Florida Bicycle Association

Calling all Florida Bike Club Presidents

The Florida Freewheelers Bicycle Club will host a meeting of all Florida Bicycle Club Presidents (road, touring, off-road, racing, you name it) in conjunction with the 30^th Annual Horrible Hundred two-day event November 14-15 in Clermont.  The purpose of the meeting is to share ideas and discuss ways we can all learn from one another on topics ranging from ride management, charity rides, SCOR (Specialized Cardiac Outpatient Rehabilitation) Chapters, bike education workshops and legislative strategies for 2010. Other agenda items are also welcomed.

The meeting will be held Saturday, November 14, at the Fairfield Inn & Suites, 1750 Hunt Trace, Clermont, 352-394-6585, from 3:30-5:30 pm. Other activities on Saturday include packet pick-up and registration, and a sponsor/vendor expo at Waterfront Park. The Horrible Hundred Main Event occurs Sunday, November 15, at Waterfront Park with a Century, 70-mile and 35-mile route options beginning at 8:00 am.

In support of the Florida Bicycle Club Presidents meeting, the Florida Freewheelers and the Horrible Hundred will provide one (1) complimentary ride registration to each club for their president or designee if they choose to attend the meeting. Interested individuals should register HERE and indicate you’re attending the Florida Bicycle Club Presidents meeting in the “My story” portion of the registration form. Hit submit, but do not proceed to Google check out since your registration fee is complimentary.  Additionally, please RSVP to Laura Hallam if you can join us at laura@floridabicycle.org.

FBA Board of Director members and staff will facilitate the meeting since FFW President Art Ackerman and Horrible Hundred Director Tom Bargnesi will have their hands full with final preparations for the HH.  They have pledged their support and hope this meeting is the beginning of an annual event.

What are you doing this weekend?

Now that the temperature and humidity levels have dropped a bit, what better time to ride bicycles than now. This weekend there are a wide variety of bike events from which to choose. Sunday, 10/25, alone offers six century options (as well as other distances). From the Suwannee Fat Tire Festival in White Springs to the Homestead Speedway Bicycle Festival in Homestead, nearly every part of the state is covered with outstanding events. Go to the Florida Bicycle Touring Calendar for a list of events, then under “Detail Pages”,  click October. Proceeds from Ute’s October Blast – The Share the Road Memorial Ride in Ft. Lauderdale benefit FBA.

There are also a variety of festivals including the Central Florida Veg Fest in cooperation with Climate Action Day in Orlando. FBA board member Mighk Wilson has arranged to run “Bike Buses” from around Orlando to the festival at Loch Haven Park. We’ll even store your festival purchases at the FBA booth. If you aren’t able to carry them home on your bike,  we’ll also offer a cargo bike service.

Regardless of which event you decide to participate, make plans to ride this weekend.

Ute’s October Blast – the Share the Road Memorial Ride

Join us in Ft. Lauderdale to honor and remember Ute Burkhardt at Ute’s October Blast – the Share the Road Memorial Ride. The fun begins at 8:00 am at Downtown Bicycles,
2533 E. Sunrise Blvd. Proceeds benefit FBA!

Z Motion BIKE BBQ BEER BEACH BASH

Don’t miss the B5 event in Ft. Lauderdale at the Ocean Manor Resort, 4040 Galt Ocean Drive. The net proceeds benefit FBA!

Introducing FBA’s 2009/2010 Board of Directors and Advisory Members

The following 2009/2010 Board of Directors and Advisory Board members were installed at the October 9 Board meeting held in Orlando. Attending Board meetings is a great way to better understand what we do to promote education and advocacy.  A record number of guests attended the meeting resulting in several new recruits to the Advisory Board. The next quarterly meeting will be held the weekend of January 8-10, 2010 in a location to be determined. The winter meeting serves as our retreat to plan for the new year.

Board of Directors

David Henderson, President (Miami)

Don Braverman, Vice President (Boynton Beach)

Stephanie Striefel, Secretary (Delray Beach)

Jodi Hohlstein, Treasurer (Orange Park)

Steve Diez (Brooksville)

Mike Lasche (Sarasota)

Mighk Wilson (Orlando)

Advisory Board

Becky Afonso (Oldsmar)

Lisa Blount (Winter Springs)

Keri Caffrey (Orlando)

Paul Casazza (formerly West Palm Beach, now retired to TN)

Raphael Clemente (West Palm Beach)

Dan Connaughton (Gainesville)

Hal Downing (Winter Park)

Herb Hiller (Georgetown)

Hope Howland-Cook (Gainesville)

Dwight Kingsbury (Tallahassee)

Henry Lawrence (Panama City)

Jessica Meurer (Leesburg)

Laura Minns (Orlando)

Danny Page (Orlando)

Roger Pierce (Gainesville)

Carol Pulley (Gulfbreeze/Tallahassee)

Bianca Pyko (Orlando)

Tina Russo (Land O’ Lakes/Tampa)

Robert Seidler (Sopchoppy)

John Sinibaldi (Seminole)

Ted Wendler (DeLand)

Randy Williams (Oviedo)

We need you in Mount Dora 10/10/09

FBA’s Annual meeting and Awards presentation is tomorrow, 10/10/09, in Mount Dora in conjunction with the Mount Dora Bicycle Festival and Lake County Bicycle Summit.  The Festival begins today, 10/9/09, and continues through Sunday. The Annual meeting and Awards presentation begins at 3:30 followed by the Lake County Bicycle Summit at 4:15 on Saturday.

