What is it about an ice-cold beer after a long ride that feels just right? Is it my body’s craving for carbs? An endorphin-induced urge for malt? 

In theory, beer and bicycling shouldn’t go together. Cycling is inherently a healthy activity. Beer, well, not so much (just don’t tell that to the Irish, what with their Guinness and all). Seriously, it would be more appropriate to crack open a bottle of carrot juice after our feats of physical exertion. But we don’t. At least I don’t.

In fact, when my legs are as exhausted as they are dirty from the day’s ride, I savor the anticipation of sipping a cold beer. Put the beverage in my dust-caked hand while I strip my shoes and socks and lean the bike against the truck, and I’m happy.

I’m not alone. Beer is to cyclists what dark chocolate is to yoginis. What gives? I asked two experts: a beer-maker who likes bikes and a cyclist who likes beer. Read on for insight from bike racer Spencer Powlison and New Belgium Brewery’s Senator of Tour de Fat Non-Profit Relations, Michael Craft.

Beer is healthy-ish.

“From a scientific standpoint, beer’s carbonation makes it more refreshing,” says Powlison before mentioning lots of other beer health benefits. Beer contains B vitamins. It helps cleanse your palate. It can rehydrate you.

More, holding a beer has the potential to extend your ride, at least mentally, says Craft. “A bottle of beer is similar to the shape of your handlebars,” Craft observes. “If you’re going to hold onto something after a ride, you might as well count on some muscle memory.”

Beer and bicycles are “of the people, for the people.”

“Beer is the drink of the everyman (or woman). It’s the drink that English porters would have on their lunch break, the liquid that Martha Washington brewed at home for George, and the liquid ‘bread’ that Trappist monks have relied upon for eons as sustenance during Lent,” says Powlison. “Bikes are also made for the everyman. They are less expensive than cars and horses, easy to maintain, store and use.”

Hard work makes everything taste better.

Maybe the cravings for beer kick in for the same reason a greasy hamburger tastes like a four-star meal after a hard race. “Beer tastes good after a ride because you earned it,” says Powlison. Craft agrees. “Trust me, you rode your bike and I bet you smiled. You deserve a pint.”

Beer tastes great after a ride, or even during a ride, as Powlison demonstrates here.

Sometimes, the beer gives back.

For 14 years, New Belgium has hosted the bike-circus freak show known as Tour de Fat with proceeds going to local cycling groups. “Last year alone we raised a half-million dollars for bicycle advocacy across the country,” says Craft. “It’s our way to give back to a community that has helped us so much.”

Bike circus Tour de Fat at New Belgium's hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado.

In addition, New Belgium is wrapping their bottles of New Belgium Fat Tire and Ranger IPA with the People for Bikes logo to celebrate May as Bike to Work Month. “We make beer. Non-profits make magic," says Craft.

Thanks to New Belgium for showing their bike pride on labels this May!

Is this to say that teetotalers and non-drinkers are missing out on part of the cycling experience? Heck no. In the end, beer’s iconic status is just that: An icon. An image. A symbol of fun and frivolity and savoring the moment. And if you find that through carrot juice, soda or a box of wine, more power to you. Cheers!

Kristin Butcher is a freelance writer based out of Boulder, Colorado, she spends her time writing about people, the outdoors and, of course, bikes. You can read her column, Butcher Paper, in BIKE Magazine.

The newfound popularity of bicycling and the rapid expansion of bicycle lanes doesn’t excite everyone—at least not right away. 

“Bike lanes are coming to my neighborhood, and now I will no longer be able to afford living there,” is a common reaction in low-income Portland neighborhoods says Olivia Quiroz, Educator for the Multnomah County Health Department.  Some minority and low-income people view bike lanes as signs of imminent gentrification.

That was a central topic debate at a Summit on Bike Lanes & Equity, an ethnically diverse gathering of more than 30 transportation leaders and public officials from around the country held Wednesday and Thursday in Austin, Texas under PeopleForBikes' Green Lane Project sponsorship.

Indeed, there was skepticism among poor and minority communities in Portland (declared America’s #1 bike city by Bicycling magazine) about protected bike lanes on North Williams Avenue planned for their neighborhood. The project went forward only after transportation officials and bike advocates slowed down in order to listen carefully to the concerns of community members, some of whom had been displaced by other projects in recent Portland history. A genuine process of engagement emerged over a series of meetings and forged the consensus to go ahead with the project, says Gerik Kransky of the Portland’s Bicycle Transportation Alliance.  

Attendees of the summit spent Thursday morning pedaling along a series of new bike lane projects in East Austin, a lower-income area with many Latinos and African-Americans. Some of these projects drew initial opposition, most of which faded as city officials worked to reshape projects based on neighborhood concerns. 

Riders tour new bike lanes in Austin.

“Our bread and butter has been an extremely thorough public process,” says Nathan Wilkes of the city of Austin, noting that residents receive letters from the city about coming projects and are invited to speak at public meetings. City staff also reaches out to churches, merchants and other community leaders.  “It save us money and time to not to have to re-do projects.”

“It’s important to just let people talk about their experience at length,” says Austin City Council member Mike Martinez.  “But I have found that every time we open a new bike lane I get a lot of emails saying ‘When do we get ours?’”

Jordan Exantus of Memphis enjoys the bke tour of Austin.

Pat Dowell, an alderwoman in Chicago who expressed excitement that the city’s new bikeshare program will extend into to her predominantly African-American ward on the south side, emphasized the importance of “tying bike lanes to more economic opportunity in communities” like creating better access to jobs for people without cars and establishing bicycle shops.  “That’s powerful,” she says.

Green Lane Project Director Martha Roskowski notes that “a huge restructuring of our cities is underway”, including a steady migration of college educated young professionals to inner city neighborhoods. 

“Bike lanes are not driving this,” she points out. But bike lanes sometimes become a hot topic because most of these other changes are business and personal trends that are never discussed at public meetings. So when bike lanes are publicly discussed, it’s a chance for low-income and minority people to speak about what’s happening to their neighborhoods in broader terms.

Edmund Ford, Jr., President of Memphis City Council.

Bicycling is not just good news for wealthy white people. The consensus among everyone—including the African-American, Latino and Asian-American leaders who made up more than half the of the attendees—was that all communities could benefit from the health, social and economic benefits of biking.

Adrian Lipscombe, an African-American planner working for the city of Austin who is doing academic research on social equity and biking, notes there is a great need for more data on this subject to help guide planning decisions.

Veronica Davis, co-founder of Black Women Bike in Washington, D.C., said the next step for encouraging more minorities to bike are, “Understanding what the barriers are, what the fears are and how to overcome them.”

Black Women Bike co-founder Veronica Davis and Chicago Alderwomen Pat Dowell.

Hearing about Davis’s work, Olivia Quiroz declares, “I’m going back to Portland and start a Latina Women Bike group.”

View the Summit comments with the Twitter hashtag #Bikesandequity.

Jay Walljasper writes, speaks and consults frequently about biking and other ways to improve our communities. His website:  www.JayWalljasper.com 

Mention the word “bicyclist” and most people immediately picture someone white and middle-class. The same way the phrase “opera singer” conjures images of a heavy-set woman with her mouth wide open.

In truth, some opera singers are slender and some Latinos, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans and low-income people ride bikes. Actually Latinos bike at about the same rate as whites, and the lowest-earning quarter of the U.S. population bikes at a slightly higher rate than everyone else.

But that’s not how people generally see it.

This is the reason a diverse group of elected officials and transportation leaders from across the U.S. gathered yesterday in Austin, Texas, to discuss how to shift both the perception and the reality about who bikes. 

"We are looking at a paradigm shift in how we use our streets," said Chicago alderman Pat Dowell.

Martha Roskowski, director of the Green Lane Project, which sponsored the bike equity summit, noted that this meeting was breaking new ground on this topic.  “It’s up to us to explore these issues and solutions.”

The group included African-American city council members from Chicago and Memphis: Latino public officials from San Francisco, Austin and Portland: founders of African-American bike organizations from Washington, D.C. and Chicago; an Asian-American doctor pursuing the link between biking and health; and numerous others. 

After a quick round of introductions, the group jumped headfirst into discussions about what measures could help poor and minority people enjoy more of the health and economic advantages of biking.  Among the barriers to biking in these communities are:

• Cultural attitudes that view bicyclists as either children, people unable to afford a car or those unable to drive due to drunk driving convictions;
• The expense of good bikes, and the unreliability of inexpensive bikes;
• The lack of bike repair shops in low-income communities;
• Fear of bike theft;
• Fear of biking in urban traffic;
• Insufficient information about bike routes and techniques;

Another key issue is perceptions in many communities that 21^st Century bike infrastructure like green lanes spur gentrification, which will drive minorities and poor people out of the neighborhoods.

Memphis city council President Edmund Ford Jr: "I'm here to learn everything I can."

In the evening Summit participants were later greeted at City Hall reception by Austin Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole, an African-American who took up biking again on her 50^th birthday instead of buying a red sportscar. “We are beginning to move the needle on biking in low-income neighborhoods,” she said, noting that African-Americans and Latinos in the city have twice the mortality rates of whites.  “We’re talking about people’s health.”

She was followed by Pat Dowell, an African-American Alderwoman from Chicago who observed, “Biking is really about a paradigm shift for health and for less dependence on fossil fuels.”

Edmund Ford Jr., an African-American city council member from Memphis, said he was so excited about the potential of bicycling to improve people’s health that he was going to take part in the bike tour of Austin the next morning, even though he had not ridden a bike in ten years. “I’m here to learn everything I can.”

