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Youth & Miami Exploding onto Mayors' Ride Scene #4



 
 
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Old March 14th 05, 09:51 PM
Cycle America
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Default Youth & Miami Exploding onto Mayors' Ride Scene #4

This year's 4th Annual Mayors' Ride is really starting to grow up.
Following in the footsteps of an alumni that just keeps coming back for
more, led by Concetta Curtis who at 27 will be doing the whole thing
with her dog Cosmo, the fire she is spreading is being felt by younger
cyclists. We will be showing you the kids that are getting involved in
New York and Boston while in Florida, 22 yo, William Gum inspired by
the school kids he teaches is joining the Backsafer recumbent people to
help kick this yearıs Mayors' Ride off from Miami in grand fashion. This
as Jason Reser, a 26 yo bike shop owner, is going to create a whole new
relay for us when he rides from Atlanta to his shop in Newport, KY just
over the river from Cincinnati. A lot of familiar veterans with some
fun writing styles are also returning as you will see in the words that
follow. All this as the last two weeks have also brought us even more
riding and proclamation ceremony commitments from council-persons and
Mayors, etc, etc. Indeed the 2005 excitement continues to grow -
Yahoooo!!!!!!!

Southeast Flank
A) William Gum signs on to ride Miami to Tampa!!
C) William Gum gets his students involved
C) Backsafer meets with Miami mayor
D) Backsafer Recumbent plugs us into Miami Herald
E) Miami Bike Coordinator fills out Miami Biking Report Card
F) Tampa to Tallahassee Rider(s) Needed
D) Tallahassee to Atlanta Rider(s) Needed
H) Jason Reser to ride Atlanta to Knoxville to Newport to Cincinnati
relay!


Northeast Flank
A) Bikes Not Bombs Posts riders recruit letter to its list
B) Biikes Not Bombs police escort for Earn-A-Bikers to Boston NBG Day?
C) Boston to New York City Rider(s) needed
D) Massachusetts Ranks High for Safe Routes to Schools
E) Recycle A Bicycle to bring classes to NYC NBG Day
F) Faye Saunders types up Connecticut to New York directions
G) Reynolds Weld Lab to be at Boston NBG Day


East to West
A) Indy Greenway Report Card
http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMay...s/Indianapolis
Biking.html
B) Oakland City Councilwoman Nancy Nadel to trike Berkeley to Oakland
C) Boise to Eugene moved up one day to June 30
D) Davis assigns our ride to its Bike Advisory Commission
E) Reno Bike Club scopes out Salt Lake City to Reno run
F) Pittsburgh Report Card
http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMay...PittsburghBiki
ng.html

Northwest Flank
A) Burleyıs new Marketing Director may add fire to Eugene NBG Day
B) Jim Muellner tunes in!!

Southwest Flank
A) Palo Alto City Councilwoman, Yoriko Kishimoto, poses for new picture
B) Palo Alto City on Bike Blvd



NBG General:
A) Repost: Send us reports from the road with an OGO
B) Repost: Ride reporter(S) still needed
C) NationalBicycleGreenway.com Blog Moderator wanted
D) Repost: 2005 riders order your FREE sunglasses from SlipNot Eyewear
E) Repost: Individual 2005 NBG Rider Business Cards now Available !!
F) 2005 riders order your FREE Copy of ³How to Bike America
G) 2005 riders order your FREE Hand E Cell Holder
H) Reports from the road to be Podcast?
I) Revised: Why we do Mayors' Rides - How they build the Greenway
J) Concettaıs Mom signs in - Concetta in Tennessee
K) Repost: Find a Ride Partner - Place an ad at our classifieds





Southeast Flank
A) William Gum signed on to ride Miami to Tampa for us last week and
this man is a 22 year old house of fire. When I first read his
application, I thought to myself, hey this guy has a pretty evolved
understanding of why we are here. He seems to understand that when we
serve, we are really only serving ourselves. And his chosen medium for
that service is the bicycle - WoW! He didnıt have to have a head injury
or go through many years of life experience to awaken to this fact. If
you want to see a man who I feel we are going to read a lot about in the
NBG years ahead, go to:

http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/E...William_Gum.ph
p

B) When you get to Williamıs web, you will see him pictured with some of
his students. He tells me that they are as excited about his ride from
Miami to Tampa, to help him kick off this yearıs 2005 National Mayors'
Ride, as he is. They canıt wait for him to begin and he tells us he will
be using the OGO (talked about below) he plans to buy to lı;ıet them
know what is happening on his ride..

