Hollywood, Music, Record Holders Gun for Chicago

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
                                MARK TWAIN

There is so incredibly much going on behind the scenes this year that the only way I can keep it all straight, is to document it in newsletter form. You see we're doing a far bigger ride ride this year in half the time with nearly twice as many cities. And we're headed for Chicago this year bringing riders from points north, south, east and west of the Windy City fueled by musicians, an actresses, a Mayor rider participant and celebrity cyclists, etc, etc . In the words below, I will try to capture as much of the excitement as I can, an overview of which can be found at out 2004 Mayors' Ride schedule:

http://www.BikeRoute.com/NationalMayorsRide2004/

A) Rapid Transit Bike Shop takes Chicago Sponsorship
B) NBG 2004 Fest to be held at Handlebar Chicago (nation's only bicycle restaurant)
C) Chicago NBG Day
D) Tour de Chicago Volunteers Needed!!
E) Actress/Bike Champ, Libby Aubrey, Filming NBG Commercial - Collecting Cyclists
F) Libby filming TV commercial and radio PSA advertisement all of us can circulate
G) Libby gets Orange County Wheelman and the South Bay Wheelman to ride 140 miles
H) Ask your bike club to join us for a lunch time ride or...
I) Claire Machadao & C.A.M. Engine NBG Music Tour
J) The NBG Song
K) Parky's back with a song entitled: "Don't Give up, Parky's song"
L) Jeff Reser creates beautiful 2004 Mayors' Ride logo
M) Put Mayors' Ride Logo at your page: Here's the HTML Code!!
N) Arcata Mayor Bob Ornelas to ride Eugene to Arcata (Maybe More)
O) SimpliCity Cycle Company may include Golden Gate Bridge with Sausalito to SF leg
P) Lars Clausen  http://onewheel.org TransAm unicyclist may ride Seattle
Q) Gomber http://gomb-er.com Hands Free Bicycle Hydration to Ride Folsom
R) Backsafer to ride Miami to Tampa (to DC)??
S) Reynolds Weld Lab, world's fastest production bike, to ride Boston to NYC
T) World Record Holder, Steve Stevens, might join High Gear Longmont to Boulder Posse
U) Handcyclist Steve Ackerman may push to Boulder
V) Jeff Stephens to power huge Columbus ride again!
W) Rideable Replicas to bring out HI-Wheel bikes again
X) Scott Campbell Rebuilds NBG Store
Y) Mayors' Ride Ambassadors Needed: See the checklist
Z) "Awake Again" becoming an on line book (audio & visual) c-o Faye
AA) VoiceIt for digitizing road notes??
AB) Claire needs Flyers
AC) Couch Bike Comedy in Canada!!

A) One of Chicago's top bike shops, Rapid Transit Cycle Shop at http://www.rapidtransitcycles.com has agreed to serve as a welcome harbor for our July 30 arriving cyclists. One of the city's most respected two ( and three) wheel purveyors, Raptra, as they are known, is led by the creative and hard working husband and wife team of Justyna Frank and Chris Stoddard. As well, this is a couple that bikes their talk. The two of them, even in Chicago's freezing winters, do almost all their trips on a bicycle! And it is this zeal, that describes all of the employees who work for them Since we have had a working relationship with them for a number of years, here at Cycle America, we did their first web, when they heard we were coming to Chicago, they were very receptive to the idea of helping make the NBG's visit to Chicago a success!

B) Another house of Chicago fire and the man who convinced us that we needed to bring this year's ride to the more central part of the US, is also putting his business behind our effort. Jim Redd, the man who rode for us in 2002 and in 2003 (his Pocket Mail rides for us and his Pacific Coast slide show are all linked at our schedule) and did a ton of important web work for us last year, has offered his place of business for our Chicago event. The Handlebar Restaurant, the nation's one and only restaurant with a bicycle as transportation theme, will host an evening of bicycle fun as per the pro forma press release below.

C) Here is an as a pro forma press release for Chicago NBG Day of which adjustments are still being made:

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On July 30 cyclists from all over the USA will converge on Chicago for the 3rd Annual NBG Fest brought to you by the nonprofit Nat Bicycle Greenway and (an as yet unnamed sponsor). Led off by the Mayors proclamation ceremony at noon (probably) at Daley Plaza where July 30, 2004 will be made NBG Day in Chicago, later that evening, cyclists will adjourn to NBG night at the Handlebar Restaurant http://www.handlebarchicago.com , the nation's first if not only bicycle restaurant. There an evening of music, booksigning, speaking and bike movies, even a poetry reading of select poems written for the NBG over the years which will be read by Chicago bike legend Jim Redd will all take place (see itinerary) all following the theme, "Celebrate your Independence from Cars".
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D) What follows is a visualization of the group ride that we foresee for the following day, July 31. In order to make it real, however, we will need help. Is there anyone on this mailing, in the Chicago area, who might be able to help us as lay out 20 to 60 mile rides or lead one or devise cue sheets for them, or promote (flyers, word of mouth, etc) them, or ..??

