Columbus Rides Bikes!

My name is Adam. I run a bike based website right now here in Columbus. Stanridgespeed.com . Just wanted to let you know I quit my full time job recently and am headed out to Oregon to NBI to learn frame brazing. I have a pretty knowledgeable background when it comes to mechanics having worked on a SCCA racing team. In February I will launch a new website and begin running my own handmade bike company here in the city with the hopes of having 5 complete frames and two complete bikes in the late spring of 09. I'm really excited and am following my passion. I'm not going to get rich however, I'll be happy as hell! I'll keep you posted! Thanks Ray, Adam Eldridge

BY JOSH JARMAN The Columbus Dispatch HEATH, Ohio — A property owner along a controversial bike trail in Licking County staged a showdown with crews paving the path this morning. More...

We should have updated brochure for the ride later this week. The route has been updated and it should be available on the website for download later today. We have added some sponsors as well. Check out the website, www.bikethecbus.com for more details. We are still looking for sponsors. Rest stop sponsors, paid sponsors and in-kind services are needed to make the ride successful. I hope everybody can come out and ride as well. If you haven't joined Consider Biking you may want to consider riding the Bike the C-Bus. Why do I say that? Because with your ride registration fee you get a $15 dollar day of discount toward a Consider Biking membership. Check out their site for more details, www.considerbiking.org A coupon is on Bike the C-Bus website that gives a FREE child's registration with a paid adult registration. Again, check out our site. Thanks Ray

Can anyone post a comment as to where the ride route went? I rode with a group of about ten of us who went west to the Mound and quarry. Then southwest toward the hilltop. We rode through Franklinton and turned south. We ended up on Greenlawn, turned east and north on High to the High Beck. 21 miles total.

Date: Saturday August 2, 2008 Time: 7:00 am - 2:00 pm Location: Buckeye Grove Shopping Center Street: Corner of Hoover Road and Route 665 City State Zip: Grove City Phone: Dave Knight 614-284-4087 horshoo38-cop(at)yahoo.com; Jack Hornsby 614-877-3085 jackhornsby(at)cs.com Notes: Registration/Sign-up: 7:00-9:00 AM. Parking in north east corner of Buckeye Grove Shopping Center parking lot only. Scenic routes along the Big Darby watershed are being planned with multiple mileage options from 30 to 100 miles. Plan lunch at the Harrisburg Homecoming Festival. Budget tour. $2 members, $4 nonmembers.

Very inspirational website and video.

Nineteen-year-old Autumn Grohowski was on her cell phone with her dad, just letting him know she would be home soon. It was June, a summer night in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and Autumn was approaching the trail she would take home. She was on her bike, and mindful of her safety, so she kept the call short — she told her dad “I don’t want to be killed by a car, so I don’t want to talk on the phone on the way home.” Those were her last words. Read more... I was deeply saddened when I read this....

2008 Bicycle/Pedestrian TRAIL NEWS The “Central Ohio Bicycle Route Guide” is a double-sided 18-page map set showing roads within a 50 mile radius from the center of Columbus. Scale is 1" = 1.5 miles, with larger scale for the metropolitan area. Cost is $16.02 (sales tax included) per set. Make checks payable to Columbus Outdoor Pursuits and send it to Maps, Columbus Outdoor Pursuits, 1525 Bethel Road, Suite 100, Columbus, OH 43220. See their website, h ttp://www.outdoor-pursuits.org/main/forsale/forsale.htm for more information.

