Tempe Bicycle Action Group

TBAG will have a bike themed booth at this year’s ASU Family Fun Day on Saturday July 10th.

You can read about it here and the summary is below.

Saturday Jul 10, 2010
Location: ASU Art Museum
Cost: Free

What moves you? How do you get from one place to another? Walking, driving a car, riding a bike and traveling by train are all ways to move from here to there. This exhibition highlights these and other modes of transportation in paintings, sculpture and prints. Hands-on activities throughout the exhibition will get your imagination moving, too!

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Thanks to all of the volunteers that helped with April Bike Month. We had five successful events thanks to all of your help: Bike Saviours/REI Bike Drive, Mariposa Elementary Bike Rodeo, 1st Annual TBAG Bike to BBQ, Bike to Work and School Day, and the Great Bike Chase. We also saw the launch of PHXBAG(or BikePHX, or PHXBike, help decide the name!) with a First Fridays Bike Valet at the beginning of the month, and Bicycle Awareness Party at the end of the month.

Bike Saviours and Rusty Spoke collected over 75 used bikes with the help of both Valley REI locations. Both organizations would like to thank those who donated, and REI for supporting and hosting the event.

The Mariposa Elementary Bike Rodeo was also a big success with lots of kids in attendance learning to ride safely. Click here for a full recap.

It was great seeing everyone at the BBQ, we had a great turnout for our first event of this kind. We had families riding around the town lake in the morning, mountain bike rides throughout the day, and then the bike polo crew showed up in the afternoon to help us finish off the burgers and kegs. This event replaced Tempe’s Bike-a-Palooza event that was canceled due to budget cuts. TBAG will be taking a larger role hosting grassroots cycling events like this to get people to come out and have fun on their bikes.

Bike to Work and School Day gets better every year. This year we had volunteers at 7 free breakfast locations around Tempe talking to fellow bike commuters. The volunteers from each location also led rides to the Tempe Transit Center. Mariposa Elementary also promoted bike to school day for their students, there were over 100 kids that biked to school that day and we had volunteers on hand to promote cycling, safety, and fun.

The Great Bike Chase is a long standing Valley Metro event, but budget cuts increase the need for volunteer help. TBAG volunteers set up a DIY screen printing booth at Hance Park and helped people print their own bike and bike month t-shirts. Volunteers also helped with ride marshaling and bike valet parking at a Diamondbacks game. You’ll see the DIY screen printing at many of our upcoming events.

Thanks again to the volunteers, you are what makes TBAG a successful organization helping to promote cycling in Tempe and around the Valley.

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This morning, a fantastic team of TBAG volunteers and more got together to host a bicycling event at Kyrene de la Mariposa, a kindergarten through fifth-grade school that is a pilot school for introducing Safe Routes to School in the Phoenix area. We don’t have a final count on how many kids participated, but a lot of folks turned out and the event was a whole lot of fun for everyone involved.

Volunteers first helped to set up two bike rodeo courses, one for the younger kids and one for the older kids. Meanwhile, the kids completed a fun run around the school and surrounding park. When the kids returned, they got fitted for new helmets and had a chance to embellish them with all kinds of fun decorations. My personal favorites were a girl who attached a small turtle to her helmet, very much like the turtle on the helmet of TBAG board member Ryan, and another girl who added a pink hippopotamus and a mini-bouquet of roses to hers.

Once the kids were helmeted, they headed over to the bike rodeo courses to practice important safety concepts that they need to know to ride on roadways. I helped guide the kindergarten through third grade kids through practice with leaving the driveway, using hand signals, riding straight while looking back, stopping quickly, avoiding dangerous dogs, and dodging roadway debris. The kids had such a great time they were begging to repeat and practice the exercises.

After the safety rodeos, everyone was ready to put their skills to the test, so we reassembled for a short bike ride. Ryan, riding a tallbike, led the ride, and it was incredible to see so many kids forming a huge bicycling parade. Upon returning to the school, we held a raffle for two kids’ bicycles donated by REI, and gave prizes to the kids for completing the ride and safety events.

The whole event was a great lead-up to our next planned event at the school, on Earth Day, April 22, which is Bike to Work and School Day, where we’ll be encouraging families and kids to ride on in to school!

Many thanks to all of our TBAG volunteers, who helped make the event a tremendous success in so many ways, to the City of Tempe for organizational and logistical help, to Ariel Rodriguez and his team of Recreational Programming students from Arizona State University, and to the parents and staff of Kyrene de la Mariposa for supporting the event.

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TBAG is looking for you to get involved this Bike Month. The community is our strongest asset for making Bike Month a success, and for getting more people out riding bicycles safely in general. We could really use your help for a number of events – head on over to the Bike Month 2010 page to learn about what’s going on, and how you can help promote bicycling in and around Tempe. And thank you in advance for making a difference in your community!

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It’s been almost a year in the making, and I must apologize for not making it happen sooner, but bicycle education is finally happening in Tempe. On February 20th, 2010, 10am-3pm we will host a League of American Bicyclists Traffic Skills 101 Express course at The Bicycle Cellar.

What: This shortened* 5 hour comprehensive course taught by a League of American Bicyclists certified League Cycling Instructor will give you the confidence you need to ride safely and legally in traffic or on the trail. The course covers vehicular cycling concepts, equipment safety checks, on-bike skills and crash avoidance techniques and includes a student manual. Recommended for adults and children above age fourteen, this fast-paced course prepares cyclists for a full understanding of vehicular cycling. A bicycle in working order & a helmet are required. Please come prepared to ride at least 5 miles, part of the hands on portion is parking lot drills and a road test. If you cannot afford to purchase a helmet, don’t worry, we will have free helmets the day of the course.

