Posted on Tue, Apr. 12, 2005
GET FIT
Car-free riders to pedal across the country
Bicyclists are cycling to metropolitan areas all across the nation in the National Mayors' Ride.
BY DESONTA HOLDER
dholder@herald.com
Concetta Curtis sold her car in February and she's gearing up to pedal from Miami to D.C. to San Francisco starting Friday. William Gum will join her, but he's riding only as far as Tampa.
They're part of a team of about 100 cyclists in the National Mayors' Ride, a 51-city tour to show how bicycles can improve the health of cities as well as commuters. Some will pedal fewer than 100 miles while others will ride more than 5,000 miles.
The ride is one of the programs created by the National Bicycle Greenway, which promotes safe roads and the concept of a national bicycle highway.
NBG founder Martin Krieg, 51, of Palo Alto, Calif., used cycling as rehab after a car accident put him in a coma 30 years ago. From rehab, he rode across America twice on a bicycle, and he shares his story in Awake Again (WRS Publishing, 1994). Today, he owns 18 bikes and he has been car-free since '89.
Gum, 22, doesn't rely too much on a car, but he will use one to drive to Miami from his home near Orlando. After biking to Tampa, the math teacher will have someone meet him there and drive him back home. He has been cycling about five years, commuting 20 miles round trip to work four days a week. The 280-mile ride to Tampa will be his farthest.
Curtis, 27, has more than 4,000 miles ahead of her. She predicts her journey will end July 31.
She met Krieg in 2003 at a garage sale in Palo Alto. Krieg rode up on his bicycle, paid for a couch and said he'd be back with a trailer. He returned on his bicycle with a trailer attached.
''Amazed, I watched him and my friend Michael load the couch up,'' said Curtis, who was recovering from a broken back. ''The three of us began talking and Martin was quick to offer his inspiration, telling me the story of his accident and all he had accomplished . . . .'' '
Back at home in Katy, Texas, Curtis became obsessed about working out. She hired a trainer who was an avid cyclist, and soon Curtis was spending less time at the gym and more time riding.
She toured Florida last year, and she's starting her tour here because ``somewhere along A1A I fell in love with the smell of the ocean and the warm air.
''The depth and personality of the Floridian landscape was too beautiful to pass up,'' she says. ``Somewhere along the way I hope to overcome the attachment I have to the pain in my spine and inspire others to never give up. If everyone would just ride a bicycle or walk everywhere they go, the world would be full of trees and healthy people.''
While the cyclists are taking in the sights and sounds of the country, Krieg will be working on pod-cast technology. Cyclists will phone in and he will record their conversations, convert them to MP3 format and put them on his website ( www.nationalbicyclegreenwaycom) for visitors to download.
''Bicycling is not about how fit I am,'' Krieg says. ``It's a lifestyle. Once you start doing it, you can't help but want better food and to be around healthier circumstances.''
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If you're interested in participating in the 2006 National Mayors' Ride, write to Krieg atNBG@BikeRoute.com.
On March 29, noted New York City Transportation Alternatives bike activist, Noah Budnick, was taken out by a car while riding on one of the bridge exits he long had championed to improve. Any time a cyclist goes down, my attention gets aroused, but in Noah's case, he was not only a fellow bike activist comrade with whom I have much conversed, but Noah also suffered head injuries. And being a head injury survivor myself, as many of you know, I am fully aware of the horror that lies ahead for this gentle man. While bones, lacerations and bruises can all be mended, brain trauma leaves the victim in a world full of anguish, uncertainty and doubt. The fire that Noah once burned for a better two wheel world will likely be extinguished as he works to rebuild his own broken life. This is why we have to use this tragedy to carry on where he left off. And it is for this reason that our 5/6 NYC NBG Day will be dedicated to Noah as you will see below.
