Let’s start this weekly update with some fun pictures: As our board member Grant pointed out, our Badger Band is a biking band!
If you ride past the band practice field at this time of year, you’ll see tons of bikes parked there. On my way back from work, I hung around a bit and took pictures of the band members biking themselves and their instruments back home.
More shots here.
Happy Labor Day!
I’m going to have to take it slow today: Bombay Bicycle Club hosted their Wright Stuff Century as a fundraiser for Free Bikes 4 Kidz yesterday. I did the 64 mile route on the tandem, and after all those hills I’m pretty sore and tired. But it was a great event, benefiting a great local bike charity! Thanks to all the volunteers that made it happen.
Photo credit: Karla King/Bombay Bicycle Club
If you’re reading this early and have energy for some manual labor, go to the trail building day in Cross Plains:
The CP trails are riding great and our locals are getting the itch to finish the remaining west loop and turn the out-and-back in to a full loop. We will be renting an excavator the weekend of Labor Day and are looking for helpers to hand finish behind our equipment crew. No experience necessary and family members are welcome. We will supply hand tools and refreshments, but please bring your own gloves, water, and bug spray.
Starts at 9am, more details here.
On Wednesday, you can practice your cyclocross skills. Capital City Offroad Pathfinders, Madison Parks, Neff Cycles, and L5 are offering weekly clinics in parks around town, both for newbies to cyclocross and more advanced riders. This Wednesday they’ll be at Badger Prairie County Park, starting at 5:30 pm. More details.
Also on Wednesday, the Madison Area Transportation Planning Board is meeting. The big item on the agenda is the public hearing on the Draft 2020-2024 Transportation Improvement Program for the Madison Metropolitan Area & Dane County, a.k.a. the TIP. This is an important document that lays out the budget for all regional transportation projects in the next four years. Unfortunately, it is a long and rather unwieldy document, which makes it difficult to digest and comment on. You can find it in all its 123-page glory here. The meeting takes place at the City-County Building, Room 351, 6:30 pm.
The event I’m most excited about this week is on Saturday morning: It’s the ribbon cutting for the new Blackhawk Path segment in Shorewood Hills! This is a great addition to our low-stress bike network, as you no longer have to ride on Marshall Court and make awkward right/left crossings at University Bay Drive. Come and celebrate at 9 am at the University Station mall. And in the meantime, check out our video of the new path:
If you want to test fancy mountain bikes, you can join Giant Bicycle for two demo events this weekend: At Quarry Ridge on Saturday from 9-4; and at the Blackhawk Trails on Sunday between 10-4. Click the links for more details.
Finally, the Fair Share Coalition is looking for volunteers for Bike the Barns. Sign up here.
It’s Liv, over at FairShare again! I’ll keep this short: we are still looking for folks to fill up volunteer slots for FairShare’s Bike the Barns, on September 15th. With up to 800 riders, 4 farm stops (each with live music, farm tours, and food), and an after party featuring 7 local food vendors, there are a lot of hands that go into making this event a success.
As always, you can find an overview of all bike events on our Community Bike Calendar. Email us at info@madisonbikes.org to add your events. And if you value our newsletter and other work, consider donating to Madison Bikes. For construction updates, check out the city’s Bike Madison page.