Erica Meurk « Cascade Bicycle Club Blog

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Register for RSVP 2

Monday, February 13th, 2012 by Erica Meurk

Ride RSVP! Lotteries for RSVP 1 and 2 have opened and closed. Lucky entrants whose tickets were drawn have had their shot at registration — and RSVP 1 sold out, as predicted. RSVP 2, however, still has plenty of room.

Despite its name, there’s nothing second-best about RSVP 2. It’s the same ride that has sold out during the first hours of members-only registration for several years running. The only difference is that riders depart from the start line on Saturday, Aug. 18, one day later than riders of RSVP 1.

No need to wait for a lottery draw or spend your day in front of a computer screen (ahem…). Registration will open to the public at midnight tonight.

Bike-only transportation for RSVP 2 is sold out, but there’s still limited bike-bus transportation available. For the uninitiated, this means that you can still purchase transportation for yourself and your bike, but if you’re just looking for bike shipment, you’ll have to find another option.

Posted in Events, RSVP | No Comments »

“What kid doesn’t like a good adventure?”

Friday, February 3rd, 2012 by Erica Meurk

This article first appeared as the Cyclist of the Month column in the February 2012 issue of the Cascade Courier, our membership newsletter.

Nominate a Cyclist of the Month!

Cyclist of the Month: WILL SEEGERT
Age: 7
Wheels: Fuji Ace 20
Occupation: Student

Rider #813, all suited up and ready to ride.

Paul claims that his son, Will, is “just a normal kid.” And it’s true, he does look pretty normal. This mild-mannered seven-year-old weighs in at 50 pounds and is about three-and-a-half feet tall. He has brown hair. He likes hot chocolate.

But there’s something extraordinary about this “normal” kid. Last year, when he was just six years old, Will rode Chilly Hilly.

Anyone who stood in the ferry line on that Sunday morning in February 2011 knows that the weather was more than just chilly. It was freezing cold. There was hail. Lots of seasoned bicyclists stayed home in their pajamas.

But not Will, and not his dad.

What was the hardest part? “Walking up the hills with all the other bikers,” Will told me. And yes, they did walk. But Will rode or pushed his bike for all 33 of those hilly miles, without any help at all from Dad.

“I thought that it was the hardest thing that he could do, but that he could do it,” Paul told me. When Will was out of earshot, he added, “I could have carried his bike up the hills for him. But I didn’t need to help him.”

(more…)

Posted in Chilly Hilly, Cyclist of the Month, Profiles | 2 Comments »

Spin your wheels, support a great cause

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 by Erica Meurk

Click the image to enlarge.

Come show your support for kids and bikes with the sweat on your brow and the strength of your legs!

Cascade Bicycle Club and Allstar Fitness will host the second annual Major Taylor Project Spin-A-Thon on Thursday, Feb. 16. All proceeds will support our efforts to introduce the joy of cycling to underserved communities and empower the next generation of riders through the Major Taylor Project.

Our goal is to raise $15,000 in one evening, enabling us to expand the program to a sixth location, Highline High School in Burien, for the 2012-2013 school year. And we think we can do it. But we need your help.

Major Taylor Spin-A-Thon
Thursday, Feb. 16
5 to 8 p.m.
Allstar Fitness, 2629 SW Andover St., West Seattle

How does it work? Well, you have several options:

Just sign up to spin for one, two or three hours between 5 and 8 p.m., with a minimum donation of $25 per hour.
Sponsor-a-Spinner: Collect pledges from friends and family — encourage them to give enough to keep you on the bike for all three hours!
Sponsor-a-Student: Donate, then let one of our students ride so you don’t have to.
Match-a-Spinner: If you work for an organization that will match tax-deductible gifts, you can double your support.

You can include an online donation with your RSVP, mail a check to Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation at 7400 Sand Point Way NE, Suite 101s, Seattle, WA 98115 (make sure it’s payable to Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation and include “MTP Spin-A-Thon” in the memo), or pay at the door with credit card, check or cash.

And even if you can’t be with us, you can support the cause by including a donation with your regrets.

For more information, contact Emma Epstein, Major Taylor Project Outreach Program Assistant, at mtpa@cascadebicycleclub.org or (206)957-6960.

Get ready for a fun, fast-paced, sweat-filled evening. We’ll see you there.

Posted in Education, Events, Major Taylor Project | No Comments »

“I grew up in a bike shop.”

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 by Erica Meurk

This article first appeared as the Cyclist of the Month column in the December 2011 issue of the Cascade Courier, our membership newsletter.

Nominate a Cyclist of the Month!

Cyclist of the Month: MILLIE MAGNER
Age: 64
Wheels: Cannondale RW 800
Occupation: Freelance writer, retired

“I grew up in a bike shop,” Millie Magner told me with a grin. And it’s true. Her dad owned a franchise with Schwinn and Harley Davidson in the 1950s, combining his two hobbies by surrounding himself with both bicycles and motorcycles.

It’s clear that this apple didn’t fall too far from that tree. Millie showed up for our interview rosy-cheeked from the cold, wearing a bike jacket in high-visibility orange with lots of reflective tape, helmet still on her head.

Before I even asked, Millie was out of the gate, telling me about her earliest memory on a bike.

