DynoLight

I have noticed something early this fall and that is the fact that we have less daylight these days so we wanted to feature something that can benefit all of you and keep you safe as the sun goes down and the clouds come out this fall and winter. With that I would like to introduce you to a great local company Light On LLC and their "DynoLight".

Local cross racer, dad, engineer and all around good guy Brian Engelen is at it again. He has developed the “DynoLight” which is powered by you. Or, more accurately, you pedaling your bike with a 6 volt/3 watt hub generator (Shimano, Sram, Schmidt). This light has a number of mounting options, doubles with a tail light and most importantly is a product that will help keep us safe as we are faced with less and less daylight...I would definitely recommend using the “DynoLight” on dark cloudy days as well.


Brian’s work will be featured on 2 possibly 3 bikes at the Manifest Design Challenge. In fact, look closely at the orange bike in this bikeportland.org article and you will see a DynoLight mounted to the rack.


Also, Halloween weekend he will have a booth at the Frame Builders show…make sure to stop by and say hello. If you are unable to make either event take a look at the Light On! website DynoLight where you can order the DynoLight along with a number of other great products.

Time To Change

Hello everyone, I want to start off by saying we truly appreciate those of you that follow us and have made it out to the rides. We have been a little slim the past few weeks in attendance and it has been hard for me to attend myself. So I have looked to the Brady Bunch for some inspiration which came from their classic Time to Change. "When it's time to change, then its time to change. Don't fight the tide, come along for the ride, don't you see. When it's time to change, you've got to rearrange"

So starting Thursday October First we will move the regular ride to Thursday evenings at 3:30 PM. I have also heard quite a bit of feedback to move the ride to the East side so we are moving the starting location to the Vera Katz statue on the Eastbank Esplanade. For those of you that aren't familiar her bronze statue is located on the South end of the esplanade just off of Madison Ave and next to the Portland Fire EMS Station. We will also start with one main route of heading out the Springwater trail and depending on weather on the crowd we can go as long or short as we would like. From time to time we may change the route but again this is meant for people to meet and chat.

I also know as a lifelong Portlander that the rain is about to come which may detract people as well. As we get closer to that time where only the die hards go for joy rides we most likely will move the ride inside where it is warm and cozy and most likely this establishment will serve wonderful Portland beer. If anyone has ideas or a place that would like to host us let me know?

I hope to see more of you out there in the coming weeks with this change and I hope I don't make this more difficult to those who have come out in the past.

Milagros

This weeks feature is near and dear to me with a newborn that just joined our family. Since 2004 Milagros has offered wonderful natural, fairly-made, and recycled products for families. They carry everything from carriers, shoes, cloth diapers, maternity and breast feeding supplies.

From the beginning, the goal for Milagros has been to be more than just a fun place to shop. They strive to provide a welcoming atmosphere at Milagros. A place where families can feel at ease browsing for clothing, learning about attachment parenting, getting questions answered about cloth diapers and breastfeeding, or just hanging out and visiting.

Milagros also reflects their values of being community-oriented on the local and global level. This commitment is reflected in their choice of products, support of charities such as MercyCorps and La Leche League, and direct support of neighborhood celebrations such as Concerts in the Park, Sunday Parkways, and the Fox Chase Family Artwalk.

So if you know of someone that is expecting, expecting yourself or you have a little one that you would like to spoil make sure you visit Milagros first. I know we have sent family there and will be making stops there ourselves here soon.

For those of you wondering about little Ella I used this feature to sneak in a new picture of her to the right.

No Ride Friday 9/4

Sorry everyone but we are not having a ride today. I am at home with a sick baby and Bill is not quite back on the bike yet. We are thinking of switching to Wednesday afternoon for the ride as work is making it tough for me to get out on Friday's as well. Please leave comments to let me know what you think or shoot me an email businessonabike@gmail.com. Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend.