Bike to Work Week 2010 kicks into gear on Monday May 31

If you want to give biking to work a try, Bike to Work Week 2010 is next week: Monday, May 31 to Sunday June 6!

Sign up a team from your school or work for the week, and you might win prizes for participation and distance travelled. (There’s bike gear, gift certificates, and free bikes on offer!)

And watch for commuter stations around the Lower Mainland, with free coffee, snacks, and more prizes, plus mechanics to tune up your bike if needed. (Here’s a look at the TransLink commuter station in Metrotower II from 2008.)

This year, Bike to Work Week is also having its first ever awards reception on June 10! Buy a ticket and you can celebrate your biking success with other cycling folks.

I cycled in Bike to Work Week last year (and I’ll do it again this year!), and here’s some handy 2009 posts to help you prep for the 2010 edition:

• Bike to Work Week: prepping for the bike ride
• The bicycle diaries: five things I learned on day one of Bike to Work Week
• Bike to Work Week: an interview with bike mechanic Mike Grant

If you’re just getting started, check out a VACC bike workshop, and try mapping your route on UBC’s handy cycling route planner, which I profiled in 2009.

Take a Great Ride and see the cherry blossoms in Vancouver, Sat Apr 17

Take a Great Ride on Saturday and see the cherry blossoms in Vancouver!

As you may have seen in the April Buzzer, we’re teaming up with the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition to offer four Great Rides this year—that’s four fun bike tours exploring the festivals, city centres, and lovely country lanes of Metro Vancouver!

The first Great Ride of 2010 is the Bike the Blossoms ride on Saturday April 17, taking you on a meandering loop from Vanier Park to VanDusen Botanical Garden, through Vancouver’s East Side, then back to Vanier Park. You’ll see several types of cherry blossoms as well as several sides of Vancouver!

Start any time between 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. — if you finish up by 4:30 p.m., you’ll be entered to win some prizes. Refreshments, live entertainment, and on-site bike mechanics will also be on hand during the ride, and at the end there will be festivities and vegetarian-friendly BBQ food for sale.

The ride is organized in partnership with the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Society, celebrating the 36,000+ Japanese ornamental cherry trees in Vancouver. Ride registrants also receive half-price entry to VanDusen Botanical Garden and the Museum of Vancouver at Vanier Park.

For more information, including registration costs and more, visit the Great Rides website at www.greatrides.ca and get riding!

Bike valets offer free secure bike parking in Vancouver

The bike valet service near LiveCity Yaletown in downtown Vancouver.

If you’re cycling to Olympic events in Vancouver, remember that you can leave your bike at several “bike valet” locations, which offer free, secure, staffed bike parking.

Check out the full list of Vancouver bike valet locations — both LiveCity locations have one nearby, and they are also near Pacific Coliseum, the Vancouver Olympic Centre (curling), and B.C. Place and Canada Hockey Place. They’re run by BEST, a sustainable transportation group.

I rode my bike in for the opening ceremonies, and left my bike with the valet at LiveCity Yaletown. (It was a bit hidden but they were arranging for better signage as I went in! It’s basically right across the street from the LiveCity Yaletown entrance.)

It works just like a coat check: leave your bike and get a ticket, then come back with your ticket to claim your bike again.

The bike valet wasn’t super full when I was there in the early afternoon on Friday, but I’m guessing more cyclists will discover it as an option!

Here are just a few more photos of the facilities at Yaletown.

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A Dutch bike ride in Richmond! (You can do it too!)

One of the 400 Dutch bikes sent from Holland to Richmond!

Since we’re talking transportation and Olympics this month: did you know you can ride a Dutch bike in Richmond during the Games?

Holland’s national railway has sent 400 Dutch rental bicycles over to Richmond, which will be free for use by the public, athletes, and the staff of Holland Heineken House during the Games. (Holland Heineken House is the enormous official Dutch pavilion in Richmond – here’s a Vancouver Sun article about it!)

I was lucky enough to ride one of the bikes last Saturday, February 6, when the bikes debuted in a public bike ride. A huge number of Metro Vancouver’s Dutch residents turned out to claim a bike and ride it along the new Richmond bike trail near the Olympic Oval. Everyone wore orange vests, the national Dutch colour! Here’s a couple of photos.

