3-31-09 Mayors' Ride News

A) Bio Diesel Bus Wanted
B) 79 inch wide trailer and Tow Bar need for Busycle
C) Scott Campbell maps Napa to Sacto
D) Important changes to NBG Maps - add video instructions, Firefox download, etc
E) Internet Explorer Code Masher wanted
F) San Francisco Train Station to to Golden Gate Bridge bicycle joy ride
G) Cal Train to GG Bridge Slide Show
H) New Home page
I) Little Mexico bypass routed
J) Little Mexico bypass photo documented
K) Folsom Heating up
L) Oakland Councillor Nadel to ride us to Berkeley Councillor Worthington
M) Emeryville CA might be a stop on Oak to Berkeley ride
N) Barry & Allison to join Tom Ayres on Berkeley to Napa ride
O) Awesome Busycle tune up BBQ party
P) Tow Vehicle & Driver Needed for 4/27 Car Free GG Park
Other news
Q) Ines Brunn blog
R) Pledge not to drive to school - get a Free BIke
S) Jack Castor Webbed
T) Why Joe from the SJ Merc doesn't drive
U) Backwards John

A) I posted the following at the SF Bay Area Craig's List and have not heard a peep:

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The 15-person Busycle needs the services of a bio-diesel bus so that it can expand the consciousness of kids and adults through out the San Francisco Bay Area. It lives now in Palo Alto Ca but needs to circulate in the Bay Area cites as a dry run for the Author Tour across America it will do in 2009 with Martin Krieg's new book, “How America can Bike and Grow Rich, The National Bicycle Greenway Manifesto”.

In the summer of 2009, either the bus we find ourselves able to use now or another, larger one, will support Martin's 6-person crew and the HiWheel bicycle he will be riding. Details about the 2009 ride can be found at http://www.bikeroute.com/HBGR . The only one of its kind Busycle can be found HERE!
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Any ideas or leads out there?

B) We need a trailer to haul the Busycle that can accommodate a wheelbase 79 inches in width. The average width for most vehicles is 76 inches. However when the engine was pulled from the 79 Dodge Cargo van that is at the heart of our machine, the wheels splayed out an additional three inches. We can rent such a car trailer from U-Haul when we are careful to make sure they can supply that spec but the time and expense involved only adds to the complexity of getting our machine to more cities where it can be enjoyed. Does anyone have such a trailer we can buy? This will be an especially important requirement when my '09 ride finds us moving the Busycle from San Francisco to Boston and all the 25 cities we will be visiting with demonstration rides.

In addition, we need a removable tow bar that we can run off of the front of our machine. This would be helpful when we get invited to events that are to far to pedal to and yet too far to go through the trailer mounting ritual.

The above is an example of what I have in mind. Can anyone help here?

C) Toward the end of getting our entire Mayors' Ride route on line, Scott Campbell got Napa to Sacramento on line for us. See: http://www.bikeroute.com/BRdC/routeViewer.php?routeid=124

D) Behind the scenes, we keep making little improvements to our maps. If you can get over to our interactive maps at http://www.bikeroute.com/brdc, you will see that there is now a Firefox download site that you can readily access. Since our maps only run in Safari and Firefox (a truly better web browser), if you run a non Apple machine, we now have an easy way for you to upgrade your internet life as you position yourself to become a part of the National Bicycle Greenway rock with our maps. We also now have video instructions on line that you can access at the 'How to Use' part of of our maps.

E) We still need someone who knows how to work with Google map code. Grey, our map magician, just does not have the time needed to set these up so that they also run on the IE platform. Who knows someone who can help here?

F) One of the most truly epic and memorable rides I have ever done in my life is along the San Francisco Bayfront from the Cal Train station at 4th and King all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. HERE it is at our maps. Sights along the way include The Giants baseball park, the massive Bay Bridge (which you pass under), Justin Herman Plaza (where Critical Mass starts), Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz, Aquatic Park, the Fort Mason Great Meadow, Marina Green, Crissy Field, East Beach, Fort Point and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Cal Train devotes one entire rail car to bikes for cyclists coming to San Francisco from the peninsula. This route stops by the Ferry Building where cyclists can board a ferry to Oakland, Sausalito, even Vallejo - or on the last Friday of the month partake in Critical Mass..

G) HERE is what the above route looks like in pictures.

H) While we were out there doing our photo documentary of the above ride, I felt inspired to do a short No Hands run on the Golden Gate Bridge on my HiWheel bike. The resulting photo came out so good, I decided to make it the centerpiece of my home page. In doing so, I was actually heeding the advice I had been getting to simplify our web presence. See http://www.bikeroute.com

I) HERE is how we are going to get around the little Mexico bottleneck when we do our 4/27 ride to San Francisco with outgoing Palo Alto Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto:

Here is Faye's reaction to it:
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At 9:41 AM -0800 2/28/08, Faye Saunders wrote:
Ah, nice not to have to ride thru little mexico, all the bumps and rr tracks, cars parked, having to take the lane, etc. That route from PA-SF has certainly needed some tweaking by us. Although I will miss the smells of tortillas cooking!
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J) HERE is what our detour above looks like in pictures.

