Community Involvement May08 Archives

May 2008

Event: Bike Rodeo - May 7 at the Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts

This is one of the fun-nest things we've done so far this season. I showed up at the Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts to help out with the bike rodeo. If you haven't been to a bike rodeo before, you have to know that it's not a bunch of kids riding bikes around and lassoing their friends and tying up their legs in record time. The main idea behind these things is for the kids to learn about bike safety, helmet sizing/safety, and to learn that basic maintenance of their bikes is pretty easy (fixing a flat, having proper tire pressure, lubing the chain, etc...).

Glenn and Brendon were out from NorCal Bike Sport with a couple repair stands and their main job was to help some of these clunkers run safer and more efficiently. Some of the bikes needed a small adjustment on the brakes or gears, some of them were a bit chirpy and just needed the chains lubed, and a lot of the kids were riding their bikes with the seats too high or too low and we adjusted them accordingly. Most of them we noticed had far to little tire pressure, and needed to be pumped up quite a bit, as this is the main cause of flats - pinch flats.

There was a skills course set up in the courtyard with lanes, stop signs and yield signs and some of the kids that did not bring their bikes to school that day were doing the traffic control and helping the kids use hand signals when they were turning. I was out freelancing doing whatever needed to be done, whether it was reminding them to ride slower and more under control, or tell them not to skid, and one young lad was bumping into riders in front of him and I looked down and noticed he was missing a brake pad, therefore could not stop. I rolled him over to the "pit station" and installed a left brake pad for him and he was blown away that he could actually stop after that.

All in all a fun day and a good learning experience for us as well as the kids I'm sure. We'll have to schedule a few more of these - an absolute blast!!

-Kevin

Event: The Human Race
Teammates: Andrew, Kevin and Jonathan; Taylor Maid Farms crew: Marc, Andrea, Jessica, and Rhita

What a great event! Looked like near 10K people lined up for this annual fundraiser for various charities/organizations that each group can choose for themselves. Ours was for Taylor Maids Charities and NorCal Bike Sport’s Project Ruwanda .

We arose early and took up our spots at the TMF’s coffee booth. This is easily the most popular booth at these sort of events and we got a lot of love from the general public milling in for their free shot of coffee before the run.

Kevin, Andrew, and I kept telling everyone that we weren’t going to run but walk a bit of this course as we had to race the next morning. But once the gun went off we were off and running trying to move up amid mascots, dogs, circus freaks, you name it.

Andrew took the smart route and jogged easily along with the masses while Kevin, Marc, Jessica, and I went a bit harder out of sheer exuberance (or stupidity).

After about 3 miles, or was it 13, I called it quits for running and started to hike cross country to find the quickest route back to the coffee booth. I could feel the lack of running taking its toll and realized I had kinda screwed myself for the race on Sunday. Oh well. After some serious trail and route finding skills, I found myself with Kevin and the TMF crew near the finish so I jogged the rest of the way in along side of the real runners. What a cheater, I know.

Great event, great staffing by TMF! We will be there again next year. I’m sure I will need to defend my course record…( on the course that I ended up making up for myself to get back) But I certainly wont be running then, as it definitely hurt our race the next day. I quote the Great John Staroba after he heard that we had run the day before Berkeley Hills Road Race: “take this from a life long runner….what the *#&$+*! were you guys thinking!” he he

Thanks for reading…now to deal with these shin splints
Jonathan

Event ABC trash ride:
Jonathan Lee lead the latest ABC trash ride on April 23rd! A lot of garbage sightings were made that will get picked up on Chalk Hill Rd and West Dry Creek Rd. Another successful mission to Keep Sonoma Clean and enjoy the scenery along the way. To learn more about how you can join in the fun visit ABCRides or you can contact Jonathan for more info.

NorCal Bike Sport is going to be holding a bike rodeo on May 14th at the Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts on Humboldt St. from 10:00am to 2:00pm. Come join us if you can! Contact Kevin or Jim for more info.