Ubomb Photos

DanneskjOld has uploaded some amazing photos of the first uBomb here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/ubomb

photo credit: DanneskjOld @ flickr.com/photos/15045509@N07/.

Ferrucci Farewell SLC Critical Mass

Theme: This event is going to celebrate one of our most dedicated riders departure from SLC to Italy: Ron. If you don't know Ron, and have no clue who he is, he appreciates lots of bicycle riding in Salt Lake City, so bring you and all your friends and their friends, friends and family so we can send him away remembering an amazing bicycle culture experience in SLC.

graphic credit: saltcycle.com.

mini update to slc bike collective update.

Updated the SLC Bike Collective link from the yahoo groups to the current mailing list:
http://lists.slcbikecollective.org/listinfo.cgi/community-slcbikecollective.org

UBomb Bombs Weekly.

Ubomb now officially, or at least as official as an Ubomb can get, is bombing weekly on Sunday @ 7pm @ Library Square (210 east 400 southish) bike racks labeled "bike rack".

Been a bit sick myself, all drugged up on cold medicine, but I will try and make it out. Drop a line if you are interested in ubombing.. already confirmed that owner of bikesandbombs dot com to bomb...

Chat Contact List:
AIM: zeddbailey
GTALK: thezoed
ICQ: 341928042
MSN: thezoed@gmail.com
YIM: zedbailey

Bring a helmet, lights, and a dollar and sixty cents for the trax.

Attached is the Ubomb Trax schedule. Study it, memorize it, master it.

Happy Thanks Day Predictions.

xxxxxxxxxxxx



eat a lot of crap to take away from all your months of painstaking bicycling.

sit around and be thankful for mindless sports games.

scream at your family for not being understanding to your bike life.

thank God (or whatever being you relish the almighty bike to) for bicycling and ride six times as much when you get back home, only to realize you have suddenly become s l o w e r and pedaling has become much harder.



happy pre-thanks day. (really.)


one more note. saw a house over on 6th East and just above 7th South that decorates their tree for the various holidays. for thanksgiving they hang sheets of paper with what they are thankful for. well, i haven't seen it this year but last year they put "Car" on the tree. while the concept of 'Car' in its initial state was innocent enough, i find it hard to be thankful for this invention that has taken over our streets, our driveways, our health and our lives. car has taken over too much, and i have a means to escape from the clutches of car for the better part of my life. perhaps i should knock on their door and convince them to make the thankful change to "alternative transportation"? 2pac once said, "We gotta make a change...It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live and let's change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do, to survive." ..and I might add 'we need to change the way we ride.'

photo credit: vandykestaxidermy.com, jupiterimages.com, roberthalf.net.

SaltCycle.com is STW: Share The Wealth.

------------------------------------------------------
(STW) Share The Wealth
This blogs writings, photos, graphics,
videos, audio, etc. (materials) are STW.
Feel free to copy, modify & distubute
materials credited to 'saltcycle.com'
as long as you:

>Declare SaltCycle.com as the original source
in legible print close to the Saltcycle material.
>Do not sell, or make a profit
from the material without Saltcycle's permission.
>Do not modify the materials to reflect
poorly on Saltcycle.com or the Salt Lake City
bicycling community as whole.

All other rights, permissions, etc for others
writings, photos, graphics,
videos, audio, (materials) belong to their
respective original owners.
------------------------------------------------------

I am now trying to go back to older post and credit them with their respective website sources. I will credit my sources from now on in the order that they appear in my postings. Of course some of my sources aren't the original source either, but let the lawyers sort that out, or ambitious web surfers who yearn for more knowledge, since I am mostly crediting where I found it.

..Just an effort to give credit where credit is due, or at least point people in the right direction.

cheers.

Z.

photo credit: futureofthebook.org.

Sunday Sprints.

I was a sceptic. An unbeliever. When I first encountered the Sunday Sprints, two words came to my mind: Spandex & Jocks.

I was wrong. On arriving to the Gallivan Center I initially really felt out of place with all my gears and sprockets. I imagined how difficult it would be to do all those stands and the assorted tricks that the fixed gear crew do before any event.

