This video has gone viral lately, and it’s no surprise.  When you weld together a bunch of metal into a ridiculously tall bike and parade it around at CicLAvia, that’s the Cyclovia event in LA, you’re bound to get some attention.  Streetsblog and Huffington Post have great articles about the newly crowned “King of CicLAvia” created by Richie Trimble.  The bike is 14.5 feet tall to the seat and 17 feet tall to eye level.  Honestly, it totally freaks me out, but I’d love to ride the thing too…maybe with training wheels?  Anyhow, perhaps the best part of the video is the perspective of CicLAvia it provides.  Every Cyclovia needs a video with this bird’s eye view!

Speaking of Cyclovia events, Tucson is having its second event in 2013 this Sunday!  Check out photos from the last event, and look for more in the near future.  Happy riding!

Need a little pick-me-up after this week?  This should help.  Gary Skaggs of San Francisco says the best thing about his job riding a piano bike around town is the smiles it brings to people’s faces.  Undoubtably, I’d be very happy to see such a thing in person, and the story behind the piano bike is pretty darn cool.  So check it out below, our thoughts are with all affected by this week’s events, and I hope this brings a smile to your face.

The City Exposed: Piano Bike from San Francisco Chronicle on Vimeo.

Via Grist.

Tucson is lucky to be getting not one, but two great Cyclovia events this year!  What is Cyclovia you say?  Cyclovia is a car-free event, whereby city streets are closed to motorized traffic and opened up to all forms of non-motorized traffic for the day.  It’s a great way to experience your community in new ways and get to hang out outside with your friends, family, and fellow community members!  I wrote a bit more extensively about the event back in 2010, when Tucson had its first event, so check it out that post for more basics and more here too.

Cyclovia Tucson was successful in funding their Kickstarter campaign, which really helped boost things.  This is the fourth year Tucson has hosted a Cyclovia event, and there is another one coming up on April 28, as well.

Tons of local advocates worked tirelessly to make this event run smoothly, and run smoothly it did!  I spent the morning volunteering at an intersection on the south side of the loop, and I had a blast!  Everyone was very friendly, happy, and enjoying themselves.  It was great to watch parade upon parade of people going past on foot, bicycle, skateboard, and other kinds of funky, non-motorized vehicles throughout the day.  Families, young people, old people, you name it, they were out there enjoying themselves.

I’ve got a little photo-essay below from the perspective of my intersection below.  Check it out, and if you can make it to the next Cyclovia Tucson, you won’t regret it.  If you don’t live in the area, check to see if your city hosts a Cyclovia event and consider starting one if they don’t!  Check out some of the coverage of the event over at Tucson Velo, as well.

Although National Bike Month isn’t until May, if you are already rearing to go for some inspiration to ride more, check out 30 Days of Biking.  No, this isn’t an April Fool’s post.  30 Days of Biking begins April 1 and lasts until the end of the month, and it’s a lot more fun than funny.  The idea is to bike somewhere everyday for 30 days.  You don’t have to bike everywhere – though that would be cool – but you just need to get in at least one bike trip per day.  Actually, this event is great for me, because here in Tucson, our month-long festival of biking – called Bike Fest – is actually in April.  May starts to get pretty, well, warm around here.  Anyhow, check out 30 Days of Biking and take the pledge!  I learned about this from Bike Shop Girl, who just took the pledge, and I am too!  Happy Spring!

30 Days of Biking from 30 Days of Biking on Vimeo.

Can a bicycle be a vehicle for social change?  If you had any doubts that it can, watch this video about Shannon Galpin, the founder of Mountain to Mountain.  Shannon has made the headlines many times for her amazing story becoming the first woman to ride a bike across Afghanistan while advocating for women’s rights.  She’s now featured in a film on MoveShake, and she’s also helping form a national women’s cycling team in Afghanistan and making a film about it.  Check out a snippet of her story below and find more on MoveShake.

Inspired?  I know I am.  Let’s all strive to be that drop in the bucket that works to make the world a better place!

MoveShake from RED REEL on Vimeo.

Happy Friday and Happy Spring.  I’m in a light hearted mood.  It’s hard not to be after a week of lovely bike commutes around Tucson.  Ahh, the calm before the summer.  Anyhow, here’s the perfect video to fit my mood via Velo Vogue.  It’s a lovely montage of – well – bikes.  All kinds of bikes.  The video was created by Trevor Gill and Christopher Paetkau.  From Gill’s Vimeo page about the video:

We’re all part of the club
Whether you see life in pedals and spokes
Or, you’re just out for a Sunday ride
It’s about freedom
It’s not revolutionary
It’s human powered

You’ve always been a cyclist
Keep moving

Agreed.  Enjoy!

BIKE! from Trevor Adam Gill on Vimeo.

