Bikey Crowdfunding Projects Roundup

Seems like there are a lot of interesting bike related products seeking crowdfunding right now. Here's a roundup of those I've seen. I'm not affiliated with any of the projects & I can't vouch for any of them, but these ones look interesting, especially the Wike Salamander folding cargo bike.

Camile Camera & GPS system for bikes on Indiegogo



The Wike Amphibian series of convertible cargo bikes on Kickstarter




Besee bike light, phone holder & gadget charger on Kickstarter


Revolights Eclipse bike lights, turn signals, speedometer, etc on Indiegogo

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Two Wheel Gear Pannier Backpack {Discount Code!}

Psst, have you heard about Two Wheel Gear's newest bag?

The pannier backpack convertible is weatherproof (like all Two Wheel Gear bags it can handle Vancouver rain) including a high vis rain cover. It really is easy to convert to a backpack--I've tried it myself.

I think this bag would work great for commuting since you can easily organize your stuff inside with the integrated padded 15" laptop sleeve, soft pocket for phone storage, U-Lock pocket, two side water bottle pockets , as well as other slots & pockets in the interior. But it would also be great as a diaper bag for a cycling parent.

You'll be seen on the roads without looking dorky with the reflective designed accents & reflective utility loop that can hold a bike light. There are three different fabrics to choose from: 600 denier black or graphite waterproof coated polyester, or the classic black waxed poly/cotton canvas. I love the graphite one, personally, though I can see why the waxed canvas & plain black would be popular too.

In case you need one, here's a deal for you: pre-order it & you'll get 20% off with the code EARLYBIRD in Two Wheel Gear's online store. Good until March 15. The bags regularly go for $149-225, depending on fabric, so that's a savings of $30-45!

Happy riding!


Disclaimer: I have not received any product or compensation to write this review.

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6 Reasons You Should Care About Vancouver's Bike Share

Today the City of Vancouver announced the implementation of a public bike share system this summer. The city has signed a $5 million five year deal with CycleHop Corp Canada Inc to manage the bike share program, with equipment to be provided by Smoove.

Public bikes are coming to Vancouver this summer! @BikeSharing providing 1500 “smart bikes” w/helmets, 150 stations. #vanbikeshare #vanpoli

— Gregor Robertson (@MayorGregor) February 23, 2016

CycleHop intends to roll out the first phase of the bike share in mid June of 2016, making 1000 bikes available to the public, with a further 500 a month later. The docking stations will be within the boundaries of Downtown Vancouver to the North, Main Street to the East, 16th Avenue to the South, & Arbutus Street to the West. This will be the largest public bike share system in North America once it's complete.

Photo Credit: sanmateocountyphotos via Compfight cc

Awesome... so why should you care?

1. Bike share works well with transit. Here's a potential scenario: you can grab a bike share near home, ride to a skytrain station a kilometre or two away, then take the train. No worries about your bike getting stolen while it's locked up, or having lights on it for the ride home after dark. 
2. Bike share is a great way to try before you buy. If you want to try bike commuting but don't really want to commit to dropping $1000 on a decent bike, try out bike sharing for a while to see if you like it. 
3. Bike share is great for people who don't want a bike. Perhaps your apartment is too small or you're not allowed to bring bikes into your building & you don't have anywhere safe to store a bike. This is a huge problem that the city of Vancouver really needs to solve, but until they do, maybe using bike share & not owning a bike will work for you. 
4. Bike share is fabulous for fairweather cycling. It rains a lot in Vancouver, & though I ride in the rain, I totally understand why other people don't. With bike sharing, you could easily take the bus to work, then if the rain clears up, ride home. Or vice versa. If you ride bike share to work, but then the skies open up just before you leave, no big deal, you don't have to ride.
5. Bike share doesn't kill bike rental businesses. I've rented bikes & used bike sharing systems in several cities & they were for very different purposes. When we did a full-day trip out of Paris to Versailles, we rented bikes. When we were riding a few minutes from our hotel to the Louvre, we used bike share so that we could see the sights rather than be stuck in the Metro underground. Bike share functions more like transit because you pay little or nothing for the first half hour of use on the bike. If you leave it at a docking station within that window, it's a quick, cheap ride. If you were to hang onto the bike for several hours, you'd likely pay more than a bike rental company charges. 
6. Bike share gives you options. When you go somewhere on a bike share bike, you can decide later how you're going to get home. Your bikeless friend can grab one too & ride with you. Maybe you went to the bar & have had a few, so a taxi or the bus is a better option than riding home. Perhaps there's a traffic jam or a skytrain malfunction. Just grab a bike share ride & go around it.

