Santa and his Elves -- on a Bike

By group ride standards, the number of cyclists was modest, but for a group of Santa Clauses and Elves, we had a good turnout. Atlanta isn't quite as chilly as the North Pole, but with the wind, we gained an appreciation for the fur-lined clothing that Santa wears.

Motorists and passerby gained an appreciation for how much fun it is to ride around town on bicycles decorated like Christmas trees. The merry-making pulled happy beeps out of car horns and cheers out of pedestrians. Who can resist Santa on a bike?

Warren Bruno got us together to kick off fund-raising for the Georgia Chain Gang. The Chain Gang entered the Race Across America (RAAM) as a four-man team last year, finished second in the fund-raising and has set a goal of $120,000 for next year's race. The beneficiary is the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.

Ride Summary

Round Trip Distance: 11.6
Sponsored by: Georgia Chain Gang (RAAM 4-man team)
Beneficiary of the Fundraiser: Leukemia Lymphoma Society - goal is $120,000.
Weather: Chilly going into the wind, but pleasant coming back
Number of Jaegermeisters: either counting by the shot or by the bottle, too many to count.
Number of Santas and Elves: 20+
Number of mechanical problems: 1 boa caught in the spokes

Decatur Full Moon Ride - The Report

We never found out who "Amoonymous" was. He (or she) may have been with us on the ride this evening, but even with the unsolved mystery, we still enjoyed their route.



We plan to do this one again.

Ride Summary

Farmer's Almanac: Sturgeon Moon
Round Trip Distance: 24.9 miles from Virginia-Highland
Number of Cyclists on the ride: 18
Route: 15.5 miles starting/ending at the Decatur Square and passing by a cemetery
Weather: Perfect for riding, but a little hazy for moon viewing; the moon came up right as we started our ride.

Decatur Full Moon Ride

I had heard about Full Moon rides from a fellow blogger up in Massachusetts so I'm jumping at the chance to ride a local version on Wednesday night Aug. 5.



The 6AM Arches group brought to my attention the Decatur Full Moon Ride on Wednesday August 5 at 9PM at the Decatur Square. I don't know if there is a separate website for this, but VaHi Velo has posted an event on Facebook.

The world is a different place on a bike at night and it's a different place during a Full Moon. We'll see what that combination brings.

Courteous Mass Lifting

photo courtesy of Courteous Mass Atlanta (on Facebook)

January's Courteous Mass in Atlanta raised the bar by raising bicycles. The bike lift is a celebration of cycling that originated with Critical Mass as part of corking intersections. Since Courteous Mass doesn't cork intersections, if we didn't want to be left out of the fun, we had to come up with a Courteous Bike Lift. For this, we found a few spots out of the way of traffic where we could lift our bikes in mass. This photo was taken on the southeast corner of the 5th Street Bridge on Georgia Tech's campus.

As Dr. Drago puts it, "To complement the ride's cardio-vascular conditioning, the Courteous Bike Lift develops upper-body strength."

Courteous Mass Atlanta has a Facebook group. Announcements of future rides and reviews of past rides can be found here. All are welcome to join and to invite others.

Ride Summary

Round Trip Distance: About 7 miles
Number of Cyclists seen: more than 40 rode in our group and we spotted several others.
Route: Centennial Park, Georgia Tech, Colony Square, Krispy Kreme, Peachtree
Weather: Dry, clear and mild

Speed Vest Demo at Atlantic Station

 

A group of cyclists enjoyed a ride from Sopo Bike Co-op where the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign was handing out bicycle lights, over to Atlantic Station for the Tree Lighting and other events.

Along the way, we were treated to a demonstration of the Speed Vest by its inventor Brady Clark.

When we arrived at Atlantic Station we were greeted by ABC's Bike Valet (pictured above). It's a treat to receive special treatment because you've arrived on a bicycle.

We narrowly missed getting a local TV station to film a demonstration, but with video camera in hand, we captured a few shots:

Light up the Night - On Bikes!

Does your bike have lights? If it doesn't, you'll especially be interested in this ride because the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign -- thanks to a seed donation from REI and Free Flight Bicycles -- is providing bicycle lights for anyone who shows up for this ride on a bike without lights. Of course, if you have lights, you can still ride with us. The more the merrier.

We're happy to be riding with the inventor of the Speed Vest which displays your speed on your back as your ride. Visit his site to see just how cool this is, and then come ride alongside him as we head to Atlantic Station's Tree Lighting.

I'll be leading this family-paced ride out of Virginia-Highland's Aurora Coffee starting at 4:15 on Saturday, November 22, arriving at Sopo Bicycle Co-operative in East Atlanta Village around 5:00PM where the lights will be distributed. We'll leave Sopo at 5:30 to distribute more lights at Atlantic Station and arrive in time for the Tree Lighting at 7:30. Bike Valet will be provided by ABC volunteers so we can stop for supper and other activities. Follow the link to Atlantic Station for the schedule of events.

Around 8PM, we'll head back to Virginia-Highland for a total of about 17 miles.

All are welcome to join us at any of the locations -- including Atlantic Station -- but only the departure times from Aurora Coffee and Sopo are definite at this time.

Atlanta Courteous Mass Oct 2008

 

Nick and Catherine are decorating their bike trailer while Tom and Carli await the start of the ride at Woodruff Park. Carli had a little more time to decorate than others, but many riders took pieces of the fluorescent flagging tape to dress up their bikes.

We got mixed up in lots of events that were going on in Downtown Atlanta.

As we passed between Centennial Park and Phillips Arena, we got re-directed by an officer working the traffic coming into the Atlanta Thrashers season opener.

In Atlantic Station, they were setting up for an outdoor food festival called Taste of Atlanta and were BARRED from cruising through. Actually, we were being courteous since this was Courteous Mass and decided to go around the restricted streets.

Then, we realized what a cruising zone Peachtree Street turns into on a Friday. There were cars everywhere and a big group of bikes stuck in the middle of it all. There was some event at the Fox Theater, but we couldn't tell what because by the time we got down to 5th Street, we decided to ride one block east on Courtland.

 

Courtland at Ralph McGill during Courteous Mass. Blue-domed hotel was tallest in Atlanta when I visited in 1969.

Good route and good company!

A Fun, Social, Recreational Christmas Tree Ride

There was nothing utility about this ride. Pure recreation.


When I was growing up, I calculated the speed at which a single Santa would have to fly and deduced that there must be a whole army of Santa's. We had two assigned to leading our ride.

In keeping with Christmas Tree Bicycle tradition, we also had reindeer and elves.



Cycling Santa was good about leading us to houses with lots of lights, to friends with lights and refreshments, and to bars where he could get us free shots of Jaegermeister. We must have been good cyclists this past year.

More photos here.