Uncategorized


Bike Bingo Tips

Pedal to Play!

Plan ahead and try to get the full card prizes.  Prizes are available for Row and Full cards. You MUST ride your bike to earn stamps and redeem prizes.  No purchase necessary but show your Bike Benefis sticker – especially if you make a purchase to get your Bike Benefit.  Post pictures of your adventures. Have fun, be respectful and engage others.

You remember how to play Bingo, right?  You have to get the full row for a row prize.  Horizontal, vertical or diagonal. Then you get a row prize.  6 row prizes max.

Bike!Charlotte event – get your card stamped at the Mayor’s ride or Open Streets 704. At the Mayor’s ride – look for the Bike Advisory Committee members at the tshirt table. They’ll have Bingo cards and you can get it stamped. At Open Streets – look for the Trips for Kids tent or the Trike races. Both tents will have cards and either can stamp it.

Want the full card prize?  Redeem for up to 6 prizes. Make sure you look for times/dates of events.  For example, Cycling Savvy is May 3-5. You’ll need to be there before class starts to get your card stamped.  Plan accordingly. Use the Bike Benefits website on (your laptop or computer) to look up hours for each business.  From the bicyclebenefits.org enter the city: Charlotte, then the business name – it will have a pull down menu and you can see a link to the business website.

Find Pam – you’ll need to find Pam riding her bike around Charlotte.  Where? She rides all around mostly to Bike Benefits businesses. Sun and Tues excluded.  Tip: She’s hosting lots of events on the Bike!Charlotte website – like ride to yoga on Wed. Or you can look on the CSP calendar.

CSP event – This is any event put on by Charlotte Spokes People.  Look at the calendar for details.  Examples include the Mother’s Day ride on May 12th and the Tour de Sabor on May 19.  Show up before the start and get your stamp.

Volunteer at a Bike ride, event or bike shop – Mark a turn, count, make the safety speech at PMTNR or Sunday Ride, volunteer at a bike event during May (Take a picture and post it on fb Charlotte Bicycle Benefits or instagram #bikebenefits, #bikebingo) or volunteer at Trips for Kids or teach someone how to ride a bike.  Let’s share the love of biking with someone.

Need a card?  They should be at all the spots on the card.  If someone runs out, email pamlikestobike@gmail.com and you can have one for free.  Thanks for letting me know.

p.s.  Remember: You MUST ride your bike to earn stamps and redeem prizes.  


S24O 4/20/19

The next bike overnight will be Easter weekend. Do you like biking? Do you like camping? This is both at the same time. We meet Sat at 2 at Common Market Plaza Midwood and bike about 20 miles out to Copperhead Island at McDowell Nature Preserve. We stop on the way at a grocery store to pick up dinner supplies. We set up camp, have dinner, build a campfire and then bike back the next morning. We’re home for lunch on Sunday.

If you’re planning a longer trip, this is a great way to test everything out. From your packing list, to your equipment, clothing, hydration and nutrition. It’s loads of fun! There’s still room.

$20 per person. $15 with your Bike Benefits sticker. Cash or Paypal pamlikestobike@gmail.com.

Here’s a link to our first one.


Bike Benefits Bingo

We are so excited to introduce the best thing to hit the Charlotte bike scene since Bike Benefits. Charlotte Bike Benefits Bingo! Bike Bingo is a celebration of Charlotte by bike!

Front of card

How to Play:

April 26- May 31, ride your bike, collect stamps and win prizes!  Request a stamp at each spot upon showing your Bike Benefits sticker*.  No purchase necessary – 1 card per person. Register your card at https://cltspok.es/Bingo . Prizes redeemable at listed locations.  All trips (including prize redemptions) must be done by bike!

Where: Pick up Bingo cards at any Bike Benefit business on the card or at special events such as Bike!Charlotte events (Mayor’s Ride and Open Streets 704).  Cards will be sold for $2 (or $1 with a Bike Benefit sticker) but a limited number will be available at these Bike!Charlotte events.

What: Individuals pick up a $2 Bike Bingo card, then have 5 weeks to bike around the area, attend rides, events and pedal to Bicycle Benefits businesses in order to get their bingo card stamped. Individuals who get 5 in a row or fill their entire card can redeem prizes.   All prizes must be redeemed by May 31, 2019.

