Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- And Now, Back to Your Local News…Since the weather’s getting better, I’m sure we’re all totally jonesing to get onto the trails, but in general, they’re a mess. It’s a bummer to see nice singletracks get trashed and widened, so like all of you, I’m grinding my teeth in annoyance while I try to be patient. The good news is that you [...] […]
- Downieville, Take ThreeOkay, well, things went pretty haywire in race promotion after the registration debacle. The organizer received so many hateful emails and comments about the mishap that it made him wonder if he should even bother putting the race on. I can’t blame him, really. In his shoes I might do the same thing. It sounds [...] […]
- And Now, Back to Your Local News…
- Edgy Veggie
You are viewing the archive for the Bikes category.
Google Street View trike to visit Boulder Creek Path
The Boulder Creek Path is about to become famous (and maybe you will, too, if you’re on the path at the right time).
Google held a contest to choose early sites for off-road Street View mapping by its camera/trike.
If you haven’t used Street View, it’s basically a whole bunch of photos — so many and in so many directions that it can seem like one long, continuous photo — attached to Google Maps. So if you’re getting directions to a restaurant and you’ve never been, you can load up Street View to see exactly what your destination looks like.
Here’s Street View pointed at the Flatirons. You can drag the image around to see Chautauqua, or click arrows along the line to “walk” through the streets of Boulder. (It might take a little time to load when you first get here.)
Bike maintenance classes make your bike last longer
This bike is still going!
It was six decades ago that Owen Hook fell in love with the shining bicycle in his local department store window.
But today, the Raleigh push bike is still going strong.
Mr Hook, 72, who paid for the top-of-the-range, three-speed Raleigh bike in 36 monthly installments of just ten shillings (50p) 57 years ago, said yesterday that it showcased British craftsmanship at its best.
Pretty impressive, but surely it didn’t come without a little work. I’ve been tempted to take a class with Community Cycles for just that reason. The next six-week bike mechanics course starts March 3.
Happy Winter Bike to Work Day 2012!
It’s Winter Bike to Work Day! Remember to send in your photos and videos and whatever else if you go (I’m dave at biggreenboulder).
Boulder in the winter | flickr user zachd1_618
We’re better off than some for this type of holiday, according to the forecast for a few Winter Bike to Work Day spots:
Chicago: Low 31, high 32. Cloudy.
Wichita: Low 34, high 52. Cloudy.
Boulder: Low 28, high 43. Partly cloudy.
Some of you have been biking all winter — kudos! For me, this is a good reminder that it’s actually not that cold right now. I stopped biking to work when my bike was buried under a foot and a half of snow months ago, and have been taking the bus since. But hey — 43 in the sun isn’t so bad, especially since we’re lucky enough that a lot of the nasty stuff melts off for us between big storms.
Here’s where you can stop for food, if you like:
Applebee’s – 1906 28th St.–eggs, pancakes, bacon & juice
City Municipal Building – 1777 Broadway, sponsored by The Cup, Sprouts and evol burritos
Moe’s Broadway Bagel – 3705 Arapahoe Ave.–bagels
Moe’s Broadway Bagel – 2650 Broadway–bagels
Pedal to Properties – 1949 Pearl St.–Hot coco stop
University of Colorado – 18th Street and Colorado Avenue–bagels, fruit, coffee & water
Need last-second winter biking tips?
How about a Winter Bike to Work Day T-shirt that says you were there?
See you out there!
Winter Bike to Work Day is next Wednesday
The date for Winter Bike to Work Day 2010 is Jan. 20.
Somehow it crept up on me, but I have to get a quick post out — Winter Bike to Work Day is coming right up, and there are Community Cycles winter biking workshops today to help you get prepared.
We’ve also got a small repository of winter biking tips here on the site.
Are you participating? Let us know. We’d love to run your photos.
Winter biking is something that Boulder can really take pride in. Check this out, from the city’s Winter Bike to Work Day site:
One thing you can be sure of, your commute will be safe and convenient because even if it has snowed the City of Boulder keeps its 60 miles of paved multi-use pathways and 76 underpasses plowed so that cyclists can easily use them even during severe snowstorms. The city begins plowing as soon as an inch of snow accumulates and at exactly the same time that crews are plowing the streets! In fact many cyclists report that biking is faster than driving, especially in slow winter traffic!
Bikeway from Boulder to Denver is part of latest plan for U.S. 36
With U.S. 36 in the background, Barbara Bowes of Boulder rides the South Boulder Creek Trail. The new plan for 36 would connect this trail into a larger network, stretching from Boulder to Denver.
For almost a decade, communities up and down the U.S. 36 corridor from Denver to Boulder have been struggling with what to do about the congested highway — which is only projected to get worse as the local population continues to grow.
Now a compromise has finally been reached, and it includes some big wins for alternative transportation… like a bike path that runs all the way from Boulder to Denver.
Now all the plan needs is some money.
