of bikes and babes

fresh off the tribute to val, here's where we get to pass along the love of bikes to the newest generation.

the last time we talked of this little one, he was in his mama's belly, shopping for bikey onesies in the mission.

now? he's got his first birthday behind him and more than a couple of teeth in those gums.

we went to nomnom. while waiting in line, look at what his mom said that she got for him, but really for me. heh. ;)

they are sold out of the shirt, fyi....at least it appears so by going to their site.

he can barely walk, but he can stand really well!

oh haiiiiii! look at that smile. melts the toughest of cold hearts. (mine is not of those.)

mama here is wanting to take him around their neighborhood in LA on a bike. maybe next time he's on the blog, he'll be on a skuuuuuuuuuuuut it up! ;) well, maybe first he'll be on the back of a bike. he's certainly dressed for it.

other than bikes, looks like we have something in common. a love of hats.

ok, and he loves dogs too. he make friends easily :)

love my favorite baby b-boy! besos con mocos simpre! babas por vida!<3<3

Goodbye

It is with great sadness that I opened our email today. Long time friend to the blog, Val Kleitz has passed away from cancer. Val was a never ending source of stories and photos of his unique, and wonderful view of bicycle life in Seattle. His hat and handlebar mustache always made me smile, even if I only got a chance to see them on my computer. The Labor Day Cargo Bike ride in Seattle will be dedicated to his memory.

The below picture and email were sent to us by Val in May , 2010. It is the picture I always had in my head whenever I saw a new comment from Val on a post. Good journeys, friend. You will be missed.



Today, as I was walking through the local grocery store, I had to pause for a moment to give a couple of very young girls a chance to consolidate themselves to one side of the aisle. They looked to be 3 and 4 years old, out shopping with their dad. The older one (who had the task of carrying the basket) looked up at me as I passed and said "Cow..boy". I get this a lot from the small ones, and I always just walk away proud, thinking "Yep, well spotted, kid". This time, as I walked away, I heard the dad telling her "No, no - that's that dude on the bike, you remember, you've seen him...". Now I'm thinking "Oh HELL yes!" Say what you like, but I seriously believe that the cowboy hat makes me much more visible, and therefore keeps me safer, than any bike helmet.

video: ramona's one minute ride

ms. wheelright, over at velo vogue and at wheelright, managed to be at the right place at the right time today to take some awesome spur of the moment footage of bombing a hill in SF with a bunch of bmx bikers.

this hill is part of my new commute. sometimes times i bomb it, other times it terrifies me, so i have to really congratulate her on the ability to capture this footage! you go grrrl!

oldest way to get around town...

i love this picture. we were hanging out on sunday streets in the mission a couple of months ago, and we found ourselves needing to go somewhere that was more efficient to travel by bike than by walking. our friend here didn't have a bike. the tall one has a large bike frame with extra space and the thigh muscles to match. yours truly had the know-how and suggested they do the below.

how cute. old friends, old way to get around town. now she has her own bike with fancy and friendly friends showing her how to ride. so awesome. much love!

Monday Mail

From time to time, my friend Tony sends me things to put out there for your entertainment. He will be in Mexico for quite awhile, coming up soon, and I can't wait to see what he sends our way!

This is Tony most recently-

While adventuring closer to home, Tony came upon an image he felt was evocative of someone close to our hearts, here at the blog, and sent us a little email and some pictures... and here we are!

the other day (umm two weeks ago) I was visiting my friend in Oakland
and we had planned on heading on over to Brown Sugar Kitchen for some
yummy breakfast foods...but on Mondays apparently they are closed
(insert sad face here) and so now we were left to scramble for another
place to eat. But it just happens that my friend has a smarty pants
phone...so he whips it out and does a quick search for other near by
places with yummy eats...wait for it, done. And off we went.
Straight here, a right up there, whoops got lost, turn around, stop,
getting bearing straight again, got it, cross street and there we
were, in Lois The Pie Queens Restaurant. Great food and people by the
way. But the point of this story/email is to let you know that on the
way there I saw an awesome mural and I just wanted to share with you.


