Kidical Mass Invites You to First Night

Kidical Mass Tacoma invites you to ride along in the World's Shortest Parade on December 31st! The parade is part of First Night, Downtown Tacoma's New Year's celebration, and kicks-off a full evening of activities and musical performances.

Meet at South 7th and Broadway in front of the Graffiti Garages at 6pm. The parade route is downhill a mere 4 blocks along Broadway and ends at the Pierce Transit park just past the Pantages Theater, which is where the main outdoor stage is for the celebration.

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Helmets are required. Lights are recommended. Costumes, noise-makers, and bike decorations are certainly encouraged. 

Visit www.firstnighttacoma.org for more details on the other First Night activities and to purchase event buttons. 

P.S. Mark your calendars for the Junior Daffodil Parade on April 12, 2014. The theme is "Ready, Set, Grow!" and it seems like the perfect way to kickoff our 2014 Kidical Mass Tacoma season.

What a Weekend: Bicycle Highlights

We had a bustling adventure of a weekend in Tacoma. We biked almost everywhere we needed or wanted to go and never went more than about 3 miles from home. Living in the city has its perks!


Friday: First, another round of the weekly Frost Park Chalk Off. We like to bike there with a picnic lunch. Super T decided we would draw kitty whales, something she created on our kitchen chalkboard earlier in the week.

Much later that night...

MOB RIDE!

If you missed it, watch for posters like this around town (note the MOB logo).

Saturday: Up early so that my little fairy could march in the Junior Daffodil Parade with her pre-school pals.  We biked to this neighborhood like we always do, but driving would have been especially inconvenient since many roads around the parade route were closed to vehicles.

After the parade, we visited the Proctor Farmers Market. (I recommend the spring rolls from the Two Sisters sauce booth.) We also browsed the new Playback Sports shop, which we hadn't been to since they moved. They sell used sporting goods on consignment, including bikes and bike accessories. Tacoma parents should know about this place: spread the word.

Sunday: Wayzgoose! It's a print arts extravaganza hosted by our local independent book store, King's Books.  We biked there with another family. Eight people: four bikes.

The main attraction is the steamroller printing press. RAWR.

Local artists hand carve these sheets of linoleum then print a few very limited edition posters which can only be won through a raffle drawing. There were eight designs, including these two that included bikes.

 TA-DA!

We also brought shirts to take advantage of the free screen-printing booth run by some University of Puget Sound students. And I picked up some cool prints from an artist who also makes records with a vintage record lathe. This one is cut from a plastic pie plate.

A friend from the chalk-off was running the bicycle ice cream trailer for Jeff's Ice Cream. Made in Washington ice cream bars and cookie sandwiches FTW!

 We finished off the day with a Harmon Hub pizza picnic at Wright Park. It was a beautiful day in Tacoma.

Monday: Back to School!

Fin.

TCBF 2010

I promised a full review of the 2010 Tacoma Craft Beer Festival, which happened back in October.  This second annual event was bigger than last year, featuring more brewers, more firkins, more food, and more days.  It also seemed to feature shorter lines and a excellent shuttle system, which made getting in the door easier.  Overall, an even better event than last year.

I biked to the Foss Waterway Seaport on Friday night to volunteer pouring samples.  I had a blast talking to locals about beer, meeting many interesting folks, including quite a few local restaurant and bar owners who were on the prowl for tasty local brews to put on tap.  I wore a Tacoma Public Libraries hat, thinking that librarians probably like to drink beer, too.  Turns out, they do.

I took my wife to the festival on Saturday so that I could see things from the other side of the booth.  We had a fun time, ran into lots of friends, made some new friends, and tasted some good beer.  There was live music most of the afternoon.  Some guys were making a batch of homebrew out on the dock.  Lots going on.  If you didn't go, pay attention next year and plan to attend.

We only had Sarah's camera phone, but here's what I told her to take pictures of:

TCBF Tips

The Tacoma Craft Beer Festival starts in just three hours!  Now would be a good time to make sure you're ready.

Step 1. Get There and Get Home: Safely

If you're planning to have a great time drinking beer at a beer festival, plan also on not driving home.  There's a shuttle service running from the Tacoma Dome Station, which links to local and regional buses and the LINK Rail.  And the railing around the dock is basically a giant bike rack, so why not ride there?  (Last year I arrived early and they let me lock up indoors to a boat trailer.  I understand that boat has now been removed to make room for more brewers. YES!)

If possible, you may want to ride a bike with a back seat.  You never know who else may need a safe ride home after last call.  (Yes, that's my bike. No, that's not me.)

Step 2: Bring a Snack

The standard for beer festivals is the pretzel necklace.  It's cheap, effective, and virtually hands-free.  However, there's still time to whip up a batch of Matt's Favorite Cookies.

Hint: Tape the recipe card inside your cabinet by the oven.

These pair well with most ales and are quite tasty.  I always recommend making a double batch to share with your friends.  Or to trade them for beer tasting tokens.

