I may need to head down to Tacoma real soon for one of these rides-

A few folks are starting up Humpday Hustle again. Not much info- but it was fun while it lasted before. Wednesdays. 7pm Red Square.

Another year, another solstice, another great event. This years event was much larger than 2009’s, with fewer loopholes in the manifest and a whole new level of participation from the crowd.

I love the diversity of cyclists that come out for Go Means Go events, especially the 9 to 5. People come out from the woodwork to see the city at night- riding around looking for a little of this and a little of that. It takes resourcefulness, commitment, strategy…. and a couple cargo bikes are nice too. It takes dedication and drive to make it to the end. 8 hours on the bike is a long time. For many, the darkest hours- from 3-4am are most difficult. At the meet ups throughout the night, you can see the energy of the participants ebb and flow. The coffee and carbohydrates play a vital role to get everyone to the finish.

Over 100 people gathered at Gasworks Park on Saturday- Solstice evening. As with last year, there was a threat of rain- but other than a bit of chill in the wind- it was a nice night. The weather sent many people from the Solstice Parade home early, so Gasworks was fairly empty by the time we started gathering. We made the call to finish the 9 to 5 at Gasworks with breakfast as to allow for a covered area if the rains did come. Louisa Boren Park (where we finished in 2009) is nice to watch the sunrise, but totally exposed to the elements. After an hour of registering people and handing out manifests, wristbands, spokecards, and stickers- there was a brief intro to the 9 to 5, a shout out to our sponsors- and then folks were off.

Our sponsors were wonderful at this years 9 to 5. Planet Bike was very generous- illuminating the evening even more through the donation of a lot of lights from their line of products Pryme Gear, Walz Caps and Cyclelogical were all supportive with product as well. Lighthouse Roasters provided us with coffee, which was consumed far quicker than we were expecting- making it necessary to make two more stops to fill up our insulated urn.

We do what we can to promote the use of human power with Go Means Go events. With that, Dutch Bike Seattle lent us a Bakfiet for the night to transport all of the coffee, prizes, and snacks throughout the evening. A big thanks goes out to them as well. There will be another post about Ryan’s 8 hour Bakfiet adventure soon (as well as info about Dutch Bike Seattle’s big move.)

Our first stop was at the I-5 Colonnade, a location which we have used to start many races, and are so thankful to have in Seattle. Coffee, fruit, and snacks met the riders, and we also announced an opportunity for a team to win some bonus points. There was a lock secured to the railing at the Colonnade, with a key left at Flowers in the University District. The first person that could sprint up to Flowers, retrieve the key and unlock the lock would gain 5 points for their team. Ali took the points home for Team “3/5 Communist.”

3am found everyone at the somewhat difficult to find East Marginal Skate park, where muffins, granola bars and coffee were enjoyed to give the energy for the final push.

The second year of the 9 to 5, and the second year we have had the breakfast catered. Nothing makes riding your bike all night more rewarding than pulling up to a hot meal complete with coffee, juice and all the fixins. Melissa Dawn did a fantastic job (once again) and everyone ate their fill of vegan tofu scramble or an amazing fritatta. The weather turned out being nicer at the finish than it was at the start and we had a beautiful view of Downtown Seattle at sunrise, while relaxing, counting up team points, talking with other teams about their route choices and basking in the knowledge that these are the people that stayed up all night to explore our beautiful city..

After the points were tallied, we continued the raffle with the tickets that people picked up throughout the night. Lights from Planet Bike, shirts from Redline and Go Means Go and reflectors from Cyclelogical Gear went to the folks whose tickets matched those that were drawn. The big raffle winner was Kristen Forseth, who took home the Capitel H bag, that Helga made for the 9 to 5!

Team “Old Tuna” took home the win for the most points, pulling out all the stops with 2 issues of Boy’s Life, and a 1969 cover of the Seattle P.I. with the “Moon Walk” headline. They also carried the couch cushions, cinderblock, got all the safety points for lights and helmets, and brought 97 cans of food (worth 2 points each) that will be donated to a local food bank. All that, and they are also really great people. Tim and Anne, Dan, and Julian will be sharing the trophy made by local frame builder, Taylor Sizemore.

Here is the full round up of points for the teams that submitted their manifests.

