Join a national movement that promotes literacy and bicycles!

Ride for Reading, a nonprofit that delivers books to schools via bicycles, is coming to Tempe on Friday May 10th. Gather at 9 a.m. at Pivot Cycles (1807 West Drake Drive) in south Tempe and deliver books by bike to Frank School in Guadalupe (8409 S. Avenida del Yaqu). It’s a mile ride that could mean a world of difference for a local school.

We need your pedaling power and your book-lugging abilities for this labor of love; backpacks, baskets, trailers or cargo bikes will be instrumental as we haul books to kids who need them.

Join your friends from TBAG, MBAA and the Tempe Police Department Bike Squad to support this great cause: Sign Up Here

About Ride For Reading: Ride For Reading’s mission is to promote literacy and healthy living through the distribution of books via bicycle to children from low-income neighborhoods. In low-income neighborhoods, the ratio of books per child is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children. *Reading is an integral part of education, and without books it is hard to build a strong academic base. Our children need materials to read at home and it is our goal to provide the means. Fore more, visit rideforreading.com.

Free drinks, free appetizers, live music  - not to mention a bit of good will for your friends at Tempe Bicycle Action Group – what’s not to love?

Get your friends together for a mid-week bash Wednesday May 15 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the new patio bar, Tempe’s Front Porch, just outside of Monti’s La Casa Vieja on Rio Salado Parkway and Mill Avenue. For a donation at the door, you get two free drinks, free appetizers and some good karma. All donation proceeds will be given to TBAG!

While there come say hi to your favorite Tempe bike nonprofit – TBAGgers will be manning a table at the bar all night.

To get in you’ll need to RSVP in one of two ways:

• “Join” the TBAG Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/376871832423658/ 
• Email our PR pal, RSVP@RoseMoserAllynPR.com

For more information on Tempe’s Front Porch including location, hours and menus, visit www.tempesfrontporch.com on twitter @TempePorch or facebook.com/tempesfrontporch or call 480.967.7594.

Join us Saturday May 11 as we refine the art of making merry on our bicycles, winding through the streets of Tempe, spreading bicycle love. You don’t need special clothing or gear, it’s just you, a bicycle, a blanket and a radio.

Your blanket doubles as a cape on the ride and a seat at the movies, after we meander our way to Spokes on Southern, where we can get grub at the pub and catch a film shown by one of our newest collaborators, Cycle-In Cinema.

Meet at 7:30 p.m. May 11 in Tempe Beach Park (the northwest corner of Rio Salado Parkway and Mill Avenue) and we’ll be on our merry way!

Ride: Free
Movie: Free
A night on your bike with friends: Priceless

RSVP at the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/159369884232081/

Tempe is giving you another chance to tell them you want to keep seeing bikes on the streets.

Grab your friends and head to the Tempe General Plan Citizen’s Workshop Wednesday April 24 from 6-7 p.m. at the Tempe Library on Southern and Rural.

This working group needs community input – so be sure to drop by and tell them that the city of Tempe needs to continue funding bike infrastructure to support you, me and all the other two-wheeled gearheads out there!

Love bikes and want to join, but not sure what to talk about? Here are some starting points:

• Complete Tempe’s streets
• Expanding the bike network – both dedicated lanes and bike-friendly streets
• Create more bike boulevard systems
  

Join in and let your friends know you’re going to be there at the TBAG Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/570553759643281/#

Your favorite local bike group is partnering up with Arbitrary Arts, a local art community, to hold roving art tours at various establishments throughout the Valley.

Interested in getting involved? Stay tuned for event posts and the call for volunteers on our blog, biketempe.org, and our Facebook Page. Most rides are short, and we’re always looking for ride leaders.

 Upcoming event:

Roll with the art crew and grab some brew while you’re at it today, Friday April 12 at 5:45 p.m. in Tempe Beach Park . From there we will head out to the Phoenix Ale Brewery in downtown Phoenix.

This ride is a part of Arbitrary Arts’ two-day “Artsy & Ales”  series April 12-13.

To RSVP for the ride, led by your favorite TBAGgers, visit the Ales & Artsy TBAG Ride event here.

For more information about the Artsy & Ales two-day event, visit the Arbitrary events page here.

UPDATE! Get your bike on before the beer & band show up for the Maple Ash Bash Saturday, March 30. Show up at 11 a.m. Saturday at the downtown Cartel (1 N. 1st Street Phoenix) for a fun and festive photo scavenger ride to the Tempe Cartel. The 13.7-mile ride will stop at five locations, where cyclists will be invited to take a pic of a secret item – the winner will get tattooed! Wondering what to wear? Get out your tutu and leotard, any wacky costumes are welcome!

Find the Cartel-to-Cartel route here.

