What are you doing on July 11th?

Remember Metro Spokane? The blog? So great. So missed.

Three years ago, the mysterious Metro posted an idea about trying a Cyclovia in Spokane. That post generated some comments and as far as I know, planted the seed of the idea in many local bikey organizer types (Ah-BillBender- hem!).

Well, Spokane Summer Parkways is the result. Don't know what a summer parkway or a Cyclovia is? Go check out the Spokane Summer Parkways website.

Then click the Volunteer tab and sign up. Because to pull this off, the event still needs over 30 volunteers for the first event on July 11th.

Call it culture, call it community... whatever

It's growing. I guess it was inevitable. Maybe Mariah is onto something.

Two interesting bikey things happening. Well, if you count Jeff's continuing and unfolding masterpiece, then 3.

Wait, there was also about 200 cyclists/pedestrians/interested people at the SmartRoutes rally downtown yesterday. SmartRoutes is about getting people out of cars, but the thrust of the initiative (cash) is bike related. So there's that.

There's a lot of bike activity going on in Spokane. There has been for some time, but the difference now is that we're seeing some numbers at these events.

Anyway, the two interesting items that I discovered today:

Interesting item #1: cruiser/vintage bike rides

I see these events pop up on Craigslist about once a month. A neighbor buddy of mine loves these rides. And in fact, he doesn't think that people who don't ride vintage bikes should even be allowed (if that makes sense). Anyway, someone posted pictures of the ride on Shutterfly.

This is a good turn out. This would not have happened on a chilly Sunday 2 years ago.

Interesting item #2: Fixed/Single Speed Race

Simon is really interested in getting the fixed crowd racing. This has been tried a few times and is likely happening today under the radar. There's lots of reasons racing fixed gear bikes through the city streets should be under the radar, so I admire anyone willing to stand up, print a flyer, and pass it out. And it sounds like he's got the Hanger 57 people on board. They'll be selling $1 Pabst. Because, what's a fixed event without Pabst?

This just in: Simon will be premiering the movie, Fast Friday, at Hanger 57 after the ride. Fast Friday is a documentary about the fixed culture in Seattle.

Did you know that all the way up into the early 60's there were frequent amateur bike races in Spokane? I don't know much about them, but I do know that they were free-for-alls, and that streets were not closed down, and a common finish line was Manito Park. If you know of anyone that may know more about this, please send them my way. I'd love to learn more. Whatever I learn, I'll post.

SpokeFest v1

With 1200 riders the first year, this event was an unqualified success.

The vision for this event was from Bill Bender. Bill is a morning ride guy. In fact, I think it's his ride that he started 18 years ago. This is a ride that hammers the Hangman loop at like 5:30 AM. Bill's day job is neurology. He jumped into the SpokeFest thing head first and just started making it go. He pulled together a board of people; got sponsors; and generally did stuff. I've talked about idea guys before. Bill is a doer. I'm impressed with his ability to pull this together.

The range of cyclists that attended this event was impressive: from the fully kitted out team cyclist to the "this is the first time I've ridden my bike this year" family guy.

I'm curious to see how this event shakes out for next year. It should be clear to the sponsors, cyclists, and vendors that were wary of participating in the version 1 SpokeFest, that there is interest for this event and that it's likely to be a successful yearly event.

I hope the various segments of the cycling community are able to engage earlier in the planning so that we have an even broader range of cycling representation at the expo.

As I think about the expo/finish line, I'm hoping we'll see a much bigger swap and more (and healthier) food choices next year.

I want to see more bike shops there. Given the timing of SpokeFest, this is a golden opportunity for bike shops to come out and strut their new bike models for the upcoming year.

Bike manufacturers, vendors, and service providers that are local or semi-local (Hairy Gary, Atoc racks, Raliegh/Novara/Redline design teams, Silver Tours, etc) should have a booth there.

