Jake Gyllenhaal is best known for his roles in Donnie Darko, Bubble Boy, The Day After Tomorrow, Jarhead, and Brokeback Mountain (in which he was nominated an Oscar for best actor in 2005). He isn’t nominated for an Academy Award this year, but his older sister Maggie Gyllenhaal is nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in Crazy Heart.

We’re not sure if Maggie rides a bike, but Jake sure does. We’re excited to see him staying safe in a Giro helmet when he’s riding the streets.

Photo courtesy JustJared.BuzzNet.com

 Matthew Broderick is best known for his role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. He also starred in the 1999 movie Election which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing. These days he keeps his pant leg rolled up so it won’t get caught in the chain, and wears a Bell helmet for safety.

Photo courtesy Cyclelicio.us

Matt Damon is best known for … ummm, well, he’s been in a TON of popular movies including Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan, Rounders, The Bourne series, The Departed, and 2009’s Invictus. He is actually nominated this year for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in Invictus. We’re definitely glad to see he’s staying safe with a Bell Helmet.

Photo courtesy ShowHype.com 

Hugh Jackman is known for his role as the slashing, side-burned X-Man Wolverine. He hosted the 81^st Academy Awards last year to rave reviews. He isn’t nominated for an Oscar this year, and he’s not hosting the awards show either, but when we found photos of him wearing a helmet while riding his mountain bike we had to share.

Photo courtesy DailyMail.co.uk

Carey Mulligan is nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her role in An Education.

Here she is seen sporting a helmet as she rides on the back of a motorcycle with boyfriend Shia LaBeouf, also protecting his valuable head with a helmet.

Photo courtesy DailyMail.co.uk

Have you seen or know of any other celebrities that wear a helmet? Please share with us by leaving a comment below!

• February 23, 2010: Tips for losing weight – changing the way you eat and adding in some more exercise time! Some facts on hiking and bicycling (Mark Richardson, Viploan.co.uk)

• February 23, 2010: Roswell, Georgia’s only bicycle-friendly community in Georgia, is having their annual Cycling Festival – Alive & Rolling – on April 24-25, Part of the plans? The Roswell Criterium with professional race teams, Kid’s Bicycle Rodeo, Mountain Bike Rides, Mayor’s Ride and more. One Region, Seven Communities, Dozens of Springtime Festivals and Events (Staff Writer, Hospitality Highway Newsletter)

• February 23, 2010: Organized by Cycle Oregon, the 5th Annual Oregon Bike Summit has been scheduled for June 4, 2010, and will be held at the World Trade Center in downtown Portland from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Save the Date: Oregon Bike Summit is June 4th (Jonathan Maus, BikePortland.org)

• February 23, 2010: Ann Wilson began her bicycling expedition in England last July, and has covered over 7,000km since, criss-crossing Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Iran and India. Now in Malaysia, she was inspired to embark on her journey after reading a book, “A Bike Ride”, written by Anne Mustoe, which chronicled the author’s around the world travels on a bicycle. Briton Ann Wilson cycles her way around the world (Shaun Ho, The Star)

• February 24, 2010: A trio of young Connecticut men in their 20s are bicycling across the country from St. Augustine, Fla., to San Diego trying to raise awareness of autism and collecting donations for Autism Speak. Autism awareness riders make their way from Florida to California (Marilyn Monroe, Wicked Local/GateHouse News Service)

• February 25, 2010: The Golden Helmet Award will recognize a Monterey County resident for his/her dedication to bicycling to and from work. Sign up before the March 31 deadline! Nominations sought for Monterey County Golden Helmet Award (Rachel Zentz, The Californian.com)

• February 26, 2010: Being called a “Hub Grub Ride”, the Seminole Heights Bicycle Club met up last weekend and pedaled to eight Seminole Heights restaurants. Tour Seminole Heights restaurants with the Hub Grub Ride (Dalia Colón, St. Petersburg Times)

• February 26, 2010: The sixth annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show took place this past weekend in Richmond, VA, at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Handmade Bike Show Kicks Off (Staff Writer, Bicycling)

