Time, Well, Spent

http://www.betterbikesandgardens.com/

Memphis Polo Tournament

All City Championships 2012

I wish I could make it to this, especially the bandit cross. I think I might know of an underused lot where we could have our own underground cross race...

Bike Share Feasibility Study

Alta Planning has released a Bike Share Feasibility Study for the City of Memphis. You can find it here: http://issuu.com/livablememphis/docs/memphis_bike_share_report_draft?mode=window&pageNumber=1

If you actually want to be able to read it, hit the single page mode. The Memphis stuff starts in section 5.

Cycle Memphis Pics

Victor posted his Cycle Memphis 1 Year Anniversary pics to his flickr. Thanks Vic!

Bike Shop Fashion

I left my belt at home yesterday morning. When you pack stuff into a trailer at 5:30AM it's kind of easy to forget a belt. But I'm a smart guy. If you don't recognize the blue strap you might not work in a bike shop. It's the strap that comes with a Thule rack and they are often left behind at the shop. They come in handy sometimes.

Cycle Memphis - July

Don't forget that tomorrow is the 1 year anniversary of Cycle Memphis!


Click the pic to go to the event page on facebook.

Missed BMX Connections

sexy bmx guy - w4m - 45 (minglewood hall parking lot)

Date: 2012-07-03, 7:06AM CDT
Reply to: h6db4-3115858386@pers.craigslist.org

I saw you spinning around in circles on your bike. Maybe next time we can ride the bike lanes back to my house where you can spin me around like you do to that bicycle! :)
Location: minglewood hall parking lot
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 3115858386

Memphis Bicycle - Cleveland St. Flea Market Part 2

Vintage Schwinn Cycle Truck (438 N. Cleveland St.)

Bicycle Lovers,
Currently on display for showing to the public. The rare Schwinn Cycle Delivery Bike (Cycle Truck).
In the 1950's in midtown memphis, groceries were being delivered by young men from the Kroger store at 438 N. Cleveland (now the Cleveland Street Flea Market) to the surrounding neighborhoods. News papers were also delivered to neighborhoods by bicycle. Come by the Flea market this weekend and view the Schwinn Cycle Truck in its restored condition. There are also 40's and 50's nickel Coke machines on display. These items are not for sale, but for the free enjoyment of our Midtown friends and customers.

-Thanks for posting that on craigslist, y'all!

Bike Bell, I Mean Ring!

Good thing this ring is so cheap...

Faster

I edited the segment to allow for different commutes, but it really did not affect it that much. Three more people fell to my speed, though.

Another Finally

I got Strava.


I figured I would make a segment in a part of my commute where the most people ride: Chickasaw Gardens.

This is a West to East ride and I'll do the reverse this evening.

Finally

Untitled, a photo by fixmemphis on Flickr.

Main Street to Main Street

I'm sure it's no longer news to you, but the City of Memphis has been awarded a 14.9 million dollar TIGER Grant and John Branston had to write about it.

If you've attended any of the meetings you've seen this animation:


My brother made that animation. Just to let you know.

What it doesn't show, however, is the true scope of the project. We're talking approximately 25 miles of bike trail that includes dedicated path, Green Lanes, bike lanes, bridge and park.

And I've already heard murmurs of an alleycat!

Goals

I have some serious lifestyle goals that I have been trying for over two years to implement on a regular basis in my (our) life. I decided that maybe if I write about it, then it will put more pressure on me to actually do it.

Here is my checklist and goal timeline:

1. Wear sunscreen everyday-start immediately
-purchased a fancy sunscreen that is supposed to be great under makeup and for sensitive skin.
-I received it in the mail last week and have worn it once; yesterday before a run.
-I did run over the box in my car, however, and then promptly recycled it. I'm good about recycling-this isn't one of my goals, fyi.

2. Speaking of that run: working out (on a freaking regular basis! ah!)
-I started this like 3 years ago to get rid of my weight that I gained living with a commuter.
-I worked out 3 x last, last week-my goal is 5 x
-I worked out 4 x last week
-I have worked out 1 x this week, hey, it's Tuesday!