Streetfilms has another good review of the recent National Bike Summit, which covers the theme of “Bikes Mean Business.”  Bicycling is good for the economy in a number of ways, and many of the people who appear in the video emphasize this important fact.  Given that federal funding is going through a bit of an upheaval, it’s important to show members of Congress the important contributions bicycling can make to the economy.  The video is a nice review of the Bike Summit, and if you look carefully at about 8 seconds in, you can spy Ted Johnson of our sister site Commute by Bike perusing some Bike Summit materials.  And be sure to check out his coverage of the Bike Summit here, here, here, and here.

National Bike Summit 2013 from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Women’s cycling is on the rise in the U.S.!  This week, as part of the National Bike Summit, which you can follow details from on our sister site Commute By Bike, the second annual National Women’s Bicycling Forum took place.  Streetfilms captured a number of great responses from the forum in the video below.  There’s so much great momentum to encourage more women to ride this year, and it’s nice to see the bicycle industry expanding to include more women in all aspects.  Ladies, let’s ride!

National Bike Summit 2013: Women Are Biking More…How Do We Keep the Momentum Going? from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Cyclovia is a fun, family-friendly event in which city streets get closed down to cars for a day and opened up to pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders, and other non-motorized forms of transportation.  It’s an opportunity to build community and get to know your city in a different way.

In Tucson, we were fortunate to have a great group of individuals get behind this idea a few years ago, and the very first Cyclovia Tucson rolled out in 2010.  I missed out on it lat year, but I had a ton of fun in 2010 and 2011.  Every year, Cyclovia has gotten bigger and better, despite being derailed by bad rain in 2012.  In 2013, there are TWO Cyclovia events on the docket for April 7 and April 28.  And I do say, April is mighty nice here in Tucson.

So learn more about Cyclovia Tucson in the video below and consider donating to their Kickstarter Campaign to make the event bigger and better!  Learn more at Living Streets Alliance or the Cyclovia Tucson website.

This video comes via one of our sister site Commute by Bike’s readers.  It’s a great example of long distance utility cycling.  25 Bay Area cyclists rode their bikes with camping gear, food, and the like 200 miles to the Gaia Fest, a music festival in northern CA.  When they arrived, they set up a pedal powered stage and helped to keep the lights and music going!  The ride was hosted by Rock the Bike, and the video will be showing at the Portland Bike Film Festival.  But more importantly, it sure looks like a lot of fun and the perfect utility cycling adventure!  Enjoy.

I’m all for creative recycling, especially when it comes to bikes.  So as you can imagine, I was pretty excited to see this video over at Bike Hugger.  The video shows the creation of Bicycled Bike, which is a bike created out of old car parts.  As you can see, an old car can turn into a lovely, new bicycle.  Check it out!

I couldn’t help but share this clever DIY bike barometer.  If you are a fair weather cyclist who happens to live somewhere with decent public transit (e.g. London, in the designer’s case), this little toy can help you decide whether to take public transit or ride your bike.  The barometer was designed by Richard J. Pope of Optimise for the Common Case, and I spotted it over at Lifehacker.  The barometer gathers data from weather stations and local public transit to give you a weighted estimate of what mode to utilize.  Check it out!

Here’s a heartwarming story and video for your Friday viewing pleasure.  Grist recently had a story about young Vanis Buckholz who learned about recycling on Earth Day when he was 7 and was prompted to launch a business, with the help of his parents, called My Recycler.  Vanis uses his bicycle and bike trailer to pick up recyclables from his customers, and his parents help drive him to more distant customers.  He has been very successful and has been able to start donating 25% of his earnings to a charity that helps underprivileged youth called Project Hope Alliance.  What an awesome example of the endless possibilites for bike businesses for young and older entrepreneurs alike!  And way to go, Vanis!

Streetfilms recently documented a new movement that is happening in the Lower East Side and Chinatown areas of New York City called Local Spokes.  Local Spokes is a bike advocacy group, but they are taking a very comprehensive approach to bringing bicycling into the area in which they work by looking at a whole host of other associated issues like neighborhoods, diversity, income, green streets, and much more.  They have done extensive survey work to figure out what needs to happen to improve cycling in the area.  The group is a coalition of nine different groups that are working together to come up with a well-rounded plan to encourage cycling.  Looks like a great model for other places, as well.  Check it out!

Local Spokes: Community-Based Bike Advocacy in Chinatown and the Lower East Side from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

2013 is shaping up to be a big year for women and bicycles!  The League of American Cyclists is putting on the second annual National Women’s Bicycling Forum as part of the National Bike Summit.  The National Women’s Bike Forum will be March 4, 2013, in Washington, D.C.,  and the theme “Women Mean Business” will showcase female leaders in the bicycling industry and greater bicycling movement.  Meanwhile in D.C., the Washington Area Bicycle Association (WABA) is launching the Women and Bicycle’s Campaign, which involves outreach and education to get more women on bikes.  As you can see from the video below, which is a short PSA for the Women & Bicycle’s Campaign produced by Terence Johnson Media, it’s already got some great momentum.  And as a brief personal plug, here in AZ, we just launched the Women’s Cycling Association of AZ (WoCAA).  Ladies, let’s ride in 2013!