As for the rest of the news, as is the case every year, it almost seems surprising when our long build up is just about ready to end. In the matter of just four days time, it will all be real bullets from here on out. With schedules set and lead riders established, Concetta Curtis and William Gum kick it all off when they leave Miami NBG Day this Friday April 15. And as Concetta comes north to DC, the the fires we have begun to ignite all across the US will continue to burn hotter and more ferociously. To see the new riders who are joining us and who's doing what to make certain that this will be the most exciting NBG Day summer ever, don't stop here but follow the links below!! Thanks for being a part of this P O W E R !!
Northeast Flank
A) Transportation Alternatives Activist Hit by Car - Suffers Head Injuries
B) NYC NBG Day to be Dedicated to Noah Budnick
C) Boston Bicycle Festival people want to join NBG Day with us
D) Steve Miler to serve as Boston Point Person
E) Bikes Not Bombs amazing Earn a Bike program at Boston NBG Day
Southeast Flank
A) Breakthrough: Concetta Captured on Audio (Hear her speak!)
B) Miami Herald feature to come out 4/12
C) Concetta: Why She's riding
D) JOIN CONCETTA!! She wants Riders!!
E) Paul Dockins creates luxury Atlanta to Knoxville tour
F) Alpha Bennet 67 yo non stop rider signs on
East to West
A) Nick Hein sees his ride as rite of passage for graduating son
B) Pedaling Harpist, John Lozier joins Nick's group
C) Morgantown NBG Day moved to May 20, gets website
D) Berkeley Car Free Councilman Kriss Wothington returns
E) Berkeley Police Chief a cyclist to join us
F) Mike Damon brings on Carson City
Southwest Flank
inactive
Northwest Flank
inactive
NBG General:
A) NBG Day Timeline
B) Max Chen may join me and Don Loomis in 2007
C) Repost: Use the OGO to stay in touch
D) Repost: NationalBicycleGreenway.com Blog Moderator wanted
E) Repost: 2005 riders order your FREE sunglasses from SlipNot Eyewear
F) Repost: Individual 2005 NBG Rider Business Cards now Available !!
G) Repost: 2005 riders order your FREE Copy of "How to Bike America"
H) Repost: Find a Ride Partner - Place an ad at our classifieds
Northeast Flank
A) On March 29, Transportation Alternatives (TA) Bike Activist, Noah Budnick. was severely head injured while riding his bike on the Brooklyn Bridge exit, an exit he had long been fighting to make safe.
B) Having had first hand experience with the holy hell that lies ahead of this man, I have asked the Transportation Alternatives people to help us dedicate our May 6th NYC NBG Day to Noah. Obviously a work in progress, it is our hope that we can get the NYC Mayor's office to dedicate some of the proclamation they will issue to Noah. And if I can get enough time and resources from the TA people, besides creating a web page for Noah, I'd like to see if we can't create a special fund people can donate to, This would be something along the lines of a 'Noah Budnick Safe Bridge Approaches Fund'. Many tens of thousands of cyclists use New York City's many bridges every day. So this should spawn lots of cyclists who want to put the empathy they feel for this man into action!!
C) Steve Miller, executive director of the Boston Bike Festival (BBF) contacted us about our possibly working together. A well connected educator and organizational consultant, Steve knows the inner workings of Boston politics pretty well. So much so, that when he and Maria Ortiz, of Bikes Not Bombs, were talking about our event, he recognized the opportunity to help his cause as he helped ours. Steve will be at Boston NBG day and will hopefully say a few words about the movement he and his group are creating to reestablish Boston bicycling as the dignified king of the road it was back at the turn of the last century. While their Fest does not happen until Sept 11, the BBF people have scheduled monthly rides that will continue up to that point in time as a way to show people what is beautiful about riding a bike in Boston!
http://www.bostonbikefestival.org
D) As we were talking about how we can pull Boston bike activists into our event, Steve not only surprised me but he surprised himself when he volunteered to serve as the Point Person in Boston for our May 3 event! I gave him the names and numbers I have collected and Steve offered to get everyone together to talk about our event!! Too Powerful!!