Jay Walljasper writes, speaks and consults frequently about biking and other ways to improve our communities. His website: www.JayWalljasper.com

On a perfect Colorado spring evening, a lively group gathered in Quick Left’s bright, modern office on downtown Boulder's Pearl Street. Many were strangers to each other, brought together by a shared passion for bikes, computers, or both. After a few minutes of mingling and snacking and some opening remarks and rules from bicyclist and Quick Left marketing manager Rachel Scott, the competition began.

Never having attended a hackfest before, we weren’t sure what to expect. A hackfest is a funny event. At first glance it appears to be the most antisocial party you’ve been to—a bunch of people huddled over the electronic glare of their laptops, talking quietly or not at all. Look closer and the spirit of collaborative, fun, creative competition permeates it. Teams ranged in size from one to seven or eight coders, all working together to create a bike-related app within the tight three hour window.

While the teams hacked away, onlookers talked bikes, drank New Belgiums, and wondered what would come from all those plain characters on the black screen. Local bike companies Training Peaks (a training website and software provider) and Stages Cycling (a new powermeter company) were there as sponsors, as well as a few curious bike-lovers. The three hours went by before we knew it, and probably even faster for the competitors.

At 9:30 PM, coding stopped and the five remaining teams presented their ideas. In order of judges’ favorite, they were:

1) "Bike Buddy" – Realizing that many bicyclists often end up riding alone when they would prefer to ride with a friend or partner, this team built an app to connect people for bike rides. You simply enter the type of ride (road, mountain, and “hipster” were the suggested options), the level (beginner, intermediate, advanced), duration, and location.

2) "Breakfast Station Finder" – A group of bike racing fans teamed up for this app designed for Boulder’s Bike to Work Day, famous for its extensive breakfast stations. The app directs you to the breakfast station closest to you and even provides audio cues so you don’t have to look at a map while you ride.

3) "Don’t Heckle Me, Bro" – Heckling racers is an essential part of cyclocross racing. The funniest and most creative heckles are appreciated by both spectators and racers, but it’s not always easy to come up with good heckling material on the spot. Cyclocross superfan Brendan built this app that supplies quality pre-made heckles and even lets you upload your own to be used and rated by other spectators.

4) "Map Me" – This app streams your location and live video using Apple FaceTime to a map, allowing you to watch a friend’s ride virtually from the comfort of your own home or check in on a loved one to make sure they are safe on their ride.

5) "Gear Me" – A gear ratio calculator for track racing. Quick Left is home to some dedicated track racers, including a Masters National Champion. Team leader Amanda jokingly describe the app as a way to pick the proper chainrings and cogs for different track events as well as get a raise from her boss Ingrid (the track champion).

Of course, the spirit of the hackfest is in the competition, not the end product. None of these apps were ready for market, but some had the potential to be something bicyclists use in real life.

Thanks to Quick Left for hosting, the other sponsors for their support, and all the event participants for making it a great evening. It was our first hackfest, but it won't be our last!

See some great photos from the hackfest over at 23rd Studios.

To celebrate National Bike Month and all the places bicycling takes us, we've teamed up with sustainable outdoor apparel company Nau (@nauclothing) to give away the ultimate commuter kit— a Tern Joe C21 foldable cruiser and $250 of Nau apparel. To enter, hit the road and tag your Instagram photos—from urban landscapes to alpine vistas – with #MyBikeTakesMe to show us where you go. To the grocery store, the coffee shop, the trailhead, or more—anything counts! 

Tag Instagram photos with #MyBikeTakesMe and include @PFBcrews and @Nauclothing. The contest ends May 29. Winner will be announced May 31st. Winner must choose product by June 30th. Full rules here.

Thanks to Nau and Tern for their partnership in this contest. Read more about what Nau does to make bicycling better here.

This week is officially National Bike to Work Week. However, we'd like to encourage you to think of it as National Bike to Anywhere Week. Half of all trips Americans make are three miles or less—an easy biking distance. Imagine the good that would come if more people in your community tried biking for some of these short trips. Wouldn't it be nice?

We have an easy way for you to tell your community why bikes are a great way to go. Use this simple tool to send a pro-bike letter to your local newspaper that encourages and inspires your neighbors to give biking a try, or at least support bicycling if they don't ride themselves. You can even add a personal story about how bicycling has changed your life.

We're hoping to get a pro-bike letter published in each of the 50 states. If your letter makes it into print, be sure to let us know! Click here to send your letter today:

http://peopleforbikes.org/page/speakout/roll-together-letters

Love bicycling and PeopleForBikes? Want to help put more people on bikes? We are looking for two dynamic, passionate individuals to contribute to our marketing team.

PeopleForBikes Challenge, Marketing Manager

This individual will be part of the marketing team, helping to produce the marketing and communications for PeopleForBikes with a primary focus on running a national bike challenge (PeopleForBikes Challenge). 

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Oversight of the PeopleForBikes Challenge website.
• Integration of the PeopleForBikes Challenge into all PeopleForBikes marketing efforts.
• Development of marketing materials for the PeopleForBikes Challenge.
• Creation and development of marketing tool kits for small businesses, corporations, advocacy organizations, etc to participate in the PeopleForBikes challenge.
• Collaborate with PR agency to develop PR strategy for the Challenge.
• Work with staff to create social media strategy to support the PeopleForBikes Challenge
• Work with all PeopleForBikes Challenge partners and vendors to achieve annual objectives for the event.
• Ability to network with corporations, businesses, city government, advocacy organizations and sell participation and sponsorship in the PeopleForBikes Challenge.
• Interfaces and coordinates with vendors, including marketing consultants, advertising agencies, website companies, photographers, etc.
• Collaborate with marketing team to support other PeopleForBikes projects.
• Work with President and CEO, SVP, Development Team, and Marketing Managers to bring in national sponsorship dollars
• Assists with other brands and programs as needed (PeopleForBikes, Green Lane Project)
• Contributions to the PeopleForBikes website, newsletters, social media as related to PeopleForBikes Challenge and as needed.
• Contributes to the upkeep and maintenance of a small office
• Other duties as assigned

Job Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communication, or related field
• At least 5 years prior experience in marketing and/or communications.
• Ability to think conceptually, while still having a strong attention to detail and the ability to track a project.
• Proficiency in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Proficiency with design software including InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop
• Working knowledge of HTML
• Experience managing websites and creating content for the web
• Good interpersonal skills and able to cooperate and communicate effectively with co-workers, supervisor and outside contacts
• Excellent organizational skills as well as proficiency in verbal and written communication
• Team-oriented and able to accept ideas and strategy from other individuals
• Work well under pressure
• Attention to detail
• Self-directed and able to carry out assignments without supervision
• Willing to travel occasionally
• Enthusiasm for bicycling in all its forms

Beneficial Qualifications:
Direct experience in the bicycling or outdoor industry highly desirable. 

Compensation and Benefits:
This “at will” position offers a competitive salary, commensurate with experience. In addition, health insurance benefits, paid time off and optional participation in a deferred compensation plan are included.

To Apply:
Interested applicants should submit (via email) a cover letter, resume, and three professional references as one PDF file to mail@bikesbelong.org. Please ensure that the subject line of your email includes the text “Marketing Manager” as well as your last name.

• All materials should be received by Friday, May 31st.
• The position will remain open until filled.
• Telephone inquiries are not accepted.

Marketing, Communications, and Membership Internship

To meet the needs of our growing organization, we are seeking an intern to assist the PeopleForBikes marketing & communications team. This internship will be between 8 and 12 weeks and is open to students or graduates majoring in marketing, publications, communications, business or a related field. We’re looking for a dynamic, passionate individual to contribute to our marketing team and be part of an exciting membership expansion and rebranding phase.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Assist the marketing team with the expansion of PeopleForBikes
• Manage outreach to bicycle retailers throughout the US, including webinars and training
• Expedite fulfillment of all PeopleForBikes marketing materials
• Represent PeopleForBikes at local events
• Organize and maintain membership database
• Research companies and individuals as potential members
• Assist in marketing materials inventory tracking and reordering
• Work directly with the marketing team on the PeopleForBikes brand in all its forms 

Job qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or in the pursuit of a Bachelor’s degree
• Desire to advance in marketing and / or communications
• Proficiency in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and SalesForce
• Good interpersonal skills and able to cooperate and communicate effectively with co-workers, supervisor and outside contacts
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent organizational skills
• Team-oriented and able to accept ideas and strategy from other individuals
• Works well under pressure
• Attentive to detail
• Self-directed and able to carry out assignments without supervision
• Capable of contributing to an active and dynamic team
• Ability to effectively balance concurrent projects
• Willing to travel occasionally
• Enthusiasm for bicycling in all its forms

Salary:

$8/hour, 2-3 days a week

To Apply:
Interested applicants should submit a cover letter, resume, and three professional references as one PDF file to Sarah Murer, Marketing Coordinator, at sarah@bikesbelong.org.

• All materials should be received by May 31, 2013
• Telephone inquiries are not accepted.
• Please include “PeopleForBikes Internship” in the subject line of your email application.

PeopleForBikes / Bikes Belong is an equal opportunity employer.

We have a fun project in the works for this fall and we need your help. Submit your funniest, wittiest, most creative cyclocross heckle on this page here. Our favorite heckle will win a full 2013 PeopleForBikes kit from Primal. The best of the rest will be immortalized in a super fun project. You may enter as many times as you like. For more on what makes a great cyclocross heckle, read this blog from pro racer Georgia Gould or this guide by PFB contributor Ryan Kelly.