People streamed in and continued streaming in on what was the bicycle, nay, the fixed bicycle revolution. Then, like an alley cat, donation calls were made and rewarded handsomely with the laminated spoke card from the BFC. BFC? That one is still a mystery. Don't ask. Rather read.

When about 50 people arrived, we rode to the destination, while trying to keep up with the mass that often felt red was green and green was really fast concerning the state of traffic lights. It was like Critical Mass, except faster and more insane.

On arriving at the location, a less frequented street on the west side, the group congregated over a giant container of sports drinks and planned out the ensuing sprints.

Then after everyone had their fill on drinks, about five or six bicyclists went further down the street and through a series of signals combined with shouting to the group far down the street, they took off at full speed. They sprinted about a block and then another group followed them shortly thereafter.

This was the part I thought I would hate. But their was no ass slapping, over exuberant belching or pompous walking that could be seen. Not to say their weren't competitive people, because by default, events of this nature always get at least a handful of individuals with their eye to the prize. However, it felt more like the competitions of alley cats where you do it for the spirit of the ride, with intentions to win, but if you don't its not a big loss. Your not going to be tempted to Floyd Landis it up for the event by any means because of the pressure to win.

Next was a competition known as the "Foot Down" Competition. The concept is pretty simple. A handful of bicyclist start circling around as the spectators create a circle to encompass them. The object of the bicyclists in the circle is to stay on their bicycle for as long as possible without their body touching the ground. So bikers will ram, pull peoples shirts and block each other in an attempt to get them to fall down. As bicyclist fall, the circle moves closer. I would liken it to the mosh pit, and sometimes even more dangerous as bicyclist and their frames of fury fly out at you when the fall.

Mini-bikes, aka children's bicycles hanged over on the west side of the street from the beginning of the event and now they were ready to be rode. It was announced a prize to the individual that could jump off a homemade ramp with the most style. Many tried and I almost got smashed in the incident of one mini rider launching off the ramp. It was a good work up to the Ubomb, and had me craving some mini bomb madness.

BFC has something good going on here. I was informed that they have some other interesting events planned akin to Paperboy which sounded really awesome in an 8-bit go reality kind of way. Stay informed of the BFC happenings by visiting the SLC Critical Mass website forum.

Contribute to the BFC Sunday Sprints Gallery / Flickr Photo RSS Feed by adding the tag "sundaysprints" when you upload your pictures for the Sunday Sprints to Flickr. The link is on the right side of the blog for the SundaySprints RSS Feed and Flickr gallery.

The RSS Feed is:
http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?tags=sundaysprints&lang=en-us&format=rss_200

Learn more about RSS from the links on the right side of the Saltcycle.com blog.

View my pictures(cbailey) of the Sunday Sprints and anyone else's who add them here:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=sundaysprints&m=tags

graphic credit: saltcycle.com.
photo credit: saltcycle.com.

Comic In Celebration of Getting Ubomb Off The Ground..

...and down the hills of the UofU!




graphic credit: saltcycle.com.
photo credit: saltcycle.com, zoobomb.net.

extensive overhaul on saltcycle.com

i redesigned the entire right side of saltcycle to house many, many RSS Feeds.
if you want to add to the feeds, simply upload your pictures to Flickr & then tag
slc alleycats in SLC as "slcallycat",
slc critical mass events as "slccriticalmass",
slc midnight mass events as "slcmidnightmass",
&
slc ubomb events as "ubomb"
if you have other events you want me to add an rss button for, drop a line.
additionally, if you take a lot of photos for slc bike events and are on flickr, give me your screenname/username and i will add you to Top Flickr SLC Bike Event Contributers. cbailey and danneskj0ld are already added this listing on the right side of saltcycle.com.

finally, on the top tab, right side, i placed the slc bike ride list link, which list all the cool bike rides of slc.

