There is so very very much excitement exploding all around me with our soon upcoming Mayors' Ride that there is no possible way I can describe even a representative measure of it . As well is it hard to find time so I can share in this medium. I will whet your appetites just a wee bit tho. If U want to see more, you can follow the links around at our schedule noted below or at NationalBicycleGreenway.com.
We just accepted Kevin Kelly as a rider in our Rowbike challenge! On June 3, he will be meeting actress, bike champ, Libby Aubrey, in Santa Barbara where she will have arrived with riders from the Orange County and South Bay Wheelmen and possibly the Los Angles County Bike Coalition who recently came on as the 6/1 Los Angeles NBG Day sponsor! Kevin, a Sacramento resident, will ride from Santa Barbara north to the San Luis Obispo NBG Day reception as well as to Monterey NBG Day. And he'll be doing so on the bike that will be his too keep once he makes those connections. Indeed do get a look at his web noted below. He sounds like a fun person and I can't wait for you to soon hear all about his ride.
For those of you who don't know, the Rowbike, invented by the same man who also brought us Rollerblades, Scott Olson, has a seat that slides back and forth along a rail as you row to move the bike forward. Handsomely crafted with beautiful paint work, these bikes result in almost instant crowds of finger pointing people whenever they come into view. Wow!!
Where the Rowbike Challenge is concerned, we are still accepting applications. If you would like to earn yourself a free Rowbike by riding one in any of the the legs found at the Rowbike Challenge below, please fill out our questionnaire.
Another head turner joins author and ultra distance unicyclist Lars Clausen, who will be helping us kick off Seattle with the active and robust Cascade Bike Club on May 14. San Francisco school teacher, Patrick Thomas, leaves San Francisco with us on June 11. Destination: Chicago July 30.
On a U NI I C Y C L E !!
And it is looking like Claire Machado, our music ambassador, will be a great help to Patrick's ride. She and the rest of her band will be traveling in an RV from Mayors' Ride city to Mayors' Ride city and they are trying to work out the logistics so she can help Patrick carry the gear he will need to support his ride.
Too exited and THX for tuning in!!
Links for the above:
Mayors' Ride Schedule
Kevin Kelly
Rowbike Challenge
Questionnaire
Lars Clausen
Patrick Thomas
Antique Bikes & NBG Ride the American River Trail
Beginning in June, cyclists from all over the nation will be riding to Chicago to promote the National Bicycle Greenway envisioned as a a nationwide network of bike friendly roads and paths. Cyclists from Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area will be passing through the Sacramento area and Reno during the trek to Chicago.
On Monday June 14th, Davis, CA Mayor Ruth Asmundson will host the send-off of an exciting collection of bicycles from yesteryear to Sacramento and Mayor Heather Fargo's office. The cyclists will then clamber east along the American River Parkway on their way to official receptions with the Rancho Cordova and Folsom Mayors where the ride ends. Riders from Chico will join the group in Sacramento.
Why? As a part of the National Bicycle Greenway's (NBG) 3rd Annual Mayors' Ride, these cyclists are using their relay legs to call attention to the National Bicycle Greenway and the need to keep the trail they will be riding on, which is an integral part of the Greenway, open. This Important and beloved trail which runs 29 miles from the Sacramento River, to Lake Natoma and beyond, faces restrictions on use, even closure due to budget cuts.
Jacques Graber, a Sacramento resident who has used the trail to commute on his bike for 23 years, is up in arms that this proposal is being placed under consideration. He is arranging a posse of other turn of the century and modern bikes to protest these changes. Nor is Jacques a stranger to injustice. In 1983 he organized the first AIDS benefit ride in the nation, riding 167 miles with others from Sacramento to San Francisco.
As part of the larger picture, the NBG Mayors' Ride which this year visits 24 west coast cities, 41 in all, will feature a mayor riding one of the legs, an actress riding another, athletes on row-bikes, long distance unicyclists and music band performances in select cities!