Columbus Rides Bikes!

July 1 - Monday Night Ride EVERY Monday at 10PM | 15thAve & HighSt | Columbus, Ohio | All-Weather | All-Year | All-Bikes | No-Drop July 2 - Tuesday Night Ride Tuesday at 7PM | Corner of Park & Buttles at Goodale Park  [Facebook event] July 3 - Ride your bike to BOOM! We will be riding from Hal & Al's to the Audubon Park to watch the fireworks. Meet at the bar around 700pm . We will roll around 830PM. Family Friendly. This is a slow ride event. Bring lights (front & rear), blanket or chairs and snacks. [Facebook event] July 4 - Be the Float! Yay Bikes! in the 30th Doo Dah Parade Join Yay Bikes! on Thursday, July 4th, 2013 to Celebrate Liberty & Lunacy at the 30th Annual Doo Dah Parade! Exercise your First Amendment right, through humor. We will be lining up on Park Street south of Buttles around NOON. We will then parade our bicycles around the Short North, Victorian & Italian Villages & Harrison West. We are partnering with the  Scandinavian C

A fat-tire electric bike to take you through snow, sand, and the urban jungle. The Defiant Bicycles Big Easy is a first of its kind: a hand-crafted, electric FAT bike that’s Made in the USA. The Defiant is the culmination of over two years of development and is the perfect choice for utility and recreation in virtually any setting. Product Background The inspiration for the Defiant came from company founder Kevin Spreng’s frustration at the lack of appropriate winter bikes. An attorney and committed bike commuter from the Twin Cities, Kevin wanted a bike that he could ride to work and for fun year round, through the harshest Minnesota winters. There simply wasn’t anything on the market capable of getting him through the snow and slush that made riding a challenge for as many as 6 months a year in Minnesota. Electrifying a FAT Ride “I thought I’d give a fat tire snow bike a try,” Spreng explains. “It worked great on snow and ice, but it wasn’t fast enough for me. So, I put

Bike Town: Detroit has perfect conditions to be a major bicycling city according to biking advocates/entrpreneurs Jason Hall and Mike MacKool. "Everybody rides a bike. Who doesn't ride a bike? Why wouldn't you ride a bike?" asked Mike MacKool. "If you don't ride a bike I feel like you're missing a major part of what's fun in Detroit right now." The cycling entrepreneur and advocate of all things bike in Detroit states what's obvious to the growing numbers of bicycle riders in the city. Bike riding is (mac)cool. MacKool says Detroit is a perfect storm of conditions for an expanding bike riding culture. The population loss that's a negative for the city in so many ways is a big plus for cyclists. The infrastructure of wide, flat boulevards meant for over twice the traffic we have now makes cycling safer and more enjoyable than it is in the car-choked streets of a New York or Chicago. "We're the Motor City; th

From Heather -  The Mayor is having a CoGo Bike Share soft launch event on July 17th from 11:15 to 12:15. Location is being finalized soon but it will be downtown. We plan to have a station up for demonstration purposes and there will be a bike ride on the new CoGo bikes! We plan to have the system up and operational by the end of July. Please carve out some time to come and celebrate with us. More details soon! If you're at Comfest this weekend, come visit our booth and check out the NYC CitiBike. Take care, Heather Bowden General Manager CoGo Bicycle Share Columbus, OH Alta Bicycle Share, Inc. Phone:  (614) 352-6207

Please contact your Representative and ask them to support HOUSE BILL 145. Ohio House Bill 145 will help Ohio cyclists with two very simple changes in the Ohio Revised Code: 1.  The Ohio Revised Code in Section 4511.27 already requires that motorists pass bicyclists leaving a safe passing distance.  House Bill 145 sets the safe passing distance as "not less than three feet."  21 states already have the "at least three feet" passing requirement.  During the last four years, six states have adopted the 3-foot rule.   The 3-foot rule is endorsed by the American Automobile Association and the League of American Bicyclists, the largest national organizations representing these two transportation modes.  We now have over 1,400 electronic signatures of Ohio bicyclists supporting this concept.   Please go to www.ohiobike.org to add your signature. 2.  The Ohio Revised Code in Section 4511.132, already lists situations in which vehicles may proceed through

