Don't steal bikes, bro

Bike Thief vs Street Justis from triple on Vimeo.

Read This

http://davidfinlayson.typepad.com/fin_notes/2008/12/some-words-about-gilbert-kaplan.html

funny stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn29DvMITu4

Grocery Getter building contest....

FROM THE FIXED GEAR GALLERY.........

Grocery Getter Contest

The contest is officially open.

General Rules.....
1.Grocery Getter..... your interpretation.
2. No price limit.
3. Must be able to transfer safely the following:
10# bag of dog food
5# bag of kitty liter,
1 gal milk and a pint of half and half
5# bag flour
Pkg of 8 rolls of tp,
1 loaf of bread
1# of spaghetti or other pasta
2 six-packs of beer
a 12oz bottle of maple syrup,
six cans of tuna,
and 1 box of Tuna Helper
any reasonable substitutions of these items may be made. .

4. $25 entrance fee to benefit the fight for a cure to Histiocytosis. Use the PayPal link below for your entry.

5. Submission photos must show the grocery list loaded on the bike.
6. Conveyance may include trailer, sidecar, extensive racks, skyhook accessories, etc.
7. Judging based entirely on function and creativity.
8. Must be fixed.
9. All contest entries must be received by July 10, 2009. 10. Prizes to be determined by contest start.

I have the utmost confidence that the judges will look past the $ spent and find the winner. I see no reason for someone to be limited to choosing between either a crappy crankset or a decent set of tires. These bikes are meant for utility.

http://fixedgeargallery.com/contest/grocerygetter/ for more information....

Bike Tour

Willie, formerly of NOLA, is doing a bike tour from Wisconsin to Vermont. Follow his journey here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/WItoVT

Willie is a very cool dude, so follow his journey and send him notes cheering him on. What he is doing is hard to do alone, so he could use some home grown support.

Atlanta Midsummer Invitational

Deezer, RoadRash, Weeber, and Dr. Tuba are departing for this event tonight. Wish us luck!

A few articles...

Here are a few articles on cycling in Louisiana. We have some exciting laws making their way thru the state legislature right now...

http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A56735

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-7/124417932844810.xml&coll=1

More Memphis stuff

Pre-festival interview: http://www.bikeblognyc.com/?p=3336

Nice recap by Cort of Memphis: http://www.bikeblognyc.com/?p=3573

Safety in Numbers

For years cyclists have thought that there was safety in numbers. Well, here is proof!

Prose taken from fixmemphis.blogspot.com:

From 1998-2008, daily ridership in NYC slightly more than doubled (rising to 180k from 80k). In that same period the number of annual cycling casualties fell by nearly half from 5000 to 2700. The more people ride, the safer riding becomes for everyone. The average cyclist in NYC is now four times less likely to be injured while riding than they were ten years ago.

Think about this. Every person you convince to ride their bike as often as you, makes you four times as safe.

Put the word out, save some lives.

Graphic from: http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/06/05/safety-in-numbers-its-happening-in-nyc/

June Alley Cat

Here's my route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2891823

Here's what I would've ridden, had I known the correct answer to the clues: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2891839 ......significantly shorter....

BFF Photos

Hanging outside of Alona's (Sp?) house

Megan from Memphis wins 1st place lady
David from Baton Rouge is happy to finish the Memphis Watercat Race
Andy's back got dirty...

Andy and Travis revel in the fun that was the Memphis Watercat Race

Here is a link to more: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brooksmuseum/sets/72157619024479487/

Memphis and the Bicycle Film Festival

Travis, David, and I went to Memphis this past weekend for the Bicycle Film Festival. For those of you not familiar with the Bicycle Film Festival, it started 12 years ago in NYC. It has since grown to be in 38 (I think) cities across the world this year. Well, we went to it in Memphis.

