Sunday, August 19, 2007

The Sub 24-Hour Overnight

The Sub 24-Hour Overnight is a short bike-camping trip, known as an "S24O" for short. Have you dreamed of exploring on your bicycle, but don't have the time for an extended tour? Then give the S24O a try.

A few of us did an S24O a couple of weeks ago, which we dubbed the Tour de Surly.

Read more about the S24O concept in this article by Grant Petersen of Rivendell Bicycle Works.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Can bikes save the world?

Or at least help rebuild a country?

Project Rwanda thinks they just might. Founded in early 2006 by Tom Ritchey, a passionate cyclist who visited the scarred country in 2005, Project Rwanda is a U.S. nonprofit promoting the bike “as a tool and symbol of hope.” If you've got a bike or component with the brand name "Ritchey" on it, yes, it's that Tom Ritchey.

The group helps provide special heavy-duty bikes for Rwandan farmers to haul their harvests to market (the Rwandans have been using wooden bikes they made themselves), building a bicycle repair network, encouraging mountain bikers to visit, and funding a Rwandan cycling team. You can support Project Rwanda by either making a donation or by buying their products, which include Rwandan Wooden Bike Coffee or Team Rwanda cycling jerseys.

(The above was adapted from a short piece in Utne magazine.)

This next item comes from the latest Bike Bits, the e-mail newsletter from the Adventure Cycling Association:

HOUSE CALLS
Can you imagine in this day and age medical personnel who not only make house calls, but do them via bicycle? It's not a common phenomenon by any means, but it is happening in at least one place--bicycle-friendly Copenhagen, Denmark. We'd love to see it become a trend!http://www.cphpost.dk/get/102754.html