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Olympic travel tips: bike travel during the Games

For those who might be on our system for the first time during the Olympics, here’s a short series of tips to help you get on your way. (If you do know this stuff already, please pass it along to those who might find this useful!)

So far in the Olympic tips series: info on tickets, bike info, Park and Rides, a guide to transit staff, where to find real-time transit info online, and transit etiquette. Let me know if I should add anymore!

If you plan to ride your bike around the region during the Games, here’s some info to help you plan your journey.

Biking to Olympic events

Cycling!

Bike parking will be available at all the Olympic venues in Vancouver and Richmond, and at UBC.

Check the individual venue pages at vancouver2010.com to see the exact bike parking location at each venue.

In Vancouver, the City has expanded and changed some biking routes to help cyclists get around town during the Games. Visit the City’s bike routes page for details. They also have a bigger list of all bike parking locations in the city.

Richmond’s bike routes will remain unchanged for the Games. Here’s their Olympic info about route info and bike parking at their venues. And here’s their main non-Olympic cycling page for even more info.

Bikes and transit

Sadly, you cannot take your bike on SkyTrain from Monday February 8 to Wednesday March 3.

Bikes will be permitted on SeaBus, West Coast Express, and all buses.

Unfortunately, bikes won’t be allowed on SkyTrain from Monday, February 8 to Wednesday, March 3, since rush-hour crowds are expected all day during the Olympics. (Folding bicycles that can be stored in a bag will still be permitted.)

You can still bike to a station then hop on the train, though. Bike racks are located at all SkyTrain stations, bus exchanges, and Park & Ride lots. There are also bike lockers available for monthly rental at many locations too – check the TransLink bike locker page for more info.

Plan your cycling trip

A screenshot of the UBC cycling trip planner.

Also! You can plan your bike trip with UBC’s cycling trip planner which has now been updated with info on Olympic bike parking and reroutes. (We contributed our bike info to this site—it’s a great tool!)

We’ve also updated the regional cycling map, with information about the new bike routes built in the last several years, plus bike shop locations and more. You can find the map online—check out the “Full Maps” on our cycling page—or pick up a print copy from the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition’s new offices at 3 West 3rd Ave in Vancouver, Mon-Fri 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Check our vendors too: the maps are making their way out to them.)

General winter riding tips

Check out the main cycling page on the TransLink website – it links to some great community resources, like the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition (VACC), who you can turn to for cycling help.

The VACC has also pointed out some informative 2010 cycling posts from Biking Bis and Pedal Pundit.

Plus, last November, we were also a major sponsor of Bike to Work Week to get people ready for winter riding. I wrote some winter riding tips up for the blog: here’s one on prepping for your ride, plus five things learned from riding (plus five more lessons!), and how to care for your bike in winter.

Hope this helps — please do leave comments if you have more to add!

Bike to Work Week: an interview with bike mechanic Mike Grant

Mike Grant, bike mechanic from Edmonds Cycle, at the Bike to Work Week commuter station at Metrotown.

For Bike to Work Week, I thought I’d talk to a bike mechanic and ask for some tips on caring for your bicycle—especially for novices.

Mike Grant from Edmonds Cycle was kind enough to share his advice. He also helped out at the TransLink commuter station on the B.C. Parkway this morning – so thanks times two to you, Mike!

If you currently have a bike, what are a few symptoms of future problems you should watch out for?

The most important thing is to check that everything is tight—the bolts are tight, your handlebar bolts are tight, the pedals, the crank bolts, no loose spokes.

Everyone should have an Allan key. You can check everything with about three sizes of Allan key, and you should do it once a month, depending on how much you’re riding. You just want to make sure nothing will fall off. You’ll notice if things are loose. If something feels weird on your bike, then there usually is something wrong.

The next big thing is your gears: make sure your chain is lubed. If a chain gets dry, it will be at risk for breaking and won’t shift very well. You can do it two times a week if you’re riding daily. Don’t use WD-40, since it’s too thin. Chain lube is thicker and will stay on for a good period of time. Tri-Flow and ProLink are good brands.

Tire pressure also highly affects the ride. Check every week or two: give your tires a pinch or use a gauge. If you’re on the road, your tire pressure should be maxed out completely. And every tire shows the pressure max and min on it.

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The bicycle diaries: five more things learned from biking to work

Me riding on the B.C. Parkway on Monday. Hello!