When: February 20th, 2010, 10am – 3pm
Where: The Bicycle Cellar @ Tempe Transportation Center
200 E. 5th Street, Tempe AZ 85281
@ the Veteran’s Way / College Avenue METRO stop
Why: So you can become a safer, more confident cyclist
Who: Presented by Tempe Bicycle Action Group & The Bicycle Cellar
$$$$: $10 payable the day of the course to cover student manual printing fees & venue cost, if you legitimately cannot afford this simply let us know and we can waive the fee.

Pre-registration is required, please do so here.

* The TS101 course is normally 9 hours long, we will be omitting certain material which we feel is best suited to individual learning or available from other local organizations, including:
“Bicycle Nomenclature/Selection/Fit”
“Bicycle Maintenance”
“Bicycle Clothing”

For additional information on the League of American Bicyclists and their education programs, visit http://www.bikeleague.org.

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Bike Saviours is starting another session of our bike maintenance class on Monday Dec 7th. Classes will be held at Bike Saviours at 7pm every Monday. There will be 6 classes covering all aspects of maintaining a bike and teaching others how to do it. The classes are free and open to anyone regardless of previous experience. We ask that all of our volunteers take this class before they help others in the shop, but taking this class does not obligate you to volunteer.

This Monday we’ll introduce the class and Bike Saviours, talk briefly about different types of bikes, and get started working on headset bearings.

If you want to take the class you can just show up at Bike Saviours Monday night. Bike Saviours is at 601 W. University in Tempe, on the southwest corner of University and Roosevelt, go to the door on the side of Sunset Clothing Exchange.

Please email ryanguzy@gmail.com for more info.

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Just a reminder that BikeTown USA visits Phoenix tomorrow. The event, which is coordinated by Valley Metro and Bicycling Magazine’s BikeTownUSA, is being held at the Tempe Transportation Center at 5th and Forrest at Tempe’s main light rail stop just west of Sun Devil Stadium. The event begins at 9am and runs til 11am. In addition to announcing the 30 bike giveaways, a Bike Rodeo will be held at a nearby park. Families with children are encouraged to attend the bike rodeo. Arrive by bike, or bring your bikes (parents, too) and you can learn how to ride safely. The Bike Rodeo is an obstacle course set up to mimic real world situations. Children and parents navigate the course (under instruction) to learn rules of the road and road safety. While you’re at the Transportation Center, take a tour of the new Bicycle Cellar.

Attendees are encouraged to use alternative transportation to get to the event. The light rail stops right at Tempe Transportation Center. Many free Orbit Circulator buses and Valley Metro buses also stop at the TTC. Bikes are allowed on the light rail and all buses have bike racks on the front. Parking is available across the street in the new 5th Street Garage. Visit ValleyMetro.org for bus & light rail information including automatic route planning.

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When is a bike lane potentially unsafe? When using it puts you at greater risk for a specific type of motorist / bicyclist collision. The dooring collision. In a roadway configuration where the bike lane is between the parking lane and travel lane, traveling in the bike lane often puts you directly in the “door zone”. A dooring collision is where a motorist opens their door into the path of a cyclist approaching from the rear. Cyclists rarely escape injury in a dooring collison. The responsibility here lies with the motorist, laws state they must make sure it’s safe to open their door. When using these bike lanes, of which there are many miles in downtown Tempe, you should take the following precautions.

• The easiest way to avoid a dooring collision is to ride OUTSIDE the door zone. In some cases this will put you out of the bike lane in traffic, but as the mantra goes: Cyclists fare best when they act like, and are treated as drivers of vehicles
• Always watch for movement inside the vehicles parked to your right, if you see movement, be aware and safely* move out of the door zone. An additional action you may wish to perform is ringing a bell if you have one. During the day one can also ride with a front bicycle light in blink mode to potentially increase awareness among occupants in the vehicle.

* safely here means you’ll want to glance over your left shoulder to check if it is safe to move over, signal that you are moving over to the left (arm extended straight out to the left, pointing a finger helps), look once more to be sure it’s safe. Then move over to your left and out of the door zone.

Other dangers of which to be aware: Doorings can happen with cars to your left as well. An example here would be a car that stops in the traffic lane to quickly let a passenger out. I’ve witnessed taxi cabs doing this on Mill Ave when traffic is crawling.

If you happen to be riding in the bike lane and a car door is opened into your path, instinct will likely dictate that you swerve to the left. This can put you directly into the path of a vehicle approaching from your rear or an oncoming vehicle if you can’t regain control and remain left of the center stripe (on an undivided street)!

Ride safe and stay hydrated!

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Global Bikes in Gilbert is hosting a free Emergency Road & Mountain Bike Repair clinic on Tuesday, January 27th at 7:00pm. There are two spots remaining and an RSVP is required. If you are interested, join their free Meetup Group to RSVP for the event. They will also have specials and coupons to hand out for the night of the event. Topics covered will include:

1. What you should ride with.
2. What you need in your repair kit.
3. How to change a flat.
4. How to boot a tire.
5. Chain repair and what to look for in a weak chain.
6. Pre-Ride Checks
7. Tire pressure

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The Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists (CAzB) is offering several bicycle related courses in January / Feb and March. Topics include:

• Road 1 for Commuters and Beginners
• Road 1 for Experienced Cyclists
• Road 1 for Women
• Basic Bicycle Maintenance
• Mountain Bike Basics

All classes are free but registration is required, visit this link for more information. Thanks to Ben for the heads up on these!

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