Dirty Dozen 2009 - Pittsburgh, PA

The 27th Annual Dirty Dozen up Pittsburgh's 13 steepest hills will be held on Saturday, November 28th at 10am. Anticipating another large crowd this year, please show up as early as 8-9am to start registration early. Meet at the Washington Boulevard Track (Where the ACA holds weekly criterium races in the summer). I recommend a low gear of 39x27. The route is 50 miles, but will take at least 5 hours because we go neutral between the hills, and there are 3-4 stops atop hills where I offer snacks and drinks.

New this year will be t-shirts handed out at registration.

Again this year, there will be a 3 place prize list for women riders, but they need to ride up EVERY HILL to be eligible. The breakdown will be:

1st woman - $150
2nd woman - $100
3rd woman - $ 50

Register the day of the event, and there is a $15 entry fee. For a listing of the hills, history of the event, and former winners, go to:

http://dannychew.com/dd.html

The Great Turkey Chase, part 2! - Burlington VT - Kinda like Cranksgiving

Ed. note - I did not ride this. It is an interesting idea that has been discussed for Columbus.


The Great Turkey Chase, part 2! will be a food drive and bike race. Registration will be free, but people need to bring around $15 to buy food along the way. Each of the checkpoints is a grocery store, and there will be a shopping list instead of a standard race manifest. Receipts will prove you made it to all the checkpoints, and since most receipts are time stamped, we can make sure everybody played fair. All the food will go to a local food bank when the race is done, just in time for Thankgiving!


Post event update
******************

Huge thanks to everybody involved! We collected 556 pounds of food yesterday, which included 7 turkeys. 38 people raced and everybody got home safe (despite a few mechanicals, crashes and shenanigans)

Here are the 'official' results:

Fixed
1st. Aaron Simmers
2nd. Nate Halstead
3rd. Blotto

Freewheel
1st. Peter Troy
2nd. Ned Castle
3rd. Nate Gorn

Overall top 10
1st. Aaron Simmers
2nd. Peter Troy
3rd. Ned Castle
4th. Nate Halstead
5th. Blotto
6th. Lee Trumpore
7th. Robby Finn
8th. Nate Gorn
9th. Rachel Gitajn
10th. Kyle Sauter

Bonus Turkey Prize ($50 from Blotto Photto):
Lee Trumpore

Shenanigan bonus:
Kyle Sauter
(I may have locked his bike to Rachel's bike at some point)
Kyle also did all the artwork for the race (poster, flyer, spoke card design) and I totally forgot to thank him at the beginning of the race...

Aaron got a sweet new set of Fyxation tires for winning. Nate scored a dope Bruxe bag. Blotto took home a Chrome hip pouch. I think Peter might have scored the WESC headphones and I saw Lee get the limited KWAYxBruxe jacket, and after that things got a bit crazy.

Huge thanks to the sponsors, Blotto Photto, Bruxe, Maven, WESC, Healthy Living, Chrome and Fyxation for supporting this event. Cory and Marissa also helped out with registration, results check in and dropping off all the food at the food shelf, I would not have been able to ride the race myself without them.

Good fun for a great cause. We more than tripled the amount of food we collected last year... next year I would love to see 1500lbs of food!


Pics!

Residents ask for pedestrian, bicyclist upgrades to Route 3

Approximately 50 residents and community leaders gathered Nov. 17 at the Blendon Township Senior Center, 6330 S. Hempstead Road, to listen to results from a transportation study of the Westerville Road/state Route 3 corridor, and to put their two-cents worth in.

The open house was sponsored by the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

"We're at about the mid-way point of the planning study for this process," said Nick Gill, MORPC's assistant director of transportation. "We've been able to identify some of the purposes for making improvements to the corridor."

The study is reviewing current travel conditions in the Westerville Road corridor roughly between Morse Road and Interstate 270 and will identify improvements that are needed by 2030.



more...

Yay Bikes Website Launched

Check out the website. It was relaunched earlier this week with new features. Speak up about bicycling and become a part of the community.

Here...

Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail

Island Line Trail - Vermont

I rode from Winooski down to the Burlington waterfront and jumped on the Island Line trail.

From Local Motion website -

Description:

Hop on the spectacular 12-mile trail along Lake Champlain. The Island Line cruises through Burlington's waterfront and scoots out on the Colchester Causeway three miles into the middle of the lake! Public beaches, natural areas, and scenic vistas abound.

Come explore Vermont's most popular multi-use trail. Stop into ECHO, the museum of Lake Champlain. Have a picnic lunch at the Mayes Landing picnic areaat the base of the bridge or out on the causeway. Go for a swim. Bicycling, running, walking and inline skating are all popular trail activities.

I headed north on the trail and rode to the northernmost terminus which at this point of the year is the break in the causeway. In the summer a boat will transport people across the break to continue on to South Hero island. I missed the turn heading into Colchester Park and rode north into other little towns before realizing I was on a different trail. As I turned south the headwind of 15-20mph added a little challenge, but it was a good ride overall. Rode 33 miles and averaged 15.8mph.

NetJets cuts its pledged donations

NetJets Inc. has angered some central Ohio business leaders by slashing millions of dollars in funding promised to nonprofit groups, including nearly $9 million to the Pelotonia bike tour.

Ride organizers now are scrambling to replace the millions the Columbus-based division of Berkshire Hathaway had pledged to support the fundraising event through 2013.The situation prompted Limited Brands founder Leslie H. Wexner to write a letter to Warren Buffett, Berkshire's chairman and chief executive, chastising the nation's second-wealthiest man for allowing one of his companies to not live up to charitable commitments.