Post photos @Charlotte Bicycle Benefits on facebook, @Bicycle Benefits, #BikeBingo on Instagram.  



Tour de Sabor

 A two-wheeled taco tour

punchcard

Pump up your tires because the first annual Tour de Sabor is happening this spring….and you are invited!  Can you bike 20 miles on tacos alone? Well there is only one way to find out.

Guided ride begins at Common Market in Plaza Midwood at 2 pm on Sunday, May 19th.  Participants will receive their punch card starting at 1:30 and guided ride rolls out at 2.  Speed will average 11-13 miles per hour. If you are rolling with your friends or want to rip a speed record on the 20 mile route as fast as possible, here it is to upload on your phone.

https://cltspok.es/TourdeSabor

The Tour de Sabor is our way of celebrating Charlotte and letting you know that we love it when you ride your bike to our restaurants…once a day, once a month or all year long.  Bike for tacos people!

All participants receive

  • A Bicycle Benefits sticker that gives them everyday discounts at Sabor and 175 locations around the city when they bike there and show the program helmet sticker.  
  • A punch card which will give participants up to 10 tacos total at the 5 participating locations during the ride.  
  • Other purchases are up to the riders and will receive their customary 10% off Bike Benefits offer.
  • Churros for all participants and raffle prizes at the end of the ride. (Elizabeth location)  Don’t lose your punch card because you’ll need it at the end to win prizes. Raffle will be at 6 pm.
  • Cost is $20 which includes a Bike Benefit sticker. $15 if you already have Bicycle Benefits helmet sticker or card.  

Stops:

  1. NoDa
  2. Uptown
  3. SouthEnd
  4. Morrison
  5. Elizabeth

https://cltspok.es/tourdesabor

link to punch card order

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tour-de-sabor-a-two-wheeled-taco-tour-tickets-60936555879

event brite link for credit cards

Questions? pamlikestobike@gmail.com


2017 in review

PMTNR (Plaza Midwood Tues Night Ride)  is every Tues at 8 pm from Common Market.  We’ve had over 3300 riders this year.  Come join us sometime.  We ride 10 miles to a Bike Benefits business then ride back 5 miles to the start.  You can catch up to us on Glympse if you’re running late.  http://glympse.com/!PMTNR

 

CLT Spokes People in conjunction with Bike Benefits provided 9 Cycling Savvy scholarships in 2017.  Let me know if you’re interested in Cycling Savvy or a scholarship or both.  Cycling Savvy is a 3 part experiential bike training course held monthly.  Details at cyclingsavvy.org.

Adam's profile pic

April is the 30 Days of Biking Challenge.  We had several riders in Charlotte make the pledge.  Thanks for Adam Raskoskie for heading up the Challenge.

May was the Spring Sub 24 hour overnight bikecamping trip.  We camped at Copperhead Island at McDowell Nature Preserve.  It’s nice to have the whole island.  

August we rode to view the eclipse in Ridgeway, SC.  We planned to bike from Chester, SC.  We rode most of the way but caught a ride for the last few miles to make sure we got there in time for the full eclipse.

 

October we had our fall Sub 24 hour overnight bikecamping trip.  Eventhough it was raining when we left, we still had about 8 riders.  It stopped raining as we got to the campsite at McDowell Nature Preserve on Lake Wylie.

 

Cranksgiving was in Nov.  We partnered with Charlotte Cycles and Loaves and Fishes.  About 40 riders collected about 700 lbs of food in 2 hours.


It’s Time for the 2017 National Bike Challenge!

Hi Spokes People! Are you ready for the National Bike Challenge? I hope so, because it starts next Monday, May 1! I can’t wait to compete against other cities and–most importantly–kick the butts of a certain other local team who shall remain unnamed (in a friendly manner, of course. Here are the instructions for joining our team on the new National Bike Challenge site. Please note that even if you were on our team in previous years, you must join again this year.

