wausau. See the video below of the epic sprint finish between some of Wisconsin’s finest Pro riders. Mark is the first one to pass by the camera. Sprint Finish at the WORS Trek Big Ring Classic from […] read more...

Take your Brat to Work Day

Posted on May 28th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, Events,

We rode through the Brat Fest Drive Thru early this morning and didn’t feel an ounce of guilt as we spun down the bike lane past the long line of cars. We were greeted by the friendly folks from 20 by 2020 who provided the first 50 cyclists with a free brat and t-shirt! […] read more...

Bike 49

Posted on May 26th 2010 | Better World, Bike Life, Blog,

Our friends at Bike 49 set out on the road earlier this month. The crew of five will be bicycling to 49 of the 50 United States in one continuous 15,000 mile trip. Along the way they will be speaking to Elementary and High School students about bicycling, healthy lifestyles, and sustainable solutions, as well as filmin […] read more...

Trans Iowa V.6

Posted on Apr 27th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

The idea of riding your bike for 300+ miles down Iowa style “B Maintenance” roads in 50 degree rainy weather isn’t very motivating. I’m sure the 58 competitors who started the Trans Iowa Race this past weekend would tell you differently. Little did they know that 88 miles later into the 6th annual grueling, energy suck […] read more...

Local Hero

Posted on Apr 20th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

James, the young buck in the office, is a man of many talents. Having previously been employed as a bike messenger for 4 years, he’s good with directions and super fast to boot. James took to the streets of Milwaukee last weekend for the 9th edition of the Milwaukee Messenger Invitational. These are the same streets J […] read more...

From the Archives

Posted on Apr 19th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

We dug this photo out of the Planet Bike Archives this morning. Dave in a serious game against Dale from Bike Wagon (Salt Lake City) at the 2010 QBP Frost Bike.

MBM Spring Classic

Posted on Apr 7th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

It must be spring time as the MBM (Madison-Basco-Madison) Spring Classic otherwise known as the Hater 100 is upon us! For a lot of us this race is the entrance to the long season ahead – a tune-up after the drawn-out cold winter. There is nothing quite like exhausting yourself for 100k so year after year we sign up […] read more...

Sometimes Safety Requires Creativity

Posted on Apr 2nd 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

I’ve always been attracted to the intensity of large cities. I recently returned from New York City earlier this week. New York projects an explosive motion of color and noise and amidst all of the screeches, horns, sirens, and mobs of people all modes of transportation flow in unison, amazingly. Whale size buses rumb […] read more...

Atomic Light

Posted on Apr 1st 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, Learn,

I’d like to introduce our new line of minimalist bike lights. Inspired by the growing DIY movement, we are offering a kit that includes the LED, battery and electrical tape. The prototype shown below utilizes a standard CR2032 watch battery, but production models will utilize liquid metal nuclear batteries. Run-time […] read more...

High Cost of Free Parking

Posted on Mar 29th 2010 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog,

Free parking hurts everybody: parkers, pedestrians, business owners and bikers. Studies in NYC have shown that 29% of downtown drivers are just looking for a place to park. In the process they consume gas, exhaust pollution and snarl traffic. An innovative solution proposed by Don Shoup is to price on-street parking s […] read more...

Behind the Scenes

Posted on Mar 26th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Here at Planet Bike, we love all types of riding. Many of us are partial to a nice mountain bike ride though. Some of the best trails in Wisconsin are are just 50 miles from our HQ. The Southern unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest houses around 50 miles of uber sweet singletrack. Every great trail system requires […] read more...

1,254 miles in 365 days

Posted on Mar 25th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Today’s my one year anniversary tracking my daily bike miles ridden. As the screen shot below shows, I’ve ridden 1,254 miles since March 25, 2009. This is a big increase over previous years, though compared to my Planet Bike colleagues, that’s barely respectable.) That’s an average of 3 miles per day. Greenlight is […] read more...

In Search of the Lost Cyclist

Posted on Mar 22nd 2010 | Bike Life, Blog, News,

We’re really excited about David Herlihy’s new book,The Lost Cyclist which will be available June 18th of this year. The story follows American Frank Lenz, one of the first people to attempt riding around the world on a bicycle. Today it’s still an accomplishment but setting out in 1892 definitely takes the cake. […] read more...

1,000,000 bikers

Posted on Mar 18th 2010 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog, Video,

peopleforbikes.org launched at the National Bike Summit last week. It’s a national campaign to sign up 1,000,000 people in support of biking. They’re at 4000 so far. Check out the sweet video poem. And sign up. […] read more...

Spring Cleaning

Posted on Mar 15th 2010 | Better World, Bike Life, Blog,

With temperatures peaking well above freezing the past few days it seems we have begun our spring thaw. Spring is a beautiful time but with that thaw comes the exposure of months and months of accumulated debris and trash. Our main man Walt at QBP takes it upon himself annually to make this world a better place by clea […] read more...

Is There an App. for That?

Posted on Mar 10th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

The bicycle is gaining more and more steam in being seen as a viable means of transportation. Many of us have viewed the bike in this way for years, but it’s always nice to see the “mainstream” start catching on.Google announced today that they have added biking directions to Google Maps. This will likely prove to be […] read more...

Join the Fun

Posted on Mar 4th 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

Ride your bike, win swag. It’s as easy as that. Go sign up at Greenlightride and create a 1 person team, then join the Planet Bike St. Paddy’s Day Challenge. Average 3 miles a day and you get a set of bar tape. 8 miles a day and we’ll add in a light. 12 miles a day gets tape and a light set. To top it off, the top 3 … […] read more...

Rude Awakening

Posted on Mar 2nd 2010 | Bike Life, Blog,

With temperatures hovering in the mid-thirties, spring fever has begun in Madison. Being an optimist (perhaps overly), I shed the studded tires from my commuter bike. I went with a small knobbed mountain bike tire just in case we get another snow or ten. The lack of resistance and lack of the studded tire buzz made f […] read more...

We like bikers with skills

Posted on Feb 24th 2010 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog, News,

I’m glad to read that Bikes Belong has awarded a $5,000 grant to the City of Middleton, WI (Madison’s neighbor) for the Middleton Pump Course & Single Track Facility. C.O.R.P. (Capitol Off Road Pathfinders) has been doing a great job bringing mountain biking to the urban areas of Madison and Middleton, WI. The pum […] read more...