I realized that the density of bikes in Amsterdam creates a problem just like owning a vehicle. It is hard to find a parking spot. That sounds funny, but supposedly 600,000 bicycles are in use in Amsterdam. We stayed at the Victoria Hotel right on Damrak and across the street from Central Station. Very convenient. But very limited bicycle parking. A new metro line is being worked on and construction areas line the Central Station so there are very few fences/bike racks. I ended up locking it to the fence near the canal boat launches. Across the canal is a bike parking lot, but I was too lazy to walk over to see if there were any open spaces. It looked like several thousand bikes were stored in that facility. I didn't get a chance to ride out of the city on Saturday. It was our travel day and I needed to return the bike. I did get about an hour and a half ride in before it started to rain and I called it a day. As we were heading to the airport on the train I noticed that all roads

I rented a bike from Holland Bikes. Utility bike. Two locks. 11 euro for day. Riding around town is easy. As I said yesterday the bike lanes have street lights. Follow rules of the road and you are fine. I recorded video as I was riding. I hope to publish it when I return. I did lose my map and rode around for a while basically lost until I saw the museum we had visited yesterday. As I was heading through the Central Station area I zipped in front of a bus and it got back at me by splashing me from a big puddle. So I am soaked as I sit at the Bibliotheek writing this post.

I am in Amsterdam now. Lots of bicycles (600,000 approximately). Will post photos when I return. They have parking lots for bikes. No sports/fitness bikes like in the US. Only utility bikes. They don't lock the bikes to racks. They just lock the rear wheel in hopes someone doesn't pick it up and walk off. No helmets either. The transit system is so sophisticated that there are street lights for the bikes. Cyclists pull up to the light like a car, but in their own lane. The light changes and you move through the intersection and the light actually has a picture of a bicycle in it. The weirdest bicycle moment was when we were eating dinner last night. A one legged man doubled on the back of his friends bike. He came down the street and greeted his friend. Then he jumped on the back of the bike. His friend took off with him and his crutches in tow on the rear rack. More later...

By STEVEN ERLANGER - NY Times Published: July 13, 2008 PARIS — They’re clunky, heavy and ugly, but they have become modish — and they are not this season’s platform shoes. A system for renting Vélib’ bicycles has become hugely popular in Paris, where about 20,600 of the bikes are in service. A year after the introduction of the sturdy gray bicycles known as Vélib’s, they are being used all over Paris. The bikes are cheap to rent because they are subsidized by advertising, and other major cities, including American ones, are exploring similar projects. More...

Come ride every Sunday night beginning July 6! We meet at Buckeye Donuts (corner of N. High St & E. 18th Ave) at 8:00 p.m. and leave around 8:30 p.m. No drops and no testosterone. Bring your friends! ALL WOMEN, ALL BIKES, AND ALL SKILL LEVELS WELCOME More info here...

I want to estimate 60+ people showed up The temp was in the mid 70's and very muggy. We started out heading north on High and turned on Lane. From Lane we turned on Neil. Bad move. Right into construction and our first flat. The group headed east after the flat then turned north and popped out north of Clintonville. We had several other flats and several of us got separated from the group. We caught back up with them in Antrim Park. Then we headed north and east over to Cleveland Ave. The group, what was left of it broke into the sprinters and the escorters. I was in back with several of the slower riders. After they turned west we bolted for the High Beck. We passed other slower riders on the way. 35 mile ride. I posted 40.

Wednesday Night at Tip Top starting at 9:30PM. Movies powered by bicycles. Tip Top website

Riding in street safer, they say; proposal to be reviewed next week Saturday, July 5, 2008 3:09 AM BY BOBBY PIERCE THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Bicyclists want bikes to be treated like vehicles. That's the message they are sending to Columbus officials as they rework the city's bike code. More...

More photos courtesy of Giles Clement at Illumiquest We pulled a 5000lb Ford Explorer through the Doo Dah Parade route on Friday afternoon. On Thursday evening we headed over to Brett's for the trial run. Not what we expected. First, we realized that the vehicle was 5000lbs and not 3000lbs as originally thought. After careful review and some hair pulling we decided to scrap the 2x4 block idea and use tiedown straps to connect the bike to the vehicle. Friday morning it was raining and we didn't know what to expect. We headed over to pickup some mountain bikes with low gearing and then made it to the start. It was still raining. Nine bicyclists pulled the SUV. I was in the center and we had 4 people on each side of me. The route has turns and it was interesting to maneuver the vehicle. Plus it has some slight slopes down and up. Down is not too bad because we coasted. Up was a little more challenging, but we made it. It was pretty cool to pull the SUV down High Street through the