Larry Black, the owner of nationally recognized College Park and Mt Airy bicycle shops, will be firing up bike riders from both ends of the spectrum to help lead the 2014 Mayor’s Ride from Mount Rainier to and around the National Mall in Washington DC on Sunday June 22. Larry, who has an impressive collection of penny farthing bikes, has been riding high for several decades. In fact there are few people in the world who have mastered this trick he did on our 2004 Mayors’ Ride:

http://bikeroute.com/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews/bentNews/Archives/000058.html

He also rides low and his two shops are amongst the top in terms of recumbent bike sales volume in all of America. His long career in the bike industry has given him a lot of influence in matters two wheel and three. As such, when Larry Black speaks, cyclists listen. Back in the year 2000, Larry played a big part in getting out the thousands of cyclists who came to Cycle America 2000 in Washington, DC. And you can bet the ride he leads to end our 2014 Mayors’ Ride will also be noteworthy, noble and grand!!

Next year’s campaign is already being acted upon in other bicycle population areas as well. In fact, other bike celebrities are queuing up to build fire for the NBG days in their own cities. To name a few, in Golden, CO, in addition to helping me fine tune the Colorado portion of our San Francisco to Washington, DC map, the legendary Steve Stevens is already building support for the Boulder, Golden, Denver ride that happens Sunday, May 18. A ride open to all cyclists, it will even include a tour of his museum where he will have a rarely ridden 1889 Eagle on hand amongst his other rare penny farthings.

 

In San Francisco, Carla Laser, the force behind the San Francisco Bicycle Ballet is busy lining up spokespersons for her second annual Tour of San Francisco. A ride involving the city’s top cyclists, last year, many, like Carla, local celebrities for the bike work they do, helped over 50 pedalers to see and learn about the hidden treasure of the Golden Gate city. This as they also learned all the short cuts and ways around traffic and hills that only the experienced locals could ever hope to know.

Though camera and battery issues compromised a lot of the footage and stills that were taken, H E R E is the whimsical video of last year’s Tour of San Francisco her group created.

Even the towns of Westport and Castlebar, Ireland want to get into the act. Tentatively, on April 19, their Mayors will be respectively sending and receiving a ride that calls attention to the Great Western Greenway (GWG) the world class greenway that has rebuilt the economy in this western part of Ireland. Expected to end at Loch Lannagh, one of the most strikingly beautiful bicycle playgrounds i have ever seen, not even this picture

can do justice to it, It is so beautiful, I often find ways to end my training rides on the Eagle on the smooth one-mile asphalt path that encircles it’s calm waters. This as I often then enjoy looking out on a lake filled with swans and human powered water craft quietly paddling away.

Disconnected from the GWG by roads that are not two-wheel friendly, Loch Lannagh is the jewel that local leaders are trying to get safely connected to the GWG. Pointing to the plans that have already been drawn up, all they are calling for is that they be expedited With it’s college and a strong merchant base that services a very large area, Castlebar much looks forward to being strongly positioned ON what the Europran Union is calling it’s top greenway, the Great Western Greenway. There is always the chance that the noise we make for this Irish Greenway with our 13th annual Mayors’ Ride can locate resources here in America that could help in some, as yet, unforeseen way.

Who knows, maybe the GWG nerds an annual HiWheel ride to place it on the international map of biking destinations. There are lots of Penny Farthings in nearby England and the East Coast (where most Hi bike riders are located including Larry’s stable) is only a 5 hour plane flight away. Who can ignore 10 or 20 or more bikes from yesteryear demanding better bicycle infer-connectivity.??

THX 4 all of U!!