Last updated 21 May 2008
www.galfromdownunder.com

Phil Liggett, Voice of the Tour de France Lynette: You are exceptional and unique in the work you do with Bike Friday. I have always relied on you for information and detail relating to your work with the company when working on many shows for the American Networks. You know your business, having ridden around the world on a BF folding bicycle over a seven years, and your contacts in such a specialized trade is second to none. You must continue your worthwhile work in getting people to ride bikes and assist in designing an eco-friendly environment with sustainable transport. Your background does not have a rival as you are the most experienced person I know. I believe the last time we met was in Sydney's Darling Harbor and we finished up in the social pages of the Sydney Telegraph! So clearly everyone knew of you! Your continuing work can only be of benefit to others there, and I wish you every success. Yours sincerely, Phil Liggett International TV Commentator with OLN, ESPN, NBC and CBS television networks. Read Lynette's story about meeting Phil

Lon Haldeman, Race Across America record holder, Ultramarathon Cycling Champion. I was aware of Lynette's outstanding contribution to the cycling world for several years, via the Bike Friday website. As Race Across America official, coast-to-coast tandem record holder, and cross-country bicycle tour operator, I know that it is hard to convince our society of the importance of fitness as we age. I invited Lynette to accompany me on my inaugural "Highest Paved Road in the World (Peru)" expedition in October 2004, with goals being a) to open the minds of performance cyclists to integrating culture with training and performance touring and b) to raise funds for an impoverished Peruvian orphanage and school. Lynette produced an outstanding feature length, commemorative movie which has stimulated a tremendous amount of interest in, and appreciation of, both cycling and a foreign culture, to audiences who have seen it. On a day to day front, Lynette Chiang is unique as a marketing person because she practice what she preaches. She doesn't just make up advertising slogans to sell products. She uses these products and her enthusiasm is obvious without contrived hype. Although Lynette is a petite woman she is a powerhouse when influencing the women's (and men's) cycling market. She is a benefit to the American cycling industry and a great example of what can be accomplished with persistence and intelligence. Lon Haldeman Six Time Race Across America Record Holder, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1992 Director of Race Across America and Pacific Atlantic Cycling Tours, www.pactour.com Read Lynette's story about biking the World's Highest Paved Road with Lon Haldeman

John Climaldi, Events Director, Hawaii Bicycling League, comments on Route66 by Bicycle: Pedaling the Mother Road, a 57-minute handlebar movie Lynette, you have outdone yourself. I thought the Handsomest Man in Cuba was good, but this proves you are a media powerhouse. It is very well done. The music is perfect (and I mean perfect), the breaks between stills and motion are in all the right places giving the viewer a emotional sense of placement, and the transitions are creative keeping the clips fresh. The rider credits at the end tell me a lot about you Lynette. You share the limelight with your riders, a dog, and even a stuffed animal! The movie is about the ride, and you weave a tapestry of the good days, the bad days, and the inspiring days. You are an adventurous caring person full of so much life. Humorous, introspective, and adventure wrapped up in a 57 minute DVD. Amazing. And to think you did it all with a digital camera and your 12" Mac. Really amazing. The best movie I've seen in a long time.... John Climaldi, john@hbl.org Read about the Gal in Hawaii

Jerry Norquist / Executive Director / Cycle Oregon I have had the opportunity to work with Lynette on a number of bicycle related projects and on each one she was a driving force in formulating solutions. I have spent my entire career in the bicycle industry and in those thirty years I have had the opportunity to work with numerous people connected with sustainable transportation problems and Lynette is one of the best I have worked with. She has strong writing and marketing skills and she is effective in bridging concepts and establishing consensus. Cycle Oregon is a non-profit organization dedicated to bicycling enjoyment, safety and education. All proceeds from the ride go to the Oregon Community Fund, which helps preserve and protect the special places of Oregon and supports community development projects in the regions through which we ride. Cycle Oregon would be delighted to have someone with Lynette's abilities on our staff. I hope that she is able to remain in United States so that we might have that opportunity. She is a valuable asset to alternative transportation planning in the United States - intelligent, energetic, and very knowledgeable about bicycling issues. Sincerely, Jerry Norquist BTA (Bicycle Transportation Alliance) board member www.cycleoregon.com Lynette's Cycle Oregon multimedia

