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| > the devils gear bike shop 433 Chapel St. New Haven, CT 203.773.9288 > COMMUTER OF THE MONTH |
COMMUTER OF THE MONTHCOMMUTER OF THE MONTH
The Commuter of the Month page is new.
?Do you commute to work or school by bike?
? Do you know some one who does ?
Send us contact info to get on touch with them.
And you or they will be commuter of the month !!
1.name
2.your nickname
3.what do you ride ,make model
4.whats your rides nick name
5.what your commute
6.funny anicdote
7.favorite bike tip
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March Commuter of the Month " J.B. Weekes |  | |
1.J.B. Weekes http://elmcitycommuter.wordpress.com/
2.your nickname
3.what do you ride ,make model
Kona - Humu Humu Nuku Nuku A Pua'A, Salsa - LaCruz, Nishiki - Tri-A, Kona - Hei Hei, Kona - Unit, Kustom Kruiser - Slick Daddy, 1966 Schwinn Fastback
4.whats your rides nick name
Bike Nickname - Humu " Route Nickname - State Street Time Trial
5.what's your commute
Wallingford to New Haven 14 miles each way. Commute by Bicycle, Bus and/or Train depending on day and weather. I have no car.
6.funny anecdote
As a teenager I wanted to be a road racer. I ventured down to Sommerville and Nutley, New Jersey to race my first 'Big' junior races. I was too late for signup the first day so I ended up spectating. Having done very well in local races I was disappointed I couldn't race. Long story short . . . I watched a young junior bike racer named Lance Armstrong along with Johnas Carney lap the field twice!! In a 25 mile race. They both rejoined the peloton near the end of the race just so they could win the field sprint. Which they did. I didn't enter the next day either. Lance and Johnas repeated their dominating performance of the day earlier. Lance Armstrong was on an entirely different level, even as a 17-18 year old. He still is.
7.favorite bike tip
It's not the bike it's the rider. |
Febuary Commuters of the Month The Armstrong/Crumlish Family |  | |
1. The Armstrong & Crumlish Family: Finn, Sam, Caleb, Peter, & Sara
2. Our friends like to call us "The Crumstrongs" or "The Armlishes."
3. We have a stable of bikes. We invested in bikes so we could remain a one-car family of five. We own two incredible cargo bikes: A Dutch Bakfiets (box bike) and an Xtracycle Radish. Peter also rides a 1968 Rudge Roadster that his father used to cycle around on in Greenwich Village back in the day. Each of the boys has his own bike: Caleb & Sam have Trek Mountain Cubs that our brother-in-law garbage-picked from his NJ suburb and refit for them and Finn has a great balance bike (or push bike-- no pedals) by Smart Gear.
4. Sam named his bike "Rex." Caleb's is "Cubby." We jokingly called the Bakfiets "Johann Sebastian Bachfiets" but mostly just refer to it as the "Baks." We simply call the Xtracycle "The Xtra" or "The Radish."
5. We try and use bikes whenever we possibly can. We discovered cargo bikes when trying to find a car-free commuting solution to get from East Rock to The Cold Spring School in Fair Haven, just about two miles away. Sara started working at Cold Spring a year and a half ago and the older boys entered kindergarten there at the start of the 2008-2009 school year. It was too far to walk but it just seemed too short of a distance to justify driving. In October of 2008, a friend suggested that we look into Bakfiets/Bakfietsen. We had never heard of these Dutch-built cargo bikes and suddenly became obsessed, learning everything we could about family bike commuting and cargo bikes. In February 2009, our Bakfiets arrived and it opened a whole new world up for us. We now bike commute the four-mile roundtrip to school/work whenever we possibly can and also cycle to shop for groceries, to bring the guys to music lessons, to church, and out for 'date night' (whenever that happens).
6. We are quite a spectacle when we are out on our cargo bikes and often have wonderful interactions with people that we would never have if we were traveling by car. Sometimes we hear honking behind us and it can get our ire up, thinking that we have an impatient or vexed driver coming up the rear. However, we've discovered that often it is someone we know just wanting to wave at us or an interested person wanting to learn more about our bikes. We also have become intrigued with seeing just how much cargo we can load on our bikes and constantly try and out-do our last trip. Certainly a bike highlight this year was when we managed to pull off getting our Christmas tree by bike.
7. Neither Peter nor Sara was a big cyclist before we discovered family biking so the best bike tip we can share is simply that it is possible to be a family and be bike commuters. We are very conscientious about the fact that we travel with 'precious cargo,' our children, when out on our cargo bikes so we always obey the rules of the road. We stop at red lights, we signal turns, we hug the right except when it is appropriate and safer to take the lane, we use blinking lights at night, etc. We also try to remember that traveling by bike is always faster than walking so not to be tempted to break traffic laws to get where we are going a little sooner.
8. It has been really fun to become a part of New Haven's ever-growing bike riding population. We appreciate the city that much more now that we are constantly interacting more intensely with the community around us, talking more with neighbors, and having great times with our boys. We like the exercise and our significantly-lessened amount we spend on gas. It has also been wonderful to watch the explosion of family bike commuters as they tell their stories across the web and to see the growing choices families interested in bike commuting have. Check out converting your bike to an Xtra. Check out US-built Madsen cargo bikes. The more families cycling, the safer it is for all of us.
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January Commuter of the Month Melinda Tuhus |  | |
1.name Melinda Tuhus
2.nickname none,sorry
3.what do you ride Bay Pointe Three Speed (got a great deal on it used at a local bike shop! :-)
4.whats your rides name no name, sorry
5.what your commute how often , how far , your plan.
I ride almost every day, most often from my home in Hamden (Spring Glen) to downtown New Haven, four miles. I also ride around Hamden and to all other points of New Haven, just not as often. My main route is down Ridge Road to Davis Street, through East Rock Park, down Livingston to Edwards, then either down Whitney or down Orange to downtown.
6.funny anecdote
For three years I volunteered in a bilingual first grade in the Hill. I would ride my bike and lock it up in front of the school. I would tell the kids "mi caballo" (my horse) was outside and then show them through the classroom windows my bike parked below. They never seemed disappointed.
7.favorite bike tip
Use front and back lights (I use mine flashing for greater visibility and it saves the batteries), reflectors on bike, reflective vest, and anything else you can think of to show up like a Christmas tree when riding at night.
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Turning people into riders...
and riders into cyclists.
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