1) According to the American Heart Association, about half of all deaths from heart disease are sudden and unexpected, so there’s little opportunity for treatment. For people at risk of sudden death, prevention is the key. The AHA believes that more effort must be focused on preventing heart disease by addressing and educating people on the major risk factors, including tobacco smoke, high blood pressure, and physical inactivity. (AmericanHeart.org)

2) The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) offers a Pocket Guide to clinical preventative services which includes recommendations on screening, counseling, and preventive medication topics. Recommendations are organized for quick reference and easy searching. One section matches recommended preventive services to patients—men, women, pregnant women, and children. AHRQ’s Clinical Preventative Services Guide was created (and is continually updated) by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force which is the leading independent panel of private-sector experts in prevention and primary care. (AHRQ.gov)

3) Preventing child obesity has become a focus of first lady Michelle Obama , and she has recently launched Let’s Move – an ambitious initiative to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation. Let’s Move will provide healthier food in schools, help kids be more physically active and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of the country, among other things. (LetsMove.gov)

4) SparkPeople.com is a web site dedicated to making healthy living fun and easy with tools, content and a community of like minded people looking to get fit. The site offers great resources, tips, and suggestions on nutrition, fitness, motivation, wellness, and diet, as well as a streaming online video section and recipes section (SparkRecipes.com) with more than 217,000 healthy and delicious recipes. Be sure to check out Health A-Z, a medical reference section created by the faculty of the Harvard Medical School, for information on specific conditions. (SparkPeople.com)

5) According to the Cycling Resource Centre (Australia), the health benefits of cycling have been shown to be a primary reason why many people choose to cycle.  They say that cycling has been shown to significantly reduce the chance of developing obesity, diabetes  and other types of disease. Integrating cycling into everyday life, by using the bike as a form of transport has been shown to be a very sustainable method of regular physical activity. (CyclingResourceCentre.org)

The consensus is in, and an active lifestyle is likely the best way to prevent major health problems. We suggest strapping on a Bell helmet, hopping on a bicycle and pedaling your way towards better fitness.

Looking for products and resources  to compliment your active lifestyle? Be sure to check out Savasa – The Unique Fit. They offer unique women’s fitness products (their Ankle Weights were recently awarded Best Weights for Women), a Tips For Busy Women section, a Savasa Personal Trainer section with quick, 15-minute workouts in audio, video and guide format.

What forms of preventative care do you use to stay healthy? What is your favorite form of exercise? Do you have any useful examples of things you do in your life to stay fit? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

• February 19, 2010: Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz, a club and advocacy group that hosts weekly rides, monthly meetings and trail-work days is hosting their annual Mountain Bike Festival February 27-28, 2010. Karen Kefauver, Spin City: Down and dirty – Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival is around the corner (Karen Kefauver, Santa Cruz Sentinel)

• February 18, 2010: A listing of movies that are sports-related but can also loved by a less-than-active crowd. Can you guess what the featured movie is in the bicycling category? What is the Best Sports Movie for People Who Hate Sports? (Adam Hirsch, The Takeaway)

• February 18, 2010: 10 riders of Bangalore Cycling Club (BCC) cycled to Mumbai to promote the ‘Car Free Day’ in Mumbai, which was held on February 21. Mumbai Car Free Day is part of a worldwide movement that encourages motorists to give up their car for a day. The event was hosted by Transport and Road Safety Commissioner, before the Vidhana Soudha. It’s all about the bike (Staff Writer, Express Buzz)

• February 17, 2010: Coming in the summer of 2010 – “Tokyo to Osaka” – A movie documenting the journey of 13 American bicyclists traveling for one week, 350 miles across Japan. ‘Junkan’: Biking from Tokyo to Osaka (David Marx, CNNGo)

• February 16, 2010: Danny MacAskill, a Scottish stunt bicyclist, is one of six nominees for The 2010 Laureus World Action Sportsperson Award. The award recognizes sporting achievement over a single year. MacAskill first gained famed after posting a 5 minute and 37 second YouTube video of bicycle stunts – including riding along the top of a spiky metal fence, doing a back flip off a tree and jumping off huge ledges. MacAskill Nominated for Laureus Award (Staff Writer, Bicycling: MB World Blog)