A BMX and dirt jumping demo would rule. Maybe a small CX demo course for people to try out. A track stand competition and free style competition would be fun to watch.

Gather a bunch of different load hauling bikes so people could get a feel for how different bikes handle loads.

It would be great to have a booth where the local clubs/teams (SRV, FBC, Spokane Bike Club, Emde, etc) could tell their stories and cultivate new members.

BAB should be there with educational material and with maps and an updated story about the overall Master Bike Plan progress.

BAW should be there in a similar way. This year they pushed the swap, but next year we should see a booth that explains who they are and what they do to get more members signed up.

P2P should have a bigger presence. P2P was there swapping, but fielded way more questions about what we do and where we do it and how people could get involved.

I'm starting to sound like an idea guy here. I haven't even gotten to the riding part...

Bike Swap V1

Today was the first bike swap. I'm sure there's been other bike swaps in Spokane's history, but this is the first I know of in at least 5 years.

It was slow. But standing around hanging out with familiar bikey-faces/friends is a nice way pass the time on a Sunday morning.

Ken and Mike loaded up the P2P trailer with all sorts of goodies. P2P made some money, but the trailer had more bikes going back to the garage than it did when it left.

Ken is kind of the bike sales guy for P2P. He's good at it and moves em out. He's talking about doing a fixie/single-speed frame and bits garage sale some time soon. Watch Craigslist for that.

There's talk of doing a few more Sunday swaps next spring and summer. Finding a free space where we're not in the way on a Sunday would be cool. Then we could do it a bit later and get more of the sleeper-inners out.

However it works, I'm game.

Got Time? SpokeFest needs you.

I'm running wild trying to keep up after a week away. And I'm gone again tomorrow for a few days for work stuff.

I really want to write up a post on the big x-state journey. But that's not going to happen for a few days.

In the meantime, take a look at an email I got from a buddy of mine, Bill Bender. Bill is the guy that is putting together SpokeFest. I ranted about how there's "idea guys" and people that do stuff a while back... Bill is a guy that does stuff.

Anyway, SpokeFest is in a month. He needs volunteers:

Last week I sent you a general message about SpokeFest, which will be on 9/7 at 9am. The SpokeFest Association is working hard to have a first class event for the City of Spokane.

I am writing again to ask some specific help. We need volunteers for the day of the event. Some are needed to help set up, some are needed to tear down the finish area in Riverfront Park after the ride. Both would allow you to still ride. We also need a handful of people to be marshalls on the course during the ride.

Would you be willing to help with any part of this? It would be much appreciated.

We also have a 1 mile loop through Riverfront Park for kids. We want it to be a safe course, so that parents feel good about letting their kids go alone. This means that we want it lined with people all the way around. We are looking for High School aged marshalls on this course. If we could get a whole group of them who want to volunteer, that would be great. I am thinking of groups like, the whole cross country team, a whole soccer team, a youth group, the cheerleaders, etc. Do you have a connection to some group that would be willing to cheer young children around a course for about an hour?

Thanks for thinking about this. Please let me know if you can help.

Bill Bender

Presidnet, SpokeFest Association

Go to the SpokeFest site for more info.

An Easy One to Support

If you are looking for easy money to spend and a good meal on Sunday night, here's a slam dunk.

Jacque smashed out 8 teeth and busted her jaw when she wrecked on her bike a few weeks ago. She needs help with bills to put everything back together. Last I heard this was in the $30k range. The event is a fundraiser at the Wild Sage this Sunday night.

The Wild Sage is hands-down my favorite full-service place in town. And Jacque's step-dad is just a really good guy who loves riding. To top it off, one of the silent auction items is a a Pedals2People Basic Maintenance Class for you and 3 friends, taught by Liza-the-Great.

See you there.

Speaking of Flats

My brother-in-law is in town for a week. He brought his bike, which he's just starting to kind of ride more. He got a flat today on his way up the south hill. He had all the stuff to change his flat, but had never changed a flat on a bike before.


