An Amusement & Diversion for The Genteel Cyclist. Daily.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

The thankless world of non-profit bicycle advocacy


We were sort of cynical about Bikes Belong, the Boulder-based bike advocacy that is funded by all the bigshots of the industry. Mostly, we were just bummed that they were willing to take so much dough off of Dynacrap, the source of Magnas, Verticals, Nexts, and clutch of other terrible brands that are more a part of the problem than the solution.

(OK, cue the broken record and sing along: Dynacrap bikes break down fast, they're heavy, and they're cheap; they are abandoned all over most American cities; they are an eyesore and resource-sink and they ultimately lead to disillusioned bike riders who assume that all bikes must suck like Dynacrap bikes suck, many of them inner city kids who would benefit most from a lifelong love of biking.)

Anyway, aside from our issues with Dynacrap, Bikes Belong has done one hell of a job raising money. Last week, REI announced that they've written a $100,000 check and sent it to Boulder. Let's hope that Bikes Belong can begin not only to spend all their money wisely, but to drop us a line and let us know when and where they do it. We can help advertise their good works, and we've quite a lot of personal experience with non-profit -- though we've never generated nearly as much non-profit as they have.

By the way, we were also recently dissing Novara bikes -- well, damning them with faint praise, maybe -- when it was brought to our attention that their commuter bike, the Fusion, won all kinds of accolades this year from authoritative sources like Dirt Rag and Bicycling. Our ignorance is truly appalling at times, and when it's not our ignorance, it's certainly our personal hygiene. But the truth of the matter is that Jerry is dying to sing the praises of the Fusion, and he'll be unleashed later today or tomorrow to do just that.

2 comments:

Dr. Logan said...

Yeah, but try to find the Fusion or Transfer in your size. I haven't seen it bigger than sm. or med. online or in stores.

Anonymous said...

But that is my size.