C) The Backsafer Recumbent people didnıt just sign on as a name sponsor
for Miami, theyıre rolling up their sleeves to help us kick the 2005
National Mayors' Ride with authority and straight ahead go power. Paul
Lester, one of the Backsafer partners, actually took time out of his
busy, high priced day as an attorney to actually meet with his friend
Miami Mayor Manny Diaz on our behalf!!! Mayor Diaz in turn assigned one
of his staffers to Paul. And by the time Friday, April 15 rolls around,
Miami could very well set the standard for how NBG Day is judged!

D) Nor did Paul stop there. He is also friends with the Chief Executive
Editor of the Miami Herald and the two of them have been in dialogue
about Miami NBG Day! `As such, the person Paulıs office (at this office
alone he has his fun legal secretary, Rachel Crotto, assigned to work
with me, this as his receptionist Michele Vidal is also excited for what
we are doing and not even to mention his wife, Lois who I have been in
touch with for years or his three other partners at Backsafer) will be
working with at the Herald will also be taking his or her orders from
the top!!

The Backsafer web: http://www.backsafer.com


F) Once William takes all of the Miami excitement to Tampa and April 20,
Tampa NBG Day, we need to then get that torch to Tallahassee. While
there is still an outside chance that Williamıs students will be able to
talk him into pressing onward to the Florida Capital City, we still need
to fill that slot. N O W! If interested, do go to:

http://nationalbicyclegreenway.com/E...getstarted.php

G) As well, we need to get from Tallahassee to Atlanta and all the
excitement Fred Fox and Paul Dockins are creating up there. We need you!!

H) Theyıre feeling the excitement up in Kentucky, across the river from
Cincinnati. Jason Reser made it official. He says he will help us form a
new relay leg by riding a route that was a part of my 1986 TransAm ride
for the National Head Injury Foundation. He is officially going to ride
from Atlanta to Knoxville to Newport (where his shop is located) to
Cincinnati!

Weıre still trying to bring his brother out of retirement. Bitten by the
NBG Mayors' Ride bug as evidenced by this slide show from their Chicago
to Des Moines 2003 ride:
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.c...p?set_albumNam
e=DesMoines
Jeff is still trying to create time so he can join his brother!

Note: Jeff created our awesome Mayors' Ride logo and his brother Jason
is one our sponsors. Jason owns Reser Bicycle Outfitters
http://reserbicycle.com

Here is Jasonıs well articulated bio:
http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/E...jason_reser.ph
p


Northeast Flank
A) Connected with Maria Ortiz, the CEO for Bikes Not Bombs (BNB), and
she is clearing time aside so she can help us up there in the Northeast.
As many of you saw, we talked about BNB in our last newsletter and Maria
tells me that she will send out the request for a rider from Boston to
New York that I forwarded to her in their next big mailing.

B) Like the Backsafers down in Miami, Maria also told me that she will
do what she can to help us to make for a worthy show of force in Boston
when they kick the Northeast off come May 3. For example, she wants to
get her Earn-A-Bikers down to to Boston City Hall for NBG Day. By
Earn-A-Bikers, Maria is talking about a great program that teaches kids
how to work on bikes as they rebuild one for themselves and then are
taught how to ride their creations safely.

And it was at this juncture that she still had some research to do. She
had to determine whether on May 3, when we get there. whether her
classes were at the beginning of a session or at their end. If at the
end, she tells me that her kids might be able to ride to City Hall. She
says Œmightı because there is also the question of road safety in that
part of Boston. At which point, and after we had finished our phone
conversation, I realized that we could make good use of a police escort.
Where we have relied on them to get attention for our ride in a number
of Mayors' Ride cities in years past, here they could do double duty to
make sure kids new to bicycling donıt find themselves in harmıs way!

