10,000 Plus 10,000

I was cycling home from Flatwoods this morning when the odometer on my Trek 2200 road bike turned over from 9999 to . . .



10000. That's 10,000 miles since November 2006. Oh, the odometer on my other road bike, the Trek 5200? That's about to hit 10,000 tomorrow. That odometer was installed in December 2006. I'm thankful for all those miles and the health I have enjoyed while logging every mile.

Tampa Didn't Quite Make The List

In its June issue, Bicycling magazine names the best American cities for cycling. Portland, Oregon, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Boulder snagged the top spots as America's overall best but especially notable on this year's list is Boston ranking in the "5 for the Future" category; Boston has been a recurring fixture on Bicycling's "Worst Cities for Cycling" list for the past three years.

This year's list pays homage to cities that have shown real innovation and drastic changes. The complete list of the new best cities for cycling is as follows:

#1 Most Improved City:
Washington, DC

#2 Most Improved City:
Louisville, KY

#3 Most Improved City:
New York City

Most Improved Cities (Runners-Up):
Minneapolis, MN and San Jose, CA

Still the Greatest:
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA
Chicago, IL
San Francisco, CA
Boulder, CO

5 For the Future:
Boston, MA
Los Angeles, CA
Salt Lake City, UT


5 For the Future (Runners-Up):
Columbus, OH and Fargo-Moorhead, ND

Central to Boston's noteworthy move is mayor Thomas Menino's newfound love of cycling. After getting hooked on his new Trek Lime, Menino hired former Olympic cyclist Nicole Freedman to serve as Boston's bike coordinator; a position the city had eliminated in 2003. The pair is working on the first significant cycling-friendly development since then: 5-foot-wide bike lanes extending along Commonwealth Avenue.

"Bicycling's Best Cities list this year proves that great things can happen in short periods of time, even in the largest metropolitan areas," said Steve Madden, Editor-in-Chief of Bicycling. "Watching a city like Boston turn its city cycling plans into reality has been an incredibly gratifying process for us. It's evidence that a much needed, far reaching pro-cycling movement is in the works."

To compile the list, Bicycling editors started with a list of more than 250 cities and narrowed it down using the following factors: cycling-friendly statistics (numbers of bike lanes and routes, bike racks, city projects completed and planned) including changes in these statistics and a city's future plans since the last survey; bike culture (number of bike commuters, cycling clubs, cycling events, renowned bike shops); and a survey of experts at national bicycle groups such as the League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong, the Thunderhead Alliance and the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA).

As for the worst American cities for cycling, Bicycling pointed to Dallas, TX; Memphis, Tennessee; and Miami, FL; all of which are devoid of bike lanes, and ruled by cars.

Internationally, Amsterdam snagged the top spot as the best foreign city to visit by bike. Additional winners are: Copenhagen, Denmark; Melbourne, Australia; Montreal, Canada; Bogota, Columbia; Paris, France; Barcelona, Spain; and Berlin, Germany.

Bike To Work Coverage

May is Bike Month and this week is Bike to Work Week and Friday is Bike to Work Day -- so you'll be seeing the media covering folks who are biking to work.

Like our own Mike Limerick of the Seminole Heights Bicycle Club. Mike is a terrific bicycle guy who bikes a couple of times a week from our neighborhood here in Seminole Heights to his physical training job at Telecom Park off Fletcher Avenue.

Mike Limerick pedals to work

Stolen Bicycle Alert

Ghostrider/Tampa superbikecommuter Jack Sweeney informs me that this lovely bicycle used by his wife has been stolen from the parking garage at the Tampa General Hospital. Remarkably, six or seven bikes have been stolen right from under the noses of two parking lot attendants whose booths are right next to the bike rack while a security camera is focused on a blank wall and not the bike rack despite the bike thefts during the past few weeks.

So, be on the lookout for this bicycle.

If you spot this bike, please call the Tampa Police Department District One
office at 813-354-6600

REFUND??!! RE-fund?! Refund?

You're in for a treat.

Breaking Away is a beautifully written and hilarious movie about four guys who just graduated high school in Bloomington, Indiana, including one cycling fella who has been bitten by the Italian racing bug. Yes, it's a coming-of-age movie -- and it's sweetly written and marvelously acted.

The movie came out in 1979 -- and it's the one movie I have watched the most times.

It served as the venue for the big-screen debuts of Dennis Quaid and Daniel Stern -- and the screenwriting has withstood the test of time. The screenwriter was a guy by the name of Steve Tesich -- and he won Oscar for the screenplay. Yes, it was that good -- and still is.



So, the Seminole Heights Bicycle Club is holding a Bike-in Movie Theater event on Saturday at my place, 1203 East Powhatan Ave. Potluck dinner is at 8 PM and the movie will be shown at 9 PM in the back yard.

And you're invited. You'll love the movie. Four guys, the townies, become the Cutters team and they take on the boys at the University of Indiana in a Little 500 bicycle race. And, well, you just have to watch it. There's so much more plotlines woven into the script.

For a clip of the movie check out Adam Newman's post on his St. Pete Times bicycle blog.

Good Point Bill!

Bill Addler, owner of SWFBUD member store Revolution Bicycles in St. Petersburg, has a terrific quote in this Channel 10 news report on bike commuting. Bill points out that for the cost of a few tanks of gas you can buy a brand new bicycle. It's Bike Month, so ride your bike to work.

I've done it for most of my adult life at jobs and it's worth the pedaling -- save gas, feel better and save a few bucks.

Channel 10 story on bike commuting

Lettuce Lake County Park

This weekend included a couple of field trips to two wonderful parks -- Lettuce Lake County Park east of the USF campus on Sunday and Myakka River State Park about 10 miles east of Sarasota on Saturday.

Lettuce Lake Park a pleasant, lush and scenic park off Fletcher Avenue about three miles east of the USF campus. Good bird watching and a terrific boardwalk that takes you inside some excellent vegetation and trees.