"Low-Stress Bicycle Networks" & Other Wisdom From SVBC Annual Summit

The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition had their annual summit yesterday. If you live in the Bay Area, missed it, and use a bike to get around you should go. And if you use a bike to get there you have to take part in the Bike Pool - which took us through the Stevens Creek Trail. New friends get made.

This year the meeting was held in Mountain View. At some point while the SVBC was planning this event, Microsoft popped up and said: “It looks like you’re planning a bike summit. Need some help?”  and they generously offered space in their beautiful building. I was tempted to roam the halls searching for a Clippy costume that I just know is in a forgotten storage room somewhere but I chose to respect their space (and valet-parked my homemade cargo bike outside),

During the well-organized day-long presentation (split by a nice lunch of sandwiches, salad and sun-warmed chocolate chip cookies just outside the building) I got to hear about the state of bicycling statewide - as well as see the breathtakingly complex Caltrans org chart that can easily be mistook for the Periodic Table of the Elements. The most important part of that panel was hearing directly from Caltrans personnel and knowing who to call when I ride through a ghost-bike-waiting-to-happen intersection and want to suggest a change.

I must admit I tuned out during a good chunk of the panel talking about protected bike lanes. That was until I heard a phrase I won’t forget anytime soon: low-stress bicycle network. 

I’ve ridden a bicycle in fifteen countries (most recently Japan) and too many U.S. cities to recall. I was stumped when someone yesterday asked me what my most favorite place to ride is (I eventually gave her the Alfa Romeo of cycling cities: Cleveland) but my least favorite place in the world to ride a bike is Greenwich, Connecticut: that Trump Tower in suburbs-form ranks dead last on my horizontal scale of ‘infrastructure’ (no bike lanes and no sharrows) and are at the bottom of my vertical scale of ‘acceptance’ (save for Porsche 911 drivers, who nearly always give a wide berth, motorists in Greenwich seem more likely to actively close a 3’ gap before opening one).

The reason I’m telling you this is that as someone who has made a career* biking in less-than-optimal environments I’m indifferent to what kind of environment is provided for me. I’ll ride anyway. Passionate cyclists build up their immunity to stressful environments quickly - and need little more than a bike and gravity.

From the biking trip in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Still better than Greenwich, Connecticut. 

But the panel was a great reminder that the people who idle their Prius’ for 20 minutes at the In-N-Out Burger a mile and a half from home don’t think like us: if we want them to leave their cars at home, we need to create a low-stress cycling environment. That is done via a variety of means including protected bike lanes, lane dieting (reducing the width of motor vehicle travel lanes to make motorists drive slower), road dieting, and safety campaigns. 

Speaking of the latter, I sat tall in my chair and mostly stayed off The Twitter when Laura Wells, the Deputy Director of Transportation from San Jose spoke about Vision Zero. While there is a lot of infrastructure in my city that needs updating, arguably the most important change has to take place in people’s heads. Toward that end…

Get used to these images and visit and share what you read about on the San Jose Vision Zero site. Also, when driving your car pretend there is an egg between your foot at the gas pedal and a cyclist is in your blind spot at all times. Choose not to kill your neighbors when behind the wheel.

I’ll come up with something catchier eventually. 

One of my favorite parts was the ‘People Powered Placemaking’ panel at the end. I don’t want to give away too many details since I want you to go to these summits instead of just reading DIYBIKING.COM write-ups the day after, but it featured ordinary citizens doing amazing, MacGyver-esque things to make their communities better for cyclists and safer for everyone - see the fantastic Safe Mountain View for an example.

My least favorite part of the day was the evaluation survey. Just like last year I had no problems with what the SVBC was asking, but I don’t understand why they don’t use SurveyMonkey. They could have gotten more data and evaluated the findings in less time (they did exchange the paper surveys for raffle tickets but I would have stayed at the networking event either way - it’s a great place to mingle - and this year it was a great place to mingle and learn more about bike share organizations like Zagster and Social Bicycles).

So there you have it. Whether you attended this worthwhile event or not show some love and give some thanks to the SVBC summit partners (and give a special thanks to Clif Bar - I think the one I got is melting on the dashboard of my car; as soon as I’m done posting I had better run out and eat it) and, if you aren’t yet a member of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, join up: your dollars will go toward a better cycling community. And don’t forget their annual dinner is coming up next month…and so is something called the Tour de Coop, which is another thing I need to look into. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

* made you look.