3. Running 5 miles -This kind of relates to #2, but what the hell.
-I ran 2 miles straight without stopping yesterday.
-shooting for 2 1/4 Friday 

4. Eating less junk food
-I have a real problem with eating, like, half a box of cereal at midnight or cleaning out a pint of ice cream with my soul mate. Or eating 10 egg rolls (last night).
-This will be the most difficult. No plan yet, except eat things that don't have an ingredient list (i.e. veggies, fruit, pure whole grains).

5. And finally, one that you may actually be interested in: Walking/Biking to work-everyday.
-sigh.


I'm getting tired just writing this. 

Training Days

Few Memphis commutes would be complete without a train.

Bakfiets And Box Fits

So Kyle finally got the bakfiets from our friend Gorman. I had to pass on it because I just don't have enough space for a bike that big. Plus Kyle has Ethan, who will love riding in that thing! Heck, I can't wait to ride in that thing!

For now I have to be content with a smaller box on the front of my bike:


But it can still hold a lot of stuff. Children, well, no. Food from the Cooper Young Farmers Market, yes.

Bosco's Anyone?

Cort and I have totally ridden with these growlers before to have picnics in the park!
Check out more from one of my favorite websites, bonappetit.com(and places to find recipes to not make correctly, but that my amazing husband says he likes anyways 'cuz he's sweet).

Cycle Memphis - 1 Year Anniversary

You have plenty of time to plan to ride this one!



Click the pic to go to the event page on facebook.

Revolutions 10 Year Anniversary Alleycat on the News!

I ran into the the girl that was interviewing everyone at the alleycat, and asked her if she could email me the link to the footage and she totally did! Thank you, May-Lin Biggs!

http://www.abc24.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=3551568

Enjoy a Little Bike Art this Morning

Cyclist, 2010, pencil on paper
BICYCLETTA RESTAURANT brand image 

I found this on Pinterest this morning while creating a page for the Brooks. Enjoy and happy riding:) I hope the rain stops so I can attend the Peddler Tuesday Night Ride.

Walk Bike Memphis Meeting June 11th

Walk Bike Memphis is the group that is responsible for updating the City's bike laws and distributing those handy spoke cards with some of the new laws and riding tips on them. Find out what the group is up to by attending the next meeting: Monday June 11th at Otherlands from 5:30pm to 6:30pm.

For more information visit the info page.

Bicycle Stamp Cufflinks

While catching up on everyone's wit, I mean life, on facebook this morning I saw a post about some new bicycle stamps. Turns out they're not so new. But I did find something that is quite novel. I've been looking for some bicycle-related cufflinks for quite some time (I clean up very well) so I was excited to see these:


These are actual used 1972 stamps so each one will be slightly different. I don't have a birthday or anything coming up but maybe my wife will find an excuse to purchase these for me?

Overton Square Redux

Kerry over at I Love Memphis has shown us another glimpse of what Overton Square used to be and given us a preview of what Loeb has in store. The details have been slow to come but there is definite progress. Check it out here. What I'm hoping for: more decks and more bike parking!

Who Rides Bike Share Bikes?

At last month's Pizza With Planners meeting the majority of the attendees were active cyclists; we have bikes, we ride regularly and we know the most efficient routes through the city. So why would we pay to ride a heavy bike for a very short amount of time?

Practical, Comfortable, and Safe
To get people riding bicycles for transportation certain criteria must be met. These are different for everyone. My threshold of practicality is 20 miles, one direction, where I don't have to be "dressy" and I don't have to bike on super busy streets like Poplar for the entire ride. Your threshold might be 3 miles on protected pathways. That's why Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors.

While it is not practical for some people to ride to work, opting for a bike for a quick errand instead of a car while at work might weigh in on the practical side of things. I used to work downtown and would constantly be walking documents from Monroe to the government buildings. At another job I would sometimes walk from South Main to Peabody. Those seem like short walks but in 96 degree heat I would much rather have had a bicycle. That's downtown. In midtown, I know of several people who get in their cars to go down the block for lunch. They might share bikes because it makes more sense than getting in a car.

