The long wait for Sierra Cascades Bicycle Route is almost over. The Adventure Cycling Association says the full maps will be available in mid April.
An overview map is available online. It shows the general route of the 2,392-mile bike route that parallels the Pacific Crest on paved roads.
The bike route from the Canadian border at Sumas, Washington, to the Mexican border at Tecate, Mexico, is the newest of more than 38,000 miles of mapped bike routes offered by the non-profit.
The bicycle route will visit Northern Cascades National Park, Crater Lake National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Yosemite National Park .... more»
Recreational bicyclists looking forward to getting their Rocky Mountain high this summer should be warned that registration for all four big Colorado bike tours are now open.
The oldest of the bunch, the Denver Post Ride the Rockies celebrating its 25th anniversary, announced its route this morning and began taking registrations. Registration ends Feb. 25.
Starting with Ride the Rockies from June 13 - 19, the other fully supported, mass participation bike tours are Bicycle Tour of Colorado from June 20 - 26, Colorado Rocky Mountain Bike Tour from Aug. 1 - 7, and the Colorado Peace Ride from Aug. 8 - 11.
You can find more week-long, mass participation bike tours in other states at Across State Bicycle Rides.. more»
Probably the single most important project for bicycle travel in the United States is the U.S. Bicycle Route System.
The proposed 50,000-mile national network links the lower 48 states with numbered corridors running north-south and east-west.
The Adventure Cycling Association and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials worked together to identify those 50-mile wide corridors nearly 2 years ago. But it's up to the individual states to work together to create the on-the-ground bike routes that meet up at state borders.
And that's the problem.
Some states are charging ahead to pick bicycle routes to implement the plan. Others are lagging far behind or show no interest at all...... more»
If a far-reaching plan to enhance bicycling can be enacted anywhere, it's in Portland.
That might not be solace to supporters of the $600 million 2030 Portland Bicycle Plan who learned on Thursday that city commissioners put off a vote for a week.
Some 200 bicyclists showed up at a rally at City Hall to show their support for the plan, whose goal is to make it possible for Portland commuters to take 25% of their trips by bicycle in 20 years. One way of doing this is to make bicycling more safe by creating 700 miles of bikeways.
Portland Mayor Sam Adams told supporters anxious to hear the results of the vote: "This is going to pass ..... more»
With my email address displayed in the upper right column of every page of the Biking Bis website, I get frequent mail from readers.
Usually people offer compliments and suggestions or ask for coverage of their bike tours or websites. But lately, I've received a couple of emails regarding the sexual orientation of the Biking Bis blog.
Over the Christmas holidays, someone wrote:
"I'm um not sure how to say this... but your web site name: "Biking Bis" is confusing! I got several hits for this site before finally checking it out. It is excellent. I did not look at it earlier because I thought it was for Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals, hence the title.
How about changing it to "Biking Biz" or even "Bike Business"? There are more bikers than gay people in the world, so hopefully your readership should go up. :)" ..... more»
Expect to see a lot of these bicycles on the streets of Minneapolis this coming summer.
The non-profit formed to bring public bike-sharing to the city chose Public Bike System, the developer of Montreal's BIXI, to provide bikes and kiosks to the project.
The bike-sharing project, Nice Ride Minnesota, is aiming to put 65 kiosks around downtown, college campuses and surrounding commerial areas by June. In all 80 kiosks and 1,000 bikes are projected in Phase 1.
Currently, there are about 160 bike-sharing systems in the world. The highest profile is the Paris Velib .... more»
One sure way to ensure that bicycling will get more respect is to calculate and prove its economic impact on a region.
Wisconsin, for instance, just learned on Tuesday that recreational bicycling annually generates more than $924 million in total economic impact to the state.
Adding the impact of bicycle manufacturing, sales and service industry raises the total to $1.5 billion annually.
Whoa. Suddenly bicyclists are no longer just people who dress funny and compete for a small piece of the road. They're cash cows who contribute mightily to Wisconsin's economic health.
It would be useful if bike advocates in all 50 states had this kind of information to draw upon when lobbying for better facilities for bicyclists. Similar surprising findings... more»
Update: Feb. 4 -- Also cycling in Cape Argus bike ride in South Africa
Lance Armstrong and Team Radio Shack will compete at the Criterium International bike race on the island of Corsica on March 27 - 28.
