Help celebrate nines years of the Bike Happening and dress up.

Prom dresses, tuxedos, Maid-of-honor dress, tweed, ruffles, you name it. If it might be dressy, it passes.

What are you gonna wear?

or your theme in comments

The letter B…

Come see the premiere of the Bike Happening Documentary at
The Downtown Brewing on Monday March 9th @ 6:00PM
Watch the trailer below and visit the Bike Happening Documentary website

For more information about the SLO International Film Festival follow the link below.

It’s time to see what you’ve got. Use the comments below to suggest this month’s theme or see what others have suggested and cast your vote. Multiple themes are always fine. This may become the norm, so step up and let’s see what happens.

(Your email address is safe with us. We do not sell, give or use your address.)

Geriatric Yes, old people can ride bikes too.

Sub-Theme: Bowel Movements

Sweet Sacrilege

Sub-Theme: Mormon Invasion, Knocked up Nuns

Decide beforehand where to go after the ride.
Do not gather at the Bank of America parking lot after the second lap.
Go to a park. Go to a bar. Just go somewhere far.
and always Leave No Trace

Friday, Dec. 5th: Holiday Parade

The Bike Happening has been entered into the Downtown Holiday Parade. This will be our 9th annual appearance.
The parade theme is “Silver Bells.”

The parade organizers ask that no one dresses as Santa Claus,
And do not throw candy.

Parade starts @ 7:00PM
Please arrive around 6:00
We are entry #31 and will assemble at Broad and Palm

General Rules For All Entries - Failure to adhere to the rules below may result in disqualification.

1. All entries must be in costume and decorated according to the holiday theme.
2. All entries must be approved by the SLO DA Promotions Committee.
3. No political advertisements or commercial advertisements permitted on floats or entries.
4. Forward motion must be maintained at all times.
5. Any entry behaving in a dangerous manner will be pulled out of the parade, cited by the Police Department and disqualified.
6. Helmets required for the following entries: bikes, motorcycles, scooters and in-line skates/roller blades.
7. No Candy/Favors/Pamphlets - Entries may not throw out anything or blow bubbles. Those doing so will be disqualified immediately.
8. No Alcohol. Possession will result in disqualification and a citation from the Police Department. No inappropriate language or music.
9. Identify your entry with banners and signs.
10. Line-up time is 6PM sharp. Parade time is 7PM sharp. All entries must be ready for fire inspection by 6:15PM.

More details might be listed in the “comments” below…

Why will YOU come with us, tonight?

i look forward to meeting you.

Hey there bicyclists,
the City of SLO is about to vote on Tuesday about putting in some traffic calming devices on the Morro Street Bicycle Boulevard. They consist of Traffic Diverters at Buchon and Leff that will essentially prohibit cars from going straight and bulb outs at Pismo.

If you use the bike boulevard and you like not having too many cars speeding up it and whipping around at the corner of Upham and Morro then PLEASE let the City know you think this is a good idea. Apparently they’ve been hearing from some people that would prefer this not happen.

You can write an email to the City Council ( slocitycouncil@slocity.org ) or attend the city council meeting on Tuesday October 21st at 4:30 pm at City Hall. You can see the agenda online. It is scheduled to be on Consent (which means the city will vote on it along with a bunch of other stuff, so wasn’t expected to be a big deal, but it could turn into that, so if you can go, please do).

Please share this information with other bicyclists who use the bike boulevard to get places!!!

Also, join the city, the bike coalition, and rideshare for breakfast on the boulevard on Tuesday October 21st from 7 am (or once it’s light) to 9 am. Delicious treats!

Get your Fetish on at this month’s Bike Happening

Alternate theme: Weird Science

Remember, it only takes one to come up with another alternate theme. Post it in the comments below or just show up in your theme.

Decide beforehand where to go after the ride.
Do not gather at the Bank of America parking lot after the second lap.
Go to a park. Go to a bar. Just go somewhere far.
and always Leave No Trace

Shortly before Burning Man I decided to replace the crank on my Burning Man bike because the gears had gotten bent on the last trip home from the playa. I went to Arts Cyclery in SLO to pick up something that CBO was out of stock on, and while I was there I decided to pick up the crank to save myself an extra trip.

