181-mile bike challenge in quote to discover treatment for Gainford’s brave Ryan
A TEAM of good friends are getting ready for a gruelling cycle challenge in support of a little kid fighting a muscle squandering condition. Sarah and Martin Vayro, Alex Kaars Sijpesteijn, David Houseman, Nicola Young and Mark Pratt are set to take on a 181-mile cross nation bike flight next month in aid of four-year-old Ryan Chidzey. Unique journalism an …
See all stories on this topic Millom bicyclists show team effort on coast to
coast challenge A GROUP of Millom bicyclists worked as a team to successfully complete a coast to coast challenge. Millom School’s BeSpoke biking club dominated the 140mile C2C path from Whitehaven to Sunderland recently. The 12 trainees and 5 bike club volunteers, consisting of group leader and instructor, Siobhan Johnston, marked the end of their journey by dipped th …
See all stories on this subject Can a better-designed bike helmet make people more secure on the road?In the middle of downtown Los Angeles’ busy Arts District, you’ll discover the headquarters of Thousand inhabiting among the few work/live lofts left in the location. It’s a company that makes bicycle helmets, however think less duck-billed head gear and more Steve McQueen in the 1960s. Gloria Hwang, the co-founder and CEO of Thousand, believes creating a bike helmet individuals will excitedly wear is the crucial to keeping more individuals safe on the roadway. Marketplace’s Adriene Hill spoke to Hwang about the motivation for her company and why it’s not as easy as just designing a better-looking helmet. Below is a modified transcript of their conversation. Gloria Hwang: My story is I’ve been a longtime cyclist in Los Angeles and I never ever used a bike helmet. And if I’m truthful, it’s even if I just believed they looked type of dorky so … it’s not a great reason. Adriene Hill: Right, yeah. Hwang: But it was my reason. Then a buddy of mine passed away from a truly bad accident. It was a head-first injury, in New york city City; he wasn’t wearing a bike helmet. And for me I was simply … later on, it was just that feeling of: I have to start wearing a bike helmet to be accountable to myself, to be accountable to individuals around me. And I went on the marketplace to discover something I really liked, and, you understand, could sort of represent. And I believe I discovered things I believed were kind of passable, and I actually thought to myself “Hey, you know if you make a bike helmet people in fact want to wear, I believe you can solve a public health crisis. You can prevent a lot of injuries and deaths every year.” And beyond that, I feel like you can truly encourage cycling within cities due to the fact that I thought individuals were like me. Like, the primary factor they didn’t wish to bike was due to the fact that they don’t want to feel hazardous. So if you might offer individuals method to feel safe then perhaps they ‘d bike more. Hill: Did you have any experience with bike helmets or designing? Hwang: Not. Hill: Okay, you’re like, I simply wish to make a cool-looking bike helmet? Hwang: Yeah. You know exactly what, my background remained in philanthropy. I was actually former Toms. So I was in the “Giving Department” there. And my task was aiming to assist things have social effect that the business was doing. So my background is looking for new methods to do good worldwide. So the objective, that was in my background. But design was not. Once again, style was something I simply needed to learn how to make this take place. Hill: And describe your helmet. How did you make– exactly what’s it appear like, for folks who can’t see. Hwang: Returning to the entire like equestrian, vintage, moto thing, I truly simply aim to put those 2 together. For me it was believing, the coolest thing for me to discover would resemble a 60s or 70s scooter helmet in someone’s basement. And can we take that concept and make it for today? Hill: So you have this concept for style. You want it to look like this sort of classic scooter helmet … about like keeping it safe. Like I can’t simply look good; it actually has to do its job. How did you do that? Hwang: The helmet development procedure takes a year and a half. You need to pass CPSC screening in the United States which is, like, 20 different tests. We also offer a lot in Europe. So we have CE screening, which is an extra 20 other tests. So that whole screening process takes like 4 months. And the actually crazy aspect of bike helmets is you have to develop whatever to production level prior to you can evaluate it. So that implies you have to invest all of the cash in design, in all the molds. You have to construct the whole thing of exactly what you’re going to sell to the general public, and before you can, you need to evaluate it. And if that fails, you have actually got to go to the beginning once again. Hill: So just how much does it cost to develop a brand-new helmet? Hwang: Minimum 6 figures. Hill: Where did you men develop that? Hwang: While I was at Toms, I had this idea and I resembled, fine, I’m going to start working nights and weekends on it. And I create a Kickstarter idea. At the time, I was aiming to raise twenty grand. By the time that campaign closed, we had near a quarter of a million dollars. I actually believed Kickstarter was broken! Due to the fact that promises were being available in however they were all from people I didn’t understand. So I simply thought I was a system glitch. Related Cycling industry keeps pedaling into winter with fat tires Bicycle classes assist Maine refugees navigate town A pothole for bike-sharing programs: helmets Hill: And are the majority of your sales coming direct to your website? Or coming through bike shops? Hwang: It’s a bit of both. So a lot of the shops that we sell to aren’t bike stores due to the fact that we felt like the customer experience in a bike store … and probably our customer isn’t going to bike shops a lot. Our consumer rides a couple of times a month. They’re biking to work. They’re not like bike connoisseurs. We type of fall under a more progressive area because we’re believing more about how do individuals act nowadays than they did possibly 10 years ago or Twenty Years back. Hill: How frequently do you think back to your friend who passed, that sort of begun this concept? Hwang: I would say truly frequently. He really employed me at Toms. He hired me as an intern and it was among those things where when you resemble young, in your 20s, you don’t actually think in yourself a lot. He was the very first, kind of, grown-up that made me believe I might and must think in myself. So, I think it’s sort of … sorry … again, developing something for him, it feels type of cycle in a great deal of methods. Because you just get the letters and you’re like, this is sort of worth it, you understand? Simply, like, even one life saved, one hospital trip avoided. Worth it. See all stories on this topic
UTA research study: Want to improve Utah economy, health? Buy cycling, walking
A transit firm research study discovers that biking and walking increase not simply health, however wealth. If government invests more to promote bicycling and walking, it would help both Utah’s economy and the health of citizens, according to a study performed by the Utah Transit Authority in collaboration with 11 other transport and health firms. The revi …
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