Of course, these scenarios really only apply to people who live in or near the area served by the bike share. Until it succeeds, the 'drop zone' won't expand further. I'm also a little skeptical of how well this is going to work with our current helmet laws. I really think we need to allow adults to decide for themselves whether to wear a helmet or not. Helmets are a small issue, but can be a barrier to riding. There's also no research to show that helmet laws reduce injury & death rates. It's actually safer in jurisdictions where there are no mandatory helmet laws.

Overall, I think that if this bike share system succeeds, it will do a lot to increase the cycling mode share in our city. More bikes on the roads means drivers get more used to driving around cyclists & it becomes safer. More bikes on the roads means fewer cars & maybe a seat or two free on the bus. More bikes on the roads means more of us are getting more exercise, which leads to healthier people & lower health care costs. More bikes on the roads means more of us experiencing the fun of riding, being able to quickly stop to say hi to a friend or carry on a conversation with a stranger you are riding with for a block or two.

What say you? Will you use the public bike share in Vancouver? What kind of trips do you think it'd be useful for?

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Have Your Say On Bike Infrastructure: New West & North Shore

There are tons of great improvements planned for pedestrian & cycling infrastructure around Metro Vancouver. However, sometimes I really wonder what the people who are doing the planning are thinking. They REALLY need our input to tell them where their designs are good & what, to be brutally honest, totally sucks about them.

Two interesting projects, the New Westminster Q2Q Pedestrian & Bicycle Bridge, & the North Vancouver Spirit Trail, are currently taking public input right now.

The Q2Q Pedestrian & Bicycle Bridge

The Q2Q Bridge project is aiming to create an active transportation connection from Quayside & Queensborough. However, the project plans have some major design flaws that may actually discourage use, particularly by cyclists, including a narrow bridge deck, steep slope, requiring the use of stairs or an elevator to get up to the deck, as well as closures between 11pm & 6am.

Visit the City of New Westminster's Q2Q page to find out how to give feedback, &/or join the HUB New Westminster Committee.

Spirit Trail in North Vancouver

The City of North Vancouver, together with the federal and provincial governments, North Shore municipalities, First Nations, & other agencies are working together create the North Shore Spirit Trail. This unique, waterfront-oriented, multi-use and fully accessible greenway will provide pedestrians, cyclists, inline skaters and people with wheeled mobility aids access across the entire North Shore from Deep Cove to Horseshoe Bay.

Sunrise Park to Lynnmouth Park will soon join up to the recently completed 3rd Street Overpass in the District of North Vancouver. It's the eastern-most section of the Spirit Trail, and part of the City of North Vancouver's commitment to active transportation. The initial planning and design stage has begun, with an anticipated construction start this summer. The Open House has already happened, but you can still provide feedback. Visit the project's webpage to find out more.


So, what are you waiting for? Click over & give your feedback on these projects! Our voices are important.

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Report Your Biking Incidents With BikeMaps

I love biking, but sometimes it really gets me down. It's still a regular occurence to have near-misses while riding. Bike theft is rampant in this city & road hazards pop up from time to time. What we need is a way to track all this stuff so the City can improve infrastructure where it's needed.