Kristin Allen, Past Bike Friday Marketing Director: Despite outward appearances, Bike Friday is not an easy place to work. The pressures of marketing the world's leading performance travel bicycle - a custom, niche product, manufactured entirely with American labor to a discerning and wealthy audience, not to mention coordinating the efforts of 25 eclectic in-house creative folks - demands a special kind of marketer. Lynette has perfected the 'customer evangelist' style of marketing. This is the world-of-mouth kind of marketing that elevates customer loyalty to near-fanaticism. She has her own fan club of Bike Friday customers, who return to the web site and open the newsletters just to read of her latest adventures and thoughts. She has an amazing ability to make customers feel like a part of a community. This attitude has led them to send photos, stories, videos, product reviews, and more which we were able to draw on for virtually every marketing project. It even enabled Bike Friday to outdistance cult brands such as Apple Computer and Harley Davidson to win the coveted Saatchi & Saatchi International Lovemarks Poll in 2004 for the world's most beloved brand. Lynette's high energy and creativity has helped her meet some outrageous expectations at Bike Friday's new brochures, ads, and direct mail pieces in just a few hours when necessary, and entire marketing campaigns on a handful of dollars. She is great at seeing possibilities and generating new ideas. Lynette has remarkable staying power in a small department that has burned through nearly a dozen people - including me - in as many years. Few writers have Lynette's command over the English language. She is able to take the most mundane information and create a sentence, paragraph or story that will make you laugh out loud or see something in a whole different light. She can tell a story such that you really feel you are there, yet so concisely that you never tire of the details. I only wish that I could achieve Lynette's prolific storytelling ability and witty style in my own writing. If I need writing services in the future, Lynette would be the first person I would contact. Sincerely, Kristin Allen Past Marketing Director, Bike Friday

Don Fannon, Bike Friday Customer, on the Customer Evangelist who "creates mindshare" I see a Customer Evangelist's primary role as creating a positive experience of a product and company behind it, for the benefit of current and potential customers. A secondary role is providing an additional conduit between the company and its prospects and customers. There are many ways to observe successful evangelism but few ways to measure it concretely. Hence, I'll provide some observations and conclusions but only one feeble measurement. Perhaps the best observation I can make is that to bump into Lynette is to bump into Bike Friday. She tangibly represents the values, ideals and mission of BF, a company which to me, even after buying a Bike Friday, was simply a bicycle manufacturer/seller with a unique, excellent product and laudable service. Lynette (and later other BFers) showed me there was much more. My only in-person encounter with Lynette was on Cycle Oregon '03. At first she simply overshadowed all the other BF staffers. She was a greeter, activities director, information clearinghouse and cheerleader. It was plain that this woman defined a great time as being with a bunch of cyclists. Of course, this resonated nicely with we who were investing time and treasure to participate in the ride exactly because we had similar views of great time. Later, she deftly introduced the other BF staffers helping us connect faces to phone voices and names to roles. She positioned each to showcase the company by showcasing the talents, visions and personality of each of her colleagues: Hanz with the Q demo, Alan discussing the history and philosophy of the company, Marcus sharing repair tips and how to best use the service department. This is not easy stuff to "get" quickly, yet she made it appear effortless. I've had plenty of other encounters with her as well. The stream of YAK! blog posts, website articles and newsletter content is simply a treat. Lynette's writing style, choices of places to visit and people to discuss, musings on her evolving needs/uses of BF bikes and configurations have shown many BF customers how accessible a great biking experience can be. The images she captures and shares bring that experience close and get us revved to sign up for a tour, or ride our bike to work today, or just go for a spin out of sheer delight that we are able to ride. Another area where I'm sure Lynette has helped BF is her openness to exploring and meeting. Her article on the Little People of America Convention, to pick one example, reminds us readers that each day is an opportunity for tossing a preconception out the window. Her presence at this event showed that BF can make cycling accessible and exciting for people who thought it out of reach. A great piece of work. Lastly, the feeble measurement I mentioned at the outset. Lynette's activites get mindshare for BF from its existing and future customers; that ephermeral and critical element of maintaining a connection between (and among) them and the Friday community. It is mindshare that made it automatic for me; the great 5,000+ miles I put on my NWT left a good impression, but it was Lynette's doing that I never considered keeping it for a travel bike and getting something else as a daily rider. I'm lovin' it, the best bike I've ever owned. It's mindshare that causes me to check that I have referral cards each time I leave for a ride. I certainly understand that my impression of BF has been formed from a variety of impressions and experiences with many people at BF and from the products themselves. Yet, many of those have been influenced by Lynette's work and she deserves kudos. I doubt many companies have evangelists so capable and so well-matched to their role as BF has with Lynette Chiang. I'm looking forward to more encounters in the future. Best Regards, Don Fannon