Thank you, Tony! Hope the pie was good! We all love a little reminder that life on a bicycle brings so much more to our eye than we ever expect.

happy monday...bloomers and all

ooooo la la...

sent to the blog via klaw.

Aids LifeCycle Series!! Third up is....

MING!!



ming is a friend of mine from school. we both were into bikes-ish during school, him more so than me, but after school was ovah, we got more into those bike things. go figure. here is his story!

1. This is your first time riding Aids LifeCycle. Why did you want to do
this ride?

Several reasons. The first is about an eerie coincidence - I was born on the very day that the first cases of AIDS were reported. I have never known a world without AIDS, and I would really love to see that happen in my lifetime. I believe it is absolutely possible. Any small part I can play in making that happen is totally worth it. The second is that AIDS is a social justice issue. If you look at the communities most affected by AIDS, it's those people who have been marginalized because of race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and poverty. This is intimately connected to all social justice work - I do not want to live in a world where some people's health and lives are just worth less or not as important as others. Finally, the ride starts on my 30th birthday, and I could not imagine a more meaningful and fun birthday activity than spending a week biking with thousands of other people through this beautiful state that I am completely in love with.

2. Before you started training, did you consider yourself a long-distance
cyclist? Why or why not? If no, what prompted you to start training?

Hah no. I was intimidated by butterlap! In a way, doing butterlap for the first time (with you, dear journalista!) made me realize that all my years of commuter biking had actually already built a good base for me to train for longer distances, which was cool.

3. How is your training going? Do you train by yourself, with friends or
with trainings provided by LifeCycle?

Training is going good. I train with the Lifecycle trainings, but I also occasionally go for rides by myself on the hill behind my house, or on longer errand rides (which I might otherwise BART or rent a car for) during the week. And of course, there's always BIKE PARTY!



4. $3,000 seems like a lot of money to raise in this economy. How has it
been fundraising? Any special events?

No special events so far, but I'm planning a vegan/veggie dinner with k-law for the future! I've raised money so far being the most persistent friend/family member ever. One of my friends who is a kind of struggling musician surprised me by making a really large donation - $150, which I felt like he could barely afford. That was pretty inspiring.


5. Have you met any fun or interesting characters in the course of your
fundraising?

Not really, since I just ask my friends. I do love meeting all the people at training rides, though! It's great to see many generations riding - especially meeting a lot of middle age and older cyclists that might not necessarily come to bike party type events or commute to work on a bike, and that I might not meet otherwise. Makes me rethink using the term "granny gears"! And of course, I met k-law through doing this, and could not be more pleased!

ming has already met his fundraising minimum, but not his goal! go check out his ALC page!

this is the end of our little ALC series. i hope you liked each of the stories and hopefully they provided some inspiration to you as they have each given to me!

AIDS LifeCycle Series: Bad Babysitter

Next up in our AIDS LifeCycle Series is our butterlap friend, David.


foto by melioh hai there.

david, along with his team, bad babysitter, have been holding super fun events around san francisco in order to meet their goal of raising $14,000 (!!!) for ALC.

the following is taken from their ALC web page. 'tis very cute.

Welcome to Team Bad Babysitter.

4 midwestern transplants who moved to San Francisco and fell in love with biking in the amazing surroundings of the Bay Area.

While to my knowledge none of us are actual babysitters (good, bad, or otherwise), for some reason we rally round the somewhat bizarre/funny rap song "Bad Babysitter" when the legs start to hurt many miles into a ride. Just before the point we start seeing double and are compelled to eat another Clif Bar.

What started off as a group of friends riding around town in San Francisco and bike commutes to work, developed over the years into doing rides of 100 miles in Napa and Marin. The AIDS/Lifecycle presents a whole new challenge tho at 545 miles over the course of a week. It is sure to be the ride of a lifetime.

