Dinner and Bikes East Coast tour stops in Savannah June 29

DinnerAndBikeslittlephotoJoin the Savannah Bicycle Campaign at the Sentient Bean on Sunday, June 29 from 7-10 p.m. for Dinner and Bikes a traveling road show of vegan food and bicycle inspiration.

Dinner and Bikes will feature three prominent bicycle and food advocates. Joshua Ploeg will prepare a vegan and gluten free buffet dinner, Elly Blue will make a presentation based on her book Bikenomics and the economic case for bicycling, and Joe Biel will show either a program of short films or his new feature-length documentary, Aftermass, about the history of bicycle activism in Portland. The event is followed with a book signing and time for questions, discussion of local issues, and perusing the traveling bookstore.

Tickets are $15 at the door. Admission includes dinner. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Savannah Bicycle Campaign.

Dig The Ride All-Terrian Bicycle Race & Ride set for June 21

DigTheRidePosterWe are excited to be assisting our friends from the Southeast Georgia – Southern Offroad Bicycling Association with the Dig the Ride All-Terrian Bicycle Race & Ride on June 21, presented by JCB. What’s this all about?

“In Savannah, we may not have mountains but we have plenty of dirt. And JCB has a new, dirt-filled single-track challenge for you. It involves, you, your mountain bike, and the toughest bike course in the area that this construction equipment manufacturer could dig up. The first annual Dig the Ride takes place at JCB’s North American Headquarters.”

We will be offering free bicycle valet parking before and after the race. Look for the blue SBC tent and park your bike with us!

All proceeds from the vent benefit the Lady Bamford Center for Early Childhood Development. Located in West Savannah, The Lady Bamford Center was created through a joint partnership of JCB, the City of Savannah, and The United Way of the Coastal Empire.

Registration is available now through the Dig The Ride website now closed.

June 24 lecture explores five ways to make bicycling a healthy part of your daily life

encouragehealthJohn Bennett, executive director of the Savannah Bicycle Campaign, will detail Five Ways to Make Bicycling a Healthy Part of Your Daily Life as the third of five lectures in the Enmark Encourage Health Education Series. Proceeds from this lecture will go to the Savannah Bicycle Campaign.

Bennett will discuss changing how to think about bicycles and bicycling, how to get started, safety equipment, accessories to consider, and the resurgence of the city bike.

This Enmark Encourage Health presentation will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Auditorium of the Savannah Morning News, located at 1375 Chatham Parkway in Savannah. Lunch and lecture tickets are $20. Checks should be made payable to the benefiting charity for this lecture; Savannah Bicycle Campaign. Tickets may also be purchased online.

The Savannah Bicycle Campaign will also be raising funds on Saturday, June 21, 2014 at the Enmark Station located at 7406 Waters Ave from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. During this “Enmark Dollar Day” there will be opportunities for the Savannah Bicycle Campaign to receive $1 for every car wash, $1 at their charity table and $1 donations will be accepted at the Enmark cash registers.

More information.

Celebrate Bike to Work Day May 16 with free coffee, snacks and CAT Bike rental

biketoworkFriday, May 16 is National Bike to Work Day. To celebrate the occasion in Savannah we are organizing a bicycle commuting convoy. We’ll meet at Hull Park at 7:45 a.m. and ride north at 8 a.m. Here’s the facebook event, if you want to join or invite others. We’ll also be offering free Foxy Loxy coffee and snacks from Whole Foods Market to bicycle commuters at the corner of Lincoln and Henry streets, beginning at 8 a.m. Whether you ride with the convoy or on your own, please stop by.

CAT BIKEOur friends at Chatham Area Transit are getting into the Bike to Work Day spirit, too, by offering free 24-hour memberships to CAT Bike on May 16! Enter the promo code 0516 at the kiosk or “biketowork” online  to redeem your free membership! That’s not all! Post a picture of yourself on a CAT Bike on Chatham Area Transit’s Facebook or Twitter page to enter a drawing for a free annual membership.

Second Annual Cyclofemme Ride on May 11 celebrates women on bikes

cyclofemme group photo

“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”
— Susan B. Anthony

Our SpokeModels group is organizing Savannah’s second annual Cyclofemme Ride on Sunday, May 11. They ride will start at 2 p.m. from Colonial Park Cemetery (just north of Liberty Street on Lincoln Street) and end at the south end of Forsyth Park (Park Avenue and Bull Street). The ride will be approximately 6 miles and be great for beginners, commuters, racers and everyone in between!

CycloFemme is a socially-driven grass-roots celebration of women on bikes. The annual Mother’s Day ride unites riders, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity or bicycle preference to share in the joy of cycling. Year round, our global community inspires and empowers other women, by making their passion public and the joy in cycling contagious.

Join the Facebook Event

National Bike Challenge offers fun and friendly competition to get you on your bike!

National Bike ChallengeThe National Bike Challenge is a nationwide event uniting thousands of current bicyclists — and encouraging countless new riders. It is a free and easy way to challenge yourself, your colleagues and your community to ride more while competing on a local, state and national level. You can log your miles manually or use a number of smartphone apps to log miles automatically.

The challenge begins May 1 and continues through Sept. 30.