That's a change for Armstrong, who originally was scheduled to race in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya in Spain from March 22 - 28 .
Race director Christian Prudhomme made the announcement; he's also director of the Tour de France, which is owned by the same group that owns the Criterium. The schedule change ... more»
Greg LeMond and Trek Bicycles announced Monday that they've settled their differences out of court.
The lawsuit-countersuit involved a breach of contract involving LeMond's line of bicycles marketed by Trek.
After a preliminary hearing a few months ago, it looked like the case may be headed for a high-profile trial that would involve Lance Armstrong and testimony about doping allegations.
I don't think many in the bike industry were looking forward to that, especially Trek and Armstrong. LeMond, however, has shown that he's willing to let the chips fall where they may.
Instead, Trek and LeMond agreed to end their business venture, and Trek agreed to donate $200,000 to LeMond's foundation -- 1in6.org -- which helps adult victims of childhood sexual abuse .... more»
Earlier this week, I pedaled my Rockhopper up the John Wayne Pioneer Trail east of North Bend in search of snow.
It's been warmer than normal in the Seattle area so far this winter, and I had to ride 12 to 13 miles up to Carter Creek Camp before I found any white stuff. I didn't have time to explore any further, so I don't know the conditions closer to the now-closed Snoqualmie Tunnel.
Along the way I came across this fallen boulder partially blocking the trail. It looked like a fairly recent fall. I rode my bike up this way in the autumn and don't remember it, and there's some fresh gouge marks in the trail where it looked like it hit.
Seeing this boulder on the trail, got me to thinking about how work crews for the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway company -- aka The Milwaukee Road -- made this route ..... more»
As many predicted, Sioux City got the honors as the starting town on the northern route that will cover 442 miles. The other towns and mileage:
Sioux City to Storm Lake -- 68.5 miles; Storm Lake to Algona -- 79 miles; Algona to Clear Lake -- 51.3 miles; Clear Lake to Charles City -- 51.7 miles; Charles City to Waterloo -- 82.7 miles; Waterloo to Manchester -- 62 miles; Manchester to Dubuque -- 46.9 miles.
In identifying the route at RAGBRAI's first-ever announcement party .... more»
Those who like to ride and/or carry their bicycles up and over muddy hills or along grassy tracks are probably rejoicing to hear that the UCI World Cyclocross Championships are coming to Louisville, Kentucky, in 2013.
Historically popular in Belgium, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, cyclocross has been gaining popularity around the world, especially in the US. The interest will probably grow here, as 2013 will be the first time that the World cyclocross championships have come to the US.
In fact, it's the first time the Worlds have been held outside Europe in 50 years.
If you want to see what World championship cyclocross is all about, check out Universal Sports Cyclocross online this weekend.
The website is offering free live coverage of the elite men's and women's races from Tabor, Czech Republic, beginning at noon (ET) on Sunday, Jan. 31. Other webcasts are on demand more»
Bicycle advocates in state legislatures are once again promoting bills that require motorists to give bicyclists 3 feet of clearance when passing.
Currently, 14 states require a 3-foot gap for bicycle riders. They are Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.
This year, lawmakers in Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, South Dakota and Virginia are considering 3-foot laws. At least two other states, Iowa an Washington, have 3-foot passing laws in committee from last year.
Here are some details about the laws so you can follow along at home .... more»
The same day that President Obama announced his jobs programs in the State of the Union address, an Indianapolis-based bicycle components maker announced it would expand and create jobs by 2013.
Zipp Speed Weaponry, which makes wheels, aero bars and other components for road, cyclocross and triathlete bicycling events, will expand its customer service and manufacturing division in Indianapolis, adding 105 jobs.
Currently the firm, which became a subsidiary of SRAM in 2007, employs 130 people. Hiring begins in June, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.
This $12.5 million investment is good news. Zipp is expanding and keeping its jobs in the US, not farming out to India or China. .... more»
Brett Tracy travels the western US by bicycle and uses his artist's trained eye to document the end of the industrial age.
While the end of the industrial age might not be an accepted fact, Brett sees evidence everywhere that humans are coming to the end of their industrial phase. He imagines that a more ecologically aware human-scale era will replace it.