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On Saturday, the festivities continue with the first ever Tour de Chicago. A smorgasbord of 4 different easy tours, riders will be able to select from rides that explore either Chicago culture, its bike shops, its nature, even its two wheel underground.

Based out of the Handlebar, this fun day of riding will be led off by a small fair where Rapid Transit bike shop will be performing bike checks and doing free spot repairs, and the Handlebar will have healthy food and drink available for those NBG cyclists ready to tour Chicago. The Tour de Chicago will be led by seasoned bike veterans from the famed Windy City.
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E) Southern California, a new addition to our Mayors' Ride is fully coming alive thanks to an unstoppable actress/businesswoman/bike champion named Libby Aubrey (http://www.libbyaubrey.com). Based out of Rancho Palos Verdes, a suburb of Los Angeles, Libby is creating a ton of excitement for our ride. And she is making her beauty, her brilliance and her networks available to us for the youth that fuel so much of the passion that electrifies her life. It is here that, in an amongst all of the many many worlds that demand attention from her, Libby also runs a nonprofit organization called the School of Champions (http://www.libbyaubrey.com/champion/schoolofchampions.htm), a school without walls that has bicycle racing at its epicenter. And it is here through the coaches and mentors and sponsors, etc that she is able to involve in teaching this sport that she gives kids wholesome activity as they also learn the values and discipline needed to become winners in life.

F) And for the sport/activity she uses to empower her kids, Libby is filming a 30 second TV commercial as well as recording a 10 second radio PSA advertisement that describes our Mayors' Ride. And she will produce it such that all of of the Ambassadors (described in Y below) in each of our Mayoral cities will be able to disseminate it amongst their local media. A commercial worth tens of thousands of dollars, it will be available to anyone who wants to use it for their Mayors' Ride city for the price of a blank video cassette and UPS shipping charges!! I will make sure to let you know when it is soon complete!!

G) And for bicycling for the kids, Libby has already interested two bike clubs, the Orange County Wheelman and the South Bay Wheelman in carrying the NBG torch a grand total of 140 miles in her southern part of the state. Yahoooo!!

H) Besides the mob of cyclists that Jeff Stephens is brining to Columbus city Hall once again this year (as described in V below) what other bike clubs want to be a part of this year's ride? If you belong to one, see if you can interest your club's ride director in staging a lunchtime ride (a few miles, even a few blocks, or more, we just want bodies out there) to the Mayors' Reception in your city!!

I) We are blessed this year with the services of another beautiful female spirit. Claire Machado, also stunning and captivating, who like Libby is a performer, blessed with a razor sharp mind, is coming, with her band C.A.M. Engine (http://www.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Cam_Engine) from LA to Chicago. In a motor home. As an aside, being Car Free myself does not mean I am against internal combustion. By not owning a car, I try to show how full and rich one's life can be in the absence of motor vehicles. And I will be the first to admit that cars and trucks and buses do work that bikes never could. Like transporting musical instruments, sound equipment and a team of musicians themselves from one city to the next. And that is what Claire will be doing as she and her musicians go ahead of our riders to let the people in these areas know that we are coming.

C.A.M. Engine will finance their tour by selling their CD at the performances they will have scheduled in the clubs and halls they will perform at in and around our Mayors' Ride cities. And it is here that radio and TV will be additionally compelled to, besides Libby's commercial, talk about our arrival. You see, the C.A.M. Engine CD will be about the possibility consciousness that our National Bicycle Greenway is all about. Besides the NBG Song (talked about in J below) that Claire is finalizing, she also renamed one of her songs forJim Wetherel as you will see in K below.

More about Claire's excitement as it all unfolds, but do also know that Cliare and her motor home will serve as an anchor for our riders once they hit most of our Mayors' Ride cities west of Chicago. And it is here that, for our arriving riders, a shower can be had, computer and fax access, if Claire can work out all the details, can be enjoyed and possible mail package receipts and send aheads can be facilitated.

J) I saw a draft of the NBG song that many of you helped Cliare with ideas for and the words alone are going to be much celebrated. Add Claire's lyrics and her voice and whoaa, will it move lots of energy!!

K) Indomitable Parkinson's Survivor, Jim Wetherell, aka Parky at http://www.inevergiveup.org , is coming back for more riding. Only this time with a song!! Claire Machado dedicated the song entitled
"Crossing this Bridge" to Parky. It is an awesome song about tenacity and determination and the chorus has these lyrics..

