Who rides now.

through sickness, injury on the trail, clod, and laziness, i've noticed a little dust on my commuter bike. i doesn't feel good. i'm keeping my chin up and am eager to top off my tires and don the blinky tail light.

how do you feel??

Raising Bike Awareness

My sister showed me this older website today that commemorates a 6000 mile bike tour that happened some time in 2006 to raise bicycle awareness in Britain. Thought you might find it intriguing at least. Neat photos of tall bikes:

http://www.tallbiketourbritain.com/

Best Cities for Biking

just some stuff to check out...

http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s1-2-19-17083-1,00.html

http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s1-2-19-17077-1,00.html

Bike PROM Tonight!!!

The Happy Rickshaw World HQ is hot and ready for Bike Prom tonight, 9pm to 2am.
The weatherman is calling for temperatures in the 70's, with increasingly chilled beverages throughout the night, and a 100% chance of sweating on the dance floor.
Yes people, the party is indoors and heated, so you can take that slinky dress off the hanger tonight.
Bring CASH for donations at the bar. We've got Starr Hill, wine, and margaritas on the ready.
We have sequestered DJ Western Front in a dark room where he's been meditating and channeling his chi towards tonight's transcendental dance rager.
There's so much love in this town.
See you tonight,
Happy Rickshaw
www.happyrickshaw.com
Directions from the Corner: 201 Elliott Ave., Charlottesville, VA 22902
· Go down West Main St. until you hit Ridge Rd. (head Downtown)
· @ light, go RIGHT on Ridge Rd.
· @ 2nd light, make LEFT onto Elliott Ave.
· Take next LEFT (Warehouse is far corner of 1st & Elliott)
· Look for flames, lights, or listen for bass.

November Week 2

Bob: 45.6

Butch: 30.1

Frank: 32.5

Mallfellow: 211.5

Week 1 - 2 Submissions...

Butch 30.1

Bob 23

Get those miles in...

I've only seen two people post up their miles for last week.  Get them in today and I'll update later.

James

Oh yeah--

Congrats to Bridge for 6th place.  I don't know how Kyle did, but it's easy to assume he did some spankin'.

I Am Toast.

Got to ride the Urban Cross Race, or whatever it's called, put on by Bluewheel at the IX Building.  Great weather, cool people everywhere, some bikes I actually liked- not just nerdy space-ship looking things.  The course was the brainchild of Scott Paisley, totally killer and with a couple of added features that made for good grunting, cursing and wiping out: the "Stairway to Heaven'', which was a set of about 12 or 15 steps built into to face of the hill, and the "Litter Box"- a sand trap long, deep and wide enough to take down plenty of riders to the delight of picturetakers and supporters who sensed the comedic potential.  This was a fun course.

I actually started in one race and flatted out before I even made the first lap.  Bridge and Kyle were there like an instant pit crew and had me rolling again.  I made it a whole 3/4 of a lap and got a pinch flat.  Doh.  So, I was out of this one.

I went inside to get a tube to make the ride home and was told that I could enter the Master's 35-45 age group.  Sweet!  So, Bridge provided another tube, and I got rolling again, amused that aging had paid off again.

Of course, the age of this group did nothing to stop them from whipping my ass-  I was 23rd out of 37.  But I was satisfied with my performance, considering it was my first cross race in 6 yrs.  I never pushed my bike uphill, all my mounts and dismounts were clean (no stutter steps) and I never went down in the sandpit.  Then I had a PBR with Cholula sauce, and I burrito from Aqui Es Mexico.  A good day of bike fun and positive attitudes.  I am wasted tired.  

Big thanks to Kyle and Bridge for the pit support and cheering, and my house mates Christopher, Grace, River and Holden for showing up and staying through both races.  And getting me a burrito.

Hmm...since it's the only thing in the fridge beer related, I wonder how Country Club will do with some Tobasco?

October Results 2870.2 Miles!

Here they are folks.  First of all, give yourselves a huge pat on the back for the total mileage tallied in October.  