We left Thursday evening around 6:30 PM and made it to Memphis around 12:30am. We checked in to the Pilgrim House hostel located in First Congregational Church on Cooper St in Midtown Memphis, then pedaled to meet up with Cort and AB at a bar. We stayed there til the bar closed at 3AM, then rode around getting our bearings on Memphis. The Brooks Museum, which was where they were showing the films, was about 1.5 miles north of our hostel in Overton Park. We checked that out, and just did some miscellaneous exploring. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2876032

Friday morning, we woke up around 9 or 10AM and rode east towards the U of Memphis campus. We ate breakfast at Brother Juniper's (amazing!!) before heading out on our day of riding in Memphis. Then we walked across the street and bought a few innertubes from Peddler's Bike Shop on Highland St before riding around campus. We hit up a parking garage just for good measure. We then headed to the Schwinn Bike Shop on Summer Ave. They held strange business hours for a bike shop, and we never actually made it in to look around. Thru the windows, it looked like it had a pretty amazing collection of franken-parts. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2876052

Later that day, we did more pedaling to the No Regrets Tattoo parlor, back to the Schwinn shop with Cort and AB, back to the hostel, then to the museum, then to Nocturnal for the after party and open sprints, then to Alona's (sp?) house, then back to the hostel.

Saturday= woke up, ate at Huey's, went to the museuem, tried to play polo in a nearby parking lot but got kicked out. Ended up playing polo behind the Hi Tone for an hour or so before the showing of Road to Roubaix. After the movie, headed to the hostel to drop off our stuff before heading back to Rainbow Lake in Overton Park for the Watercat race. No bags, no locks, valuables in a zip-lock bag because you will get wet, we were told. Here's my route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2876218

I got sepearated from David and Travis coming back over the Auction Street bridge, but still managed to beat them both by a hair. Here is their route (I think): http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2876140

We then went back to the hostel to clean up, rode to Bosco's for dinner, then to Murphy's for the after party. Then, I went back to Alona's house, then to the hostel to sleep. Travis and David stayed out later and went to a few more bars and stuff after Murphy's.

Sunday, we rode to Huey's again, then got our bikes washed by the Memphis Belles burlesque show girls at Shangri-La records, bought a bunch of vinyl while they were doing that, rode back to the hostel and visited Revolutions Bike Co-Op, and headed back to B.R.

Baton Rouge Critical Mass

The next Baton Rouge edition of critical mass will be this Friday (May 30, 2009) Meeting place is the LSU Clocktower at 5:30. Typical roll out time is around 6PM.

I have no idea what the potential route will be as this is an informal, leaderless expression of our right to assemble and our right as cyclists to be on the road.

I implore you though, if you come out to critical mass, please try to be as legal as possible.
I.E. please especially have lights. The ride typically extends into the twilight hours. Lights really are necessary for everyone's safety. Please don't depend on someone else to ride with lights so you can ride next to them... If we all do that, no one has lights...

From NYC Bike Blog

From Vlad at the Glass Bead Collective:
The next NYC critical mass is this Friday 5/29 at 7pm starting at union square north. Come out and enjoy what is now becoming a much safer ride.
We are releasing a new video that takes you inside the New York Critical Mass bike ride from this past March 2009. This immersive short was shot with a 180 degree lens and does a good job communicating what the experience is like.
video posted here, of police harassing the March ride. (this video was posted up earlier on bikeblognyc)
Critical Mass is a leaderless bike ride that takes place in 100s of cities worldwide on the last Friday of every month. The New York Police Department has had a very confrontational relationship with the NYC ride since 2004. From 2004 – 2007, hundreds of police officers were dispatched each month to stop the ride and arrest the participants, deploying helicopters, blimps and undercover officers with video cameras to monitor the ride and engage in the violent take down of the cyclists, initiating a civil rights battle. After much embarrassing media attention and several losses in court, the NYPD were forced to retreat from these tactics. The arrests have stopped, but the police continue to harass riders by giving out tickets to cyclists who do not have lights or bells on their bikes. Anyone receiving this ticket can get it annulled by presenting lights and/or bells and their ticket to a precinct the following day.
Hence - please come to the ride but make sure you have a bell and lights on the front and back of your bike - this will significantly reduce a chance that you will be harassed by the police.
This selective targeting is currently being challenged in federal court in the Five Borough Bike Club vs NYC . See 5bbc.org/parade
This event is no longer just a bike issue, but a civil liberties issue. The harassment of this ride is a direct result of New York City’s police leadership trying to impose a permitting system where spontaneous gathering of citizens would be subject to a permission’s process. In effect they are trying to take away our constitutional right to assembly and association.
We ask all of you to please forward this message around, as well as the links to the video. Put it on your blogs. This is a fun, family friendly activity that protects some of our most fundamental liberties.

