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Bike Seat Blog

Shooting a new bike seat video in Silverlake

3/29/2015

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Last weekend was a busy one, driving down to LA on Friday night, shooting a video all day Saturday, CicLAvia on Sunday, and capping it off with a great two-hour show by Of Montreal at the new Regent Theater in downtown LA Sunday night. Non-stop and it was a blast. 

I've been talking with Brandon, my roommate's brother, for over a year about shooting some bike seat videos. He's done a couple films of his own already and looking to build out his portfolio, and this LA trip turned out to be a great opportunity to shoot the first video. 
shooting companion bike seat video in silverlake
brandon managing audio for silverlake video shoot of companion bike seat
This is a picture of Brandon here, manning the audio equipment (I was on camera duty). We shot all of the outdoor scenes in and around Silverlake. It was a perfect day for shooting, a little cloudy so that it wasn't too sunny (though the sun did burn through later in the day).
Even though we were right across the street shooting the video, we found this note on the car, telling us that the next time we'd be towed. Thankfully we were able to finish the shoot all in one day. 

By mid-afternoon we were on Sunset shooting a couple shopping scenes, and I had to take a photo of some of my favorite comic characters, Calvin and Hobbes, painted on the side of a shop.
friendly note we received while shooting in silverlake
wall art in silverlake while shooting bike seat video
And while we were waiting for the camera battery to recharge for the second time that day, I decided to test out the slow-mo video on my new phone. The actors wanted to take a couple test rides on the bike seat to get used to riding with a passenger before doing it on camera, so I pulled out my phone and put this together:
Stay tuned for the actual video. Once it's done being edited, we'll share it with the world!
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Riding CicLAvia for the first time

3/22/2015

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cicLAvia north hollywood mar 2015
We took a trip down to Los Angeles this weekend to shoot a new Companion Bike Seat video (more on this coming soon) and turns out it was the perfect weekend to be in LA ... CicLAvia - The Valley was hitting the streets of North Hollywood on Sunday! CicLAvia is LA's version of Ciclovia (started in Bogota 20+ years ago), where city streets are shut down all day, and bicycles and pedestrians take over the streets. I was pleasantly surprised to see all the crowds the turned out for it, with several thousand people taking their streets back.
This was the first CicLAvia event to be held in the San Fernando Valley and was a huge hit. CicLAvia hosts several events throughout the year, spreading them out all over LA county. CicLAvia aims to change people’s attitudes, behaviors and the public conversation regarding alternative transportation, health and wellness, public spaces and community engagement, and they were certainly successful at it today! What a great experience ... we'll definitely be back again for future CicLAvias.
double decker bicycle at cicLAvia
cicLAvia north hollywood mar 2015
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Axle Swap and Bike Seat Install at SF STate

3/15/2015

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I sent to SF State yesterday and spent a couple of hours helping out a new bike seat customer install their Companion Bike Seat. He wanted to install the bike seat onto his Raleigh Furley, which had a quick-release rear axle, so we needed to swap that out with a solid axle for the foot pegs.

When I arrived at the quad, I realized I had forgotten to mention that we needed axle nuts for the replacement axle. While Song-Ho went to a nearby bike store to get them, I started working on the wheel. Turns out not every bike store has axle nuts, so it took a little longer than expected to find what we needed.
replacing the axle of a Raleigh Furley
Companion Bike Seat customer photo at SF State
While Song-Ho was out shopping for axle nuts, a campus police officer stopped by to see what I was doing. We talked for a couple of minutes, then she offered me a bite of her peanut butter cookie. I hadn't eaten breakfast yet, so of course I accepted. Ahh the joys of being on campus again!