His website is "The Illuminated Thread: a journey by bicycle into the murky unknown of the deindustrial age." It's full of pictures, videos, audio and journal postings of his travels.
Brett is about to set out on a bike tour from Los Angeles to Houston. Along the way, he's planning to stop at desert water projects, failed alternative energy projects, utopian settlements, mines, dumps and aircraft storage yards. .... more»
Stephen Allen is pedaling across the Pacific Northwest on the last leg of his around the world bicycle tour to raise money and awareness about living with epilepsy.
Allen left Telluride, Colorado, some 14 months ago and headed east on his Seize the World bike travels. Since departing, he saw 22 countries and sustained 3 1/2 seizures.
He flew into Seattle from Japan in December, and now he's pedaling his bike across Idaho after passing through eastern Oregon. He continues to give talks, like the one last week in Boise for the Epilepsy Foundation of Idaho, and use his laptop to update his website, SeizetheWorld.com.
Allen undertook the world bike tour to show that people with epilepsy can realize their dreams. He keeps his epilespy in check with medications. ... more»
More than 2,000 south Florida cyclists gathered in Key Biscayne on Sunday morning for a memorial ride to honor hit-and-run victim Christophe LeCanne.
It was an amazing outpouring of support to demonstrate to elected officials and the motoring public that bike riders are tired of second-class citizenship on the road.
LeCanne, 44, was struck by an allegedly drunken motorist as he rode his bike in the bicycle lane on the Rickenbacher Causeway a week ago Sunday.
He lay bleeding to death in the road for over 15 minutes because the closest fire-rescue station was closed due to a reduction in hours ..... more»
The text-messaging motorist who struck and killed his former high school teacher told the court: "This was not intentional. It was an accident. I'm so sorry."
Clark County (Vancouver, Washington) Superior Court Judge Roger Bennett didn't buy it.
"I've heard the term 'accident' used quite a bit today. But this was no accident."
He then sentenced Antonio Cellestine, 18, to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and felony hit and run .... more»
I don't know how many ochre-colored leaders' jerseys were prepared for the Tour Down Under, but one would have been sufficient this year.
Andre Greipel donned the leader's jersey after the first stage on Tuesday and retained it through the week to win the 2010 Tour Down Under championship on Sunday.
Team Sky's Chris Sutton won the final stage, a 56-mile criterium around Adelaide. It was the only stage won by an Australian on his home soil this week.
US-based Team HTC Columbia certainly deserves a huge credit for Greipel's repeat of his 2008 Tour Down Under championship. Columbia controlled the peloton all week
Lance Armstrong, who arrived to great fanfare with the new RadioShack cycling team, finished in 25th place overall .... more»
It's time that vulernable users of the road -- such as people riding bikes or walking -- get more protection from the law.
A measure that increases penalties for motorists whose right-of-way violations cause injury or death faces a major hurdle at the Washington State Capitol this coming week.
A distracted driver's inattention can cause crumpled fenders between cars, but lead to serious injury or death when the victim is on a bike or on foot.
Regardless of the outcome, in too many cases police can only issue minor traffic citations that often don't even require a court appearance.
The Cascade Bicycle Club is working to change that by getting the Vulnerable User Bill (SB 5838) passed into law. They're calling on Washington bicyclists to contact their legislators to ask them to support the bill ... more»
Update: Jan. 23 -- Executive director Jake Beattie says response to the burglary at Seattle's Bike Works has been huge. The shop had its biggest volunteer work party last week, and a Mercer Island police officer has pulled together a collection of "evidence bikes" that area agencies had been storing.
The program also received enough donations to cover the cost of increasing security in its storage yard.
"Thanks to all of you who helped turn a negative situation into an expression of community and care," Beattie said. .... more»
Andre Greipel and his HTC-Columbia pro cycling team fended off an attempt to unseat him from the overall lead of the Tour Down Under on Saturday in Australia.
Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez, at left, a member of the breakaway that threatened Greipel, won Stage 5 and climbed into 2nd place overall, 11 seconds behind the German.
To repeat his 2008 Tour Down Under championship, Greipel has to survive the 20-lap, 56-mile criterium around Adelaide. There are 25 cyclists who are less than a minute behind Greipel, although they'll have to break the strangehold by Team Columbia to win the Tour .. more»
Back in the day, I used to be dazzled by the cool names of bike clubs I'd come across on bicycle rides -- "Yellowjackets," "Flyers," "Wheelmen," "Team On Your Left."
