About Us - Our Background
I fell in love with cycling, literally, at the age of 5 when I rode my first 2-wheeler into a fire hydrant and went head over heels because I didn’t know where the brakes were…
I’ve been an avid 65+ yr. old cyclist in Boulder County for almost 40 years. I’ve done lots of cycling and mountain biking around the state; ridden the Bicycle Tour of Colorado across the state twice; ridden Tour of the Moon in Grand Junction 4 times; average about 1,000- 1,500 miles/year on roads and paths. This e-Bike Safety Awareness Platform was inspired from my own experiences as an avid cyclist for decades, riding Boulder/Denver multi-use paths and roads regularly.
I was definitely one of those hard-core cycling traditionalists that used to get upset when someone with an e-bike would zoom past me without announcing, mumbling something unkind to myself about them using a motor.
Then I had 6 surgeries in 4 years and was unable to ride my road bike. I started renting e-Bikes and fell in love with e-Biking in Colorado. After that, I had 3 instances of Class 3 e-cargo bikes going 28+ MPH (without announcing or ringing a bell) that almost hit me on my road bike as they were approaching from behind. Instead of getting upset about these events, I decided to do something about it.
I have a strong business/marking background and have started and sold 2 businesses from scratch.
My e-Bike safety related experience includes the following:
- Riding Bike to Work Day in Boulder for 20+ years
- Community Cycles – Member, Volunteer, Marketing contractor
- Commuting Solutions – Boulder County group promoting eco-friendly ways to commute
- Boulder Chamber Transportation Connection – regional involvement in all many transportation projects in Boulder County
- Bicycle Colorado – Member and Stakeholder in the Pedestrian/Bicycle Advisory Community for Colorado.
- People for Bikes – Member and supporter.
- Connection with all e-Bike retailers in Boulder County via Community Cycles e-bike usage survey
Our goal is to co-create e-Biking Safety Awareness programs for communities in Colorado, focused on underage riders that do not have permits/license and seniors that have not ridden a bike (or e-Bike) in years.
This voluntary program will allow youths to register their e-Bikes; learn what types of e-Bikes are allowed and not allowed on multi-use paths; and be protected from theft by registering their e-Bikes with local police. Registration will include a photo of the teenager and their e-Bike, their parent’s contact info and a Free Bell installed (optional).
Once the in-person registration is completed, teens can take an online test and receive a certificate of competition to safely use their e-Bike on public paths and streets.
We’re a team of Colorado based marketing/print/graphic design professionals with over 30 years sales & digital marketing background. We’ve ridden tens of thousands of miles on both bikes and e-Bikes in Colorado and we’re working to improve e-Biking (and cycling) safety awareness. This initiative is an “ask” for all cyclists and/or e-device users to help keep our Multi Use paths safe for everyone.
We’re co-creating a model with local stakeholders that can replicated throughout the state of Colorado. Please contact me here is you have feedback or recommendations.
Ride On!
–mark