Once Song-Ho returned with the proper parts, we quickly finished up installing his Companion Bike Seat onto his bicycle. Next step: take his girlfriend out for her first ride on the bike seat!
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Happy Halloween from the Matadors of Companion Bike Seat

10/31/2014

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It's that time of year again, when we all get to put on costumes and get as debaucherous as possible, after taking the little ones out to trick-or-treat and collect candy of course. I realized something this year - if I go trick-or-treating on my bicycle, I can still bring a friend along, I can put all of my candy in the stash-box, and I can collect two to three times as much candy since I can move faster and hit up more houses! Happy Halloween!
companion bike seat matador
companion bike seat matador for halloween
companion bike seat matador bike ride
companion bike seat matadors riding a bicycle
companion bike seat matador smiling
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Bike Life Festival 2014

9/21/2014

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We brought our bike seats out to the first annual Bike Life Festival today to show our support for the South Bay bicycling community and of course to spread the word about Companion Bike Seats. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon for the festival, which took place at St. James Park in the historic St. James Neighborhood in downtown San Jose. There was a live DJ and several bands, food trucks, games, bicycle art, and plenty of bicycles. It turns out San Jose is a real "fixie city" with more fixies at the festival than any other bike!
Companion Bike Seat at Bike Life Festival 2014
We offered free test rides on the Companion Bike Seat to anyone interested in taking our bike and bike seat out for a ride around the park. 
velo art at Bike Life Festival 2014
Our "booth" was right across the park bike path from several artists making "velo art" specifically for the festival. We got to watch this particular piece start from scratch and develop into what you see here, done entirely with spray paint. I didn't get a chance to ask the artist the name of this artwork, so I'll call it "the many faces of cycling in San Jose."

All in all Bike Life Festival was a great event, bringing the community together to celebrate bicycling and showcase local bicycling-related businesses in the South Bay. We look forward to joining in the festivities again next year!
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Bicycles at Berkeley Spark 2014

7/20/2014

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Companion Bike Seat at Berkeley Spark 2014
We were out at Berkeley Spark this weekend to enjoy the festivities and to help promote Bike Seats on the Playa. With so many cool DIY bike seats, bike trailers, and art bicycles, I had to write a blog post to share some of the pictures. Berkeley Spark is a sort of Burning Man pre-party or send-off party held annually at Civic Center Park in Downtown Berkeley. It was a beautiful Bay Area summer afternoon, full of arts and crafts, dancing, food and grog, and most importantly ... lots of bicycles. 
There were all sorts of custom rigs at the park, from functional to artistic and everything in between. I included some photos here of the best ones from the afternoon.

With this DIY bike seat, it's unclear whether it's the primary driver seat for a really tall owner, or if it's a passenger seat and the owner took his bike seat with him to make sure it wasn't stolen. Either way, it looks like a great ride!
custom bike seat at Berkeley Spark
custom bicycle trailer at Berkeley Spark
This bicycle trailer had pretty much everything you need in life ... guitar, radio, clothes and sleeping bag, and a wash-board as a backboard for the rig to make sure nothing fell off the back. You could travel an entire continent with this type of setup.

This was by far the coolest art-bicycle of the afternoon ... the fish tongues were an especially nice touch. Fish Bike was a completely functional art piece, though pretty difficult to ride being that it was so heavily laden with metal armor. 
fish art bicycle at Berkeley Spark
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Bicycling in Bogota

7/2/2014

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I took a trip to Bogota, Colombia last week for a friend's wedding, and knowing how forward-thinking Bogota is with bike-commuting, couldn't help but taking some photos to share my experience. It turns out that Ciclovia, with its roots in Bogota, was the movement that inspired Sunday Streets globally. With Ciclovia, every Sunday and holiday, major streets are shut down to let bicycles and pedestrians to take over the streets. Ciclovia was started in the early '80s, and is most often credited to then Bogota Mayor Hernando Duran Dussan. Due to the popularity of Ciclovia, the local government invested in miles of bicycling infrastructure, ciclorutas, and now Bogota is heralded as one of the best cities in the world for bicyclists and bike commuters.
cicloruta bike path in Bogota
cicloruta bike path sign in Bogota
It was great to see a place that embraced bicycling as a regular part of life. I was pleasantly surprised to see bicycling called out as one of the four ways people can help save the planet! This was on a take-out bag from an amazing barbecue restaurant just outside of Bogota.
save the planet, ride a bike
doggy bag with advice on saving the planet
bike share hub in Bogota