The ride is in June 2011, but there is much to be done before then. We have several training rides planned and as a team have committed to raise over $10,000 towards AIDS support and research initiatives.

While we aren't asking everyone to bike the 545 miles with us ;) you can still be involved in this adventure by supporting the team with a donation. Any amount is greatly apprecaited!

if you live in the bay area, they are having one last group fundraiser TONIGHT (5/20) in north beach at mojito from 7-close. GO THERE ALREADY. or at least stop by on your way out or in for the evening.

for more fotos and fun, go over to their team tumblr page! heh.

UPDATED! FLYER!

happy bike to work day!!

happy bike to work day!



two years ago i didn't have a "work" thing to bike to, so i volunteered with the bike coalition during BTWD. and i met some chica who took a picture of me and put it on her blog.



and now here we are. :) go get energized at a station! coffee!! free valet bike parking!

also, be sure to go to DNA lounge tonight for the bike away from work party AND fashion show. our girl gwen is styling and many of our friends are in the show! pictures most likely to come in the next few days.

AIDS LifeCycle Series!

hey guys, this is the long awaited post. it'll be the first of three that i have planned, maybe some of you will be inspired to send in your stories too.

this post has been delayed because our lovely first person featured, kristen ("klaw"), broke her arm the day before the post was going to go up. she was on her bike and a pedestrian suddenly walked out in front of her.

but she's feeling better now, and we decided that showing that she's ready to get back on the bike might be just as inspirational as her ALC ride! now...on to the post! be sure to check out her "addendum."



This is your first time riding Aids LifeCycle. Why did you want to do this ride?

Yes! It's my first time! I've wanted to do it for a long time but was in graduate school out of state or starting a new job and could not put in the time. The primary reason that I am riding is because there are few opportunities in life to challenge yourself physically and emotionally for purely selfless reasons, I am so excited to be a part of this! Many people believe that HIV/AIDS are no longer an issue. Contrary to popular belief, HIV/AIDS has not gone away. Many continue to die of AIDS related illness and those who are lucky enough to afford antivirals are reminded each day about their communicable disease. HIV/Aids is a social justice issue effecting a disproportionate number of people of color and low-income people. As Stephen Colbert says the vaccine to HIV/AIDS is to be white and rich. I hope that the money I raise and the knowledge people gain because of LifeCycle will foster prevention and treatment for ALL people. Plus how cool is it that I get to spend my 31st bday (June 9) with 3,000 other people riding to end AIDS! Someday I hope we can all ride in celebration of ending AIDS!

photo by joel muller

Before you started training, did you consider yourself a long-distance cyclist? Why or why not? If no, what prompted you to start training?

I've always had pretty good endurance but never considered myself a long distance rider and I NEVER thought I'd be peddling around in spandex. LifeCycle prompted me to cycle more and the support and encouragement from my family and friends has helped a lot!

How is your training going? Do you train by yourself, with friends or with trainings provided by LifeCycle?

My training is pretty mixed. I like to do the training rides supported by LifeCycle. I've done a few rides with friends and will be doing my first long-distance ride alone this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes. I'll be riding from my dad's to Hornitos and back, it's about 60 miles roundtrip. Hornitos is a old mining/ghost town, can't wait to take photos!

Over the course of my training I have seen some amazing parts of the North and East Bay. I am feeling pretty lucky to be able to live here! Oh! And riding around the city is great training. I rode against the wind last night and avoided my "granny gears" to help train my quads. Oh and I do a spin class one to two times a week. My legs are getting HUGE!

$3,000 seems like a lot of money to raise in this economy. How has it been fundraising? Any special events?

