Friday! Friday! Friday! Ok, still a bit early to be celebrating the weekend, but IT IS A BIG WEEKEND!

We will kick it off on the first Friday of September with 2Wheels 2Work. We’re taking a hiatus from our usual Habersham convoy for a free range 2Wheels this Friday. Bring yourself on your bike on whatever route you like to Ex Libris at 228 MLK between 8am and 9am along with your helmet and enjoy some of Jittery Joe’s finest brew, gratis. We’ll be there, getting breakfast and exchanging war stories, discussing the latest gossip and hinting at what our Midnight Garden Ride costumes might be.

So, just let that last bit be your reminder that Midnight Garden Ride registration is still open online through Friday, and you can register also at Bicycle Link on Friday 6-9pm, the Savannah Century ride start on Saturday, 8-9am, and at the Distillery on Saturday before the ride 6-8pm. We’ve ordered the shirts, and preregistered riders will definitely get theirs. Make sure you’re one of them!

Campaigners…

Time is ticking on the Midnight Garden Ride Saturday, Sept 4 at 8pm. Preregistration prices go up on Monday to $25. The discount for members (new and existing) still applies. Get ’em while they’re hot, not only for the price, but also because only preregistered riders are guaranteed the shirt — fine organic cotton, another great design courtesy Big H little h design and illustration.

Another bit of excitement is the cache of goodies that may be coming your way in the raffle and silent auction. Among the items are an Electra cruiser from Quality Bikes as well as a Felt cruiser from new sponsor New Belgium Brewing , the bike loving makers of Fat Tire. It’s a cool design shown here, not available in stores!

Add some other great stuff from Half Moon Outfitters, Quality Bike Shop,bicycle Link and Savannah Outriders, and you could be looking at a nice haul. You won’t want to miss it, so register today!

Don’t forget our meeting and Bike to Beer social tonight at 6pm at Moon River Brewing Co, 21 W Bay St! A preview of marshaling gear for the Midnight Garden Ride awaits — think of a mashup between Tron, Star Wars and Breaking Away.

Come one and all for an SBC membership meeting at Moon River Brewing Company at 21 W Bay St. We’ll be in the basement starting at 6 for about 30 minutes of info, and socializing to follow.

We will be recapping our successful leadership retreat this past Saturday at thincspace, with updates on the plan for 2010-11. We will also have an exciting demonstration of some new marshal equipment for the September 4 Midnight Garden Ride (have you registered yet?)!

Join us, won’t you?

Aloha, Campaigners. It’s been a long and hot summer to be sure.

Looking forward, even past our own gleeful Midnight Garden Ride Saturday September 4, are the cooler days of fall and the American Diabetes Association’s Sunsplash Outdoor Fitness Festival.  Preregistered SBC members who head out to Skidaway Island on Saturday September 25 for a 20, 40 or 60 mile ride around Skidaway and nearby islands, will get a $5 discount off the regular registration cost of $40. Massages, live music, food and drink will await you at the finish, and if you’re lucky you could win a new Specialized mountain bike from Perry Rubber Bike Shop! All proceeds go to the ADA’s continued fight against the deadly consequences of diabetes and their fight for those affected by diabetes.

Fight diabetes. Ride a bike. To enter and get the SBC discount, follow this link and enter with our team.

Whether you’re a novice, occasional or expert cyclist, the American Diabetes Association’s Sunsplash Outdoor Fitness Festival has the route for you! The routes feature full service rest stops as well as SAG and mechanical support along the way. When you cross the finish line you will be welcomed back to unwind in the massage tent, enjoy a great lunch provided by Coaches Corner, live music by Blue Eyed Soul and a large Health & Fitness Festival with FREE screenings along with other vendors.

Here’s a ride coming up this Saturday with Savannah Wheelmen and Coastal Bicycle Touring Club that campaigners should take a look at doing in honor of our friend Jerry Jaycox: SBC board member, advocate and force of nature who passed away in January 2009 on his bike.