Click here to share your heckle today!

“Mommy, that was NOT cool,” I was quickly informed.

Here I was, in the middle of a bike ride with my son, and I’d just broken one of the major tenets of cycling: I didn’t ride predictably. And though this lesson was reinforced with a few tears (his) and pangs of guilt (mine), I realized this wasn’t the first lesson on cycling I’d received from my pint-sized wheelman. Actually, now that I think about it, I’ve learned just about everything I know about riding with traffic from my kiddo.

It’s hard to share. If you’re into watching the world burn, get a bunch of toddlers in a room and give them exactly one really awesome toy to play with. It’s not long before a sweet group of mini-humans turns into Lord of the Flies. Even after decades of practice, it can be difficult for adults to share, whether it’s cars stuck in rush hour traffic, vehicles and bikes sharing a narrow street, or cyclists and walkers vying for room on a popular multi-user path. Sometimes just admitting sharing can be hard makes it easier. You know—to share. As in, the road.

Don’t ride like a ninja. It doesn’t take a four-year-old to know that ninjas are awesome, but riding with traffic is not the time to be stealthy and unseen. Instead, being visible is the name of the game when it comes to riding with traffic, so break out the superhero colors and go berserk with blinkies. Just don’t get your cape caught in the spokes.

Eye contact is powerful. Every parent has realized the power of eye contact. A look can be used to correct your kid’s behavior from across the room, let them know that they did a great job, or to share a stifled laugh with your partner after explaining to your toddler why he’s not allowed to fart on the cat. On the road, eye contact is a cyclist’s best defense against distracted drivers or those unaware of who has the right of way.

Be predictable. People driving past a cyclist are often more nervous than the cyclist. No one wants to make a mistake, especially when that mistake involves a thousand-pound vehicle. Using hand signals, following the rules of the road, and making sure everyone (including the kid on the trail-a-bike behind you) knows what your next move is going to be can save tears and guilty pangs.

Expect the unexpected. When my son was only a baby, I laid him on the floor for a few minutes of naked baby time, a move I regretted when he began crying confusedly as a perfect rainbow-shaped stream of urine landed in his mouth. Even when you think you know what the next few moments will bring, prepare for anything whether it’s a car turning, a unexpected pot hole, or being surprised by the worst rainbow of your life.

Kristin's husband and son exploring Boulder by bike. (Image: Kristin Butcher)

Kristin Butcher is a freelance writer based out of Boulder, Colorado, she spends her time writing about people, the outdoors and, of course, bikes. You can read her column, Butcher Paper, in BIKE Magazine.

How I fell in love with bikes: Lauren
It was the summer of 2009 and I bought my first bike off craigslist. It was a mid 90’s Specialized Hardrock for $75 that my mom picked up for me in my hometown of Belton, Texas. When I got my hands on it I was super pumped and cleaned it up the best I knew how.

I rode that little bike everyday to work at the Texas Tech Aquatic center and thought it was awesome. My commute to work started around 5:30 am, in the pitch-black starry sky, sometimes needing a jacket even though it was summer in Lubbock and would most likely reach 100 degrees at some point in the day. It did not take long for me to get to work, but as the summer wore on I felt the need to purchase my second bike.

This time I went for a road bike set up thinking that I could go faster and maybe even compete in a triathlon towards then end of summer. I did go faster, not because of the bike, but because with the purchase of a road bike a friend explained to me the importance of airing up your tires every ride. Looking back on it, I never once aired up my tires on my Hardrock… woops, now I know better.

Racing road bikes in Texas.

I enjoyed riding my bike with friends and making a lot of new friends. It made me feel like a little kid out on an adventure everyday. Shortly after the summer, I would again purchase a new road bike, a full carbon road bike with SRAM Force components (I learned the lingo as well). I did all of the research this time and with advice from the Texas Tech’s Cycling Team president I went all in with plans to race for the team the following spring. That Christmas, Santa brought me a trainer for winter workouts, which I loved riding even though I fell off of it twice in the same session…I don’t even know how that happened, but it did.

Mountain biking with a friend.

I feel as though I have come a long way since then, but still have a lot of room for improvement. A rough road ride or an all girls riding trip have shown me that riding your bike is more than riding your bike. We all have a memory of our experiences and these memories add up until you realize riding your bike is not a memory it’s a real thing that you look forward to daily. It’s a way for people to let go and go back a few years to the times where we were all free to race down the sidewalk giggling as your parents let go of your seat. For me, riding my bike is more than getting somewhere; it’s a time to share with Adam, family and friends and if we are lucky sometimes it ends in the parking lot with a nice home brew and an embarrassing story.

How I fell in love with bikes: Adam
I suppose that in order to give you an idea of how I got into cycling, I should first let you know about a previous career of mine. There was a stage in my life that I was a professional athlete. For about five years, I traveled much of the southern US in pursuit of making it as a pro motocrosser… a career that requires a large amount of fitness and takes a heavy toll on your body. Through years of racing, my body had finally come to a point to where I needed to find alternative means of training to maintain fitness. Who knew that, out of necessity, I would discover a hobby that has become an integral part of my life at the personal and professional level.

Adam in his motocross days.

While out running errands with my dad one day, we decided to make a stop at a local bike shop; a small little shop that could be easily missed if you weren’t looking for it. We walked in with no intention of buying a bike, and walked out with the first taste of my future. A bright orange and black Trek 1000. I remember liking the look of it in the sunlight, almost as if the colors would explode off of the frame as soon as the suns rays hit it. I remember riding that thing everywhere! It was exciting to be able to get somewhere under my own power and seeing the look on people’s faces when they realize that you have travelled that distance without the use of a car.

From then, things began to move closer to the life of a cyclist, and further from that of motocrosser until finally I retired from racing motorcycles all together. Mountain biking, cyclocross, road biking, and riding to work were simply too much fun to me! In fact, cycling has become so ingrained into my lifestyle that you could say it was what brought me to meet my best friend; my wife, Lauren. Perhaps more on that at another time.

Enjoying another type of knobby, two-wheeled riding.

What I find so fascinating about biking is that everyone has a story about how they got involved… And most times, it’s a good story. Some are stories of a pursuit to become healthier. Some tales are of a completely new trajectory in life. Some stories are simply about dumb luck and circumstance, while others are of sheer triumph over addiction. We all have a story that gives reason to our love for bikes. So what is yours? We would love to hear about it. I’m willing to bet it’s a good one.

“There’s a lot of tech geeks out there who are also bike geeks,” says Boulder-based Quick Left’s marketing manager Rachel Scott. She’s speaking from personal experience. The cycling culture at her software company is so ingrained that riding a bike is practically a job requirement.

Of Quick Left’s 22 employees, only three don’t bike. The staff runs the gamut from road bike racers to recreational mountain bikers to bicycle commuters. Co-Founder and CTO Sam Breed pedals to work every morning on either a fixie or a mountain bike.

Scott, an avid cyclist, fits right in. She founded a women’s bike racing team in Boulder three years ago. And she was recruited for her job by one of the team’s members—Quick Left’s Co-Founder and CEO Ingrid Alongi, who holds three national titles in bike racing.

“We believe that you have to deplete the physical batteries to recharge the mental ones,” Scott says.

Bike parking at Quick Left (an "empty" rack for them).

Quick Left is definitely onto something. Cities from Seattle to Chicago understand there is a strong correlation between luring top tech employees and having a state-of-the-art cycling infrastructure.

Minneapolis’s mayor has been quoted as saying that good biking attracts young talent, and the city is one of many scrambling to add more bike lanes in hopes of recruiting the best business minds (and bodies) in the nation. Quick Left’s hometown, Boulder, is one of the most bike-friendly towns in the U.S., with 300 miles of dedicated bikeways, and is second only to Silicon Valley for concentration of tech employees.

None of this is a coincidence, according to Scott, who feels that Quick Left is just one of many examples of the natural marriage between bikes and tech. “Cyclists love data and techies love gear, and those people are often one in the same,” she says. “Bikes and bytes, cogs and code, geeks and gear—it’s meant to be.”

Now Scott’s hoping to bridge the two worlds even more audience through the Bikes and Bytes Hackfest. This event will challenge developers from all over Colorado to come up with bike-themed mobile or web applications in three hours or less.

Hackfests—social gatherings where programmers crank out innovative code in an accelerated timeframe—are not new in the world of software development. But Quick Left may very well be the first tech company to host one devoted to cycling.

A hackfest in action. (Image: Quick Left)

The Bikes and Bytes Hackfest is sponsored by PeopleForBikes, along with Stages Cycles LLP and Training Peaks.

The festivities kick off at 6:00 p.m. on May 14th at Quick Left. Developers can scrape datapoints from Strava, use APIs from Training Peaks or MapMyFitness, use their own Garmin data, or access open datasets.

But you don’t have to be a developer to attend. The hackfest is free, and participants compete in teams (every team will most certainly need a cyclist). Or just come for the beer, and to watch some of Colorado’s brightest minds go head-to-head for the grand prize—a power meter from Stages Cycling valued at $800.

Read more about the Hackfest...

Jayme Moye is an award-winning, Boulder-based freelance writer and cyclist whose work has appeared in Bicycling, Men’s Journal, and others.

Last week, we asked you to make a promise to travel with compassion—to Roll Together. Without a doubt, the way we bike and drive can make the roads better for all.

