Zhergxing Yang is the winner of a balloon tour for two by Float Balloon Tours. The other night before the CRAP Ride Tempe, we gathered all the count sheets we have. We recruited two visiting cycle tourists to throw them all in the air and grab one, and Yang is our lucky winner! Thanks again to the huge cast and crew who made this effort a success.

The 4rd annual Tempe Bike Count takes place in just two weeks, on March 25-27. Training meetings are in just one week. Each of 58 intersections has an AM shift and a PM shift. You can sign up for just one 2 hour shift, or more shifts on more days if you want.

If you think you can make it, please sign up now to reserve your intersection, and so that I know that we’re going to have enough people, but let us (bikecount@biketempe.org) know if you have to cancel or switch days.

RSVPs for training dates are used to figure out how much pizza to order. Tempe icon William T. Terrance will introduce the Bike Count and all of the ways to get confused that you never even thought of.

When:

The count will take place over three days. Each volunteer counts during commuting hours, with morning (7:00am to 9:00am) or afternoon (4:00pm to 6:00pm) shifts (or both).

• Tuesday, March 25th
• Wednesday, March 26th
• Thursday, March 27th

For full details on the Tempe Bike Count and to sign up please go to: http://www.biketempe.org/events/bike-count/

Why:

Traffic Engineering responds well to serious safety problems. People ride bikes even where safe infrastructure doesn’t exist. Often, the only way through is on roads like Southern, McClintock, or Rural, where bicycles were not taken into consideration. The Bike Count lets us show the city where cyclists overwhelmingly feel they have to ride on the sidewalk, something that the city knows is not safe. It also shows the City of Tempe how many bicycles do come out where safe facilities do exist, which helps them with their goals of smug reduction and congestion reduction. The raw data has been requested by environmental engineering firms, traffic engineering grad students, and others. We’ve presented it to the Tempe Traffic Engineers and at the ADOT Highway Safety Summit. The Bike Count is a fantastic way to encourage making Tempe bicycle friendly, and to quantify progress. It helps the city help us!

Afterparty:

We’re throwing an appreciation party at Boulders on Broadway for our volunteers! Come turn in your count sheets, have a beer, and tell tales of the craziness you saw out there on the streets of Tempe.

http://bitcoin100.org promotes Bitcoin with donations of $1000 worth of Bitcoins to selected non-profits. At today’s rates, that’s 1.599 of them. Tempe Bicycle Action Group is pleased to receive this contribution. To accept this and future Bitcoin contributions, we’ve added a Bitcoin donation widget to the side bar. Our address is 1DtJhkiszBie5iLKGin7NnsWBwXvbuCuSG. This also means that we now have a balance of Bitcoins to pay for goods and services where they are accepted. Thanks much to bitcoin100 for their philanthropic work!

February is (almost) here and we will have an abundance of bike fun events for you in the coming weeks.

The 2014 season of Science Sunday Rides kick off this Sunday, February 2. Solar Energy will be the topic, and the AZ Republic solar/business reported Ryan Randazzo is the guide. Starts at the Tempe Transit Station at 2pm. The next Science Ride occurs two weeks later on February 16th.

The annual Tweed Ride hits the streets of Tempe on Saturday, Feb 8th. Dress in your tweediest fines and meet at Tempe Beach Park at 3 for tea and grassy games. The ride will visit some of the most appropriate establishments in the area on a rambling route.

As always, the CRAP ride occurs every Tuesday at 7:30 at Tempe’s Front Porch, and is a great way to keep abreast of the latest news and events.

Keep and eye on the all-encompassing calendar at bikearizona.com to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Tweed Ride FB link: https://www.facebook.com/events/131896793647228/

More than 1,000 people are expected to participate in the Tour de Tempe community bike ride on April 6 from 7:30 – 11 a.m. at Kiwanis Park, 6111 S. All America Way in the west parking lot north of Guadalupe Road across from the batting cages. This free 10-mile bike ride is led by members of the Tempe City Council.

The City has requested TBAG volunteers. On the morning of Sunday April 6, 2014 we will need 12 volunteers: 5 people to ride in the crowd and help out when necessary and 7 people to stand at locations along the route where people could make a wrong turn.

We will also need a couple people manning the TBAG booth during registration, which begins at 7:30 am, and following the ride. We will have a 10 x 10 tent, an 8 foot table, and 2 chairs provided for us. We will need to supply the TBAG propaganda. Breakdown for the event usually begins around 11 am.

All volunteers will get a free t-shirt and breakfast, so provide your t-shirt size when you respond.

We’re using VolunteerSpot to organize our upcoming activity.

1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/yrdjFR
2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on VolunteerSpot)
3. Sign up! Choose your spots – VolunteerSpot will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy!

Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone (at least that’s what they’ve promised). If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact Ashlee or I and we can sign you up manually.

Ashlee (ashlee@biketempe.org), our excellent Rides Coordinator, is
kindly organizing this event (I’m just sending the email).

See ya there!
-scott

Get a report of what we’ve been up to all year and get some skin in the game at the annual voting and committee assignment meeting at 5 p.m. Nov. 3 at Boulders on Broadway. RSVP on our Facebook event here.

