About Us
We like bikes. We firmly believe that anything with two wheels and pedals will lead you down the road to happiness. This website is about that road.
There's quite a few different bike subcultures out there: from brakeless fixie kids pedaling in skin-tight denim to hairless racer dudes drafting in skin-tight lycra and we tend to like them all. We like organized rides with bountiful food stops and numbers pinned to our jerseys just about as much as we like to get surly and take over the streets on the last Friday of the month. We like pump tracks, dirt parks, Sunday rides, midnight races, velodromes, single track, watching the tour, touring the countryside, climbing hills, Thursday crits, truing our wheels, anything to do with bikes we like. And that's what this website is about: Bikes!
Write For Us
We're just getting this blog off the ground and we'd like to get a few more people involved. Do you like to write? Do you like to ride bikes? How about both? Drop us an email.
Advertise
If you would like to advertise with Velotopia send us an email and tell us what you have in mind. We don't have any stats yet because we just got the wheels rolling on this thing, but we should have some numbers soon. Our best guess is that rates are going to be pretty cheap for at least another year. Like, really cheap. Also, a bunch of us are graphic designers so we can probably throw in some free design.
About The Site
We desigend this site ourselves. It was hand-coded with mostly standards-compliant XHTML and a large helping of CSS. Expression Engine makes up the back end with some custom PHP thrown in for good measure. All photographs from Team Velotopia.
Mailing List
Here's the deal: You sign up for our mailing list and every now and again we might send out a newsletter. We also might host some informal rides in Seattle or a roller race or something cool like that and we may notify people on the list. This will be infrequent. Either way you will only hear from us if it matters and your email address is never shared, manhandled, abused, coerced, railroaded or browbeaten. And you can unsubscribe at an time, natch.
Friends & Affiliations
- David Cole Creative
- Editor-In-Chief David Cole is also a fine designer, painter, and illustrator among a multitude of talents. He runs this design studio form his home in Ballard.
- LookatLao Studio
- Geoff has been running LookatLao Studio for more than 20 years with a focus on Web design and publishing.
- Crashpad Design
- Ryan "The Squirrel" Scherler runs this Web design and development studio from West Seattle.
- Phinney/Bischoff Design House
- Geoff, Karl, Cody and Dave ride for Team PBDH and along with Ryan work at this Seattle graphic design firm during the daylight hours. Well, actually, Karl owns the place.
- Step Down Racing/Second Ascent
- Kevin races Cat 4 for this regional cycling team.
- Blue Flavor
- Kevin is a also designer at this Seattle Web design and development firm.
- It's Only a Burger Quest
- Sarah is involved with this Burger Quest website somehow. We don't understand it, but we know it's right.
Team Velotopia
David Cole
Editor-In-Chief
Staff Illustrator
Dave is a graphic designer, bike commuter, road bike rider, mountain biker, downhill dirt park junkie and generally a fan of anything with two wheels and a human for an engine. Dave likes bikes because they are fun, they are nerdy, they are hardcore, and they are possibly one of mankind's smartest inventions. Dave likes dogs, beer, tacos and tattoos, dislikes gasoline-powered vehicles, television and suburbs.
In the stable: 1983 Trek 560, 2003 Gary Fisher Tassajara, 2005 Kona Stinky, 2006 Kona Scrap.
Geoffrey Smith
Publisher
Staff Photographer
Geoff is a graphic designer, avowed skeptic and professional web knucklehead. He drinks a lot of wine. He rides bikes because he can. He likes road bikes, wool knickers, and the place where his carbon fiber seat post meets his old-timey Brooks saddle. When not riding around Lake Washington he can be found taking photos, grilling meats, and hanging out in Bangkok.
Bikes: 2007 Giant OCR A1, 1994 Novara Alight
Kevin Tamura
Writer
Road Bike Racer
Kevin is a professional pixel pusher and all around web junkie. He's also one of the rare bread of people that has never owned a car. Somewhere along the way he saw Greg Lemond win the tour de France and traded in his bmx bike for a road bike, shaved legs and all. When not behind the computer he's out riding and racing in the mad plaid of Step Down Racing presented by Second Ascent.
Bikes: 2008 Giant TCR Advanced, Giant TCR Advance Aluminum SL (rain bike), various parts and frames.
Sarah Sibley
Writer
Resident Female Cyclist
Sarah is a writer of many things - lists, recipes, love letters . She gets paid to write clever copy for an advertising and design shop in Denver, CO. Because she lives in Boulder, works in Denver - 24 miles away - and hates driving more than anything else in this world, she designed a multi-modal commuting plan that includes biking and bussing. It's the best two hours of her day. When not pedaling, Sarah is eating burgers or pizza, baking cupcakes, listening to music no one's heard of, watching movies about Jane Austen, drinking wine or Belgian beer, walking her beloved beagle or talking the ear off her husband.
Bikes: 1980(ish) Centurion Sport DLX, 2005 Motobecane SprinTour, 2007 Electra Amsterdam
Karl Bischoff
Writer
Boat Captain
Karl is an avid cyclist, wooden boatbuildin', bass playin', design firm ownin', wife lovin', skate skiin', dog walkin', bike team oldster. Karl is Team PBDH Captain and very curious as to what's on the other side of the next hill.
Bikes: Cervelo Team Soloist, Klein Aura X, Klein Attitude Race, Raleigh (hybrid-don't-bother-locking-commute-in-Port-Townsend-bike)
Cody Rasmussen
Designer
Extremist
Cody is graphic designer who prefers a work-life balance that includes two wheels. He is self proclaimed non-competitive type who likes put the hammer down on occasion. Riding a bike is fun. Riding a different bike everyday is livin'. Cross-fit for a variety of sports, he is known to be daring mountain bike and downhill rider, a expert freeride skiier, and a rusty wakeboarder. He often commutes to work (via bike) 9 miles each way. When not riding you might find him eyeing a 20 ft drop at Crystal Mountain, taking photos, working on his house, drinking light beer, or hanging out with his beautiful wife and daughter.
Wheels: Motebecane Vent Noir, K2 Razorback Team, Kona Stinky Deelux
Ryan Scherler
Web Developer
PHP Wrangler
Ryan is a web developer, avid rock climber and former mountain bike mechanic. While currently without a knobby-tired bike he has plans to add something new to his stable soon. Ryan keeps the Velotopia.org back-end running, wrangles the PHP and keeps a keen eye on emerging Web 4.0 technologies.
Bikes: 2005 Specialized Roubaix