Bike share bikes are built for comfort. They feature wide seats and upright riding positions. I have yet to hear of a bike share alleycat (but nothing is impossible). Let's remember that any bike can be uncomfortable if it is adjusted poorly. But there are instructions on the bike share kiosks that demonstrate how to properly adjust seat height. Many people are also uncomfortable with the mechanics of bicycles; fixing flat tires is probably the most common problem. If you get a flat tire on a bike share bike you just park it at the kiosk and grab another bike.

So you have a bike on which you can cruise comfortably. Through all indications, bike share in Memphis would be implemented in downtown and midtown. Downtown riding is quite safe, even for the novice, on the Main Street Mall. Be mindful of the Trolley tracks and you'll be fine. Midtown is being repaved with bike lanes. By the end of the summer we shall have achieved connectivity with the repaving and striping of Cooper St and (possibly) the protected Overton-Broad Connector. Once cars learn to drive outside of bike lanes midtown will be quite safe as well.

Tourism Dollars
While the speculation is that most bike share income will be generated by local users we can't forget about tourists, after all, we get about 10 million of them a year. All those people are not going to ship their bikes here to ride but seeing as how the top producing international markets are the UK, Germany, Netherlands and France you can bet that they are used to getting around by bike.

When Emily and I went to Denver we had to rely on our family to drive us around. Independent as we are, we felt like a burden. So instead of making them our personal chauffeurs we got dropped off downtown, rented B-Cycles, and visited malls, museums, bike shops, restaurants, and even rented a kayak; and generally bought something at each place. We were able to efficiently navigate a new city while letting our family do what they needed to do. After all the shopping, restaurants, drinks with friends and B-cycle rental we each spent over $500.

With a little more research we could have found rental bikes that probably would have cost 5 times the B-cycle. With a bit of luck we could have found deals on craigslist (cycling meccas like Denver have incredible craigslist ads) and if the bike was good enough, shipped it back to Memphis. That would have been 20 times the cost of the bike share. But as a young tourist, the B-cycle was indispensable.

Here's the thing: bike share bikes are not meant for us. Does that mean we should not attend the meetings? No. We must attend the meetings because our knowledge will prove crucial to the process of implementing a bike share system.

When is the next meeting? Walk Bike Memphis will host a meeting June 11th at 5:30 PM at Otherlands Cafe on Cooper St.

Cargo Bike - Trek Transport

I was able to ride the Trek Transport on the Cycle Memphis ride (mainly because the person I always asked to ride it never could. Doug.) last Saturday night.

Normally when I SAG that ride I bring my BOB Trailer and pack it with about 12 spare tubes of differing sizes, a basic tool kit, pedal wrench, lock and a floor pump. At the midway point a few tallboys are added to the list.

The bag that comes with the Transport was able to carry all of that and still had room (for more beer). It is essential, I learned, to remove the bag while the bike is parked. The unbalanced weight will tip the bike.

The long wheelbase of longtail bicycles makes the ride very smooth but the fold-out platforms on the Transport rattle considerably. You get the feel of a Cadillac with the quietness of a tractor. If the rattle-factor were remedied this would be a remarkable around town cargo bike. This has a more stable ride than hooking a trailer up to a road bike.

However, I would also need to rearrange my house to be able to store it.

Bicycle-Thru

I have a few more photos from Bosco's Bike To Work Ride on my flickr.

Mixed Terrain Recap

The great thing about alleycats is that not everyone rides the same route. I think everyone ended up doing about 33 miles with multiple variations. Here's my approximate route because I didn't GPS it:


View Revolutions 10 Year Anniversay in a larger map
Kyle Wagenschutz's route and stats can be found here on Endomondo.

