We at Bikes on the Drive had a very special event last Sunday, June 20th. Fawzia Ahmad of Canopy (formerly Markets Initiative) came to give a product knowledge session about her organization.
She came in to our regular Sunday staff meeting to talk about the mission of Canopy and how their mission coincides with what we are doing with The Tree.

Canopy has been a driving force in lobbying book, magazine and newspaper publishers to change from paper printed on old growth forest to post consumer paper product. Throughout our product knowledge session we found out that Canopy was behind the Canadian printing of Harry Potter series on Ancient Forest Friendly paper.

What does Harry Potter have to do with The Tree?

Well, we think The Tree is a pretty magical, but really, both are more sustainable products that were designed and implemented to improve and inform consumers of a more sustainable culture. With this being said, Bikes on the Drive is donating a portion of all Tree sales to further Canopy’s mission.

They have also been successful with newspapers too. Just last week The Globe and Mail committed to using Ancient Forest Friendly paper in the printing of their daily newspaper in plants across Canada. With the success of such successful campaigns, Markets Initiative decided to re-brand itself as Canopy and with the new name they decided to hold a bike scavenger hunt, and here are a few details:

The Great Paper Chase

• has been canceled. We at Bikes on the Drive look forward to the event in 201o

Well when we heard about this the entire staff wanted to drop everything and go!  Unfortunately for some of us we do have to keep the shop open, but we will certainly be sending a team of Tree-wheeling scavengers to take part.

Free for Tree’s

ilan did one better – for anyone who has purchased The Tree this summer, Bikes on the Drive will pay your entry fee to this event. This is our way of saying Thank You for making this first year of The Tree a success.  If you have purchased a Bikes on the Drive Tree from us this summer and you want to attend a scavenger hunt along with a wicked BBQ, here is your chance!

Not wanting to be out done by ilan, Autumn then suggested the staff donate our July tips to Canopy and with a unanimous raising of hands the deal was done. The product knowledge session ended with a round of applause, which by all accounts was a first in the history of our shop.

Test Ride

Fawzia then took out a Tree for a test ride.  She was used to riding an old heavy mountain bike and living in the heights of Burnaby she detested the hills on the ride home. But with one test ride, and a couple of hills under her belt, she liked our bike and decided to purchase one herself! She has been biking to work ever since.

We will be working more with Canopy in the months and years to come and we hope it fits as well as the Brookes saddle Fawzia likes so much.

You can read more about Fawzia’s little investment on the Canopy blog. Here is a excerpt.

I became aware of Bikes on the Drive’s new creation – The Tree – for some time now.  The first time I saw it in the shop I thought what a sensible bike – not flashy- but it stood for values that I believe in.  It’s a sustainable bike and that was enough to turn my eye.   Every time I walked by the shop for the past month or so I stopped and looked at it.  Did I fall in love with it at first sight?  No.  But the more I learned about it the more I wanted to give it a try. ~ Fawzia Ahmad ~

Category: News

Tags: Advocacy, bicycle, branding, charity, commercial drive, recycling, sustainable, Tree bike

The Tree was designed around being eco-friendly in so many aspects, from it’s concept to creation to it’s name. The colour we chose is directly associated with the name we chose, it was up to me to decide where we where going with the colour scheme.

We talked about browns and greens, very earthy colours the whole time. Eventually we decided on the matt black, by a combination of peoples interest and our needs as a far as what we wanted the bike to represent. It is not a sporty colour it is solid and dependable. They don’t say flash. The bike grabs your attention by what it is, not how nice it looks.

When I came along in the production of the bike we already had the name. The name kinda sells itself. In the end we found it a representation of our vision and the ethic of the shop.

When looking at a graphic we explored both rural and urban trees.  Coming from a rural island lifestyle I went with more of a mountain side tree at first but then through some feedback I decided to go for more an urban tree something you would see while biking to work.

The one graphic we finally choose was the single tree with a great silhouette. It was originally going to be on the top of the bike and have lines wrap around the bar, all designs change a little bit before production. There was a simplicity to it that everyone just really liked.

The bike is a workhorse.

If you know what your looking at. Your going to look at the bike and say that is really well made, it is really though out. I think all of the stuff we brainstormed about showed up in the end product really well.

I was unable to visit the factory with Darcy and ilan. But from what they told me the bike looked pretty sharp.

When I first saw it, I got to see it in the box all packed up. Living in a consumer culture you love opening new products some time your impressed, sometimes your not so much. This time it had a more personal touch, seeing something of mine on a pretty major product I was excited.

When it was built and realized that the simplicity of the design, the colours we chose and the placement of logo everything just turned out really wonderfully.

We aren’t really trying to brand the bike, we’re trying people to get people to look at the quality of the bike itself, not at who made it or who made the parts we wanted people to look at a quality that make it a nicely designed bike.

We styled the Tree logo much like Devinci’s current style, not out of any request, but I out of fairness to Devinci. They have their styles going and their branding. It helps us to work with them in that way to create something in their current styles, straight up it just looks good.

Category: Story

Tags: bicycle, branding, city, concept, design, handwelded, logo, sketches, sustainable, Tree bike