I had three fundraising events. The first was at Mission Workshop. Together, Shannon Hinkle and I raised over $2,000! Thanks MWS and everyone who donated raffle/auction prizes and more importantly the people who came to support us! The second fundraiser was a wine pairing dinner party at Dadsky KLAW's house. My dear friend Mary Burroughs killed it with her amazing culinary skills and food donations. Attendees donated $20 a plate and brought wine to pair with an assigned course. This was a ton of fun and I raised $400! The last event I did was bar tending at Tonic Bar in San Francisco. This bar is amazing and so generous - they let us keep all the tips we made. Go there and support them, they support so many charitable causes! I raised close to $300 in three-hours of bar tending. Other than that my friends and family donated generous amounts! It is amazing to me how generous people are, many came out of the woodwork to donate money and others (Gwen Lutz, Alison Barahona, Patty Barahona, Kim Johnson, Darius Pearson and many others) donated time and raffle prizes to help us out! Thank you everyone!!!

Have you met any fun or interesting characters in the course of your fundraising?

MING! Through the lovely Caltexican (ed note: oh hai) I met Ming, my new tentmate and gemini twin! Although this wasn't through fundraising I am super excited about this new friendship, and we will be doing some foodie fundraising soon! I'm really excited to eat cake with him on our birthdays too! I also became closer to Amy Powell who helped me so much! I owe her tons!!! Without her dedication I would not have raised the money I did. Thanks Amy, drinks on me!

photo by volker neumann

Addendum: So it looks like I will not be riding this year. Unfortunately I have fractured the radius in my left arm. It is close to the elbow and not the wrist, which is better. I am still training in spin classes and raising money in the chance that I am healed and my orthopedic doc tells me I can ride. The silver lining is that all of the money I raise can be rolled over to next year when I will be riding with the CYLRAB ladies ;)

I would like to thank everyone for their support! This has been super life changing already. Look for me in the bike lanes in about 2-4 weeks! ding ding

Thanks so much klaw for sharing your story! hope you all enjoyed it! happy friday!

bad babysitter behind the bar!!

hey guys, stay tuned for our upcoming series featuring some SF riders doing their first ever AIDS LifeCycle ride.

in the meantime, go on and support one of the featured riders tonight (4/13)!!

bad babysitters behind the bar!

Elixir Saloon
16th Street and Guerrero (SF)
9pm-2am
All tips benefitting the team!! Go nuts.

good luck and can't wait to hear how bad these babysitters are!

Rapha Rides for Japan

a dear friend of mine's hometown is the city of sendai in the miyagi prefecture. miyagi is one area hit hard by the japan earthquake and resulting tsunami.

on my RSS feed today i read that Rapha is doing "Rapha Rides for Tohoku," (the region of which miyagi belongs) and that there is a San Francisco/Marin area ride: 3/20, 8am. Two meetup points: one at base of Golden Gate Bridge, the other at Studio Velo in Marin.



these charity rides are being held around the world. check here for somewhere near you.

via urban velo, image from rapha

Old Town, Shanghai

Recently, a friend of the blog went to Shanghai to visit a friend. He likes riding bikes here, so naturally, it seems, he wanted to ride while abroad. His friend took a video of them riding. Take notice of the road...looks smooth as butta baby, and for quite some time.



Thanks for sharing.

me and my bike

when you ask for reader submissions, you get them! here's a video link from another reader and colleague of mine.

i have been off the bike blog interwebs for the past two weeks or so, so i apologize if it has already made the rounds....

via my colleagues in anti-oppression fun times y aquí

the sweetest thing

sent in by a reader and former classmate of mine:

"cupcake bike stand outside of a cupckae store of course. long beach."

as that oh so wise movie, clueless, said back in the day it's "so sweet it's giving me a toothache." groans all around? yes, no? heehee.

as always, we love reader submissions!! especially right now when we're getting back into the swing of things, why not show us what you are made of?!

much love,

CTX

three fer tuesday

this is the latest reader submission we've gotten from a friend who likes to take pictures of bikes while using other modes of transport (airports, trains, you get the idea).

the title of the email was simply, "blinkies."

this is found on caltrain, the commuter train that is similar to metro north or long island rail road over on that other coast. we are allowed to take bikes on caltrain and bungee them up to the railings as you see here. multi-modal transportation is totally the way to go.

thanks for submitting pictures as always!

do you have pictures you want to send into the site? please email us or join our flickr group!