E) The Bikes Not Bombs people who sent 2,300 bikes to third world countries last year, also have many other excellent programs, one of which is Earn-A-Bike. From their excellent newsletter, I excerpted this partial explanation:
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Earn-A-Bike is a 5 week after-school course in which students take on a contract to refurbish a bike they actually earn, while learning the mechanics of how it works. Bike rides get youth physically active and help teach safe-riding skills. Other topics inevitably come up: nutrition, conflict resolution, neighborhood issues, identity issues including race and gender) and the international work that BNB does. The curriculum has been developed and refined since BNB first started teaching in 1991, and it is now replicated all over the country, in Ghana, and soon in BNB's newest project in South Africa. Throughout each year Earn-A-Bike enrolls about 75 youth ages 12-18, who all go home with a new bike and the know-how to upkeep it and identify problems as they arise. The course costs each young person only $25 because it is subsidized by donors and amazing volunteer instructor time commitment.
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And it is from this exciting program that their director, Maria Ortiz, will be bringing kids to Boston NBG Day!
The Bikes Not Bombs Website: http://www.bikesnotbombs.org
Southeast Flank
A) On Thursday, I managed to pin Concetta Curtis down long enough to get a phone interview out of her. She and Michael Mongold are barnstorming the Southeastern US as he prepares to leave his home in Texas for his new job in CA. Seems the vacation plans Michael had in Florida coincided with Concetta's desire to scout her ride there. And now that they are both done, she is back in the Lone Star state, helping him get ready for his move. This as she trains for her ride. On Monday, today, he is driving her back to Miami! Ugh....
Hey but I did get a worthy interview out of her. With Concetta on her cell and me using my computer as a phone so I could record our conversation as something I could digitize, in the miracle that modern day computing really is, I now have our eight minute conversation on line! It is now set up as an MP3 file that you can download at your leisure and listen to. What a breakthrough!!
I am still learning this amazing technology, so please excuse the many glitches (such as having the mic too close to my mouth when Concetta was speaking) you will find there but you at least will get to hear one most effervescent Concetta as she talks about her upcoming summer with us. Here it is:
http://www.radio4all.net/dl.php/1680-1-20050410-Conceta4-8-05.mp3?file_id=21428&protocol=http&
I hope you can see all the possibilities as a lot of the names you have seen in here over the years will come to life as I interview them!!
Too exciting !!
B) As I have been busy learning how to record my phone calls with my computer, right as I speak, and then turning them into sound files I can share with you, the Miami Herald has been asking us questions. Desonta Holder, the reporter assigned to our story has kept us busy with email. She tells me that her feature about Miamia NBG Day will come out tomorrow, April 12!
C) In fact, Concetta answered her question as to why she is riding with a post so well articulated that I placed at our National Bicycle Greenway blog:
http://nbg.bikeroute.com/News/Archives/week_2005_03_27.php#000316
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In October, 2003 I met Martin Kreig at a garage sale in Palo Alto, CA. He came riding up on his bicycle and purchased a couch. Unable to pick it up on two wheels, he told us that he would return later with his trailer. Being the non-cyclist that I was, I assumed that he meant a trailer perhaps attached to a car or pick-up. Not Martin Krieg! He came back on his bicycle, only now there was a trailer attached to it. Amazed, I watched him and my friend, Michael load the couch up. I wasn't able to help because a month earlier I had fallen and broken my back. The three of us began talking and Martin was quick to offer his inspiration, telling me the story of his accident and all he had accomplished since then. A couple of days later, on our way out of California, Martin returned and gave us a copy of his autobiography, "Awake Again". I read the book out loud as Michael and I travelled to Oklahoma and eventually here to Katy TX.
In Feb. 2004 I took my brace off and began to re-evaluate the state at which my body was left in. Uninsured, I was not able to see a doctor after the initial visit to the hospital, where they fused together my ninth, tenth, and eleventh vertebrae. I remember them telling me that the bone is not likely to grow back considering the intensity of the break, (crushed in 13 pieces).
