Candy Cranks

Every year for an annual conference regarding trees, cycling arborists gather together for the Stihl Tour des Trees. The Tour is a 5-day cycling trip covering over 500 miles in the country or state where the conference is held, with the intent to raise funds for the TREE fund, a tree research organization. Over 100 cyclists participated in the 2012 Tour in Oregon, USA. I was unable to participate in the full tour, but joined in the last day for a 30mile ride around Portland, OR for the Ride for Research.

All the tour riders in their matching attire gather for the final day of their ride

In good tree humor, the ribbon to celebrate the beginning of the ride is cut with a Stihl chainsaw, complete with the protective equipment donned over the spandex

Rolling out of Holladay Park

Some happy Ride for Research participants

Beautiful Oregon day

Nearly finished with the Tour

And a Tree themed ride would not be complete without custom made wooden bicycles!

Through the Tour des Trees, the TREE fund raised over $500,000 for grants and scholarships to improve knowledge and technology regarding trees. Next year, the tour will be held in Toronto, Canada.. hopefully I can make it to the whole tour and that some of you may participate as well!

I’ve been away on another field season and have not had the opportunity to organize bike rides, so this ride marks the return of the Hawaii lady cycling group Punani Pedal Club. Though the turnout was small, we had a lovely ride to Christmas Tree park, through Waikiki and then to Kakaako Park for firedancing.

Couchsurfer Diane joined us while visiting Hawaii, borrowing Louise’s bike

Jade being excited about Sau’s organization represented on his new team jersey

My friend Smiles decided to join the ride after a long day at work

Molly relaxing before biking home

Diane poses with the wonderful photographer of the Punani Pedal ride, Mike Keany

Sau trying out the safe version of Firedancing with light sticks

Amazing group picture from Christmas Tree Park in Kaimuki

Thanks Michael Keany for documenting the ride with the wonderful photo memories.

Thanks to the lovely people that showed up and hope to see more Hawaii ladies on upcoming rides!

The nonprofit organization KVIBE (Kalihi Valley Instructional Bike Exchange) has ordered a custom made cargo bike by Portland, Oregon company Metrofiets to make their mechanic program mobile. The plan is to extend their warehouse beyond the building by traveling to nearby schools to teach underprivileged youth about bicycles, on a bicycle.  Before heading to its final home at KVIBE, the cargo bike did a bit of sightseeing and racing! KVIBE coordinator Sau Hsu pedaled me around Honolulu and beyond in the cargo load for a few great adventures.

Photo Stop: Waikiki Beach!

You don’t need a cargo bike to transport giant things in Hawaii.. bicycle surfboard racks do the trick!

The bike poses with Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku

Sau pedaled the cargo bike with me in it for a 12.8 mile time trial over rolling hills and through the rain.. epic!

View from the rainy cargo hold

Sau being a champ, suffering up the final hill to pedal me into my first place female mountain bike finish!

The cargo bike is at its new home in Kalihi Valley, about to go on its first official work-related ride on March 17th for the Great Kalihi Cargo Haul. The ride will promote youth cycling by providing up to 100 helmets for kids and encourage the children to work on the land, with the ending point at the Kokua Kalihi Valley nature preserve, Ho’oulu ‘Aina.

Coming from the craziness of Honolulu’s streets full of potholes and terrible drivers, a vacation to Oregon was the Hawaiian cyclist’s paradise. Luckily with Hawaii powers, we brought the sunshine to Oregon and had fantastic fall cycling weather with wonderful friends. Our first stop was for a delicious Thanksgiving feast in Corvallis, home of Oregon State University. This college town is flat and comprised of over 90% bicycle lanes. We visited our part-time Hawaii resident friend and bike polo enthusiast Eilif, who lives at the Corvallis “Bike Haus”.

The Bike Haus residents graciously lent us polo bikes and took us on a mini bike ride on some paths and to downtown Corvallis.

Cuties Kevin and Shanna rocked the tandem bike!

Eilif even gave people rides on his bike rack.. Dave looks like he’s having tons of fun

And by chance, we ended up with the Corvallis bike and pedicab crew’s section in the holiday parade. The kids enjoyed the pedicabs, bike tricks and wheel guards on the polo bikes.. hopefully it made some of them want to ride bikes!

From Corvallis, we went to Portland for a weekend of bikes, beer, friends and good food. The Honolulu community bike shop KVIBE is getting a cargo bike from a local Portland framebuilder, so we went to the cargo-bike specialists at Splendid Cycles to check out the bikes, and pose for pictures.

The Ace Hotel where we stayed offered free bike rentals to hotel guests, which allowed us to explore the bike friendly streets of Portland with great happiness. Our friend Shawn gave us a tour of the North East Alberta district and other friends Brett and Megan biked us around the South East area.

Overall, a successful vacation from a tropical paradise to a cycling paradise!
Most photos by Sau Hsu.

2011 Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships from Hans Kellner on Vimeo.

Sheila Moon Presents the Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships 2011
(It’s raining right now in San Francisco so the course is guaranteed to be good and muddy!)

Sunday November 20th: RACE DAY!
A world class course awaits featuring oversize obstacles the likes of which you have never seen. Races running all day long. Race multiple times and win!
Races will be held near Metson Lake in Golden Gate Park. (MAP)
Costumes are optional, though they may help start positions.