A not-so-great thing about alleycats is that the faster people will tend to group up. To eliminate this I paired everyone into teams, based on when they registered. Sixteen people, not including myself, registered to race so I paired the 1st person with the 9th, 2nd with the 10th and so forth. Here are the times:

1st Place - 2:07:32 - Kermit Cooper & Zoe Taylor
2nd Place - 2:11:14 - Brett Edmonds & Rem Pamornkula
3rd Place - 2:19:46 - Joel Glasgow & Brandon Thrasher
4th Place - 2:23:56 - Anthony Siracusa & Adam Hite
5th Place - 2:25:30 - Kyle Wagenschutz & Jason Doinbrava(sp?)
6th Place - 2:37:33 - Graham Notestine & John Dodds
7th Place - 2:43:45 - Tony Pass & Tony Brooks (*because the Tonys split up this time is averaged)
8th Place - 3+hours - Martin Jones & Eric Garcia

What's kind of cool about this is that each team, for the most part, had one person riding fixed and one geared. It just worked out like that. Here's the race crew and some of our volunteers:


Big thanks to the people who helped run checkpoints and set everything up: Emily Percer, Meg Kerr, Anya McKay, Cory York, Gurjot Gill, Charles Fox, Crystal Keck, Athena (?), Jenny Lederer, Ryan Carter, and Howell Evans. Big thanks to Kyle Wagenschutz for hooking it up with the Pilgrim House Hostel's deck and grill. Big thanks to Molly Kennedy for setting up a photobooth! And thanks to everyone who came and hung out after the race!




Jenny has a photo set up on facebook here.


Also, these items were left at the party:

Bosco's Bike To Work #1

Speaking of drinking, the Bosco's Cycling Team is having their first Bike To Work Ride tomorrow morning. Meet at Otherlands at 7:30am for a ride over to Bosco's for a second pick-up at 8:00am. From there the group will split and one will head downtown and the other will head East via the Greenline. Sadly this isn't a biking and drinking type of ride. If that's your thing you should check out the Road Popper:


That's if you have the scratch. These things are custom made to order so they cost a pretty penny.

Check the deets for the Bosco's Bike To Work Ride on facebook.

Biking and Drinking

My friend Molly designed these beer mugs on zazzle along with a ton of other bike-related products. Check it out here!

Midtown Crit?

Perusing craigslist I came upon this request. Most locations where a crit would be possible would require insurance or need traffic blocked, or both.

Midtown crit (Midtown)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2012-05-27, 9:08AM CDT
Reply to: vmcjq-3040784459@sale.craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Is there an interest for a non sanctioned weekly crit in midtown? Let me know if you have an idea of location that would work.

JN

•Location: Midtown
•it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 3040784459



One might be able to pull off something at either of these locations. This is all I could come up with with the criteria of low traffic, non-residential, city streets. I'm imagining this as a kind of Red Hook Crit style event. My advice: Don't do this weekly, people will get burned out. Do it monthly, or even bi-monthly.


View Memphis Crit? in a larger map

UofM Cycling

With bike lanes that practically lead to the University of Memphis's front door it is no surprise that they have been planning their own bike share program for quite some time. According to Doug Campbell, who also serves as the UofM Cycling Club's Faculty Advisor, the program has but to be approved by the Board of Regents before being implemented this Fall Semester. The plan is to centrally locate 50 bicycles on the main campus. The bikes will be maintained by one student employee and one paid employee and students who sign up will be allowed a two week share period. This sounds more like a rental program based on the singular location and alloted times.

So what would happen if the UofM threw it's weight and money into the proposed city-wide bike share program? Approximately 20,000 students commute to the University of Memphis. Parking is at a premium and a bike share program that is integrated with a city-wide program would alleviate a small portion of the parking problem. Because students schedule classes at different times a "rush hour syndrome" would likely be avoided.

But students are not the only ones that will benefit from an integrated bike share program: the University's museums and performance centers could promote exhibits and performances at outlying share kiosks to draw in non-student visitors. As you probably know, the University often charges a higher admission fee to non-students.