Search Flickr For SLC Bicycle Event Photo Goods.

http://www.flickr.com/

Search the SLC Ubomb. Just search the tag "ubomb":
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=ubomb&w=all&s=int

Or, the SLC Critical Mass. Search the tag "slccriticalmass":
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=slccriticalmass&m=text

And finally, Midnight Mass. Search the tag "slcmidnightmass":
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=slcmidnightmass&m=text

Have photos to add? Add the 'ubomb' tag, 'slccriticalmass' tag or the 'slcmidnightmass' tag according to the Salt Lake City bicycling event.

I will upload all the pictures I take in the future to three groups.. and if there are other events, I will be sure to post on it along with their tags.
Help contribute if you take pictures of these events by tagging them and uploading them to Flickr.

photo credit: flickr.com.

Ghost Bike My Bike

"When I started on educational leave, my plan was to ride my bike to the internship and back. I thought it was a great idea: I'd get in better shape, save on gas, parking, and give my transmission a break. No problems, right?

Then I took my bike on the Pittsburgh streets and it scared the shit out of me. Cars would happily run you off the road or just ignore you completely. I sometimes wonder how anyone rides in Pittsburgh.

I saw this out of the corner of my eye on Friday and was able to stop and get this picture early Sunday morning. Ghost Bikes are set up by the biking community whenever one of their own is injured or killed by a careless driver. They're basically what you see here: an old bike spray painted white and affixed with a sign letting drivers know exactly what happened. Sometimes its a warning, sometimes a plea, sometimes a tombstone. I had heard about these popping up in New York. Seeing one of these in Pittsburgh literally chills me."
-Todd (Hryckowian)
originally posted to Flickr as Ghost Bike found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_bike

When I die, if I go on a bike, read my plea, for those that wish to properly honor that death and life - I want my bike turned into a ghost bike. If my bike, is maimed, destroyed, or you don't want to use it, feel free to contact the SLC Bike Collective to get one for cheap.

Don't mean to get morbid, just got to make these arrangements. ride on!





photo credit: ghostbike.org, times-up.org.

Ubomb, Sundays @ 7pm, SLC Library Square 'Bike Rack'.

I am hoping this will be the official time from here out.
Keep an eye on this blog or
http://www.slccriticalmass.org/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,26/
for more info.

A flier i threw together with the sentimental feel of Ubomb:


graphic credit: saltcycle.com.
photo credit: saltcycle.com.

SL Gallery Stroll Art Ride This Friday.

Feel free to distro this flier to whatever individuals/groups you think would find the information beneficial. (some history on the image.)





distro copy & paster url:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b360/thezoed/SLgallerystroll.jpg

graphic credit: Gladiator(original), saltcycle.com(text).

drip.drop.splash.

damn the rain man. this is a uBomb!

showed up, talked bike a few moments, then went home.

uBomb next week maybe?

either that or we gotta get some Portland blood in our veins...

ubomb, nov. 11th, sunday!

details: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/316404/

uBomb an Explosive Success!

we bombed 3x on several kid bikes. it was a blast. an explosion of adventure. no one died. no one injured. a few broken bike fixes, but all went well and was insanely great.
we are making plans on moving the ubomb to Sunday potentially. watch the slc critical mass forums, and surf here from time to time for the latest dates.
we are hoping on making this adventure a weekly ride.
if you have any kid bikes to donate to this weekly cause, by all means get a hold of one of us. more important, come bomb.
its not as scary as i thought once you learn how to maneuver those little machines of fury.

tick. tick. tick. tick...

TONIGHT!
uBomb! 6pm, meet at the main library, corner of 400 S and 200 E
(bring lights and money for the Trax fare.)

The Ubomb is ticking, or rather fizzling, as less than two hours away we will be throwing our mercy to the frames of those mini-bikes, mounting them as our gallant steeds scream down the hill with us in tow for the first time.

Yeah, I am nervous. Nervous like a roller coaster ride. Not that I haven't bombed down the UofU, as I have, but never on a mini-bike of any variety.

This ride, this bomb, is the first for many of us, so we will see where it goes. The Zoobombers of Portland hold their ride on Sunday later at night - 8:30 pm.

