Cincinnati Mtn Bike Trail Groups to Receive Highest Honor

I have just been informed that CORA will be receiving a Resolution of
Appreciation from the City of Covington on May 26th at 7pm during the monthly
commissioners meeting. We will be receiving this high honor for our past,
current, and future work on the Devou Back Country Trail System. KyMBA, UGive,
Give Back Cincinnati, and Duke Energy will also be receiving this high honor for
their respective rolls during this grand project. All the above organizations
have collectively worked 2346.5 total hours to date.

A Resolution of Appreciation is an official acknowledgment that goes into the
city records for all of eternity. An example of a Resolution of Appreciation is;
an individual may retire from working for the city for lets say 25 years. When
that individual retires after 25 years, the city acknowledges their appreciation
for that individual and their service through this resolution. We have been
working in the dirt for only seven months, therefore, this is a big deal!!

You may think “this just can’t be so, I have to see this to believe this.” The
meeting is open to the public for anyone who may want to witness the official
reading. I am sure there is bound to be some good entertainment at the meeting
as I fumble in front of the public access camera in attempts to say a few words.

There will be celebratory beverages at a local establishment immediately
following the reading.

Hope to see you there!!

Chad Irey
Devou Park Trail Steward
devouparktrails@gmail.com

2009 Wheel Ride For Food – May 30th

    – Please click here for the  2009 Wheel Ride For Food Flier-

BioWheels is proud to be the bike shop that brought you last year’s inaugural “Wheel Ride for Food”. Dozens of sponsors and 140+ riders made it a tremendous success.  We raised almost $40,000 for Meals on Wheels. We are planning for an even larger turnout this year.

Here is follow up article from 2008.  We also made this 3-minute movie to commemorate the event that shows some of the beautiful country roads we’ll have the pleasure to ride once again.

This year’s ride will be held on Saturday, May 30, 2009 at Carrier Park in Asheville, NC in conjunction with Asheville’s Mountain Sports Festival and will benefit Meals On Wheels of Asheville – Buncombe County. 

The ride will feature a moderate half-metric century and a full-metric century with over 5,180 feet of climbing.  There will be stocked rest stops, a souvenir self-wicking t-shirt for each rider, great swag, an excellent post-ride lunch and a raffle to win some awesome prizes. 

If you enjoyed last year’s ride (and you told us you did!) we’d love to have you come out and roll with us again this year!!!

Please register at ACTIVE.COM:  http://www.active.com/page/Event_Details.htm?event_id=1686362&assetId=a466addc-0b4f-47a5-9535-b5f78752ef07

$40.00 Advanced Registration
$55.00 Day of Event
(Each entry will feed a homebound senior for one week!)

Here are some of the comments we gathered for our exit survey last year in response to the question,

“What did you like best about the ride?”  

• Course choice was above average
• The climb up Ox Creek   (11 comments)
• When I was finished / The end    (6 comments)
• Beautiful scenery, little traffic, great route (6 comments)
• Diversity of route   (4 comments)
• All of it!  (6 Comments)
• Climbs   (3 comments)
• Down Town Mountain Road   (2 comments)
• Countryside before Marshall / coming into Marshall (2 comments)
• Along the river (2 comments)
• West side of river 1st 1/2 of 30 miles
• The beginning – I always like the start / Being close to the front
• The start down the river with the big pack
• the section in Alexander before rest stop
• Back roads between Alexander & Hwy. 1001
• The whole route was great except downtown Asheville section
• The rolling hills around Alexander on the way to Marshall – so beautiful
• End – Leicester / Bear Creek
• Great Route! Scenic enough flex stuff to encourage group riding straight away
• Good ride, great rest stops, favorite part was turning left into Carrier
• Challenging enough & hilly enough. Beautiful scenery, great rest stops.  (100 mile course if some areas more flat)
• It is Asheville based and is for a good cause. T-shirts rock too!
• Part of MSF – Local ride
• Part of the MSF & these very cool shirts!
• Great lunch, SAG Crews, T-shirt
• Beautiful course – Great SAGS
• Only did approx 10 miles and had a wreck and didn’t complete the route. SAG was great.
• All was good and looking forward to next year!
• Atmosphere was great. Great people at rest spots, check in, lunch, etc.
• Support at the Rest Stops
• The first rest stop was ready for a rest stop. This was my very first ride. NICE JOB!
• Post ride meal
• Cold sodas waiting at the end
• Supporting a charity – Meals On Wheels. Good!!!

