BIKABOUT

10/09/2024

Like Annika is with me for dinner 🩷💙

08/09/2024

I arrived in Indianapolis for the meeting.

Grabbed my bags and took the IndyGo bus from the airport - $2 and took 30 minutes to downtown.

21/08/2024

The morning after we arrived in Dubuque, Iowa, we met, David Hartig. He owns the shop, Bicycle World, and champions his vision for bicycles as mobility with Dubuque Forward, a group of private sector leaders that demand action.

Dave gave us the advocacy background of the city before Kyle and I took a ride to the farmer's market and while riding on the sidewalk, we came upon the murals of Central Avenue. I thought, they have 4 lanes for vehicles, "where is the protected bikeway!?"

Serendipidiously, when we came back to the hotel, this fresh newspaper was at the front desk. The article talked about the newly installed lanes, Dave's leadership and an opportunity to put a bikeway on Central Avenue.

The City of Dubuque Government has the space and culture. They need to harness the culture to reclaim the space for people who clearly want to ride a bike for transportation. If it were me, I would do a pilot of taking 1 of the vehicle travel lanes, bump out the parking and create a 2-way protected bikeway.

Also: sharrows are not infrastructure, they are wayfinding.

Look for our Dubuque Wander by Bike guide coming soon!

Travel Dubuque Voices Studios

18/08/2024

Getting the pre-flight ✈️ wiggles out by riding from our Turo car rental to the Minneapolis airport. 15 minutes and I felt so much better.

My is good for the psyche while traveling.

18/08/2024

Greetings from Crosby, home of the best mountain biking in America.

What makes it so? Plenty of green, flowy, moss/birch/fern lined trails that weave between former mines, now "clear as gin" lakes. The trails start right as the towns of Crosby, Cuyuna and Ironton, welcome all abilities and are connected by the Cuyuna Lakes State Trail, a paved rail trail that functions as a fast track between different loops.

The last time we were here was 4 years ago exactly (August 2020) and we wrote a guide: bikabout.com/cuyuna-lakes

The riding is akin to forest bathing by bike, shutting off your brain and opening the senses as you roll over red clay trails. The swimming is spectacular. The water is a perfect temperature for a dip during or after your ride and it's unbelievably clear with a sandy bottom.

We rented hardtail bikes from our favorite shop, . but they have a wide selection of mountain bikes. They also have beautiful merch, tasty food and deep bench of beers on tap and ciders.

The whole region is now on board as a mountain biking destination with bike friendly inns and home rentals, breweries, coffee and restaurants. All of them have rebar bike racks that you hang your saddle from.

We rode all day yesterday with food and swimming breaks and already miss it. Megan wishes she could spend a month in Crosby before cyclocross season. The riding is so joyful and addictive. May it not be another 4 years until we visit this utopia again.

18/08/2024

Minnesota with old friends. Ice cream, rooftop mini golf, nighttime biking.

15/08/2024

Greetings from our favorite biking city in America.

11/08/2024

1 day here and the city has surprised us. Don't discount small Midwestern cities like Dubuque, IA.

Teaser for the new bike travel guide is we could do a whole bike ride of the fantastic murals here!

09/08/2024

Mrs. MacGruber here.

Welcome to the , Brompton class.

We are headed to Dubuque, Iowa to write a travel guide, plus stops for family in Wisconsin, Minneapolis and mountain biking in Crosby, MN.

We love our cases to check the Bromptons as luggage but have always struggled with how to bike to and from the airport or transit.

Here's the hack:
1. Extend the rack base with a sink bottom tray.
2. Zip tie with Velcro straps
3. Pre-pack cases with luggage.
4. Use luggage and Velcro straps to harness the cases on.
5. Ride in a straight line, no weaving or tail that wags the dog.
6. Harnessing takes about 15 minutes and breaking down, 5.

, ever seen a hack like this?

