The Tour de Fat, or Why I Love New Belgium

The Tour de Fat is one of the reasons why the New Belgium Brewing Company is on my top five list of great companies. Some of the other reasons may be found here.

Basically, the New Belgium Brewing Company was created after the founder was inspired (divinely perhaps?) while on a bike trek through Belgium visiting some of the best breweries in the world. Upon returning to the US, he made it his mission to recreate the best of the Belgian beers right here in America. He named his new brewery New Belgium, and named its first official beer after the mountain bike with "fat tires" he had used to ride across the country of his inspiration.

Now that the name of both the brewery and its flagship beer are known from coast to coast, conventional wisdom states that the company should have sold out its original intentions and realized its full potential as a money making enterprise. Not so. Fortunately for everyone involved, while the company is making more money than a 32 year old dude on a bike trek across Belgium ever could have imagined, it is still 100% true to its roots. And that means bikes.

For instance, some of the great perks of being a New Belgium employee (in addition to all the fat tire you can drink) include a free geeked out cruiser bike after you've worked there for one full year, and a parking lot with almost as many spots for bikes as there are for cars. But the coolest thing us non-employees get to enjoy (in addition to all the paid for yet delicious beer we can drink) is the Tour de Fat.

The Tour de Fat is essentially a traveling carnival dedicated to bikes. It begins with a community ride around an area, similar to Critical Mass except that it is actually licensed by the city, and then ends at a fairground complete with a corral filled with awesome art bikes for everyone to enjoy and a giant stage where bands play, contests are held, and a mock New Orleans style funeral is held for car culture.

Now, this is all free. The only thing that isn't is the beer. And when it comes to beer sales, in each major city the tour goes to, it partners with a local bike friendly non-profit (in my fine city that is the SFBC) and gives a portion of all profits to that organization.

The moral of this story? New Belgium is awesome, and everyone reading this should go to a Tour de Fat event if one is taking place near them. To all my SF brothers and sisters, that event is tomorrow, Saturday the 25th of September at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park.

See ya there.

Images provided by New Belgium Brewing Co. and The Green Dude

San Franciscans - How to Get a Free Bike Rack

When the bike improvement injunction is lifted in mid-2009, San Francisco is planning on installing nearly 1,000 new bike racks throughout the city. Make sure you get one where it will help you.


The SFBC (San Francisco Bike Coalition) has a handy little form you can fill out to request your bike rack. Just go to the Fix It! page and submit the quick form to let the city know. All they need is the address or business name and street. The city still needs additional requests to meet their goal, so keep them coming!

Image provided by LancerE

Live in San Francisco? Get a Free Bike Rack Installed Wherever you Want One

As most of you know, a lawsuit filed by a disgruntled San Franciscan (did I spell that right?) halted all bike improvements to the city of San Francisco until a full environmental report was drawn up to prove that bike improvements are actually good for the environment. I love the fact that I live in a city where one crotchety dude can have such an impact, but I am pretty bummed that the impact happened to be negative to biking. Got to give him credit for the environmental argument though -- very creative.

Anyway, the city has completed its review and is now waiting for the injunction to be lifted. When the bike improvement injunction is lifted in mid-2009, San Francisco is planning on installing nearly 1,000 new bike racks throughout the city. Make sure you get one where it will help you.

The SFBC has a handy little form you can fill out to request your bike rack. Just go to the Fix It! page and submit the quick form to let the city know. All they need is the address or business name and street. When the injunction is lifted in mid-2009, the City has a goal to install nearly 1,000 racks on sidewalks. The City still needs an additional 200 requests to meet their goal, so keep them coming!

Image provided by Adam Pieniazek