I became totally obsessed with working out and hired a trainer at the 24 hour fitness in Katy. She was an avid cyclist and educated me on the great many benefits of riding a bicycle both for your mind and your body. I became interested and decided to buy my first real bicycle from her. She, on her new Trek 5200, and I, rode almost everyday. She told me that I was a natural and was very pleased at how fast I was picking things up. Slowly I began spending less time at the gym and more time on the saddle.
When I decided to start touring the first person I thought of was, hmm... what was his name? I couldn't even remember the guy's name that I had met at the garage sale and who had inspired me so much with his story. I began searching for him on the Internet using only the clues I could come up with. Somehow a google search for coma+book+bicycling+Transam led me back to Martin Krieg. I spoke to him about the ride I was planning on doing from Oakridge TN to NYC for the Mayors for Peace and Stop the Bombs. Inspired, Martin told me about a Coast to Coast ride, scheduled to leave days after I arrived in NYC. I can only remember the hair standing up on my arms and my intuition telling me not to pass up this synchronicity. In that one conversation my mind was made up to ride from NYC to DC and then across to San Fran.
Two days in to the Stop the Bombs ride, our small team of cyclist responsible for spreading the word about the walkers behind us, expired and I headed south to Savanna GA to meet my friend Michael for a nice little road trip. With time to spare we decided to travel the coast line of Florida. and somewhere along A1A I fell in love with the smell of the ocean and the warm air. By the time we arrived in Daytona my mind was made up to start the ride in Miami and take that route to DC for the start of my coast to coast. The depth and personality of the Florida landscape was too beautiful to pass up. These are the logistics as to why I am riding from Miami to San Francisco.
With deeper meaning I am doing this ride to learn about the integration of mind, body and spirit. Through personal encounters with people and land, I will arrive at my destination a much more humbled person. Somewhere along the way I hope to overcome the attachment I have to the pain in my spine and inspire others to never give up. If everyone would just ride a bicycle or walk everywhere they go, the world would be full of trees and healthy people.
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D) And Concetta is looking for riders to join her!! Once her and William make it to Tampa, Concetta, who can't wait for the ride to begin, hopes she will be joined on her way north. Her web http://www.bikeroute.com/ConcettaCurtis
If interested: http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/Forms/newriders.php
E) Well at least by the time Concetta hits Atlanta. she will run into a flood of riders. The luxury tour that Paul Dockins has created to Knoxville is attracting cyclists from all over the Southeast. I mean look at all the work he has done here:
Atlanta to Knoxville:
209 Miles
Day One: Friday April 29
55 Miles
Leave Atlanta City Hall 9AM
Out on Northside Drive to Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway to Marietta Blvd NW
to S Atlanta Road SE
to Atlanta Rd SE (Smyrna)
to Cherokee St. NE
to Church St. Ext NW to Old 41 Hwy NW becomes N. Main St. NW (also 293)
becomes Old 41 Hwy NW again (Kennesaw)
to S. Main St. (Acworth)
to Old 41 Hwy NW again, (also 293)
to Atlanta Road (Emerson)
Stay on 293 which turns into So.Tennessee Street leading
into Cartersville~turn on Main Street
SAG Stop at Main Street in Cartersville.
Chamber to host with snacks and beverages
North on Tennessee Street with turns into 61
61 turns into Hwy 411 and follows CSX tracks. Take Old 411 past Regeneration Reservoir, which then hooks back up with Hwy 411.
Take Hwy 411 to our overnight accommodations:
Charming HISTORIC PINE LOG METHODIST CHURCH Cabin Camp Grounds
With cots. Very rustic. Water and Electricity~No heat.
Historic Pine Log Methodist Church, Cemetery, tabernacle, and Camp Grounds, established in 1834.
The oldest Church in continuous use in Cass/Bartow County. This Church area is on the national Register for Historic District. Restaurants near-by for dinner.
Day Two: Saturday 59 Miles
Up 411 40 miles to TN border. Continue on 411 16 miles to
Rt 1 Box 377, Benton, TN 37307
423-338-6818
$38 per person 3 people per room.
4 miles off Hwy 411 between 64 & 314.