Some other cyclist stopped and helped him out. Cool. If the anonymous cyclist is reading this: thanks for being a cool cyclist.


I always try to stop and make sure broke down cyclists have what they need. I'm pretty good at it, but I'm going to be better, because my BIL, who is quiet and probably didn't go on and on with thanks, was really thankful. It's a nice way to bring new cyclists into the fold as well.



SmartRoutes

If you want to know what Spokane would do with $50 million dollars for a transportation mode shift to include more cycling/walking, read the SmartRoutes plan. This plan was just released today and will go off to the US DOT for the 2010 Transportation funding cycle.

A bunch of people threw in on this plan to pull it together in the last couple months. The main driver was Eve Nelson at SRTC. It was a herculean effort to make this happen. Nice job Eve.

Italian dude with his folder. Liza took this picture a couple years ago. She asked him if he would mind if she tooka shot of his bike.He said he didn't care, then he struck this pose.

Great Divide Update


Mr. Blaine is hanging in there; he's about in the upper middle of the pack. Sounds like stomach issues are plaguing him. The number 2 rider dropped out today as did another rider. From the GDR update page, it sounds like this is where things go from miserable to gruelling.

Tuesday Bike Stuff

Item #1 - Jonathon Chung

Jonathon is from Taiwan. He's been riding around North America since last August. He's traveled 7400 miles so far. I've been signed up as a host on the warmshowers list for over 2 years now, and while I've taken advantage of others' hospitality, Jonathon was my first guest. Yay.

What a cool guy; very gracious.

Some facts:

• 50 lbs of gear
• Started from the mid-west, went to Toronto, then down the east coast, through the south to San Diego, then up the west coast to Vancouver BC. Now he's on his way back down to LA via the Great Divide.
• His visa expires in August so he's flying back
• He's replaced a spoke, 3 rear tires, the rear cassette, and the rear derailleur. Not bad.
  

Item #2: Bad Lands Summer Twilight Series race at Lincoln Park

My friend Taylor (no. 240) came in 3rd in the "B" class. The first 3 finishers were all within a foot or so of each other as they blasted over the finish line. What a great race. It's fun to watch and learn about racing and the Lincoln Park race is perfect because it's such a small course. You can walk around and see the different sections and the challenges in each section.

Taylor (in blue) and the dude in red broke away from the pack early in the race for a $2 preme. (Cha-ching!) The guy who won the race ended up breaking from the pack in the last few minutes, but otherwise the pack stayed back by about 20 seconds for the entire race after the preme. For the majority of the race, Taylor pulled the guy in red up a slight grade at the back side of the course, while Taylor drafted the red guy on the down grade.

Next Lincoln Park crit is July 15th at 6PM. Put it on the calendar now. This is a great after-work no-money-fun event.

Item #3 - BAB'ing

I wish I could've stayed to watch the C's and A's race, but I had to get down to East Central Community Center and pitch my favorite route to the neighborhood council. The route goes through Playfair, which is going on the auction block very soon.

My mission was to get the neighborhood to make sure bike/ped access is baked into the plan regardless of who ends up with this key connection. The neighborhood ended up passing a resolution that supported access to Playfair as long as it didn't disrupt the sale -- so it's sort of a good thing, but I would've liked a stronger statement with some bite.

Item #4 - Mr Blaine update

According to SPOT, it looks like he's bedding down outside of Libby MT tonight on the southern tip of Lake Koocanusa. The race starts on Friday.

Item #5 - FBC Ride tomorrow night

Meet at Benidittos South at 8. Ride at 9.

Racking Spokane

There is movement afoot: real movement towards putting some bike racks downtown.

As usual with Good Bike Things That Happen in Spokane, there's a bunch of people working angles and pulling strings and generally doing stuff behind the scenes:

• Former BAB member Kimberly: initiated a bike rack study for downtown (how many, where are they, where should new ones go.)