 

  1. Go to nationalbikechallenge.com and click the “Join the Challenge” button.

  2. The page prompts you to log in with Strava. If you don’t have a
    Strava account, you have to create one first.

  3. Here’s the slightly unintuitive part: you have to join our
    team on Strava, and then it will sync to the NBC. Click here to see
    our team on Strava: https://www.strava.com/clubs/cltsp.

  4. After you’ve joined, you should see the Charlotte Spokes People as
    one of your groups! There may be a short delay until it syncs.




My 2016 Riding Goal

My mileage goal was to ride 100 miles/week.  I don’t think that’s too hard.  Most people can ride lots more than that in a given week.  And some people ride 100 miles/day.  The challenge really is to be consistent.  To ride that much every week.  Week after week.

Last year I didn’t really have a mileage goal other than to ride more than drive.  I did that but when I looked at my mileage last year it was 5,169.  And then I thought, I could have easily ridden 31 more miles to make it 5,200 miles which would be 100 miles/week.  So there was my goal for this year.  This year I got to 5200 miles but then I looked at my cyclometer.

photo-2 And I thought, I only need 48 more miles to round it up to 31,000 accumulated bike riding miles.  (When I got an adult bike in 2006.)  To give you an idea, in 2011, out of the 2673 miles, 1818 were on the Betty Foy from May through Dec.  The other 855 were on my old bike in the first 4 months of the year.  It took me 4 1/2 years to ride 5,855 miles on my first bike.  I almost ride that in a year now.

Based on purchase price, I’ve averaged my price on my Betty Foy down to about 10 cents a mile.  (Have you noticed that the cents symbol isn’t on a keyboard anymore?  Everything is in dollars because everything is that expensive.  But not my Betty Foy cost per mile.)

photo-1

Below is the mileage since I’ve been riding my Rivendell Betty Foy:

2011  2,673

2012  3,756

2013  4,294

2014  4,669

2015  5,169

2016  5,439

I usually don’t like goals but they are useful to track progress.  My real goal is to just ride wherever I want to go.  But it needs to be quantifiable.  And so you actually have a way to measure how close or far away you are.

If you want to track your progress:

You can manually add miles to Strava which will be the connected to the National Bike Challenge.  You can join our team, Charlotte Spokes People.  Most people who do, are amazed at how tracking and seeing other people’s mileage encourages them to keep riding.  And join us on some rides.  Tues. at 10 am (when it’s hot) or 2 pm otherwise.   This ride leaves from Advent Coworking on corner of Louise/Otts one block from Central Coffee.  Tues at 8 pm is PMTNR (Plaza Midwood Tues Night Ride) from Common Market Plaza Midwood.  Sunday Slow Riders leaves from Legion Brewing at 2 pm or 8 pm when it’s hot.  All rides are on the calendar and each ride has a facebook page.

 

Bottom line:

  • You’ll never reach your goal if you don’t have one.
  • You’ll never reach your goal by sitting on the couch.
  • You have to progress toward your goal every day – or you’re going backwards away from it.
  • One step towards your goal is still progress.
  • Progress seems slow.
  • You’ll get there eventually.
  • Sometimes it’s sunny.  Sometimes it’s rainy.  Sometimes it’s hot.  Sometimes it’s cold.  Sometimes it’s windy.  Sometimes it’s perfect.

 

Next year my goal will be 5,500 miles courtesy of the monkey on my back from Douglas Welton.  He planted the seed of the idea and now I’m so close.  Maybe I’ll need to ride a little faster so it won’t take me so long.  I’m the turtle that will get there at some point.

Thanks for everyone who has ridden with me.  You all helped me get to my goal.  There’s a saying that if you want to go fast, go alone but if you want to go far, go together.  We’ll get you to your first 1,000 miles then 3,000 then 5,000…

Come ride with us.

 

 


National Bike Challenge Charlotte Awards Event

 

 

 
sumposterSaturday, December 17th, we hosted the Charlotte awards and celebration event at Advent Coworking Space.  We had lots of prize packages to award to top riders and to raffle off to everyone who could attend.  It was great seeing and meeting some of the riders that were on the leader board.  I met the guy who beat me by 60 points for #8 on the Charlotte team.  He rides a lot!