Step 3. Show Your Colors

C'mon,it's a beer festival! We're celebrating one of the most amazing inventions of all time, so put on some lederhosen or a toga or a funny hat...

This ancient form of haberdashery dates back nearly four decades.  I had Grandma train me in the Ways of the Can Hat and now it is time to unleash their awesome power!  Expect to see a few of these in the Canned Beer Garden at TCBF on Saturday.  BTW, if you haven't tried craft beer in a can, now is the time.  There are some great beers available now in cans, including those made by our local boys 7 Seas Brewing from Gig Harbor.

I'll be posting more pictures and a full review after the festival.  Any other tips to share?

Fiets of Parenthood - Seattle Style!

We finally made it to one of the many community bike events in Seattle!  The good folks at Car Free Days and Totcycle organized Fiets of Parenthood, a huge gathering of family cyclists of every age who rode in on nearly every kind of bike and bike-combo you could imagine. The Xtracycle went in the minivan for the first time and we still had plenty of room for my sister and her borrowed Peugeot folder.

FoP was nothing short of awesome!  There was something for everyone and we stayed busy for a solid three hours with the bicycle decoration station, a huge walk-thru/bike-thru sprinkler, slow bike race, family bike obstacle course, helmet fitters, and the kids' favorite: a Madsen bucket bike full of free gelato.  The playground was a cargo bike explosion of Xtracycles, Big Dummies, tandems, trail-a-bikes, kick bikes, trailers, bakfietsen, a tall bike and even a Larry vs. Harry Bullitt.  One lucky attendee won a Globe Haul 1 through a raffle benefitting Bike Works.

Not only were there tons of cool bikes, but there were many enthusiastic parents and kids, eager to show off their cycling skills and talk about how they use these bikes in their daily lives.  Many thanks to Julian, Tim, Anne, Chris and everyone else who helped to make this event a fun time for the rest of us.

If you'd like to see more, there's another write-up here, a great video here, a bit of press here, and a Flickr group here.  The wheels are already in motion for a TBR Family Fiets event in Tacoma next summer.  Who wants to help?!

Meetin' at the Swap

The 2nd Annual Tacoma Bike Swap happened yesterday on the UPS campus, one of the first events celebrating Bike Month in Tacoma/Pierce County.  The kids and I arrived a little late, but there was still a good crowd and plenty of deals on bikes and parts of every kind.  One vendor had a matching pair of folding Raleigh Twentys and some awesome Moultons.  Another vendor with a 46cm Surly Cross Check frameset caught my attention, because I didn't know they'd ever been made that small.  After chatting with the seller, I eventually spotted my only purchase of the day among his wares:

I plan to retrofit this beauty on to my own green Cross Check, a project which will likely require numerous trips to the hardware store.  I can't wait!

The local paper covered the Bike Swap, too.  You can read the full article here (TBR is quoted and linked - woot!)  If you stopped at the Swap, what caught your eye?

Idle Hands are the Devil's Playground

When winter rolls around, I usually find myself out in the garage on cold nights playing bikes. Once the over-due maintenance is done, I start to tinker. Here are some of the project that I've been working on.

Photos
I never seem to have my camera around when I want it, especially when I'm biking, so I'm making a camera mount for my handlebars. That way I can also take decent low-res videos of my epic rides.  Instructions are here and the bits cost about $2 from the hardware store. (Note: The Ace Hardware at S. 12th and Sprague carries all of the bike-sized metric bolts that you could ever need.)

Tires
I've wanted to upgrade the rear tire on our Madsen, but no local shop stocks a 20" Marathon. Well last Saturday the Mrs. and I found ourselves in Seattle, volunteering at the Winter Beer Festival. We had parked at a B&B called Inn of Twin Gables*, where we would be staying the night, then walked over the Ballard bridge to Hale's for the event.

About half-way over the bridge, we spotted the Dutch Bicycle Company of Seattle.  What luck!  We checked out their awesome selection of Dutch bikes and they happened to have just one 20" Big Apple burried up in the rafters.  I strapped it to my bag and we continued to the festival where we poured tastes from Schooner EXACT Brewing.  They took home the second place people's choice prize for their Hoppy the Woodman barrel-aged winter ale.  The beer was great and we had an awesome time.

*I highly recommend the Inn of Twin Gables.  Katie, the innkeeper, was an excellent host (a story of her grandmother provided the title of this post.)  And she made us a very tasty and healthy breakfast.  Possibly the best night I've ever had away from home, and at a very reasonable price.

Rain Cover

The kid's don't mind getting a little cold and wet, but the downpours in November and the sub-freezing temps of December are extremes that I'm not always comfortable biking in with children.

