Category: Main Page
Most communities require that bicyclists use some type of front and/or rear bike light on their rides after dark. In addition to the legal aspects, it's just plain common sense.
The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WADA) reports that half of all bicycling fatalities occur after dark involving bicycles without lights, although only 3% of bike rides occur at night.
To raise awareness about nighttime safety issues, bicycling associations are giving away free front and rear bike light sets. I've spotted upcoming giveaways in Washington DC, Seattle and Portland. …
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/10/31/free-bicycle-lights-in-washington-dc-seattle-portland/
There's a bicycle path in northern Pennsylvania called the Pine Creek Rail Trail that meanders 62 miles along a river that passes through a valley aptly called the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.
The Rails to Trails Conservancy conducted a survey there last year that proves the adage heard in the movie Field of Dreams: “Build it and they will come.”
The survey found that not only do they come, but they contribute to the local economies. While the trail has cost about $12.6 million to build since 1995, the Pine Creek survey determined that visitors spend from $5 million to $7 million a year, most of which is spent in the local communities along the trail.
Leaving aside the aesthetic or fitness benefits of a trail, that economic impact should encourage all communities to take those old bike trail plans off the shelf, dust them off, and start spreading the crushed limestone or asphalt…
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/10/29/build-it-and-they-will-come-and-spend-pennsylvanias-pine-creek-rail-trail/
Instead of complaining about all the trash along a section of a bike path, members of the Mid-Valley Bicycle Club in Corvallis, Oregon, are taking matters into their own hands.
Ten cyclists met at the bike path along 99W, and in little more than an hour had picked up 20 large garbage bags of crap from along the one-mile stretch. Among the items they found was a stripped down bicycle frame, which they're considering upgrading into a new bike.
Good deeds like these aren't isolated to Corvallis. Bicycling groups all over are joining “Adopt-a-trail” campaigns in communities to keep their trails clean ……
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/10/28/tired-of-trail-side-trash-adopt-a-bike-trail/
A bike ride among some friends along the 57-mile New River State Park trail in Virginia ended in tragedy recently when a rock slab broke loose from an overhang and killed a cyclist.
Park officials say the rock fall “appears to have been an isolated natural act.” It's the second time since the abandoned railroad bed was converted to a trail that someone has been killed by a falling rock.
According to reports, Sudie Jenkins Hatcher, 48, from High Point, N.C., was riding with friends in the Austinville area of the trail on Oct. 20. A slab from a rock overhang broke loose, rolled down a hill before it tumbled through the air and struck Hatcher …
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/10/28/falling-rock-slab-kills-cyclist-on-virginia-bike-trail/
Every year the organizers of the Tour de France choose an actual Tour stage for a “recreational ride” that allows cycling enthusiasts to test out their bicycling chops.
It's called L'Étape du Tour Mondovélo, and in 2008 it's scheduled to roll out Sunday, July 6, over the Stage 10 route from Pau to Hautacam.
This is like no ride along the bike path at the local park. This year's l'etape is a 102-mile ride in the Pyrenees over the Col de Tourmalet and finishing at the Hautacam ski resort…
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/10/27/2008-letape-du-tour-bike-ride-for-citizen-bicyclists/
Nearly 2 dozen Southern California wildfires that have destroyed more than half a million acres of vegetation caused so much smoke that bicycling in the area this weekend definitely wouldn't be a healthy exercise.
Orange County-based Cycling Dude blogger Kiril Kundurazieff writes about the hazards and public health warnings that are being issued at “Where there's Smoke, There's Fire: Should You Ride?” He concludes that he'll forego the bike and stick to mass transit.
The Orange County Wheelmen have postponed this weekend's popular Fall Metric Century to Nov. 3 due to the smoky conditions…
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/10/26/erase-socal-cycling-from-your-calendar-this-weekend/
Updated: The cyclists on the Discovery Channel pro cycling team are scattering to the four winds.
Spain's Alberto Contador, right, and California's Levi Leipheimer, left, have both confirmed they're following team manager Johan Bruyneel to Kazakhstan-based Astana.
Those are some big guns for Astana. Contador won the 2007 Tour de France and Leipheimer finished in 3rd. The Santa Rosa resident also won the Tour of California in 2007 and won the US National Championships this fall …
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/10/24/contador-and-leipheimer-to-astana/
Two bicyclists — Lee Anne Barry (left) and Thomas Hoskins — were killed in South Carolina on Sunday when they were struck by an SUV as they were bicycling the final leg of a cross-country ride.
This was the fourth cross-country bicycle tour for Barry. She had survived a coma as a youth and later founded the Brain Injury Greatest Journey (B.I.G. Ride) to raise awareness that people with brain injuries can continue to live life in a meaningful way.
The 43-year-old North Carolina resident certainly demonstrated to the very end that she could live a full life and give meaning to the lives of others ….
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/10/23/two-on-charity-bicycle-ride-killed-in-south-carolina/
When two life-long friends finished their cross-country bicycle tour last month, they could look back and honestly say they had left their mark on the route behind them.
Steve Cash and Ben Kelchlin didn't leave behind graffiti or trail blazes, though. They planted trees.
The pair planted 103 trees on their meandering 5,391-mile bike tour from Eastport, Maine, to Neah Bay, Washington. They planted trees in parks, elementary schools, and the yards of strangers who showed them kindness on the road…
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/10/22/cross-country-bicycle-tour-helps-to-green-america/
Using a wobbly bicycle, peasant farmer Kalifan Keita is traveling from village to village around Mali to test children for malaria and distribute drugs to those who are sick.
Irin News, a UN publication, says Keita is a volunteer in one of 18 communities that are part of a pilot project being run by the non-governmental organisation [NGO] Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a malaria-endemic region of Mali.
“He is achieving in Mali what the government and decades of Western aid have largely failed to do …
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/10/21/fighting-malaria-from-a-bicycle/
Recent Comments