“I vividly remember being taught to ride by two older neighbor boys. They put me on a balloon-tired 26-inch bike, and I couldn’t reach the pedals or sit on the seat. I had to bob down on either side of the bike to pedal. I remember them running alongside me shouting, ‘Pedal, Millie, pedal!’”

Since her first ride on that ill-fitting bike, she’s moved on to a succession of others. She took a three-speed Schwinn Traveler on a two-week tour in the hot humidity of central Missouri. This was in the 1960s, when there were few women bicyclists. A decade later, she toured Nova Scotia in cut-off jeans for a month. There have been gaps in her bicycling history, but, she told me, “I’ve always had a bike.” She added with a smile, “I just haven’t always ridden.”

(more…)

Posted in Cyclist of the Month | 2 Comments »

Spray paint, duct tape, flat tires and snake bites

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 by Erica Meurk

“What’s a snake bite?” Kat asks. The kids are sitting around the table in Cascade’s downstairs conference room, each holding a scrap of inner tube with a hole in it. And the obvious answer (which involves, of course, reptiles and teeth) is incorrect.

But luckily, Edward has been paying attention. “It’s when you don’t pump up your tires enough, and you go over a curb. And the rim of your wheel makes the double-hole.”

Score one for Edward!

Fall is underway, which means that on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, Cascade’s downstairs conference room is crammed full of kids and bikes. The kids live in the transitional housing near Cascade’s offices in Magnuson Park, and they’re creating so-called “scraper bikes,” art bikes whose hallmarks are spray-painted frames and duct-taped spokes.

The kids get to keep the bikes they decorate after the program’s end, but there’s a catch: they have to learn to fix them first, starting with flat tires. They move on to brakes, wheels, chains and cassettes, and, once they’ve learned it all, they’re outfitted with a helmet and a lock. But they should consider themselves warned: “If we catch you riding without your helmet, we’ll take your bike away,” Kat admonishes.

We’re heading into our fourth session of our “Earn-A-Scraper” bike program, and we’re looking for eight donated BMX bikes of decent quality for these kids to fix up, decorate and ride. The bikes should be brand-name only — after all the work these kids put into them, we don’t want them to fall apart.

With questions or to donate, contact Kat Sweet at kat.sweet@cascadebicycleclub.org. Thank you!

Posted in Education, Kids on bikes | 1 Comment »

“Carrying 70 pounds of kids keeps me warm.”

Friday, December 2nd, 2011 by Erica Meurk

This article first appeared as the Cyclist of the Month column in the December 2011 issue of the Cascade Courier, our membership newsletter.

Cyclist of the Month: MADI CARLSON
Age: 39
Occupation: Stay at home mom
Wheels: Bianchi Milano

Madi Carlson isn’t afraid of the cold or the rain. And neither is her cargo.

All winter long, Madi rides with her kids – Brandt, who’s four-and-a-half years old, and Rijder, who’s just two – strapped into seats mounted to the front and rear of her Celeste Green Bianchi Milano city bike. The bike was a “push present,” given to her by her husband just before Rijder was born. Brandt’s been riding with her since he was a one-year-old, “strong enough to hold his head up.” With Rijder, she started even earlier, towing him in a Burley trailer when he was just eight weeks.

Impressed? So was I. I wanted to know: Who is this woman, and how does she do it? What motivates her? The notion that she’s saving our planet from excess CO2 emissions? Or that she’s instilling the value of active transportation in her children?

But Madi’s motivations are far from grandiose.

“I’m lazy. And I’m incredibly cheap,” she said. “Coming here in a car, I would’ve had to park four blocks away to avoid paying for parking.”

(more…)

Posted in Commuting, Cyclist of the Month, Kids on bikes | 4 Comments »

Bucket guy!

Monday, November 28th, 2011 by Erica Meurk

It's a bike! With a bucket!

I spotted him first. It was 7:45 a.m. on a rainy Tuesday morning in October. He was on a bike, riding up the (quite steep) hill outside our kitchen window, pulling (what looked like) a giant black bucket behind him. And in the bucket, he was carrying not one, not two, but THREE small children.

I yelled to my roommate, “There’s a guy outside! And he’s riding up the hill! With three kids! In a bucket!”

And yes, despite the early hour, I used four exclamation points.

Henceforth, he became Bucket Guy.

I’ve been told that Bucket Guy’s bike is a Madsen. (New to me, and I’m quite intrigued.) I haven’t yet managed to flag him down as he huffs his way up that hill, but my roommate has. She pedaled up behind him last week and sent me this email:

The bike comes built that way, with the “box,” as he called it, attached. It can hold up to 600 lbs! And there are seatbelts for four kids (one of the three kids in the bucket told me this!). I asked him if he rides a lot and he said, “as much as I can.” Then I was just about to ask him if he’d like to talk to you sometime but we went in different directions and he was starting up a steep hill so I didn’t want to make him lose momentum.

So it goes. Bucket Guy, whoever you are, I salute you. Thanks for making my days a little brighter.

Posted in Around town, Commuting, Cyclist: I Saw You | 1 Comment »

Author Archive

Register for RSVP 2

“What kid doesn’t like a good adventure?”

Spin your wheels, support a great cause

“I grew up in a bike shop.”

Spray paint, duct tape, flat tires and snake bites

“Carrying 70 pounds of kids keeps me warm.”

Bucket guy!

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