Queen City Bike Meeting

Ride with us to the August meeting of Queen City Bike. Our region's voice for bicycle advocacy, Queen City Bike is currently working to improve our bicycle infrastructure. Jason and Katie will leave from the shop at 6:40 to ride to the meeting in the East End.

This month's agenda is as follows:

7 pm - 7:30: Presentation by Cincinnati Dept of Transportation and Engineering on options for Riverside Drive (jointly with East End Area Council)

7:30 - 8:30: Additional Queen City Bike Business:

1) Bike Friendly Destinations project: QCB has been awarded Greater Cincinnati Foundation grant for $10,000

2) Bike to Baseball (ride to Reds games)

3) New activities for late summer/fall: Spring Grove Cemetary Tour? Other?

4) QCB Membership Discount Program

5) Discussion of new Cincinnati Bicycle Program Advisory Committee per the Bike Plan

6) Bike Month 2011

Bike Month!

Bike Month is well underway here at Reser Bicycle Outfitters. We've helped organize commuter stations across Cincinnati, and tomorrow we'll be at Iris Book Cafe and the Coffee Emporium (Central Parkway location). Get a cup of coffee, some air in your tires, and a tasty treat!

Tonight we'll be leading a Ride of Silence in conjunction with the Cincinnati Cycle Club. We'll depart from Newport High School at 900 E. Sixth Street around 6:30. This ride is to remember bicyclists who have been killed or injured in crashes. Please join us at Newport High School for the ride or at Fountain Square at 7:30 for a short ceremony.

Thursday is Bike to Work Day--if you need a little encouragement, stop by and talk to one of our employees. Join us at Fountain Square tomorrow for fun, food, and bicycles from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm.

Friday we'll be helping with Bike Newport's Breakfast on the Bridge. From 6:30 to 10:00 you can get coffee, food, and some professional mechanical advice. Come join us for our third celebration of Breakfast on the Bridge!

Devou Park Back-Country Trail

Construction has begun on the new back-country trails just outside downtown Cincinnati at Devou Park in Covington. The whole project has been accomplished with very little tax dollars and a lot of volunteer work from KyMBA, CORA, Give Back High and Give Back Cincinnati, as well as residents at large!

The first of several trail heads is at the old Ludlow City incinerator at the bottom of Sleepy Hollow Road. Volunteer days are weekly and can be found on our calendar.

Change State Laws - Show up and Say "Bicycle" to the Senate

STATE LEGISLATIVE CAUCUS MEETING FEBRUARY 7, 2009
Northern Kentucky Legislative Caucus


On February 7 2009, the Northern Kentucky Legislative Caucus will hold a public meeting at the Newport City Building located at 998 Monmouth St. The purpose of this meeting is to provide a forum for our constituents to offer input on issues during the 2009 Legislative Session of the General Assembly. The meeting will be held from 10:00 a.m. until noon. All persons attending and signing-in prior to start of the meeting will have a chance to be heard on a first-come, first-served basis.

National Bike Summit 2008

This week was the National Bike Summit in Washington DC. It's where the cycling community can come together to learn how to get more people on bikes.

I attended and so did several others from the region, many of which I had collaborated with or typed-to before, but some I had never met face-to-face. There were several from Kentucky, but it was surprising that out of over 500 attendees, only 3 were from the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area (Steve Magas, Ralph Mitchell and I)

What did we do? We listened to presentations on everything from making a Bike Friendly Community, Complete Streets Policy, and Safe Routes to School, to the National Parks Centennial Initiative and making off road trails part of the transportation system of a community.

There were some great speakers: Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Humana healthcare Chairman David Jones from Louisville, the Director of the National Park Service, and the Mayor of Washington DC. There were also "breakout" sessions with smaller presentations given by experts on many different issues in their respective fields.

With all of my new knowledge, I went up on the Capitol Hill and walked from office to office meeting with our congresspeople and their staffers with the others from Kentucky. It was great, they were all very kind and seemed to really get our message. In fact three Congresspeople agreed to join the Bike Caucus!

The biggest benefit was that we gave our Senators and Representatives a cure for some of our nation's biggest problems with a solution that reduces reliance on foreign oil, reduces air pollution and decreases road congestion all while promoting health and fitness which in turn reduces health care costs. We got a lot of support as livable communities with Bicycling and Pedestrian facilities are a win/win cause.

So now I'm fired up and ready to get some people riding bikes!

PS - You can add comments to anything written on our website- if it suits ya.

Newport Bicycle Advisory Group

Yep I'm at it again - we're creating a local committee that will meet at the library to get Newport to a Bronze Level Bicycle Friendly community. It should be fun and will include creating hike/bike/road/off-road as well as events and education for local schools and the community at large. Give me a call at the bike shop or email if you're interested.

BMC donates $10 from each bike to IMBA

The US Distributor for BMC bicycles has announced that it will give $10 to IMBA for each bicycle or frame sold. Hooray! The International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) has been an important part of the changing landscape of mountain biking, advocating trail access as well as teaching techniques for sustainable trail construction. The techniques taught by IMBA have helped out in the recent routings of virtually every local trail, as well as access to new trails like AJ Jolly, England Idlewild and Hamilton County Parks.