In the letter, Wexner told Buffett that he was "shocked and appalled" that NetJets "(turned) its back on the community."

"Your company reneged on numerous charitable commitments totaling millions of dollars here in central Ohio," he wrote. "The explanation? Berkshire Hathaway/NetJets had a tough year. more...

Reverse Keg Ride Pittsburgh - 112109

Drove over to Wheeling on Friday and headed up to Pittsburgh on Saturday. Met up with James, John and Ryan, Amber and Zach and Kevin rode up with me. We had brunch at OTB bar and got ready for the ride. Estimated 200-250 riders were on hand for the ride. We rode over the Hot Metal bridge from the South Side and then headed into town on the trail. We then headed through downtown and passed by the convention center onto the trail to the strip district. We climbed out of the valley and ended up over neat Penn Ave and finally the brewery. We hung out with everybody and drank our pint, then headed back out to Oakland and down the valley to the river back to the South Side. We stopped at Hofbrauhouse for dinner and drink. 19 miles total. Amazing urban ride with great friends.

Columbus Biking Video Clip - Thanks Zach!

Crash the Wheeling Christmas Parade Ride!

Cinelli Bootleg Touring Bike

	COLOUR	Matte Black Bootleg
	SIZES		CentroFine / Center Top 46 - 49 - 52
	FRAME		COLUMBUS Alloy Custom 6061
	FORK		ROCK SHOX Tusk Trekking
	CRANK SET		SHIMANO FC 2203 triple
	PEDALS		VP X93
	FRONT DERAILLEUR		SHIMANO FD-2203
	REAR DERAILLEUR		SHIMANO FD-2200
	FREE WHEEL		SHIMANO CS-HG50 12-25 / 8 Speed
	SHIFT LEVERS		SHIMANO ST-2203
	BRAKE LEVERS		SHIMANO ST-2203
	FRONT BRAKES		TEKTRO Cantilever 992AG
	REAR BRAKES		TEKTRO Cantilever 992AG
	STEM		CINELLI VAI Ø 31,8mm
	HANDLEBAR		VAI Ø 31,8mm + Tektro RL720 Brake Levers
	GRIPS		CINELLI Cork
	HUBS		front SHIMANO HB-RM40 / rear SHIMANO FH-2200
	RIMS		ALEX Ace-18
	FRONT TYRES		VITTORIA Randonneur 700x35 reflective band
	REAR TYRES		VITTORIA Randonneur 700x35 reflective band
	SEAT POST		KALLOY Ø 31,6
	SADDLE		VELO Long Bootleg Custom
	NOTES		The original rat. Racing rats will take you everywhere; a triple on the front, carbon Columbus Tusk Trekking fork, front and rear racks. For fast riders in, through and out the city, carrying everything you need. Perfect for light touring.

Ride to Runway 11/17/09

We had 7 at the start. Marty took off on an alternative route. So we had six ride out east on the 670 trail. Then we headed south on the Alum creek trail between the rain drops. We turned west on Williams Road and headed to Lockbourne Industrial Rd to look for the runway. It is there, but inaccessible due to fencing. We continued west to High and turned north. Ended in town with 26 miles. Great weather and riders.

Yay Bikes Website Update

New YB! Website Launches Monday Be prepared: Meet the new site on Sunday! 2-5pm @ Summit United Methodist

The Unveiling! We are demonstrating our new site for the first time this Sunday, from 2-5pm at the Yay Bikes! office. Bring your laptop to the demo, if you like, and we'll ensure you're ready to go by the time you leave. Our lesson will include the following topics & activities, as well as ample time for Q&A: > High-level overview of what we're building & why > Survey of the new site and its functionality > The new forums paradigm > Blog creation > Social network integration > More more more!!! > Working demos of different features > Using the site to further your own cause Please contact us to RSVP for this lesson or to indicate interest in a future one. With sufficient demand we will schedule a second demo for mid-December. Our New Site Our new site is going live on the morning of Monday, Nov 23. At that time, all of the content from our old site, and all of your personal accounts, will already have been transferred over. The new site is substantially different from the old, but we hope you'll find it easy to learn - and remember that we are available to help if you have questions! As you come across actual glitches, just let us know about them and they will soon be fixed. If you have previously registered on yaybikes.com, you can log on to the new site using the same username and password you have always used; your account has already been established. Please note: If your username includes a space, you will need to eliminate that space when you type it in. For example, "bike nerd" would need to be typed "bikenerd" for the new site to recognize it properly. If you can't recall your username and/or password, please contact us for a reminder. Our intention for this site is that it is the absolute bestbicycling resource in the country. Thus we will continue to develop functionality (maps, a community calendar, etc.) in the coming weeks. If you have suggestions for how we can make the site a more potent resource for you, please let us know. After all, a fancy-pants website does no good unless it helps to advance your good work! The Former Site Our former site will remain intact and available to view atYayBikes.com/archive. You won't be able to comment on it, but it's being kept live as an historical archive. Any bookmarks or links you have that point to the old site will automatically redirect to the correct spots on the new site, so no need to bother updating them.

Seagull Bags Sale this Saturday 11/21/09

This from Heidi

Dear friends, this Saturday (Nov 21st) from 10-3 at the Seagull Bags shop I will be selling a bunch of Seagull Bags for CHEAP!!! These are bags that were either from canceled orders, or have minor imperfections. Please come and get these bags out of our shop. Bartering is welcome. Beer is also as good as money. Tell anyone that may be interested and get there before they are all gone!

the website...