Unfortunately that turned out to be a big mistake.

I picked up a Truvativ crank that the sales droid classified as “low quality”. Since my whole bike was low quality and the crank especially so, I didn’t think this would matter much. The current crank had a few thousand miles on it and it was busted due to a loading failure. So, it seemed that spending $35 on a crank was reasonably fitting.

I went home and fixed my bike. All was well while I rode the bike in SLO. But as soon as I got to the playa and had to crank a lot harder due to the super soft playa, things went bad real fast. A crank came loose on my third trip to my art project, and I tightened it, thinking I had not done a good job when I installed it. On the ride back to camp it came loose again. This repeated for a day until the crank bolt became totally stripped and my bike was dead in the water when I needed it the most. I couldn’t find replacement parts and was without a bike for half the week.

Thanks to Arts Cyclery!

Today I went back and wanted to get my money back for this total piece of crap. Instead of any kind of support, apology or any kind of understanding, I got the third degree. In essence they claimed I was doing it wrong. At one point they claimed that I under-tightened the the bolt. Then they claimed I over-tightenend the bolt. Either way, it was my fault and I was doing it wrong.

I’ve been fixing my bikes for many moons now and even rounded out my knowledge by taking Adam Williams’ bike maintenance class. I had a bike art project on the playa for three years running. I think I am capable of properly tightening the bolts on my bike.

I insisted that they return my money. Upon asking for my receipt, (which I didn’t have ) they claimed they could not help me. I have to call bullshit on this! Everytime I buy something from those douchébags, I have to give them my name so they can enter my purchase into the computer. Not having a receipt is merely an excuse to not give me my money back.

I’m fed up with Art Cyclery. I’m not going back. I have lots of friends at CBO and Wally’s and the folks at CBO helped me get my bike fixed today. With a smile and lots of great advice.

This post is mainly for the benefit of others in SLO researching bike shops: I hope that Google will dish up this link for people comparing bike stores in SLO.

My message: Don’t shop at Art’s Cyclery! Slimy customer service and the third degree do not warrant any further business of mine and I hope that my friends won’t go there either!

Oh, and I plan to stay away from Truvativ products as well!

The theme for September is:

Have you been hanging on to a sexy gender bender outfit? Now is the time to wear it!

This is Josh from one of our rides a couple of years ago!

If cross dressing isn’t your speed, try our sub-theme: White Trash!

I can’t wait to see what you crazy people come up with! See you on Thursday!

Get ready for bed and then come out for a bike ride.

Please help after the ride and;

Decide beforehand where to go after the ride.
Do not gather at the Bank of America parking lot after the second lap.
Go to a park. Go to a bar. Just go somewhere far.
and always Leave No Trace

Anti-theme:
One luv, your grandma

========================
August 13th posting:

If you lost a bag of tools at the August Pajama Bike Happening, they were found by an honest, awesome person.
Describe your tools and they will be yours again. Contact gjunell (at) gmail.com.

This is a pretty cool website for those who want to fix their bikes themselves.
Read up and good luck.
We hope that you also are aware of the SLO Bike Kitchen

Here’s a little bit about Bicycle Tutor:

The purpose of this site is to help people learn how to fix their own bikes. While I don’t work in a shop anymore, I still have all of my tools and some parts so I might as well share what I know (and learn from you). I’m on the lookout for different kinds of bikes so I can cover as many different jobs as possible. I’m keeping a tidy list of all your requests and I imagine we’ll have 1-200 videos on this site over the next two years. If I figure out a way to make money from this (while keeping the tutorials free) I plan to get a studio and some better equipment. Then I’ll go back and refine many of the videos using close-ups and cut-aways, etc… and improve things based on what I’ve learned from all of your feedback. Thanks for watching!

Item #1: ( July )

There is an event in the Mission Plaza that may conflict with the pre-ride gathering.
Go around the Mission and meet at Broad and Monterey

Item #2: ( Forever )

Decide where to Ride.
Do not gather at the Bank of America parking lot after the second lap.
Go to a park. Go to a bar. Just go somewhere far.