Once back, enjoy some brew and friends at the main Maple Ash Bash from 1- 8 p.m. at the Tempe Cartel Coffee Shop.

Come check out a few bike races and live music while sipping on suds poured by your trusty TBAG friends. TBAG will collect the $4 per beer cost and make your money work for you in our many community and awareness projects. Not feeling thirsty yet? Brews will be donated by:

►Four Peaks Brewery
►SanTan Brewing Company
►New Belgium Brewing
►Odell Brewing Company

… so come spend like like a crazy person. Buy your mom a beer. Buy your beer a beer. And we’ll be gosh-darned pleased if you’d be willing to buy us a beer.

RSVP – and invite your friends – on Facebook!

It’s coming! Mark your calendar now, because you’re going to be busy this Oct. 5. New Belgium Recently released the calendar for the Tour de Fat stops, and October is Tempe’s month!

Last year, the Tour de Fat raised $87,000 for local Arizona nonprofits like TBAG, Bike Saviours and the Mountain Bike Association of Arizona. This was the largest amount raised of any Tour de Fat stop, including New Belgium’s home town of Ft Collins!

This year, let’s go even bigger.

As always, this event depends on your participation – and we don’t just mean dancing  around in your puppy suit or tutu, we need your help to volunteer. In 2012, 350 volunteers helped make the Tour de Fat possible, so be sure to sign up for the all-call for volunteers again this year.

Interested in joining any of the other Tour de Fats? Here’s the newly released schedule for 2013:

Atlanta – May 11
DC – June 1
Durham – June 15
Nashville – June 22
Chicago – July 13
Minneapolis – July 27
Boise – August 17
Ft. Collins – August 31
Denver – September 7
San Francisco – September 21
San Diego – September 28
Tempe – October 5

More stats on the 2012 Tour de Fat in Tempe:

Attendance: 10,000+

Bike Parade Attendance: 5000+
Money Raised: $87,216
Waste Diversion Rate: 88%

UPDATED: email your city council

Support proposed local bike infrastructure such as green bike lanes and traffic slowing medians by emailing the Tempe City Council at councilcommunicator@tempe.gov

Businesses hoping to dissuade the council from going forward with some of these changes have been meeting with your city leaders. Make sure their voices aren’t the only ones heard.

Online public comment on the city’s forum has closed, but you still have time to contact your city leaders directly by emailing councilcommunicator@tempe.gov.

Want to post your support but don’t know what to say? Here’s a few lines you can simply copy and paste;

• Thank you for adding green bike lanes to Tempe, they are greatly needed!

• Please continue to go forward with all median plans. They will help keep traffic from colliding with cyclists on the roadways.

• Please install a stoplight at Roosevelt and Farmer, this will help cars, bikes and pedestrians safely cross, rather than forcing us to play frogger in traffic.

(From previous TBAG post)

The city of Tempe is introducing plans that help you and your fellow two-wheeled friends to more easily and safely commute through Tempe. These plans could have a great impact not only on the safety of the roadways, but also in the beautification of our city… that is, if the city continues to hear from YOU!

Bike lane modifications, medians and other proposed changes are being fought by some who may not understand what it’s like to cycle in traffic with little to no bike infrastructure. Don’t let the proposed plans fall by the wayside. Join in on meetings, email your city leaders and let Tempe know that the growing bike community demands safer, bike-friendly streets.

Thanks to those of you who joined the University/Hardy Drive Screetscape Project open house, the Broadway Road Screetscape meeting and every one who has been submitting comments and statements on behalf of bike Tempe cyclists.

Be seen. Be heard. Be a bike champion in Tempe!

Grow it out, stick it on, or doodle on your upper-lip ‘do, just don’t come to the March 9 ride without a sweet ‘stache.

So fluff up your fu manchu, primp your pencil ‘stache and give Hasselhoff a run for his money. This nighttime ride is a chance for all cyclists, young and old to take their whiskers on a tour of the finest drinking establishments in Tempe.

All cyclists are invited. Please RSVP to the Facebook event at the Tempe Bicycle Action Group Facebook page.

Where: Meet at Tempe Beach Park entrance: the northwest corner of Rio Salado Parkway and Mill Avenue in Tempe

When: Saturday, March 9, 7:30 p.m.

Cost: FREE

How: For more information and to register for the event, go to facebook.com/biketempe

Please share this on your wall:

The University Drive Streetscape project is in danger of being drastically scaled back. Please go to this site http://www.tempe.gov/index.aspx?page=1418 and click on University Drive Streetscape Project. Post your support for ALL aspects of the project including traffic calming, median islands with turn pockets, improved bike lanes and sidewalks, and street crossings at Roosevelt and Farmer. Help improve University Drive for all types of traffic, and make Tempe a better place to live!