Free bikes, Earth Day, and more

Vladimir Lenin with a bicycle

Happy Earth Day, you bike riding hippies. Did you know today is also the birthday of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (pictured to the left with a bicycle)? He was an enthusiastic cyclist and photographer, combining both of these hobbies while traveling before beginning his second career as architect of the Red Terror.

More bicycle news

Free bikes for the proletariat: The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) are giving away bicycles provided by La Dolce Velo bike shop in San JOse. To enter the contest, “like” VTA’s Facebook page follow the directions on this page for contest entry.

Santa Cruz SentinelSomething for everyone at the Sea Otter Festival.

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need: Silicon Valley Bicycle coalition needs volunteers for area school bike rodeos. SVBC also seeks volunteers for bike valet parking at Maker Faire coming up on May 18 & 19. You get free entry to the Faire after working a two hour shift.

Get your Bay Area Bike to Work Day 2013 t-shirt in exchange for your capitalist Amerikan dollars.

In the SF Bay Area: The Drive Less Challenge.

Officially, 150,000 people at Ciclavia yesterday. Ted in LA says he’s guessing a quarter million. I saw a Tweet from Wolfpack Hustle claiming up to a million. Ciclavia organizers planned for 100,000.

We have enough bike commuters in California that cycling to work is not considered a revolutionary or heroic activity, though we might be seen as slightly quirky. There are big segments of the USA, though, where bike commuters are newsworthy. Consider Dale, who celebrates Earth Day by riding his bike to work in Hazleton, PA. The headline of the story is much better than most — “It Just Feels Like Freedom.” The journalist includes the obligatory danger slant and highlight the extreme effort required to ride a bike (and I’m being sarcastic here), but otherwise it’s a decent article highlighting the positive fun of a simple bike ride. Kudos to Dale for making a difference in his town.

Do you remember Dan Maes in Colorado, who identified bike promotion as part of a communist conspiracy during his run for Colorado Governor in 2010? Maybe he wasn’t so far off the mark in identifying bikes as a gateway to a radical social agenda. “RBoer” writes that Lenin was a committed cyclist who used his bike as “a primary mode of transport for everyday life, relaxation and holidays.”

4 Comments

  1. I am fascinated by Lenin’s bicycle frame. Very nearly a hammer and sickle.

    If Lenin were alive today, would his flickr account name be Russian for “bike?”

  2. I don’t think that is really Lenin. But I am personally fixated on the idea that Vlad’s real cause of death was attempting a Strava KOM descent on Norway Hill in Bothell, north of Seattle.

    A search to verify my hypothesis brought me to this blog.

    Thanks Jym. And let’s not you or I let the facts get in the way of a good story.

    Also, I really love the Earth Day coincidence and you take on it, Jym.

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