Yuba ridin’ momma Elle Bustamante of Tiny Helmets, Big Bikes got interviewed for participating in the Cool California Challenge. The shocked and amazed look the reporter keeps giving her blue Mundo makes this video totally worth watching.
Want to be the first to see the Boda Boda in person?
Come celebrate with the team that made the Boda Boda Cargo Cruiser at our glamorous global headquarters on June 27th.
We’ll have food, music, beer, prizes and games to help make the evening special.
WHERE: Yuba Bicycles
2350 Marinship Way SW7
Sausalito, CA 94965, USA
Get directions
WHEN: Wednesday, June 27th, 6pm onwards
Opportunity TWO: City Utility
Special thanks to the presenters, organizations, and supporters of DRTpdx 2012:
142nd Fighter Wing // The Oregon Food Bank // Oregon Red Cross // Portland Bureau of Emergency Management // Multnomah County Emergency Management // Portland Fire Bureau // ARES (amateur radio) // Portland Neighborhood Emergency Teams // OHSTAR: Oregon Humane Society Technical Animal Rescue // Portland Businesses By Cargo Bike // Cargo Bike Food and Beverage Vendors
A hearty thank you to Sky and everyone at Velo Cult for the generous use of the space!
Draw to win a FREE bike!
On June 27th, Yuba Bicycles will release a new bike: the Boda Boda Cargo Cruiser. It gets its name from the ubiquitous utility bicycles seen all over the African continent. Boda Bodas get people and products to their destinations day in and day out. They not only carry essentials, but also transport the dreams and ambitions of individuals from their communities to the world at large.
The Boda Boda Cargo Cruiser empowers cyclists for everyday adventures, from trips to the farmer’s market to elegant picnics off the bike trail. What do you dream of doing by bike?
How to enter
To enter to win a free Yuba Bicycles Boda Boda Cargo Cruiser, simply draw a picture of what you think it will look like. The drawing can be as simple as a scrawl on a bar napkin or as involved as a fully rendered 3D drawing. The person who we deem guesses the most accurately, gets a free bike.
Send completed drawings to kaytea@yubaride.com by noon (pacific time) on June 22, 2012 to enter. The winner will be announced at the Boda Boda launch party on June 27.
The fine print
Contest is limited to people in the continental US. Winner is responsible for shipping costs.
Sadly, not a “dessert trip”.
We stumbled upon this guys’s story on MTBR on Monday. His plan was to take the El Paso Gasline Road 300 miles from Pheonix, AZ to “somewhere in California”, probably somewhere near Mojave. Across the desert. In late spring. When it’s hot, not as hot as the fires of Hades, but plenty hot to addle a human brain.
He didn’t quite make it all 3oo miles, mostly due to choice of shorts and lack of cold beer (totally understandable). But he did have quite an adventure and take some great photos.
Online finance magazine, Kiplinger, recently did an article about frugal parents choosing to bike commute as a method of saving money. At the end of the article they included this handy calculator, which helps you figure out how much you can save by bike commuting every day.
This got us to thinking, how much do people save by bike commuting? Play with the calculator and post your results in the commentfield at the end of the article.
Here’s the article about bike commuting:
Cut Commuting Costs by Biking to Work
The number of Americans who bike as their primary means of transportation to work has increased almost 40 percent in the past decade — and with good reason.
Stacy Bisker and her family of six didn’t spend a single dollar filling up the family’s minivan in April.
How is that possible when her husband commutes four miles to and from work every day, and her 2-, 5-, 8- and 10-year-olds have to be shuttled to school, doctors’ appointments and other activities in Huntington, W.Va.? The answer lies in Bisker’s garage, where you will find seven bicycles, plus a new Yuba Mundo cargo bike that can carry up to 440 pounds.
Want to win a free Yuba tee shirt, apron or hat this month?
Simply submit a photo of how you are celebrating May Bike Month. Show us the cutest, heaviest, most epic loads you’ve hauled this month, and you can win a prize.
To enter, simply submit the photo on the Yuba Bicycles Facebook page. Think Facebook is creepy? Then just email your photo directly to kaytea@yubaride.com.
At the end of the month, three lucky winners will be chosen at random. Then you can look as manly as this guy.
Periodically, we like to repost something from another blog to because it is of particular interest to our community. Recently, Yuba ridin’ momma, Kate Burns had a picture of her and her sons in the paper, which stirred up a vitriolic response from the gas guzzling community about safety etc. This was her intelligent and measured response. It is re-posted from her blog A Mom on a Bike.
To ride or not to ride?
I have been meaning to write about this for some time but needed a nudge in the right direction. That nudge came from Mr. Brown of Ione, CA in the form of a letter to the editor at the Sacramento Bee. For those of you who don’t know, I was photographed riding around downtown Sacramento with three of my four boys on the bike. To Mr. Brown’s credit the original picture was published in black and white and I have had a number of people confess that it looked like I just threw kids all over the bike. I, unfortunately, only have access to the color picture which looks much better.