Nowadays, however, I'm more interested in going-out-for-the-ride then getting-there-fast. Therefore, the club names that catch my interest now carry a hint of determination rather than perspiration.
Here's a list of my Top 10 favorite names for bicycle clubs, in reverse order.
Nothing says determination like soldiering out for a bike ride. Many of the members are residents of the Vets Home, and their rides are often held with the Scooter and Wheelchair Owner's Group. I salute you all.
Don't even try to join this club unless you're over 50. They usually ride out of the Goebel Senior Center Commission and most rides are 4 to 19 miles. They're Kranks, not cranky, so it sounds like they have a lot of fun.
With just two stages remaining, Andre Greipel won his third sprint in four days at the Tour Down Under on Friday.
The German sprinter for US-based HTC-Columbia has dominated the bike race that ends Sunday in Australia. He and his teammates must be planning ways to help him survive his slim 20-second overall lead to repeat his championship of 2008.
Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong, who was paid an undisclosed sum to return and race this year, made an appearance at the front of the peloton that was so unusual for this race that it was reported by the Associated Press.
Armstrong and RadioShack teammate Tomas Vaitus took a flyer with about 2 miles left in the race .. more»
Bicyclists who launch a long-distance bike tour to draw attention to a cause usually do so in the spring to take advantage of the summer bicycling season.
Not Don Ross. The 66-year-old Alaskan took off from Fairbanks on his cross-country "Ride for the Planet" bike tour on Oct. 3.
He figures that he'll draw more recognition about the problems of global warming if he makes his ride in the winter.
Ross has made it south to Eugene, Oregon, so far.
Riding a Giant bicycle and pulling a loaded BOB trailer, Ross plans to continue to San Francisco before striking east to Washington DC by Earth Day..... more»
On a day when commentators touted a handful of favorites to win a grueling bike race, a little known 26-year-old from Portugl handily won his first ProTour victory on Stage 3 of the Tour Down Under on Thursday.
Cyclist Manuel Cardoso of Footon-Servetto charged ahead of the peloton, leaving the big names of Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) and world champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) to finish in 2nd and 3rd.
Lance Armstrong finished in the first pack to finish 30th, 1 second behind Cardoso. Overall, he sits in 26th place, 20 seconds behind the leader, Andre Greipel.
There's not much information out there about Cardoso, who hadn't earned his own Wikipedia entry yet. ... more»
At 70 years old, Heinz Stücke is still going strong.
The German bike traveler who holds the Guinness Book of World Records title as "most traveled man in history" is swinging by Canada later this year.
The TravellingTwo blog interviewed Stücke recently for a podcast that will be aired soon. They note that after bicycling in northern Canada, he'll begin visiting island-nations to qualify for the Guinness Book record of stepping foot on every country on Earth.
While Stücke just turned 70 on Jan. 11, he's been traveling by bicycle since 1962. He's logged more than 350,000 miles in nearly a 50-year span, mostly on the same bicycle ..... more»
It's early yet, but Andre Greipel looks to be dominating this year's Tour Down Under as he took the mass sprint finish in Stage 2 on Wednesday in Australia -- his second win in as many days.
The 27-year-old German is the overall leader in the race and may be looking to repeat his 2008 championship at the Tour Down Under, which ends Sunday.
Greipel appeared to be followed across the line by New Zealand's Greg Henderson (Team Sky) and Australia's Robbie McEwen (Katusha), according to radio reports. RadioShack's Gert Steegmans, who finished in 2nd place in Stage 1, didn't appear to factor in the Stage 2 finish.
Meanwhile, the captain of that RadioShack Team, Lance Armstrong, finished 48th on the stage and 39th overall..... more»
Bicyclists can raise money for the Haitian disaster relief effort by joining a bike ride across the rolling terrain of southeastern San Diego County on Feb. 13.
The charity bike ride is named "80 for Haiti." Organizer Chris Kostman notes the 80-mile bike ride mostly follows historic Highway 80. There's minimal traffic, no traffic lights and just a few stop signs.