But that’s not enough. We still need more safe places to ride. For too many Americans, a safe and pleasant bike ride right from the front door simply isn't possible—yet.

That’s why we’re working every day to make biking better for everybody:

• Bringing next-generation protected bike lanes to cities across the U.S. through our Green Lane Project.
• Creating connected networks of bike paths, lanes, trails, and mountain bike parks in communities like yours. Our streets work better for everyone—riders and drivers alike—with advanced networks like these.
• Awarding grants—nearly $1 million in the last 12 months—to support bike organizations and projects.
• Helping children safely bike to school with the Safe Routes to School National Partnership.
• Developing a powerful, respected voice for biking with government leaders at all levels.

We need your support to build a better America for bicycling. Click here to donate to PeopleForBikes today, and let’s Roll Together.

After Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s commitment to build 100 miles of bike facilities in four years, the city started repaving, restriping, and redesigning their streets. Projects like those on Kinzie and Dearborn Streets demonstrated that cars and bicycles can co-exist on busy city roadways. The city announced its newest plans for protected green lanes on Milwaukee Avenue in West Town on April 30th. And if you read this article in the Chicago Sun-Times, you might think that local residents and businesses were opposed to the project.

Protected green lanes on Dearborn Street.

That’s when three businesses located in the neighborhood decided to voice their support—and pointed out that the article didn’t include the views of many others who are in favor as well. In a letter to the editor published on May 5th, Tim Coonan of Big Shoulders Café, Chris Dunstatter of 694 Wine and Spirits, and Angelo Karras of Windy City Café wrote:

As business owners on Milwaukee Avenue, we fully support the city’s proposal to install protected bike lanes, reconfigure parking and make safety improvements on our street from Kinzie to Elston. We appreciate the city’s thorough outreach on this project.

Unfortunately, the perspective of the many residents and businesses that support the project wasn’t included in the Sun-Times May 1 article, “Tension rises at city bike plan hearing.”

These street improvements for the city’s most popular street for cycling will make our neighborhood safer for everyone and help our businesses grow by creating a more livable street. By framing the issue in terms of cyclists vs. anti-cyclists, your coverage overlooks the fact that most city dwellers (and business owners) don’t fit into exclusive categories when it comes to how we get around.

We all benefit from safer streets with more orderly traffic.

A close look at the public plans shows that there’s a lot more than just bike lanes and parking spaces going on — overall it will make our street a more comfortable place to hang out, helping us to attract more customers and greater investment into our neighborhood. What we’re up against here is a chaotic and unsafe roadway that stifles economic activity. This is the story you should be telling.

We’d like to join our friends at the Active Transportation Alliance in giving a big shout out to Tim, Chris, and Angelo. Thanks, guys. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

I still remember sitting on the couch as a kid waiting for that moment for BMX Bandits to come on the TV. And when it did—and it always did—I was transfixed by young rebellious BMXers using their mad bike skills to thwart a gang of criminals.

It all seemed so real. A group of kids successfully taking on a professional theft ring? Totally plausible. Riding down a waterslide to get away from angry thugs? Brilliant idea! A whole town of kids all capable of jumping over cars? Alright, this part was obviously far-fetched, but a kid can dream, right?

Afterward, I’d hop onto my bike (a pink 10-speed with drop bars and barely functioning brakes) and race around the neighborhood pretending to be Nicole Kidman, the token girl Bandit. I knew my sketchy-at-best attempts to leave the ground were so cool they made strangers stare in awe.

That was decades ago. Nowadays, my weekends can be more mundane: grocery shopping, slipping in quick bike rides, and swim lessons for the kids. Oh yeah—and still fantasizing about becoming a BMX Bandit who can fly through the air, rail near vertical berms, and foil crime sprees with stylish mid-air flare. (Hey, a 34-year-old mother of two can dream, right?)

So when the $3.2 million dollar bike wonderland of Valmont Bike Park opened in Boulder a few years ago, I saw my chance to learn. This park has it all, including progressive jumps, slopestyle courses, big berms, dual slalom and a variety of trails.

At first I’d head over to the jump lines and practice. I wish I could say that all my practice paid off and I can now do back flips, but that’s not the case. On my best days, I catch a few inches of air. And for that half-second, I am launching over a car that the bumbling criminals just crashed into. Superheroes unite!

Watching toddlers and teenagers, parents and grandparents heading down the same little jump line, I wonder how many of us are fulfilling childhood dreams at the local bike park. By the looks of the smiles on the constant stream of riders, I’d guess quite a few. Looking across the park, hundreds of bikes mill through the landscape like ants discovering an abandoned picnic. And everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, whether they’re just getting started on miniscule kick bikes or bending the laws of gravity.

A few weeks ago on a Saturday morning, I found myself cuddled up with my kids watching BMX Bandits again. I can honestly tell you that nothing about this movie seems remotely plausible. Not the bumbling criminals. Not the daring bike-waterslide escape. Nothing…except the idea of a town full of kids with amazing bike skills.

Good bike parks cater to all types of riders - from beginners to pros. (Image: Kristin Butcher)

Here's a list of bike parks around the US:

Ray’s Indoor Bike Park (Milwaukee, WI and Cleveland, OH)
The Lumberyard (Portland, OR)
Grand Rapids Bike Park (Grand Rapids, MI)
Valmont Bike Park (Boulder, CO)
Colonnade Bike Park (Seattle, WA)
Duthie Hill (Issaquah, WA)
Plattekill Bike Park (Plattekill, NY)

Kristin Butcher is a freelance writer based out of Boulder, Colorado, she spends her time writing about people, the outdoors and, of course, bikes. You can read her column, Butcher Paper, in BIKE Magazine.

Thanks to our bike-loving friends at New Belgium, the smiling PeopleForBikes logo is found hugging every bottle of New Belgium Fat Tire and Ranger IPA nationwide through the end of May.

It’s no secret that the folks at the nation’s third-largest craft brewery are a little wild about bikes. A red cruiser takes center stage in their logo and on the label of their famous flagship ale—appropriately named “Fat Tire.” New Belgium employees receive a cruiser bike on the first anniversary of their hiring. After five years of service, employees are invited to tour Belgium’s finest breweries by bike. Throughout the year, the brewery organizes rides for employees and races for the local community. They love bikes so much that they were willing to give up label space to help us get the word out about our (not so little) movement.

“New Belgium is honored to help spread the good word of the bicycle and encourage folks to sign the pledge,” said Michael Craft, Senator of Tour de Fat Non-Profit Relations. “Much like beer, bicycles make people smile and smiling is something we could all use a bit more of these days. Our brewery is so rooted in bicycles, it just makes good sense to use our craft to encourage advocacy.”

New Belgium has supported PFB in numerous ways over the years, such as inviting us on the Tour de Fat. Tour de Fat is a massive bike party/parade on tour. In 2012, it visited 15 cities. While the theme of Tour de Fat is “circus freakshow,” it’s probably one of the most mainstream bike events out there. We’ve attended many Tour de Fats to collect pledges for PFB, and we are always surprised by how many bike nuts the event creates.

Thanks to New Belgium for spreading the bike love this May. Drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter if you spot the PeopleForBikes bottles in the wild!

Last week, we asked you to celebrate National Bike Month by making a promise to travel with compassion—to Roll Together. We rallied you to think about how you behave on the roads and how, if we all try just a little bit harder, we can make the streets a lot more pleasant. 

Now, we want to hear your story. Tell us why you made the Roll Together promise. Share your story here about a positive encounter you’ve had with a fellow rider or driver, about your ideas for transforming the relations between road users, or about your experience as a person on a bike, in a car, or both.

Our favorite story will win their choice of a Raleigh Cadent i8 men's city bike or a Raleigh Alysa i8 women's city bike. The internally-geared his & hers Cadent and Alysa make riding and fitness fun for riders of all levels. Complete with disc brakes, 8-speeds, and comfy gender-specific geometry, the versatile Cadent and Alysa i8 are ideal for commuting, family riding, off-road, and urban pedaling.

If you already shared a story on the Roll Together promise page, you'll automatically be entered. The contest ends May 22, so share your story today! 

Official rules here. 

As a way to show you the people behind PeopleForBikes, we launched a quick interview series on the first Friday of every month. The theme? Bicycling firsts. Last month we interviewed Green Lane Project Director Martha Roskowski. This month, we turn our four questions to Vice President of Finance and blues guitarist, Erik Esborg.

What is your first memory of bicycling?
I spent most of my childhood in Belgium, and my first memory of riding a bike was the day I was able to ride without training wheels. I recall rolling all the way down our sloped front yard on a red bike, and how I was overjoyed that I finally didn't fall off doing so. I still remember running back up the hill calling to my parents to say that "I did it!".

When did you first fall in love with bicycles?
In Belgium, we lived in a 200 year old house (about twenty minutes outside the military base where my Dad worked), surrounded by cobblestone streets the Romans had laid, and smooth dirt roads with farms in every direction. For my eight or ninth birthday, the big present was a turquoise Peugeot 5-speed road/touring bike. To this day, I think it is still the best birthday gift I've ever received. I remember thinking how cool it was that the gears would make it easier or harder to pedal, and I put on a speedometer that ran with a cable down to a little plastic wheel-piece that would rub against the tire to measure speed. The trouble was that the cobblestone streets would throw off the little measuring wheel regularly. I would ride that bike every chance I could find, up and down over the dirt roads, and sometimes stopping to eat blackberries that grew wild in a nearby field in the summer.

Erik (l) cleaning his beloved Peugeot.