31/07/2024

I am so inspired by the Olympics in Paris. The creativity of the opening ceremony using existing city assets as the stage, the athlete's march on the Seine boats, the American commentators having hissies about rain, Mayor Hidalgo's pledge that the Seine would be swimmable by the ceremonies and now the athletes. My new favorite person is Ilona Mayer. She has made me laugh and cry and I haven't seen her play yet (we are old school with a tv antenna). Her 30 BMI reply will be my bookmark when I encounter girls dealing with body image issues.

Olha Kharlan, the Ukrainian fencer who dedicated her bronze to her countrymen killed in war.

Men's gymnasts blew us away last night. Stephen Nedoroscik was cracking us up with his meditation. I am blown away by his coolness under pressure.

In about 30 minutes, we get to watch the women's rugby and gymnastics.

Paris has absolutely transformed due to Mayor Hidalgo's leadership and I have been jumping to tell that story from an advocacy and bike tourism perspective.

We visited March 2023 and I have many procrastination excuses...awesome day job, we didn't get the best photography, pressure to design a beautiful and functional bike map.

The Olympics has been a giant kick in the ass to publish our Paris by bike guide, only 16 months after our visit.

08/07/2024

Seattle visits always go by too quickly, but we always make time for a ride at Interlaken Park to our favorite restaurant, .

How is Interlaken and the not car-free yet?

Check out that bike rail, though!

www.bikabout.com/seattle

02/07/2024

1 of my favorite things about cities is their bridges.

I am drawn to ride over them. This is the University Bridge in Seattle and riding downhill was a lot of fun.

13/06/2024

20 years ago, Kyle and I were married on the Tenney Park jetty in Madison.

Our pitty was the ring bearer and my new husband sang "Where is my Mind" by the Pixies at the reception.

He has unconditionally supported me while music, laughter and biking have been there for us.

04/06/2024

Feeling free and motherly are not mutually exclusive.

The power to transport my daughter by bike is the best type of freedom I ever experienced as a mom.

📷 2011, The Netherlands, a favorite memory. Happy !

22/05/2024

Our own Kyle Ramey is now the E-bike reviewer for Outside Magazine.

Here is his first review (his photos for the bonus):

The Verve+ offers a sleek integrated look with solid shifting and braking, gets many things right, but the battery life is an issue.

14/05/2024

"I feel like the lady in the ice cream truck, but with bikes."

Thanks to Jonathan Maus of BikePortland for giving Megan time to share how she's trying to make her home of Hood River better for kids who want to walk or bike for transportation.

Topics covered:
+how she first got involved in transportation reform advocacy,
how raising a daughter sharpened her appetite for safe streets work
+what a typical week is like for her
+how some folks have the wrong impression about the type of families who call Hood River County home
+what she’ll do with a recent $25,000 federal safety grant,
+why she started afterschool bike clubs for elementary school kids and the impact it has had on them,
+what music is most often requested for the ride playlists these days

Ramey has become the go-to advocate for the Hood River region for her tireless and creative approach to safe streets activism.

18/04/2024

The Editors of Scientific American share the story of 2 different trails taken by The Netherlands and America in the 70s. While we chose the wrong trail, we can bushwack to get back on track.

"In the 1970s a nation confronted a crisis of traffic deaths, many of them deaths of children. Protesters took to the streets to fight an entrenched culture of drivers who considered roads their domain alone. But this wasn’t the U.S.—it was the Netherlands. In 1975 the rate of traffic deaths there was 20 percent higher than in the U.S., but by the mid-2000s it had fallen to 60 percent lower than in the U.S. How did this happen?"

Reducing the need for car travel is better for health, the environment and public safety

09/04/2024

“If cities wish to improve their traffic safety outcomes, they should first and foremost plan and design for the convenience and safety of those not using a personal automobiles”

The study examined 14 small and mid-sized U.S. cities, each with populations ranging from 50,000 to 200,000 residents.

05/03/2024

Sibling from another mother.

Meet Ursa. Besides having rad taste in nothing, they have a sweet Velo Orange bike and they run the shop.

I was lucky to meet Ursa and other bikey walkie changemakers at the safety grant networking event. People are doing fantastic work around street safety including organizations teaching immigrant and refugee communities how to drive as well as helping the transportation disadvantaged and vulnerable.