The Savannah Wheelmen get together with the Coastal Bicycle Touring Club and other cyclists for a fun ride, good company, food, and drink in honor of our dear friend Jerry Jaycox. This year’s ride will be held June 26th at 9:00 AM. This is a casual ride not a training ride.

There will be two ride options:

• 14 miles
• 28 miles (the pace of this ride will be 18 mph)

For those wanting a few more miles, a group will leave from the Gallery Expresso at 8 AM

As we hinted, next Thursday, June 17th, the City of Savannah, CAT, and a host of community organizations including your Savannah Bicycle Campaign will hold a National Dump the Pump Event to encourage residents to use alternative forms of transportation.

The main event will be the 2nd Annual Dump the Pump Challenge; a race between a cyclist, bus commuter and car commuter from the 12 Oaks Shopping Center on Abercorn to City Hall. Each competitor must obey all applicable traffic laws in racing to City Hall, where a local elected official will crown the winner.

Savannah Bicycle Campaign Executive Director Frank McIntosh as defending champion will again represent bicyclists in the competition. “In a city as flat and bikable as Savannah, there are a huge number of trips that are as fast or faster by bike as they are by car”, said McIntosh. “As the results of last year’s race proved, this can be one of them. I’m not guaranteeing victory—our bus system is extremely fast and efficient—but I feel good about my chances.”

McIntosh and the other competitors will be joined at the finish line by participants in the Savannah Bicycle Campaign’s monthly bicycle commuter group ride, Two Wheels to Work. The group ride, which is free and open to the public, will leave from Habersham Village Shopping Center parking lot at 7:30 a.m. and end at the finish line around 8:00am.

The finish line itself will be stocked with donated fruit from Polk’s Produce, free coffee from our friends Jittery Joe’s, and will be a carbon-neutral undertaking courtesy of a tree planting by Half-Moon Outfitters. For those thinking about trying an alternative commute for the first time, all Chatham Area Transit busses will operate fare free all day.

For more information on the event, contact Garrison Marr at (912) 651-6470 or garrison_marr@savannahga.gov.  Click on the image for a printable poster you can display at work.

As we hope you noticed, the regular first Friday date of our 2Wheels 2Work convoy changed on our calendar, moving up to Thursday, June 17. For any of you who got together at Habersham and rode in together, way to go!

This departure from our usual time is in honor of APTA’s Dump the Pump day, and we will be participating that morning in the second annual Dump the Pump Commuter Challenge! Frank McIntosh as the bicycle contestant won the first in 2009, besting a bus rider and a driver in the trip from Twelve Oaks shopping center on Abercorn to City Hall.

There will be a few new twists and turns to this challenge, as we will in time reveal. For now, just know that our 2Wheels 2Work convoy will begin Thursday, June 17 at Habersham Village at around 7:30am and conclude at City Hall to cheer on the finishing contestants.

Happy National Bike Month, Bike People!

This week, May 17-21, is National Bike to Work Week (hope you didn’t forget!) The hope of NBTWW is that one of you out there who rides a bike will take this opportunity to use it to get to and from work one or more days this week. While we encourage everyone to try it every day this week, month, and year, an excellent opportunity for a first bike to work is our National Bike to Work Day 2Wheels 2Work bike commuting convoy this Friday May 21! Join us and May’s sponsor, the Chatham Environmental Forum for a group ride from its start at Habersham Village or anywhere along the way (Habersham north, west on 41st, north on Lincoln, west on Harris, north on Abercorn, west on Bryan into Ellis Square) to our finish and breakfast extravaganza at Ellis Square.

In the great new/old public space that is Ellis Square, we will enjoy coffee and breakfast treats courtesy of the Chatham Environmental Forum and Jittery Joe’s beginning just before 8am. We encourage everyone who commutes by bike to join us at Ellis Square up until 9am even if you can’t join us for the group commute.

We are especially pleased to have the support of the Chatham Environmental Forum whose Green Plan for Chatham County (joininchatham.com) includes a plan for action to bring trips by bicycle in the county up to 3% by 2012 and 5% by 2015. A laudable goal, and one you can help achieve, starting with your ride to work this Friday!