1. 428 points: “Old Tuna”
2. 353 points: “WBC”
3. 316 points: “Team Creepy Baby”
4. 314 points: “3/5 Communist”
5. 289 points: Nate & Clinton
6. 234 points: “Better off Red”
7. 231 points: “Lone Wolf Pack”
8. 226 points: “Fugawi?”
9. 221 points: “This couch pulls out but I don’t”
10. 218 points: “Project 529 XO”
11. 214 points: Erica, Ron, Nick, Alex, Wendy
12. 199 points: “Leg ‘em down and smack ‘em, yack ‘em”
13. 195 points: “2+2=4″
14. 186 points: “Garboyip”
15. 176 points: Alex, Rebecca, Amy, Arlene, Tina
16. 169 points: “No means yes!”
17. 116 points: “No crash override”
18. 101 points: “That’s what she said”
19. 93 points: “Totino’s Party Pizza”
20. 67 points: “Photogeek”
21. 51 points: “Tron Team”
22. 33 points: Justin
23. 130 points: “Enforcers”

A big thanks goes to Greg, who does so much for Go Means Go. He also took a bunch of photos on his new camera (many of which were used on this post) which you can check out HERE.

If you have photos from your photo ops, upload the best ones to the Go Means Go Flickr Group at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/gomeansgo

The 2010 9 to 5 Solstice Scavenger Hunt was a lot of fun and we hope that everyone that came out is looking forward to more cycling events that bring together Seattle’s diverse cycling community. Check the Calendar for more events, and we’ll see you on the road!

Two wheels, one love.

This year you may see a lot of cyclocross based content on GMG in addition to the myriad of other cycling goodies that come across my path on the internet. As one of the people working on the Single Speed CycloCross World Championships (SSCXWC,) it’s on my mind a lot. With lots of experience producing bike events and a passion about bridging the gaps between the various cyclist camps, SSCXWC is going to be great. The spectators of today are the racers of tomorrow- and something like cross is fairly easy to get into, fun, and still challenging. Watching bike racing is free, entertaining, and when the city sees that it’s popular, it can have tremendous positive effects on urban planning.

Cyclocross in the Pacific Northwest is something of a religion. Mud, rain and cold- par for the course. If these are a few of your favorite things, then you are likely happy to call this place home. SSCXWC is going to be a lot of fun, and something that you should most definitely make an effort to attend. If you are interested in riding cross, getting dirty, learning more about the sport- or just looking for a good time- our good friends at Baron Bicycles are putting together a weekly ride that’s open to all bikes and skill levels that will be cross-centric. Every Saturday starting June the 12th there will be a group ride.

Obviously it’s going to be Super Rad- it says so right there- and with a start time at 11:30- you can still make it to one of the many events that we’ll be doing through Go Means Go this summer!

When I saw this flier, I had a memory flash of my previous lives, and how bikes have been a part of my life since I can remember. Many things have changed over the years, but my love for riding has never wavered. The important information about cyclocross is above, below is gibberish about riding bikes and how I used to do things that I will never encourage my children to do.

I got into mountain bikes in the early nineties, with my first “real” mountain bike being a GT Timberline (the Electric blue one, with black splatter paint.) I saved up for it myself with the money I was making on a paper route while riding a Centurion road bike that was much to big for me. I’ve had many bikes at many different levels- and I’ve loved them all. My real love for cycling however was born in the street, and my love for urban cycling culture reflects that. I had a few hybrid bicycles, they had just come on the scene and were all the rage. Later, I bought a used, fully equipped Cannondale touring bike while living in North Carolina. The touring bike was nice- I could ride fatter tires, carry some weight in the panniers, and it was still way faster than my old mountain bike. It felt like the best of both worlds.

Then comes 1998. My Cannondale was put to work as a real work horse while I was a messenger in Austin, TX- after work being used multiple times as a taxi to carry friends home from the bar on the rear rack. I was 21 years old then- working as a courier, living in an overcrowded house, going out to monitor police activities with Cop Watch, volunteering at the Yellow Bike Project, dumpster diving, preparing and serving food with Food Not Bombs and putting together Free Skool workshops on anything from men’s health and sexuality to scamming the system. All that, and yet I always had time for happy hour at the no longer in business Waterloo Brewery.