Bay Area Bike to Work Day

Bay Area Bike to Work Day began at sunup. It went well until I parked in a loading zone.

As you know, I am a telecommuter. 

However, phase two of Bike to Work Day involved boarding my adored VTA light rail. It's pronounced Veetee-ay and I'd write a song about it if that rhymed - and If I had talent.

Then it was a meet-up at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library with the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coaition, the VTA, the mayor and a whole lot of other cool people for a ride up the Guadalupe River Trail.

It was when I took this shot that a thought struck me about biking to work vs. driving: you can choose to surround yourself with a leather, steel and glass room that loses value over time, or you could surround yourself with friends that will gain value over time.

I also got to visit some great energizer stations. And I must say this about Oracle: you are a staple of Silicon Valley and a leader in cloud applications. But you also run a spectacular energizer station.

I returned home to work from my home office for a while before the day was done. This meant phase three of Bike to Work Day: going to the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition's Bike Away From Work Bash.

I brought my homemade cargo bike so as not to confuse the valet. But I didn't have to worry: every bike was different and the assortment did well to show off the diversity of the people who bike to work. Old friends met. New ones made.

Phase four of bike to work day: thanking the people who rode to work for the first time. In the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi: you've taken your first step into a larger world.

I will put up links tomorrow but tonight I have put away the sign from the sign bike. I peeled off the '2' and stowed it with the proper labels so this will be easier to make next year. Thank everybody for making this Bay Area Bike to Work Day possible. National BTWD is the 20th so I hope you take part for any reason. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding.

 

Bay Area Bike to Work Day

Bay Area Bike to Work Day began at sunup. It went well until I parked in a loading zone.

As you know, I am a telecommuter. 

However, phase two of Bike to Work Day involved boarding my adores VTA light rail. It's pronounced Veetee-ay and I'd write a song about it if that rhymed and I had talent.

Then it as a meet-up at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library with the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coaition, the VTA, the mayor and a whole lot of other cool people for a ride up the Guadalupe River Trail.

It was when I took this shot that a thought struck me about biking to work vs. driving: you can choose to surround yourself with a leather, steel and glass room that loses value over time, or you could surround yourself with friends that will gain value over time.

I also got to visit some great energizer stations. And I must say this about Oracle: you are a staple of Silicon Valley and a leader in cloud computing. But you also run a spectacular energizer station.

I returned home to work from my home office for a while before the day was done. This meant phase three of Bike to Work Day: going to the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition's Bike Away From Work Bash.

I brought my homemade cargo bike so as not to confuse the valet. But I didn't have to worry: every bike was different and the assortment did well to show off the diversity of the people who bike to work. Old friends met. New ones made.

Phase four of bike to work day: thanking the people who rode to work for the first time. In the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi: you've taken your first step into a larger world.

I will put up links tomorrow but tonight I have put away the sign from the sign bike. I peeled off the '2' and stowed it with the proper labels so this will be easier to make next year. Thank everybody for making this Bay Area Bike to Work Day possible. National BTWD is the 20th so I hope you take part for any reason. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding.

 

Five Ways to Prepare for Bike to Work Day (Even if You're a Telecommuter)

Bay Area Bike to Work Day is May 12 (National Bike to Work Day: May 20th) and I urge you to take part. Given the pollution in the air and the congestion on the roads the Prius and Tesla-worshipping direction California has taken isn’t working. So it’s time to bike more - and since about 40% of Bay Area residents live less than five miles from their workplaces, optimal conditions to ride to work are already there. 

As a freelancer, I am a telecommuter so I easily fall in the five-mile-or-less group. I also just took the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition pledge to bike to work (I admit my distance is shorter than most, but riding any distance on Bike to Work Day is an accomplishment - especially for those who don’t ride much.)

If you drove your car to work today please look out your windshield on the way back and think about how many times you sit at a traffic light and watch the light change from red to green and back again. Think of how much money you pump into your car every week to go what is probably a pretty short distance. Think about how nice it would be to put some space between you and your next $1,000+ car repair bill. How nice it would be to interact with humans with your voice and your smile instead of with a horn. 