The Bikes Not Bombs web: http://www.bikesnotbombs.org

C) If the following article that Faye Saunders forwarded is true, the
Boston people will go a little bit out of their way to truly make sure
their kids are safe should the Earn A Bikers wants to visit their Mayor.
Besides Massachusetts, according to the article, being one of the five
best states for fit kids they also have a top ranking for safe routes to
schools!

========================================
From the article:
Massachusetts ‹ Residents here are enthusiastic about sports, and not
just the Red Sox. One in six kids play youth soccer (the highest number
in our survey) and one in 10 play little league baseball or softball.
Massachusetts also has one of the largest ³safe routes to schools
programs in the country.
========================================

The article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7137441
The list
http://www.child.com/kids/health_nut...tes.jsp?page=9


D) We need a rider(s) to get the Boston NBG Day proclamation to New
York City. To see what you get and what we need from you, go to:
http://nationalbicyclegreenway.com/E...getstarted.php

E) Caught up with Recycle A Bicycle (RAB) Founder, Karen Overton. A
longtime veteran of the bicycle industry, she and I had fun comparing
notes. And talk about Big Power! Karen has a Master Degree in Urban
Planning. And it is this brain power that has shown her how to help
schools turn their under utilized industrial arts facilities into
bicycle refurbishing classrooms. A huge success, RAB has its program in
six different New York schools!! And it is these kids that Karen also
wants to make a part of New York City NBG Day! Do stay tuned!

The Recycle A Bicycle web: http://recycleabicycle.org

F) On their way from Boston to New York, those relay cyclists making
that connection will not only have the East Coast Greenway (ECG) to
thank but Faye Saunders who just typed up the roads the ECG says will
safely get us through Connecticut.

G) Spoke with George Reynolds of the Reynolds Weld Lab. George, who rode
from Boston to New York City for us last year on one of his rocket fast
bikes tells me he is too busy to do so this year. Too many people want
his bikes!! But he did say he will be there with the Bike Not Bombs
people and Boston HiWheel Dave at Boston NBG Day on May 3rd!!

The Reynolds Weld Lab web: http://www.reynoldsweldlabs.com



East to West
A) Talked to Mr Greenway. Ray Irvin, of Indianapolis and the cutting
edge Indy Greenways organization, last week. And he wasted no time in
getting out a report card for what truly sounds like Greenway heaven.To
see what I am talking about, go take at look at Indy Grenways at
http://www.indygreenways.org

We are still tweaking it, but here for now is the 2005 Indianapolis
Report Card:
http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMay...s/Indianapolis
Biking.html

B) Oakland City Council-person Nancy Nadel is going to trike with us
from Berkeley to Oakland once again. She tells me that as the 7/28
Oakland NBG Day approaches that she will work to expand the role that
Oakland plays but in the interim, she did fill out our questionnaire.
Here is her resulting bio:

http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/E...Nancy_Nadel.ph
p


C) Skot Paschal and Ed Migliore, the two teachers who will be meeting
Boise bike riding Mayor, Dave Beiter, are cooking up a noteworthy
escapade for their ride to Eugene. So much so that they need more time.
So instead of July 1 for Boise, we moved it up one day to June 30

D) Spoke with city of Davis Bike Coordinator, Tim Bustos, and they are
taking our upcoming River Run from Foslom on Sunday July 24th so
seriously that it is going to be on the agenda for the Davis Bike
Advisory Commission that he is helping to create. They plan to begin
work in April!!

E) Mike Damon, the Reno Bike Club president who rode Folsom to Reno last
year after he rode and helped us with our first ever Mayors' Ride River
Run, tells us he had so much fun. he would not pass up the opportunity
to do both of those runs again. However instead of riding from Salt Lake
CIty to Reno like he had said he might, other commitments have forced
him into not being able to make that connection. He was looking forward
to it or as he says it is a a relay leg that cannot be beat for the
serious touring cyclist who wants to really get into his or her head.
With goods roads and a minimum of people, cities and cars, it is a
stretch where he says one can really take in the beauty of the desert as
he also gets to know himself. Does any one else want to join Concetta
when she comes through that part of her ride??