Did you know you can do just that? First off, if you find a road hazard like a pothole, or a construction site that is blocking the road unnecessarily, call 311 & report it to the city. Then head over to bikemaps.org & plot it onto the map. If your bike is stolen, report it to the Vancouver Police Department (you can do that online, conveniently) then go to BikeMaps & report it there too. Neither one is likely to bring your bike back to you, sadly, but being part of a data set showing what's actually going on in this city for cyclists is important.

Where BikeMaps really shines, is for reporting near misses or collisions with vehicles. When you almost get hit, ICBC & the police won't really do anything about it. But if you track your near misses on BikeMaps, the City of Vancouver is paying attention & that data is used to make decisions on things like new bike lanes or traffic calming measures. If we just complain to each other on Twitter or in person, not much happens. But if we all start putting this information into one place, it becomes a really useful data set that tells City of Vancouver transportation engineers which parts of the city need more attention.

It's fairly easy to log your incident. There are quite a few fields to fill in about location, road conditions, etc, plus you can add a brief description to clarify,. However, the whole process doesn't take more than a few minutes & you don't need to become a member or log in.

So next time somebody in a car does something stupid while you're riding, remember the details & report it on BikeMaps when you get to your destination or later that day.

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Book Review: The Astronomer & The Witch

I'm a big fan of novels & aside from the parenting-related books I've read in the past six years, fiction has been the bulk of  the books I've read. I am a sucker for a good biography though, so when this one popped up in my feed, my interest was piqued. The full title is interesting enough: The Astronomer & the Witch: Johannes Kepler's Fight for his Mother.

In case you didn't know, Kepler lived in the 16th & 17th centuries in & around what is now Germany. He is still a world renowned scientist, mainly famous for his contributions to astronomy, including the discovery that planets move in ellipses. He was a brilliant man who I think would have been a fascinating dinner guest. What interests me most about the book is how it illustrates mores & the culture of the time, while contextualizing Kepler's life politically & socially. His great love seems to have been studying the stars, but it's worth noting that this was actually a far more encompassing science in his day, astronomy & actually astrology were thought to be closely connected to human life, predicting personality, life events, & even health outcomes.

Because of Kepler's fame, & probably not a little because of his tendency never to throw anything away, there are many well-preserved soures of information about him, which allows the writer to go into great detail on Kepler & his family's life. I've really enjoyed learning what the world was like during his time, particularly for women like his mother, who was accused of witchcraft at a time in history when tens of thousands of women & men were executed for this crime. The author, Ulinka Rublack, does a masterful job at detailing the impact of the witch trial on Kepler's whole family & even the community.

I won't tell you any more about the book--you should go read it. Illustrated with the occasional drawing, map or photograph, & coming in at just over 300 pages, it's an engaging read.

The Astronomer & the Witch: Johannes Kepler's Fight for his Mother, by Ulinka Rublack, Oxford University Press.

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Find Activities For Your Tot in Vancouver

"Sleeping" at the family drop in gym

Just the other day I was talking with Oliver about how frustrating it was to find the times of the family drop in gyms at community centres in this city. Going from one website to another & finding how exactly they've categorized it--parent & tot gym? family gym? preschool play time?--can be time consuming if you want to look for the schedules at a few different community centres. We typically use Hillcrest, Creekside, & Mount Pleasant, so I would go to three different websites to find a wear-Bronte-out-drop-in session.

Until I noticed a link in my Facebook feed to ONE page that amalgamates the baby, toddler, & preschooler drop-in program schedules for all the community centres in the City of Vancouver. When you look at the list, it only shows the names of the activities, not the location of each one, but if you click on them the details pop up without sending you to a further site. You can also filter the list by community centre, choosing one or more of your favourites.

Here's the link so you can easily find things for your rambunctious tot to do to burn off energy. If you haven't been to the comunity centre drop-in gyms yet, you should definitely go. They're very affordable--between $1.50 & $4 per kid, usually with a cheaper rate for two or more. Bronte loves to run around from kiddie car to little slide to foam mats to blocks to tunnel, etc & gets tons of good play time in there.

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