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
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.
The point made is that in places like Boulder, where people rent smallish apartments and semi-frequently move short distances to other apartments (lookin’ at you, New York, Portland, Austin and other compact renting cities), if you get enough folks together, you can skip the truck. And we all hate renting moving trucks. Especially in New York.
Here’s some footage of some Portland green badassery:
MORE MOVE-BY-BIKE CRAZIES
Here are photos from another move-by-bike that looks like a ton of fun. And video from a move-by-bike in Ames, Iowa. (Both of those sound a little flatter than Boulder, right?) And a move-by-bike on TreeHugger!
HOW TO MOVE BY BIKE
Move by bike -- in cold weather! Flickr user dontbecreepy
How the heck do you move by bike?
There are some great tips over at shift2bikes, including:
- Tell EVERYBODY you’re going to do it. Not just your friends. Get the local bike freaks involved.
- Be so prepared that if somebody shows up with a bike and a trailer, you can get them loaded up and on their way in a matter of minutes.
- Provide food at the beginning and end.
- Plan out your route meticulously to avoid nasty traffic and unnecessary slopes.
- Be prepared with tarps and things in case of rain or snow!
- Have a backup plan in case it doesn’t work at all — maybe you can finish the job with one trip in a car with a big trunk.
- Tell EVERYBODY that you did it! Post photos, videos, etc. — inspire somebody!
Read more at shift2bikes — and get jealous of the level of organization already in place in Portland.
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