• Current BAB member Cindy: collaborated with EWU to get Kim's study implemented by EWU planning students.


• SpokeFest'ers: connecting with DSP and throwing in some money.


• Andrew with DSP: finding a local vendor to produce the rack; working with the city code enforcment to understand placement; rounding up some seed money to install initial set of racks


• EWU Planning student Beth: figuring out where the first half-dozen or so racks should go.


• Jon at Out There: providing print ad discounts for businesses that install bike racks

I'm sure I've missed some people in this list.

This looks promising. Hopefully we'll see some racks going in downtown in the next few months.

Once the process and rules and regulations are figured out, hopefully we can get page up on the city web site or the BAB site that explains the hows and ways of putting a rack in front of your business or store.

Other rack news:

• Plum Tree school is getting a super fancy rack/bike leaner built by local artist and eco-geek, Hazen Audel, in the next month or so.

• The Spokane Indian's ball park is installing a super sweet bike rack that is made from recycled steel tubing that came out of the grandstands during the off season refurbishing. The rack will be sponsored by Wheel Sport.

Memorial Day Weekend

Mellow weekend. For the second Sunday in a row some friends and I have done the High Drive Churchin Ride. It's about an hour of tooling around the trails. Roughly it translates to 20 minutes of riding, 20 minutes of pushing bikes up steep hills, and 20 minutes of resting/panting. Then we go to the Scoop for coffee.

Sunday night, we did a dinner ride. We stopped and ate outside at Bangkok Thia (formerly: Riverview). Then we tooled around the north side. Then back over the river, where we ended up at the Elk for beers.

Taylor here is training for the Twilight Race Series. He mumbled something about how his body is a temple and how a high performance machine required high performance fuel -- as he gobbled down the "moon unit" and swilled beer after beer.

Not really. Liza bought that and we all ate it. I just wanted the photo op. By the way. Put June 17th on your calendar. That's the Lincoln Park Criterium. That'll be a fun one to watch. Races start at 6 PM. The upper piece of Lincoln Park is a natural race course. Short and fast.

Here we are grouped at Ruby. On the way to pick up Mike and Beth. Top right is Mike and Diane. They both recently got new bikes. This was Mike's inagural ride on his new bike.

My buddy Alex posted a bunch of pics of his Memorial Day cargo bike ride in Seattle. Among other beauts, there was a Big Dummy, with the blender attachment in action. An older Rock and Roll similar to mine. It's pretty much built up how I want to build up mine: drop bars in the front, bar-ends, mountain stoker bars, etc. Mine is on loan at the moment, but we're repo'ing it this winter to build it up for next year. Liza and I will be going for some land-speed-records on that.

I love this trailer. I like that the wheels are sort of protected from the load and that you can load over the wheels on the flat platforms. Smart design. I have a friend that may be able to help me build something like this. I like the small steel square tubing too. I wonder how it connects to the rear wheel?

Of course there was a Kogswell P/R. Nicely appointed and hauling a trailer. A Bakfiest with a Stokemonkey and this cool-ass, S&S'd cargo bike. I wonder if this is one by David Wilson?

Rain Ride

An unrelated string of events lined up in the last week or so that resulted in my being able to take an unplanned week of vacation this week. It's really a great treat to be able to take a vacation without going somewhere. Just not working for a week without extensive plans is righteous.

Today, I rode in the rain for most of the day. And I took my "good" camera. Lots o shots.

This is good rain too. Click the first image up above to see the sheets of rain hitting the street. But it's warm. It was about 55 all day, so riding around mostly wet is fun.

First off, I took the leap. I bought some Rain Legs. These are the height of bicycle nerdom, but they are great. They keep your thighs dry, which, if you're riding with fenders and a rain jacket, is the only place that gets super wet otherwise. I was happy to have them and based on initial impression, I'd recommend them. By the way, I bought them from WallBike. I've not seen Rain Legs at any LBSs here in Spokane.

