There will be a Confident Cycling Course held on June 10th at 6:30 PM at the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, 913 Hwy 6, Coralville. To register, send an email to mark(at)iowabicyclecoalition.org or call (515) 309-2867. Course fee is $15 and materials will be provided. The course will be the classroom portion of the Traffic Skills 101 curriculum from the League of American Bicyclists.
rain date…!
•May 13, 2009 • Leave a CommentThe Bike to Work Week Mayor’s Ride, scheduled for today, is being postponed until tomorrow, Thursday, May 14th. The ride will depart from Chauncy Swan Park in Iowa City, at 5:30pm. The ride goes to the Coralville New Pioneer Coop, where there will be food, music and other festivities. World of Bikes will be giving out free sets of bike lights. Please help us spread the word by posting and forwarding the news.
Feel free to meet at the shop & we can all ride over to the park together around 5:35pm.
in the news once again…& iowa city’s first bike way…& bike to work week…
•May 9, 2009 • Leave a CommentHere is an article that was written about the shop that was published in this month’s Little Village!
http://www.littlevillagemag.com/content/2009/05/eco-ridin/
It mainly focuses on the Bicycle Friendly Business award that The Broken Spoke received earlier this year. It even has a photograph of Pete hard at work!
This Sunday, May 10th(noon – 4:00pm), is the College Street Bike Way event.
See the flyer here:
http://www.cicbikeweek.org/Images/bike_way_flyer.pdf
It will help kick off Bike To Work Week, which begins this Monday, May 11th.
Check out the link to see all of the events that are planned throughout the week.
http://www.cicbikeweek.org
five wheels in five days…
•May 7, 2009 • 1 CommentI’ve said it before. “When it rains, it pours.”
A total of three rear wheel rebuilds & two new wheels came out of the shop last week.
One of which, was a Phil Wood single speed hub sensibly laced up triple crossed to a 28 hole DT RR1.1 rim. A White Industries sixteen tooth freewheel will eventually drive it forward as soon as it arrives any day now. Nice!
cyclists’ rights rally at the capitol…
•April 15, 2009 • Leave a CommentHere is a super-brief recap of today’s rally in Des Moines.
– photo © Christina Anthony 2009
At least a couple hundred cyclists showed up for what turned out to be an amazing and inspiring event advocating cyclists’ rights. Speakers included Iowa City’s own Senator Joe Bolkcom who left an in-session Senate meeting to speak at the rally and Maria Ruhtenberg who was present when Doug Smith was run over this past weekend by a motorist.
cyclists ride in protest on wednesday 4/15…
•April 13, 2009 • Leave a CommentFrom The Iowa Bicycle Coalition:
“Cyclists will ride to the Iowa Capitol on Wednesday, April 15 at 5:30 PM in opposition to the violent crashes and road rage incidents that have occurred this spring. The ride will begin in the parking lot of Rasmussen’s Bike Shop at 301 Grand Ave in West Des Moines.
The ride follows a crash near Winterset, where the driver of a truck pulling a trailer passed too closely to a group of cyclists, ran over one cyclist with his trailer and left the scene. Cyclists report the motorist was honking constantly as he passed and returned to the scene 30 minutes later.
Another crash this year involved Ken Sherman. Sherman was riding through an intersection in Des Moines when a car failed to yield to the oncoming cyclist and collided with Sherman causing injuries. The Des Moines Police failed to issue any citations following the incident, but determined the motorist to be at fault.
The Iowa Legislature considered clarifying the Iowa Code to specify passing distances and safe following distances for bicyclists. The bill failed to be considered through the funnel date despite passing in the Senate.
Whether or not new laws were enacted, cyclists still have the same rights and duties of the drivers of motor vehicles as specified in the Iowa Code. Incidents where cyclists are injured due to the inattentiveness of motorists are irresponsible and should be cited by police as appropriate. Incidents where cyclists are harassed or intimidated intentionally are violent and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
yes…the broken spoke is indeed on facebook…
•April 8, 2009 • Leave a CommentSo, enough people have asked me if the shop is on facebook that I thought I’d post it here to make it easy for anyone to check it out!
Just click here to see The Broken Spoke’s facebook page.
the league of american bicyclists announces the broken spoke as a bronze bicycle friendly business…
•March 6, 2009 • 5 Comments
The Broken Spoke is the first & only(so far) Iowa business to be officially recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Business by the League of American Bicyclists!
From the press release:
“Washington, DC – March 03, 2009 – The League of American Bicyclists is proud to announce The Broken Spoke named as a bronze Bicycle Friendly Business and is one of the 34 new BFB award winners. This is the second time BFB winners have been announced since the program’s inception in 2008 when the League announced the first 13 designees. “We’re delighted to highlight The Broken Spoke and the ways in which they are getting more people on bikes,” stated League President Andy Clark. “In today’s challenging economic climate, businesses with healthy, happy and productive employees are going to be the most competitive and the most sustainable – the Bicycle Friendly Business program recognizes some of the best examples of this in practice.”
Businesses that apply for the award designation inspire and encourage their peers. The Broken Spoke serves as an example for best practices and innovations in bicycle friendliness at the workplace. The Broken Spoke makes bicycling an easy option for transportation and provides the highest level of respect given to bicycles.
The BFB program recognizes socially responsible businesses that promote healthy, happy, and green workplaces and provides a road map to become even more bicycle-friendly in the years to come. “Businesses across the nation are rising to the challenge of reducing their carbon footprint and improving the health of their employees – we are excited to be able to provide a roadmap to help achieve both these goals, and to recognize those companies that are leading the way,” said Clark.
Bicycle Friendly Businesses are corporations, organizations, nonprofits and associations that weave bicycling into their business culture and give employees and customers the opportunity to be active stewards of their personal and environmental health through bicycling. When bicycling is infused in an office or company culture, great things happen: reduced health care costs; more productive employees; improved worker and customer; satisfaction; smaller carbon footprint; and increased corporate social responsibility.
Applying as a BFB is easy and free. Applicants receive technical assistance from the League staff as well as tools to evaluate and assess their bicycle friendliness through the application process. The BFB application is available online at www.bicyclefriendlybusiness.org.
The Bicycle Friendly Community and Bicycle Friendly Business programs are generously supported by program partners Bikes Belong and Trek Bicycle’s One World, Two Wheels Campaign.
The League of American Bicyclists promotes bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation, and works through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America. The League represents the interests of America‘s 57 million bicyclists, including its 300,000 members and affiliates. For more information or to support the League, visit http://www.bikeleague.org.”
more snowflake laced wheels…
•February 17, 2009 • Leave a CommentHere are a couple of wheels I built for a customer this past week.
The front is a Surly disc hub laced to a ZHI trials rim(with crazy drilled out holes for weight-saving madness).
The rear is a Shimano Alfine eight speed internal hub laced to the same ZHI rim.
If you’ll look closely, you’ll see that Magnus & The Weiner Posse are stealthly represented in this photograph.
an overemphasis of effectiveness…
•December 21, 2008 • Leave a Comment
If studded tyres(& a very good rider) can keep this GSX-R upright on a lake of frozen ice at speed, then they can certainly help prevent a bicyclist from sliding & falling.
I have sold out of my second run of studded bicycle tyres so far. This means that more and more of you are riding through the Winter. Well done!
The Broken Spoke 