• February 15, 2010: Willie Weir, a globetrotting adventure cyclist, delivered speeches to interested fans in Sacramento on 2/15-2/18 to benefit the nonprofit programs Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, the Bicycle Kitchen and Mustard Seed Spin. Adventure cyclist Willie Weir speaks at Sacramento benefits (Blair Anthony Robertson, San Francisco Bee)

• February 15, 2010: The report, “Safe Routes to School Local School Project: A health evaluation at 10 low-income schools,” indicates that there has been positive progress toward achieving many Local School Project goals – a program that began in April 2008 and assists Safe Routes programs at 10 schools from around the country. Safe Routes Low-Income Program Report Released (Stephane Babcock, School Transportation News)

Bell True Fit helmets are designed for biking, however the Bell family also offers customized helmets for a variety of activities including power sports,  bicycling, and … skateboarding. Normally we blog about bicycling and all of the elements that surround it, however over the course of February 2010 we’ve been discussing skateboarding, in particular Tony Hawk, a whole lot.  

Since February 1, 2010 we’ve given away two Bell Hawk skateboarding/BMX helmets, and two versions of the new video game Tony Hawk: RIDE – one for X-Box 360 (congrats @MomMostTraveled) and one for Nintendo Wii (congrats @davesniadak).

While we don’t have the ability to give everyone a helmet or video game, we do have one more game/helmet combo to give away to a random – and may we add, in our opinion, lucky – twitter participant. Today marks the end of our third and final giveaway contest, and we’d like to say CONGRATULATIONS @MissingLynxx. You have won a new Bell Hawk helmet and Tony Hawk: RIDE for X-Box 360!

Thank You – everyone – for participating in our February twitter contests. We hope you’ll stick around to read our blog, and just want to say: be on the lookout for future contests!

Sincerely,

The Bell True Fit Team

1) The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912. The Olympic medals are designed especially for each individual Olympic Games by the host city’s organizing committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold. Let’s start with some figures: there are roughly 2,500 volunteers at the games, there are more than 10,000 media members at the games, and there are about 5,000 officials and athletes participating. (About.com)

2) Bob Richards, two-time Olympic pole vault champion became the spokesman for Wheaties cereal in 1958, and since the 1960s hundreds of athletes (Olympic medalists and other professional athletes) have been shown and promoted on Wheaties boxes. (Wikipedia)

3) As of Friday, February 19, 2010 the United States is leading the medal count in the 2010 Winter Olympics with six gold, five silver, and seven bronze for a total of 18 medals. Germany has four gold, four silver, and three bronze for a total of 11 medals. And Norway is in third place with three gold and silver each, and two bronze for a total of eight medals. (Vancouver2010.com)

4) The all-time medal leader for all Olympic Games from 1896 to 2008, including Summer Olympic Games and  Winter Olympic Games is the United States with 2,511 medals. To put this number into perspective, the second and third place countries in the all-time medal count are (the former) Soviet Union and Great Britain with 1,204 and 736, respectively. (Wikipedia)

5) UPDATE: Easton-Bell sponsored, two-time Olympian Natalie Darwitz, who is serving as the captain of the 2010 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team, moved into the record books on Thursday when she broke the U.S. women’s record for most points in an Olympic hockey tournament. Darwitz is now at 11 points (four goals, seven assists) through three games. Next up for Darwitz and the Americans is the medal round, beginning Monday against Sweden in the semifinals. Records are great, Darwitz says, but these next two games will define her tournament more than any statistic. (USAHockey.com)

Do you have an all-time favorite Olympic athlete? Was there a moment, medal ceremony or otherwise, during the Olympics that moved you? Let us know by leaving a comment below! And don’t forget to enter our giveaway contest for your chance to win a Bell Hawk Helmet AND Tony Hawk: RIDE for X-Box 360 – contest ends 02/23/10! Check it out here.

