Good bye, Cortney, We Will Miss You

 This Friday for Breakfast on the Bridge we had a littlest biker to come.  This is Henry. He is a little camera shy.  And he was busy.  
He stopped long enough to have some juice and muffin and then he was off again.

This weeks Breakfast was saying Good bye to Cortney, our Beautiful, Biking Ballerina.

 She is leaving us to go to Eugene, Oregon to study transportation. Yay, a biker getting into transportation planning!!!  Yay, Cortney is following her passion, to the eventual benefit for us all!!!   Boo, Cortney has to leave us. Eugene's gain is definately our loss.

In Cortney's short time here she was a strong force in coelising the biking community here. She started the Brews Cruise. 

She planned and led the our Jane's Roll Event, 3 Hoods, 3 Rides.  She is repeating this event for the  ProWalk ProBike convention next month (we are getting a bit of reprieve when she returns to do this)

And of course, it was just seeing Cortney in her classy presence on a bike.

She was serious about bike riding (and you should see the hill she lived on.  In this city of hills, in the part of town that is called Hill City, she had a heck of a hill to go up.  I would show a picture, except going up that hill, I was never able to think of taking a picture.).

  Yes, we will miss her, and we are hoping for her return.  Best Wishes, Cortney.  Come back to lead us on more bike advenures!

Entitlement Thinking, Do You Think?

  Cortney, our BBB (beautiful biking ballerina) told her story at Breakfast on the Bridge this morning about being sideswiped by a car.  Neither she or her bike was damaged and the driver of the car stopped and started apologizing profusely.  Cortney, though shaken tried to get in the state of mind thta would turn this into a teachable moment for the driver in an ever so kindly way.

   So, in her kind and gentle way, Cortney led her in an conversation about what happened.  While the driver admitted fault, by way of explaination stated that she thought Cortney would pull over to let her by.  Cortney asked if she had done anything that indicated that she was about to pull over and and driver admitted, no she had not.  But she assumed it anyway.

   Cortney did explain that the lane was too narrow for a car to pass safely without going into the next lane.  In retrospect, she wishes that she had called the police and had her cited for violating the Three Fool Law. 

   But I thought it was a telling thought process for the driver to say she assumed Cortney was going to pull over.  Why?  Because a car was coming by.  The driver had more rights because she was in a car?  Getting drivers to reflect on their grandiose sense of entitlement is a major feat.

   There was a letter to the editor in the paper recently lamenting one Chattanooga's few bike lanes in St. Elmo.  The writer lived on the street was was greatly upset that she was not allowed to park in the bike lane or the sidewalk.  She actually had the audaciaty (don't they think at all?)  to ask "do bikers need a place on the road?  And do strollers need a place on the sidewalk?"  She, with no ironly whatsoever truly, thought that other modes of transportation-biking and walking, should be impeded so she could PARK her vehicle.  How do we get these people to do some self reflection on what they are truly saying...and expecting. 

    I know this is America, and Chattanooga is in the South and the car culture is greatly entrenched.  But even in this culture, isn't there even a little bit of sense that being in a car does not grant the driver greater rights and protection then those out of the car?

  I am glad that Cortney is all right and hopefully that driver will be driving with a bit more awareness.  And as to the writer of that letter, I hope she gets a ticket every time she parks in the bike lane or sidewalk.

Tour De Brews

Cortney on Tour De Brews
Originally uploaded by donolmt

We finished out National Bike Month with a Brews Cruise, and wow, what a month! I am still behind on my blogging about all the events. This event, the Brews Cruise was a repeat of the Tour De Brews in March. In the future. If I was to point to one event that seemed to kick off the critical mass coming together to form some sort of Chattanooga scene of urban riding,the Tour De Bruews in March was it. We might not be rivaling the Harley culture in this town but I think we are taking shape.

The first cruise was the idea of Cortney (can we survive when she goes away?) and Rebecca Shearer (fellow fashion model!). We met as a group in Coolidge Park, rode our bikes to Moccasin Bend Brewery which is in St. Elmo, not at Moccasin Bend, in spite of the name. Had a great time, testing the beers, taking the tour of the brewery then riding back to Greenlife for dinner.

It is hard to say how many people joined us, with the coming and going, but it was over 30 riders at least. "When is the next one going to be?" was being asked by the riders, but especially by those that missed it. Everyone wanted to join in the fun

Biking to the Ballet

2010 05 01 005
Originally uploaded by donolmt

I am way behind on my biking posts. This is National Biking Month and I have been so busy doing biking events and just riding around I haven't had time to actually blog about them.

I will be trying to catch up and will be doing my stories as I have time. They won't be in particular order as I will do the simple and shorter stories first.

Last Saturday, Q and I went to the ballet to see our BBB (beautiful biking ballerina) friend, Cortney in in last performance in Chattanooga. She will be leaving us, for what we are hoping only for a short time, to go to Oregon to continue her education in getting a degrree in Transportation. To say she bikes is an understatement-she is making it her life and is angling to work from the inside to promote biking. Yay to Cortney!

Of course, to honor Cortney, we wanted to ride to her ballet. We had our doubts because it had been threatening to rain all weekend (this is the weekend of the Nashville disastor. Because the rain front stalled over Nashville, Chattanooga was spared. It is hard to rejoice on how our biking events weren't rained on when Nashville was hit so hard).
But as it wasn't actually raining at decision time we decided to risk it. We took precautions though. You can see that I have my panniers filled with raingear-totally ready for the monsoon that did not come.

As it was sprinking when Q was preparing to leave, he threw on some rain pants, probably thiking that sitting through a ballet in wet pants would not be fun. He whipped them off when we arrived, to the obvious shock to the elderly couple that was walking by at that moment. It did look as though he was preparing to moon them!