I’ve been biking to work for three days now! Here’s a few more lessons I’m learning while out there. (I wrote about five other lessons on Monday.)

1. Biking home in the dark isn’t scary, but it is really easy to get lost.

The trail I follow in the morning (the B.C. Parkway) can be very confusing to navigate backward in the dark.

I was lucky to have an experienced cyclist friend bike back with me on the first day, which gave me a strong idea of where to go. But as I ride to work now, I find I’m trying to memorize landmarks on the route so I can better orient myself on the ride back. (“Was that playground on my left when I rode to work? Then it should be on my right now.”)

I’m not sure what other strategies you could use to get around this one, besides asking all the municipalities to post a huge amount of obvious signage. Biking your route over and over seems to be the only way to know the twists and turns so you can stay on the right path at night.

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The bicycle diaries: five things I learned on day one of Bike to Work Week

Yours truly, arriving at Metrotown for work.

It’s Bike to Work Week this week! And as today is the first time I’ve biked to work, I thought I’d share five lessons I’ve learned along the way.

1. Check the weather before you go!

Knowing the forecast helps you equip yourself appropriately for your ride. For example, I saw it wasn’t supposed to rain much today, so I could wear some water-resistant boots for my ride.

2. Dressing in layers really helps.

Boy, does your body temperature fluctuate throughout your journey. You’re freezing when you start out, but as you keep pedaling, you get warmer and warmer—and if you hit a hill, you’re burning up! So if you wear layers that you can take off as your ride progresses, this can help you stay at a comfortable temperature.

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Bike to Work Week: prepping for the bike ride

This lady probably knows a lot about getting ready to bike to work.

If you’re new to Bike to Work Week, do you need gear or anything to be ready for the ride? (Besides a bike and a helmet, obviously!)

Well, I turned to the experienced cyclists at TransLink for their advice on preparing for the Week. (I’m going to need it, as I’ll be cycling to work!) Let’s see what they have to say.

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Bike to Work Week starts up on Monday, Nov. 2

Hop on your bicycle for Bike to Work Week: Monday, November 2 to Friday, November 6!

I’m even going to try it this year, and I’m rather a novice at cycling. (I’ll write a bit about my experience getting ready to ride, in case it’s of use to potential cyclists out there.)

This is the second 2009 Bike to Work Week put on by the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition in 2009. As you may have guessed, the Week is designed to encourage cycling—especially to common destinations like work or school.

Sign up a team from your school or work for the week, and you might win prizes for participation and distance travelled. (There’s bike gear, gift certificates, and free bikes on offer!)

And watch for commuter stations around the Lower Mainland, with free coffee, snacks, and more prizes, plus mechanics to tune up your bike if needed. (Here’s a look at the TransLink commuter station in Metrotower II from 2008.)

For those worried about biking in traffic, the VACC offers courses to help get you comfortable on the road. See if your workplace will sponsor a course – the VACC has workshops aimed at safety, comfort, route planning and increasing bicycle knowledge. (Their site also has handy tips for biking, especially in winter.)

And if you don’t know the bike routes in your area, try out UBC’s handy cycling route planner, which I also profiled on the blog.

Give it a try — maybe I’ll see you out there on the road!

MEC Great Rides: ride the Bikennale on Sun Oct 4!

Walking Figures by Magdalena Abakanowicz, one of the Vancouver Biennale sculptures to see on the Bikennale tour. (Photo from the Vancouver Biennale.)

MEC, TransLink and the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition have teamed up to offer some Great Rides this summer—four fun bike tours that let you explore the festivals, city centres, and lovely country lanes of Metro Vancouver.

The last ride is this Sunday, and takes you on a tour of the sculptures installed for the Vancouver Biennale, a 21-month-long celebration and exhibition featuring some of the world’s most prominent sculptors.

You’ll get to see the sculptures in many Vancouver neighbourhoods: the full route runs through Vanier Park, Gastown, the West End, along the Seawall, and to Van Dusen Gardens.

Register online for the Bikennale now: it’s $15 to sign up online and $20 to sign up on the event day (but free for those 16 and under!) Online registrations are also entered to win a set of Axiom panniers with a rack.

Your fee gets you a vegetarian BBQ at the end of the ride, free refreshments at many stops along the route, and help from bike mechanics to keep your bike in top shape! You also get free admission to the Van Dusen Gardens.