Patricia Lang, Marrow Donor Program Rhode Island Blood Center BF Club of RI In Rhode Island, in just a few short days, Lynette  not only gave several talks, but started a local Bike Friday Club, did a NBC 10 television news story on cycling and health, and found a permanent place in the hearts of many locals. After being a part of the corporate rat race, Lynette discovered another way to look at and live life. How can one human make a gentler impression upon the world and still be illuminated by a sense of community? One place to start is with a bicycle. It is a simple piece of mechanics. It has an aesthetic beauty. Uses no carbon energy, only the food that feeds the legs that drive it. It creates a strong and healthy body as it moves through fresh air and an ever changing environment.  It connects the rider to his or her surroundings in a unique way, at a slow enough pace for absorption and quick enough to stimulate the senses.  It causes people and animals to notice and interact.  Barbara Morse, the reporter for the NBC television affiliate, saw the potential of the bicycle as she had never seen it before:  healthy for the body and the soul, a way to create community among humans and gentle on the environment.  Lynette made these connections happen in moments.  Herein lies her uniqueness.  In her wake she has left a new cycling club, ideas for the future, and thousands of people who saw her being interviewed on the television.  People who hopefully were inspired to make a change in their lives for the betterment of all. May Lynette stay in America so that she may cast more light and stars over the rest of us! Patricia Lang, MS, MT(ASCP) Marrow Donor Program Rhode Island Blood Center 405 Promenade Street Providence, RI 02908 401-453-8566 800-283-8385 ext. 566 401-453-8571 (fax) 401-265-5700 (cell) Read Lynette's story/view clip about her Rhode Island interview Below: The NBC Channel 10 crew's Barbara Morse, Cameraman Amaral Santos, and Narangansett Bay Wheelman Bicycle Club President David Andrews.

Tim Link, Bike Friday Customer Service Lynette Chiang does two things with great effectiveness: She gives Bike Friday visibility and enhances its image in the eyes of our customers and the public at large.In my four years at Bike Friday, I have not seen anyone else connect with customers and maintain community at anywhere near the level that Lynette Chiang does. Lynette has lived and breathed Bike Friday every hour that I've known her. She integrates the company with everything that she does, and promotes it in a variety of ways. She's been on TV a number of times, always giving the Bike Friday name, and the folding high performance bicycle concept, the center of attention. Many people have learned about Bike Friday only through Lynette's efforts. She's an excellent networker. She's lives the life of a Bike Friday owner, and is constantly making new connections with the kinds of people who make good Bike Friday customers. Lynette is a people person. She gives the company a face and a personality. I am quite certain that Lynette has helped tremendously with sales. We will be hard pressed to find someone else as effective. Her methods are as unorthodox as our bicycles.   That's a big part of what makes her effective. Her experience in high level advertising has given her insights in presentation and style that would normally demand high wages. She's worked those jobs and succeeded at them.  She's succeeded at Bike Friday too. Her promotion "What do you do on a Friday" has served both to endear current customers by allowing them to share their experiences, and to encourage new customers by proving to them with first hand testimonials what our bikes are good for. Lynette is a great salesperson because she sells herself. She can send a customer to one of our salesmen for expert technical advice and to fill out the details. But in many cases, the personal connection that gives people the confidence to buy such an unusual and rather expensive product through the mail comes from Lynette. Pictured: The Bike Friday Headbadge designed by Lynette Chiang and Tim Link