Day Three: Sunday 67 Miles
Up 411 to Maryville. West on 321 (10 miles) to Walland TN to:
Twin Valley Bed & Breakfast and Horse Ranch
2848 Old Chilhowee Road
Walland, Tennessee 37886
(865) 984-0980
email:
Janice Tipton, Innkeeper
$419 for Two Cabins (eight people) including Steak Cookout by the Pond at 6pm.
Breakfast $15 extra. Must make reservation for breakfast.
Day Four: Monday 21 Miles
to Knoxville
Back out to 411.
North on 33 to
Blount Ave
Cross 441
Left on Gay Ave to Courthouse
E) When you get to the Southeast part of our Mayors' Ride schedule, you will only see three riders signed up, but Paul assures me that there might be as many as a dozen or more by the time they leave. Seems he is having a hard time getting them to fill out our application. And yet one who has is Alpha Bennet. Like NBG famous Jim Muellner who TransAmed for us in 2003 when he was 67, Alpha also sounds like a 67 year old non stop whirlwind. Take a look:
http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/Events/Mayors_Ride/bios/Alpha_Bennett.php
East to West
A) As we saw in our last newsletter, Nick Hein is full on taking the Morgantown bull by the horns. Besides doing a lot of the work we do of interfacing with Mayors' offices to produce the many NBG Days that are now entering their fourth season, Nick is getting riders and the many trail building organizations in his area to participate. What's more is that he is getting his son who will soon graduate from high school to also join in. Nick sees their 75 mile ride to Pittsburgh as somewhat of a rite of passage for his boy, a right of passage that he will get to share as they bike this brand new relay leg!
B) One of the riders who will also be joining Nick's group is a pedaling harpist named John Lozier. Last year John's bike broke down on the way to their start in Washington DC. This year, however, John will be able to ride to Pittsburgh NBG Day from his home town. John lives in Morgantown. And the three-foot tall harp strapped on to the back of his bike will definitely cause a lot of people to take interest in his ride. Go see for yourself at:
http://nbg.bikeroute.com/Events/Mayors_Ride/bios/John_Lozier.php
C) Nick Hein has moved Morgantown NBG Day to May 20. As such it now coincides with their Bike to work Day festivities. And as if Nick doesn't already have enough on his plate, he is also creating a website for Morgantown NBG Day. He tells us that he just loaded the route to it and when it is ready for showtime, I will link it to ours and indeed let you know!!
D) Out here on the West Coast, Councilman Kriss Worthington has indicated that he will join us in our ride from his Berkeley City Hall to Oakland City Hall once again. Last year because of emergency meetings brought on by last minute budget cuts, he was unable to join us. But he did ride with us in 2003. And Kriss is Car Free!!
E) Even the police in Berkeley are into cycling. Every Fall a bunch of them bike from Berkeley to Lake Tahoe, a one way distance of almost two hundred miles, to raise money for needy families during the holiday season. When we heard that their Chief of Police was also into bicycling, we asked him if he would like to ride with us. And the answer we got from him was almost immediate! A resounding YES!!
F) Reno Bike Club President, Mike Damon, seems like he is taking lessons from Nick Hein's playbook. Mike, who will be riding from Reno to Folsom and then Davis for us in July, wants to make sure we stop in along the way in Carson City. And he has been busy contacting city officials both there and in Reno and will likely have a teams of cyclists joining him as well!!
Southwest Flank
The East Cost and learning how to Poscast has had me consumed
Northwest Flank
The East Cost and learning how to Poscast has had me consumed
NBG General:
A) Here is a perfect world scenario for how we like to run NBG Day. Event planners often spruce them up with balloons, speakers, music, even police escorts:
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12:15 Host (Bike or Transportation Coordinator, or NBG sponsor) talks bike projects and programs in your city, reads our rider's names and then introduces Mayor
12:20 Mayor says a few words about his support for cycling, reads the proclamation and hands it to our riders
12:25 Host thanks the Mayor and introduces the one or two cyclist's who will speak
12:26 Riders talk about their ride thru your city
12:35 Host thanks everyone and our restaurant sponsor for feeding our riders. NBG Day ends
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Optional
12:35 Bike Group(s) speak
12:45 Host thanks everyone and our restaurant sponsor for feeding our riders. NBG Day ends
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This is better fleshed out in my book "The NBG Manifesto, How America Can Bike And Grow Rich" that will be a part of my 2007 National Mayors' Ride author tour.