Savannah Bicycle Campaign is the local host for our area. You can join the SBC team or start your own. You can also form or join groups related to workplaces and schools.

You automatically get 20 points, just for riding a mile. This allows people who ride even short distances every day to be competitive. Join the National Bike Challenge today.

Saddle up for the Skidaway Island State Park Bike Rodeo on May 10

In partnership with Skidaway Island State Park, we are hosting a Bike Rodeo on Saturday, May 10, from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.  The rodeo is a fun, educational event for children to practice bike skills and learn how to safely navigate roads and traffic. Kids will tackle different stations, each with a different game or challenge. For example, riders might weave between traffic cones to practice balance skills, or have a “slow race” where the last one across the finish line wins.

Please remember, by Georgia law, all kids under 16 years of age must wear a helmet. We will have some low cost bike helmets available for purchase at the rodeo. Children must bring their own bicycles to the event.

The event is free, but a $5 parking pass is required to enter the state park. Let us know you’re coming by joining the Facebook event. We are also looking for volunteers. Want to help? Sign up for a volunteer shift!

 

 

Third Annual Pedal Medal awards honor those who make Savannah better for bicycling

pedalmedal2014The 2014 Pedal Medal awards celebration is scheduled for Thursday, May 15, from 5:30 – 7 p.m. at ThincSavannah, 35 Banard St. (Third Floor). The annual awards, held since 2012 recognize individuals who are working to make Savannah safer, friendlier and more convenient for people who ride bikes.

This year’s Pedal Medal award winner is Jane Love, a transportation planner at the Coastal Region Metropolitan Planning Organization. Love coordinates the annual pedestrian and bicyclist counts and is working to update the much-anticipated Chatham County Bikeway Plan.

Also presented at the Pedal Medal Awards Celebration is the Volunteer of the Year award. This year’s recipient is Jen Colestock, who has led Spokemodels mechanics nights, aimed at teaching basic bicycle repair and maintenance skills.

The awards celebration features drinks and hors d’ oeuvres and a silent auction. This year’s speaker is SCAD architectural history professor Robin Williams, Ph.D. He will talk about the role of the League of American Wheelmen (now the League of American bicyclists) in lobbying for the first paved roads in America, the design of Savannah’s streets, and our city’s history of innovation in street design and construction.

Purchase your tickets today!

 

Second Annual Matt’s Moon River Cruise continues focus on roadway safety

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Moon River Brewing Company and New Belgium Brewing will host the Second Annual Matt’s Moon River Cruise on Saturday, May 3 from 2-5 p.m. at Moon River Brewing Company, 21 West Bay St. The event is named in memory of Matt Kohler, who was hit from behind by a driver on July 26, 2012 while riding his bike on U.S. Highway 80 in Bloomingdale.

The event will be held in the Moon River Beer Garden and will feature:

  • A recreational bike ride and social media scavenger hunt leaving Ellis Square at 1 p.m.
  • Live music from the Jimmy Wolling Band
  • Raffle (must be present to win) and silent auction.
  • A special beer brewed in Matt’s honor
  • Bicycle valet parking

Tickets are $20 and available at the door. mattstshirtLimited edition Matt’s Moon River Cruise t-shirts will be available to those who buy tickets at the door, while supplies last. Proceeds will benefit the Savannah Bicycle Campaign, a local bicycle advocacy and education organization, and Georgia Bikes, which works to improve bicycling conditions and promote bicycling throughout the state of Georgia. We also have plenty of volunteer opportunities available!

The goal is to educate the public on how to safely share the road with cyclists and promote efforts to make our streets safer for people who ride bikes.

“Matt was a huge participant in life and our community. He was that kid everyone wanted to meet and I was blessed to get to marry,” said Kori Kohler. “You probably saw him sitting at a bar in Savannah, becoming best friends with a stranger. You may have cheered next to him at a Sand Gnats game, admired his green pants on River Street for St. Pat’s, or had lumber cut for you when he worked for Home Depot,” she said. “You may have even known him as the guy at the end of the Rock n’ Roll marathon wearing nothing but a bathrobe.”

She hopes the event accomplishes two main goals.

Matt Kohler“I wanted everyone to know his story. More importantly, I wanted people to realize that when you neglect the road, for even one minute, you could take away someone’s everything,” Kohler said.

Moon River Brewing Company Brewmaster John Pinkerton is organizing the event and is brewing a special edition beer to honor Matt.

“We’re excited to be brewing Matt’s Moon Cruise commemorative beer again this year. Just like the original, the Moon Cruise is a Belgo-American Pale Ale, which marries the complex fruity flavors of Belgian yeast with the pungent, floral/fruity aroma of American hops,” Pinkerton said. “But brewing a beer in Matt’s honor is not nearly enough to properly serve his legacy. We’re going to even greater lengths this year to not only raise public awareness but also directly engage local elected officials and law enforcement to improve bicycle safety on our roads.”

“Despite statewide decreases in overall highway fatalities, both bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities have been on the rise since 2011,” said Brent Buice, Executive Director of Georgia Bikes. “Improved infrastructure,” he added, ” along with education of existing traffic laws and increased penalties for motorists who injure or kill more vulnerable road users, is the best strategy for reversing this disturbing trend.”

If you cannot attend, please consider making donation today!