An experiment of sorts! We will see what mad idea we have engaged in and probably do it again, and again, and again, etc.

Will we ever be ZooBomb? No, never. Just as every Critical Mass is different from city to city, each city will bring their own means, methods and ideas to their own bike bombings. But until we can find our own original faction, we will be left to rip off so many of their great ideas. Hopefully in time and several rides later, they too can rip something off of us.

I think I will play medic tonight and carry a few extra bandages just in case. I also plan on dressing up to these events and will have some excellent wings to help my aerodynamics on the ride. Debating on playing photography guy, but we desperately need some coverage on this event, so I imagine I might do that in addition to the other duties.

Becker wins! A win for the bicyclist? We will see...

Ralph Becker won. Now, when he enters the office, lets keep on him about all those promises he made to the bicyclists of Salt Lake City:

-improved and safer bicycle lanes
* http://www.ralphbecker.com/?page_id=23
-I will complete the Jordan River Parkway through Salt Lake City and build three east-west bike trails.
I will complete the Parleys Rails, Trails and Tunnels (PRATT) trail and will work to fulfill the Parleys Trail Master Plan, a shared greenway through Salt Lake City, South Salt Lake and portions of unincorporated Salt Lake County. I will also push to fund and build the City Creek Trail project from downtown through the Euclid neighborhood to the Jordan River and then connecting north to the Utah State Fairpark by finishing the Jordan Parkway Trail. A third east-west trail, the Emigration Trail, will link the mouth of Emigration Canyon and the University of Utah with the 9th and 9th neighborhood, Liberty Park, the proposed 900 South Greenway and the Jordan River Parkway.
* http://www.ralphbecker.com/green-city
-One of the major reasons I support Ralph is his commitment to improving public transit and bicycle access in Salt Lake City
* http://www.ralphbecker.com/2007/08/22/biking-for-becker/
-first-class pedestrian, bicycle, and transit facilities.
* http://www.ralphbecker.com/?page_id=22
-Such centers might include schools, parks, coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, bicycle and vehicle repair shops, medical clinics, post offices, hardware and food stores, florist and antiques shops, pet grooming shops and clinics, bookstores, dry cleaning establishments, and hair salons.
* http://www.ralphbecker.com/neighborhoods
-Accelerate the planning and funding for Salt Lake Bikeways. I will accelerate planning for three east-west bike trails and an additional north-south trail, along with a system of dedicated bike-highways along arterial routes.
Initiate completion of the Jordan River Parkway. I will ramp up funding for the Jordan River Parkway to complete trail development and initiate a true restoration of the river corridor. This will include leveraging the city’s resources with other stakeholders, including the state of Utah.
* http://www.ralphbecker.com/180days

So lets be sure these promises are kept in order to strengthen our bicycling community.

Work'n the bike wiki idea...

Relocated it here: http://saltcycle.wetpaint.com/ . Feel free to drop suggestions & ideas - or even better, add to the wiki.


:::EDIT:::
Added a permament link to the SaltCycle Wiki Bicycle Ride List on the right hand side of this page. Feel free to add any rides. The list doesn't need to be too neat and tidy (ie alphabetical), so feel free to post any reoccuring rides that happen daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annually, yearly, etc.
You do have to sign up for an account with wetpaint to post rides, but its quick, free and helps cut down on wiki vandalism on the ride listings.

------------------------->

Rode with the Roadies.

Located over at the CycleSmith blog group rides have started up. Despite being wasted from Midnight Mass from the prior night, I was intrigued and opted in for the Saturday ride that meets at CycleSmith at 9pm.

Previous rides of this nature have left something to be desired. Once, I rode with a group that met at Contender and they ended up leaving me behind when I attempted to clear the pathway of fallen tree branches. So, when I showed up I was skeptical.

Only two others rode. They seemed polite. I was skeptical. It is rough being the odd man out on a ride, and I thought that would be me. So for the first half hour I was a drafter riding to the back of two spandex clad gentlemen. But then I took initiative, and squeezed into the roadie mass conversing with them an assortment of random and quickly forgotten topics.