We usually only send these emails when we’re having a sale.  We are not having a sale.  However, we are offering you a little somethin’-somethin’ for FREE and that’s way better than just a regular sale.  At least, as long as you wanted the free thing it is.   If you didn’t want it, then it’s really just an annoying marketing trick.  But how could you not want this?   Until midnight Sunday, July 7th, for every two pounds of drink mix ordered  on our website , we’ll include  one free Skratch Labs water bottle.   That means you can spend $39 on something that would normally cost $45 which is kind of the same as a 13.33% discount.  I guess we’re sort of having a sale after all.  Order four pounds, you get two bottles.  Six pounds gets you three and, just in case you’re really thirsty, twelve hundred and nine pounds will get you six hundred and four bottles.  And a half.*   If you’re the kind of person who just orders singles, we’ll take care of you, too, with a bottle for e

Community Festival  is three days of progressive politics, arts & crafts, music, reunions with old friends and introductions to new ones, sunshine, rain, shared dreams and shared work in a shared space. ComFest is also home to Columbus' first bike corral, is it any surprise it is always our largest? Pedal Instead will be at the northwest corner of the Goodale Park again this year (Buttles and Dennison). Volunteers earn the fabulous ComFest t-shirt, food and beverage tokens, and as always all sorts of good karma. Important shifts are always set up (Thursday 4:30 pm) and break down (Sunday 8:30 pm) and evenings (Friday - Sunday). To volunteer, sign up at www.comfest.com [Pedal Instead]

By Adam Newman Riders who do a lot of bikepacking and/or touring have been exploring lots of new ways to carry gear and while a couple of small designers and manufacturers have been going for a few years, a new bumper crop of options have been springing up like May flowers. I learned of  Handlebar Buckets  during my endless wandering through  bikepacking.net  and dreaming of adventures. Their creator, Barry Ward, sews them one at a time in his workshop in downtown Flagstaff, Ariz. Ward has been stitching climbing gear and bags for more than a decade and the Buckets are somewhat similar in shape to a climbing chalk bag. [Keep reading at Dirt Rag]

An Exclusive Tour on Labor Day Weekend 2013 Join us Labor Day Weekend, August 30 to Sept. 2, 2013 for the  "The GREAT GAP Ride".  This trip is a benefit for  T he  Great  Allegheny Passage  and the   trail organizations A Red Carpet Tour from Cumberland to Pittsburgh Each of the 7 trail groups will provide in-depth views of history and  features along the route.  Representatives will meet us along the way  and roll out the red carpet showcasing the features that make their  section of the trail special.      Just Ride Your Bike, We'll Do The Rest! Guide supported  by certified cycling guides. Catered meal s and dining at local restaurants. Trip  feature s  local flair of arts ,  entertainment  and cultural history . Gear transport along the way. Bike rentals available for an additional fee. Select Group Of Participants "The GREAT GAP Ride" will have a maximum of 22 participants to  facilitate an exclusive experience.  Register now to re

If you keep driving like that, you’re going to kill a cyclist.  When  you do, it’s going to suck as much for you as it does for them. When you drive by my head at 50 mph I can’t have this conversation with you, so I’m going to do  you  a favor and talk you through all of your arguments as to why you’re driving wrong (you are) and then you won’t end up killing a human. So read on; you’re welcome.   It’s not if it’s when.   You are going to kill or seriously injure someone.  You are.  Someone’s father, brother, mother, daughter - you are going to end their life, forever, like  permanently dead.  You’ll be a murderer. You can save those lives. You need to do  two things : Slow down. Move over. A few facts you might not be aware of: When you pass a cyclist without crossing the yellow line  you are breaking the law. When you pass a cyclist while oncoming traffic is present  you are breaking the law. When you pass a cyclist in a no-passing zone  you are breaking the law (th

WITH bike-sharing plans rolling on asphalt from New York City to Budapest, experts say city streets are becoming as fitness-friendly as country trails. Even short cycling jaunts can make a difference in the health of city dwellers. "If you were driving a car and switched to biking, that 10 minutes going and coming a day would be a big deal," says Dr Robert Oppliger, a US exercise physiologist with the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr Oppliger, an avid cyclist, says even a 3km to 4km spin can yield significant health benefits. "There’s a lot of information coming out on something called active transport that compares travelling by bike or public transit to travelling by car," he says. "The benefits are significant the more mobile you are." Government guidelines recommend adults accumulate 150 minutes of moderately intense physical activity per week. Cycling, he said, can be part of that. "Bicycling has positive effects on weight an

