Davis Bicycles! Column Ideas

Possible Ideas to Pursue:

• Energy/Environment saved, put in real terms people can understand. Emphasis on equivalents. How many miles of biking saves the level of carbon that putting in CFLs would, or getting a new refrigerator, or solar panels, etc.
• Why I Love Biking at Night. This is a common theme, and there is a column in this.
• Tales/joys of commuting to Sacramento (Ken Celli and others in the Davis-Sac-Davis working bikers gang)
• Early history of biking in Davis. How far back can we find someone? Maynard on when he and Norm Woodbury ran in 1966. Early campus planning?
• Someone on why I do not use a helmet when I ride and why we are doing a disservice to our youth by insisting they do.
• The carbon footprint of being a vegetarian v. a carnivore v. a car driver v. a bike rider
• Is Davis really the bike capital of the US as we claim? (What about Portland? Boulder? What’s going on in those places we should follow?)
• New student in Davis on what it’s like to be tossed into bike culture
• The lives of my (and others) kids as they grew up in bike trailers (candidate author Tom Burton)
• How to teach a kid to ride a bike in about five minutes, and without training wheels (I've (we've) done it) (Tom Burton)
• Why my quality of life without a car is better than yours with.
• An ode to the Tour de France riders
• A worldwide perspective of bicycle use (China is the real world capital of biking; we are just dilettantes)
• How bicycles in Africa are saving lives
• Stories of romances carried out on bicycle
• The bicycle: a fountain of youth, and/or the sentimental connections once one starts riding like they did as a kid (guy in Zen and the Art of Bicycle Commuting who discusses such)
• What’s it like to spend hours of quiet, word-free satisfaction on a tandem with your daughter
• The Great Flood of the Patent Office in the 1890s (bicycle technology ideas forced the building of a new patent office)
• Understanding unique bike stuff: In praise of the ten pound road bike and/or Fixie: fad or religion?
• Davis profiles: Dave Scott on the lava fields of Yolo; Steven Hanson, Davis' most successful pro on owning a home-town bike shop; Paul Tomisberg on breaking bike parts and starting a new company; Kimo Tanaka on the renaissance of the custom bike frame, etc.
• Why oxygen debt is the best kind
• A (serious) profile of the Bike Church and the possibility for a bona fide bike religion
• What’s (bike) March Madness in Davis and the joys of participation
• How many dollars for charity have bike riders from Davis raised?
• How many parts does a bike have?