Richard Vallens, Customer, owner of 3 Bike Fridays: And so with the arrival of Lynette back in Oregon, her imprint, her unmistakable spirit, her unique viewpoint again begins to infuse the Bike Friday web site, and YAK.  Do the Brothers value what you do enough?  Do they get that you express the exact message that they want to convey?  Do they understand it's not enough to simply have a great company, but that you have to be able to express the greatness to the public?  That expression is You. It's different when you're around, Lynette.  All of a sudden the clutter, confusion and business of the "new and improved" home page is gone, leaving the important basics and a one picture message, "THIS IS WHAT WE'RE ABOUT", whispered and shouted at the same time.  All of a sudden, as we come looking for bikes, we're offered the story of a 12-year world traveler riding by, momentarily adopted, because you understand your reason for being there is not strictly about bikes, but about spirit, and if you tickle and wave spirit, the bike sales will always therefrom flow. Richard Vallens, 3x Bike Friday owner. Read Lynette's story about Richard's winning of the Toyota Prius in the Saatchi & Saatchi International Lovemarks Poll .

Alvin Gilens, Photographer, Bike Friday Customer If there was ever a person who combined passion, curiosity, and competence in her life, it's surely Lynette Chiang. I have had the opportunity to work with Lynette as we demonstrated bikes together.  I've had the pleasure of hearing her tell tales of her adventures in other lands. I've observed her skills at relating to other people both socially and professionally. In all of these regards I think that she exemplifies those qualities that I would personally want in a colleague or employee.   As a professional photographer and writer, I've come to admire her communication skills and her thoughtfulness. I believe that she could be a most valuable in a position that could take advantage of her wide range of experience and abilities.   Alvin Gilens 616 Conshohocken State Road Gladwyne, Pennsylvania 19035 Tel/Fax = (610) 649-5945- agilens at comcast dot net

Eileen Lafer, Bike Friday Customer I have known Lynette by reputation for ~5 years, and spent significant time with her on a bicycle tour one year ago.  I first learned about Lynette on the forums at the Terry Precision Cycling website, a place where women exchange information about bikes.   As you know, for women that require bikes with short top tubes, Terry produces bikes with a 24" front wheel.   Often at these forums Bike Fridays are suggested as an alternative to a Terry, since the 20" front wheel also allows one to build a bike with a short top tube without compromising frame geometry AND without toe clip overlap. Whenever these discussions come up Lynette's name is mentioned as the best person that a women can talk to at Bike Friday about designing a bike that fits.  I am assuming she once worked in sales, since at least one women remarked that Lynette designed her bike, and how happy she was with the whole experience.  So, when I was ready to purchase a new bike I contacted Lynette.  At that time she was no longer in sales, but never-the-less she spent just as much time with me as my assigned sales consultant.  To be honest, if it wasn't for Lynette I wouldn't have bought the Bike Friday, because I have a lot more confidence in a women to understand the fit issues specific to women, and in Lynette in particular, who understood what I was going through in migrating from a flat handlebar touring bike to a drop handlebar racing bike.   My local bike shop was pressuring me to get a Trek WSD bike with S/S couplers or a Ritchey Breakaway.  But Lynette's arguments won out and she warmly welcomed me into the fold. As everyone knows, Lynette continuously posts all sorts of exciting information about Bike Friday at the Green Gear website, so again when folks ask me about my bike, I refer them to both the information Lynette has posted, as well as to her directly. For example, when another women I met on the Terry Cycling Forums, Emily Smith, became interested in purchasing a Bike Friday, she also spoke with Lynette about the design.  So the point I am trying to make is that while Lynette is not even on the sales staff, she played in major role in the purchases made by Emily and myself.  And I should also add that both our spouses also purchased Bike Fridays, so that effect was doubled, in this one example alone. Getting to know Lynette, also impacted on my understanding and appreciation for Green Gear as a company.  As you know Bike Fridays don't come cheap, but as we were pedaling along through the back roads of Chiapas on tour last year, Lynette explained to me how this small family business really functions.  Why a Bike Friday costs so much, and what you are supporting when you make such a purchase.  I like that my money is providing jobs for American workers, and supporting a company that is environmentally conscious.  I told the world about this when I posted my Lovemark - another marketing campaign that Lynette got all us 'Yaksters' enthused about.  And there are those gentle reminders, like when I would email her about how much I like my bike, and she would tell me, oh, please post a review at the website for all to see, that help Green Gear market their wares to others.  So, while Lynette is not paid as a sales or marketing consultant, she does both very effectively.  I am using these personal examples to illustrate what I believe Lynette does many times over for Green Gear, she boosts their sales, their reputation, and their world presence.  I certainly hope that Green Gear values these contributions, and I highly recommend Lynette to any company who wants an employee that is so full of energy and enthusiasm.  Her strengths lie in her outstanding skills in art and web design, writing, marketing, and sales.  Green Gear would not be the same company without her! Eileen Lafter, PhD Avid Cyclist, Professor, and Scientist Pictured at far left in Chiapas, Mexico, December 2003. Read Lynette's story about this trip.

