May is Bike Month!

May 17th is National Ride your Bike to Work Day and the week of May 14-18 is National Ride Your Bike to Work week. Here’s hoping there’s no rain.

Bike Month in Bakersfield will be topped off by the Downtown Bakersfield Criterium. Check out BikeBakersfield.Org for more info.

This month also marks a change in Saturday AM rides. The group will begin leaving Beach Park at 6:30 AM (no longer 7:00am) and Tuesday / Thursday noon rides will soon be changing to AM rides (I will post when it happens).

Saturday Morning Rides for May (6:30am from Beach Park)
• 5/5/2007: Beach Park/”Y”/Woody/Glenville/beyond or home
• 5/12/2007: Beach Park/Circle K @ Fairfax/Breckenridge/beyond or home
• 5/19/2007: Beach Park/Circle K @ Fairfax/Bena Rd./Caliente/Lion’s Trail/ beyond or home
• 5/26/2007: Beach Park/Circle K @ Fairfax/Arvin/White Wolf/beyond or home

Celebrate CSUB 5k Recap

This was a great little run put on by the PEAK department at Cal State University, Bakersfield. Cost of admission was a canned food (at least 1) and it got you a shirt, a 5k run through the ever improving and growing CSUB campus, and a great pancake breakfast with pancakes, sausage and fresh fruit.

I’ll definitely return next year. If you were at either the King of the Hills event or the Kern Valley Festival Run please e-mail me results and/or a little blurb.

Yours in fitness,

Mark

May 2007 - Events Added

Along with the Bakersfield Triathlon, I have added in three new events.

• May 2: Bike Bakersfield will be having a Full Moon Ride. More details to come.
• May 16: The Ride of Silence to honor cyclists who have been injured or killed by motorists.
• May 17: The Downtown Bakersfield Criterium will take place. Should be a great little event!

Full Moon Ride

More Details to come. Or check BikeBakersfield.org occasionally.

Ride of Silence

DATE: May 16, 2007
TIME: 7:00 pm
WHERE: Hundreds of locations world wide

Join cyclists worldwide in a silent slow-paced ride (max. 12 mph/20 kph) in honor of those who have been injured or killed while cycling on public roadways.

WHY DOES THIS EVENT EXIST?

* To HONOR those who have been injured or killed
* To RAISE AWARENESS that we are here
* To ask that we all SHARE THE ROAD

THE RIDE OF SILENCE™ WILL NOT BE QUIET

On May 16, 2007, at 7:00 PM, the Ride of Silence™ will begin in North America and roll across the globe. Cyclists will take to the roads in a silent procession to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways. Although cyclists have a legal right to share the road with motorists, the motoring public often isn’t aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.

In 2003, Chris Phelan organized the first Ride Of Silence in Dallas after endurance cyclist Larry Schwartz was hit by the mirror of a passing bus and was killed.

The Ride Of Silence is a free ride that asks its cyclists to ride no faster than 12 mph and remain silent during the ride. There is no brochure, no sponsors, no registration fees and no t-shirt. The ride, which is held during Bike Safety month, aims to raise the awareness of motorists, police and city officials that cyclists have a legal right to the public roadways. The ride is also a chance to show respect for those who have been killed or injured.

Please check the resources on this site. If there is a Ride of Silence in your area, we encourage you to join them. If there is not a ride planned in your area, please consider adding your city to the ever-growing list of sites. To get information on how to organize and host a Ride of Silence, please click HERE.

OUR DONORS

* VBT Bicycle Tours: 2006
* Gail Spann: 2006
* STORM LLP: 2007
* Anonymous donors: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006

The necessary expenses The Ride of Silence has to incur are met by concerned volunteers and donations.

However, we occasionally need legal advice, so if you or someone you know could volunteer to help us in this way, please contact us.

Downtown Bakersfield Criterium

Bike Bakersfield is about supporting and encouraging all types of bicycling, this includes racing.

We bring you our second annual Downtown Crit. This race will be held in downtown Bakersfield starting at Chester and 18th on Thursday, May 17th starting at 6:30P held in conjunction with The Downtown Street Faire. There will be races for the kids, a Citizens race, Mens categories 1-5 and Womens categories 1-5 race. This will be a great night, compete for prizes and Bako Bragging Rights. Bring the family to race, cheer and just enjoy the street fair.

Download Flyer for Bakersfield Downtown Criterium (Requires Adobe Reader)

Changes and Additions

I have decided to make this posts page be the front page. The events page (old home) is now located Here (or click on the Events tab above). This new front page contains updates, news, writeups of events (I accept submissions via e-mail which will be properly credited, etc.)

The gallery is ready for pictures! I would like for anyone to please send me pictures that they would like to be posted. You can send them to me via e-mail as zipped attachments or through regular mail burned onto CD’s. Please include information on the event itself (event name and date should be enough, you can also include personal information if you would like). We can even setup a time that I could pick up pictures from you at, say, a secret meeting place to be determined.

Also, please send any comments, feedback, money (or pizza!), bike parts, etc. to me:

Mark Soho
5001 Hunter Ave #10 9809 Battersea Park Dr
Bakersfield, CA 93309 93312
661 932-0593

Busy Coming Saturday

With three big Bakersfield events coming up this Saturday, it’s time to pick your poison. We have the CSUB Alumni 5k (which I will be using as a race building up to the Bakersfield Triathlon), the King of the Hills (a new race in town with a 5k, 10k and sprint biathlon), and the Kern Valley Festival Run.

Hopefully you all get to at least one of these events, and maybe next year event coordinators will communicate so we can get to all of them.

Celebrate CSUB 5k Alumni Run

This looks to be a great, and new, event. There will be a great many other events going on as well.

Registration for the 5k starts at 7am and the race will start at 8am.

More information at Celebrate CSUB Website.

I will be partaking in the 5k for sure! Hope to see you there!

–Mark

9th Annual Kern Valley Festival Run

9th Annual Kern Valley Festival Run

5K, 10K, and 1K for kids.

5K and 10K start at 8am at the end of Burlando Road in Kernville.

The 1K starts after the finish of the 10K.

Proceeds will benefit Run-4-A-Way, a local nonprofit organization that promotes health, fitness and well being to the citizens of the Kern River Valley.

Both races use a trail system that runs along the Wild and Scenic Kern River, and the 10K includes two rustic log stream crossings.

Entry fee is $20.00 including a race T-shirt, or get $25.00 in pledges and you get a free one-hour raft trip immediately following the races. Medals for the first three finishers in each age and gender category

Contact Darby @ 760 376-1067, or Mike @ 760 376-4405.

E-Mail Mike