I could go on. 

1) Choose the right bike for the terrain.

The perfect cycling outfit includes a mountain bike for trails, a fast road bike for Strava-bragging, a cargo bike for hauling things and a folding bike for travel. There may also be a hybrid bike good for all-around use. But what about telecommuting? 

As it so happens I recently acquired a bike from a metal scrap pile that, after repairing, is just perfect for my Bike to Work Day - and the checklist works for non-telecommuters as well:  a comfortable seat, a decent gear ratio for the landscape, functioning brakes, and added comfort of full suspension for when transitioning from carpet to laminate. I have no idea who made this or why. 

If you don’t have the right bike I recommend Mike’s Bikes and Good Karma Bikes (I know there are other great shops in the Bay Area but I really don’t shop anywhere else).

2) Take ownership over your safety

Make sure your bike is safe to ride and you (and it) have the proper safety equipment. A properly fitted helmet is a great idea but I also recommend bike lights - even if you don’t tend to ride in the dark. 

Lucky for me I have the best bike light: A Blaze Laserlight, which sends an image of a bicycle out in front of my bike. It was designed to remind motorists to be on the lookout for cyclists when making a turn or opening a car door after parallel parking, but I’m using it to make sure I don’t hit anyone on foot who enters or exits  Bathroom Lane when I’m leaving Bedroom Boulevard at speed. 

3) Know your route

Before cycling a route that you are used to driving on - or even walking - it’s important to look at everything with the lens of a cyclist and ask yourself some simple questions: What are the high traffic areas? Where am I likely to encounter pedestrians? Is there construction or are there obstacles I should be aware of? Where does it make sense to ride on the shoulder vs. taking the entire lane (or, rather, hallway?)

A lot of large thoroughfares in Silicon Valley have bike lanes. My house does not so I will have to share the road (floor) with other users. I have already made a note that the first right turn has a laundry basket I have to avoid and it is followed by a sharp left into the home office. 

If you want help finding a route, the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition actually has a personalized route service called Virtual Route Scouts you can use. I just used my Measure Master (cutting through the bathroom would have added an unnecessary 19” to my trip). 

4) Know your Energizer Stations

I think these went by a different name when I did Bike to Work Day in Connecticut, but peppered around Silicon Valley are Energizer Stations, which is a catchy way to describe folding tables containing or surrounded by food, drink, giveaways, and nice people. Whether you are a first time bike commuter or not they’re fun places to stop. 

The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition has built a handy map to show you where the 80 or so Energizer Stations are. They lack in several key locations such as the East Side of San Jose and my living room, but if there’s one near you it is worth going out of your way to visit.

I’m going to have to create a DIY energizer station in my kitchen: my plan is to buy a pound of Chromatic Coffee - which has been recommended to me by someone at Cowgirl Bike Courier - and after parking the bike I’ll have a cup of coffee. This will make my commute about 60’ - more than double the original distance but I’m pretty sure I can do it. 

5) Know where the Bike Away From Work Bash is located

I actually got to do this last year when I was still getting over internal combustion engine-lag after driving across the country from Connecticut. It’s fun, there are interesting and attractive people there, and you can buy a T-shirt/become a member of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition if you aren’t one already. SVBC has a Bike Away From Work Bash in San Jose. If you're not able to make it, create your own little gathering of fellow bicycle commuters and it may just turn into a bash. 

And that’s all I have for now - I will live-blog about my commute on Bike to Work Day - but I will not use my phone while my bike is in motion (good advice if you bike indoors or out). Please encourage your motorist friends, family and colleagues to Bike to Work. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

Follow me on Twitter: @michaelknorris

Bay Area Bike to Work Day is May 12

Do you drive your car everywhere? Do you live within five miles of your workplace like 40% of Bay Area residents? Do you want to put one more day between you and the next time you have to throw thousands of dollars at your car for a mysterious repair?

This post is for you: Bay Area Bike to Work Day is May 12. This is not to be confused with National Bike to Work Day on May 20. (I’m still not sure why California comes a week early. I blame gluten.)

The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition has all of the information you’ll need to help make your commute - even if you riding to work means you’re losing your Cycleginity - as easy as fun as possible. They are even going to have ‘Energizer Stations’ set up at around 80 locations, so you’ll be able to meet some fit and fun people on your way to work - something that never happens when you drive your car.

