Summer Games Round II

  This is my entry for the second round of the Summer Games at Lets Go Ride A Bike.  The first event I chose for myself was carrying a load, something I do it all the time.  I am ever amazing myself and others on how much I can carry on a bike.  I often go shopping without that very crucial question that bike riders should always have-how exactly am I getting this home?  When I make it out to the bike with my purchases, reality hits me, as though the bike was a complete surprise.  But I found with a little bit of ingenuity that I can fit it all and even ride it home.

  These pictures are from a typical Sunday shopping trip.  First a trip to the Chattanooga Market to get my produce, then a trip to Greenlife for all other grocery needs.  Usually that overloads me to beyond capacity.  But on this trip home, I by passed the 2 Bridges Art Festival and I was taken by the bright, big and cheerful flower.  My little garden corner is shaded and dark and it is hard to have colorful flowers. I thought this would brighten things up.

  Of course, I committed to buy it before I had a plan of getting it home.  No problem.  The stem went between me and my backpack.  I was quite the picture it seems, because several of the vendors stopped me to take their own picture of me.

Carrying Flower Home

"Planted" in my garden

For my second event, I had every intention of doing a maintance task but I didn't get around to it.  I am ashamed to admit that doing maintance on my bike is an extremely rare event.  I keep regular dates at Suck Creek Cycle for the guys there to keep me running but rarely do any on my own.  So while I have done enough to know I am perfectly capable, it just is not a thing that comes naturally to me. 

  So under pressure to get something done, I reached for something that does come naturally-reading.  I read Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne(Q, I bet you didn't notice that I had taken your copy)  Q had read it and greatly enjoyed it-telling me choice bits from the book.  He had forbidden me from reading it until he had had finished with it because he didn't want me ruining it for him with me telling him those choice bits of othe book.  While the book felt familiar because of this exposure, there were still delightful surprises for me to discover on my own.  A very enjoyable read.

n

Collective Commute Bike Fashion Show

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Originally uploaded by Cameron Adams

Sunday was the fashion show on bike and it was a blast!  Sondra of Collective Clothing and Cameron Adams of The Chattanoogan Blog   with the help of all at Outdoor Chattanooga put this together.

Much thanks to the hard work of EleaBlake for makeup and Epiphany Spa for hair. They had quite the job to do in getting 20+ models ready for the show.

And thanks for Trek Bikes, Chattanooga Electric Bikes and Suck Creek Cycles for providing the cycles.

The rains came and went, leaving us undecided whether to have it indoors or outdoors. At show time, it was looking clear enough to have it outside.

  This was another event just this month that was new for Chattanooga and proof of a coelescing biking community.  And it is fashionable!  This was our humble entry in the world wide movement of fashion on bikes.  Personally, since I am NOT the fashion diva, I would not have put the fashion on bikes.  But Cameron, the photographer, has been following this movement for a while and has been documenting the fashion scene here in Chattanooga for about a year now.  I was not even aware of how people were finding themselves fashionable on bikes until Cameron took note.

    Cameron matching up with Sondra was pure genius.  Sondra is eclectic, idiocentric and totally original in her fashion style and Collective Clothing is a FUN place to shop.  And the two of them together wanted to a join up with the biking scene.

    A call went out for models.  It turned out there were more people into fashion willing to get on bikes then those on bikes willing to get into fashion.  Many of the models had not been on a bicycle since childhood which made for some wobbly riding.  But I think they had fun and I know at least one that was inspired to go out and get a bicycle.

    As for me?  What I was doing in the show?  The biking connection was obvious, the fashion connection was not.  And I was over the age of twenty (by a great, great deal!)  Thanks, Blythe(who has been known to show style on the bike) and Rebecca for helping to bridge that large age gap-and for being fellow bikers. For a while, I thought I was going to be the odd man out.                                                   

                 

Reba rocking it!

 Here I am after Darin of Elea Blake worked on me.  This is the pre show shot.  I actually wore a different outfit in the show.  I hope to get more pictures  and I will post those.  Hopefully, there are pictures floating around on our bikes.