Letters From Singapore!

Our first reader contribution of 2011!! Sent to us, with much gratitude by Cheryl! This is the way to start the year- learn how to ride so you can take long rides with your friends! Thank you so much for thinking of us Cheryl and Min and make sure to send us some updates about your riding exploits in the months to come!

Christmas was just a couple of months back and I was thinking hard on what I could possibly get for my best girlfriend – Min! We aren’t the typical girls who dig shopping and cosmetics but love exploring everything adventurous and new!

Singapore, being the tiny country it is, has left us with nothing much else to do. We have traveled in and out of Singapore, gone running, windsurfing and just about any and everything. Then, I remembered…there’s something Min has always wanted to learn to do – that’s to cycle! I tried putting her on the bike and though she didn’t really get the hang of it, that didn’t stop us from being part of our new adventure – the Singapore Duathlon 2011! That was my Christmas gift for her!

Back in school, Min was a runner while I was somewhat the opposite, always coming in last during our sports class. Taking part in the duathlon relay has put us closer together as a team. It was my first time on a 20K ride and I was nervous! But I’m thankful for Min, who constantly motivated me. Both of us are also grateful for our beautiful friends, who woke up early on a Sunday morning, and gave us all the encouragement we needed!


It was a wonderful experience that enabled me to see that there really isn’t something you cannot do if you put your heart, mind and soul into it!er
e re

sf bike party: fun foto

SF Bike Party 1 by prawnpie

more fun photos are in the SFBP flickr group. go on and take a look.

reader submission

just a programming note, we'll be taking more submissions for the yehuda moon alleycat bikeku until the 13th. keep commenting away guys. i'm laughing while reading some of them, while others are pretty sweet and heartfelt.

here at CYLRAB, we love getting emails from our readers and friends. one of our friends, the schweeners, sent us a picture he took while he was on his way back from austria recently.

ya, okay. This was in the lufstansa terminal of the frankfurt airport which also featured a rad toy store and a solid ramen bar. The dudes on the bikes are airport employees, and the bikes are totally official, they're numbered and have little baskets for carrying papers on the front. which is adorable. so, rather than those motorized cards they have in US airports, there are these little bikes littered all over the place.

this would indeed be a welcome sight in US airports, and airports all over the world frankly.

thanks for sending this in sweeney, and if you guys have anything else to send, please do!

smiles and independence

a couple of weekends ago four people, including myself, gathered together after months of emails and changed plans for one purpose: to teach an adult how to ride a bike.

i was merely a spectator-cheerleader, yet the instigator, of the happenings that weekend. we met up in a deserted area near a great indian place in berkeley, chose an empty parking lot and let the teaching take its course.

my phone being at near capacity, i could only get two photos of the awesomeness that occurred that weekend.

n+j

n+j

but rather me tell you how it went down, i got permission from the new bike rider to use an email she sent to us after the fact. who better to describe how she felt than the person herself?

the email was edited a bit, but you'll get the idea, of that i'm quite certain.

from: JT
to: NA
cc: MM ,AK
date Mon, Nov XX, 2010 at 9:57 AM

and for real for real ginormous armfulls of gratitude for each of you. you each helped me jump a huge hurdle. i was so down and out. learning how to ride a bike really helped my spirits fly a lil higher when they were ready to sink. thank you ak for loaning your green bike to learn & now the white bike to practice on!!! and thank you mm for connecting us to na - learning how to ride a bike=best present ever!!! and thank you na for being the best bike instructor ever!!! i couldn't have asked for a warmer, supportive and patient group of people to help and witness me learn how to ride a bike. =)

my parents were in disbelief that i learned after all these years. and my brother said he was proud of me =) i can't wait to bike to work & everywhere else & go on bike rides around oakland and sfc!

with lotsa love,
jt

now if that is not the definition of the title of this blog, i don't know what is.