The entire entry fee of $80, or more if you wish, goes directly to Mercy Corps, a non-profit that's on the ground in the earthquake zone in Port-au-Prince.
Chris is president of AdventureCorps, which is absorbing all the costs; they're looking for co-sponsors to supply food and water. AdventureCorps produces and promotes ultra-endurance and extreme sports events such as the Furnace Creek 508, Death Valley Century and Double, and Mount Laguna Bicycle Classic<.
I asked Chris why he's getting involved in this effort .... more»
Team HTC-Columbia might have had some personnel changes in the off-season, but the US-based team still packs plenty of punch as Andre Greipel won Stage 1 of the Tour Down Under on Tuesday in Australia.
If Columbia is suffering from the notable absence of George Hincapie, who went to BMC Racing, it wasn't evident on the 87-mile route from Clare to Tanunda.
The team took charge of the peloton to reel back a 9-minute margin to a three-man breakaway, then led their man to the front of a bunch sprint.
Gert Steegmans, on Lance Armstrong's Team RadioShack, finished in second place. Armstrong finished in 46th. ... more»
Good news for Seattle bicycle commuters who combine their bike ride with the bus:
Beginning Feb. 6, bicyclists can load and unload their bikes on all Metro buses at any time. That means for the first time, bicyclists can load and unload their bicycles in the busy downtown core, which has been closed to such activity.
King County Metro says this is a one-year demonstration project to determine whether loading and unloading bikes on the front racks on buses slows down the schedule. They'll evaluate safety and operations at the end of the 12-month period ... more»
Great Britain's Team Sky marked its inaugural race by taking 1st and 2nd places in the Cancer Council Helpline Classic, the precursor to Australia's Tour Down Under that starts Tuesday.
Teammates Greg Henderson and Chris Sutton took 1st and 2nd in the 31-mile criterium around Adelaide, which drew some 100,000 onlookers.
Launching the second year of his comeback, Lance Armstrong took a 20-second lead on the peloton for a couple of laps with four other ridres, including another Tour de France winner, Oscar Pereiro ... more»
Cyclists on the Stinky Spoke bike ride emerge out of the fog Saturday morning on the Sammamish River Trail. More than 600 rode the fund-raiser for the Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center near Redmond, Washington.
The 16-mile round trip started and ended at the Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville. While the riders started in the fog, the weather cleared after they left the paved Sammamish River Trail. The route took the mountain bikers along a dirt powerline trail and then home on the hilly Tolt Pipeline Trail. .... more»
(Update: Jan. 21 -- Trail cleared and reopened on Wednesday) A fallen tree blocks the Burke-Gilman Trail just north of Seattle. Cyclists were directed onto a sidestreet to detour the mudslide that brought the tree down.
Neighbors say this tree in Lake Forest came down about 5:30 Friday morning. The trail was also blocked further south. The area has undergone some precip just about everyday the past two weeks.
If bicycling were the only factor, what would be the 10 best cities in the world in which to live?
The website AskMen.com set out to name the Top 10 Bicycle-Friendly Cities in its quest for naming the Top 10 in dozens of categories -- prescription drugs, to motorbikes, to hottest women.
The list has undergone some modifications since I first stumbled across it in 2007. Amsterdam is still No. 1, but Portland, Oregon, fell from No. 2 to No. 6.
The website doesn't explain this sudden loss of prestige for Portland, but I doubt if it has anything to do with the 5% to 6% decrease in bike traffic in the past year, as revealed in a recent study by the city.
BikePortland saysthat the city attributed that first bike traffic decrease since 1995 to the poor economy (car traffic was down, too) and to people returning to cars as the price of gasoline dropped a bit.
Here's the Top 10, as reported by AskMen:
1. Amsterdam, The Netherlands -- Cars are almost secondary .. more»
Prompted by the deaths of three bicyclists on city streets last year, Boise, Idaho, is the latest locale to require motorists to give bicyclists a 3 feet of space when passing.
Usually this is a statewide law. Although the Idaho state legislature hasn't approved such a law, it is the only state that allows bicyclists to make the "Idaho stop" -- treating stop signs as yield signs and stop lights as stop signs.
Currently 14 states require that motorists give bicycle riders the 3-foot margin of safety.
