This is amazing! The clouds will part and a warm sun will come shining through here in the Puget Sound region on Friday just in time for Bike to Work Day.

That's not just wishful thinking; that's what it says on Page B8, the weather page of the Seattle Times.

So you can't use the usual excuse of cold, rainy, dreary weather to beg off of commuting to work by bicycle that day.

Check out the Cascade Bicycle Club website if you need information about Friday's events. First, you'll need to know that it's not the Seattle Bike to Work Day here, it's Starbucks Bike to Work Day...   more »

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Bicycle Saturdays and Sundays on Lake Washington Boulevard in Seattle.

From about 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on 10 weekend days this spring and summer, city crews will close off a four-mile section of Lake Washington Boulevard between Mount Baker Beach and Seward Park to vehicular traffic.

This makes for a flat, winding ride along a two-lane, lakeside road that is ideal for families. It's also a portion of road to throw in for a longer weekend ride. There's also a two-mile loop around Seward Park, which juts into Lake Washington...   more »

Bicycling along the Cedar River Trail between Renton and Maple Valley, I often pass this old two-story building across the road that's home to a compost and landscape material business.

It's the biggest and most imposing structure in the suburbs that are sprawling into the rural area between the two towns, and I always thought that it was the former site of a school, or a county jail or something.

When I took the time to ask at the Renton History Museum a few weeks ago, I learned it's another remnant of the once-lucrative coal mining industry that drove commerce in the hills east of Seattle ...   more »

Update: May 2, 2008 -- Why were they chosen?

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Two outstanding communities for bicycling on the Olympic Peninsula -- Bainbridge Island and Port Townsend -- have been named among the 11 new Bicycle Friendly communities by the League of American Bicyclists.

The others are Colorado Springs and Durango, Colorado, and Minneapolis, Minnesota (all silver level), and Arcata, California, Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlottesville, Virginia, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Oxford, Mississippi, and Sitka, Alaska (bronze).

Seattle cyclists are familiar with Bainbridge Island for hosting February's Chilly Hilly bike ride, above, when more than 4,000 bicycle riders take the ferry and jam up a 33-mile loop around the island.

Port Townsend, also a ferry stop on the Olympic Peninsula, is a destination for bike touring enthusiasts who enjoy stress-free rural roads. ...   more »

If you're a bicycle commuter, or would like to be, May is certainly your month.

Communities across the US are sponsoring bike-to-work activities in May to urge people out of their cars and onto their bikes. In many places that support evaporates quickly, but by then it's hoped that commuters have been inspired to ride their bikes regularly.

Many month-long bike commuter contests begin today. Other dates to remember are National Bike Week from May 12 - 16, and Bike to Work Day on May 16 (other dates in some locales). Check the League of American Bicyclists Bike Month Events page for local listings.

Seattle-based Cascade Bicycle Club is sponsoring events in May, featuring the month-long Group Health Commute Challenge, Vulcan Bike to Work Breakfast, May 7, and the Starbucks Bike-to-Work Day, 6-9 a.m., May 16, when 40 stations are set up around the Puget Sound to help bicyclists get to work ...   more »