Rocking Devou!

We had an extremely successful trail day on March 28th. We had over 100 volunteers turn out for the event. We have a similar event planned on May 9th. We are expecting over 150 volunteers for that event. In an effort to repeat the success of March 28th on May 9th, we have decided to have weekly trail work days Leading up to the May 9th event. Work days are designed for individuals to be able to show up when they prefer. I will have plenty of tools laid out near the trail head for folks to grab as they arrive. So if you cannot make the opening time, please feel free to show up at your convenience. That being said, I have tried to design the work days so all can participate. We have a large group that like to show up at 7am and hammer it out for a few hours so that they may return to their families before the morning light gets too bright. We have another large group that like to show up around 9:30am and hammer it out for a few hours so that we can get to Burgers -n- Beers before being awake too long. We have others that meander in at no specific time. Then we have the real meat heads that run the “Full Monty” and arrive at 7am and stay until Burger-n-Beer time around 1pm. All approaches are welcomed. Therefore, work days will open at 7am and close at approximately 12:30pm.

Trail Work Dates are:

April 5th (Sunday)
April 11th (Saturday)
April 18th (Saturday)
April 25th (Saturday)
May 3rd. (Sunday)

Continue reading Rocking Devou!…

A Great Tool to Understand Your Bike Impact

One of our customers created this gret tool to better understand how a bicycle can help save your health, your money & your planet. See how you can balance your bike use against your car use. 

Click on the Share the Road sign at right, or the link below.

http://chriscraiglaw.com/tools/mpgtool.php

Thanks Craig!

Asheville City Council Endorsed 2 Greenway Projects!

Thanks to all your e-mails and efforts, Asheville’s City Council voted on Tuesday to endorse two greenway systems. Indeed, the bicycle movement is making headway throughout our city. Your local leaders are hearing from you and it’s making a difference. Lets keep at it.

Check out Asheville Citizen Times coverage of the Greenway vote: http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009902110316

Here is another great article about the vote from Mountian Xpress.

Great work Asheville!

- Ride your City. – Asheville on Bikes

Last minute city council Meeting tonight – Wear helmets for Greenways

ATTENTION:  Please attend tonight’s City Council meeting wearing your helmet!  These projects are among the most critical so far for the future of greenways and bike/pedestrian facilities in Asheville.Council will be voting on 2 key projects:

-          The first is a vote on whether to go ahead with a contract for starting construction next month on the planned 1.2 mile section of greenway along the French Broad between Carrier and Hominy Creek parks, the largest single project yet for the system. It ranks as the 3rd highest-priority stretch out of the 26 the Greenway Commission studied recently.  The city has already appropriated the $336K for its share of funding for the project which has been in the planning and land acquisition stages for four years.  Until just recently, we regarded the go-ahead as a “done deal” given that the money seemed in-place.  We are now concerned that a serious push will be made in tonight’s session to pull back the committed funding as Council struggles to re-set funding priorities given its budget challenges.

-          The second item is that Council will vote tonight on whether or not to close Wallack St., a key section to a future greenway to run between Coxe and Ashland Avenues and ultimately connect downtown t the river district.  This is the same matter that was postponed by Council from two weeks ago.  We are cautiously optimistic that Council will support the Greenway Commission’s suggested compromise solution, but concerns remain…

Beyond the merits of these two good projects, the votes tonight will certainly to set a strong precedent for the city’s intentions about greenways well into the future.Both of these matters were covered this morning by the Asheville Citizen-Times at http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009902100317    

While the news coverage is good, the article seems to be generating a volume of negative comments on the projects, and we should now seek to offset that negative input.

Please now take just a minute to this message to others and to write your own very quick email to Council saying that you support follow-through on the French Broad Greenway project and that you oppose the closing of Wallack Street..newmanasheville@aol.com; rcape@charter.net; mayorbellamy@ashevillenc.gov; drmumpower@aol.com;  jandavis@main.nc.us; billrussell@charter.net; kellyforcouncil@gmail.com