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Missouri Bicycle Federation, Inc.
Post Office Box 104871 Jefferson City, MO 65110-4871 MoBikeFed is a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation Webmaster email: webmaster @ mobikefed .org 
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posted by Brent Hugh at 7/04/2009 04:39:00 PM
posted by Brent Hugh at 7/02/2009 03:29:00 PM
 BikeBelles has an article about an interesting program designed to get more kids active and bicycling to school--but ended up getting their mothers bicycling with them: The groundbreaking Bike It project is usually all about helping children to get fit and healthy by teaching them the skills they need to cycle safely and responsibly. It's been hugely successful, with thousands of pupils now cycling to school every day.More about the Bike It project on the Sustrans website.
posted by Brent Hugh at 6/24/2009 06:55:00 PM
Park Tools has an excellent online Bike Map that shows you how make make routine repairs or maintenance on any part of the bicycle you click.
posted by Brent Hugh at 6/10/2009 01:50:00 PM
We've covered this a few times before, but it's worth mentioning again--and this article from the University of New South Wales explains the issue in a very clear and concise way:
It seems paradoxical but the more people ride bicycles on our city streets, the less likely they are to be injured in traffic accidents, say injury experts who will speak at a forthcoming cycling safety seminar in Sydney.Over the past decades we in the U.S.--and particularly in Missouri--have been in a sort of death spiral, where less bicycling and walking made it more dangerous (for those hardy souls who still dared walk or bicycle), meaning that even fewer participated, meaning that there was less support for good walking & bicycling facilities, meaning that every fewer participated, creating less political support, greater perception of danger--and so on, year after year and decade after decade, with each year fewer and fewer people walking and bicycling and therefore fewer and fewer good facilities and a decrease in safety each year. But now we've reached the turnaround point, with greater and greater walking and bicycling, greater support for better facilities, and improved safety each year. Now we just have to keep that momentum going in the right direction--where the vicious cycle turns into a virtuous cycle of ever greater participation in walking and bicycling leading to greater safety, more political support, better facilities--each of which in turn leads to more bicycling and walking and a whole cycle of improvement rather than a cycle of destruction.
That is one reason two of the primary goals in MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling & Walking in Missouri are to
Those two goals are not independent--they are linked. Other places around the world and around the U.S. that have worked to improve bicycle and pedestrian facilities and encourage more people to bicycle and walk have found they can quite literally have twice the amount of bicycling & walking with exactly the same amount of injuries--meaning that the injury rate went down 50%.
posted by Brent Hugh at 6/08/2009 09:06:00 PM
Ken Kifer's Bike Pages has a nice summary of the most common bicyclist errors--and how to avoid them.
The top errors: He explains: Most collisions between bicycles and motor vehicles don't happen just by chance; instead, they are bought about by a misunderstanding of how traffic works. . . . On this page, I will 1) explain which cycling behaviors are unsafe, 2) provide diagrams to show various situations in which the cyclist endangers himself or herself, 3) explain what is happening in the diagram and why the behavior is unsafe, and 4) provide a safer alternative.Read more and see the diagrams here.
posted by Brent Hugh at 6/05/2009 03:29:00 PM
The first Saturday in June each year is National Trails Day, organized by the American Hiking Society--how about getting out to enjoy a local trail to celebrate?
Resources: * Take a look at MoBikeFed's list of Missouri Trails * Mid-America Regional Council has provided a map showing the location of about 15 National Trails Day events in the Kansas City area
posted by Brent Hugh at 6/05/2009 10:16:00 AM
How about selling real estate by bicycle? A Colorado company that does just that is planning to expand to new areas of the country, according to this Business Journal article:
Pedal to Properties LLC of Boulder plans to expand into other markets, with help from a recently obtained capital infusion, the company said Wednesday.
posted by Brent Hugh at 6/03/2009 10:04:00 PM
 I just don't know if we bicyclists are going to be able to tolerate a Secretary of Transportation who is actually in favor of bicycling. We're just not used to it!And U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is at it again, writing on his blog: May is National Bike Safety Month. As this Administration works to develop environmentally-sound transportation options, making our streets more bike-friendly is high on the list. Our roads and communities must be built to allow people to get around safely outside of their cars, on bike or on foot.
