I Wish I Could Ride Like This...

I know this video has made the rounds lately (I've seen it now from about 4 different sources) but that tells me something - people are truly inspired by the riding of Danny MacAskill. I think his riding style, stunts, and control are so amazing that I'm inspired too and think this one is deserving of a post in Break Away's Garage.

Notice the bike he rides. No shocks - with all that jumping and control, you can not afford to loose spring or land a jump on mushy ground. Disc brakes - can't afford slippage when you are hopping around on your back tire... 30 ft off the ground! Light weight - try jumping over anything with an additional 20 lbs of weight strapped to your back....

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the poetic nature of this guys cycling as much as I do. It is as if his bike is just an extension of him - part of the rider. Enjoy....

Almond Freikers Arrive in Key West, Florida !

It took only a couple of weeks for the Almond Freikers to snake their way down the eastern seaboard and arrive in Key West, Florida. These kids are determined ! This week is also special because we have our first 3 Spots pizza awards winners!



Almond Freiker Stats For Week 8 !

• Almond Elementary remains the #1 Freiker school in the US.
• Over 3,700 round trips
• About 5,600 total miles traveled.
• Almond averaged 103 round trips / day for week 8.
• 280,000 calories burned
• 1.9 Tons of CO2 emissions prevented

Almond Freikers Arrive in Key West, Florida !

Key West is known as the southernmost city in the Continental United States. It is also the southern terminus of U.S. 1, State Road A1A, and the East Coast Greenway.

Key West is 129 miles (207 km) southwest (229.9 degrees) of Miami, Florida, (about 160 driving miles) and 106 miles (170 km) north-northeast (21.2 degrees) of Havana, Cuba. Cuba, at its closest point, is 94 statute (81 nautical) miles south.

Key West is a seaport destination for many passenger cruise ships. The Key West International Airport provides airline service. Hotels and guest houses are available for lodging.

Naval Air Station Key West is an important year round training site for naval aviation due to the superb weather conditions. It is also a reason the city was chosen as the Winter White House of President Harry S. Truman.

The central business district primarily comprises Duval Street, and includes much of the northwest corner of the island along Whitehead, Simonton, Front, Greene, Caroline, and Eaton Streets and Truman Avenue.

The official city motto is "One Human Family."


In Pre-Columbian times Key West was inhabited by the Calusa people. The first European to visit was Juan Ponce de León in 1521. As Florida became a Spanish colony, a fishing and salvage village with a small garrison was established here.

In 1815 the Spanish governor in Havana, Cuba, deeded the island of Key West to Juan Pablo Salas, an officer of the Royal Spanish Navy Artillery posted in Saint Augustine, Florida. After Florida was transferred to the United States, Salas was so eager to sell the island that he sold it twice - first for a sloop valued at $575, and then to a U.S. businessman John W. Simonton, during a meeting in a Havana café, for the equivalent of $2,000 in pesos in 1821. The sloop trader quickly sold the island to a General John Geddes, a former governor of South Carolina, who tried in vain to secure his rights to the property before Simonton, with the aid of some influential friends in Washington, was able to gain clear title to the island. Simonton had wide-ranging business interests in Mobile, Alabama. He bought the island because a friend, John Whitehead, had drawn his attention to the opportunities presented by the island's strategic location. John Whitehead had been stranded in Key West after a shipwreck in 1819 and he had been impressed by the potential offered by the deep harbor of the island. The island was indeed considered the "Gibraltar of the West" because of its strategic location on the 90-mile (140 km)–wide deep shipping lane, the Straits of Florida, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. On March 25, 1822, Matthew C. Perry sailed the schooner Shark to Key West and planted the U.S. flag, physically claiming the Keys as United States property. Perry reported on piracy problems in the Caribbean. Perry renamed Cayo Hueso (Key West) to "Thompson's Island" for the Secretary of the Navy, Smith Thompson, and the harbor "Port Rodgers" for War of 1812 hero John Rodgers. Neither name was to stick. In 1823 Commodore David Porter of the United States Navy West Indies Anti-Pirate Squadron took charge of Key West, which he ruled (but, according to some, exceeding his authority) as military dictator under martial law.

