Green Statement

Many people do not know that our company name is not Bike Friday. That is the name of our bicycle product line. Our company name is Green Gear Cycling, Inc. We named ourselves this to remind us that we have a choice of how we use resources, in the decisions on what we produce and how we sell. It has helped us keep a small footprint, a very important attribute if you are trying not to step on the flowers.

Manufacturers are often associated with pollution and waste. Putting economic desires over the good of the communities in which they reside. Polluting the air and water, but more astoundingly, poisoning the people who work for them and buy from them. What happens to the generations that come after us? What kind of world will they inherit? As I write this, my daughter is just turning one. I've always felt that our actions should consider future generations, but now there is a sense of urgency that has suddenly become personal. We have seen the degradation of our region in our lifetime.

Green Gear/Bike Friday is trying to do its part to be a solution instead of part of the problem. We have made many choices over the years that could have had much different results if we didn't consciously decide on the benign.

Here is a short list of past projects in which the decision to reduce waste and toxicity were consciously made:

Metal Preparation. Most bikes are still made of metal of some sort. Metals are often prepared for painting by using acid etching chemicals. These are used to both clean the surface and to prevent the surface from flash rusting while it is sitting around waiting to be painted. Green Gear learned early on that these chemicals were not good for our employees or the environment. They consume large amounts of water in the buffering process that deals with waste before they are flushed into the sewer system (yes, flushed into the sewer system). What we discovered with our JIT production system, which deals with each bike individually (not in batches), was that the bikes don't sit around in the air long enough to flash rust. Now each Bike Friday get fully sand blasted and immediately coated. Blasting provides a cleaner surface with a rough texture that holds the powder coating better and doesn't put the operator at risk and we don't need the thousands of gallons of tainted water that would enter our waterways if we used chemical etching.

Bike Friday's Pre-owned bike program. How about a system that kept bikes running long after most other bikes had been relegated to permanent storage or the dump. That's the beauty of the Bike Friday Certified Pre-owned bike program. It is modeled after the European concept that companies should be responsible for the products they put out into the public throughout the products full life cycle. Our pre-owned program does that and more. From what we can tell, Bike Fridays have the highest resale value of any bike on earth. Our customers like quality and innovative bikes and Bike Friday is happy to deliver them. But what happens to the old bike when a customer decides to upgrade? Does it sit slowly rotting away in the garage like many bikes? Is it sold at fire sale prices? No, Bike Friday gives a substantial portion of their original purchase price back to the customer when they trade up. Instead of disposing of the bikes, we refurbish them, give a near to new warranty and offer them at a reasonable price to someone who may not be able to afford the latest models. When a bike comes back that is just too worn, we part out the good stuff and recycle the bad stuff. About the only thing that still goes to the dump are the tires and old saddles.