A bus trip down U.S. 36 from Foothills Parkway to Denver’s Union Station would only take 24 minutes if an updated package of proposed improvements is approved, financed and built.
The upgrades to the U.S. 36 corridor — outlined in the project’s newly filed environmental impact statement — would add a “managed lane” along the median in both directions. Buses and high-occupancy vehicles could use the lane for free, and excess capacity could be sold to single drivers who are willing to pay for access. Read more
Bicycle Film Fest organizer on bicycle stereotypes
We’re thinking about bikes this week because it’s sunny again, so here are some quick and sometimes slightly inflammatory* thoughts on bike stereotypes from Bicycle Film Fest organizer Jen Nordhem (cool trailer, Jen!):
Stereotype: Critical Mass is for anarchists
JN: Critical Mass has anarchist roots, as far as it being a take-back-the-streets kind of mentality, but I don’t think it’s necessarily just for anarchists. Politically, I think it’s a great idea, as long as people don’t take it too far and it stays as like, “We’re here. We ride the same streets as you. We are traffic as well.” But it doesn’t go into like, “Now I’m going to U-lock your window.” That’s a bit extreme. I remember when I lived in Chicago, one of my friends told me this story about this father with a little tagalong bike with his daughter on it who rode [Critical Mass] every month, and that was his way of introducing bicycles to his daughter. It’s really just a celebration of bicycles.
via Stereotyping cyclists: A Bicycle Film Fest organizer responds | Features | | A.V. Denver/Boulder.
*Bikes blowing through stop signs is quite inflammatory, and it’s mentioned elsewhere in the A.V. Club post. If you don’t believe me, check out comments on the Camera!
So many bikes, so few parking spaces. Biking numbers blow up in Boulder.
Jason and Shelby Magen lock their bicycles up outside the Boulder Bookstore | Mark Leffingwell
Bike use is up in Boulder — again.
The number of bikes being ridden downtown has grown 14 percent in the last year and 47 percent since 2007. This has environmentalists, lovers of public transportation and city officials all excited. But there’s just one problem: Where to park all those bikes?
Along with the increase in riders, comes a shortage of legal parking, and the number of bikes locked to things other than designated racks has risen 76 percent since 2007.
“In many areas, the demand for bicycle parking exceeds the supply,” according to a city memo on the findings of the annual bicycle count.
The count found that of the 4,088 bicycles that were tallied during a four-day period in August, the number of bikes left unattended downtown ranged from a low of 825 on a Thursday morning to a high of 1,315 on a Friday evening.
About three-quarters were parked on permanent bicycle racks, while the rest were tied to parking meters, trees, railings or fences. About 6 percent of the bikes were left standing without locks.
Read the full story at DailyCamera.com, or learn about local bike paths at BigGreenBoulder.com.
Hundreds turn out for “Power Past Coal” bike ride in Boulder
Hundreds of folks turned out this weekend on their bikes and rode from downtwon Boulder to the Valmont coal plant as part of the “Power Past Coal” rally.
The event was one of more than 4,500 organized across the world as part of the 350.org global campaign.
Eric Robbins rode to Boulder’s Central Park on Saturday with a battery-powered amplifier strapped to the back of his Schwinn bicycle. The Beatles’ song “All You Need Is Love” blared from his speaker into a crowd of more than 200 cyclists busy chanting “power beyond coal.”
“We need to put an end to coal and promote the use of renewable energy,” Robbins said, preparing to ride to the Valmont power plant in east Boulder to raise awareness of global climate change and voice support for the plant’s closing. “It would be nice if this plant became a wind farm or a solar installation.” Read more
Move by bike: Can it be a new trend?
I will admit that when I moved back to Boulder from Brooklyn, I did not move in a particularly green way.
No, I loaded my stuff into somebody else’s 53-foot truck (along with the belongings of many other people — I don’t have that much stuff), and it was driven here to Boulder. Then I got on a plane and flew here.
That’s why, on this fine #ecomonday, I feel like a green wuss; I didn’t move by bike. Dan at Community Cycles wants it to catch on in Boulder, and the lead story on the Camera’s local page features this big photo of some Boulderites lugging an apartment’s worth of stuff from Boulder to Gunbarrel (seven miles):
Jon Abbott leads the procession during Sunday's seven-mile move from his old apartment to a new one using only bicycles. Photo by Jonathan Castner.
That’s right: they moved by bike. That’s a pretty awesome degree of self-sufficiency. More details and tips on doing it yourself after the jump. Read more
30th Street bike path eminent domain filing
Rebecca Maret and her son Soren ride over the bridge south of Pearl Street intersection on 30th Street. Photo: Joe Rogers For the Camera
The proposed 30th Street bike path that has been causing a bit of a stir in Boulder — some folks are upset that it would require taking down a few trees — has hit a new controversial milestone. The city, unable to buy land for the proposal from a business there, has filed an eminent domain petition.
The Camera has the full story on the bike path eminent domain development, and here’s the quick-hit update: Read more