Numerous artists and writers have passed through Key West, but the two most associated with the island are Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams. Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway wrote A Farewell to Arms while living above the showroom of a Key West Ford dealership at 314 Simonton Street. During his stay he wrote or worked on Death in the Afternoon, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. He used Depression-era Key West as the locale for To Have and Have Not — his only novel set in the United States.

Tennessee Williams first became a regular visitor to Key West in 1941 and is said to have written the first draft of A Streetcar Named Desire while staying in 1947 at the La Concha Hotel. He bought a permanent house in 1949 and listed Key West as his primary residence until his death in 1983. In contrast to Hemingway's grand house in Old Town, the Williams home at 1431 Duncan Street in the "unfashionable" New Town neighborhood is a very modest bungalow. The house is privately owned and not open to the public. The Academy Award–winning film version of his play The Rose Tattoo was shot on the island in 1956. The Tennessee Williams Theatre is located on the campus of Florida Keys Community College on Stock Island. Williams had a series of rented homes all over the U.S., but the only home he owned was in Key West.

Bike To Work Week Is Over !

You can all come out now - it's over. I didn't hear much chatter regarding anyone's trips to work on their bikes this week. Hhhhhmmmmm... it makes me wonder.... If you are just being bashful and really did ride to work 1 or 2 days, let us know - I'd like to hear how it went... Otherwise, I'm telling the kids at the Monday assembly that you guys are a bunch of slackers!

So, the $5.00 question... "Do I owe anyone out there a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cone?" Remember, you had to ride to and from work every day last week - that's pretty easy don't you think? I would have biked to work... but then again, I don't have a job :)

Freiker Is On The Roll Again !

We have a couple of rides coming up - I hope that you and your kids can make it. It is open to all students at Almond School (and their families). We will meet on the Almond School playground at the specified time for each ride:

• May 24th @ 1:00pm - Freiker Rolls to Egan: If you have a 6th grader who will be attending Egan next year, this is the perfect opportunity. We'll leave from Almond School, learn some clever ways to get to Egan on a bike. We'll figure out where the bike racks are and we'll even swing by Baskin-Robbins in downtown Los Altos on the way home. Bring your free coupons! Every one is welcome to join - students and parents alike. Approx 6 miles.
  
• May 31st @ 10:30am - Freiker Rolls to Redwood Grove. Bring a picnic lunch with you (a backpack works fine) and we'll take a nature walk around Redwood Grove. We'll also hang out in the shade of Shoop Park while the kids burn off some extra energy. Approx 5 miles.
  
• June 7th @ 1:00pm - Freiker Rolls to Foothill College: Foothill College is a nearby junior college nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. But how many of you have actually been there? We'll take a lap around the campus and head back through downtown Los Altos for some refreshments. Approx 8 miles.
  
• June 14th @ 1:00pm - Freiker Rolls to Hidden Villa: Tucked back in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Hidden Villa is a great place for a kid to spend some time interacting with nature, taking a walk and learning about environmental conservation. Fun for the whole family! I'll need a couple of adult volunteers on this one to help escort the group along Moody Rd. Approx 12 miles.

Our Camping Trip !

Dale and I went to The Pinnacles National Monument this weekend. If you have never been there it is really pretty spectacular - but pick your weekend carefully. While we did the 11 mile hike to the Balcony Caves area, it was over 100F and there are more different kinds of bugs there including lady bug larva everywhere in the campgrounds. You pretty much can't sit down without squishing one *and* having a dozen crawling on you within 3 minutes. Dale and I both have a pretty impressive collection of mosquito bites...

Dale at the Balcony Caves

Catapillar

Some kind of moth

That's all for now folks...

--
Every Ride Counts!
Jon

Bike Sharing In Barcelona, Spain

I saw this video on a cool bike sharing program in Barcelona. The program is called 'bicing' and there are over 6,000 bikes for sharing in over 400 stations around Barcelona. I'd like to hear your opinions about what would make this work in the bay area...

1. Is this akin to bike renting for tourism or can you use this for bicycle commuters also?
2. Would there be any value in having Caltrain and the cities along the route come together to make sure that there were bicing stations at every train station and every major parking garage in each of the destination cities.?
3. What are the drawbacks to making this more universally popular for bike commuting (my bike doesn't fit me, what do I do for a helmet, etc...)?

