It’s time to vote for the winner of

Cycle & Style’s  2011

 “IN MY HOMETOWN”

Photo Contest Winner.

Please take a look through our great photographs and vote for your favorite.  C&S have ten entrants from across the United States this year with over 35 photographs to start with that have been narrowed to the following field of 10.  All GREAT … but the discussion is up to our readers!!

Voting will run for 2 weeks and then our winner will be awarded their KEYHOLE – Hands Free Camera Harness thanks to backcountrysolutions.com.  Also we’ll have prizes for 2nd and 3rd place … thanks to Liberty Bottleworks.

Thanks again to all the “Bike Enthusiasts” that entered … keep on snapping those pics!!

The contest will run through January 14, 2012.

VOTE … and tell your friends to VOTE!!

HI ALL!! We have had some nice comments on specific pictures … but they aren’t showing here in the “comments section” because of how they were done. If you would like to make a comment … you need to do it here at the end of the article not by clicking on the individual picture. If you do it that way the comment is not going to show!! If you want to make a comment about a specific photo … remember … do it at the end of the article and then you’ll just have to tell everyone which picture you LOVE!!!

THANKS for voting!!

Tavia – “Riding in SugarHouse”

In my hometown cyclists, pedestrians and automobiles exist in harmony. You know you live in a bike friendly neighborhood when you see "bike only" parking in front of the local businesses. (Salt Lake City, UT)

Anna – “Bike Prom”

In my hometown, Salt Lake City, we held "Bike Prom" a fundraiser for the Salt Lake City Bike Collective. "The mission of the SLC Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transpiration and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provide refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households". Participants dressed in prom attire and rode bikes around downtown SLC. We then danced, posed for photos, ate, drank and were merry! (Salt Lake City, UT)

Katie – “Mountain Biking”

Out Mountain Biking with her parents one of her favorite activities to do with them!! While taking a break ... look what they snapped - a memory to last a lifetime!! (Texas)

Susan – “Happy Birthday!”

This is taken in my hometown of Pleasant Hill, California. It was my daughter's 14th birthday and her cousin brought her balloons for her birthday and I took this photo of them together. I used a filter to create a painting like affect. (Pleasant Hill, CA)

Mary – “Blue Grass Ride”

... Here is one of the chosen pictures from around the Lexington, Kentucky area. There has been quite an explosion of bike usage here in the bluegrass state, especially near the University of Kentucky!! (Lexington, KY)

 Heather – “A New Mexico Treat”

Although I live in Eastern New Mexico and do most of my riding in the mountainous part of the state ... this photo was taken on a gourmet food ride in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It's a 70-miler very October, most delicious bike ride I've been on! This location was our lunch stop - it's where many Westerns were filmed! (Santa Fe, NM)

Sharry – “An Alaskan View”

My Madeleine is waiting for me to finish stretching by Allison Point at the end of the bike path along Dayville Road, the road to the crude oil terminal for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Allison Point is a popular place for silver salmon fishing in August. Across the bay is my hometown of Valdez, Alaska caught her in Late March (early spring for us). (Alaska)

Melissa – “St. Paul Classic”

The St. Paul Classic - an annual ride in which streets of St.Paul are closed to car traffic and cyclists take over. This year there were about 7,000 riders on a gorgeous Sunday morning - September 11, 2011. (St. Paul, MN)

“Litter Patrol”

This is a shot of my sweet sweet wife out with me on litter patrol. I transformed a bike into a garbage truck and we go around sour town and pick up trash. People also encouraged to make food donations to the local food bank by dropping non perishables in the bins. As part of this we are also trying to encourage more people to walk and bike.

Mary – “Celebration @ DAR Constitution Hall”

Washington, D.C. is the place I've called home since 2001. I live in the city and my bike is central to my lifestyle. It's my main form of transportation. I ride to work, to dinner, to the gym ... we go almost everywhere together. D.C. is a bike-friendly town, and with all of the monuments and green space, it's a beautiful place to ride (thought it can sometimes get crowded with tourists). This picture of my Quickbeam and me was taken via automatic timer at DAR Constitution Hall one Friday after work. DAR is a tranquil afternoon spot. It was the perfect day, one of the last warm days of summer, and the afternoon light on DAR is always lovely. (Washington, D.C.)