Race-Day Schedule of Events

9:00 Men C/Clydesdale/Juniors/Tandem/Women (SS/geared) – 45 min
10:00 B Men (SS/Geared) – 45 min
11:00 Open Men (SS/Geared) – 45 min
12:00 Men SS E.A.W. – 45 min
13:00 Women SSCXWC – 45 min
14:00 Men SSCXWC – 60 min
15:30 Awards

16:00 – ?? – Post Race Party and dinner at the Buckshot Restaurant Bar and Gameroom! A short ride from the park at 3848 Geary Blvd. (Between 2nd and 3rd Ave) Please note that the Buckshot is CASH ONLY.

To help big up all the female riders, every registered female racer will get a pair of Sheila Moon sleeves/moonwarmers. Sweet!

more photos of  KLIFGT 2011 TRIP  I & II

KLIFGT 2011 *Kuala Lumpur International Fixed Gear Tournament 2011

via WOOF

early stage of our camp build with the headless unicorn bike

A month ago I did a little post about the bike I was planning to take to Burning Man and the heap of bikes in a dust lot in Reno that I picked it out of. I never did get to ride that red Specialized because the friends who took it up to the event early sent me a text saying that it had a totally busted tire and to just grab another one from the lot. So I did. They gave Big Red away. There’s a lot of gift giving going on at Burning Man. So, I picked out another bike, a beautiful silver cruiser. I didn’t have much luck with bike number two either. It turned out that under Silver Lightning’s sparkly coat was a bright lime green finish, meaning that she was a “yellow bike”, a shared community bike, and I got busted by the crusty yellow bike police. While the loss of this second bike nearly broke my heart, I knew that she had community duties fulfill.

The thing that people say about absolutely NEEDING to have a bike at Burning Man is totally true. Black Rock City, the town that exists for just one week of the year in the Black Rock Desert, is a big place and a bike comes in handy for getting around to all the many things you want to see and do, plus when everyone else has a bike and you don’t it just sucks. It was a great pleasure to just cruise around in the open desert at night all lit up on a bike, avoiding pedestrians, other cyclists, and art cars, and trying not to get lost from my friends. I learned that when going to the massive parties in the club districts at either end of the city, it is imperative that you leave your lights and EL wire on and blinking or you will spend a good chunk of time looking for your ride.

So, on that sad sad morning when Silver Lightning left me, what did I do? After a few moments of feeling sorry for myself, I remembered that Susan, the lovely lady from Reno who had let me pick my first two bikes out of that pile had had the smarts to pack an extra bike in her RV, just in case. At the time back in Reno, I thought she was crazy, but I was blessing her that day out in the desert. I just walked over to her camp and picked up the spare bike and took the opportunity to borrow her kids trailer and hauled some water back to my camp. Bike problem solved and hydration provided! I even inherited some EL wire to light up that last bike, I’ll call her Lucky. So, I rode Lucky through the potholes and fluffy patches of dust for the rest of the week. I cruised around with new friends to the perimeter fence and airport, to various bars, parties, and burns. I checked out art and participated in Critical Tits, the largest group ride at Burning Man with around 5,000 riders, women only, tops off.

Third try's a charm. Me and Lucky hauling some water.

out by the perimeter fence with little planes landing and taking off just behind it

Me and some camp mates all set for Critical Tits with the Man behind us

Dude taking pics of all the tits. Expectedly, still sadly there were many like him.

looks like some sort of Critical Pink is about to happen...I was just passing by in the wrong colour

It was such an amazing week that was filled to overflowing. If you haven’t been to Burning Man and you have friends who have and they don’t stop talking about it, just forgive them a little. There’s just so much going on and it’s tough to describe. I was so into experiencing it that I didn’t take many photos. There were tons of crazy bikes lit up in crazy ways, some super tall, others with antlers, or unicorn heads and ponytails. I did however document the parking lot at the casino hotel I went to after the event. There were cars with crazy dusty bikes all over.

Good ole Lucky served me well and is now is storage in Reno. Hopefully I’ll get to ride her again, perhaps even next year.

Hi all in Honolulu.. If you’re free this weekend, check out these events!

First off, a Kalihi Melee at the community bike shop K-VIBE (Kalihi Valley Instructional Bike Exchange). This is an event which emphasizes healthy lifestyles through biking and eating ono foods. K-VIBE is a bike shop catered to the kids of Kalihi to get them involved with a positive hobby to meet friends, learn skills, improve themselves and ride bicycles. There will be a BMX competition for the kids, bike polo and a bicycle powered blender for smoothie making from Cycle Manoa. More info at the K-VIBE blog!

Aloha Sunday is back!

Hope to see ya there!

A few years ago whilst traveling through Nepal, Tarn and I were lucky enough to meet Tangi. A lovely French guy who had previously ridden professionally for Commencal. He lives in Pokhara during the summer months taking tourists out on rides, the riding in Nepal is amazing and breathtakingly beautiful.

In this video Tangi journeys from Kathmandu to the high Himalayas in the Solukhumbu region of Nepal. Here he climbs (for 2 days!!) and rides the virgin peak of Pikey discovering exciting trails, snow capped vista’s, and some sort of inner peace. A once in a life time trip to discover some of Nepal’s hidden secrets.