Since the TBAG board has seen a serious change of members, there has been a lot going on! Make the choice to lead or join one of our fine committees concentrating on a multitude of different areas.

While you’re at it, grab a snack and a beer on us, plus snag some sweet beer specials!

• Where: Boulders on Broadway
• When: Sunday, Nov. 3, 5 p.m.
• Why: Become a bike activist star and spokesman.

RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/events/570784782968777/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

Thanks to a grant from the Not One More Foundation, the billboard has been renewed for two more months with new a campaign inspired by Pittsburgh’s I Ride A Bike campaign.

Kolby Granville, Tempe City Councilmember and bicycle advocate, kicks off the series. We’re working to book other well known public figures with a goal of doing a series of three people over two months. We also hope to refine the presentation as we go.

The campaign is designed to humanize cyclists. Motorists should be aware that people on bicycles are, like anyone else, pillars of community, members of families, workers, auto owners, and so on, just like anyone else. We hope that some empathy encourages people to take care and save a life.

There’s so much to do on a bike this weekend, you just might not have time to work on that stamp collection or weed the garden. Aside from the dozens of road and mountain bike rides sure to be out in the Valley, two brand-spanking new events are hitting the streets in Tempe.

It starts off with a bang on Friday night with the first ever Arizona Bike Party, a roving bike ride that starts at Tempe Beach Park and heads off into the night with stops at public spaces to provide opportunities for people to socialize, chat, dance, and maybe even solve the world’s problems…who knows! Ride meets at 7, departs Beach Park at 8 and repeats monthly.

The second inaugural event is the Science Sundays Bike Ride. This is an opportunity to spend the afternoon with a local expert and learn something about the natural sciences right in your own backyard. The ride starts at Bike Cellar in the Tempe Transit Center at 2pm. Scott Nowicki, a geology professor and TBAG legend, will lead the ride around sites in North Tempe to investigate the geologic history of the region. The ride will occur every other Sunday with different guides and disciplines every time. Hooray science!

Remember to keep checking the TBAG calendar for more random bike events.

How do you prepare for the best bike event around? You prefunk all week! This year’s Tempe Tour de Fat (Oct. 5) is preceded by rides, beer and bikes galore!

Tour de Fat Week – an event every night! 

Tue Oct 1 - Backyard Games and Clips of Faith Films Viewing – The Yard – 7pm-9pm: https://www.facebook.com/events/458811547550142/

Wed Oct 2 - New Belgium Tap Takeover – Boulders on Broadway – 6pm-9pm: https://www.facebook.com/events/505208392890083/

Thurs Oct 3 - Tempe – 80′s workout ride and bike giveaway – Meet 6:30 p.m. @ Tavern on Mill

Let’s get physical! This time around, strap on your spandex attire for the final warmup ride before Tempe Tour de Fat. Stretch out on your bike starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Tavern on Mill, then get some cardio at 7pm when you cruise to Gringo Star, Taste of Tops, and- for the final stretch- dig deeper to get to Casey Moore’s for the chance to win a 2013 New Belgium Cruiser!

RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/213861452110223/

Fri Oct 4 - Handlebar Tempe – Meet the Carnies – 7pm-9pm: https://www.facebook.com/events/328475800632658/

TEMPE TOUR DE FAT! SAT OCT 5th – 11am-5pm

And the main event! Tempe Tour de Fat! RSVP here and invite all of your friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/170669189752637/ 100% of the proceeds from the Tempe Tour de Fat go to local bicycling non-profits like: Tempe Bicycle Action Group, Bike Saviours, and The Mountain Bike Association of Arizona (MBAA) But we can’t do it without our great volunteers. If you’d like to help this year, sign up here: http://www.biketempe.org/events/tour-de-fat/

Volunteers Needed Friday Oct. 11 – Sunday Oct. 13 2013

Tempe Bicycle Action Group hosts a free ‘bike valet’ – a secured and monitored bicycle parking area at Tempe Beach Park during the Tempe Oktoberfest celebration. Just click on the link below to sign up on the form, and tell your friends to sign up too! Volunteers get free food and beer!
http://goo.gl/LKg0uO

We need volunteers to help set up on Friday, staff the bike valet Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and tear down on Sunday evening. No experience needed! What do you do? Simple enough: Park & watch the good people’s bikes in shifts throughout the weekend and earn free beer and food tickets!

We will have a great time and provide a great service to bikers attending Oktoberfest. All you have to do is hang out with us, valet and watch bikes and chat with bikers as they drop off or pick up their trusty steeds.

Sign up for as many shifts as you would like! There are 3 shifts needed on Friday, 5 on Saturday, and 3 on Sunday. We need a minimum of 3 volunteers per shift per day, but as many as 6 for the peak times – afternoons and closing time, so sign up for several and invite all your friends to help! Each volunteer must sign up individually using this form: http://goo.gl/LKg0uO

For more info on the event, visit http://www.tempeoktoberfest.com/bike-parking.php

If you have any questions, please contact Rich: turtlewheels@gmail.com