Please VOTE for your favorite:

Tavia – “Riding in Sugarhouse”

Anna – “Bike Prom”

Katie – Mountain Biking”

Susan – “Happy Birthday!”

Mary – “Blue Grass Ride”

Heather – “A New Mexico Treat”

Sharry – “An Alaskan View”

Melissa – “St. Paul Classic”

“Litter Patrol”

Mary – “Celebration @ DAR Constitution Hall”

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

2011 Cycle & Style Photo Contest.

This year’s theme is:

“In My Hometown”

Please send your photo to:  bethrunkle@cycleandstyle.com  by November 15th with your name, email address and explanation of your photograph.  Remember the theme – “In My Hometown” – and we’d like to see a love of bicycling and pride in the area you live in included in your entry.

KEYHOLE™ - Hands-Free Camera Harness For the Active Photographer

After all submissions are in, the photographs will be posted and our readers will vote on their favorite.

Here’s a look back at the 2010 Photo Contest Entries:

 THE PRIZE:

Cycle & Style will send the winner a KEYHOLE™ -a Hands-Free Camera Harness. We thought it was a great prize for those who love to cycle and take photographs. The Keyhole is a hands-free restraining and protection device for neck strap suspended camera equipment used on the trail, by securing the camera to your body by means of a harness and pointing the lens down rather than outward.

You don’t know how excited I was to find this harness system for myself. I am even more excited to share it with the winner of the photo contest and tell everyone else about it. As a photographer who rides a mountain bike I have a dilemma: either  keep my camera in its bag on my back with the possibility of me missing that perfect picture OR I wear my camera hanging from the strap dangling heavy from around my neck – bouncing back and forth against the front of me. Ouch!! Yes, I have done both and can’t tell you how frustrated and sore I get.

I was so excited to find Deborah at Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake
City this past summer. She had a device to keep my camera is safe, secure and yet be able to go from “hands-free” to “ready-to-shoot”. With Deborah’s invention, I am ready to catch that perfect shot on the trail.

It was while Deborah Carr was on a hiking trip on the Inca Trail in Peru that she came up with the idea for the Keyhole Hands-Free Camera Harness. Deborah said it was frustrating that her camera wasn’t readily accessible because there was a walking stick either in one or both hands and it was hanging around her neck swinging back and forth. If she wanted to have a water bottle with her … well now the camera was definitely in her backpack and she had missed all of the good photo opportunities!! Secondly, hiking and camera safety were huge concerns for Deborah and the other hikers. “If you held your camera in your hand while hiking, protecting the camera was the primary concern and hiking up the uneven steps provided an uneven and unbalanced hiking experience, she said. Or your camera could be easily bumped and possibly run into rock structures or other objects if it was hanging on your hip by the passing oversized packs of a Sherpa. Hey… that’s just not good on your camera equipment! The planning began and the product was born.

Since the trails of Peru it has been designed and tested extensively for biking, skiing and of course hiking type activities.  It is simple to use.  It attaches to your own backpack or chest harness shoulder straps and you are ready to go!!  I was so excited to find Deborah at Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City this past summer.  The KEYHOLE™ is exactly what I am looking for on the trails when I am out on my bike and see that perfect picture or out on a C&S Photo Shot!  THANKS Deborah!!  Also thanks for sharing this KEYHOLE™ with the winner of our 2011 C&S Photo Contest!!

Good Luck everyone!!  Remember … pass the word … “In My Hometown”!! 

WE NEED YOU … TO VOTE!!

We’ve got some great pics!!  Thanks to everyone who submitted their photos. It was hard narrowing them down.

Here are the finalists in the “2010 Cycle and Style Photo Contest”.  The basic voting rule is this–you may vote once every 24 hours from your IP address.

The voting period for these photo entries will go until midnight, January 12, 2011. (There will be a first and a second prize.)

The winner will be announced on Thursday, January 13th.

Let the voting begin!!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Scott Marland of Bountiful, UT. –Entry #1

"'Blake in Pomona"

Elizabeth Sweetman of Beverly, MA. –Entry # 3

"This is a 1969 Triumph 3 speed, a lovely bicycle, fun to ride and perfect for city cycling."