Check in for the ride at Vanier Park (1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver) between 10am and 12:30pm. The short version of the route is 13 km, and the full route is 36 km, and it concludes at Vanier Park from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Check out the Bikennale event page for all the details!

Canada Line bike lockers now available

Store your bike in a locker at a Canada Line station, and you won't need to take it on the train.

Bike lockers at most Canada Line stations are now available!

A locker is $30 for a three-month period, plus a refundable key deposit. Check out the bike lockers page on the main TransLink website to see the locker locations and sign up to get one.

Canada Line pedestrian-bicycle bridge opens Friday, Aug. 14

The Canada Line pedestrian-bicycle bridge, approaching from the Vancouver side.

A map of the bridge location – click for a larger version.

We’re opening the Canada Line Pedestrian-Bicycle Bridge on Friday Aug. 14!

It’s a new walking/cycling bridge attached to the side of the North Arm Bridge—that’s the bridge carrying the Canada Line over the Fraser River, connecting Vancouver and Richmond.

The $10 million bridge was built and financed by TransLink, in conjunction with Canada Line. As cycling networks are developed in Richmond and Vancouver, this bridge provides a vital link between the cities!

Plus if you’re interested, there’s a small opening ceremony taking place tomorrow morning, with things kicking off at 12:30 p.m. (It’s just a ceremony: no cake or entertainment or anything!)

Parking is very limited, so please bike, walk, or take transit to the Vancouver side, and you can join us for a ceremonial first walk across the bridge.

The walk will be led by TransLink CEO Tom Prendergast and Vancouver Deputy Mayor Geoff Meggs from the north side, accompanied by police bike patrols, and meeting with Acting Mayor Ken Johnston of Richmond in the centre.

They will then carry on to the south side of the span, where a ribbon cutting ceremony will take place on the Richmond side. Once the ceremony is complete, the bridge will be opened for bicycle and pedestrian traffic! (It will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by the way.)

MEC Great Rides take you to Pitt Meadows on Sat Aug 15!

A dike on the Pitt Meadows Great Ride route! Just imagine riding through there!

MEC, TransLink and the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition have teamed up to offer some Great Rides this summer—four fun bike tours that let you explore the festivals, city centres, and lovely country lanes of Metro Vancouver.

The second ride is this Saturday through beautiful farmland in Pitt Meadows, along the dikes near the Fraser and Pitt Rivers and surrounded by the Golden Ears mountains. Plus, taste local honey, see a bee beard, and enjoy some music at Honeyland‘s Blueberries and Bees honey festival!

Almost all the route is off-road, on the flat, well-maintained dike paths, and if you get tired, there is a nice bike path halfway around the dike that will take you back to the starting point in central Pitt Meadows.

You can start any time from 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., and there’s a cost of $15 per adult (16 and under are free!). The fee gives you free entry into the festival, a bag of goodies, maps of the route, and access to refreshment stations along the way—plus bike valet parking and help from bike mechanics to tune up or fix your bike.

Check out the event page for all the details! Register online now if you’re interested; it costs $20 to register on the day!

Here’s the post about the first Great Ride in July, btw, which took riders over the Golden Ears Bridge between Langley and Maple Ridge.

MEC Great Rides kick off with Golden Ears bike ride, Sun July 12

The Golden Ears Bridge on opening day! The Great Ride bike tour this weekend will take you over the bridge on its two-metre wide sidewalks.

MEC, TransLink and the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition have teamed up to offer some Great Rides this summer—four fun bike tours that let you explore the festivals, city centres, and lovely country lanes of Metro Vancouver.

The first one starts this Sunday, and includes a ride over the new Golden Ears Bridge!

Check out the event page for all the details. You can start any time from 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.: the ride takes you to the Caribbean Festival in Maple Ridge, Old Fort Langley, and the bike lanes on the Golden Ears Bridge in between.

There’s a cost of $15 per adult (16 and under are free!), and that gives you free entry into Old Fort Langley, a bag of goodies, maps of the route, and access to refreshment stations along the way—plus bike valet parking and help from bike mechanics to tune up or fix your bike.

Hop to it now if you’re interested: online registration for the ride closes Saturday, July 11 at 12 noon, and registration on the day is cash or cheque only!