• February 12, 2010: Justice for everyone – except for the bicyclists? Crime dropped in Los Angeles in all areas except bicycle thefts, which rose 29% last year. L.A. sees 29% jump in bike thefts, prompting some vigilante justice (Richard Winton, LA Times)

• February 12, 2010: The 2010 World Series of Bicycling kicks off Friday, June 18, and runs 10 of 11 Friday nights. VPCC announces its 2010 schedule (Gary R. Blockus, The Morning Call)

• February 11, 2010: Portland’s City Council on Thursday unanimously passed a measure that could spend as much as $613 million over 20 years on new bike paths and other bicycling infrastructure needs. City Council OKs $613 million bike plan (Staff Writer, Portland Business Journal)

• February 11, 2010: The 2010 Benchmark Report, a national survey, reviewed 50 of the largest cities to determine how educated children were regarding bicycle safety. San Jose ranks first for kids’ cycling safety (Kirsten Robbins, BikeRadar.com)

• February 11, 2010: A new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students says bicycling generates more than a $1.5 billion economic impact in Wisconsin, exceeding the impact of even the deer hunting industry. Bicycles helping Wisconsin economy go ’round with $1.5 billion annual impact, study says (Michael King, Green Bay Press Gazette)

• February 10, 2010: Lucky school! Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist Kristin Armstrong will deliver the commencement address at the University of Idaho on May 15 of this year. Kristin Armstrong will deliver University of Idaho commencement speech in May (Brian Murphy; IdahoStatesman.com)

• February 10, 2010: The winter cold doesn’t stop this crew from maintaining their 40-mile bike rides. Winter wheeling (Denise M. Baran-Unland, The Herald-News)

• February 9, 2010: Organized by AEG, the Tour of California 2010 course details should be revealed shortly…Tour of California organizers release stage details (Al Fresco, Bike World News)

• February 8, 2010: This year’s Bike Leadership Conference that will be held in Monterey, California, on April 13-15, has already drawn more retail attendees than in any of the past four years, including seven REI staff members. BLC Drawing More Retailers (Press Release, Bicycle Retailer)

On February 1^st we announced the first of three contest giveaways, each for the chance to win a Bell Hawk skateboard/BMX helmet and, the latest and greatest skateboarding video game, Tony Hawk: RIDE. At the end of the first week we gave away a helmet and RIDE for X-Box 360. Last week we offered the chance to win a helmet and RIDE for Nintendo Wii.

Everyone’s participation in the first two contests has sent thousands of people to our blog, and helped us grow our twitter following exponentially. Thank you all very much for your participation.

Today we are happy to announce the winner of last week’s contest: Congratulations @davesniadak of Eagan, Minnesota! You are the lucky recipient of a shiny new Bell Hawk skateboard helmet and Tony Hawk: RIDE for Wii.

With February more than half way over and with two contests in the books, we still have one more helmet/game combo to giveaway …

For the next seven days we’re giving you the chance to win Activision’s Tony Hawk: Ride for X-Box 360 and a Bell Hawk Helmet! A value of more than $160! This is your last chance to win an X-Box version of Tony Hawk: Ride and a Bell helmet. 

Skaters will enjoy using the game’s unique skateboard peripheral (shown above) which is covered with motion sensors to simulate riding an actual skateboard.Similar to using the balance board in Wii Fit or Shaun White Snowboarding, the peripheral means you’ll have to ollie through challenges, pump for speed in the half pipe, and balance to accomplish tricks. There’s no sitting your way through levels in RIDE.

Entering the contest is easy: All you have to do is follow (@BellTrueFit) on twitter and retweet (RT) this link: http://bit.ly/cC37op

We’ll announce a winner on Tuesday, February 23, 2010.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the first and second rounds, and good luck in the third and final round! Tweet ya later!