One particular day- working downtown- my last drop was later than usual and further up north. Maybe I had a mechanical failure… something held me up…. I was running behind for some reason. I was on my way to the warehouse district for $1 pints of micro brew beer, and rolled through a redlight. I looked- and had enough time to make it, but the cop that flipped his lights on and told me to pull over didn’t agree. I could have stopped- but A) I didn’t have such a soft spot in my heart for the boys in blue, and B) Happy Hour was ending soon and the beer price jumped up to $4 a pint!

I decided to do what any self respecting messenger that hates “The Man” would do. I cut down an alley. Well- the cop did the same. I cut down 5th, so did he. Sirens blaring and lights aglow, I had a flash of watching Cops and remembered one thing in particular that I learned from it:

The longer you are chased by the police, the less likely you are to get away.

Downtown Austin- with it’s many one-way streets, alleys and open lots- is far easier to navigate by bike. If I were to wait long enough, he may call backup. A motorcycle would level the playing field tremendously, and I liked having the upper hand. It was time to go. After a few more zigs and zags; I bunny hopped the two curbs and cross cut a grassy lot- went down an alley- in and out of a parking garage- through another alley, and locked my bike in the parking garage adjacent to Waterloo. I pulled off my panniers (yes- all this was with panniers on) stuffed my jacket and helmet into them and walked to the bar- with time to spare for a couple pints with friends as we laughed over the story I got to tell them. The poor cop never had a chance.

I don’t think I’d be so likely to pull off a stunt like that- but I often think back to it, laughing to myself and remembering the good times that were had while I lived in Austin. Waterloo Brewing is now long gone, and many of the people that I knew then have moved away. The tattoo of an old Humber Chainring that was tattooed on my chest by Sean, in a friend’s kitchen- is now faded and looks like it was done by a child. Ah, Austin- if I hadn’t of moved, you could very well had been the death of me.

That story really doesn’t have much of anything to do with cyclocross. But you should get out and ride- cross, or in the street- and if I can get a cross bike- I may see you in the mud this year. If I don’t get a cross bike, then I’ll most definitely see you on the sidelines. It’s almost time for beer handups and cowbells.

Monday, Memorial Day (May 31^st), 2010 at Noon

MEET AT NOON, LEAVE AT 1:00 PM

Meet near the Pike Place Pig and ride to Lincoln Park in West Seattle, a totally flat ride! (Well, almost flat, just some very tiny short easy hills like the lower West Seattle Bridge). If you want to meet us there, we will be at shelter #3 on the south beach around 3 PM.

Look for Xtracycles, Trailers, Front Racks, Rear Racks, Panniers, Bakfiets, Porter Bikes, Messenger Bags, etc., etc.

Cascade Bicycle Studio, in conjunction with Seven Cycles and Lexington, MA-based Ride Studio Cafe, are pleased to offer the limited edition Seven Cycles Plan de Corones Giro d’Italia bicycle.

This bicycle pays homage to the 16th Stage of the 2010 Giro d’Italia, the individual time trial to the top of Plan de Corones.

The bike gives a nod to what may be the most difficult stage in this year’s Giro, and features specially-painted pink Campagnolo Record hubs, the entire 16th Stage route map painted on the fork legs, a nearly all-Italian parts pick, with Ambrosio Nemesis tubular wheels.

Only 21 bicycles sold will be offered between now and June 30th, 2010, and will be exclusively sold at Cascade Bicycle Studio and Ride Studio Cafe.

Stop in and say hi to Zac- he’s a super nice dude- and knows a thing or three about bikes.

Cascade Bicycle Studio
115 North 36th Street, Suite A
Seattle, WA 98103

And if you are looking for more… I got this info from the CBS newsletter:

RSVP to zac@cascadebicyclestudio.com

SPRING EXPOSURE RIDE 2010
Bicycle Booze Cruz
Saturday, May 29th
7:00pm
Meet up at: THE ACME GRUB CAGE
Tacoma, WA
We’ll be stopping at various watering holes throughout the night.
We’ll be there wet stuff or dry and clear.
21+ and biking is at your own risk so don’t fall down
Spread the word!  -  We Own the Streets!!!

Tuesday May 18th.  One of the many events planned for Seattle Beer Week.  See the full calendar of events HERE

This weekend in Tacoma:

I’m pretty sure that this is a ride, not a race- but if you go, let me know how it is!  Keep it going Tacoma!