Up coming Alleycats...and events

Saturday, the 23rd of June...Baltimore...Hey Riders!


It is also the 25th anniversary of the Coney Island Mermaid Parade...Good times.

then upcoming...

July 4th...Part 2 of the 5 borough series...


July 28th, in Boston...

Rumble thru da Bronx 4...race results and pictures.

Rumble thru da Bronx 4 was another huge success, despite a few crashes, wrecked bikes and post race accidents involving a car running over a tatoo artists hand.

Placing: (full race results will be on 5 borogenerals soon)

1. austin (fixed)
2. dan jersey (road)
3. crhis (or however he spells it) (fixed)
4. dave trimble (road)
5. ?? (fixed)
6. generic (road)
7 and 8. izumi and yatika (both fixed)
9. heidi (road)
10. diablo? (road)

Here are some pictures from my flickr site.

and "http://www.flickr.com/photos/javiergarcia-albea/sets/72157600381719865/"> Javier Garcia Albea's

and
Morgan's pix

Dave August's video from the start...

Saturday, June 16th is the Roving Garden Party

2:00pm, center of Tompkins Square Park.

Join the...
***ROVING GARDEN PARTY ***
***FOLLOWED BY A RALLY/PARTY TO SAVE CHILDREN'S MAGICAL GARDEN***
One Part Ecology, Two Parts Mardi Gras! & Rambunctious fun for all!

Come dance down the streets to celebrate community, our public space, and the gardens! We'll visit some gardens, throw some seeds balls, unleash some surprises, partake in ritual, stand up against some slimy developers and end with an after-party/ rally at Children's Magical Garden

Special Guests
Rude Mechanical Orchestra!
The Stop Shopping Choir
Bike-Lane Liberation Clowns
Fairy Brigade
Jugglers, Puppets & Tap Dancers
More Gardens! Coalition
Time's Up!
You & Your Crew
Supporters of Children's Magical Garden
As well as a few friends from Gardens Past Present & Future.

Come downtown and dance to save the community gardens! So far this year, five gardens have been attacked by developers! Over 50 gardens still endangered --21 in Harlem alone!The Children's Magical Garden de Carmen Rubio is in Danger!

Lets do what we have always done when faced with a threat: Dress up, Play music, Dance and make some noise as we call for support from the garden creatures!

We all need places to play, to dream, to connect with each other and theworld. For NYC, community gardens are some of those places. So are the streets. Unfortunately, the public commons are under attack. Let's revel in the places and people that are still untamed.

The parade will finish with a rally and press conference at Children's Magical Garden.
(For more information on the struggle to save the garden see http://www.thevillager.com/villager_182/stantonstkids.html and http://www.kidsmagicgarden.net/)

Bring drums and instruments! Bring the kids! Bring food, plants and seeds to share!
Dress as the garden creature of your dreams!

Come by Times Up! (49 East Houston) on Saturday morning starting at 11am on to decorate yourself and bike!

raindate June 17th

Do i need to mention...

Rumble thru da bronx 4 is tomorrow. During a Yankee's Mets game.

Last minute post...

I forgot tonight is Trixie...track bike skill shares and hangout for the ladies. All are welcome. Last month it was a lot of fun hanging out and trying different things on a track bike in a not-so-intimidating enviornment. Social...community. Hosted by Kym Perfetto.

and lets not forget, free beer for the ladies and anyone who brings a female competitor...

June 10th...its off...clothes that is

June 10th is world naked bike ride
Peep the video...

It's on...Mission 1: rumble thru da bronx IV

Take that G8 and pedalpalooza

Image from coverage of G8 summit on UK Indymedia.org

I don't know what all the fuss is about the world's leaders coming together to decide the fate of the world at the G8 Summit. I mean just cause OUR leader is a moron with the lowest approval rating ever. They have minor differences such as the severity of global warming and which countries get to put nuclear weapons where and fund genocide in Darfur. But we are all united with rockstars like Bono who make everything ok as long as we focus on poverty in Africa.
I mean when you think of stopping the murder of dark skinned people in the world...George W. Bush and Dr. Condoleezza Rice sure do come to mind.

Check out this article from the Independent on Bono's whims.




I know...stick to ranting about bike issues. But everyone needs a little riotporn now and then, like when 10,000 demonstrators shut down access to the 33rd annual G8 summit which is being held at the Kempinski Grand Hotel in Heiligendamm in the old Duchy of Mecklenburg in the Northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on the Baltic Coast. Its lovely there this time of year and each room has free HBO and porn channels so George W. Bush can get some relaxation when not doing photo shoots.

