Dynamic Bicycles - Chainless Bicycles - Blog

Dynamic Rides the Five Borough Bike Tour

Patrick Perugini — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:00:56 -0500

This Sunday, May 4th is the Five Borough Bike Tour - a 42 mile ride through the five boroughs of New York. It is one of the largest (if not the largest) organized bike rides in the country. Over 30,000 riders participate each year!

This year, I'll be riding along with Tom our Production Manager and Norm, our Marketing Manager. Our goal is not necessarily to go out promoting our chainless bikes (although we are always proud to show them off and talk about them); our goal is to have fun. I spent two days last month riding around New York on my Green Media Tour. This time will be different - no cars, taxis or buses. It will be a great way to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of New York at its finest. Hopefully, we'll see some of you out on the ride...

I'll share some pictures and comments from the ride with you when we return.

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Best Time to Bike to Work

Patrick Perugini — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:51:31 -0500

I love May. Not only is it getting warm enough to ride, but May is National Bike Month. That makes May the best month of the year to make good on your goals of cycling to work. During this month, many cities around the country will be helping cyclists explore new bike paths and commuting routes by bike.

I have set my own personal goal to ride 15 days this month. I wish I could ride every day, but like many of you, I have to set aside at least one day a week to run errands during the day. My ride this morning througha crisp 35 degree New England morning was refreshing, and well worth it. I tried a new route for my 7 mile commute this morning. Its fun to explore some new streets and see some new faces.

For more information on National Bike Month and Bike-to-Work-Week, visit the League of American Cyclists at http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bikemonth/. See you on the road.

bicycle commuting bike-to-work-week national bike month

Green Media Tour on My Chainless Bike

Patrick Perugini — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:16:45 -0500

Last week I went on a 'media tour' to New York City. In other words, I went around NYC meeting with various magazine editors and writers showing off our bikes and talking about what is important to us - the environment, health, and of course why chainless bikes are so great. Most of the people I met with were all based in midtown Manhattan. So rather than driving from meeting to meeting, I biked. I spent two days riding up, down and across Manhattan. I passed through Times Square 4 times, Rockefeller Center 3 times and Central Park once. It was a bit chilly (they were still ice skating at Rockefeller Center), but warm enough to ride. I never felt unsafe on the streets of NY, but I did ride slowly since I was riding in a suit with a briefcase under one arm. I saw a lot of other riders out - messengers, commuters and delivery people. Riding around the city is such a different experience than by car. You get more time to absorb the sights, sounds and smells that you don't when you are stuck inside a taxi cab. I also met some great people - like the writers ar BusinessWeek, National Georgraphic Adventurer and Martha Stewart Living. But my meeting highlight was my last meeting with Fran Carpentier at Parade Magazine. It turns out we both had grandmother's who loved to make meatballs, loved big families and covered all their furniture in plastic. We had some good laughs. Thanks to all I met for a memorable trip to NYC.

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London Chainless Bikes Rental System

Patrick Perugini — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:53:29 -0500

I recently visited London and had a chance to ride one of the chainless bikes distributed around London. Currently in a pilot phase, this self-service bike station program has placed hundreds of chainless bikes using Dynamic's shaft drive system in about 50 locations in and around London. It's pretty cool. You walk up to the station, use your cell phone to call the phone number on the station, enter some information on the keypad and the station's locking system unlock's the bike for your use. You ride it where you need to go, then re-lock it into another bike station. The first hour is free, after that it's a nominal charge billed to your cell phone. This system is similar to the very large-scale bike station program recently implemented in Paris, dubbed Velib, now with more than 10,000 bikes and 750 stations. One of the key aspects learned from this London implementation and proven in the Paris implementation is the concept of "critical mass density". Through this pilot program and subsequent interviews and focus groups of those who did and did not use the system, the "critical mass density" theory emerged. It was deduced that the bike stations needed to be placed no more than 1000 feet apart, thus creating a density of bikes to the point where convenience and mass usage would pass the tipping point. This was the theory behind Paris' bold implementation. It has proven correct. The volume of usage of the bikes is very high, as much as 15 rides per bike, per day. This equals 150,000 riders per day on the bikes. As more and more cities evaluate these types of systems, chainless technology will undoutedly be part one of the technologies considered.

A Little Help From Our Work

Patrick Perugini — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:08:09 -0500

The more I read about the link between healthy workers and productivity, job satisfaction, reduced turnover and fewer sick days, the more I wonder why more companies don't offer more incentives and encouragement to employees to commute by bike. It seems to me the perfect solution. Sure commuting by bike has numerous positive effects on the environment, but even more selfishly, commuting by bike 2-3 days per week can provide most people with all the exercise they need on a regular basis - without making extra time to join a gym, signup for classes, arrange daycare, and shower with strangers.

As a business owner, I can tell you that healthy workers are happier, more dedicated to their jobs, better with customers, and have fewer sick days. In fact, in 4 years we have been in business, we have never had an employee quit, we have never had an employee out for more than 2 consecutive days due to illness, and we have high ratings for customer satisfaction because we enjoy what we do and this shows in our interaction with our customers.

At Dynamic, every employee gets a new bike every year. Sure this is easy for us as a bike company. But the cost is easy to justify even if it weren't our business. For many comanies who offer perks to employees, bikes are cheaper than health club memberships, cheaper than car allowances, and cheaper than many parking spots.

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Get Off Your Gas, Get on Your Bike

Patrick Perugini — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:45:32 -0500

Oil prices are nearing US$110 per barrel. Adjusted for inflation, this blows away any previous record prices for oil. Gas at the pump is now nationally above $3.20 per gallon. Pretty soon it might be cheaper to run our cars on Starbucks coffee. With current worldwide demand for oil soaring, supply declining, and our continuously weakening dollar, gas prices may hit $4.00 a gallon this year. What does this mean for the average commuter with an 8-mile commute? With spring just around the corner for most of the US, now is the time to make the commitment to ride - even if its only 2-3 days per week. This will cut your fuel costs in half, make you look and feel great, keep your doctor off your back about getting more exercise, and maybe give you that new passion in life you've been searching for.

bike commuting bicycling gas prices

Welcome to the Chainless Revolution Blog

Patrick Perugini — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:39:09 -0600

I'm so happy to be posting the first entry into our highly anticipated Chainless Revolution Blog! At Dynamic Bicycles we are committed to the lifestyle of biking. What other activity allows you to commute while saving money, bettering your health and protecting the environment? Not many that are as fun, that's for sure!

We hope to fill this blog with everything bicycle - we believe bicycles are the best form of recreation and transportation on the planet. Our chainless bikes in particular are reliable, efficient, fun, versatile, take up very little space, and have zero emissions. They can also be ridden by people of virtually every age. Bicycling offers a great cardiovascular workout with very little impact on your bones and joints. Bike rides are also as great for socializing as they are for getting away from it all for a while. So what are you waiting for? Let's ride...

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