The paper published the picture again this morning with the letter in a special box in the editorial section. I think they were trying to pick a fight and I think it’s going to work. There are already 20+ comments in the on-line article. 
Here’s his letter and my reply:
His letter:
I found the picture of Kate Burns and her three sons on her bicycle quite disturbing. I did not see an excellent advertisement for “May is Bike Month.” Instead, we saw a woman who was violating Ca. Vehicle Code 21204 and endangering her small children. I hope she discontinues this practice immediately.
– Timothy D. Brown, Ione
My letter:
I would like to respond to Mr. Brown’s letter regarding the picture of me and my three sons posted in the Bee on May 2nd. The black and white picture posted in the Bee did not do this bicycle justice and I understand the confusion and concern. To clarify, I would like to address this letter specifically and generally.
Specifically:
California vehicle code 21204 states:
a) A person operating a bicycle upon a highway shall not ride other than upon or astride a permanent and regular seat attached thereto, unless the bicycle was designed by the manufacturer to be ridden without a seat.
(b) An operator shall not allow a person riding as a passenger, and a person shall not ride as a passenger, on a bicycle upon a highway other than upon or astride a separate seat attached there to. If the passenger is four years of age or younger, or weighs 40 pounds or less, the seat shall have adequate provision for retaining the passenger in place and for protecting the passenger from the moving parts of the bicycle.
Glossing over the fact that I was not on a highway but riding in downtown where there are lights every block; the bike is made to operate as I am using it. All the passengers under 4 are restrained in place – the child on the front has a belted bike seat and the first child on the rear has stoker bars, foot pegs, and a healthy dose of common sense. The back seats – and they are seats – are firmly attached and protected from the wheels and gears twice – once with bags and once with wheel skirts.
Generally –
Many people assume that biking is dangerous – you will die. “Is it safe?” is a question I hear frequently and most don’t seem to believe my answer. Webster’s defines the word safe as being secure from harm, injury, or danger. Safe does not exist in the real world – everything we do involves risk. I am reminded of this every time I fall down the stairs, slip on my tile floor, buckle my kids in their car-seats, or book an airline ticket. Indeed, even sitting on our backsides doing nothing carries risk – the risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and too-tight pants.
Of course biking carries risk but is it dangerous? In 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 630 pedal-cyclists died and 51,000 were injured in traffic accidents. Those numbers account for 2% of all traffic related fatalities and injuries in 2009. These numbers imply that the other approximately 86% (pedestrians accounted for 12% of traffic fatalities and 3% of injuries) of people injured or killed in traffic accidents in 2009 were driving or riding in cars. Obviously, being in a car does not ensure safety. In fact, based on these statistics, one could argue that riding a bicycle is safer and less dangerous than driving and definitely less risky than walking. Additionally, there are ways to minimize the risks of bike riding – riding with traffic, obeying traffic signs, wearing helmets, signaling, using bike lanes/ trails when available, and wearing lights and reflective gear at night. Although I take care to minimize the risks as much as possible, I realize that I am also depending on motorists to be considerate, law abiding, and in control of their vehicles. When I ride with my kids I am teaching them how to bike safely – they are learning traffic laws and experiencing how important it is to “share the road”. Lessons I hope will make them not only better (future) drivers but better people.
I weighed the risks and the benefits and decided to ride with my kids. I have found that riding my bicycle is invigorating, relaxing, economical, and enjoyable – even with the kids on back. I can’t very often say that about my car trips. I think we will continue this practice indefinitely.
I feel very strongly about the general safety part of my letter. I cherish my kids and would never put them in a situation where I thought they would absolutely get hurt. I spend a lot of my time on this bike off of main streets riding mainly on bike paths or through residential neighborhoods. I’m not saying that everyone should ride that way, it’s just how I prefer to ride. Anyway, this hasn’t changed my mind a bit – I don’t feel judged or threatened. I feel like I need to ride more so people get used to seeing bikes and bikes with kids.
VeloLogistics.net has been making waves in Europe this week. The recently launched cargo bike sharing service enables people to find geo-tagged cargo bikes to barrow nearby.
How it works is simple: you go on to the site, register, and then add your bike. People then contact you about borrowing your bike. While the site doesn’t seem to support compensation for the bike owner (unlike recently-launched Relay Rides for cars), it does have clear interface showing what type of cargo bike lives where.
Yuba riders are an intrepid lot. You are constantly finding new and inspiring uses for the bikes. Here are before and after pictures from a Yuba rider, who used her bike to transport a trade show booth to an event she had. She got an impressive amount of stuff on the bike (and apparently still looked professional during the event).