Tempe Bicycle Action Group

Hey everybody, the annual New Belgium Tour de Fat is coming up soon, on Saturday, October 9th this year. The event is run entirely by volunteers and all proceeds go directly to the Tempe Bicycle Action Group, Bike Saviours Bicycle Collective, the Mountain Bike Association of Arizona, and the Central Arizona Mountain Bike Patrol.

The event in Tempe is one of the largest on New Belgium’s tour. We drew over 10,000 people last year, and we need to have enough volunteers to ensure that the event goes smoothly. Each volunteer will receive:

Free beer tokens
A volunteer t-shirt
Access to an area set aside for volunteers
and that warm snuggly feeling you get from helping people celebrate bikes

It will be awesome!

To sign up to volunteer, go to: http://www.biketempe.org/events/tour-de-fat/.

NEW! We are especially looking for groups of people to sign up as TEAMS. Teams will work together at a station whenever possible, and will be recognized on a volunteer appreciation banner. Team theme costumes are strongly encouraged, and there will be a prize awarded for the best team costume. If you would like to create a team and be a Team Leader, go to: http://www.biketempe.org/events/tempe-tour-de-fat-2010-team-signup/

Please help to spread the word!

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Greetings bike lovers! This year’s Tour de Fat was crazy! I don’t think I stood still for more than 15 minutes the entire event. Thank you again to all the volunteers that make this event happen every year. Without YOU we couldn’t make it happen. We’ve already begun planning for next year, getting thoughts, ideas and improvements down on paper. Suffice it to say, if we get our ideas approved by New Belgium, being a volunteer next year will be awesome! We’ll also be recruiting more volunteers next year to fill some additional positions we see necessary. And now the moment you’ve been waiting for… fairly official numbers:

Attendance was between 9 and 10,000, in contrast 2008 was about 7,000. Tempe holds the #2 spot for attendance behind only the home show at the brewery in Fort Collins which saw 15,000 this year.

Gross income: $70,902 (+$4,300 that went directly to Mountain Bike Patrol for Parade donations)
Beer cost: -$12,065 (127 kegs tapped)
Other expenses: -$330
Half of merch to New Beligum: -$3,150
Net income: $55,363

The gross income represents a new Tour de Fat record as most money raised in the ~10 year history of Tour de Fat!

This net income gets split three ways equally between Tempe Bicycle Action Group, Bike Saviours and the Mountain Bike Association of Arizona. All registered 501c3 non profit organizations here in Arizona.

I hear the bike parade stretched the ENTIRE ~3 mile loop. Apparently the tail end of the parade was just leaving as the front returned to the park!

Also, I wanted to share a little information on Oktoberfest which sort of fell by the wayside with Tour de Fat occurring the weekend after. We parked about 600 bikes! We brought in $312 in tips. Thank you to the valet volunteers as well!

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The New Belgium guys are in town getting set up for Tour de Fat. They are hosting a Team Wonderbike cruiser ride around Tempe on Thursday night at 7pm. There will be beer. I’ll probably bring a tallbike or two. They want to meet down by the stage at Tempe Beach Park and end up at Casey Moores.

Here’s the info Craft sent:

All of us like to ride bikes, and all of us should hang out, and all of us should be members of Team Wonderbike (Team Wonderbike is a group effort trying to get more people out of their cars and onto their bikes, check it out here www.teamwonderbike.com). So what I want to do is this: The Team Wonderbike Bicycle Ride of Destiny. On Thursday night (the 8th of October) at 7pm let’s meet in Tempe Town Lake and have ourselves a bike ride. We will cruise through your streets and have a real good time, we will make new friends and chat with them, we will finish (after an hour or so) at an account and have some beers together, it will be fun, I promise. So let’s do it, let’s hang out, lets ride bikes, bring all of your friends (seriously, all of them so spread the word), and lets tell the world bikes are awesome and more people should ride them.

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This year as part of Tour de Fat, Bike Saviours is giving beer tokens in exchange for your donations of bikes and bike parts. Each token can be used for 1 beer at the Tour De Fat on October 10th. The number of tokens will be based on the donation, up to a max of 5 tokens. We will accept donations at the Tour de Fat event also, but it’s easier for everyone if items are brought directly to the shop.

The best time to drop items off is during regular hours which are Sundays from 12-6pm. The shop is at 601 W. University, at University and Roosevelt in Tempe. The business in the front is Sunset Clothing exchange, the door to Bike Saviours is towards the back, on the side facing Roosevelt.

For more information contact: ryanguzy@gmail.com

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Can’t make Tour de Fat this year? Check out this pre-event the night before (Friday Oct 9th):

“PEDALS & PICTURES” – Oct 9th at MADCAP Theaters in Tempe!!

The night before Tour De Fat at MADCAP Theaters on Mill Ave in Tempe (the old Harkins Centerpoint) we’re throwing a bike double feature…RAD and QUICKSILVER on the BIG screen!!

* Tix are only $5
* Showtime 7PM
* New Belgium beer being served
* New Belgium GIVEAWAYS
* Bike valet

For more information email Sean with Catered Creations Media.

PRE SALE IS UP! The theater only holds 160 ppl so get tix while you can.