1) Let’s start with some figures: there are roughly 2,500 volunteers at the games, there are more than 10,000 media members at the games, and there are about 5,000 officials and athletes participating. (GoVancouver.About.com)

2) Up-to-the-minute information about the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics is at your fingertips thanks to special coverage sections and search features on Bing, Yahoo! and Google. Bing.com is the official search provider for NBCOlympics.com, where Bing will provide Instant Answers for popular athletes, sporting events and medal counts, as well as updating the homepage daily with videos and images. Yahoo! Sports created “Fancouver” which is a live broadcast studio and entertainment center where visitors can enjoy a free hot cocoa bar, free WiFi, appearances by athletes, a live streaming “fan cam”, games and giveaways and much more. Google has created an international landing page where you can Explore The Games with Google equipped with Google Maps that track medal counts by country. They’ve also created special “Street View” coverage with the use of a snowmobile to get around the games’ event venues. (SearchEngineLand.com)

3) For traditional media coverage the host broadcaster will be Olympic Broadcasting Services Vancouver, a subsidiary of the International Olympic Committee’s new in-house broadcasting unit Olympic Broadcasting Services. 2010 Olympics marks the first games where the host broadcasting facilities will be provided solely by CBS. In the United States, Associated Press (AP) plans to send 120 reporters, photographers, editors and videographers to cover the games. AP’s coverage includes a microsite with web widgets facilitating integration with social networking and bookmarking services. (Wikipedia.org)

4) Speaking of social networking, as mentioned above Yahoo! created a special Olympics site, and they also have a special twitter handle to send updates from their broadcast studio. Follow @YahooFancouver for coverage of the games form Yahoo! Sports. Twitter has a list of verified athletes from the Olympics who will be tweeting. The IOC also has an official Olympic Games Page on Facebook where people can share stories about what the Olympics mean to them.  Use Facebook to become a fan of athletes and Olympics teams, and share photos. (WebProNews.com)

5) Of course the 21^st Winter Games have their own Web site with news, photos, videos, information on athletes, schedules and results. They also offer a spectator guide and other special sections with tons of useful information. (Vancouver2010.com)

6) Be on the lookout for Easton sponsored, two-time Olympian Natalie Darwitz, who is serving as the captain of the 2010 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team. (EastonHockey.com)

Do you have a favorite Web site or resource to get info on the 21^st Winter Olympics? Let us know by leaving a comment below! And don’t forget to enter our giveaway contest for your chance to win a Bell Hawk Helmet AND Tony Hawk: RIDE for Nintendo Wii – contest ends 02/14/10! Check it out here.

• February 1, 2010: Organization One Less Car held its annual Smart Transportation and Bicycling Symposium Wednesday, Feb. 3 in Annapolis, Maryland. One Less Car holds annual bike symposium (Meredith Cohn, B’MoreGreen)

• February 2, 2010: Continuing the conversations around immigrants and bicycling. More Conversation About Not-So-Invisible Bicyclists (Sarah Goodyear, StreetsBlog.org)

• February 2, 2010: Team funded by Kazakhstan (split with Spanish and Kazakh riders) hopes to provide leader Alberto Contador with yet another Tour de France championship in 2010. Astana Launches 2010 Season (James Startt, Bicycling)

• February 3, 2010: The Topeka Community Cycle Project was started by Washburn law student Robert Fitzgerald and has already become home to numerous donated bicycles of all shapes, sizes and conditions. Law student creates bike co-op (Richard Kelly, The Review)

• February 3, 2010: An LA bicycling advocacy group (LA Bike Working Group) has proposed the Backbone Bikeway Network – a network of long-distance bike routes they say would be comparable to the city’s freeways. Bicyclists propose ‘freeway’ bike routes (Staff Writer, UPI.com)

• February 4, 2010: We agree!! Make bicycle helmets mandatory (Cyrus Bahrassa; Student Life)

• February 5, 2010: Bicycling’s view on the top controversies and moments for cycling in 2010: Lance versus Contador II. Team Sky versus tradition. Electronic shifting going mainstream. Riccardo Ricco trying to get through a full season without testing positive for doping. Rapha’s soon-to-be-unveiled shot at doing for performance-casual style what they did for hardcore road style. The Best Thing in Cycling This Year (Bill Strickland, Bicycling: Sitting In)

• February 5, 2010: The Bicycle Leadership Conference is asking for input from riders to help it better understand the current needs of cyclists in the US. To take the survey here. Bicycle Leadership Conference wants your input (Staff Writer, BikeRadar.com)