Anyway, check it out. It's a short and pretty cool video that explains the program well.

Bicing in Barcelona

Almond Freikers Arrive In Savannah, GA !

Happy Mother's Day to all - I hope it was a fun one. My family hates me - we went on a bike ride together and I got lost :) I know every inch of roadway in the bay area, but put me on a bike path and I have no clue where I am or where I'm going!


It was another tremendous week for the Almond Freikers even though the entire 6th grade class was off goofing around at Walden West the entire week. The rest of the students stepped in to pick up the slack and they did their best to keep Almond on the top of the heap. Way to go kids!

Almond Freiker Stats For the Week !

* Almond remains the #1 Freiker school in the nation !
* 3,208 round trips complete
* 4,800 mile traveled on foot or by bike
* 240,000 cals of human energy expended
* 1.6 tons of CO2 prevented from entering the atmosphere

Almond Freikers Arrive in Savannah, GA !

After traveling all the way from the Almond School parking lot to the eastern most city in the United States, the Almond Freikers are on their way down the eastern seaboard to Key West, Florida. They spent the weekend in Savannah, GA - love those grits!

Savannah Skyline

Savannah is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Chatham County, Georgia, USA. Savannah was established in 1733 and was the first colonial and state capital of Georgia. Each year Savannah attracts millions of visitors, who enjoy the city's architecture and historic buildings: the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America), the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences (one of the South's first public museums), the First African Baptist Church (one of the oldest African American Baptist congregations in the United States), Temple Mickve Israel (the third-oldest synagogue in America), and the Central of Georgia Railway roundhouse complex (the oldest standing antebellum rail facility in America). Today, Savannah's downtown area, the Savannah Historic District, is one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the United States (designated by the U.S. government in 1966).

In the 2000 census of Savannah, there were 131,510 people, 51,375 households, and 31,390 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,759.5 people per square mile (679.4/km²). There were 57,437 housing units at an average density of 768.5/sq mi (296.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 57.08% African American, 38.86% White, 1.52% Asian, 0.23% Native American, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 0.93% from other races, and 1.30% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.23% of the population.

Savannah, GA is the primary port on the Savannah River and is located along the U.S. Intracoastal Waterway. Savannah is prone to flooding. Four canals and pumping stations have been built to help reduce the effects: Fell Street Canal, Kayton Canal, Springfield Canal and the Casey Canal, with the first three draining north into the Savannah River.

My Saturday Ride !

As most of you know, I ride for the Monta Vista Velo Racing Club. MVV donated $1,000 to Almond School to get Freiker off the ground. The team does a training ride every Saturday morning that leaves the Bicycle Outfitter at 8:30am and the rides are typically 60 to 90 miles long (sometimes longer). We do all of the classic bay area cycling routes that have a high degree of difficulty and some of them are pretty spectacular. The weather was beautiful on Saturday and so were the views of the bay area from Skyline.

This Saturday we did the Kings Mountain Rd -> Hwy 92 -> Polhemus Loop: Here is the route starting at TBO: foothill, page mill, old page mill, arastradero, alpine, portola, 84, tripp, kings mountain, skyline, 92, skyline, polhemus, bike bridge over 280, canada, jefferson, alameda de las pulgas, 84, mountain home, portola, alpine, arastradero, page mill, arastradero, purissima, robeleta, chapin, burke, main st., home!

Ride Stats:

* Ride Time: 3:55 (hrs:min)
* Distance: 65 miles
* Elevation Gain: 4,871 ft
* Ave Speed: 16.5 mph
* Max Speed: 44.7 mph
* Ave HR: 142 bpm
* Max HR: 187 bpm
* Calories: 4,886 cals metabolized
* MotionBased Map: Kings Mtn, 92, Polheumus Loop.

Bike To Work Week:

This week is 'Bike To Work Week'... Remember, if you want me to buy you an ice cream cone, you need to ride all 5 day! If you can't ride all 5 days, at least give it a try on May 14th (the official Bike To Work Day). I'd love to hear people's feedback on how your commutes went - I know that at least some of you will try or else I'm going to tell your kids what slacker you are while they are off busily traversing the continental United States of America :) Come on now, make me proud!