Shortly after we returned stateside to Maryland in 1980 (age 11), I got a daily paper route for about three years. I only had about 15 subscribers, but every morning – rain, shine or snow – I'd deliver the newspapers on my bike with a bag slung over my shoulder. My bike was my companion and simply part of my daily life.

When did you first know bicycling would be part of your career?
I bought my first mountain bike in 1997, during the summer we moved to Colorado. From there, a real love of trail riding grew. I was working as a CPA in a public accounting firm at the time that specialized in nonprofit audits, and IMBA (International Mountain Bicycling Association) was an audit client of our firm. It was my favorite audit gig of the year, and after two annual audits, I hand delivered a resume to Tim Blumenthal (the first executive director of IMBA) the day after I heard they were in search of a new finance director. It was a dream job: combining my numbers skills with a passion for cycling. I held that role for nine years, until 2008. However, in 2004 Tim left IMBA to lead Bikes Belong, and for four years, I wore hats for both organizations part time. In 2008, I went full time with Bikes Belong, and have held that role ever since. After 14 years working in bicycling advocacy, it still feels very fresh to me, it's an awesome cause, and every day is exciting.

Falling in love with mountain biking.

What is your favorite thing about bicycling?
For me, it's about the freedom that it brings. Whether I'm bike commuting to work, on a long road or mountain bike ride with friends, or just pausing at the top of a long climb to take in a great view, it fills a void. I feel more refreshed, I can "tune out" while "tuning inward", and it simply puts a smile on my face. My guess is it's the same type of smile and happiness I felt when biking along cobblestone roads 36 years ago.

Exploring Europe by bike.

Hello All!

Jon and I have been on the road now for about two weeks and are loving the mobile lifestyle. A few summers ago, Jon and I biked across the country together, so we’re familiar with hopping from place to place through somewhat chaotic means. It was through our cross-country trip with Bike & Build that Jon and I met. He was on his second trip as a leader, and I was just figuring out how to clip into my pedals.

Admittedly, I’m quite the late-bloomer when it comes to my love for bikes. Aside from the occasional bike ride in my neighborhood when I was a kid, I really didn’t have much of a past with bikes until about two years ago. A friend of mine from college told me about a cross-country bike ride she had done through a nonprofit organization called Bike & Build. After hearing about her adventure I signed up for a trip the next summer. I had no idea what I was signing up for. Not only was I completely intimidated by the biking culture and all of its spandex, I didn’t even own a bike. Aside from all of my apprehension, once I started the journey in Providence, Rhode Island, my bike and I were inseparable.

On our bike tour, we got the opportunity to stop at unique sites like the Hole N’ The Rock by Moab, Utah where we stumbled upon this crazy mixed-metal jeep.

Jon started out in a slightly different (and more prepared) way—he signed up for his first trip because of his passion for affordable housing. He worked previously with Habitat for Humanity and wanted to keep volunteering in a different capacity. By the end of his first trip, he walked away with a second love, biking. He consequently joined his school’s cycling team and began biking all over Boston, and eventually decided he wanted to lead another cross-country trip where he was able to share his knowledge and passion for biking with me and 30 other riders from all over the country.

Our ride into Half Moon Bay, CA where we completed our ride was certainly bittersweet but we made it to the West Coast, tan lines and all!

We quickly learned that biking has a way of working itself out. If you’re climbing what seems like an endless mountain for days, you inevitably get to enjoy the crazy awesome descent that follows. If there’s an area of the country that seems flat and uninteresting, the conversation with fellow riders makes up for it. Although there were certainly days that were filled with hot sun and sore seats, traveling by two wheels was the most incredible way to see our country and meet incredible people along the way.

See you on the road!

-Morgan and Jon, PFB crew east

To see where Morgan and Jon will be this summer, visit our Events Page.

As National Bike Month begins, we'd like to ask our supporters to make a promise.

A promise that applies no matter if you are a bicyclist, a driver, or both. A promise that could transform our streets. A promise that can turn every trip into a better one. A promise that will help us see our fellow travelers as the people we all are—whether we are behind the steering wheel or the handlebars.

A promise to travel with compassion. 

Watch our National Bike Month video, and then join us in promising to Roll Together at http://peopleforbikes.org/better.

Anne Mader, co-owner of The Bike Lane bike shops in Springfield and Reston, Va., was among a group of outdoors stakeholders and local students that met with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis at a National Park Week event April 25 at Prince William Forest Park, the largest green space in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Jewell and Jarvis met with students from Stonewall Middle School in Prince William County, Va. who were participating in a NatureBridge residential field science program in which students live and learn in the park, extending classroom learning with hands-on water-testing experiments of their own design and learning about the Great Depression-era history of their close-to-home national park.

Mader and other representatives of outdoors stakeholder groups were invited to meet with the nation’s top outdoors administrator. Jewell is the former CEO of REI, Inc., a national chain of retail outdoors and recreation equipment stores that has a strong history of supporting environmental and outdoors causes.

Jewell said she could not “think of a higher calling” than the stewardship of America’s outdoors.”

One of her priorities is the redesign of America’s national parks to “attract all Americans, not just a subset. We need to bring nature into people’s lives.”

Sally Jewell, at home in the forest, speaks to the bike industry and other outdoor stakeholders. 

Bike shop owner Mader said she was “very impressed” by Secretary Jewell.

“Her background working for a company that values the environment and outdoor recreation, such as REI, will give her a unique perspective and an understanding of the importance of public and private partnerships.

“I was impressed by her eagerness to kick off her appointment by listening to stakeholder groups before creating her strategic plan/vision and goals. She came across as very ‘un- politician’ and that was pretty refreshing.

I hope her ideas will create more opportunities in outdoor recreation, especially for our youth. Outdoor recreation not only creates an appreciation for the environment and physical activity, which our youth desperately need, it also creates many jobs.

“I believe her plan to bring together the private and public sectors will be key in doing this. I just hope it doesn't get lost in the politics of Washington.”

The Bike Lane stores have long been active in the creation of public-private initiatives to get more kids outside, including support of their local mountain biking club MORE, Trails for Youth, TBL’s own Junior Mountain Bike Development Program and national organizations such as PeopleForBikes, IMBA, and the Outdoor Industry Association. They also help in writing grants to get funding for trails, as well as supporting community mountain bike and running races that use local parks.

Thanks to the Bike Lane for sharing this story of their meeting with an importantant, bike-friendly public figure!

If you’re reading this, chances are you already love biking. You have fond memories of weaving through trees, finding serenity in the blur of asphalt passing beneath your wheels, and enjoying a soundtrack made up entirely of your own heartbeat and the hum of rotating tires. And there’s probably someone out there who you wish felt just like you do about riding bikes.

Go ahead and make a convert out of them. But before you do, read this quick and dirty list of do’s and don’ts for sharing the cycling love:

DON’T dress for the Tour de France. No matter how happy you are to toodle along on your bike, new riders will always be certain that they are holding up your ride. Ditching the team kit in lieu of shorts and tennis shoes goes a long way in making new riders feel comfortable.

DON’T show off. Your ability to hop over a log one-handed while singing Yankee Doodle Dandy is an impressive trick, but save it for another ride. This is especially true if you’re on a first date and have aspirations for a second.

DON’T use the word “easy.” While it’s natural to try to alleviate a new rider’s apprehension by assuring them: “Don’t worry, it’s easy,” you’re inadvertently causing problems. If the rider succeeds, you’ve devalued the accomplishment. If they don’t, you’ve created a sense of failure. Instead, relate the obstacle at hand to other obstacles the rider has encountered.

DON’T tell them about all the bike stuff they “need” to get. Sure it’s fun to vicariously shop for bike stuff via the newbie, but before you know it, you’ve told them about the newest bike suspension and how they need to get a hydration pack, $80 bike shorts, and socks with martini glasses on the cuff. Remember, most new riders will have just as much fun on a 15-year-old bike and wearing boring old crew socks.

DON’T let your helpfulness get in the way of being helpful. Yes, you’re experienced. Yes, you have insight. But too much advice can take away the thrill of discovery, at best, or, at worst, overwhelm new riders. Instead, focus on one skill each ride and let everything else slide.

No-drop rides are great for beginners. (Image: Kristen Butcher)

DO make the ride about the journey, not the destination. A 10-mile ride can seem like climbing Everest to someone who hasn’t been on a bike since childhood. Pack a lunch, choose fun places to stop along the way, and make sure the ride has early bailout options.

DO check their bike for safety and fit. Even the most excited novices lose steam if their first ride is on a bike with dragging brakes and an upward-tilting saddle. Before setting out, inspect brakes, tire inflation, rider position and helmet fit.

DO introduce new riders to their peers. No matter how excited you are to introduce someone to cycling, there is a special bond among people who are just getting started together. Many local cycling organizations offer no-drop beginner rides where new riders can enjoy learning new skills together.

DO listen. If the new rider says they’re nervous, take them on an easier route. If they seem frustrated, suggest a break and offer some food. If they say they’re uncomfortable, find out why (Pro tip: If they just got their first pair of bike shorts, there’s a decent chance they’ve got underwear under those bad boys.)

DO tell new riders about skills camps. Whether it’s mountain bike skills, road racing, or basic commuting safety, there are clinics available with professional instructors who are trained in breaking down skills into bite-sized pieces creating not just better riders, but more confident riders.

