Just heard from Larry Black, the legendary owner of Mt Airy and College Park Bicycles out there in the DC area and wow gadzooks, he tells me he is going to ride the Baltimore to Washington DC relay leg on a Messicek HiWheel bicycle (http://koolstop.com/mesicek/mesicek.html)!! Soon we will have his bio up but this well loved bike industry celebrity is looking for people to join him on his Friday July 2, 44 mile run. If interested, apply at http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/Forms/newriders.php
========================================
========================================
Heard also from the amazing Chalk-Printing Bicycle Man. Here is the tentative news release Josh Kinberg created that we want to shoot off to the NY press if we and Josh can get all of this together in time. As per our exciting schedule http://www.BikeRoute.com/NationalMayorsRide2004, NYC is tomorrow at noon! Yahoooo:
========================================
Taking it to the Streets:
Chalk-Printing Bicycle Spreads the National Bicycle Greenway Gospel
On Friday June 25, 2004, National Bicycle Greenway's annual Mayors' Ride arrives at City Hall Park in New York City. Joining the ride will be RoadWriter, a unique, spray-chalk printing bicycle used to spread the word about National Bicycle Greenway's quest to connect the coasts and all of the cities in between with a network of bike roads and paths. RoadWriter's inventor, Joshua Kinberg, a New York based emerging technology artist, is enthusiastic about participating in the Mayors' Ride and hopes his invention will help National Bicycle Greenway achieve its goals. Using an embedded computer to control a series of spray-chalk aerosol cans, Kinberg's bicycle prints neatly scripted, dot-matrix text messages behind him as he cruises from one block to the next. "The effect is similar to skywriting," says Kinberg, "except on the street." And, like skywriting, the messages have a temporary presence. The chalk removes easily with water, or safely biodegrades within a few days.
Kinberg hopes his invention will promote the benefits of riding bicycles. "Bicycles are a safe, healthy, and energy efficient form of transportation," says Kinberg. "People will look back on the National Bicycle Greenway as an important American achievement, the same way that we now view the Transcontinental Railroad, or the Interstate Highway system." ... [Quote from Martin Krieg]
========================================
========================================
When we Hi Wheeled (and unicycled & skated) Davis to Folsom last week, Mike Damon and Jack Martin were racing back and forth along the trail keeping the appointments we had made with the Mayor's offices along the way advised of our progress. When I thanked Jack, the inventor of the bike mounted hydration system called GOMBer
========================================
My only worry about the racing around was when it was in the middle of the urban traffic! :) But, doing the stint from discovery park to Folsom was more of a welcomed challenge for me. I had never ridden the entire length of the bike trail out of Sacramento before. Doing it at speed, and in that heat, was great training.
Patrick and Don were great guests. I can see why Patrick is a school teacher, my kids just loved him. They shrieked with laughter the next morning when he demonstrated his unicycling skills in the driveway. They liked Don, also, but he is more reserved and private, so they respectfully gave him the solitude he needed for his writing.
My daughter Rachel mounted her own bike and "escorted" both Patrick and Don to the end of our street when they left. My youngest kids were excited to have guests in the house and were incredulous that these men would head off on such an adventure as to dare to ride across the entire country on cycles. My 11 year old, Samuel, likened them to Lewis and Clark.
I tried to feed and hydrate them as much as possible and offer them every possible amenity, given their undertaking. But both of them accepted only modest amounts of anything, displaying the grace of true gentlemen. They are each welcome back to my home anytime.
I hope the rest of the Mayor's Ride will be a success. Thanks for the pic slide show (http://nbg.bikeroute.com/gallery/slideshow.php?set_albumName=Davis-Folsom2004) in the website. I've viewed it a couple times already. It's great.