B) Max Chen, who recently purchased a 36" Coker HiWheel that he says is great for the hills of San Francisco, may join me and Don Loomis on my 2007 Author Tour of the US on my HiWheel. That is if he doesn't take a job in Santa Cruz working as a design engineer for Bell Helmet. Says he'll know in a couple of weeks. I am inviting all of our coast to coast veterans to join me because they understand the long haul road and as a reward for what they have contributed to the NBG. If you've done a Big Ride for the NBG and I haven't asked you yet, it's only because our paths have not yet crossed..
C) In lieu of the Pocket Mail device our riders have been using since 1998 to stay in touch with us here at NBG Central, we have found a cost effective replacement that is always on line. No more looking for the fast disappearing phone booth to stay in touch with the on line world. Or for that matter carrying a hard to keep charged cell phone to send and receive Pocket Mail data. Or then use an antiquated technology to attach the handpiece to the device. AT&T Wireless/Cingular has come out with a product, one third smaller than a Pocket Mailer, that sends and receives EMail in real time. Wirelessly!!
Called the OGO, I paid $79 for mine and there is an $18 a month connect fee. It places your Yahoo email account in your pocket for instant access, all the time, anywhere they have coverage (which looks pretty strong along all the routes our Mayors' Ride will be covering). Be forewarned, however, that its keys and its screen are tiny but I am finding it is a serious tool that I have been having great success with!! I've even written some of this newsletter with it. From the road!!
To find out out more about the OGO: http://ogo.com
D) Our blogs at NationalBicycleGreenway.com are not interactive because we don't have have anyone who can serve as an moderator for them. They are a one way street because the spam artists take over when someone is not watching. If you have a minimum of mail list experience, you can greatly assist us by serving as a moderator for our blogs. We're talking probably less than 10 or so minutes a day to approve or deny those posts that are pending. Let us know you can help and we'll get you the password and login. It would be great if we could increase the noise level of Greenway discussions at our site!!
E) If you are riding with us this summer, shoot an email to the SlipNot people c/o Kevin at Kevin@slipnoteyewear.com. Send them the URL for the schedule page with your name on it along with your physical mailing address and they'll send you a really cool pair of sunglasses for your ride!! I love mine! Here is the review we did for SlipNot: http://www.bikeroute.com/Recumbents/News/Archives/000068.html
F) If you are riding for us this summer, you also get handsome business cards that you can start passing out NOW! Send me an email and I'll reply with a pdf of the handsome NBG Scout business card that Faye Saunders will have created for you. It has the NBG logo, the graphic Adam Krohn created for us for our Cycle America 2000 ride, your email address and the URL for your NBG bio (which we will shorten to read bikeroute.com/YOURNAME). If you want us to publish your cell phone number, reply with that as well! Once you get the camera ready copy from us as a pdf in your email box (make sure to include your physical mailing address), all you have to do is buy some ink or laser jet business card stock (we will spec out the product # when we send you copy), about $13 at most office supply stores, stick it in your printer, hit print, and presto you have NBG Scout calling cards.
G) If you are riding for us this summer, you also get "How to Bike America" (HTBA). The bulk of HTBA, an on-line book, was written over a two year period for cyclists riding TransAm to Cycle America 2000 in Washington DC. It continues to be updated and edited online and reflects many contributions from the on line cycling community as we yearly cross America with our Mayor's Rides. Send me an email for the login and password.
H) If having a Ride Partner would make it easier for you to join us, try placing an ad at our classifieds
http://www.bikeroute.com/ibrd_cgi/Classifieds/class_ad.cgi?database=personals.setup . We get a million + unique visitors a month at our site so you may very well have good luck!