Sunday Fly By Night 5/10/2009

Here's my route from the Sunday Fly By Night. (Despite what the map says, I really started and ended at Highland & Lee....

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2811434

Memphis Bicycle Film Festival

So far, there are 3 of us heading to Memphis for the Bicycle Film Festival. Are you going?

This Blog

So this blog has fallen by the wayside these last few weeks because my other blog (brbikepolo.blogspot.com) has been taking up all my time. In case you follow this blog and not the other, we are doing a series of races here in Baton Rouge on each of the first four Fridays. There is a points system, and whoever has the highest total points wins prizes. There are also prizes for each individual stage winner, as well as fun categories like Fixied Gear Rider, Lady Rider, Out Of Towner, etc etc etc.

We have some really nice sponsors for that too, so you should check it out.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In other news:

BRASS has several events coming up.

At every Sunday In The Park event at Lafayette Park in downtown Baton Rouge, Brass will have a bicycle corral. This is a manned location where you can leave your bike while you go enjoy the festivities. There will also be bicycle corrals at several other festivals in the downtown area.

BRASS also has VELO rides. These have been wildly successful in the past, and are back with a vengeance. Unfortunately, I forgot to post this info before the first one occurred, so you missed the first one. But, the second one, Velo des Oiseaux is Sunday May 17, and celebrates Baton Rouge's bird population. The third, Velo Feliciana actually occurs in St. Francisville area, celebrating the beautiful country that is West Feliciana Parish.

Please check out http://brsafestreets.org/ for more information on those

Check it

4/25/09 Fly By Night Route

This straight up rules...

Watch out for this in Baton Rouge next year....http://www.chicag0.org

Weeber Wednesday 4/8/2009

In a rare turn of events, I was not in Hammond for this week's Weeber Wednesday ride.
These guys ride faster than my 46/16 fixie can handle. I was spinning for most of the route...
Makes me wish I was running a 51/16 or so, because then I could keep up!

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2711629

The above link will take you to the route we rode last night. almost 19 miles!!!

The crazy diagonal lines thru downtown are all the little alleyways and parking lots we rode thru... I don't remember where exactly they all were, but we did ride thru a bunch of them!!

Weeber Wednesday ride meets at 7:15 at City Park, rolls around 7:30 or 7:45. It is a fast ride, typically 17+ mph. Come on out all you roadies!!! :-)

4/5/09 Fly By Night

Here is the link for the route Jared, Travis, Clay, Mike and I rode last night with some INSANE winds... heading back to town was pretty difficult....

Weeber Wednesdays are back!!!!

7:15PM at city park, roadie ride, ~20 - 40 miles depending on the night and who's riding.

http://www.mapmyride.com/view_route?r=763123847327659359

My friends in Memphis have informed me....

...that the bicycle film festival is on in their town! The festival will be rolling in on May 29th and 30th. There is a really great hostel in Memphis, as well as a great deal of cool people. If Baton Rouge/New Orleans/Lafayette/Lake Charles/Slidell or any other town want to go up there, we should car pool. 

Go here for more information!

Bicycle-Sharing Program to Be First of Kind in U.S.

WASHINGTON — Starting next month, people here will be able to rent a bicycle day and night with the swipe of a membership card.

A new public-private venture called SmartBike DC will make 120 bicycles available at 10 spots in central locations in the city. The automated program, which district officials say is the first of its kind in the nation, will operate in a similar fashion to car-sharing programs like Zipcar.
The district has teamed up with an advertiser, Clear Channel Outdoor, to put the bikes on the streets.

“There’s a lot of stress on our transit systems currently,” said Jim Sebastian, who manages bicycle and pedestrian programs for Washington’s Transportation Department. Offering another option, Mr. Sebastian said, “will help us reduce congestion and pollution,” as well as parking problems.

In the deal, Clear Channel will have exclusive advertising rights in the city’s bus shelters. The company has reached a similar deal with San Francisco. Chicago and Portland, Ore., are also considering proposals from advertisers.