I met Patrick, of Scoop fame, at his shop at 10:30. We rode down to his place in West Central and picked up his bike trailer. On the way we stopped at Sandifur bridge and saw a lot of water. A lot of water. Too much water.

When we got to Patrick's house, Elissa was there, baking cookies with Miyo and Ruby. I got a cookie that was still warm. Yum. As she handed me my cookie, Elissa did a double take and then promptly made fun of my Rain Legs, "oh my god! are you wearing chaps??" And all was right in the world.

Then Patrick and I went off to pick up a tree and find lunch.

After treeing and lunching, we said our good byes and I headed to the Eastern Washington Regional Office of the Washington Department of Transportation to meet with Melanie and Jody. They're engineers that are working on the "US 195 Hatch Road to I-90 Project." That's the one that touches Fish Lake Trail, the Latah strip mall area, and numerous other bits of suburban and rural properties.

I'm still processing. In the next few days I'll post a full report of my digestion of that project. But my immediate take-away is awe. I can't believe we (the royal "we:" our society) are even considering these types of projects at this stage of the game. The I-90/Hatch project is behind the North/South Corridor project (NSP) in terms of priority and funding and the NSP is mired in deep poo, so the likelihood that we'll see the I-90/Hatch come to fruition any time soon is difficult for me to buy. Anyway. Here's a teaser of what a Hatch and US 195 interchange could look like in some version of our future:

After my talk with Jody and Melanie (who, by the way, were super gracious and accommodating in allowing me to invite myself into their work day), I went off to REI to ride home with Liza. Yay.

In the picture on the left I think she's laughing at my Rain Legs. The picture on the right is a good "Bike Spokane" type promo shot.

The day ended with a BAB meeting downtown. The big news from that meeting is that SpokeFest is a strong "go" now. Lots of interest and some good sponsorship popped up over the last month or so and it's going to be really cool. This whole bicycling thing appears to be catching on.

Good day. I could get used to not working.

Weekend in Pictures

Good riding weekend. The bike above looks like an old Free Spirit (based on what's left of the decals). It's spent a good chunk of time in the river. This was picture taken on a trail that I used to ride almost daily about 15 years ago. It's behind Riverside Memorial cemetery. Back in the good old days you could take a trail from People's Park, pop up on Gov't Way for 1/4 mile or so, then back down through the cemetery and follow this trail out to Bowl and Pitcher. A really nice section of this was wiped out by the mountain of fill dirt to build the cul de sacs up there behind the mega church on Gov't Way. It's a bummer. There's a lower trail there, but it's super loose sand and in a pretty sensitive area. The other section, by the sisters is cut off as is the piece of trail across from the water treatment plant. You can still ride these trails, but you're trespassing and that's not going to make any friends for cyclists.

On the way back from 7 mile, we noticed that the southern approach to Maple Street bridge was blocked off. Sweet. My buddy and fellow BAB'er Bill has talked about the allure of riding the "forbidden fruit:" closing traffic for a day on a high-volume bridge and allowing cyclists to ride it. The concept never really clicked with me until yesterday as Mike, Jason, and I rode three abreast across the Maple Street bridge. It was great because it's such a bummer to ride with traffic. But cruising across the bridge in the middle of the day was inspiring some how. Bill's dream, by the way, is to grow SpokeFest into a ride that incorporates the closing of at least one major bridge for cyclists. It won't happen in the first year, but with a strong enough turn out and some support, it may work for next year.

That's Mike. Hauling across Maple on his righteous old Italian steed. We had a good time riding around town and riding trails out at RSP. Hot day. I had the salt deposit deal going on my shirt by the time I came home.

One missed photo-op yesterday happened when I spied a guy hauling a bike on an xtracycle. Jason and I caught up with him . I recognized him and his wife from the Master Bike Plan open houses. I'm about 90% sure her name is Nicki (I'm 100% sure that's spelled wrong) and I'm about 45% sure his name is Craig or Greg. Regardless of their names, they are cool folks and fun to chat with. They are looking forward to the FBC Prom ride on May 31st.