Any type of program, integrated or insular, would benefit the city in that it would enable exchange students and campus residence students who don't have cars to get around the city; dine at more restaurants (Cooper-Young, Overton Square), shop at more places (Target, Oak Court), and attend more events around the city thereby gaining better cultural appreciation.

At the last Pizza With Planners meeting the representatives from Alta Planning admitted that they are still in the information-gathering phase and had plans to meet with the University in the future. (Let's just hope that whatever bicycles are chosen, they have rear racks and panniers lest someone die without them.)

While we wait for the Board's decision, you can show your support for the University of Memphis's bicycling efforts by liking the UofM Cycling Club on Facebook. Stay informed on the bike share progress by attending the Walk/Bike Memphis meetings at Otherlands. The next meeting is Monday, June 11th from 5:30pm to 6:30pm.

Cycle Memphis - June

I'll be riding the Trek Transport for SAG. Ask me and you can test ride it yourself so you can see what all the fuss over cargo bikes is about.

Mixed Terrain Alleycat Checkpoints

View Revolutions 10 Year Anniversay in a larger map

Breakfast

Untitled, a photo by fixmemphis on Flickr.

Pretty soon I'll be eating breakfast at Kermit's! But between you, me, and the internet, I'm partial to the figs that are coming in down the street!

Crits Polo

I didn't get the polo polo but I did pick up this USA Crits joint for way cheaper!

More Bikesploitation II Pics!

Live From Memphis put up some pictures from Bikesploitation II. This is the ReTREAD Art Activity sponsored by Revolutions that Emily and I coordinated. I'm sure it looks slightly familiar.

Can Memphis Share Bikes?

As Memphis continues our upward trend in the bicycling community several of us have asked the question: "What's next?" We have but to look at other cities who are years ahead of us for our answer: the bike share program.

Here's the idea: Place bikes at various locations spaced throughout a bike-friendly portion of the city. The public has use of these bicycles for free or for a small fee. You pick up (or rent) a bike at one location, ride it to another that is close to your destination and leave it there for the next person to use.

This has happened with varying degrees of success throughout the world: Austin has a (I actually think it is the oldest and free-est) system called Yellow Bike, Paris has Velib, and Emily and I used B-Cycle in Denver. The list goes on and on; even Nashville and Chattanooga have bike share programs.

For this year's Bike To Work Day Em and I had the idea of setting up three stations downtown, one in the Pinch District, one around Poplar and one in South Main (all along Main Street) with some bikes and volunteers from Revolutions. An idea which proved to be logistically daunting in such a short amount of time.

But given time, money and a bike share system, where would you put stations? Near restaurants? Cultural attractions? Stadiums? How many stations do you think Memphis can handle? Can we even handle a bike share at all?

Tell it like it is at tonight's Pizza with Planners session!

Come hear the project team from Alta Planning and Design discuss the feasibility of a Bike Share Program for the City of Memphis and give your input.

Date: Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Time: 5:30-7:00 pm

Location: Benjamin Hooks Public Library, 3030 Poplar Avenue

Thank you Alta Planning and Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop for sponsoring this event!

This event is free and open to the public. If you haven't registered yet, click on the link below to RSVP.

Register Here

Bikesploitation II Recap!

These are the bullets I found when I swept the bike polo court.



This is the unloading and setting up of the polo court and the massive amount of chairs and beer that were brought in. After that was done I went home and showered, made my way back over to do some last minute set-up and realized I had left my phone at home. But check Brett's coverage of the polo action over at gotta be gritty.

For the attendees (as well as the crew) check out Nathan Berry's photographs.

Live From Memphis should have photos and announce the winners real soon.

Having worked on or produced the past three bike/film festivals I can say that this one was the best attended, most interactive, most amazing one so far.

Vic06 posted up some pics on his flickr.


Maybe you guys remember the PPV? I gave it to LFM then Sam Dunn crashed it so they took the top off. It's faster now. As Christopher and I were hanging the first screen we heard a loud bang. It turned out to be the front tire. So thank you to Kyle for hooking up a replacement tube and tire for the event.

I'm sure we'll be seeing more photos as people get them on their computers.