The Boise City Council took the action this week based on the recommendations in a final report by the Cycling Safety Task Force ... more»
Bicyclists don't have to travel to Italy to participate in the cycling phenomenon known as gran fondos any more. There are plenty scheduled in the US and Canada in 2010.
I've stumbled across six more gran fondos -- in California, Colorado, Oregon and British Columbia -- since I first reported on the sudden surge in the events back in December: "Gran Fondo bike rides gain popularity in the US".
That brings to 17 the number of gran fondos available to cyclists in North America.
I've compiled a list of all 17, their dates and locations at a new page: "2010 North American Gran Fondo bike rides." Check it out soon if you're interested in joining in, these rides are known to fill up fast.
Three of the new rides are slated in Colorado by sports marketing firm Cyclosportivo N.A..... more»
Update: Orphanage funded by charity bicycle rides still standing
That's horrific news coming out of the earthquake zone in Haiti. It always seems that the regions least capable of sustaining a natural disaster are the ones hardest hit.
Millions are waiting to hear from friends, relatives and coworkers in the area hit by the 7.0 earthquake. Meanwhile, a group that funds a Port-Au-Prince orphanage with charity bike rides (see 6-minute video at right) got good news Wednesday morning.
Both buildings of the H.I.S. Home for Children are still standing and being patrolled, although a security wall fell down, according to reports in the Herald News in suburban Chicago ... more»
Seattle Bike Supply is recalling 350 Redline Conquest Pro bicycles and frames because of a defective fork.
The Kent, Washington-based distributor is urging consumers to stop riding the bikes immediately as the fork legs can separate from the fork crown.
The recall involves all year 2010 Redline Conquest Pro Cyclocross bicycles and framesets. They were sold in pearl white/blue and have aluminum frames with carbon fiber forks and aluminum steerer tubes ... more»
While last week's 5-year sentence of a Los Angeles doctor for a road rage attack that injured two cyclists got big headlines, rage on the road involving bicyclists isn't uncommon.
Sometimes bicycle riders are the target, sometimes they're the aggressors, and sometimes they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. It makes me wonder if there's a way to avoid road rage.
In Naperville, Illinois, a 67-year-old woman is charged with four felony counts of aggravated battery. Last July, witnesses told police she rammed a 17-year-old bicyclist on a BMX bike from behind .... more»
The slogan on Vancouver, BC's BikeRescue.org website must have sounded almost too good to be true to someone trying to recover a stolen bicycle:
"Ripped. Rescued. Returned. Putting bikes back where they belong."
The website claimed the project had returned 256 stolen bikes by finding obviously stolen bicycles for sale at low prices, buying them, then reuniting them with their owners.
Well, it was too good to be true.
The head of the organization, Gordon Sinclair Blackwell, 41, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to 36 counts of possession of stolen property (bicycles). ... more»
Lance Armstrong returns to Australia for the Tour Down Under next week in better shape than in last year's comeback season and with his own cycling team -- Team Radio Shack.
Still, he told the Sydney Morning Herald that he doesn't expect to be in contention to win the bike race that rolls out Jan. 17-24. Team Shack instead will be looking to take stage wins at TDU with sprinter Gert Steegmans of Belgium.
Which is just as well, because the rosters for this year's race reveals a host of cyclists that can take the overall honors.
First there's 29-year-old Aussie Allan Davis, above right, who wore the QuickStep jersey last year when he won three stages on his way to the Tour Down Under championship. He's returning this year as a member of the decimated Astana team, who lost many riders to Radio Shack. Oscar Pereiro also is appearing with the Astana team. ... more»
Sometimes a chance encounter made while traveling by bicycle can lead to a life-long undertaking.
Such is the case of Mike Church, 27, whose 10,000-mile bike tour across Europe and Asia with a small group of bicyclists has led to the founding and maintenance of a school in a part of Nepal that is far off the tourist track.
The Mikey Medium English School, named for Church, opened in 2008 with funds provided in lieu of wedding gifts to Church's marriage to Ali Sharp. Since then, Church's parents have helped their son raise funds for the project. Church grew up in Davidsonville, Maryland, and is now a graduate student in Montana.