The Cory Lunger Endowment Fund 2013 Run/Walk Event - Funding Research in Adult Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. Description When: Sunday, September 29, 2013 @ 9AM Where: The Ohio State University Campus Race Directors: Michael Luong and Allen Loy http://cancer.osu.edu/ http://www.hondaresearch.com/ http://www.frontrunnercolumbus.com/ http://www.greenswell.com/ http://www.paradisegarage.com/ Email: CLungerBeats5000@gmail.com http://www.CLungerBeats5000.com/ 

If there really is a War on Cars, more and more employers and commercial developers are siding with the bicyclists. That’s clear when you look over building plans and hear developers talk about their projects. Amazon.com is building cycle tracks at its three-block office complex under construction in downtown Seattle. Plans show traffic signals for cyclists, complete with “leaning rails” on which riders can rest their feet while waiting for the green light. Once these cyclists arrive, they’ll pedal to indoor bike parking. Another developer, Harbor Urban, is building an entire apartment building for bicyclists. Located in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, the project is called Velo, which means bicycle in French. The 171-unit project’s doors, lobby floors and elevator walls are designed to be bike-friendly, and the apartments will have bike-storage “niches.” Even  Kemper Development , which touts the 10,000 free vehicle parking spaces at its Bellevue Collection, is building a

Think sin city is all about the sex, booze, and gambling? Well, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, it is. But step away from the glitz and glam of the Las Vegas strip and you will find an abundance of resources for the outdoor enthusiast, all within a 45-minute drive in just about any direction. Go east and you can play in the waters of Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, and the Colorado River; head northwest and you can hit the slopes of 11,000-foot Mount Charleston; if you’re a hiker, Valley of Fire to the north and Red Rock Canyon to the west are sure to quench your appetite for stunning rock formations and authentic desert hiking. Because all of these places are such a short distance from the center of the city, it actually means Las Vegas is an excellent starting point for a wide variety of amazing day trips and overnights that can be taken by bike! Leaving Las Vegas: Jasper tests out his ride. While there are plenty of local bike shops that will rent ro

By Olivia Starr APA Government Affairs Associate At a briefing yesterday on Capitol Hill, representatives of the  National Complete Streets Coalition  made the case for national standards for complete streets policies. This is one of the central proposals of the  Safe Streets Act of 2013  (H.R. 2468), also introduced yesterday by Reps. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) and David Joyce (R-Ohio). The Safe Streets Act would require that each state and metropolitan planning organization adopt a complete streets policy within two years that ensures all new federally funded transportation projects accommodate the safety and convenience of all users. The bill defines transportation projects as road construction and road modification projects, including design, planning, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, maintenance, and operations. The Secretary of Transportation would be tasked with certification of complete streets policies. In her statement at the briefing, Matsui said, “We are

A Couples' Ride from Darcy Turenne on Vimeo .

Ursula Bach/City of Copenhagen An angled trash can on a stretch of the Copenhagen Cycle Super Highway is for those in a hurry. By  ALICE RAWSTHORN Published: June 23, 2013 COPENHAGEN — It sounds so promising. A network of dedicated cycle routes running through a city with air pumps to fix flat tires, footrests to lean on while taking breaks and trash cans that are specially angled so you can throw in empty water bottles without stopping. Best of all, you can cycle on those routes for long distances without having to make way for cars and trucks at junctions and traffic lights, according to the official description of the Cycle Super Highways, which are under construction here as part of the Danish capital’s efforts to become carbon-neutral by 2025. Are they as good as they sound? These days it is hard to find a big city that doesn’t make grandiose claims to encourage cycling, and harder still to find one that fulfills them. Redesigning congested traffic systems to

Ahead of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the bicycle in Copenhagen in 2015, Through the Looking Glass takes a look at the history of cycling If you thought driving was hard today, just try negotiating this lot on your way to Netto If you are a tourist or a recent arrival to our fair city, it’s unlikely that the number of people on bicycles will have escaped your notice. As a city that is sorely lacking in any gradient whatsoever, Copenhagen frequently competes with Amsterdam for the world’s number one cycling city title. Bicycles are an ordinary staple of daily life here, but it might surprise you to learn that the Danish capital wasn’t always so predisposed to developing the urban cycling paradise we enjoy today. Since the introduction of the first velocipede (a term that covers all human-powered vehicles on one or more wheels) onto our streets, Copenhagen has seen the bicycle’s popularity wax and wane.  Goodbye Schleswig Holste