Don Zawadiwsky, Bike Friday Customer Lynette brings us a little closer to the ineffable simply by her presence and actions.  It is no small feat to visit parts unknown with not much more than a little folding bike and supplies, and maintain a high level of communication and compassion with everyone she meets. She does not function well in a vacuum, forever seeking new experiences and adventures. She is an ombudsman not only for the bike company she represents, but for the human condition. Down-to-earth and practical, she accurately sizes up a situation and finds ways to make things work.  In this complicated world, she brings a refreshing perspective under sometimes adverse conditions.  Am I a better person simply by knowing her?  Yes, a more caring one, a more observant one, a more compassionate one. I met Don at Round*Up 2004: The Compact Bicycle Universe, Philadelphia. Full Galfromdownunder report.

Robert Pace, Bike Friday Prospective Customer Just to be clear, my motive is benign, pristine... well intended. You are remarkable. Absolutely. Or, more accurately, the "you" presented in writing and films gleaned from the world wide web; customer evangelist indeed! I am in need of a new ride. When gas hit $3 in the U.S., (compared to the $12 a liter I witnessed in Milan in 1990) gasp! three dollars!?!?, I bought a two wheeled motorized vehicle for those days when I did not need the car (I have been wishing for more such days lately); and now when it hit $4... well, time to get back into cycling. Why did I stop anyway? I used to happily pound mountain bike mile after mile in the Berkeley Oakland Hills once upon a care free collegiate time. So my obsessive research began. Tourer? Custom Tourer? Road Bike? Hybrid? I have been riding my boutique-steel beloved Wicked Fat Chance with road wheels happily from time to time. Maybe repaint it, throw a rack on it, buy paniers, a light, maybe fenders and be done with it -- after all, I convinced myself long long ago when I paid too too too much for it, that I would ride it forever. What's this? Bike Friday? Interesting, but seems, well testosterone-less. I want to pound. More research elsewhere.... but more hum drum. $1,500 to way way way too much, and still despite moments of piqued enthusiasm that I had found what I wanted / needed / craved, hum drum came back to mind. I think, while myself not yet testosterone-less, that in fact I came to realize that I have less testosterone; and what I do have is appropriately used where it ought be used, rather than perched upon machinery that deserves more talent than I could ever muster. And this Bike Friday concept kept coming back to me, steered there elegantly by this Australian mirth -- call it happy chirp -- this voice in the back ground of these videos I watched to research if the bike could in fact be brought to respectable speed under the force of a proper peddle stroke, this voice and manner made me feel and sense ... Fun. Fridays are fun! So here I am, now convinced that a Friday is for me. I will be happy with it, I am certain. And for that, I thank you. Remarkable. Absolutely. You are. - Rob Pace, Pebble Beach CA, July 2008 Best Gal movies

Contact Lynette by email: galfromdownunder at gmail dot com Permanlink to this page: www.galfromdownunder.com/references