   The ballet was wonderful and Cortney danced beautifully.  So yes, you can get dressed nicely to go to a formal event and ride bikes.  And Cortney is just the one to appreciate that fact!

3 Rides 3 Hoods Ride Trial

  This past Sunday was a fun day of riding around town.  A group of us were trying out the 3 Rides 3 Hoods ride for this coming Sunday, May 2.  This ride, with three parts through three different urban neighborhoods, is part of Jane's Walk. 

  Here are Cortney Mild, our BBB (beautiful Biking Ballerina)  and Jim Johnson of Bike Tours Direct,the planners of this event looking over the route.

Riding the Circle at the Hunter!

No tour of Chattanooga would be complete without a nod to our Civil War history.  Jeremy is inspecting the monument at Orchard Knob

Close up of the monument

I

It was opening day at the Chattanooga Market.

Jeremy and the Lady J during our lunch break at the Market

The ride goes through North Chattanooga and Downtown,  Southside into Highland Park and Orchard Knob  and then finally into St. Elmo.  I wasn't able to do the trial ride into St. Elmo but I will be doing the official ride next Sunday.  This trial was fun.  There will be speakers at different points on each of the ride to talk about the history of the area.  The pace was easy, the terrain was mostly easy-although going up Orchard Knob might be tough for newbie riders.  But it is short so nobody will be left behind.

    This will be the day after the 3 State 3 Mountain ride.  If that ride was too much for you or looking for a sociable recovery ride, come join us for one ride, two rides or all three rides at the 3 Rides 3 Hoods Ride.  This is a new ride for our ever growing biking scene in Chattanooga.

Ride, Co-op, and Barbecue-A Great Combination

Tonight Q and I went on an urban ride sponsored by the Main Street Bike coop. It was  actually Chattanooga's version of Critical Mass.  But this is Chattanooga-it wasn't very critical or very massive.  Mostly polite,nice people following the rules as we rode our bikes around town.  There were about 8-10 of us, all young, except for Q and I. We find many of our biking adventures put us in the company of those much younger then us. Does that make me feel young? Or old? I don't really know, mostly neither. We get together with people to do what we love. I don't know what it means that many times it is with people the same ages as my kids.

Cortney preparing to strut her stuff

Did I say it was cold?  Love Jesse's gloves!

My attempt to taking pictures while riding

We had a short ride through Highland Park, leaving from the UTC Library.  It was dark, rainy, and cold which has become a standard around here. We toured through Highland Park (where my studio is) and ended up on Main Street for a tour of the Main Street Bike Co-op. It is a small place set up in a back corner of a restaurant.

I was impressed with the mission and vision of these young men. I believe that getting bikes into the hands of the low income and having a place where all can come and become bike literate will come largely from these grass roots efforts. I wish this co-op well. I plan on becoming a member to support their efforts, and who knows I might find it in me to do some of the maintance on my own bike!

Zac explaining about the Co-op.

To hear about the co-op in their own words watch this:

MSBC Trailer from Main Bike Co-op on Vimeo.

Time to Eat!

I think the original intent was to make the Co-op visit a short visit and then continue on a longer ride. But the restaurant the co-op was housed in was changing format from a Mexican Restaurant to a barbecue place and it was a free tasting night! Woo Hoo! We were staying!


  Rachel Conn, who Q and I are familiar with from our triathlon world and Main Street familiarity owns the building that had a Mexican restaurant in it. But when the people who ran it wanted to go back to Mexico, Rachel seemed not to miss a beat. She went down the street where a barbecue master was working out of a trailer parked at Rogers Groceries, a hole in the wall type place. Rachel brought him up to her place which is its own hole in the wall place/art gallery. Unique low brow, up brow combination. I love eclectic!

We had not heard about this tasting but a lot of people we knew had. Mostly the people there had some Main Street connection. We ended up eating with Greg Ross, the owner of Estate of Confusion and also my neighbor. He had with him two more of my neighbors that I had not met before.

The barbecue was great-I had the rib sandwich. Greg had to explain to our neighbors, who are recent transplants from Chicago that because of the bones you can't just bite into a rib sandwich. You eat the ribs first and use the bread to wipe your lips cleans. I had not heard it put this way before, but yes, that is the way to eat a barbecue rib sandwich.

  The bread, by the way, were buns from Neidloves which tells you about the place. In town, if a place takes the trouble to serve bread from Neidloves, it is bound to be good. (Angela and John Sweet owners of Neidloves, were there with their little ones for the tastings).

But at a barbecue place, it is the barbecue,after all that makes or breaks it. And this barbecue was good!  We really enjoyed it and will definately be back.  Come down and try it out for yourself! King's Barbecue House on the corner of Main and Hawthorne.

     So there you have it. What could have been written off as a night too cold and wet to go out ended out being a great night for a ride, meeting new fellow bikers, and finding ourselves unexpectedly at a free barbecue tasting with a restaurant of friends and other familiar faces. A perfect night!

Chattanooga Biking Style

Chattanooga Biking Style

Who says there is no style in riding your bike? These are pictures of this morning's Bike2Work. The cold weather brought out a whole different season of style:


This is Laura Jane who is always cool on the bike. I will one day do a post just dedicated to Laura Jane's riding style.

Cortney, Chattanooga's resident ballerina brings a level of elegance on the bike. Bike riding has never looked as graceful as when Cortney rides in full dress up mode.

Patrick is always classic. Classic look on a classic bike. He never goes out of style.

People ask me about riding gear. Want to know what is the proper riding gear for riding a bike around town? Just look in your own closet! Ride with as much style and individuality as you do the rest of your life.


Would love to see pictures of the riding styles of any readers!