Jennifer Woodward of Lowell, MA. –Entry #4

Woman's Best...Co-Pilot."

Rich Holler of Denver, IN. –Entry #5

"Club members on the Cardinal"

Nikki Halverson Of Minneapolis, MN. –Entry #6

"Bike Love"

Elizabeth O. Hurst of Washington, D.C. –Entry #7

The Cycle and Style Show was held on Friday, May 14th, 2010 at the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake City.  As Cycle and Style has always tried to show, there isn’t just one type of bike or clothes to wear on the bicycle for everyone. We love it all: road bikes, mountain bikes, cruisers, commuting bikes and bikes with step-through frames so a girl can wear a dress or skit and ride her bike. It was a family-friendly event with children, teens, men and women in the crowd and on the “stage.” It was a fun way to show how great people can look on and off the bike!

Marissa was outfitted in Specialized's PRO Rbx Short & Cosa Sleeveless Jersey. (Bike: Specialized Ruby.) Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Macias.

It was a great chance to show off the 2010 lines of road and mountain bike clothing from Pearl Izumi, Specialized, Bontrager, Oakley and Smartwool. Other clothes were from Carve Designs, Outlier, Kuhl, and Whimsy as well as great accessory-clothing items from Dohm-Icebox and bags from Reclaimed Wreckage (bags made from recycled bike tire tubes) and Glitch Bags. Check out our video of the event below. Thanks to the photographers whose represented photos are on this page, on our Facebook page and in thestill shots at the end of the video. (Check out the clip at the end;  our 20-minute show was edited down to an 8-minute video.)

A big THANK YOU to our sponsors: UTA Bike Bonanza, Salt Lake County Bicycle Advisory Committee, Pearl Izumi Factory Outlet, Bingham Cyclery and Salt Lake City Bicycle Co.!

Lauren wore the paddler short and rash guard from Carve Designs and rode the Trek Zara (photo by Daniel Bean.)

Megan wore a beautiful dress from Whimsy and rode the Globe Vienna. (Photo courtesy of Stan Orlob.)

Cycle and Style Show 2010 from Beth Runkle on Vimeo.

Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given–when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes.”
~ Joan Winmill Brown, American author and editor.

"Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn." - Elizabeth Lawrence

“How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colors gleaming in the sun.

At other times, they wildly fly
Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow.”
-   Elsie N. Brady, Leaves

Riding through the Autumn leaves on a crisp morning.

Sweet 16 and ready to ride!

Doors they move, and gates they hide,
Mischiefs that on moon-beams ride
Are their deeds, and, by their spells,
Love records its oracles.

Eery shadows were they then-
But to-night they come again;
Were we once more but sixteen,
Precious would be Halloween.

from the poem Hallowe’en by Joel Benton

Dressed up and ready to ride to a neighborhood party!

Halloween remains a popular festival because of its elements of mystery and magic interwoven together. Perhaps you are just a little too old for trick or treating but you’re still wanting to dress up in costume to join in the fun of Halloween. Get yourself dressed up and ready to go to a Halloween party, taking your bike for an especially magical ride…

Taylor is looking truly groovy on her Sunflower Green Electra Amsterdam!

Click on the images below for a larger view.

Off on a Halloween adventure!

Jillian the scarecrow uses her bicycle to get to a local party.

Angie is Queen of the castle on Halloween with her Trek 7200 in egplant

Leaving for a halloween party on their bicycles.

Kristi is looking ghostly on her Specialized Globe Vienna!

Julie, is she a good witch or a wicked one? Either way she will look great riding off on her Trek Allant insted of a broom!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Halloween as a Teen is a Scream!!

Thank you to the team at Guthrie Bicycle for the use of these great Trek Bicycles!

In the spirit of October fun, and a good dash of appreciation for the joy that Stephanie Meyer’s books have brought to so many, we did a special Twilight-themed fantasy feature for the enjoyment of our readers.

What kind of bike would Bella have had? We figured she’d probably have a bike that could take the dirt, mud and gravel. We also didn’t see her as having a brand-new bike…like a lot of us! We think Bella would have had a lot of fun on a bike. It would have taken her places her truck never could: on trails of the forests and along the ocean shores.