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/31/2009 12:04:00 PM
 Noah Dunker of the KC Bike Commuting blog documents his first bicycle camping trip:My wife was heading out to see her sister this weekend, so I decided it would be the perfect excuse to go on my first S24O. More has been written about these than I could ever hope to digest, but I decided I'd treat it kind of like a backpacking trip.His story (part 1 and part 2) includes lots of photos, a complete packing list, and lessons learned. 
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/29/2009 11:09:00 AM
 June 12, 2009 Steve Thunder McGuire will be at the starting gate with 32 other bike racing contestants.On the other side of the starting line stretches 2,745 miles of race trail that will take him across the Continental Divide seven times and up an incline rise equal to going from sea level to the top of Mt. Everest seven times. His incentive on this grueling race from Banff, Canada to the New Mexico/Mexico border is to have every mile sponsored so he can be part of finding a treatment for Dense Deposit Disease, also known as MPGN2, a rare kidney disease that affects one of his students.You can find out more about the ride or make a donation at the DivideITT web site. The funds raised go directly to Kidneeds, a non-profit that dedicates 100% of its donations (ie no overhead or administrative costs at all) directly to medical research towards understanding and finding a cure for this kidney disease that most often strikes children and those in their early to mid teens. Most often DDD leads to kidney failure within 5-10 years but the research funded by donations to Kidneeds has made considerable progress towards understanding and treating the disease in just 10 years. (On a personal note, I was diagnosed with DDD at the age of 18 but--so far--have been one of the lucky minority in whom the disease settled down to a steady state rather than progressing to kidney failure as it does in most cases.)
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/26/2009 12:20:00 PM
According to the NY Times, New York City is creating a large pedestrian only area by transforming Broadway from a city street to a pedestrian zone.
When New York City announced a plan to shut down parts of Times Square to traffic, New Yorkers’ reactions ranged from bemusement to mild hysteria.Despite reassurances from the Transportation Department that the changes would create a greener, more pedestrian-friendly city, some critics of the plan worried that it would sap the square of its chaotic energy. Others, apparently nostalgic for the seediness of the 1970s version of the square, denounced it as another step in New York’s transformation from the world’s greatest metropolis to a generic tourist trap.You can see the NYTimes before & after slideshow here and a FlickR set of before & after photos here.
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/21/2009 02:34:00 PM
Mark Johnson of the Liberty Tribune writes:
Taking to the trails and streets. That’s what a rising number of older Northland adults appear to be doing by foot and by bike. The full article has some good advice for those just starting out to bicycle more. Two-thirds of transportation planners and engineers have yet to begin addressing older people in their street planning; yet by 2025, 64 million people will be over age 65 according to census projections and by 2030 a quarter of all U.S. drivers will be 65+. This is the alarm raised by "Planning Complete Streets for the Aging of America" a major new report on roadway safety and the aging of the American population from AARP’s Public Policy Institute. . . .
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/19/2009 09:54:00 AM
 Today's Springfield News-Leader has a long story on how and why to think about bicycling to work:Bike to work, save money, get fit, help the environment. It seems like a no-brainer, yet you still drive to the office every day.One thing that stops many people from even trying bicycle commuting is they get the idea that you have to do it every day, all the time. In fact, most bicycle commuters only ride part of the time. You still get a lot of benefits. * How about only cycling once a week or on selected days, like Casual Fridays. Even just cycling once a week saves 20% on gas and greenhouse emissions and gives you one day's workout. * How about cycling only part way? My wife often takes the bus into work and bicycles home. A friend of mine with a 35 mile commute drives partway and bicycles the rest--it still saves half the gas and gets his daily workout in. * Hate the rain, cold, or heat? Then just don't bicycle on those days. There are plenty of days in the year--about half, depending on your criteria--with good weather. Paul Dorn has a great page with bicycle commuting tips.
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/14/2009 06:25:00 PM
Bike Portland reports on a bus driver who wants to throw the whole bicycling community a party because of the huge increase in the number of people using good lights when the bicycle:
If I had my way right now I would throw a party for all the bicyclists in Portland. There would be horns and streamers and one giant bicycle shaped cake. Recent Posts in Cycling Tips & Stories
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