Meanwhile...Bike month may be over in NYC and the cops are stealing bikes, but in Sunny Portland Oregon...bike month is just underway.

Yes its... Pedalpalooza

Check out this promo video

Click To Play

Listen to the KBOO bike show all about Pedalpalooza

In the "cops with nothing better to do" department...

"Bike month is over...break out the circular saws..." says the blog on NYTurf.

Last Wednesday, cops decided having bikes locked up on East 6th street was a huge public nuisance and took it upon themselves to remove locked bikes. Some might call this theft and continual harassment of the bike community making people feel its generally illegal to operate or lock up a bike in NYC.

info from Time's Up.

"Witnesses state that without any prior notice, the NYPD used circular saws to cut the locks off of about 50 bicycles on 6th street and allowed people to walk up and take bicycles without showing any proof of ownership. The NYPD then took away approximately 15 of the bicycles in an unmarked van. Bikes locked to D.O.T. bike racks were also seized. In at least one case, the NYPD sawed through a $100 lock even as the bike's owner showed the police her key to open the lock.

Cinematographer Robert Carnevale was arrested while videotaping the bike raid after he asked one of the officers for his name. Carole Vale, a nurse observing the scene, was also arrested when she asked why Mr. Carnevale was being detained. Mr. Carnevale was held for 22 hours and Ms. Vale was held for 13 hours."

According to Time's Up! there appears to have been a bike sweep last Wednesday Night in which Police clipped the locks and confiscated bikes along a whole block.

The bikes were on 6th Street between 1st avenue & 2nd avenue were allegedly taken by the police without notice. Time's Up! says they have received phone calls and emails from four witnesses. Time's Up! says the first witness to contact them said the police allegedly clipped her lock even when she approached the police and offered to unlock the bike. Time's Up! and civil rights attorney's are interested in hearing from other witnesses or anyone who had their lock clipped or their bike disappear. You can email Time's Up! at timesup@panix.com

At this time the Police do not seem to have posted any warnings or notices to alert bikers not to chain up on the block. Time's Up says they canvased the street Friday and did not see any notices. There were mixed reports why Police might have confiscated the bikes - one reason heard was that the bikes were chained to public property. Another was that the community board had complained bikes are an eye sore and that bikes were even taken from bike racks. In any case, in general, it is a violation of the 4th amendment to seize property in this manner.

Again Time's Up is interested in hearing from witnesses or if you had your bike taken Wednesday night from 6th street.

Police Arrest Witness
According to Time's Up a witness was also arrested Wednesday night who was attempting to video tape the confiscations. Time's Up says it is reviewing raw footage today. As soon as that video is available it will be posted here.

He was arrested after asking for the officer's name.

Times Up pictures of raid

Vlad's video of the raid

Goings on last weekend

Saturday, the 2nd, was a pick up alleycat from Columbus Circle to Tompkins Square Park. The main purpose of this race was to put 4 helmet cameras on fast riders and then to project all four of these views at the same time on four seperate screens. Info on the screening will be coming up. Felipe won the race (of course) and most of the riders completed it in about 11 minutes...thats fast. Try it some time and remember there were two checkpoints.

Yatika tries on helmet. Ken (in the batman t-shirt) the race organizer.

helmet cam wearers-Yatika, Cali, Pablo and Chris.

The start 1

The start 2

The start 3


my picture set

Sunday, the 3rd was the 3rd annual Tour De Brooklyn, hosted by Transportation Alternatives. See I don't just post about messenger events. It was a fun ride through Brooklyn, although we did break out and go for pizza at coney island. DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, spoke and went on the ride. She's down with bikes.


Check out Clarence Eckerson's video of the tour.
my flickr set

NACCC recap

For those of you who missed the 2007 Cycle Courier Championships in San Francisco, there is a multitude of pictures, videos and stories of what went on when the worlds messengers come together.

start with Josh Whitesnakes great report with pictures at Mess NYC

Seems like the quintessential photo of SF with Andy Zalan of DC, Golden Gate Bridge and Fog.

There are a bunch of videos on Youtube...check out this insane skid...

track bike tricks...

Qualifying...

sprints

Friday Welcome Race



Photo pages:
stevearazzi who is starting a new magazine
C Big
Ashira