Grab a friend and hit up a skills clinic or newbie group ride. (Image: Kristin Butcher)

Kristin Butcher is a freelance writer based out of Boulder, Colorado, she spends her time writing about people, the outdoors and, of course, bikes. You can read her column, Butcher Paper, in BIKE Magazine.

Spring is arguably the best season for bicycling, but at PeopleForBikes.org, we’re already dreaming about summer.

That’s when new and expanding bike-sharing systems should really get rolling all across our nation. More than 20,000 new short-term rental bikes will hit the road in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Tampa, San Francisco, and at least 20 other cities.

Meanwhile, an unprecedented number of well-designed bikeway networks are being built coast-to-coast. Thousands will open this summer. We’re talking about lanes, paths, safe crossings, and green lanes that are separated and protected from motorized traffic. These interconnected facilities are crucial in making bicycling safer and more appealing for all Americans who want to ride.

We’re working on a major summer expansion of PeopleForBikes.org. Nearly 700,000 Americans have already gotten behind our movement. PeopleForBikes.org has become an unprecedented political force that unifies everyone who likes bicycling…regardless of where and how you ride.

In the coming months, we will:

• Make it easier for you to connect with the movement, both locally and nationally
• Increase our support for local bike groups through investments and promotions
• Dramatically expand the helpful, informative, and inspirational content on PeopleForBikes.org
• Clarify and quantify a bold vision for bicycling in America that will give you clear reasons to get involved

...all towards the goal of making bicycling better in your community.

Enjoy your spring! Please stay in touch with PeopleForBikes.org for what should be a spectacular summer.

Thanks for being a part of our movement,
Tim Blumenthal, President, PeopleForBikes.org

The third edition of Tim Johnson's Ride on Washington—a ride supporting PeopleForBikes.org—will again depart from City Hall Plaza in Boston tomorrow with one course change. The hard core cyclists will deviate from their southerly route and instead re-trace the Boston Marathon route in reverse to show solidarity with the city, the runners, and the victims of last week's terrorist attack.

"While I might race all over the world Boston is my home city and that event is a rite of spring," said Tim Johnson, a six-time national champion and cyclo-cross superstar. "Those bombs damaged a lot more than a running race; they crippled our entire city.

The ride will gather at 8 a.m. Wednesday at City Hall Plaza and depart at 8:30. The grand departure ceremony is sponsored by Boloco, which will be sampling breakfast burritos for the cyclists about the depart for the opening 110-mile stage.

Tim Johnson leads riders through downtown NYC. (Photo: Jamie Kripke)

These select riders pride themselves on courteous cycling that makes little impact on rush-hour traffic. Local cyclists are encouraged to join the entourage for the ride to Hopkinton, where these national and world-class cyclist increase the pace to reach Hartford by 4 p.m.

"Cyclists and runners are alike in that we compete on courses open to the public," said Jeremy Powers, currently America's top-ranked cyclo-cross racer who will also join this ride to raise funds to improve bike facilities and programs in America. "We bring our sports right to the people, which is fantastic. We felt it important to demonstrate to the world that events like these - in both spirit and execution - will not be stopped by these acts."

Powers is part of an elite squad of cyclists hand-picked by Johnson, a six-time national champion and New England legend pedaling more than 500 miles in five days to raise funds and awareness for PeopleForBikes.org.

The ride concludes with a trip down Pennsylvania Avenue's green lanes. (Photo: Jamie Kripke)

Entering its third year this charity ride is no small feat. While several riders will join for a day or two, the long haul riders will ride over 500 miles in just five days. From Boston, the riders stop in Hartford, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore before finishing in Washington, DC on Sunday, April 28. The long haul ride is by invitation only due to the swift speed and lengths of the stages. 

For more information on Tim Johnson’s Ride on Washington, visit www.RideOnWashington.org.

Every time that I've had an epic ride failure, it has been the result of an epic failure in my thought processes during preparation. That sounds intuitive, but we usually talk about ride checklists from a "things" point of view, rather than "thoughts" point of view. When I started resolving things into thoughts, ride preparation became intuitive for me. No longer did I have a checklist, mental or physical, to go through. Ride preparation happened organically. I naturally prepared for ALL aspects of the ride… even the things that I couldn't have envisioned ahead of time.

Here are the five factors that guide my thoughts when preparing for a long ride. These thoughts and ideas mingle and overlap and that gives extra insurance that we'll have what we need for the ride.

Comfort
This encompasses clothing and preparation for the elements, but it also makes sure that gloves, sun screen, food, and water get brought along. We have to think about how long we'll be out on the ride and what happens if we're out longer. Are you comfortable on the kinds of roads on the route? Don't just trust the ride leader, LOOK at the route and mentally be prepared to insure that you ARE comfortable riding for the day.

Strength
Do I have what it takes to complete this ride physically and mentally? Distance, climbing, terrain, conditions all play into this. Don't let hardships that might arise keep you from doing the ride. It is better to mentally prepare for those hardships as well as physically. I'm not saying that someone who typically does long rides with 2-hour durations should set out for an 11 hour death march. I am saying that they should go for 3 or 3.5 hours though. 11 hour rides don't just spring out of nowhere. They start their lives as 2 hour rides that hurt and build up.

Agility and Flexibility
How quickly and easily can I adapt when things change? Do I know enough about the area and the route to cut things short (or go longer) if conditions necessitate (or allow)? What happens if a known water stop is closed? What happens if there's an accident. Am I unencumbered enough to climb and move freely with the bike?

Endurance
Is what I'm proposing as a bike ride within 30% of what I've done in the past? I'd suggest people new to pushing their limits start with a more reasonable number… like 15%. I'm not just talking distance. I'm thinking about elevation, weather, wind, terrain, etc.

Safety
Here we come back to looking at distance, route (what kinds of roads/trails are we riding?), bail-out points, resupply opportunities, etc. We need to think about visibility (reflective gear and flashy lights) and seeing (lights, glasses, etc). We need to protect our bodies with sunscreen, clothes, glasses, gloves. We need to know where we're going and how to get back, even if something comes up. We need a cell phone and a network to use it. We need to have a buddy or two with us in case something happens and we can go for help.

MUCH MUCH MORE! These are samples of the thoughts that I go through for my preparation. The list goes on and evolves depending on where I am at a particular time. 

SUPER IMPORTANT POINT: You are definitely NOT just planning for the negative. Plan for FUN! Think of and make happen a lot of fun stuff. What will make this ride enjoyable for me and the others on it? I love professional bike racing, so I often pick a theme for the ride based upon some big race that is happening at the same time. I use a ride to share new recipes for ride food or discuss some new component, clothing, or tire that I'm testing. If we're not having fun while challenging ourselves, then we're not going to want to come out and do it again next week.

Final Note: Practice this process on a smaller scale. Mentally prepare for the smallest of rides. If you practice this stuff daily, then it becomes second nature. You become a stronger and more independent cyclist. You become better able to deal with ride preparation and LIFE preparation regardless of the storm that is roaring around you. Mental strength and power comes from converting things into thoughts. Practice that daily and you'll see results in your riding and your life.

Rock on, kids!

Pete

Who the heck is Pete?

He's a Bike Ambassador for the Washington Area Bike Association, a generic bike advocate for Bike Arlington and just a guy who thinks he can make the world a better place by turning a pedal or two. He's someone who thinks life is better when every morning starts with the words, "We should go for a bike ride!"

A hackfest is an event that gathers people within the software development field under one roof to collaborate on a software project and showcase their skills. The Bikes & Bytes Hackfest has a special focus on bike applications in celebration of National Bike Month and invites non-coders to attend. Bike geeks and computer geeks will join forces as they compete to develop bicycle-themed mobile or web applications in three hours or less. The competition is friendly; the event is designed to be fun. 

January Quick Left Hackfest 2013 from Quick Left on Vimeo.

Bikes & Bytes Event Details:
· When: Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and final judging is at 10:00 p.m. Hacking takes place from 6:30 to 9:30.
· Where: Quick Left, 902 Pearl Street, Boulder, Colo. 80302
· Who can attend? The event welcomes pre-registered coders of all abilities and experience levels as well as pre-registered bicyclists who simply want to enjoy the entertainment!
· How to participate: Register at: bikesandbytes.eventbrite.com. Space is limited; register today!
· What to bring: Your favorite device to hack on and any necessary computer components.

Participating hackers can scrape data points from Strava, use API's from Training Peaks or MapMyFitness, or use their own Garmin data. It is encouraged to have a bike geek on each team, to help spearhead ideas. For example, teams may develop an app that helps bicyclists find the least-ridden Strava segments to find the quietest roads and singletrack trails. 

Final projects will be judged by a panel of Bikes & Bytes sponsors, including: PeopleForBikes.org, Stages Cycling, Training Peaks, Bike Valet. The team voted for first-place will receive the grand prize valued at $800: a Stages Power Meter. The Power Meter is primed to bring power-based training to all disciplines of performance cycling. 

Those who ride their bike to the event will be eligible to win Quick Left gear, among other swag. Roller races, contests and an awards ceremony will entertain non-coders in attendance. Special awards will go to “the longest bike commute” and “most tricked out commuter bike.” Beer, food, swag will be aplenty.

Rivera on a ride near St. Paul, Minnesota.

Why are you a huge women's cycling fan?
Women’s cycling is exciting. It’s a collection of individual personal stories constantly unfolding. Every person has a story, and following stories in action has a captivating humanistic appeal. We can all relate our own desires, triumphs, and shortfalls; we can all appreciate the feeling of wanting nothing more than to succeed at a personal goal. Whether it’s cheering for the women of Rêve Tour as they completed the entire Tour de France course last year or a friend completing her very first century, wanting nothing more than to succeed is a feeling I often relate to women’s cycling.