I'd seen pictures of Madsen's prototype rain cover, but have heard it's been shelved for a different design.  Being cheap and not wanting to wait for a produciton model, I'm making my own.  The frame is made of 1/2" EMT electrical conduit.  It's super light and easy to form, plus the frame disassembles into two pieces for summer storage.   The cover itself will be made from outdoor canvas and clear plastic.  A drawcord at the bottom will go under the lip of the bucket and hold the frame down.  This is where I am so far.  You'll have to imagine the rest.

This should work fine for low-speed, winter kid hauling.  I'll post more photos and a how-to when it's done.

Tacoma Craft Beer Festival 2009

The first annual Tacoma Craft Beer Festival was awesome! There was live music, raffle prizes, a fun vibe, and plenty of tasty beer.

There was quite a buzz about cans. Can coating technology has improved recently and many craft breweries are embracing the can as a better way to deliver their beer to the masses. 21st Amendment Brewing was pouring their IPA straight from the can and had paperboard 6-pack packaging that seemed far superior to those plastic rings that kill dolphins. 7 Seas Brewing of Gig Harbor is/will be canning as well, and they have can-shaped glassware for their taproom that opens October 15.

Beers I really enjoyed (and remembered the next day!):
Hoppy Holidays and 3 Grid IPA from Schooner EXACT
Hoptober from New Belgium
British Pale Ale from 7 Seas

I liked the tasting mug with the handle - I saw no one drop their cup. The 4 oz. taste seemed like too much beer for a person like me that can only handle a few pints. There seemed to be a good number of food vendors (with vegetarian options) and no/short lines for toilets. I don't recall seeing a water fountain. Event shirts sold-out quickly (in my size). Next year will simply have to be bigger. I can't wait for next year.

If you went, what did you like? How can the festival be even better next year?

TCBF

photo by The Red Hot

The fine folks at The Red Hot are spearheading the first (hopefully annual) TACOMA CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL. It's happening today, Saturday, October 3rd, and runs from noon until 9pm. It's an indoor event with live music, food vendors, and plenty of unique, quality beers to taste. Bonus points if you bike there. Don't forget your pretzel necklace and your ID (you must be 21 to attend.)

The News Tribune did an article on Wednesday that highlighted a few of the brewers that will be there. Do yourself a favor and visit the Schooner EXACT booth. Good stuff.

Cheers!

T-Town Throwdown

MetroParks is putting on their third annual T-Town Throwdown, a trials riding competition at the Ruston waterfront in Tacoma on July 18. This seems like the kind of biking event that anyone would appreciate. I'd like to take the girls down there on the Madsen, but getting back up the hill afterwards sounds daunting. Maybe the Burley trailer would be better...

Here's the best trials video I've seen on the web, by Inspired Bicycles featuring Danny MacAskill.

TBR does SLC

I had been to Salt Lake City a few times, but was never able to take in much of the culture and nightlife on those trips. But if you have even just a half-day, you can find many ways to get around and check-out this beautiful town. The TRAX light rail, UTA busses, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure everywhere. One of our favorites were these buckets of "lollipops" that you can use to cross busy streets in marked cross-walks.

There is a bucket of flags on either side and you just grab one before you cross, so you'll be that much more visible to motorists.

One would also think that bicycles are taking over the city with as much attention and publicity they seem to get.

Bikes were to be found parked on nearly every block. This hitching post was outside the County City Building.

After visiting Madsen Cycles on Friday, our destination on Saturday was the Main Library.

The building is a beautiful structure of glass and stone that feels like a modern-day coliseum. We discovered displays of art and knowledge at every turn, from posters describing the lives of peace leaders like Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. on the lower basement level, to a selection of Thoreau books on the 4th floor that included a children's adaptation of Walden Pond called "The Trouble With Henry".

By the time we reached the roof-top deck, we had already walked through the Live Green Expo that was going on in the courtyard below.

This was completely coincidental, as we had no idea that this event was taking place until we stumbled upon it. First we found the booth of an electric scooter and bicycle company that had an A2B that caught my eye. I liked the part spec, especially the 20"x3.0" tires and Avid mechanical disc brakes.

There was a huge solar panel array powering a Squatters Brewing beer trailer (cooling beer with the sun...awesome) next to the Stick Dog Pedicabs booth, where we ran into their fleet of Madsen bucket bikes. One was decked out with a custom vinyl cover that I admired.


After running into Jared Madsen in the crowd, we spotted members of the band Shake your Peace setting up for a bike-powered concert that we unfortunately couldn't attend later that afternoon.


The rest of the day included a stroll through Liberty Park, authentic Napoli pizza at Settebello (two thumbs up for the pizza lasagna), a ride on the TRAX, and a pint of Wasatch Evolution Amber Ale. What a great city.

In fact, I kept asking myself, "Why don't I live here?" And the answer was air quality. My sister says that the inversion haze can block the view of the Ocher Mountains from the opposite side of the valley on really bad days. At the Live Green expo I saw how many ways Utahans are trying to improve that situation, so perhaps one day SLC will make it to the top of my list. For now, it's a great place to visit and I look forward to going back.