We posted full challenge rankings for the Charlotte challenge as well as for the Charlotte Spokes People Team and Crank Mafia.

fullresultsrankings  These are the full results rankings for the Charlotte Challenge.

csprankings  These are the rankings for Team Charlotte Spokes People.  Join our team next year!

2016summary  This is a summary of the Challenge.

Kevin Caldwell spoke briefly about his masters thesis, which will research bike commuting.  Please contact him at kcaldw19@uncc.edu if you can contribute.

img_20161217_201048-01

 

Milton and Sarah awarded the prize packages.

 

A big thank you to the Bike Benefits businesses who donated prizes.

Bicycle Benefits

Bicycle Benefits

  • img_20161217_203137-01Queen City Bicycles
  • Common Market
  • Legion Brewing
  • Birdsong Brewing
  • Brixx Pizza
  • Blue Blaze

img_20161217_203232_1-01


Gratitude

It’s fitting that it’s November and this article (Charlotte Agenda article Nov 2015) popped up on the CLT Spokes People facebook page.  It was posted by awesome Christine.  I’m thankful that people are enjoying the Tues. Night Ride as much as I am.  And I am thankful there are so many people who come together to help plan the ride, help lead, sweep, run Glympse, help lead, make the safety announcements, mark turns.  We all work together to make the ride work and enjoyable for all.  We’re all so busy planning the next ride, the next event, etc that I haven’t had time to work on posting the mission statement, etc.  I’m too busy riding.  But I did want to stop and thank each person who comes to ride and to each person who helps in some way each week.  Let’s keep riding.  It’s nice to be noticed for the good work we’re doing.  Pile on some layers and keep riding with me through the cold.tonycamsnow

By the way, Sunday Nov. 8th is Cranksgiving, a food drive on bikes.  Join us at Okra at 1:30 (registration).  Ride starts at 2 pm.

 


Group Ride Safety Tips for the Uninitiated

Wahoo Turns To Ouch

Original photos by Craig Deal and Michael Hernandez

 

I was out on this past Tuesday’s PMTNR and I started looking around and noticing a few things.  The first thing I noticed was that there were a whole bunch of new people.  The second thing I noticed was a bit more immediate to the ride; we had two accidents in the first fifteen minutes of riding, which was something I hadn’t really seen before.  Since I was close to both crashes (nobody was injured in the making of these crashes by the way), it was easy to see how they happened.  Too many people bunched in too close proximity, and not familiar with the unwritten rules of group riding that you learn over time.

 

All that said, here is a list of what I hope are some helpful tips if you are new to group riding.

1.  Know thyself.  Only you know how comfortable you are on a bike.  When on a group ride, people can get squashed together. It’s good to know how much personal space you need.

2:  Increase your sphere of awareness.  Here’s a great rule I learned guiding a raft.  On a group ride, there will be people all around you.  Pay attention to what’s happening.

3.  Stopping and starting.  If during a ride you need to stop for any reason and there are people behind you, let them know.  You can do the slowing/stopping hand signal, or you can yell, “stopping!” loudly enough for the people around you to hear.  This will keep the people behind you from crashing and they will appreciate your consideration.  When starting make sure you have enough space.  If you are a wobbly starter, you need more space…make space for yourself to get going

4.  Passing.  It is so helpful when you are passing someone to yell out, “On the right” or, “On the left” to the person you’re passing, especially if you are trying to squeeze by in a small space.  If the person in front of you doesn’t know you’re coming, they may swerve and you will have caused the accident by not letting someone know you’re there.

5.  Gear.  Wear a helmet and have appropriate lighting.  Check your tires before heading out.

6.  Remember this is a ride, not a race.  There are no trophies at the finish line, and hey, there isn’t a finish line.  This has been a difficult concept for me since I can be just a little competitive.  But a few weeks ago on a ride I heard someone say to a friend, “This is the perfect pace for just relaxing after a hard day.” It really struck me that that was the point of PMTNR, to have a nice relaxing time after work.   It’s important on a group ride to make sure we can all finish safely.  Look out for your fellow riders by not trying to blow them away with your super human speed.  There are other wonderful rides in Charlotte if you want to practice going fast.

7.  Final tip–have fun.  That’s what you came to do!