Free Bike Judging Panelists

by Larry Lagarde

As has been announced before, RideTHISbike.com is giving away a brand new E-Z Pack folding bike on Earth Day 2009 (April 22nd). The winner will be determined based on votes from subscribers to the RideTHISbike.com newsletter as well as a panel of inspirational and respected bicycle enthusiasts. But who are the cycling enthusiasts on this panel?

Following is a list of cycling advocacy and industry leaders that have agreed to act as judges for the free bike giveaway. The judges are listed in alphabetical order.

Harvey Botzman - Rochester, NY
Harvey Botzman only rides a folding bicycle. Outfitted with both front/rear racks and always having a set of panniers on the rear racks it is always ready to go grocery shopping, to the Rochester Public Market or touring. Harvey has authored seven bicycle tour guide books, one for each of the five Great Lakes plus for New York State's Finger Lakes wine region and for the New York State Canal System including the Erie Canal.
www.cyclotour.com

Zahid Buttar - Orlando, FL
"Z" is a multi-time Ironman finisher and Missouri state triathlon champion. An accomplished swimmer and runner, Z's an elite cyclist in the United States Cycling Federation. He's a USAT triathlon coach that has coached international and national level racers as well as over 200 "every day Joe's" riding in long distance events in places such Santa Fe, New Mexico and Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Z manages triathlons, duathlons, inline, running and cycling events throughout the USA.
www.buttar.com

Sue Derada - New Orleans, LA
Sue is the founder of the Bicycle & Pedestrian Action Committee (BI-PAC), a bicycling advocacy group that envisions a greenway or interurban cycling corridor through South Louisiana composed of a series of "share the road" bicycle routes.
www.bi-pac.org

Tony Hoar - Vancouver Island, Canada
Tour de France veteran and dedicated bicycling advocate Tony Hoar is an engineer and respected builder of top-quality human-powered transportation devices (such as bicycles, racing wheelchairs and custom bike trailers). In addition to Tony's impressive cycling background, he remains competitive in Master's bicycle racing and has long been a fixture in the British Columbia cycling community.
www.TonysTrailers.com

Arnold Kamler - Parsippany, NJ
Kent International, Inc. President and CEO Arnold Kamler has an extensive, 36 year history in the bicycle industry. In fact, with 2 generations preceding him in the business, you could say that building, distributing & selling bikes is in his blood. Recently, Kent has produced several mini folding bikes for RideTHISbike.com and is also making the soon to be released Mini 8 micro folding bike.
www.KentBicycles.com

Kiril Kundurazieff - Santa Ana, CA
In 2003, California cyclist Kiril Kundurazieff started one of the world's first BikeBlogs (The Cycling Dude). Dedicated to the proposition that bike riding is good for you and fun, the blog includes commentary, links, news, opinion, reviews, stories, poetry, travelogue, and occasional heads up about events.
www.CyclingDude.com

Richard Masoner - Santa Cruz, CA
Richard Masoner is a dedicated bicycle commuter and the prolific bike blogger behind CommuteByBike. His multi modal commute (via bike, bus, train and bike) spans 3 California counties and 2 transit agencies. Richard also contributes or comments frequently on a variety of other bike blogs and writes for Momentum.
www.cyclelicio.us

Leah Neaderthal - Chicago, IL
Leah Neaderthal founded The Chainlink (the online community for Chicago cycling) to create a sense of community among the large population of Chicago cyclists. Leah is a Senior Marketing Manager at SAVO, a Chicago software company. Despite launching a successful website while maintaining a full-time career, Leah's proudest accomplishment by far is getting her parents back on bikes and excited about cycling.
www.TheChainlink.org

Mark Sanders - London, UK
Mark Sanders is the pricipal of MAS Design, a product engineering firm located in the UK. Mark has created a variety of innovative products including the Strida and IF MODE folding bikes. Mark believes it essential to increase the number of "Plain Clothes" cyclists and sees regular folks as the future face of cycling.
www.MAS-Design.com

Rick Shaffer - Wallace, ID
Known as the Prime Minister of historic Wallace, Idaho (former mining town & Biking Mecca of the Northwest), Rick is Director of Operations for the upscale Wallace Inn. He's the go to guy for info about the countless miles of paved & non-paved Rails to Trails, bikeable trestles & tunnels, abandoned logging roads and singletrack surrounding Wallace. Rick's riding supplements his need for a psychotherapist as chasing bears on his bike is one of his favorite past times.
www.WallaceInn.net

Ira Stone - Philadelphia, PA
Ira is a 60 year old Conservative Rabbi, published theologian and professor of Jewish Philosophy who rediscovered the joys of cycling less than 3 years ago. Since then, he's gone from pedaling 0 miles to cycling over 12 miles per day. Ira's lost 40 lbs and found cycling an ideal activity to enjoy and share with his wife of 39 years. His inspirational bike blog is proof that average Joe's can take up cycling regardless of age or physical condition & have great fun doing it.
Bicycle-Musings.blogspot.com

Lauren Sullivan - New Orleans, LA
Combining her enthusiasm for cycling with a nack for community organizing and skill at computer mapping tools, Lauren is the founder and driving force behind Nola Cycle (a project to assemble the first, comprehensive, high quality and up to date cycling map of New Orleans). Mapping data is being collected by a team of volunteers pedaling the city little by little on their own time or in neighborhood mapping events.
www.NOLAcycle.blogspot.com

Your name not on this list? No problem; YOU can vote too! Sign up to vote & we'll email you when the first 20 entries are in.

LL