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Mexico City's bike plan getting results

Remember back in April when Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard ordered all his city's bureaucrats to set a good example by riding their bicycles to work the first Monday of every month?

Apparently that plan has paid off, to a point, according to published reports. No, the city's 9 million residents aren't choking the streets with bicycle traffic. But, his order has sparked a nationwide discussion on bike commuting in the capital city, and thousands ride their bikes around town on Sunday when the city streets have been closed to vehicular traffic.

Just as importantly, the World Bank is giving Mexico City a $100,000 grant to design a bicycle master plan, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The city wants to create 186 miles of bike lanes and install bike racks at train and bus stations. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/07/02/mexico-citys-bike-plan-getting-results/

Bicycle riders needed for Virginia charity event

The Battle of North Valley's Hills bike ride in Virginia is reducing its sign-up fees as 50 more bicyclists are needed to register for the inaugural bicycling event over the next two weeks.

Organizers for the fund-raising ride for One Step Closer, a Strasburg-based group that modifies homes for special needs families, admit they got a late start and missed the deadlines for notices and advertising in most cycling publications. If they don't get 30 more registered riders by Friday and a total of 50 by July 13, they'll lose access to some of the rest stops and entertainment for the ride.

The bicycling event is based out of Strasburg in the Shenandoah Valley and runs July 27 – 29 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/07/01/bicycle-riders-needed-for-virginia-charity-event/

Giving credit where credit is due

The Adventure Cycling Association is once again asking touring bicyclists to nominate deserving folks for its four annual bicycle travel awards.

There's an award for the person who does the most to help touring bicyclists, the most helpful bike shop, the person who has contributed to the overall success of bicycle touring, and the most prominent Adventure Cycling volunteer.

If someone comes to mind, go to the awards program at Adventure Cycling Association.

They didn't have these awards when my friend and I rode our bicycles cross-country in 1984, but I was thinking who I would nominate from 23 years ago:

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/07/01/giving-credit-where-credit-is-due/

New Pacific NW bike ride: High Pass Challenge

Are you looking for the end-of-season challenge to test your bicycling fitness? If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you might consider the High Pass Challenge presented by the Cascade Bicycle Club.

Offered by the Seattle-based bicycle club for the first time in 2007, the Challenge is a 120-mile, one-day bike ride that features 7,500 feet of elevation gain.

Cyclists will begin in Packwood, Washington, between 7 and 8 a.m. on Sept. 23, and climb Independence Pass, pedal past Spirit Lake and arrive at the Windy Ridge Viewpoint of the Mount St. Helens blast zone in the national monument. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/06/29/new-pacific-nw-bike-ride-high-pass-challenge/

Tell Kentucky official your dog-attack stories

If there's one thing that Kentucky is known for among cross-country bicyclists, it's the dogs.

When my friend and I rode through there on our TransAmerica bike tour back in 1984, I remember pedaling some rural areas where the baying hounds would telegraph our passage right on down the road.

Barking isn't the problem, however. It's the chasing and biting.

Kentucky's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, Tiffani Jackson, wants to learn more about this problem. Adventure Cycling Association notes in a recent edition of “Bike Bits” that she wants cyclists to contact her about about cyclist-dog encounters “so I can start to show people how big of a problem dogs are here in the state.” …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/06/27/tell-kentucky-official-your-dog-attack-stories/

Top reasons why people don't ride a bicycle

Why don't more people ride bicycles?

According to a survey conducted in Washington state, it's because they never learned to ride in the first place or they don't know how to ride in traffic.

Those results from a telephone survey surprised the state Department of Transportation official who sought the input as part of the state's effort to update its 12-year-old bicycling and pedestrian plan. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/06/25/top-reasons-why-people-dont-ride-a-bicycle/

How far can you ride your bicycle in 24 hours?

Forget about the dishes in the sink. Forget about mowing the lawn and posting your blog. Forget about sleep. If you had 24 hours, how far could you ride your bicycle?

More than 400 bicyclists met at the National 24-Hour Challenge last weekend near Grand Rapids, Michigan, to seek the answer to that question. It was the 24th meeting for the event.

Seattle resident Craig Ragsdale, 29, learned he could set the course record by covering 502.6 miles. Just as amazing, 67-year-old Dave Thomsen of Austin, Minnesota, bicycled 403.9 miles. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/06/24/how-far-can-you-ride-your-bicycle-in-24-hours/

Apology nearly knocks me off my bike

The other day, I finally topped the climb near my house. I paused to let the motorist in the oncoming lane make a right turn from the 3-way stop, as I prepared to make a left.

He made his turn. I started into the intersection, but the guy following him slid along behind him and we were on a collision course.

“Yo yo yo yo yo!” I distinctly remember yelling “Yo” five times. (In times of crisis I seem to revert to Rocky Balboa speak, as in “Yo, Paulie”.) He stopped, and I pedaled on through. About a half block away, I hear the car approaching and it is slowing down…

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/06/23/apology-nearly-knocks-me-off-my-bike/

No support for cyclists in Great Divide Race


Photo by Aaron Teasdale
Adventure Cycling Association

No support vehicles. No support crews. No calling anyone on a cell phone. No prizes. Few paved roads. What the hell kind of a bike race is this?

It's the Great Divide Race, the world's longest mountain bike race and arguably the most grueling.

Twenty-four mountain bikers set off from Port of Roosville, Montana, on the Canadian border on June 15 to tackle the 2,490-mile route to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, at the Mexican border.

They're following the stunningly beautiful and remote Great Divide Mountain Bike Route charted by the Adventure Cycling Association. It's pretty much all dirt road and trails criss-crossing the Continental Divide, with 200,000 feet of elevation gain along its course. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/06/22/no-support-for-cyclists-in-great-divide-race/

Coming to terms with boutique owner's bicycling death in Albany

Friends of an Albany, New York, boutique owner and fashion designer are raising funds for statewide bicycle training programs in her memory.

Diva de Loayza died on June 6 from injuries she received when she was struck by a minivan as she pedaled through a red light. She was knocked over the hood and crashed to the ground on her head; she was not wearing a helmet.

She also carried no identification, and it was two days before her identity was known. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/06/21/coming-to-terms-with-boutique-owners-bicycling-death-in-albany/