I chose my bike instead of my car--that's what this site is about. We want you to use your bicycle instead of your car and tell us about it. No, we don't expect you to ditch the gas guzzler for good immediately. What we want to encourage and support are baby steps. Tell us when you jumped on the velo to go to the convenience store for toilet paper. Or three blocks to the liquor store for a sixer.
When you register and tell us, we put you in a monthly pool for prizes. Yes, EVERY month we'll pull a name and give away bike stuff for free.
For now it is Kansas City area only but if enough people write and beg the site organizer maybe they will expand.
permanent link to article: "Choose2Bike"
posted by Brent Hugh at
4/25/2007 10:35:00 AM |comment on this article
National Federation for Blind bicycle trip looking for riders
Monday, April 23, 2007
James Grass is looking for a captain for a tandem team who can ride with a visually impaired stoker on an upcoming ride and also a van driver for the ride. If you are interested in taking part in this trip, contact James for all the details. Email: jrg@waterfallsusa.com
Here are some details about the ride:
I have organized a bicycle trip with the National Federation of the Blind. The trip is on tandems with sighted captains and the NFB members as the stokers. I need one more person to be in the captain position and one person to drive a support van for the trip.
June 15 (Friday) Meet in Kansas City after 5 pm. ( location to be determined) to discuss trip.
June 16 (Saturday) transfer by van to Clinton MO. Ride 36 miles from Clinton to Sedalia , MO. Passing several small towns on the way. We stay that night at the Best Western Hotel in Sedalia. Address 3120 S. Limit St @ 32nd st. (Ph 660-826-6100)
June 17 (Sunday) Ride 37 miles from Sedalia to Boonville, MO. Passing thru Clifton City and Pilot Grove on the way. We stay at the Holiday Inn express. Address 2419 Mid America Dr. (Ph 660-882-6882)
June 18 ( Monday) Ride 49 miles from Boonville to N. Jefferson, MO. We stay at the the Best Value Inn Summit Plaza. Address 150 City Plaza Dr. (Ph 573-896-8787)
June 19 ( Tuesday) Ride 47 miles from N. Jefferson to Hermann, MO. We stay at the Harbor House. Address 2nd and Market St. ( Ph 888-942-7529)
June 20 ( Wednesday) Ride 38 miles from Hermann to Augusta, MO. We stay at the Edelweiss Guest House. Address 5567 Walnut St. ( P h 636-482-4307)
June 21 ( Thursday ) Ride 26 miles from Augusta to trail end at St. Charles, MO. Arrange for shuttles to St. Louis, or to Kansas City.
Approximate costs per person. Accommodations = 275 $, food= 200 $, bike rental = 75 $, van rental & gasoline = 40. Total (approx) = 600 $ Not included in above price is transportation to Kansas City on June 15. Shuttles back to Kansas City or onto St. Louis at trip end are not included in above prices.
1. On a map of your town, find the location of your home. Place the point of a divider compass there, and draw a circle with a two-mile radius.
2. Now mark with a highlighter the places that you regularly visit: your workplace, grocery store, place of worship, day care center, and any other place you visit at least once every two weeks.
3. Choose one of the places that falls within the circle and commit to walking, biking, or taking transit to it instead of driving. (More than one-quarter of Americans’ daily automobile trips are a mile or less. Almost 14 percent are less than half a mile, a 10-minute walk.)
4. Take note of the unbeatable benefits of walking. "Walking helps put me back in touch with nature, back in touch with myself," writes car-free commuter Troy Holter from Montana. "I notice the more subtle aspects of the natural environment: a change of color, delicate sounds, the feel of air on my skin, my body connecting with itself."
5. Every couple of weeks, commit to walking, biking, or taking transit to another location within the circle.
6. Begin choosing places outside the two-mile radius and see if you can find a closer alternative.
7. Now assess your new transportation needs. Total up all your household’s driving and calculate whether occasional taxi rides and car rentals wouldn’t be cheaper than paying all the bills for two—or even one—car.
Single-day options available for Tour de Grape, May 12-13, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Tour de Grape, a fund-raising ride for HavenHouse St. Louis, is offering single-day options for people wishing to do the ride May 12-13 in Farmington and Ste. Genevieve, Mo.
You can do either day of the ride for a $25 fee plus $150 in pledges. You also can do both days for the same $25 fee plus $250 in pledges.
On Day One, riders will travel 45 or 60 miles from Farmington through the gentle hills of Missouri’s Lead Belt and the Trail of Tears with lunch in Fredericktown, and the long route will take cyclists to the scenic Silver Mines Recreation Area. The long route will test your early season hill climbing skills.
Day Two begins and ends in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., and riders will enjoy their choice of a 45- or 60-mile tour that will take them by the country’s oldest homesites and across the Mississippi River to cruise along the almost-flat bluff roads past some of Southwestern Illinois' most historic sites. At the completion of the ride, participants are invited to a wine tasting party featuring the area’s five local wineries.
HavenHouse St. Louis provides lodging for the families of children receiving treatment in St. Louis area hospitals.
New bike racks are appearing around the Old Webster area.
Ron Clipp of The Hub Bicycle Co. on West Lockwood Avenue, got a neighborhood improvement grant from the city of Webster Groves to put up six new racks. One is outside A Strand Above bead shop on Gore Avenue. The rest are around Lockwood Avenue in front of St. Louis Bread Company, Bank of America, and Webster Records. The sixth rack will be installed outside Starbucks when it is completed. . . .
