This one’s made quite a few internet rounds in the last few weeks, and with good reason; who wouldn’t want to go to a bike store with 120 bikes hanging on the outside? Treehugger managed to snap a few more shots of this bike shop in Altlandsberg, Germany.
As you may have heard, here at Osprey we love bikes. We love to ride them, we love to talk about them, and we love to build packs that facilitate a two-wheeled lifestyle. Which is why we thought it only fitting to launch our very own bike blog.
We’re here to make sure you’re inspired to live the two-wheeled lifestyle, be that on your commute, bombing down a mountain, touring the backroads of the West or simply just out for an afternoon jaunt.
We’ll have guest blogger posts, regular contests, cool bike stats, profiles on non-profits and daily bits of cycling inspiration.
See something that should be on here? Drop us a line. Use #ospreybike on Twitter, holler on Facebook or shoot us an email at blog[at]ospreypacks[dot]com.
Enjoy!
Photos courtesy Leah Missbach Day, World Bicycle Relief
Can bikes change the world? That’s a question we like to ask a lot.
Here’s yet another example of bikes making a significant difference, this time via World Bicycle Relief. Last week in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof wrote a pretty touching piece about the effect that WBR is having in the developing world.
Early this year I wrote a column from Zimbabwe that focused on five orphans who moved in together and survive alone in a hut.
The eldest, Abel, a scrawny and malnourished 17-year-old, would rise at 4 o’clock each morning and set off barefoot on a three-hour hike to high school. At nightfall, Abel would return to function as surrogate father: cajoling the younger orphans to finish their homework by firelight, comforting them when sick and spanking them when naughty.
When I asked Abel what he dreamed of, he said “a bicycle” — so that he could cut the six hours he spent walking to and from school and, thus, take better care of the younger orphans. Last week, Abel got his wish. A Chicago-based aid organization, World Bicycle Relief, distributed 200 bicycles to students in Abel’s area who need them to get to school. One went to Abel.
The initiative is a pilot. If it succeeds and finds financing, tens of thousands of other children in Zimbabwe could also get bicycles to help them attend school.
“I’m happy,” Abel told me shyly — his voice beaming through the phone line — when I spoke to him after he got his hands on his bicycle.
WBR has given out more than 70,000 bicycles so far. But why are bikes so powerful when it comes to development? As Kristof puts it, “it’s an example of an aid intervention that puts a system in place, one that is sustainable and has local buy-in, in hopes of promoting education, jobs and a virtuous cycle out of poverty.”
What are your favorite bike organizations?
You can read the whole article here.
Love this photo that we found over on Drunk Cyclist. Got a good caption anyone?
Thanks to Bike Radar for their awesome review of the Talon 22! They even went as far to say this popular Osprey favorite is an “incredibly comfortable larger capacity pack for epic adventures.”
Here’s the full review:
The Talon’s well designed harness system gives a truly comfortable feel out on the trail. The deep hip belt sits snugly in position and it’s easy to fix the weight to your shoulders with the looped adjusters.
The Ripstop fabric used for most of the body means that you’re not carrying extra weight before you pack up, and once you do fill your pack, the profile is still sleek.
The overall effect is that the pack feels like it’s wrapped round your core, so that it not only seems like you’re carrying less, but the load remains supple and moves with you.
The well thought out pockets include zipped numbers on each side that you can access without removing the pack, and a stretchy helmet/wet weather compartment.
This is the pack we’d choose for epic days, and it’s also available in a 20L size to fit narrower or shorter backs. It has a hydration slot, but no bladder.
Remember that even though the Talon doesn’t come with a bladder, you can purchase one of our HydraForm reservoirs as an add-on!
It happens to all of us: as the wheels spin so do our brains. In fact, I’ve had several people tell me that their most genius moments of creative inspiration were had while riding. Which is why this video is fitting.