"Don't give up, one more day, just one more hour..
Don't give up or else it will devour, devour you.. "

She is changing the name to "Don't give up (Parky's song)". To hear it, go to:

http://www.iuma.com/site-bin/mp3gen/5028/IUMA/Bands/Cam_Engine/audio/Cam_Engine_-_Crossing_this_Bridge.mp3

But do be patient, even with broadband, it takes a few minutes to download. And yet it will be worth the wait. I am not often moved by music but this will not only knock you out but it will also give you a taste of the killer music that C.A.M. Engine will be bringing on tour with us this summer!!

L) Jeff Reser, the man who with his brother rode Chicago to Des Moines last year and who before he left created a beautiful logo for the Andrew Heckman fund as well as a stunning logo for last year's 2003 Mayors' Ride, outdid himself this year. He not only changed the date to 2004 for this year's logo, but he made use of colors and other special effects to truly make the image explode off of the screen. It's at our Mayors' Ride schedule as well as the Cycle America home page http://www.bikeroute.com . Do take a look and see if U don't agree that this is epic stuff

M) And if you want to embellish your own web site with Jeff's beautiful art as you also help us get the Mayors' Ride known about, here is the HTML code for Mayors' Ride Logo/Link:

Small:

Medium:

Please feel free to use it at your site!!

N) While last year marked the first coast to coast Mayors' Ride, THX to Jim Muellner (http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide/JimMuellner), this year will mark the fist ever Mayor riding a complete relay leg. Last year Acrata Mayor rode Skot Paschal (our famous Pocket Mail poet who is also probably coming back) into town, from 40 or so miles out, to Arcata NBG Day (http://nbg.bikeroute.com/gallery/Arcata2003), while this year Bob is going to take on the Eugene to Arcata leg. And, he tells me, if can create per diem sponsor support and if there are not any Mayoral fires he can't fight from the road, he may even bike all the way to the San Francisco Bay Area and all of our receptions there!!! What's powerful here is that Bob is not only a real bullets cyclist, but he is passionate about using his political influence to make the way easier for those of us on two wheels. And he has the networks and an understanding of the process to really be able to make a lot of noise for our effort. He and I are scheduled to meet in a few hours this Monday!!! I much look forward to that!!

O) When bike legend, Joe Breezer, of SimpliCity Cycle Company (http://www.breezerbikes.com) got word that Bob was going to ride and got a taste of Bob's passion for effecting change in this regard, he wasted no time getting a hold of him. On the letter to Bob on which Joe placed me on the cc, he explained the direction that his company is now moving in, from recreation bikes to transportation bikes. Joe talked about how too few elected officials understand the tremendous power the bicycle has to solve a lot of the problems cities are facing with congestion and other woes brought on by the automobile. Seeing Joe's fire, I invited him and his company to help us bring in a ride across the Golden Gate Bridge by sponsoring a new relay leg from his factory in Sausalito to our Mayors' Ride reception in San Francisco. He's interested!! As we work out the details, I will keep you posted!!

P)  Lars Clausen  http://onewheel.org who has unicycled across America and been in all 50 US states on one wheel recently got back to me. A couple days before Christmas, I had introduced him at our blog as per http://www.bikeroute.com/Recumbents/News/Archives/000028.html . And when he recently replied with a thank you, it dawned on me that we should ask him to do a part of our Mayors' Ride as a way to get this story out there and as a way for him to help us. I will ask him this week and I'll let you know what I hear back! NOTE: Today's Mark Twain quote came from Lars' web site!

Q) When Claire Machado discovered that the League of American Bicyclists was honoring
Folsom CA as a top US bike city as per this news release that she found, http://www.bicyclefriendlycommunity.org/press_folsom.htm , I asked Jack Martin, the triathelte and inventor of the Hands Free Bicycle Hydration system called the Gomber http://gomb-er.com if he would like to sponsor Folsom. I knew that Gomber was based out of Folsom and that it was in the scorching heat of their summers there that Jack had come up with the idea for his patented water drinking system that gets the liquid off of your back. Well he not only agreed to adopt that relay leg but he is also going to ride the 37-mile Davis to Folsom distance and invites others to join him. Do get a look at this new addition to our schedule: http://www.BikeRoute.com/NationalMayorsRide2004/#Anchor-43793 !!

R) The exciting, collapsible Backsafer recumbent bicycle (http://Backsafer.com), raffled off at many of of our NBG benefits is now finally here in America available for sale. Long time readers of our mailings will remember this bike as soon to be in production but in need of a few more design tweaks. Well now that it is being sold commercially, they want to show America how well it rides. And it looks like they will be able to get a rider team to do just that for the Miami to Tampa relay leg. I will let you know when we can soon announce that they will as well be riding with us!!