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Yes that’s right folks, Tour de Fat is less than two short months away and we need YOUR help as a volunteer! Thousands of bicycle loving folk will begin arriving to Tempe Beach Park around 9am to celebrate the highest form of transportation known to man, the mighty bicycle! Help us make 2009′s Tempe Tour de Fat the most successful one yet! New Belgium donates all profits to local groups such as Tempe Bicycle Action Group and The Mountain Bike Association of Arizona.

In exchange for your time you shall receive not only good karma, but a beer token and a Tour de Fat t-shirt. Available shifts are listed below and are first come / first served. To reserve your spot please find the contact information listed below. TBAG and New Belgium thanks you!

Setup

• 8:00am – 10:00am

13 volunteers needed

Ride Registration

• 8:30am – 10:30am

20 volunteers needed

Please contact MBAA/Stan.Klonowski@gmail.com

Ride Marshalls

• 9:30am – 11:30am

20 volunteers needed

Please contact MBAA/Stan.Klonowski@gmail.com

ID & Wristbands

• Shift A: 9:00am – 12:30pm
• Shift B: 12:30pm – 4:00pm

10 volunteers needed per shift

Beer Tokens

• Shift A: 9:00am – 12:30pm
• Shift B: 12:30pm – 4:00pm

10 volunteers needed per shift

Merchandise Sales

• Shift A: 9:30am – 1:00pm
• Shift B: 1:30pm – 4:30pm

5 volunteers needed per shift

Please contact MBAA/Stan.Klonowski@gmail.com

Water Technicians (keep water stations full)

• Shift A: 9:30am – 1:30pm
• Shift B: 1:30pm – 4:30pm

3 volunteers needed per shift

Beer Booth 1

• Shift A: 10:30am – 1:30pm
• Shift B: 1:30pm – 4:00pm

10 volunteers needed per shift

TIPS TRAINING REQUIRED

FREE TIPS training 7-9PM Wed Oct 7th at aLoft Hotel

TIPS training is good for 3 years

Beer Booth 2

• Shift A: 10:30am – 1:30pm
• Shift B: 1:30pm – 4:00pm

10 volunteers needed per shift

TIPS TRAINING REQUIRED

FREE TIPS training 7-9PM Wed Oct 7th at aLoft Hotel

TIPS training is good for 3 years

Tear Down

• 3:30pm – 5:30pm

13 volunteers needed

To sign up to be a volunteer for Tour de Fat please send an email to: tourdefat@biketempe.org. When sending us an email, please be sure to include the shift, your name, phone number, T-shirt size (and Mens or Womens cut), your TIPS # if you attended TIPS training in the past (good for 3 years) as well as previous Tour de Fat volunteer experience (example: Beer Booth 2008). You may work multiple shifts if desired.

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Ryan Van Duzer is riding from San Diego to Washington DC on a New Belgium bike, three speed with a coaster brake. He’s raising money for Community Cycles in Boulder, CO and doing some bike advocacy during his ride.

He’s also filming and taking photos of bike culture along the way.

He will be at Boulders on Broadway at 7:30pm, tonight, Friday June 26th. Get the word out to anyone you know who rides a bike, bring out the fixters, roadies, mountain bikers, commuters, curmudgeons, the polo crew, bro’s on cruisers, whatever. It would be great to see the lobby packed like it was after Tour de Fat.

Check out his blog on Team Wonderbike: http://www.newbelgium.com/team-wonderbike/duzer or visit http://ryanvanduzer.com or http://duzertv.com. You’ll find the video from Scottsdale earlier today titled DAAM-Bike lovers in Scottsdale at http://ryanvanduzer.com.

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For those of you who haven’t heard, Ryan Van Duzer of New Belgium Brewing is pedaling across America on a 3 speed cruiser with a trailer in tow in support of bicycle awareness. He’s due to pass through the Phoenix area on Friday morning. Representatives from Tempe and Scottsdale will be out to meet and talk with Ryan at 10:30am at McDowell & the Crosscut Canal which is halfway between Galvin Parkway and 68th Street. All are welcome to join along in pedaling as he travels through Phoenix. These are all the details we have right now, so if you’d like to pedal along it’s probably best to be at the above mentioned location @ 10:30am on Friday, June 26th. Here’s a snippet from the League of American Bicyclists on Ryan’s journey:

Ryan Van Duzer, an experienced journalist, adventurer and athlete is representing New Belgium Brewery, one of the League’s Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Businesses, and riding a New Belgium cruiser bike across the country under New Belgium’s Team Wonderbike banner. Duzer left June 17 from Oceanside, Calif., which was coordinated to leave the same day as their Race Across America. Duzer received an official send-off from Colorado Governor Bill Ritter. Duzer will ride from Oceanside, Calif. to Washington, D.C., arriving in D.C. mid August.

The cross-country bike ride is to raise awareness about the bicycle by highlighting that if one person can ride a three-speed across America, anyone can surely become a bicycle commuter and ride your bike to work or to the store.

Please excuse the @ symbol in the title, links to our blog posts are automatically posted to Twitter and the @ symbol ensures that Duzer will see our blog post.

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