Remember my helpful hints:

* Make sure that your work has showers. If they don't, you have to do the 'no sweat' ride to work. It just means you wear lighter cycling gear and take it nice and easy.
* If you haven't figured out how to carry clothes without getting them all wrinkly, take them in the day before. You can drop off a whole week's worth of clothes this weekend! If you have to carry stuff, panniers are the way to go.
* Make sure you know the route that you are going to take before hand. The route you drive is usually not the route you would cycle. Pick something scenic if you can - know where the energizer stations are - they will have food, water and free swag :)
* Make sure your bike is ready - tires inflated, brakes are in proper working order and not too worn and your chain is lubed and tensioned. Make sure to check your quick-release hubs if you have them.

Upcoming 'Freiker Rolls' Events !

So far we have done a couple of 'Freiker Rolls' group rides. The first one was to Jamba Juice in downtown Los Altos - great turn out everyone! The second one was an 11 mile segment of the Challenge Bike Ride sponsored by the El Camino YMCA - congrats to Shawn Avidan and Dalezilla Simms for making it the whole way despite the rain! I'm going to plan a couple more of these in the next month to get people rolling for summer. Below are the planned routes for the next 5 weeks:

* May 17th - I'm going camping ! Knock yourselves out - ride where every you want - send me postcards when you get there :)
* May 24th @ 1:00pm - Freiker Rolls to Egan: If you have a 6th grader who will be attending Egan next year, this is the perfect opportunity. We'll leave from Almond School, learn some clever ways to get to Egan on a bike. We'll figure out where the bike racks are and we'll even swing by Baskin-Robbins in downtown Los Altos on the way home. Brind your free coupons! Every one is welcome to join - students and parents alike. Approx 6 miles.
* May 31st @ 10:30am - Freiker Rolls to Redwood Grove: Bring a picnic lunch with you (a backpack works fine) and we'll take a nature walk around Redwood Grove. We'll also hang out in the shade of Shoop Park while the kids burn off some extra energy. Approx 5 miles.
* June 7th @ 1:00pm - Freiker Rolls to Foothill College: Foothill College is a nearby junior college nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. But how many of you have actually been on the campus? We'll take a lap around the campus and head back through downtown Los Altos for some refreshments. Approx 8 miles.
* June 14th @ 1:00pm - Freiker Rolls to Hidden Villa: Tucked back in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Hidden Villa is a great place for a kid to spend some time interacting with nature, taking a walk and learning about environmental conservation. Fun for the whole family! I'll need a couple of adult volunteers on this one to help escort the group along Moody Rd. Approx 12 miles.

That's all for this week...

Every Ride Counts!
Jon

Green Town Los Altos adopts Freiker!

A bit of news from the CA trenches.... Green Town Los Altos (GTLA) is a group of about 100+ influential community leaders and philanthropy groups who are focused on reshaping the City of Los Altos for the future. GTLA and the city council are focused on building a culture that is more community oriented with a vibrant downtown infrastructure and establishing community values of energy conservation, use of alternative energy sources, green building standards for new development, transportation alternatives for downtown access, waste management and educational programs targeted at the schools.

I've been to 2 of their forums to talk to them about Freiker - one I sort of just showed up and the 2nd time I was invited (that's always a good sign :) Last night I was invited to attend an advisory board strategy meeting where they spent 3 hours talking about their strategic goals for the next 2 years. They ended up adopting 4 programs - the one that got the most recognition and votes by the advisory board and city council as fitting with the values of the town and showing promising results was Freiker!

GTLA is going to target 3 schools next year: Gardner-Bullis, Covington, Egan (a middle school) and Loyola are the most likely candidates - several of them already have volunteers that have stepped up to be the wheels. I am going to be the committee organizer for this effort and part of what we need to do is settle on the final 3 schools and define the 'Freiker In A Box' program for getting them started. The funding will come from GTLA. I will be going to each of the schools over the next month to talk to both students and parents about Freiker. Included with Freiker will be a bicycle safety curriculum that will be introduced at these schools - bicycle advocacy and bicycle safety training were introduced in the Palo Alto school system many years ago and today about 33% of the Palo Alto and Gunn high schools students ride their bikes to HS...

This is progress. While it is only 3 schools next year, if all goes well it will be all Los Altos School District elementary schools the following year!

Every Ride Counts!