For a $40 annual membership fee, SmartBike users can check out three-speed bicycles for three hours at a time. The program will not provide helmets but does encourage their use.
Similar programs have proved successful in Europe. The Vélib program in Paris and Bicing in Barcelona, Spain, both started around a year ago and already offer thousands of bicycles.
Mr. Sebastian, who started trying to bring bike-sharing to Washington even before its success in Paris and Barcelona, said he believed that the program could grow within a year and hoped that it would eventually offer 1,000 bicycles.

While automated bike-sharing programs are new to the United States, the idea of bike-sharing is hardly novel. Milan, Amsterdam and Portland have all had lower-tech free bike-sharing
programs in the past, with Amsterdam’s dating to the 1960s.

But “studies showed that many bikes would get stolen in a day, or within a few weeks,” said Paul DeMaio, a Washington-area bike-sharing consultant. “In Amsterdam, they would often find them in the canals.”

Improved technology allows programs to better protect bicycles. In Washington, SmartBike subscribers who keep bicycles longer than the three-hour maximum will receive demerits and could eventually lose renting privileges. Bicycles gone for more than 48 hours will be deemed lost, with the last user charged a $200 replacement fee.

That technology comes with a price, which is one reason cities and advertisers started joining forces to offer bike-sharing. The European programs would cost cities about $4,500 per bike if sponsors did not step in, Mr. DeMaio said.

Cities realize “they literally have to spend no money on designing, marketing or maintaining” a bike-sharing program, said Martina Schmidt of Clear Channel Outdoor. Washington will keep the revenue generated by the program.

Bike-sharing has become a “public service subsidized by advertising,” said Bernard Parisot, the president and co-chief executive officer of JCDecaux North America, an outdoor advertiser that made a proposal to bring bike-sharing to Chicago.

But, Mr. Parisot added, if users had to pay all of the costs for bike-sharing, “they would probably just take a cab.”

The low cost could be one of the program’s major selling points.
At George Washington University in Foggy Bottom, one of the program’s 10 locations, students were unsure how often they would use SmartBike, but said its price made it worth a try.

“I’d probably use it more in the summer than winter,” said Dewey Archer, a senior. “But for $40? That’s cheaper than gas."

Nice site for calculating gear-inches, skid patches, etc

http://software.bareknucklebrigade.com/rabbit.applet.html

b.r.ALLEY CAT & Polo

Check out brbikepolo.blogspot.com for more info.

check this out!!!

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2008/dec/1/AkiraYOSHIZAWA.htm#image_1

Here is my route from all day Sunday. Started at 10:30 AM, ended at 11:45PM. Lots of LSU Baseball, Bike Polo, and riding around with a fixed gear crew in between.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2620239

If you aren't aware, every Sunday we will be meeting at the LSU clocktower to ride to the courts to play bike polo.

Not to cause any controversy, but.....

With the recent surge of international news regarding the holocaust and whether it actually happened, cyclists may as well capitalize on the subject being relevant!!!!! If you are offended by this blatantly humorous piece of propaganda, pretend you didn't see it.

Recent trips

I just made a few recent trips to the Great Lakes area and had some opportunities to ride around Chicago and Memphis. Chris G in Chicago is a crazy dude who doesn't wear any sort of leg warmer or long underwear under his jeans when he rides in the cold.
Route # 1 http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2592409
I was layered like crazy and he comes rollin' by with his jeans just smiling and flying past me. Jerk! :-) Route # 2 http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2592432

In Memphis, I met Corey, Cort, Dennis, Chase, Kermit, and a few other guys whose names I forgot (I'm sorry!!!) and we rode a pretty amazing route around Memphis. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2592284

All in all, it was a pretty amazing trip! In Chicago, Chris and I cleaned my chain and chainring, and tried to take off my freewheel. It didn't work to well... I tried to go meet him at one of his friend's house for a party during the Academy Awards, but got home too late. By the time I got halfway there, he was on the way back.

The next afternoon, he and I were going to meet up at the Handlebar on North. From looking at the website, it looks like a great spot. They are involved in bicycle issues in Chicago, and seem to be a cool organization. They were closed, however, and catering a private party. So, we rode down Damen to Earwax Cafe. This was a cool little spot in Wicker Park. We ate dinner, then rode back to Chris's pad on Henderson in Roscoe Park. Chicago was a great town, and I really liked the feel for the city that I got from riding around in it.