What fascinates you about women's racing?
I am fascinated by everything that makes the sport what it is: the heartfelt passion, sportsmanship, the hardship, determination, athleticism, striving and sacrificing for personal goals or a teammate’s goals; all of these things and more give women’s cycling its thrilling personality.

Why do you follow women's cycling over men's?
I especially am such a passionate fan and supporter of women’s cycling because I care deeply about it and want it to grow and succeed. I have realized that, like anyone else, I can do my own part to contribute, and I definitely see the need for support. I am upset by the discouraging struggles female cyclists experience at amateur and professional levels such as lack of media attention, sponsorship difficulties, prize money/salary disparity, and cultural undervaluation. I am bothered by the possibility that a strong, highly-educated, successful woman that I greatly respect could encounter a social or financial impasse that would prevent her from succeeding in her goal or perhaps even attempting it in the first place. I imagine my friends and family being impeded by those barriers, and it becomes clear to me that I must do something.

I want to do my part to support and celebrate women’s cycling. Celebrating a sport grows that sport. Although there are the struggles, there are so many fantastic positive qualities about it as I said earlier, and these are characteristics that I hope people see, enjoy, and share with others.

Riders battle it out in the rainy 2012 Olympic Road Race. (Image: Flickr user Peter G. Trimming)

What makes women's pro cycling different from men's?
Women’s cycling is more expressively passion-driven and personal than men’s cycling. At the professional level, the women are generally more willing to engage their fans or the media; across all levels, there is a social culture and psychology that motivates women cyclists to share their experiences and inspire others. This is certainly a generalization because I could easily name male cyclists that do exemplify all of these traits, but from what I have heard from the media and others in the sport, there is a lot of truth in this contrast; this is also true from my experience with female cyclists that I have interacted with via social media and in person.

Pro women’s cycling is so passion-driven partly because of the disparity in extrinsic benefits such as prize money, salaries, and sponsorship; making a financially profitable career out of cycling is currently difficult for both genders but especially for women. Women that enter the sport often are well-established in their outside careers, and female cyclists at the elite and pro level often hold master’s degrees or PhDs; this level of education in pro men’s cycling is less common perhaps because men are likely to make more money from their cycling careers directly. The fact that so many women hold high-level careers while cycling or even walk away from their career completely to focus on cycling shows a genuine love for the sport and also the remarkable ambition that resonate with many fans.

Men’s and women’s cycling do have a lot in common, and that is important; despite their differences and because of their similarities, one is neither superior nor inferior to the other. I won’t discuss the similarities specifically now, but I do want to point out that all of my descriptions here of women’s cycling subtly show characteristics of cycling that are not necessarily exclusive to one gender.

How did Click-Thru Thursdays begin? 
Click-Thru Thursdays started as Amber Pierce’s brilliantly effective answer to cycling fans frequently asking her how can cycling fans better support women’s cycling? What can we do to help? Amber is an American pro cyclist currently riding for Team Pasta Zara-Cogeas-Manhattan. She is one of the most friendly, eloquent, and passionate ambassadors for the sport.

With just a few clicks each week on Click-Thru Thursday, we can meaningfully support cycling, and especially women’s cycling. It does sound ridiculously easy, but that’s one of the best qualities of Click-Thru Thursday: it is remarkably simple, and it gets results! The most concrete benefit is that it shows sponsors and the media with real numbers that we follow women’s cycling and that we want to see more coverage and sponsorship; everything, including click-throughs, is counted in online media. Our individual efforts collectively make a powerful statement about how much we support women’s cycling!

By sharing links to articles on Twitter with the official hashtag #ClickThruThurs; “liking” pages or posts on Facebook by our favorite teams, athletes, and sponsors; commenting on articles; and simply clicking through to websites that support women’s cycling, we are demonstrating the potential Return on Investment for sponsors and media.

Click-Thru Thursday founder and pro cyclist, Amber Pearce. (Image: Flickr user shortCHINESEguy)

Do you have any goals for women's cycling?
I have so many goals for women’s cycling to grow and succeed that I could spend all day discussing them! Above all, I want women’s cycling to achieve greater appreciation and respect in cycling culture and in the general sports world because this will generate genuine desire to contribute sustainably to the sport. Two major goals are increased media coverage (e.g., live Internet/television race coverage, news articles) and financial contribution (e.g., sponsorship of events and teams, prize money parity, salaries to team athletes); improving these areas of the sport will drive the culture forward and provide opportunities for growth in other areas, such as creating/sustaining events, developing teams, and welcoming new women and men to the sport.

I also hope that all cyclists, both men and women, can know and feel that our cycling culture will welcome and support them in striving for their next challenging cycling goal whether it is to enter a race, charity ride, or even their local bike shop simply to ask questions about buying their first bicycle.

How can other fans help?
I do thoroughly understand that achieving these goals is not simply a matter of someone deciding to put more articles or live race coverage on a website, contributing more sponsorship money to an event or team, or telling more people to ride their bikes. There are tremendous opportunities for governing bodies, media, sponsors, and fellow fans to grow the sport and to dismantle the barriers that women at all levels of the sport currently encounter, but changes are unlikely to occur abruptly and still be sustainable. Progress needs to build upon progress. Most importantly, we can help drive that progress by growing our cycling culture and showing sponsors and the media that we support and celebrate women’s cycling.

A personal goal I have for all cycling fans is to realize this: everything that you do to support women’s cycling matters. You can positively influence cycling culture, the media, sponsors, and other decision-makers with even the simplest, seemingly insignificant actions. Just months ago, I was feeling frustrated with the state of women’s cycling especially because I felt that I wasn’t doing enough to support the sport; I didn’t fully appreciate and understand the positive impacts of things that I was already doing or considering to do.

Individually, we cannot do everything, but we can each do something; our collective and cumulative efforts to celebrate and support women’s cycling will make a lasting difference.

If you could recommend one female pro to follow, who would it be?
Marianne Vos. Her personality and riding style is remarkably humble and elegant yet dominant and fiercely competitive. She genuinely loves the sport and often expresses a youthful pure joy for riding while in the heat of competition or when she crosses a finish line. Her passion for cycling and desire to work and sacrifice to achieve her personal goals resonates with a wide audience, both men and women. Her attitude and ideas for improving women’s cycling and cycling in general are very positive and reasonable; she understands the disparities but focuses on goals and the means to reach those goals. Marianne doesn’t demand people to respect her; she simply earns it by the way she rides. She also wins races a lot.

Marianne Vos wins yet another race. (Image: Flickr user anMarton.)

If you could recommend one race or event, what would it be?
I highly recommend the Nature Valley Bicycle Festival for its exceptional values of supporting women’s cycling, giving to the community, and being an ambassador for all the great qualities that make bicycling the sport we love and share. (Note: Chris is on the planning committee for the Nature Valley Bicycle Festival and is the Women’s Team Logistics Liaison for the Nature Valley Grand Prix.)

What excites you most about the future of bicycling in America?
People discovering that bicycling is for them; becoming so passionate about it that they want to share their experiences with other people. I’m thrilled to see more people discovering the vast opportunities within bicycling and what it could mean personally to them: a sport, a career, a means to improve fitness and life satisfaction, a means to gain wisdom, a way to cultivate a community, inspiration to people they care about or even themselves, and so much more. I especially am encouraged by anything that promotes and builds a culture of bicycling in America, such as motorists being courteous to bicyclists and vice-versa, fans cheering for races and sharing their excitement with others, a newly-created bike lane, and people taking active roles to contribute to what bicycling means personally to other people.

Follow Chris on Twitter at @CRCyclist.

We’ve been fortunate to find some amazing, bike-loving folks to represent us since we launched the event program two years ago. Also, every year, at least one crew member has moved on to a full-time job in bicycle advocacy.

For our 2013 event crew positions, we received a record number of applications. We narrowed them down to two fantastic couples. Here they are.

L to R: Adam and Lauren (PFB Crew West), Morgan and Jonathan (PFB Crew East)

Morgan and Jonathan (Crew East)
Hailing from St. Louis, Missouri by way of Boston, Jonathan and Morgan met on a cross-country Bike & Build bicycling tour. Jonathan was a trip leader, and Morgan was new to cycling. New like brand new—she admits she had only ridden a handful of road miles before the tour! But Morgan picked up the culture quickly as they made their way across the country, and they both fell in love with the wonderful way traveling by bike opened them up to the people they encountered.

Morgan and Jonathan will be covering the eastern half of the U.S. Find them at events from Maine to Mississippi!

Lauren and Adam (Crew West)
You might have heard from Lauren and Adam in their recent blog about their first time lobbying for bikes. Lauren and Adam are from Lubbock, Texas, and are charged with an infectious energy and genuine love for bikes. Adam worked at a local bike shop for the past four years, and together the couples volunteer as coaches for a high school mountain bike team. Texas is a BIG state, so weekend race competitions often see Lauren and Adam in the car for nine hours at a time. Like Morgan and Jonathan’s bike touring experience, Lauren and Adam’s time on the road volunteering for NICA makes us confident they are ready for the job. Lauren and Adam are covering the western U.S. for us.

We are kicking off our event season at next week’s Sea Otter Classic. After that, our crews hit the road for the summer (their full schedule will be posted later this week). Look for a PFB crew at a bike event near you, and follow them on Instagram under @PFBCrews.

UPDATE: the 2013 event schedule is posted now.