Much like most major cities nowadays, Bogota has a thriving bike-share system, Bogota Humana, that just recently launched.
Bogota Humana bike share bicycles

And of course, even on a rainy day, of which there are many in Bogota, the ciclorutas are still smiling. In Bogota, even the bicyclists get their own traffic signals!
cicloruta sign in Bogota
smiling cicloruta bike path in Bogota
companion bike seat logo on a chalkboard
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Coachella 2014

4/22/2014

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We went to Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival again this year for weekend 2, and this time we brought two bike seats with us to the show. Traffic getting in and out of the parking lot every night is incredibly difficult, and even with the ease of Uber being readily available, you still end up sitting in a long line of cars. Bikes end up being the perfect way to get to and from the show, that is if you're not camping of course. And there are plenty of places to safely lock your bike against a fence close to the entrance as well. In over three years of riding bikes to Coachella, we've never had a bike stolen.
companion bike seats roof rack
Companion Bike Seats at Coachella
Such a beautiful site at the end of every night!
We brought both of our bikes, an Electra cruiser and a Globe Work path-and-pavement, with us this year. With the two bike seats we had enough room for four people to ride to the show every day. No need to rent extra bikes for folks when you've got a couple Companion Bike Seats!
coachella bicycle ride

There were five of us staying at the house, so someone always had to walk, but we traded off each day. The bikes (and bike seats) turned what would have been an hour and a half walk into a 30 minute trip.
riding to coachella
coachella bike ride
John was gracious enough to offer folks free rides on the third day.
The weekend was a complete success ... three full days of great music, great weather, great people, and great fun. It even rained a tiny bit on Friday, keeping everything cool, the perfect start to the weekend. Complete sensory overload, with massive art structures all around the grounds, and over 6 stages music playing for at least 12 hours every day (if you get there early enough in the day). There was even a giant spaceman cruising around!
coachella 2014 main stage
coachella 2014 spaceman
coachella 2014 robot
riding a bike seat to coachella
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Biking to School in NYC

3/17/2014

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We received this note from one of our customers in New York City today and I just had to share it with the world:
riding a Companion Bike Seat in New York City
riding a Companion Bike Seat in New York City

Photo disclaimer - riding on the sidewalk is strictly prohibited in New York City, and children should always wear a helmet.
____________________
"I took my daughter to school, had been looking forward to that so much. She had never ridden on the back of a bike. I realized that this morning. Very strange that I hadn't thought about that till this morning. I was practically taken home from the hospital when I was born on the back of my mom's bike! Jumping on the back of your friend's bike is something that you do regularly in Holland. And of course people jumping on the back of yours.

Riding with her hanging on to me this morning felt so right! I think she  had a few nervous moments (morning traffic on 2nd & 1st Ave in Manhattan can be a little intimidating). She had no way of knowing how good of a bike rider I am. We got to school in less than 5 minutes.

I am so happy with my backseat!"
____________________
riding a Companion Bike Seat in New York City
Bike commuting in the US is not anywhere near where it is in other countries (particularly in Holland), and this proves that all it takes is a culture-change, and nothing more. We're already well on our way, but we still have a long way to go. Hopefully our bike seats make it that much easier to shift from cars to bikes!
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The Green Wave is Taking San Francisco by Storm!

2/25/2014

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Picture
GREEN WAVE

It's a great thing to see (especially in your own backyard) and a huge step in the right direction. High five America!

Cities all over the US are investing in more bike lanes and bike-friendly thoroughfares, making it that much easier for bike commuting to take a foothold. Not a moment too soon, with the growth that bike-share programs have seen over the last couple years. Apparently bicycling in the US is on the rise!

(Photo taken at Valencia Corridor in San Francisco.) 
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