S) George Reynolds inventor of the world's fastest production bikes, the Reynolds Weld Lab speed machines (http://reynoldsweldlabs.com) has agreed to sponsor the Boston to New York City relay leg. And he may do the same island hopping run I did when I made that connection at the end of my 1986 TransAm. As such then he may take the ferry to Cape Cod and ride it south to the Post Road on the mainland where he will pick up the ferry at Bridgeport, CT. It will take him to Long Island where he will ride down to New York City. Of note, it was on the Cape that I birthed the idea of a National Bicycle Greenway as I rode a reconverted rail path almost the length of the island. It was here that found myself wondering the whole way why, if we could go to the moon, why we could not somehow create a coast to coast bike connection. And I've not stopped pushing for such a through way since......

T) Thanks to Greg Barron of Rideable Replicas talked about below, I was able to once again make contact with Steve Stevens (http://www.brekus.org/wheelmen/goldenoldy ) the world record holder whose picture dominates our Cycle America 2000 report (http://www.bikeroute.com/CycleAmerica2000/2000Report.html). In 2000 Steve led our ride parade after he had just ridden a Hi-Wheeler from San Francisco to Boston in a world record time of 29 days as per http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Garden/4934/bikeamerica.htm !! Steve lives in the Boulder CO area and just this last Friday, I asked him if he would like to join us once again as a part of Buzz Feldman's High Gear Cyclery, 15-mile ride to Boulder. Last year Jim Muellner led nearly two dozen cyclists from Longmont to Boulder and Buzz expects even more this year!!

U) Also in the Boulder area is another celebrity cyclist who may join us. Handcyclist Steve Ackerman has expressed interest in joining our ride. Not sure if he wants to take on some of the nearby Rockies or a shorter ride, say the Longmont to Boulder leg, but I know this man has no limits. His arm powered ride around the world stands as a record that will likely remain long unbroken!! I'll be sure to let you know what Steve comes up with!!

V) Jeff Stephens tells us that he will bring out the two wheel crowds for another huge Columbus ride! Last year, this man who himself biked across the US in the Race Across America as per (http://www.pacelineproducts.com/resultsfolder/bubba.htm), brought a virtual procession of cyclists to Columbus city hall. Yahooo Jeff. And they call him Bubba because he is one huge man with an even huger heart!!

W) The Rideable Replicas people say they will be back for our Berkeley to Oakland relay. On their show stopping Hi-Wheel bikes!! Talk about excitement. Everyone stops when they ride by. And the bikes Rideable Replicas makes indeed are epic machines from yesteryear. Surprisingly affordable, if you need to get attention for your event, I suggest you visit them at their web site: http://highwheel.com to see how you can own one of your own.

X) Scott Campbell has been behind the scenes quite busy with matters NBG. Besides all of the other ways he makes life easier for us here at NBG Central, he also recently redressed the NBG Store button. If you go to the Cycle America home page http://www.bikeroute.com , you will see what I mean. It tells people that once they go inside that the inexpensive, quality merchandise we have for sale to get the NBG word out there is equally as attractive. The link for our store is:

http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/store/

Y) We are looking for Mayors' Ride Ambassadors. And it is toward that end with the help of Ro Fischer of the Pittsburgh Mayor's office and Lorna Davros in the Des Moines Mayor's office and others, we now have an easy to follow checklist that, if used, WILL assure that your city is much celebrated as a part of our 2004 Mayors' Ride! The checklist is at:

http://www.bikeroute.com/MayorAmbassadorChecklist.html

Z) Thanks to Faye Saunders and her friends at Apple Computer, my book "Awake Again" (http://www.bikeroute.com/AwakeAgain) is going digital!! It is becoming an on line book that you soon will be able to just download and read without having to go through the US Mail!! You won't get a signed copy but still Yahoooo!!

AA) When I get my VoiceIt in the mail, I will let you know how it works. Before I buy the full blown version that takes one's voice notes and turns them into words that the computer recognizes, I want to see how much I use it while I am riding! If you don't want to wait for me, you can go to:
http://www.vxicorp.com/storefront/search_results.asp?txtsearchParamTxt=&txtsearchParamCat=5&btnSearch.x=16&btnSearch.y=11&txtsearchParamType=ALL&iLevel=1&txtsearchParamMan=ALL&txtsearchParamVen=ALL&txtFromSearch=fromSearch&digitalrecorders=yes&l2=digitalrecorders&navsub=1

In perfect world, there is someone out there who can tell us if this miraculous technology really works!! Anyone had any experience with VoiceIt??

AB) Are there any graphic artists out there who can help Claire get flyers together that she can run in each of our NBG Mayors' Ride cities to announce that she is playing in consort with our City Hall events? Also as a means to attract cyclists and people to our receptions?

AC) Last November, Parky , forwarded a hysterical short story (complete with pictures). that I put at our recumbent blog:  http://www.bikeroute.com/Recumbents/News/Archives/000011.html . Do be prepared to laugh as it is as funny as it is well written!!