B.R.A.S.S.

Baton Rouge Advocates for Safe Streets (BRASS) is having their monthly meeting tonight at the Terrace Ave branch of the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Library System. Meeting begins at 6:30 and tonight we have a featured guest!!!

Joining us will be Chief Traffic Engineer for the City of Baton Rouge Ingolf Partenheimer.
Chief Partenheimer wants to make big changes in Baton Rouge quickly. I'm not sure if he will be
fielding questions or if he will simply be reading a statement and then leaving or how exactly his presence will be set up, but he will be there.

Please spread the word about this meeting and get folks out there!!!

Only a few more Mayor's meetings

There are only a few more opportunities for you to get your concerns, questions, issues, and ideas heard by the mayor. These opportunites are at the following locations:

Feb. 16 — 4 p.m. at the Zachary Branch Library, 1900 Church St.;
6:30 p.m. at Scotlandville Branch Library, 7373 Scenic Highway.

Feb. 17 — 4 p.m. at McKinley Alumni Center, 1520 Thomas H. Delpit Road;
6:30 p.m. at St. Aloysius Church, 2025 Stuart Ave.

Feb. 19 — 4 p.m. at Kleinpeter Activity Center (near St. George Church), 7808 St. George Drive; 6:30 p.m, Woodlawn Baptist Church (cafeteria), 5805 Jones Creek Road.

Please tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers, enemies, and local hobos about these meetings!! Show up to these meetings! Make your voice heard! This opportunity is not going to happen again anytime soon, so please take advantage of it!!

Just got this in an email. No mention as to time, but I imagine it is during the day. Please contact Lacey Dupre' or Chelsea's for more information, as I don't have any!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everybody!!!

This Friday, Chelsea's is hosting a meeting for the overpass. This discussion will be about the bridge and the possible bike path it may/should include. The City and State have been invited to attend, I believe the State is doing the bridge. We need to show up show our support for a bike path there!!! COME ON!!!!!!-Lacey

Lacey Dupre'

Manager of Farm Outreach, BREADA

Big River Economic & AgriculturalDevelopment Alliance

P.O. Box 3976, Baton Rouge, LA 70821

FAX 225.387.6153 http://www.breada.org/

Response to a letter to the editor:

This letter is in response to Maia E. Butler’s letter to the editor that was published on February 10th, 2009 in the Baton Rouge Advocate.

My understanding of the Capital Heights lanes is that they were temporarily striped to gauge interest and survey usage. As they were a roaring success, they have very recently been re-striped with bicycle lanes in both directions. While your claim that cars do not necessarily look in both directions for bicycles is correct, cars should be looking both ways for pedestrians. By looking for pedestrians, they should also see any cyclists traveling on that side of the road.

Maia- I encourage you, and all who are interested in bicycle and pedestrian issues in this city and parish, to attend the monthly BRASS meetings. We meet the 4th Thursday of each month at the Terrace Ave. Branch of the EBR Public Library System at 6:30 PM. Speaking of meetings, the Baton Rouge Bike/Ped Committee meets the 2nd Thursday of each month at 5:30 at the CRPC building on 19th and Florida. I also encourage you to write your council-person, senator, and representative and voice your concerns and ideas. If you don’t tell them, they don’t hear you!

1st b.r.ALLEY CAT a success!!!!

Baton Rouge hosted its first monthly alley cat race this past Friday. The series, called the b.r.ALLEY CAT, will occur the first friday of every month. Registration will always be $5 and will always be at 6:30PM. The race will begin at 7PM, and will be a different theme each month. These races are intended to get people out on the streets riding their bikes and learning about their city at the same time.

For a complete recap, visit brbikepolo.blogspot.com

Mayor Holden to hold public meetings

Read this story at the advocate:
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/politics/38682507.html


You should all try to make it to these meetings. Talk about how there are no sidewalks in our city. Talk about how the newly opened Perkins Road near Perkins Rowe is built to interstate standards and has no accomodations for bikes (how wide is too wide for a car?) Talk about how a man got killed on Evangeline after he was hit by TWO seperate cars that drove away after hitting him. That is unacceptable! Let's get out there, make our voices heard! We want smarter, safer, healthier streets. We want a smarter, safer, healthier Baton Rouge! Not just for us, but for our future generations.