If your bike is really dusty, is being used as a condominium for spiders, etc. take it to Good Karma Bikes on 460 Lincoln Avenue in San Jose between 2pm and 6pm on weekdays and hire them to fix it up. Also, if you just want an all-around good bike to use for your trip, they have a lot of good deals on their shop floor. You may spend $100-$400+ depending on what you get but remember: when was the last time you brought your car in to have them find what was causing a mysterious noise and they said ‘It’s only going to be $100!’

So make the air we breathe a little more breathable, make the roads we travel on a little safer, and make yourself - somehow - look even better when you’re naked. That’s right, I went there. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

Explaining Car Maintenance to Millennials

This isn’t the post I was expecting to write today - all I wanted to do was make a quick reminder that Silicon Valley Gives Day is coming up May 3 and you should make a donation to Good Karma Bikes using this link. 

But instead, I just spent more money fixing my motor vehicle in a day and a half than I spent on bikes in the last four years. 

This may seem like an odd thing - especially if you are a millennial who has the good sense to not own a car. So let me explain to millennials, space aliens and others who have not purchased a car what will typically happen when your car needs to be fixed. 

First, you come to a moment when your car needs repair and you either can’t drive it, it becomes unsafe to drive, or, simply the vehicle is making A Noise it shouldn’t be making. 

You’ll bring it to a car repair place - often a dealership with a big, complex building. You’ll talk to a person behind a counter with a nametag. You’ll ask about how much it will cost and you will get an answer we’ll call ‘A’. You are skeptical, but the person with the nametag assures you they can do it and the car will be fixed by the end of the day. 

You will then spend money to arrange other transportation home. There may be a shuttle van driven by someone who smells like Otto's jacket from The Simpsons, but you will spend money to arrange other transportation home. 

Partway through the day, you will get a phone call from the repair place. They will tell you they found A Problem -  that means the repairs will no longer cost ‘A’ but cost ‘B’ - and ‘B’ is more money than ‘A’.

You’ll be tempted to argue. Argue, don’t argue, it is entirely up to you. But because your motor vehicle is in pieces on a workshop floor and you need the car back...there is almost no value in your side of the argument. You will say ‘yes’ and go back to your life - secure in the knowledge that you’ll get your car back at the end of the day even though it cost you more money. 

Then if you’re really lucky, you’ll get another call in the afternoon that you think is the person you talked to at the dealer telling you your car is ready. Instead, you’ll find out that there is A New Problem - and they have to keep your car overnight. That means even more inconvenience. 

Then, the next day, you get a call to pick up your car. You take a cab, Uber or even a folding bike there and want to speak with the person you spoke to the day before. But that person is nowhere to be found. 

You wait for five or ten minutes. You may be sent to another desk who may send you back to the desk at which you were waiting (as what happened to me this morning) and wait for the person you spoke with yesterday. You want to talk to the person with the nametag about the promise made to you the day before about getting your car back the same day. Instead, someone else shows up.

You will explain calmly that you are disappointed that you were told twice the day before that the car wouldn’t be held overnight and you were inconvenienced. The person will not respond and simply give you the paperwork.

At this point, you may be tempted to speak to the manager. But at this point, you do not have anyone to back up the conversation you had the day before: you signed off on the ‘estimate’ agreement. So, you go back and forth fruitlessly with a hapless but pleasant manager who, by the way (and this is for all of you fellow freelancers out there) is making money standing there while you are not. So you will get back on the road. 

Because you are agitated at this point, you will start to see how absurd the business of owning a car and driving actually is. You may begin to wish to have all the time you have spent looking for a parking spot or stuck in traffic. 

You will also start to think about alternatives to your present situation. You will also realize that every day you ride your bike is another day between you and the next time you have to bring your car to a service station. You realize that a bike that costs a few hundred dollars from an independent shop will save you a lot of money that just can’t be found in a spreadsheet.

You’ll also realize Bike to Work Day is around the corner, and, come hell, high water, or both, you are going to take part. The Bay Area Bike to Work Day is May 12…

…and National Bike to Work Day is May 20th. 

