Megan Hottman of www.TheCyclist-Lawyer.com

Thanks to Megan Hottman, "The Cyclist Lawyer" for providing this article! Hottman Law Office is a litigation and personal injury firm specializing in cyclists and athlete representation.

What cyclists need to know about homeowners, renters, auto and health insurance as it pertains to bicycles, cycling injuries, theft, and damage.
I had a "The Cyclist-Lawyer" booth set up at Veloswap last weekend, and the #1 topic people stopped by to discuss was insurance. Questions like “What happens if I don’t have auto or health insurance and I cause an accident or hit a pedestrian?” or “My bikes are really expensive, what’s the best way to insure them against theft or loss?” came up repeatedly. Two days after Veloswap, Kris at 303cycling sent me a link about “bicycle insurance,” asking my thoughts on it. So it seems, the topic is on your minds . . .

Below are some of the most common coverage issues we face as cyclists. Note: this discussion does not have anything to do with injuries or property damage resulting from a competitive event. This is a discussion about the cyclist out riding on public roads, for recreation or commuting purposes. I discussed these issues with my own insurance agent with regard to my own policies and you’ll see quotes from him below. Of course to be sure about your coverage, you’ll need to request a copy of your policy from your agent and read it carefully, as every insurance company is different in their claims-handling practices…

1. “What if I’m riding my bike and I hit a car, another cyclist, or a pedestrian. When I’m at fault, who covers their injuries and property damage, and who covers mine?”

There is a new bike company in Durango Colorado called SlipNot who make a Bicycle Traction System, ie chains, for your bike. Bike chains reduce the barriers to winter cycling for either commuter or just having fun. Recently 303cycling took these out for the test and this is what we have to say about them so far.

Purchase. The chains have two prices, $85 for 26” wheels and $95 for 29’ers. The chains can be purchased online

Installation. First off, these chains are for tires of no less than 1.9” in width so the bike I installed in on was an old school Specialized Epic, 26” and not my typical 700c commuter bike. Installation of front tire went pretty smoothly (as shown in their installation video) although since it was my first time I did fumble around a little causing the total time for the first tire to be about 10 minutes, but I learned lot, greatly reducing installation time for the next tire which took a little less than 5 minutes. I was done! Wrong. The smart engineers at Specialized provided very little mud clearance between the tire and the rear shock which caused my chains to rub the shock a little (plenty of clearance on the frame). This required me to take off my wide tires and install a 1.9 commuter tire (Continental Town and Country). After that was complete the chains fit much better.

Operation: I choose to ride these chains on the first big snow day in the Front range that dropped nearly 10 inches of snow on us. I’d never done this before. My route to work is 25% roads and 75% multi-use paths. The roads were about 50% clear and the multi-use path about 10% clear, today was going to be a good test day... or so I thought. Riding the roads was great, I had zero traction issues which gave me the same confidence on the bike as I would have on any regular day. Traction on the trails was also great! Most of the path had semi packed snow and the chains road through it perfectly never having any traction problems. Overall the chains performed perfectly as they were suppose to... but the commute was a disaster

From Denver Urbanism

The American Communities Survey published its commuter mode share estimates for 2010 this morning and the news is great for Denver!

Families at Heatherwood Elementary Ride Their Bikes and Burleys in Support of Community Food Share.
By AmyT

This past week, Heatherwood Elementary in Boulder hosted its Fall Walk and Roll Week, where children are encouraged to use human-powered transportation to school for one week (think bikes, scooters, skateboards, walking, etc.). To keep the fun level up, Heatherwood had different theme days throughout the week and Wednesday's theme was "Pedal for a Cause". This year the "cause" was a food drive for Community Food Share, which serves Boulder and Broomfield counties. Students were asked to bring a can of food in their backpacks to donate as they rode to school on Wednesday morning. To keep the human-powered transportation theme going, all of the donated food was then loaded into a couple of Burley trailers and two Heatherwood moms rode the donation to Community Food Share's warehouse in Niwot. Fortunately, for these ladies, the nearly five-mile bike ride was mostly downhill! Once at Community Food Share, the food was unloaded into shopping carts and weighed. These moms were both happy and a little shocked to learn that they had just hauled 260 pounds of food by bike and admitted they were probably a tad over the maximum recommended capacity for their trailers, yet all the food, bikes, burleys and moms arrived in tact.

260 Pounds of food donated!