In my opinion, top issues would include:

1) making Baton Rouge a safer city (crime reduction, increased social awareness, foster a sense of community and social responsibility, help to create a sense of respect for your fellow citizen whether you know them or not)

2) making Baton Rouge a healthier city. As Louisiana is one of the only 2 states in the entire country with an obesity reate over 40%, Baton Rouge should take a charge and make an example of how to live a healthy lifestyle. This should include physical activity, eating healthy, and improving the general quality of life. This includes making Baton Rouge a walkable and bike-able city. We need to create a system of off-street multi-use paths that will let our city walk, rollerblade, jog, run, walk our dogs, ride bikes, or whatever we want to do without having to do it on a public street. We have the capability to convert the land alongside our many water-ways to create such a system. It just needs to be seen as a public health issue and put into practice. We also need to make our streets safer for people to ride bikes and walk on. A comprehensive system of sidewalks needs to be put in place. Bike lanes should be striped on roads that are able to be modified to accept bike lanes. Where bike lanes are not able to be installed, signage needs to be implemented to inform drivers and bike riders that the road is legally both of theirs, and a mutual respect is warrented. Bikes May Use Full Lane!

3) Arts and Entertainment: Baton Rouge needs to create a demand for and a space to accomodate a full spectrum of arts and entertainment. We need a large amphitheatre like venue to attract big name acts. Baton Rouge-eans shouldn't have to drive to New Orleans to Metallica of The Eagles. They should stop in BOTH cities. Baton Rouge is getting better with some areas of art. The Shaw Center has been a great addition to the arts scene in this city. The improvements around City Park and the Baton Rouge Gallery have been a great addition to the arts scene in this city. We need neighborhood art walks, smaller venues for mid-level acts, and venues for our young people. There is especially a need for an All Ages venue that will attract groups that young people are interested in, AND attract the young people to it. This will keep them interested, engaged, and into something that isn't drugs, alcohol, sex, fighting, or other things that can get young people into trouble.

4) Environment. The overall environment in Baton Rouge needs help. In this instance, I mean environment in several ways. First, the earth needs our help. Despite being an oil rich state, we need to work to end our states dependence on the oil industry. The overall environment of our city needs attention too. We need to make Baton Rouge a beautiul place. It is the capital city of our state. It needs to be the best. It needs to be green. It needs flowers. It needs trees. It needs grass in public areas so people can lay in it and enjoy the beauty that is the Louisiana weather. Less trash, a comprehensive city wide recycling system. If possible, feed into recycling systems that are already in place. Budweiser has one of the largest recycling programs in the country. Could we get our recyclables, crush them, and ship them by rail to budweiser so that they could recycle it for us?

These are the types of thinking that we need to implement in order to make Baton Rouge the flagship parish of our state, and an example for other cities to emulate. At least in my opinion. I will be at as many of these meetings as I can make it to. I hope that those of you that live in the city/parish will make it to at least one as well. If you don't live in the city, talk to your local council persons, mayors, representatives. Get Ascension parish to begin doing these things. Get Livingston Parish to start doing these things. In a nation of 300 million, we have got to start living in harmony with those around us. We have got to start leading better, healthier, more productive lives.

Hey everyone!

It is the last Friday of the month! We all know what that means! This is the glorious day when bicycle riders all over the world take to the streets to exercise our rights to the road.

Here in Baton Rouge, we congregate at the LSU Clocktower at 5:30 and ride from there. Our route will take us all over the area. Starting this month is a new post-mass tradition! Travis and Mid-City Bikes is hosting an after party! Hopefully in the future, we can show bike movies, have a bike kitchen, and talk about how awesome it is to ride bikes.

You guys ride safe, and I'll see you at the MASS!!!!!!!

For Baton Rouge, check out this link.

http://criticalmass.wikia.com/wiki/Baton_Rouge,_LA

More Polo, and more!!

New Orleans does bike polo right! Went down again this past weekend. Jeff, Russell, Lando (sp?), Frasier, Paul, myself, my friend Mark, Jace (sp?), and more whose names I forget, were all there and played until dark. Those guys know how to relax and have fun.