We need YOU to promote positive change for bicycling in Florida. Come join us in Mount Dora and we’ll explain how you can help.

Walking School Bus story in Largo featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered”

Check out this recent story titled “Florida Town Tries Walking School Bus Project” aired on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered”.

Wouldn’t it be great if more communities and schools would consider this health and transportation solution. Kudos to Megan Carmichael (Pinellas County Health Dept) and Pamela Easley (Assistant Principal, Belcher Elementary School) for making this project happen at Belcher Elementary.

Story submitted by Ginger Hoke, Lake Mary

Call for Papers: PROBIKE/PROWALK FLORIDA 2010 “The Dollars and Sense of Bicycling and Walking”

FBA needs your expertise for the ProBike/ProWalk Florida 2010 conference to be held May 11-13 in Lakeland.

At our inaugural Florida Bike Summit at Florida’s state capitol last April, it became very clear that for significant headway to be made at this level – or any level, for that matter – it’s necessary to put dollar values on the benefits of creating communities that are bike/ped-friendly.  Likewise, costs associated with not having that kind of environment are just as important. Beyond money spent on bike-related tourism and accompanying tax revenue collected by the state, cycling and walking impacts many aspects of our economy.  Some examples include individual and government savings or costs related to health, environmental impacts, and the one with arguably the biggest impact – transportation.

To assist FBA begin what we know will be the complex process of collecting and analyzing credible data, we’ve decided to make bike/ped economics the theme of ProBike/ProWalk Florida 2010.  If you think you have something to offer in terms of a conference session topic, please consider submitting a paper that summarizes what you’d like to present by December 1, 2009.  We’d also like to get sessions that are appropriate for professional development credits certified for planners, landscape architects, transportation engineers, and other professionals, so please keep that in mind when developing your topic.

Please direct your questions and submit session summaries with the following information to Dan Moser, FBA Program Manager, at dan@floridabicycle.org:

Contact Information, Session Topic, Topic Significance to Conference, Outline of Presentation/Session, Other Proposed Speakers to Compliment Topic, and Date Submitted.

Your input is vital to the overall success of the 5th edition of our conference.

Calling all Florida Bicycle Club Presidents

The Florida Freewheelers Bicycle Club has generously offered to host a meeting  of all Florida Bicycle Club Presidents in conjunction with the 30th Anniversary Horrible Hundred two-day event November 14-15 in Clermont.  The purpose of the meeting is to share ideas and discuss ways we can all learn from one another on topics ranging from ride management, charity rides, SCOR (Specialized Cardiac Outpatient Rehabilitation) Chapters, bike education workshops and legislative strategies for 2010. Other agenda items are also welcomed.

The meeting will be held Saturday, November 14, at the Fairfield Inn & Suites from 3:30-5:30 pm. Other activities on Saturday include packet pick-up and registration, and a sponsor/vendor expo at Waterfront Park.  The Horrible Hundred Main Event occurs Sunday, November 15, at Waterfront Park with a Century, 70-mile and 35-mile route options beginning at 8:00 am.

In support of the Florida Bicycle Club Presidents’ meeting, the Florida Freewheelers and the Horrible Hundred will provide one (1) complimentary ride registration to each club for their president or designee if they choose to attend the meeting. Interested individuals should contact Scot Hartle, FFW Executive Director at FFWmail@aol.com, to register for the bike ride, as well as Laura Hallam to RSVP for the meeting at laura@floridabicycle.org.

FBA Board of Director members and staff will facilitate the meeting since FFW President Art Ackerman and Horrible Hundred Director Tom Bargnesi will have their hands full with final preparations for the HH.  They have pledged their support and hope this meeting is the beginning of an annual event.

Please share this information with your club so all clubs are represented at the Florida Bicycle Club Presidents’ meeting. For more information, contact Laura Hallam.

Bike Buses to VegFest and Climate Action Day Events

Woo hoo! The calendar says it’s Fall but it’s still Florida Springtime! We have some fun stuff in the works.

On October 24, Florida Bicycle Association is teaming up with Central Florida VegFest to run “Bike Buses” from around Orlando to the festival at Loch Haven Park.

Rusted Chain Bike Collective will head up the Bike Valet service to keep bikes secure. Bike bus volunteers will even provide cargo bike services for your acquisitions!

What is a Bike-Bus you ask? Simple: a ride leader or small group of cyclists starts at a predetermined place and time and follows a predetermined route, picking up other bicyclists along the way at “bus stops” – just as a regular bus does.

Figuring that some people will want to buy something at VegFest and might not be able to carry it home with them on their bikes, we’ll also offer a cargo bike service.

The routes are now complete! See the routes and download a map here.

We still need more volunteers to help the Pedal 4 Pride kids and bus driver assistance. To volunteer, please contact Mighk.

Mighk Wilison