Interviewed in the Annapolis Capital, Church said:
"It just goes to show you how surprisingly easy it is to make a difference. It's a wonderful thing. My parents and I have supplied the school, but it's not a heroic deed. In the grand scheme of things, it's a minor and painless exercise ...... more»
A Los Angeles judge sentenced an emergency room doctor to 5 years in prison on Friday for assaulting a group of cyclists with his car on a winding road near his home in 2008.
It's good to see justice handed down in this case against Christopher Thompson, 60. The incident caught the attention of bicycle riders worldwide; more than 270 e-mailed or wrote the Los Angeles court in support of a stiff sentence.
In November, a jury convicted Thompson of mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious injury and reckless driving causing injury.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Superior Court Judge Scott T. Millington said he did not take the correspondence from bicyclists into account in making his sentence. The Times said the judge:
"...called the case a "wake-up call" to motorists and cyclists and urged local government to provide riders with more bike lanes. He said he believed that Thompson had shown a lack of remorse .... more»
If the winter weather is getting to you, this video should remind you that good bicycle traveling days are ahead.
This 6:18-minute video is a compilation of photos taken on the Bike the US for MS 2009 cross-country bike tour from Virginia to Oregon that raised $25,000 for the charity.
It's good to have a friend in the federal government who sounds like he's looking out for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Granted, most federal transportation projects are road-building exercises that support our car culture. But DOT Secretary Ray LaHood appears to understand that bicycles are one of the solutions to the traffic congestion that's stifling our cities.
It's a refreshing change from his predecessor, Bush-appointee Mary Peters, who complained in 2007 that spending on bike paths and trails was taking away money from upgrading the nation's transportation infrastructure.
I just saw recently where LaHood came to the defense of bike paths that a couple of Republican senators attacked last month because they got funding in the economic stimulus package .... more»
The long wait for Sierra Cascades Bicycle Route is almost over. The Adventure Cycling Association says the full maps will be available in mid April.
Recreational bicyclists looking forward to getting their Rocky Mountain high this summer should be warned that registration for all four big Colorado bike tours are now open.
With my email address displayed in the upper right column of every page of the Biking Bis website, I get frequent mail from readers.
Expect to see a lot of these bicycles on the streets of Minneapolis this coming summer.
Update: Feb. 4 -- Also cycling in Cape Argus bike ride in South Africa
Greg LeMond and Trek Bicycles announced Monday that they've settled their differences out of court.
Bike theft rose to a whole new level in Issaquah recently when a man flashed a gun at a bike shop employee as he left with an expensive racing bike.
Earlier this week, I pedaled my Rockhopper up the John Wayne Pioneer Trail east of North Bend in search of snow.
Bicycle advocates in state legislatures are once again promoting bills that require motorists to give bicyclists 3 feet of clearance when passing.
The same day that President Obama announced his jobs programs in the State of the Union address, an Indianapolis-based bicycle components maker announced it would expand and create jobs by 2013.
Brett Tracy travels the western US by bicycle and uses his artist's trained eye to document the end of the industrial age.
last week, and a Mercer Island police officer has pulled together a collection of "evidence bikes" that area agencies had been storing. 
Back in the day, I used to be dazzled by the cool names of bike clubs I'd come across on bicycle rides -- "Yellowjackets," "Flyers," "Wheelmen," "Team On Your Left."
Bicyclists who launch a long-distance bike tour to draw attention to a cause usually do so in the spring to take advantage of the summer bicycling season.
At 70 years old, Heinz Stücke is still going strong.
It's early yet, but Andre Greipel looks to be dominating this year's Tour Down Under as he took the mass sprint finish in Stage 2 on Wednesday in Australia -- his second win in as many days.
Bicyclists can raise money for the Haitian disaster relief effort by joining a bike ride across the rolling terrain of southeastern San Diego County on Feb. 13.
Team HTC-Columbia might have had some personnel changes in the off-season, but the US-based team still packs plenty of punch as Andre Greipel won Stage 1 of the Tour Down Under on Tuesday in Australia.
Prompted by the deaths of three bicyclists on city streets last year, Boise, Idaho, is the latest locale to require motorists to give bicyclists a 3 feet of space when passing.
Seattle Bike Supply is recalling 350 Redline Conquest Pro bicycles and frames because of a defective fork.
Lance Armstrong returns to Australia for the Tour Down Under next week in better shape than in last year's comeback season and with his own cycling team -- Team Radio Shack.