In other news, BRASS has its monthly meeting tonight. 4th Thursday of the month, unless otherwise stated (brsafestreets.org) If you are in the least bit interested in bicycle or pedestrian issues in Baton Rouge, please come to this meeting! Terrace Branch of the EBR Public Library from 6:30 to 7:30PM.

In other news, BREC has a special presentation regarding the future development of trails and paths in East Baton Rouge scheduled for Monday, January 26th 2009. It will be in the ballroom at the main BREC office (6201 Florida Blvd) starting at 6PM. It is extremely important that we pack this ballroom with bike dudes, biker babes, bicycle jocks and riding chicks, parents toting kids in trailers, mountain bikers, BMX riders, track aficianados, casual fun time in the neighborhood riders, daily commuters, even those who don't ccurrently own bikes but someday might buy one and could possibly see themselves wanting to ride on the Baton Rouge streets.

PLEASE spread the word on this meeting. The greater the turnout, the greater the impact it will have. You are requested to RSVP if you know you will be able to attend. RSVP to Claire Selleck at 272-9200 ext. 420 or to cselleck (at) BREC (dot) ORG

That's all for now, have a great day!

I went to New Orleans this past Sunday with my friend Ben. He and I heard about some pick up bike polo games that happen every Sunday at 2pm. We drove down, headed in the general direction of where we thought the games happened (we forgot to bring the address with us) and rode our bikes the few blocks from the car to Robert's on Annunciation.

Bike Polo is the most fun I've had on a bike in years. It was competitive, fast paced, intense, and best of all, the folks who organize the games were super friendly. We literally rode up, not knowing anyone, and said Hey! We're from Baton Rouge, heard about Sunday polo and would like to join in. They briefed us on the rules, and we were in the next game. It was incredible.

So, Baton Rouge!!! Let's get some polo together. It is incredibly easy. I have all the tools we need to make our own community mallets. All we need, is enough people to chip in some money so we can purchase the materials. We could totally organize our own Sunday pick up games. Then, in the future, we could play against New Orleans! Or Pensacola! Or Portland! or Milwaukee! Or Chicago! Or Madison! Or NYC! Or Seattle! Or Vancouver! Or Calgary! Or Atlanta! Or Orlando! Or Huntsville! Seriously! Let's do this! If you are interested in Baton Rouge bike polo, email everybodybike gmail com

Some neat things

While riding around Baton Rouge the last several months, I have had several incidents with drivers cutting me off, yelling indecent things at me, waving at me with one finger, telling me to get on the f*ing sidewalk (of which there are none most of the time,) and other rude, inconsiderate, and mean things. These have been vastly outnumbered by good rides where people just give me my space, respect my choice to ride, and leave me alone.



One incident has stuck with me, though. I was riding at night on a two lane road and was signaling that I would be turning left into the parking lot of my apartment complex. A guy behind me in a BMW apparently thought I was signaling him to go around me or something, and as I was about to turn into my destination, he went screaming by me. I had adequate lighting on my bicycle, and was most likely visible. However, I wonder what may have happened if I had a better set of lights on my bicycle. I recently stumbled upon a light set manufactured by http://www.rockthebike.com/ called the Down Low Glow.

I think this product has a pretty creative and ingenius design. It has a rechargable NiMh battery and comes in six colors. You can choose one tube or two tubes of light. As you can see in the top photo, you could even outfit the red bar across a rack as a defacto tail light. I am seriously considering purchasing a set of the two bar lights so that when I ride at night I am easily seen. The system they developed to tie the lights to the bike (removable!) is similar to the removable fenders I have from Planet Bike that are amazing and very easy to use. I am highly debating purchasing a set of these...

Bikes and Stuff

Welcome to the first post on the new EveryBike blog.
The purpose of this blog is to present relevant information regarding bicycles, commuting, new technologies, news stories, advocacy issues and whatever else is important to the greater public. In particular, there will be news about the progress in the greater Baton Rouge area, as that is where I am located at the moment. I hope you enjoy what you see in the coming posts. Please feel free to link to this blog, quote this blog, pull any information you want from this blog. If it is here, it is for your consumption. Thanks for visiting!