Category: Other cycling

Bicycling advocacy jobs: You call this working?

While the lion's share of bicycling advocacy and development work seems to fall to dedicated volunteers, there are quite a few paying gigs in those fields that are being advertised this spring, including three in Seattle.

Two of those are offered by the Cascade Bicycle Club and one by the Bicycle Alliance of Washington. There also are positions in Berkeley and Sonoma County, California, Lansing, Michigan, and Washington, DC.

There's nothing wrong with making a living out of what you love. Check out this list. It's not comprehensive; just a few jobs that I've stumbled across recently….

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/26/bicycling-advocacy-jobs-you-call-this-working/

Proof that bicycling is the new golf?

A couple of years ago, the New York Times announced in its Style section that “bicycling is the new golf.”

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As if to prove it, CBS golf analyst David Feherty went out for a bike ride recently near his Dallas home. Unfortunately, a truck forced him into the curb and the side mirror hit him, breaking three ribs and puncturing a lung.

CBS reports that Feherty is doing as good as can be expected, and he should be back in the booth in time for the Masters tournament.

I'm glad his injury isn't more serious. I suppose all those golfers turned bicyclists are going to learn that the hazards out on the road are more dangerous than those sandtraps on the fairways…

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/14/proof-that-bicycling-is-the-new-golf/

Major Taylor statue unveiling in spring

The public can see an awesome monument to one of America's best-ever cyclists this spring when Worcester, Massachusetts, unveils its statue of hometown hero Major Taylor.

Known as the “Worcester Whirlwind,” Marshall W. Taylor set a slew of world cycling records at the turn of the last century and became the first African-American athlete to achieve worldwide celebrity.

The larger than life-size statue of this larger-than-life athlete will be unveiled in front of the Worcester Public Library on May 21. Speaking will be Taylor's successor on the world cycling stage — Greg Lemond — and three time-Olympic medal winner Edwin Moses …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/13/major-taylor-statue-unveiling-in-spring/

End of the road for cyclos in Ho Chi Minh City

It seems that many big cities, even in the US, are taking steps to embrace human-powered transportation as a way to reduce pollution and ease traffic congestion. Bicycle lanes, bike-to-work days, and free or low-cost rental bikes are becoming more popular.

In Ho Chi Minh City, however, thousands of bicycle-style cyclos will be banned come June to “clean up” the city's streets.

The cyclos are used as “rickshaws” to carry tourists and other passengers around town. They're also adapted to haul goods and garbage through the streets of Vietnam's capital city formerly known as Saigon. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/03/end-of-the-road-for-cyclos-in-ho-chi-minh-city/

Free valet parking for San Francisco's Caltrain bicyclists

It took six years and $800,000, but bicyclists who get bumped from crowded Caltrains cars in San Francisco now have a secure place to leave their bikes.

The bicycle valet parking has been in operation at Fourth and Townsend streets since July, but Wednesday is the official grand opening for the facility. It can handle 130 bicycles; about 70 to 80 bicyclists have used the facility daily the past few months.

The Caltrains facility is the fourth bike station in San Francisco Bay Area. The other three are operated by the unaffiliated BikeStation and are located at the Embarcadero BART in San Francisco, the downtown Berkeley BART on Shattuck, and the Caltrains depot in Palo Alto on University Avenue…

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/01/08/free-valet-parking-for-san-franciscos-caltrain-bicyclists/

Camp helps special needs children learn to ride bicycles

Balance can be a huge challenge for children with special needs. The equilibrium it takes to ride a two-wheeled bicycle can seem beyond many of these kids' abilities, creating another barrier between themselves and their peers.

That's why I was glad to see the Easter Seals of  Northern California was sponsoring an “immersion” camp this year to teach bicycling to children with special needs.

The camp and systematic approach to teach two-wheeled cycling was created by a retired mechanical engineer from St. Louis, Richard Klein, who holds similar camps around the country. His program is called “Lose the Training Wheels.” …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/01/02/camp-helps-special-needs-children-learn-to-ride-bicycles/

Going for 4,000 bicycling miles in 2008

I've seen lots of ways to measure annual bicycling goals. There are total miles, total bicycle rides, total centuries, total weight loss, riding at least one major bicycle tour.

One bicyclist at the Cycling Challenge blog in Switzerland sets vertical goals. I suppose it helps if you live in the Alps, but he'll try to cycle 525,000 feet of vertical ascent, or about one foot for every minute of every day of 2008.

I'm going to renew my attempt at 4,000 miles in 2008. Last year's attempt fizzled out at the end of the summer with interruptions for testing and surgery for prostate cancer. The mileage goal didn't seem that important during that period …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/01/01/going-for-4000-bicycling-miles-in-2008/

End of the road for now; September ride stats

My bike touring buddy took this picture as I paused at the top of a climb on our overnight bicycle ride on the Olympic Peninsula over Labor Day weekend. It seems like a year ago.

I was suffering from carrying too much weight on a rollercoaster route through the Kitsap Peninsula, across the Hood Canal Bridge, and then along the shoreline on the lightly traveled but hilly Paradise Bay Road.

It was my highlight ride of the bicycling month, which has come to an early end because of pending surgery….

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/09/27/end-of-the-road-for-now-september-ride-stats/

Most remote bike ride; August stats

Ordered to stay off the bicycle for 10 days in early August by my doctor, I returned to cycling with an easy ride around a town that bills itself as the most remote in the lower 48 states.

That “most remote” claim can be challenged, I suppose, but it's one that certainly held up on our visit there.

Stehekin (pop. 80) sits at the northern end of Lake Chelan in central Washington state. There are no roads in or out of this town. As a matter of fact, the only way in is to hike over the Cascades or take a boat from the town of Chelan some 50 miles away at the opposite side of the lake…

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/09/06/most-remote-bike-ride-august-stats/

Bear attacks man at Kitsap County park – Washington state

A black bear attacked a mountain biker in Banner Forest Heritage Park in Olalla on Sunday while the 51-year-old man rode through the park with his two dogs.

The man was treated for arm, face, back, neck and ear wounds by paramedics and taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma.

It's at least the second time in the Pacific Northwest this summer that a bear-mountain biker encounter has resulted in an attack. In July, a 31-year-old woman was mauled to death by a black bear at the Panorama Mountain Resort in eastern British Columbia. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/09/03/bear-attacks-man-at-kitsap-county-park-washington-state/