"I want people to use them," Clipp said. He said he hoped people would not mistake them for art.
Kansas City has hit the big time with its very own Naked Bicycle Ride. Unlike the more famous World Naked Bicycle Ride, Kansas City's version was held in the 45-degree temperatures of early April.
We have been constitutionally unable to personally check out the photos or videos of the ride, but our, uh, sources inform us that a fair number of riders showed up in various states of dress.
Last summer, Columbia's Zach Hockett was a 16-year-old stranger in a strange land (Belgium), who didn't speak the language (Dutch), with biking shorts discolored (blood).
He was part of a team of junior riders selected by USA Cycling to represent America in a series of European races. . . .
Hockett, a junior at Rock Bridge, survived and did well enough to convince USA Cycling to invite him back for another tour of Union Cycliste Internationale events. He will fly to Europe on May 2. And he's not the only Columbian who will be representing America in Europe. Nolan Froese, 17, also was selected.
Ironman Triathlon World Champion. U.S. National Cycling Team member. USCF and NORBA Elite and Masters National Champion. UCI World Championship Medallist. Three-time Olympic Cycling Team 10 years U.S. National Team 14-time USCF and NORBA Elite and Master’s National Champion Ironman Triathlon World Champion (1981) Cycling 24-Hour Drafting World Record Holder, 539 miles (1987) Cycling World Absolute Speed Record Holder, 152.2 mph Competitive Cycling Magazine’s Cyclist of the Decade -- 1970s
A lifetime of bragging rights accompanies any one of those feats.
But one man, John Howard, has accomplished them all -- and then some.
The "then some" would include Howard's participation in the 1982 Great American Bike Race, precursor to Race Across AMerica. He came in second to Lon Haldeman that year with a time of 10 days, 10 hours and 59 minutes. But he was first in another category. Howard was RAAM's first Rookie of the Year. . . .
A native of Springfield, MO, Howard first became interested in cycling at the age of 15, riding the slopes around his home -- the Ozark Mountains. In cycling, Howard wasn't following in his father's footsteps, those of Harry Howard, a high school football star. Rather he was blazing new territory. Go figure.
"My first real cycling hero was Marshall Major Taylor," Howard said of the turn-of-the-century black cycling great.
Howard will visit several places in Missouri in mid-May--St. Louis May 15-20, and perhaps some other Missouri communities around that time.
[Unfortunately, the Tour de Grape has been canceled this year because of circumstances beyond the control of HavenHouse St. Louis. The organizers hope to regroup and come up with a quality event in 2008. Keep an eye on TourDeGrape.com for more information.]
The Tour de Grape is a MoBikeFed Advocacy Event--a ride that donates a small portion of each registration fee towards bicycle advocacy in Missouri. Please consider supporting this event that supports bicycling in Missouri:
It's Tour de Grape Time!
Sign up now for an early spring ride to benefit HavenHouse St. Louis
May 12 & 13, 2007 Cycling Tour of the Wine Areas Near Farmington and Ste. Genevieve, MO Choice of 45 or 60 Miles Each Day
Awards Dinner Day One * Lunch Each Day * Wine Tasting Party Day Two SAG Support from Mesa Cycles
$25 Registration and Minimum Fundraising of $250 Register Online at www.tourdegrape.com
Contact: Julie Gaebe Development Director HavenHouse 12685 Olive Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63141 314.434.5858 or fax: 314.434-6541 www.havenhousestl.org
Andy Sherman and Jesse Matthews are determined to stop the spread of the disease, which they say is both preventable and deadly, by purchasing and delivering by bicycle mosquito nets to villages of West Africa. . . .
This summer will be the second trip to West Africa for the third year medical school students. In 2005, Sherman and Matthews raised $5,500, enough to purchase 605 mosquito nets, which protected 1,800 people in seven small Senegal villages that were so remote trucks couldn’t get to them. They delivered the nets by bicycle.
This summer they will return to Senegal for about 10 weeks and hope to increase the number of lives they touch by delivering 1,000 nets to 10 villages. As part of their project, they teach education sessions that prepare villagers to spread the word about how to prevent the malaria.
At last--proper chain cleaning instructions, just in time for the first of April
Sunday, April 01, 2007
It is well-known that proper chain cleaning is the most vital and important aspect of cycling. There are zillions of doo-dads and gimmicks out there intended to make this task easier for spoiled, lazy cyclists.
Unfortunately, there's no "free lunch" in bicycle maintenance, and all of these existing systems are fundamentally mono-buttocked kluges.
The only proper way to clean a bicycle chain is to disassemble it, otherwise there is no way to be sure you've thoroughly cleaned and properly lubricated the critical internal parts where chain wear occurs.
Similarly, there's no way to apply correct lubrication to an assembled chain, since the rollers have different lubrication needs than the link articulation pins do! . . .
If you're a cheapskate, you can use the same grease for both the pins and the rollers, but if you want to do it right, you will use:
* Deakins White RollerGrease for the rollers, so they can roll freely.
* Phil Wood green grease for the pins, which are the parts that usually wear first.
This is the step that makes your chain better than new! When chains come from the factory, they're lubricated by dipping, so that the same lubricant is used on all parts of the chain. This is a cost-cutting move on the part of the manufacturers, who choose a lubricant that is a compromise between an optimal roller lube and an optimal pin lube.
Real Cyclists, however, eschew such penny-pinching compromises, and use the correct lubricant for each application, even if it is a bit more trouble.