Eventually sweat took over and we all went quiet. Listening to the road and just enjoying the ride. The route we took was from the shop, down 2nd south, to north temple, over to redwood road, to davis county, looping back to beck street, and then to the city creek area. They didn't ride too hard, but enough to make me breathe and roll sweat from my head. I was informed it was their off season. If this was their off season, I don't really want to see the on season.

So they were quite redeemable folks over the crap I had to put up with over the last bike shop bike ride. They tended to like to run red lights like the many cowboy bicyclists around here, but for the most part they were decent folks. It wasn't close to the sheer awesomeness of Critical Mass, Midnight Mass or even my own one man mass as the Night Rider of nights past, but it was informative (I didn't know how Redwood Road connected to Davis County or about Beck Street), and a chance to spend time with riders who I wouldn't normally ride with in order to further my understanding of the bicycling community. They were cool. I am still not going to wear spandex.


Just Added. The Route We Rode.

Ride Lists All Over The Place.

Saltcycle has one. Bikesandbombs has one. Slccriticalmass has one. Cyclingutah has one. We all have one sent to us in our email from time to time.

The upcoming rides list.

Instead of posting the same ride 12 times..
Why don't we make a wiki for Salt Lake City Rides that everyone can contribute to?

So I started one specifically for Salt Lake City.

http://saltcycle.wikispaces.com/

Feel free to add on and improve it, or steal my idea and make a better wiki somewhere else. But lets start posting these rides in a central location on some kind of wiki so the entire bicycling community can add events.

Today! : Alley Cat race!

Meet at the Gallivan center. Saturday Nov, 3rd. 7pm.

November Midnight Mass Photo Gallery

I am not one to post my entire roll and let everyone distinguish which blur is who. Neither shall I give you large bloated pictures of the event that take days to load. Also, I never mention names on my post as a means of respect. If you want to find out who did what, then get out of that chair and come and ride with us! I am not professional at taking night pictures either - so out of 70+ shots, I give you eight of the best. Excuse the explanation. Its 2:08 Am. on with the Photo gallery!




A blue light taken from the depths of a computer and fastened to the underside of the bottom bike tube on a chopper freak bike. Not pictured are two brightly gleaming front lights. I initially thought it was an U.F.O. sent to take me to the mother world.


















Flat tire from a pinch flat getting fixed. Luckily extra tubes were being carried and pumps. It temporarily broke the mass in two, but a few minutes later we were rolling again as one mass of mayhem.




























Testing out the blue light freak bike chopper at the Gateways water world. It caused many slips riding this wet terrain, but no spills.



















Track stand at the Gateway Water World. (I realize thats not the official name, but it works.) This individual was a bit younger than most of us, and we envied his fixed gear awesomeness. (I think I was sitting in front of the tvee playing SNES at the same age working on getting fat. Good thing I found a bike. Sooner is better than later, later is better than never.)

























Exiting Gateway. Isn't the Gateway so much more nice without all the shoppers and gawkers?



















2nd South, East Bound. Getting colder now. Snot flowing freely, but adventure is in the air, damn the cold!



















Rarely seen downtown is Orange Conehead Bikeman. He was so quick I was barely able to get his picture. I hear if you catch him you get a free coupon for Dominos Pizza. That is just a rumor though.. I never did catch him.



















The end of mass is nigh. A good turn out and a good ending as we ride right by my home and I break away to come home and inform the other masses that they need to join this mass.



So are you going to ride next month in Midnight Mass?

(disregard this comment if you rode this month and continue over to the section about Critical Mass.)

More rides to come. If you have any suggestions, ideas, clever gimmicks or the assorted, drop a line over at slccriticalmass.org.

Midnight Mass: Tonight.

Midnight Mass has come once again. I suggest dressing in easily removable layers to make the ride start warm and stay warm without having to deal with bulky coats and the assorted.

Field trip this time? Maybe. Last time we visited the hot springs.

Perhaps we can explore the universe this time..

info on midnight mass.