Speaking of which, Monday (tomorrow night) is this month's FBC Full Moon Fiasco. It should be a glorious night. Come one, come all to Pear Tree Inn at 8 pm. Be ready to roll by 9.

There's Tim. His daughter Ruby is sitting on his version of the companion carrier. He did a really nice hack with a nice padded, wide, sprung saddle and a million zipties. Sweet ride. Patty is looking on in the back ground.

Here's some synergy: Patty and Tim own Neato Burrito/Baby Bar. They are hosting the May 31st Prom Ride. There's even a Prom Decorating Committee. Tim is talking about turning away people that don't turn up on bikes. That rules.

Sunday morning. This lame camera photo shows a hill. In that hill is an amazingly wonderful descent that I've somehow missed in my time noodling around the High Drive trails. Wow. If I don't come home some day, check here first. This hill really tempts you to bomb. You can see most of the run from the top and it's got a series of turns and rollers that just encourages full speed descending.
That's Kevin. He's a British guy that just recently moved here from the UK. I met him on a Full Moon Fiasco ride. Note the On-One single speed.

I met up with Kevin and Joe at Polly Judd this morning after tooling around the trails. I followed Kevin back up. He's a typical single speeder in that he climbs quickly, it was a great challenge to keep up with him.

Joe, Kevin and I landed at the Scoop after our High Driving. Patrick and Elissa normally open up the shop at 11 on Sundays, but when we got there at 10:15, coffee was made and the cyclists started pouring in. A chunk of early morning ride cyclists came in after their loop out to Cheney. The 3 of us were there and as we sat, a couple women came in after a ride around the neighborhood.

It takes more than good ideas to build stuff

In my various bike-related groups and local activities I sometimes run into the "idea guys."

"Idea guys" are always guys. They are the ones that tell me "what Spokane needs" when it comes to bike stuff: races, bike lanes, no bike lanes, bike swaps, velodrome, bike education for drivers, bike education for cyclists, etc etc.


There's nothing wrong with ideas, but what makes an "idea guy" different than a person just making a wish, is that the "idea guy" is typically indignant and angry and sort of expecting me, or some organization I'm involved with to take this idea and run with it. The "idea guy" has done his part by simply supplying his brilliant idea... which usually ends with an overly-simplistic plan to fund the idea: "and just sell t-shirts to cover the cost..." or something similar.


I always make a point of responding with a specific action the "idea guy" can do: "Bike races are a great idea, did you know there is an effort at the moment to build a bike event in the fall? All the same issues that will need to be worked out for a bike race (closing streets, contacting/working with vendors and sponsors, etc) are happening now with this event: by helping with this event, you'll get great experience and contacts for giving races a shot... Every one wins!"


That pretty much sticks a fork in most idea guys.


The fact is, all great bike ideas take time and money.


On the time side: my personal opinion, is that bike-related volunteer time is pretty extended at the moment. Maybe I just feel that way because I'm involved in a few different bike events and it's always a challenge to find volunteers.


On the money side: things are getting a bit tight. The corporate sponsors that are typically the targets for money are tightening their belts a bit for whatever downturn/recession/whatever-you-want-to-call-it that is coming down the road at us.


If we want bike stuff, especially bike events, we must build it and pay for it.

If you've got time, the best place you can help in the next month is probably with Bike to Work.

If you've got money, the best place you can help is to throw into SpokeFest. If we can pull off year one of SpokeFest, we can do a better second year... then it builds from there. Bloomsday had 1300 runners the first year.

Click the SpokeFest Logo above to go to their site. Become a founder for $25. If that's not easy money to spend, SpokeFest will also need a army of volunteers to make it go too. Reliable volunteers are worth their weight in cash.