I have been getting notification about all of the Labor Day Sales going on now from the bike sites that we work with and was just checking them out to see how good they actually are and which bikes and accessories are on sale.

Here is a summary of the main Labor Day sales for bikes and cycling gear:

Performance Bike – Through 9/5/11, 15% off everything including bikes. Note: The price that is displayed on the site is NOT the sale price. Once you order an item (add it to your cart) you will see the actual discounted price.

REI – Through 9/5/11, 25% off select bikes.

JensonUSA– They have an end of summer sale and the dates were not specified. Jenson has a great selection of mountain bikes that are already usually pretty cheap. I didn’t notice a big drop in their prices but I did notice that they are offering Free Bike Builds.

We have links to these sites from the bike and accessory pages on this site but probably the easiest way to get to all of them (if you want to check out the sales at each place) is from our Online Bike Store Page.

Unfortunately, in the process of checking out these sales and the prices that we have on our site, I have come across a few bikes that we recommend on this site that are now sold out. I will be updating all bike prices next and will be checking for any other models that may be sold out.

Amazon (like many other merchants this time of year) is having a back to school sale this month and as I was reviewing bike prices and the bikes that they sell, I noticed that they have quite a few Diamondback Bikes on sale right now.

I also noticed that I do not currently have any Diamondback reviews in my bike review pages (probably a mistake on my part and I will be correcting that as soon as I get back to bike reviews) but I do have Diamondback listed on the Most Popular Bike Brand page and I do mention that they have high quality kids bikes and high quality mountain bikes on our Kids Bikes Page.

Anyway, although Diamondback makes most of the popular bike types (road, mountain, comfort, etc.), I think that they make good quality mountain bikes and kids bikes, in particular, and at a decent price.

So until I get some detailed Diamondback reviews published, and especially if you are planning on a back to school  upgrade to your kids’ bike(s), check out the Amazon links on our  Kids Bikes Page for the bikes (and other back to school stuff) that are on sale now at Amazon.

Back in July, I was asked if I would contribute an article on the Fox River Trail (FRT) to a new startup magazine called “Way of the Wilds“.  Well, with the FRT being one of my favorite trails in the area and haven ridden the FRT and connecting McHenry County Prairie Trails many times, that was an easy decision.

Way of the Wilds, Autumn 2010

The Autum issue of the magazine has been published and our article (Kerry Leigh, one of the magazine publishers, co-wrote the article with me) is on page 9 of the first issue.

I have found the magazine to be very interesting and informative with a nature and preservation theme and excellent photos. So naturally, bike trail articles are a very good fit. For me, one of the best ways to get outdoors and enjoy nature is to take a long bike ride, preferably one of the many bike trails in our area that weave through our parks, forest preserves and open fields and prairies.

I don’t know if there is a central force driving the bike trail development and improvement efforts but I have found that there have been quite a few new bike trails and extensions to existing trails over the last few years. This is an excellent gift for us cyclists (and nature lovers)!

The FRT bike article in Way of the Wilds focused on the stretch between Geneva and Algonquin which is one of the nicer parts of the trail but even after you’ve explored this part of the trail and are ready for something new there is still a lot more to the FRT and the entire connecting McHenry County Prairie Trail and the original rails-to-trails path the Illinois Prairie Path.

A side benefit of contributing the FRT article to this magazine was that I was invited to Bill Kurtis’s house (the CBS news person) for a kick off meeting for the magazine. I met Bill Kurtis and toured some of his land (in Mettawa, Il) on this little electric trolley/golf cart thing. Bill is actually very much into nature and preservation and is working hard to restore a large part of his land to it’s natural state.

Now, if he would just open up a bike trail through it (and connect it to the Des Plaines River Trail which is very close by) that would really be a nice enhancement! 🙂

I just wanted to mention that I interviewed with a free lance writer, Arlene Miles, for a magazine article on biking with your family a few months back and the article was published in the June edition of Family Time Magazine (a local Chicago suburban  magazine).

They have a website and it shows the June edition and the table of contents but not the article so I can’t link to it and I don’t have the copyright permission to publish it here but I did want to mention it and touch on the theme a little.

The magazine article is called “Bicycling, Just You and Your Family” and the writer did an excellent job. She researched family biking and local bike trails and there was a full page of the article based on the information that I supplied.

Here we are in the heart of summer (the forth of July weekend) and I thought that it is a great time to mention family bicycling.

A lot of the information that I supplied for the magazine article had to do with local bike trails and choosing local bike trails and local rides. Bike trails can be great especially if you can find trails in your area with low traffic and very few streets to cross. That helps with your own peace of mind and I know it makes the rides more enjoyable for me when I rode with my younger kids.

After that, if you can find local trails or rides that have a fun place to stop, like a playground, park, a lake, beach, etc. then you really have some great options.

Another thing that I mentioned in the article was taking a fairly long ride with a destination. Quite a few years ago, I rode with my whole family (me, my wife and 2 kids) from Dundee, Illinois to Genoa City Wisconsin on the Fox River Trail! This was a 32 mile ride with my kids which were around 7 and 10 at the time.

It’s important to have the right frame of mind, bring supplies (some snacks and plenty of water and liquids), take breaks and to take your kids lead on the time and distance too so that everyone is involved (and happy). In our case, for the Wisconsin trip, my kids made signs (on duct tape) that said “Wisconsin or Bust” and taped them to their shirts! I guess that explains where their heads were at on that day!

I wasn’t sure if the kids could handle riding that far at first, but they both made it and we had some major quality time with the family and fun stories for years to come.

I have an article on the FRT trips somewhere in the archives of this website but I would have a hard time finding it myself (and I know the pages on this site fairly well) so maybe I’ll post a current update on that story here soon.

Anyway, my real point here and a key point in the magazine article is that bike riding can be an excellent family activity with kids of all ages. When your kids are very young, there are bike seats, bike trailers, trailer bikes, etc. and when they get older you can take them with you on their own bike for distances and locations that are appropriate for their ages.

I actually would like to write more on this subject, but as I mentioned, it’s the 4th of July weekend and it’s a beautiful day and guess where I am going?!?!?

(riding, of course!)

I just received a notification that REI has their Summer Sale going on right now (6/25) and through July 7th which includes cycling gear.

The cycling gear is 20% to 25% off which is pretty decent in the middle of summer when you are probably needing some of this stuff.

I just went out to the REI site and checked out what items were on sale. Unfortunately, it does not seem to include bikes although there are a few selected models on sale.

What I did find marked down quite a bit were Car Racks, Bike Bags, Cycling Clothing, Bike Lights and one of the Bike Kid Trailers(the Burley Solo ST Bike Trailer to be specific – See the “Quality Bike Trailers” link on my kids bike page for access to REI kid bike trailers).

Enjoy the sale (and the ride!)