If you’re a Bay Area resident do yourself and you car a favor: take the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition’s Bike to Work Day pledge. If you don’t have a bike, visit a bike shop and get one - because it is cheaper and easier than 'ash in your brake fluid' rear shocks or any other one of hundreds of possibly made-up problems a car service place may charge you money for. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

Let's Have Bike Parking at #SB50

So Super Bohl 50 is taking place a week from tomorrow at Levi Stadium here in Silicon Valley. Traffic is expected to be upgraded from 'everyday awfulness' to 'spectacularly dismal.' 

With that in mind you’d think the hosting committee would want as many bicycle and pedestrian options to get to the game as possible. 

The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, like myself, is not only appalled that biking directions to get to The BIG game are nonexistent, but valet bike parking won’t be available (SVBC provides valet bike parking for free at a lot of events in the Bay Area - not just their own). 

Of course, the hosting committee could have very good reasons for snubbing bicycle users. A bicycle may take a lot more time for a bomb-sniffing dog to search than a 2004 GMC Yukon. Also, if there are shenanigans and baddies need to make a getaway, bumper-to-bumper traffic will make a quick escape a lot harder.

But if you disagree with this reasoning - and you don't want to beat the traffic by leaving for Levi Stadium this afternoon, please sign the SVBC petition to allow bike valet at the BIG game. They are going to deliver the signed petition to the hosting committee on Feb. 4th so please do it now. and forward the link to your cycling brothers and sisters.

And if the Super Bohl hosting committee is reading this I’d like to make an amendment to the SVBC petition - which I already signed: If you don’t welcome bicycles at the BIG game, I won’t watch the BIG game. 

Here's the SVBC petition link:

http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/50913/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=16923

P.S. : there's still time to sign up for Park Tool School that begins Feb. 9th at Good Karma Bikes, so if you need that link it's right here. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

Seven Takeaways from the 2015 Silicon Valley Bike Summit

I went to yesterday’s Silicon Valley Bike Summit because it was a matter of national security: three months living full time in California - and even longer since I resigned from the Connecticut Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Board and Stamford’s bike groups - I’ve been having serious bicycle community involvement withdrawal.

The Bike Summit - created and organized by the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition - was the good stuff. I shot all the bike nerd data into my bloodstream and immediately knew where my registration fees went. 

I’ll go next year for sure (this was the SVBC's 5th annual summit) and if you live in the Bay Area and want to make it easier for you and your neighbors to #choosethebike in day to day life, you’ll want to go too. 

Now if you weren’t in the packed room yesterday at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, here are just a few of the takeaways (you can also look up the hashtag #svbikesummit on Twitter to see some of the highlights or, even easier, look at the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition’s story of the summit).

7) The Question: What is Stopping Us From Being The Best Bicycle Place in the World?

During one of the panels this question was asked. It’s the best thirteen words spoken about cycling since the original Thirteen Words I always wished politicians would say.

It’s a good starting place for any community and a helpful way to get to the bottom of why people won’t #choosethebike. 

6) The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition Vision Zero Toolkit

Vision Zero is about redesigning and remaking cities to eliminate deaths on roads and educating citizens on the move to make that vision possible. 

SVBC made a useful kit of data and recommendations to help get any city or town moving on their own Vision Zero plan. The link to the SVBC Vision Zero Toolkit is here and it must be put in front of every Bay Area leader’s eyes - except not when they’re driving. That’s just dangerous. 

Also be sure to read the acknowledgements page from start to finish because a lot of great work from a lot of different sources went into this. 

5) The Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s Report

A theme throughout the day was data and how it can be used to guide better decisions. For instance, it’s incredibly easy to suggest a redesign of one intersection where a pedestrian was killed by using HO scale miniatures…

…but nobody has all the money they want to change every road they have. Data measures (‘What gets measured gets done’ was another great line from the summit). Data creates urgency. Data can show the effects of certain pro-bike efforts and help guide funds to priority areas. For instance, one of the most teeth-gnashing figures from yesterday is that El Camino Real makes up about 1% of San Mateo County roads but is responsible for 14% of bike collisions. 

Sounds like a serious candidate for improvement. 

The Santa Clara County Public Health Department's Bicycle Transportation & Safety in Santa Clara County report was available to the Bike Summit participants. The link is here and just like with the Vision Zero Tool kit please read the acknowledgements page because this kind of data doesn’t fall from the sky. 