What is your first memory of bicycling?
My first memory of biking is pedaling really, really fast on a bike with training wheels set up over a hole in the ground. The bike would be stationary, as the back wheel was off the ground, and you could pedal as fast as your legs would go. I think I was in second grade when my grandma bought me a used turquoise Huffy. I loved it. The neighborhood kids made a track in a nearby vacant lot we called "the bike field" and I'd cruise over the little jumps on that heavy Huffy, with its fenders and chain guard clanking away. 

When did you first fall in love with bicycles?
Like a lot of people, I biked as a kid, then drifted away from it. I fell back in love in 1987, when a friend suggested we escape mud season in Breckenridge with a trip to Moab. My first-ever mountain bike ride was on Slickrock, on a borrowed Stumpjumper wearing turquoise Chuck Taylors and a kayak helmet. I fell in love with my husband, John Waitman, over bikes, too. I met him when he was managing the High Wheeler Bike Shop and I walked in to ask him to donate a bike for a Bike to Work Day prize. He did. Our first date was a bike ride. We rode over the Colorado National Monument with a bunch of friends on our wedding day.

When did you first know bicycling would be part of your career?
I stumbled into the bicycle field in 1990. I was doing freelance video production and working at KGNU, the local community radio station, organizing fundraising events. I saw a job description for the City of Boulder for someone to coordinate Earth Day and Bike Week events. I applied and got hired. The first day, they told me they decided not to do Earth Day events, so Bike Week became my sole focus. Boulder had been celebrating Bike to Work Day in 1977, but it had lost energy, so I got to reinvigorate and reimagine it. And bikes became the central theme of my professional life. From there, I ran Bicycle Colorado, then America Bikes in DC, then GO Boulder for the City of Boulder and now the coolest job ever, helping to get protected bike lanes on the ground.

What is your favorite thing about bicycling?
Biking to work is a lovely way to start the day. John and I ride with the kids to school, then I head to the office. I never get stuck in traffic and I get to see my town whole every morning. The crocuses have been blooming for a few weeks, now the forsythia are out. Boulder has built a great pathway system so it's a very pleasant ride. I also love mountain biking. We ride with a gang of friends, exploring out of the way places. I love it all: working hard the uphills, navigating the technical bits, being out in the wild and stopping for a break at a big view spot before flying downhill.

Martha and son Lucas riding on Moab's Klondike Bluffs trail.

On her first mountain bike, a Raleigh Elkhorn. (1987)

But before mountain bikes, horses were Martha's first love. (1972)

Martha on a self-supported tour of the Tabeguache Trail. (1993) 

First ride on an "ordinary." (1990)

Lycra with a good chamois: A piece of advice I’ve always valued is to spend money on the things that go between you and the ground (i.e. shoes, tires, mattresses). This holds doubly true when it comes to things that go between one’s nethers and, well, anything. It only took one bad experience with a $20 “value” chamois to realize that I’d rather eat sandpaper than feel like I’m riding on it.

Waterproof windbreaker and arm/leg warmers: When I moved to the mountains, I had a fateful outing where a fun ride went awry when the sunny spring day was overtaken by an unexpected snowstorm. I had no idea how fast the weather can turn, and found myself wishing I was wearing something more than shorts, a light jersey, and mesh cycling shoes. These days, I always carry enough cold weather gear to keep my bits from freezing. I love a good story, but I really don’t want any of my stories to end with, “and that’s how I got 3rd degree frostbite on my tookus.”

Helmets, helmets, helmets: I had a friend who seemed invincible. She could run an excavator and ride like a demon. She went for a quick trip to the store and her helmet remained at home, as they so often do when we’re “only going a few blocks.” In those few blocks, her life changed and so did the lives of her friends and family. I have a helmet for every occasion: a well-ventilated lid for summer, an insulated one for winter, a dirt jumping helmet so people will think I can actually jump, and even a helmet with bunny ears, because if I’m going to have a toddler-sized head, I’m going to reap the rewards of fitting into helmets designed for toddlers. And if you leave your helmet at home, I’ve got one for you to borrow.

Awesomely bad t-shirts: Jerseys are great and all, what with their techno-wicking fabrics, hidden zippers and oddly placed pockets, but in my less-than-humble opinion, nothing beats riding in my favorite awesomely bad t-shirt. That old New Kids on the Block shirt? The one with Bea Arthur that says “Stay Golden”? The pink one with a unicorn riding a bike? They may look dorky in every day life, but on a ride they look hip and ironic. Or at least, that’s what I tell myself. Besides, hardly anyone notices my dorky shirts when I’m wearing a helmet with rabbit ears.

Princess Dress and Elvis Costumes: Everyone needs a go-to ride costume for parades, cruiser rides, or those days I like to call, “Monday.” However, many costumes are better in theory than in practice as a friend discovered while racing a mountain bike in a wedding dress as the tulle kept getting caught in his spokes. Full body skin suits are great, both in terms of aerodynamic function and social awkwardness, but no one needs to see the Rorschach art of your sweat stains—and by God, you will be sweating. Stick to the basics: short princess dresses and Elvis costumes.

Now get dressed and go ride. Bunny helmets and Elvis costumes are optional.

Kristin Butcher is a freelance writer based out of Boulder, Colorado, she spends her time writing about people, the outdoors and, of course, bikes. You can read her column, Butcher Paper, in BIKE Magazine.

Can you imagine if we brought the attitudes that have become—almost celebrated—on roads to restaurants or theaters or supermarkets?

In more than 35 years of bicycle commuting, training, touring and racing, I've made a ton of mistakes. Too much of it has been with my attitude. If I could give one piece of advice to the hot headed twenty-something ripping about urban corridors in a daily Tour de F-U, it is this: we all need to behave in transit as we behave at the door of our shop, holding the door for others or thanking those that hold the door for us. These tiny niceties become kind habits, a lubricant for all sorts of social bumping and grinding.

A primary problem is the mantra many cyclists chant while riding. Typically on the tip of every cyclists tongue are some bad words: 

"F------ing' A---hole."

"What the f--- are you doing?"

"What the hell!?!"

"You're have GOT TO BE f----ing kidding me, right?

Or my favorite: "Smooth move, Ex-Lax!!!"

Take a minute and fill in the blanks on your own favorite expletives.....

..... I'll wait.....

I get it. I did the same thing for more than 20 years. All these phrases were pulled back like arrows in tightly strung bows, ready to be flung from my brain, my soul, my mouth the second I was wronged....

And to no avail. These darts simply shot about the arcade of roadway americana as one of thousands of arrows. Instead of prompting behavioral transitions, these words simply sparked return fire. And this cannonade of hate rang on and on and on to other cyclists AFTER me.

Remember, you've enlisted in a movement that is not just about you and YOUR ride, but the 100 cyclists behind you that each squirrel, pedestrian, motorist, bus driver, and truck driver will encounter AFTER you've had contact.  

Author Richard Fries, right, on the 2012 Ride on Washington (photo: Jamie Kripke)

I have come to realize there is a law of karma physics as powerful as Newton's. While riding each day in the city with a frustrating melange of cabs, delivery trucks, dog walkers, jaywalkers, bike messengers, backwards skaters, and any number of clueless road users, I realized that for every "FU" came an equal and opposite "FU." In 35 years of cycling with probably 35,000 such shouts to people, I cannot recall a single time I have received a response of "sorry" or "my fault" or "thanks."

Recently I found myself as a motorist—that's right I have a car—behind a group of about 20 cyclists, many of whom I knew, with one curious cyclists way out in the center of the road, needlessly.

"What an A-hole," I thought, stunned at my own wording towards my own "people."

Upon reflection, I realized that if I thought like this, how did so many other countless other folks react to cyclists?

I had to think about the motorist's mentality....And I did not like what I found.

We were at a standoff. I needed a key that could make cyclists—like a transit-minded Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. or Nelson Mandela—advance our cause with the force of water. Steady. Persistent. Powerful. Kind.

And then it came to me.

The word. The magic word. And it is not, "please."

The word is: "Careful."

A pack of cyclists travels with courtesy. (Photo: Jamie Kripke)

I have tested this for nearly five years. This word works. The word "careful" projects a mutual concern for both party's safety without casting any judgment, scrutiny, anger, or hostility. This word—in chaotic situations—sparks a kind response....Typically it is a "thank you" or "sorry" I get in response. Often it is a neutral, "I see you" (which is the polite reference used in Central African greetings).

Before long, this single response, "Careful", stood on the tip of my tongue as a catch-all for nearly every situation. I had discovered a cyclist's magic word. Within a few weeks this word, "CAREFUL!" shot from my lips automatically for every potentially negative circumstance. 

Before long I found myself engaged in cheerful conversations with all sorts of non-cyclists. Traffic cops, mothers with strollers, delivery drivers, truckers, even the once-hated cab drivers, have proven delightful in dialogue.

What has happened is I've humanized both parties.

I've only received one caustic response, "Yeah, YOU be careful.....buddy...." Even in his attempt at hostility it whimpered out upon delivery. I calmly reflected on how that person digested his own comments. Ha! I had flung a kindness tipped arrow that had infected him slowly.....Well I hope....Some folks are resistant.

The efficacy of this word and the attitude is a profound contagion in traffic for both the speaker and the listener. This word defuses the most hostile traffic situations, rendering them as benign as that doorway into the coffee shop. Try it.

   Richard Fries is a long-time bicycle race announcer, advocate, and racer. He is also a    development consultant for PeopleForBikes.org.