Because of ODOT's grant manager, Tiana, believing in my hair brained idea to start a bike train in Hood River, I now have a full time job as a Safe Routes to School manager for the district and get to play with kids by bike or foot.

I also get to volunteer for , donating bikes to kids and adults in need. Organizations like Bike Works, Free Bikes for Kids and Community Cycling Center are like learning labs for us and I am so grateful to meet Ursa and see their shop today.

14/02/2024

Without him, I wouldn't be able to get as much work done.

Weilding a camera and wrench, he supports it all from capturing the joy of the kids biking to tuning up bikes that I donate to the kids, not to mention maintaining our family fleet.

"My X-factor", per Coach Balto.

❤️you, Kyle

21/01/2024

What cabin fever.

Those mountain bikes in your garage that some of you paid a lot of money for, are so good for transportation on snowy days. Just add a trailer and voila, grocery shopping machine.

No worries of parking or getting stuck, just fun.

10/01/2024

This memory of leading Dutch business peeps around Boston on their company's Gazelle bikes.

For payment, they gave me one and I still use it as my "Heights bike" in Hood River.

10/01/2024

Off to PDX ✈️

My new favorite way is the CAT bus to Gateway Transit Center, then biking to the airport on mostly car-free trail to get outdoor time and exercise before the flight. I'm flying home to Wisconsin to celebrate the life of my 2nd mom who loved to ride her bike.

Ila beautiful life she led while instilling a love of music, laughing, G**O, yoga and biking in me.

I grew up in Wisconsin Rapids, a town with 2 papermills and Ila "Jean" is the 3rd close family friend to die from cancer. And like the others, she was incredibly healthy until the very end.

My free range childhood was dotted with camping weekends with her family. Dire Straits, Elton and Whitney were in the mix tapes that got my mom and her to dance or us children to fall asleep next to the campfire.

Funny sidenote: the "first time" I smelled ma*****na at Lollapalooza, I swore it was a campfire in the amphitheatre...the 2 smell memories had become intertwined in my childhood. This still makes my highschool friends and parents laugh.

Ila visited me last August and I got to take her on my favorite bike ride in America, on the Historic Columbia Highway trail. "This is marvelous!" she kept saying through joyful giggles.

29/12/2023

Proof that you can ride a bike to special occasions, dressed for the destination, in Atlanta, no less.

My daughter and I cinched up our dresses for the ride, watched our beautiful friends get married and twirled to our delight on the dance floor.

Our daughters are the same age that these guys were when they met in Peachtree City, GA.

I am so gratefule to Chris and Megan for bringing us together. It was an honor and one of the best times we've had.

21/12/2023

Students were paid $20 per hour and they helped win a $25,000 grant to create the mural from Bloomberg Philanthropy.

Youth driven projects like this should be replicated all over America.

They helped Portland win a $25,000 grant.

27/11/2023

"that's the first time I've seen someone do that!"

Without fail, the childish grin and curiosity in men when they see a 🎄by bike.

12 year tradition✔️

20/11/2023

When your 14 year old asks to go solo grocery shopping for 🦃 Thanksgiving, you thank your lucky stars.

E-cargobikes are breeding a very different teenager.

P.S. she called me no less than 4 times to ask about the shopping 🛒 list and where things were.

06/11/2023

If the was ever a real, India would win Gold.

03/11/2023

For 10 years, from 1991-2001, Atlanta was home where I went from being car dependent->free. There was no Beltline or bike lanes.

Today at MLK Jr Drive bikeway ribbon 🎀 cutting, I realized that more people may taste that freedom now.

03/11/2023

Cities, these are your target customers.

2 women pulling a trailer with a kid was non-existent 10 years ago in , but the city is laying down a bike network, one bit at a time. The progress is visible with the diversity of the riders, specifically women and children.

Atlanta was my second home for 10 years, '91-01 and shaped me as a transportation advocate. I totaled my car at UGA and began to use my bike and the bus to get around and it profoundly changed me as a human. I can't tell you what it means to see the progress towards a human-scaled in downtown.