K) At Folsom City Park, next to City Hall, the Mayor and his staff, in conjunction with Mary Ann Mcalea of the Folsom Tourist Bureau, and Karen Pardieck of Karen Pardieck & Associates, have a picnic spread reception planned for us. Besides food and drink, they will provide secure bike parking so we can also explore the highly regarded city zoo/sanctuary that we will be given free access to! We are half filled. The first 25 get a free lunch compliments of the people named above. Sign yourself HERE!

L) Caught Oakland City Council person, Nancy Nadel, in between meetings and she tells that while she has a budget meeting later on on Thursday 5/1, she still looks forward to getting her trike out to ride us from Oakland City Hall to Emeryville! Car Free Berkeley Councillor , Kriss Worthington, who always also makes this ride with us, will then bring us to his City Hall seven miles away! Sign yourself on HERE

M) Peter Schultze-Allen the Environmental Analyst for the City of Emeryville signed on to ride with us in the Evite noted above. And since Emeryville is such a forward thinking bike city as well as a city that we will pass through on our way to Berkeley, I asked Peter if he would like to invite his Mayor to receive us with a proclamation.

N) Barry Burr, the Barry's Beams start up CEO and Allison Chalken, an MIT educated PhD Physicist, just signed on to ride the 37 mile Berkeley to Napa relay that Human Factors Consultant, Tom Ayres, Ph.D, is lining out for us. Keep your eyes peeled for the Evite that will get you an opportunity to join these gentle giants as they make their way to the wine country.

L-R Allison, Barry, Tom

O) The Spring Tune up that we held on March 16 to get the Busycle ready for the events of spring and summer was a flat raging success. So much got done and so many people were there that it got an entire web page. See http://www.bikeroute.com/BusycleWestCoast/BusycleSpringBBQTune-Up.php

P) As soon as we can get a few people over here to build a frame to support our new 'above the riders' sign, the Busycle is ready to make people smile. Hopefully we can get it out before then, but it's first official event is April 27th when, in conjunction with the SFBC, we do demonstration rides in Golden Gate Park as per this note in their "Chain of Events":

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http://www.sfbike.org/?chain
Busycle Rides in Golden Gate Park *
Sun., Apr. 27 | 2-5pm, Car Free JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park
The world famous 15-person Busycle will be giving demonstration rides on Car Free Sunday stretch of JFK Drive. Rides are free and on a first come, first serve basis with priority given to SFBC members. The National Bicycle Greenway is using this event to call attention to the National Mayors' Ride that leaves for Boston on the following day from City Hall with Mayor Newsom's blessing. Info: www.bikeroute.com -- Questions: nbg@bikeroute.com
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That said, might there be anyone who can help us get it up there? We can supply the trailer, but we need a vehicle and a driver (I don't have a driver's license) who can get our vehicle to and from Golden Gate park. If you can help, NBG@bikeroute.com

Q) The fully astonishing trick cyclist, Ines Brunn, sent me an alert to let me know that she now has a blog in place where her fans can now follow her. Do get a look at http://blog.trick-bike.com . I say keep an eye on this woman. She takes for granted all the many different worlds she lives in, but I suspect that we are seeing her before her many talents take her to many new unthought of heights..

R) Ripon College, a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin, is launching an innovative new program this fall. In exchange for promising not to bring a car to campus, incoming freshman will be offered a brand-new Trek bike, equipped with helmet and bike lock!

http://blogs.jsonline.com/education/archive/2008/02/13/ditch-the-car-get-a-free-bike.aspx

S) I was finally able to pin the legendary Jack Castor down long enough to get a representative listing of some of his many two wheel exploits. See the NBG Scout web that resulted:
http://www.bikeroute.com/JackCastor

T) San Jose Mercury News reporter, Joe Rodriguez, is Car Free now and has been for the last year. He authored an excellent article for his newspaper entitled:
Why I don't drive
WITHOUT A CAR, LIFE MOVES AT A MORE NATURALLY HUMAN PACE
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8511346?nclick_check=1 .

It is an excellent read!

U) I saw John Eaton on his way home from dinner with friends on what looked like an early 1950's Schwinn Phantom. I asked him if he could ride it backwards too when he said, "well I just had a few drinks so I'm not sure". He turned around, sat on the handlebars and took off. In traffic. And he kept riding and riding for block after block. I did manage to get a few shots of him with my iPhone as I rode. Too much fun. Here's John:



This and other Mayors' Ride news can be found at: http://nationalbicyclegreenway.com/News

The 2008 Mayors' Ride begins in less than a month now. See our 2008 schedule/scorecard !!