E) In case any of you missed it, here is the Pittsburgh Biking Report
Card that David Hoffman of Bike Pittsburgh helped us to create:
Phttp://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide2005/Pittsburgh/PittsburghBik
ing.html


Northwest Flank
A) Burley Bike Cooperative just brought on an enthusiastic new Director
for their Marketing Department. I sent her our promotion materials and
the positive reception I got tells me that they may help us to add a
worthy degree of fire to Eugene NBG Day!!

B) Here over the weekend, as this was going to press, I heard from our
first ever Mayors' Ride coast to coast cycling veteran, the amazing Jim
Muellner. Jim is riding for us this year from Seattle to San Francisco:

========================================
HI Martin: It is always fun to read and learn about all the little
challenges that various riders face in being able to participate in the
NBG rides. While most of us are all at different ages and levels of
experience, we also have different equipment that we are comfortable
with.

Every time I look at pictures of different groups I can almost tell what
their reaction would be to what I ride (Jim rides the trike his company
builds that folds to fit in a suitcase). I wish that somehow each of
these riders or groups would seriously look at what new technology is
coming down the pike. Every rider is aging or will experience some
physical change that will require them to do a big mind set change. The
more open riders are to these changes the easier that transition will
be. I know of quite a few riders who are so hung up on the old style two
wheeled bike that they have given up riding rather than get on a
recumbent or a recumbent trike just because it does not look cool to
them. What a pity.

Keep encouraging riders to try every new style available. I know I keep
tweaking what I ride to extend my riding range as far as possible for as
long as possible.

Just a few thoughts I wanted to share.

Can you give me the name and e-mail address of the person in charge in
Seattle. I want to set up a meeting point and date for the ride start
there. I personally may still do the Vancouver to Seattle bit as a
personal goal.
Thanks, Jim
========================================

Jimıs amazing bike building company:
http://justtwobikes.com

Jim Muellnerıs web:
http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide/JimMuellner

Southwest Flank
A) Councilwoman, Yoriko Kishimoto, met me at her City Hall plaza for a
quick picture taking session, the result of which you can see at the web
she helped us to create for herself:
http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/E...Yoriko_Kishimo
to.php

B) It should also be noted that I rode Palo Altoıs famous Bike Boulevard
to get to its City Hall which has one of its entrances right on the
Ellen Fletcher Bike Boulevard!

NBG General:
A) 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 itıs keys and its screen are tiny but I am
finding it is a serious tool that I have been having great success
with!! Iıve even written some of this newsletter with it. From the road!!

To find out out more about the OGO: http://ogo.com

B) We still need Ride Reporters. Since there will be riders who cannot
afford an OGO, or donıt want to be bothered by one, or just want to run
an OGO for their own personal use, we would like to be able to give our
Scouts the option of having one less thing to think about. We would like
to make it such that all they would have to do is make a phone call to
you and talk about their day. Here, then, is the official announcement
for what we need:

The Fourth Annual National Mayors' Ride, a ten-week bicycle relay
involving 50 major, coast-to-coast population centers, is looking for
Ride Reporters. As per our schedule at Bikeroute.com, and the blogs we
keep for our riders at NationalBicycleGreenway.com, this could be a way
for you to practice your craft as you experience America without ever
having to leave the comfort of your home or office. Our bike riders
will do all the work before they then call in their daily activities to
you. Assigned to one cyclist per relay ride link, your job will be to
create reports that will interest a large internet audience (tens if not
hundreds of thousands of people) in what our cyclists are doing out
there on the open road.

You can come along with us for as short as a week or develop a following
of people interested in your story telling ability by staying longer as,
if you like, you can track the efforts of different cyclists every week!

In the past, we have seen the media that we always get excerpt from some
of these accounts and this could be a powerful way for you to build up
your track record of bylines.

Here is the blog that Faye Saunders kept for the ride Don Loomis did for
us last year:

http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.c...eports/Archive
s/cat_don_loomis.php

If interested:

C) Our blogs at NationalBicycleGreenway.com are not interactive because
we donıt 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. Weıre 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 weıll get you the
password and login. It would be great if we could increase the noise
level of Greenway discussions at our site!!

D) If you are riding with us this summer, shoot an email to the SlipNot
people c/o Kevin at
. 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/...es/000068.html

E) 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 Iıll
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.

