Break Away RVA – First New Ride Thursday

Slow Roll Detroit.  From Remakedetroit.org.

People coming up with fun new ways to get folks together and onto bikes and having fun.  I love it!  I’ve often fantasized about organizing something like Slow Roll Detroit or some other kind of regular fun social ride in Richmond if I had a lot more time.  And now these people went and did it.  Yay!

To be more exact, the new contribution to RVA bike culture is Break Away RVA.  You sign up for one of several starting points, follow the ride leader to a secret location, meet up with all of the riders coming from other places, and have more fun together.  This is not a race or a long trek, just a fairly short ride through the city with other people with bike rider bonding afterwards.  Check out the recent write-up in Richmond Magazine online (scroll down past the first segment).

The first ride is this Thursday.  Sign up on the Breakaway site.  I’ll be there leading the way form the north side if you choose that starting point.  Hope to see you there with lights and helmet!

Last Days of Bike Month – The Fun Keeps Coming

Okay, let’s hope the forecast doesn’t change: after showers on Monday, my phone says sunshine the rest of the week.  Yay for awesome biking weather!  There are a bunch more awesome Bike Month events happening between now and the end of the month, so if the rain has been keeping you inside, now’s your chance to get in on the action.

May 23 (Monday)

Cycling  Basics Clinic:  Safety, Maintenance, & Gear – 6PM – 3 Sports (River Road)

May 24 (Tuesday)

Group Ride to Bryan Park Races – 5PM – Carytown Bicycle Company

Bryan Park Summer Criterium Series – 6PM – Bryan Park

Taco Crawl – 6PM – VMFA (updated event after postponement)

May 25 (Wednesday)

Sands Anderson Bike Commuting Public Info Session – 12PM – Sands Anderson (Bank of America Building)

Scavenger Hunt (new date to rain) – 6PM – VMFA

May 26 (Thursday)

“Bike Into RVA”, by Breakaway RVA – 6:30PM – Several Meetup Points

LIV Women’s Bike Maintenance Clinic – 6PM – Coqui Cyclery

May 27 (Friday)

Yawn @ Dawn Sunrise Group Ride – 6:30AM – VMFA

7th “Annual” Pizza Crawl – 4PM – Scuffletown Park

Critical Mass RVA – 6PM – Monroe Park

May 28 (Saturday)

Bike Motion Portrait Party – 7PM – Glossy Productions

May 29 (Sunday)

Bear Creek 200k Brevet – 8AM – Outpost

Belle Isle and Browns Island Kids Ride – 2:30PM – Tredegar Parking Lot

May 30 (Monday)

Big Brantley’s Bike-B-Q and Bike Cream Social – 12PM – Richmond Bicycle Studio

May 31 (Tuesday)

Old Gun Commuter Train (Chesterfield to Richmond) – 7AM – Old Gun and Robious Road

Bryan Park Summer Criterium Series – 6PM – Bryan Park

Free Admission to Agecroft Hall – 10AM – 4PM – Agecroft Hall

Nacho Usual Bike Month Happy Hour (And Bike Month Wrap Up Party!)– 5-7PM – Casa del Barco

Floyd Ave. and Bike to Work Day Celebration

Image from Bike Walk RVA.

The Floyd Avenue Bike-Walk Street project is close to completion, so it’s time to celebrate.  If I’m not mistaken, there are a few finishing touches still to do, especially putting in the special signage that was promised to mark the street as more for people on foot and bike.  In my view we still need diverters at a couple of spots to reduce the traffic volume a bit more, but we’ll come back to that.  It’s not perfect; but it’s definitely worth celebrating.

So, Bike Walk RVA is celebrating this first-ever (but by no means last) bike walk street in combination with Bike to Work Day this Friday 5/20.  See the invite here and rsvp if you can. It all starts off bright and early at 7:30 a.m. at Sydney Park, intersection of Floyd AVe. and Morris St. (now I know what that little park is called!).  There will be coffee and treats courtesy of Lamplighter.  Ribbon cutting at 8 a.m., cruise the bike walk street at 8:15, and then coffee with the mayor at Ellwood Thompson’s Beet Cafe at the other end of Floyd.

Hope to see you there.

 

 

 

Another Full Week of Awesome Bike Month Activities

May 14 (Saturday)

Cap2Cap Ride!
Also check out the Henrico In Motion event in nearby Dorey Park!

Meadows Farm Circuit Race

Leigh St. Bike Lanes Cleanup with RVA Clean Sweep – 9AM – Buskey Cidery

Belle Isle Skills Park Work Day (RVA MORE) – 9AM – Belle Isle

May 15 (Sunday)

Bike Polo for Beginners! – 1PM – Randolph Community Tennis Courts

Kids Advocacy Ride for Bike Walk RVA – 10AM – Stonewall Court

Richmond Dirt Fest and Kona Demo – 9AM-3PM – Pocahontas State Park

Molly’s Bike Shop Beginner Group Ride – 2PM – River’s Bend Shopping Center

May 16 (Monday)

Westover Hills Nickel Bridge Sidewalk Cleanup – 5:30-7:30PM – Nickel Bridge (south)

May 17 (Tuesday)

Scavenger Hunt – 6PM – VMFA

Bryan Park Summer Criterium Series – 6PM – Bryan Park

May 18 (Wednesday)

All Skills MTB Ride, Tour of Richmond Cemeteries – 5:45PM – Stone Brewing

Ride of Silence (RABA) – 6:30PM – Willow Lawn Panera Bread

May 19 (Thursday)

3rd Thirsty Thursday Brew Tour – 5:30PM – 7 Hills Brewing Co.

5Point Film Festival opener for Dominion Riverrock – 6PM – Byrd Theater

May 20 (Friday)

Bike to Work Day with Mayor Jones! – 8AM – Sydney Park (Floyd and Morris)

Dominion Riverrock – Browns Island

Bicycle Recycling with a Twist

Students painting and decorating bikes in the sculpture studio, Wednesday Dec. 2, 2015. (Photo by Norm Shafer, http://www.umw.edu).

Despite working in Fredericksburg (at the University of Mary Washington) I tend to be partial to Richmond as my adopted hometown.  But Fredericksburg gets some bike-related things right in ways that Richmonders could learn from.  For example, the shared lane markings or “sharrows” in Fredericksburg are accompanied by a rather helpful sign that reads: “Bikes may use full lane.”

A really awesome idea I came across recently is a project called Recycled Cycles started by Carole Garmon in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Mary Washington.  Garmon’s students salvage abandoned bicycles on campus that, according to the article, would usually end up — that’s right, in the trash!  They refurbish and spruce up the bikes, making them into functional art objects that are then placed around campus.

Does anyone know what VCU does with its abandoned bikes?  I know artists are all about originality, but there’s got to be something that art students or somebody else could do with those bikes!  Rag and Bones Co-op takes donations, but I’m not sure if they could handle the volume that VCU probably generates.  I’m sure there are plenty of low-income Richmonders or students would love a low-cost or free set of wheels.  If somebody is already doing something with these bikes, I’d love to know about it.