For November's points you will only have to submit your miles once a week.  We'll cut the fat and just base it on mileage.  Long commutes, short commutes, heavy commutes, wet commutes...it doesn't matter.  Submit your mileage by Sunday evening and we'll have the running count on Monday.  

Use the same survey link and if anyone else wants in...just post a comment here.

Nice work folks...any thoughts on a total goal for November?

October Results Coming Soon

Make sure you get all of your October mileage in by this evening.  I'll tally the final results and post them tonight.

Also, hold off on submitting any November miles until I post the October results and reset the survey.  For November we'll just keep it simple and tally miles.

James

Neighborhood Bike Ride

(just got this in an email)

Cyclers,
It would be sweet to have some of you join us for this. Please forward to anyone who may be interested.

JPA NEIGHBORHOOD BIKE RIDE!
Sunday, Nov. 2nd
Go on a Bicycle Ride, Talk with Neighbors and Classmates and You may win $1700
1 p.m. Meet at 1900 JPA and go on a leisurely bike ride towards downtown and back
2 p.m. Social and refreshments at 1900 JPA

All ages welcome. Participate in event and you are automatically entered to win! Bring snacks to share if you can.
To find out more or in case of rain, please call Shelly at 434-295-6554
Sponsored by Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation
www.transportationchoice.org

Ozzy Rides A Fixie?

Been sick for a week, haven't ridden since last wednesday.  It's frightening how fast you start to feel like a soft-bellied channel-changer.  On the mend, though...

In other news, if anyone is looking for something to do on Halloween Night, there is a benefit for the Charlottesville Derby Dames at the IX building, complete with DJ and the World's Largest Black Sabbath Tribute Band, MASS SABBATH.

Mass Sabbath only plays on Halloween.  This year, 2 drummers, 2 bass players, 3 guitarists, 1 violin, 1 cello, and 1 Ozzy will deliver the dark sounds of doom and love (B-Sab was kinda, y'know...peace, love) in C sharp.

Yours Truly as Ozzy.

Roller Derby women.  Sabbath.  Blood.

Get yours.

myspace.com/masssabbath

So...

So you've convinced your co-worker that commuting is the new sliced bread. But they say, "I don't have a bike."

I've got one. It's for them. A solid steed. A Trek Multitrack. I've got it back into safe condition. Fresh tires, brake pads, brake cables, and a chain would make it a primo candidate for long term, high mileage service. Yes, it has moustache bars.

It was free to me. Community Bikes gave me the parts to return it to service. Any compensation in-kind should go to them.

2,357.59 Miles

We really aren't supposed to be reporting to the 0.01 mile but whatever.  Let's call it 2,358.  

That's a lot of miles.  These are the points as of 5 minutes ago. 

Keep it going

Hey Everybody--

I was thinking yesterday that it would be fun to do this every month, or as long as we can keep it going.  Plenty of us would be riding every day anyway, but there are some people I have spoken to about this who probably didn't find out about it until a week or two into October and so they didn't participate.  And I personally like knowing that there is a group of people out there who out of competitive spirit and love of biking, and maybe even environmental responsibility are planning trips and days with the idea of "that should get me a few more points!''.

I don't know how much work it takes to make this happen, but a revolving cast could take care of the blog results end of things if it's a chore.  And I imagine that there are a few more businesses out there who might be willing to contribute (5 free cups of coffee somewhere, $25 bar tab, etc...).  Even if sponsors are hard to come by, it's easy to be creative.  5 bux from each rider? (Not trying to make this cost anything- just throwing out ideas.)

It could go all over the place.  Ultimately, it's nice to have this to think about while riding.  It made uphill cold rain more rewarding last friday.

What do you think?

Found Objects

I found two PBR's in my bag saturday morning that I didn't remember putting there.

On the side

Found a new bungee cord on my way into work this morning.

1553 Miles and Counting

Here are the current points for week 2.  Jim B came out of nowhere in the second week to really contend with some of the top dogs.  It looks like Mallfellow is untouchable right now...but anything can happen.

Congrats to everyone that chooses to pedal...nice work everyone!