F) If you are riding for us this summer, you also get ³How 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..

G) The people at Hand E Cell are making available their wrist mounted
cell phone carrier FREE to those of you who are riding for us this
summer. A brand new product, this is an exciting new device that places
your cell phone right where it is the most accessible when you pedal
your bike. On the back of your hand or wrist. No more reaching behind
yourself or making awkward, potentially dangerous movements to access it
when itıs ringing or if you just want to make a call or tell the time of
day. Shoot me an email if interested. But be prepared. When you wear one
of these lightweight, barely noticeable carriers, everyone else will
want to know where you got yours!!

H) We are researching a new technology that threatens to become the
wave of the future. Called Podcasting, itıs a way to post tape delayed
audio to a blog where there is also the option for instantaneous
feedback. You can even download these broadcasts to your Ipod (if you
have one) and listen to them when you are away from your computer, say
on a bike or at the gym, etc. Here is an article that the San Francisco
Chronicle did about this new phenomenon:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...UGJUBGR591.DTL

What I am taking a harder took at is all of what is involved in
recording our riders when they phone in to report on their day. How much
bandwidth are we going to need? What is the sound quality of those phone
recording devices I might be using to capture these conversations? And
what is the best way to turn the resulting audio into an MP3 for web
broadcast?

A number of podcasters are springing up all aver America to create their
own radio shows complete with music, an m/c, a prerecorded broadcast and
a live email interface option. Here, for example, is an inventive
podcast done of a recent San Francisco Critical Mass Ride:

http://www.radio4all.net/pub/files/b...1570-1-2005030
7-bikescape_3-7-5.mp3

Be patient as it takes two to five minutes to download the above link
contingent upon your connection speed. But it is worth the wait as it
goes live inside of an actual Critical Mass ride. You will hear the car
horns and the cheering they provoke, the background roar of the city and
pedals clicking and gears turning, all as various participants partake
in extemporaneous interviews as they pedal their bikes.

The above can be found at http://bikescape.blogspot.com where you will
find a number of other excellent, mostly bicycle based, podcasts!

I) As we continue to fine tune our promotion materials, we are better
able to articulate our vision. Here is a revised version of why we do
Mayors' Rides:

By giving civic leaders all across America a forum they can use to
showcase the advances they have made for the two wheel transportation
option, because good bike infrastructure means good quality of life, we
are giving them a way to sell their city to prospective tourists,
employers and other revenue generating concerns. As our message then
sinks in, that making it easier for bike riders to get to businesses and
attractions makes good business sense, we will also be helping cities
solve many of the woes that automobile oriented planning has brought
upon them. As cities see what other cities are doing and then try to
match up to them, the local cyclist wins again creating a powerful
magnet that draws a whole new market of visitors to their city, the long
distance bicycle traveler. And as long haul cyclists help us fine tune
the roads and paths they use to make these connections, the momentum for
a Greenway network that connects cities to one another will grow into a
momentum that cannot be stopped!!!


J) Concettaıs long journey to us here in San Francisco, she left Texas
on Wednesday, March 2, should be in Knoxville by the time you get this.
From there, she will begin her bike scouting tour for the Stop The
Bombs International Peace Walk
http://peacehq.tripod.com/OSSTBIPW/stbipw-sched.html that leaves
Knoxville today. On Saturday, two days ago, her mom posted this note to
our NBG Riders mailing list:

========================================
i am concetta's mom. i believe she forwarded this email to me accidently
but i wanted to let you know that she should arrive in tennessee soon.
she did not bring her laptop and did bring her cellphone. cosmo is with
her as well. she has spent a long time preparing for this and she is
determined to reach her goal. if you need anything feel free to email
me. my name is Pat.
========================================

K) A) 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/Cl...database=perso
nals.setup . We get a million + unique visitors a month at our site so
you may very well have good luck!

--
54% of New York City households do not own cars

M A R T I N K R I E G : "Awake Again" Author
http://www.bikeroute.com/AwakeAgain
Bent Since '83, Car Free Since '89, '79 & '86 TransAms********
Coma, Paralysis, Clinical Death Survivor*
Can You Change it with Love?*
N A T I O N A L B I C Y C L E G R E E N W A Y
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