The SCCPHD report’s content can vary from geekilicious to terrifying. If you’ve ever wanted to know who rides in general, who bikes to school, where your town ranks in terms of bicycle commuters* this is your report. If you want to look at trend information about bicycle injuries, what factors are involved and how frequently bicyclists are considered at fault, read the report. 

Actually: I take that back. Read the report whether you want to or not. It’s that important.

4) People Who Speak Are The Ones Who Get Listened To

Now it’s one thing to have useful data but it’s a tree falling in the woods with nobody around to hear it if no one wields it in public. Time and again panelists and audience members stated that town hall meetings must be packed, letters to the editor must be written and cyclists. Period. Must. Period. Vote. Period. 

We also need to do a better job of explaining what a ‘sharrow’ is. For the record:

So if you live in Silicon Valley and want to get involved with local issues visit the SVBC calendar page and go to your nearest event and go to town meetings. Data is your sword and town halls are the caves that may or may not have dragons in them. Go forth. 

3) The Networking

I’ve been to conferences all over the world and can credibly confirm that the ones without neckties are the best places to meet people. I met the head of Cyclelicious on the group bike ride to the event. I met great folks at my table (including the bike blogger LadyFleur). I had a nice lunch with a city planner I met in line for sandwiches. I learned about the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange while waiting for the first panel to start. I even got to meet someone because I sent the following image as a tweet during the summit.

I also got to meet a guy from GenZe, the company that provided the electric assist e-bike for the happy hour raffle. It was hard to imagine a more fun place to network. Also: all these good looking people walking around there must have been at least one meet-cute. 

2) The Phrase ’The Great Thing About Bike Share…’ became the ‘This One Time At Band Camp…’ of The Summit.  

You had to be there. But because you weren’t you can follow Frank Hebbert, the Director of Digital Product Management at Motivate, on Twitter. You can also give a read of my white paper on the London Bike Share I did last year. 

1) The Breakout Sessions

Wisely, SVBC assigned all of the attendees a number which decided which afternoon breakout session you’d be involved in. Working with the Engineering group was an interesting exercise: we were all asked to think about what behavior cyclists do that we don’t like to see as motorists and then we were asked to put on the more familiar hat and discuss what driver behaviors we don’t like to see as cyclists.  Afterward, we melded the two lists and tried to discuss how to engineer streets to change both behaviors. 

One of the solutions that would enable better behavior were various ‘road dieting’ initiatives, such as making driving lanes narrow - so cars would drive slower - and using the space left over to make a bike lane, which would not only give bicycle users a safer place to ride but also encourage cyclists not weave in and out of traffic. When you reduce a driver’s lane from 12’ to 10’ the motorists won’t notice - but the bicycle commuters will. 

So those are some of my takeaways. I thank the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition for creating this event and I urge you to read those reports and decide what action you want to take to make cycling better where you live. That’s what it’s all about. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

Follow me on Twitter @michaelknorris

*You’re behind Palo Alto. 

Are you a Cyclist in Silicon Valley? Here's What You're Doing Today

Today, August 22nd, is the 7th Annual Sports Basement Cycle Swap. It is from 10:00am to 2:00pm at Sports Basement of Sunnyvale and there is going to be a selection of new and used bikes, parts, gear and other stuff from 70+ vendors. There will also be food trucks there.

Adult admission is $3 and kids 18 or under get in free.

It’s important to go for several reasons. You might find an interesting part or accessory you didn’t know you wanted. Do not underestimate the value of stumbling along obscure and reasonably priced bike stuff. Read some of my archives: entire builds have been inspired by one find (more on the latest in another post). Also: if you have a cyclist in your life with an upcoming birthday, you might find the perfect gift. 

Second, all proceeds from the admission price and the booth fees benefit the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. So you’ll be browsing a selection of parts, meeting new friends, and helping a great cause (and if for whatever reason you can't go tomorrow but still want to make Silicon Valley a better place to #choosethebike, donate to the SVBC by clicking here. 

So head to Sports Basement tomorrow with an empty stomach and a full wallet - you’ll be glad you did. And as you eat and shop introduce yourself to the people that meet. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

Follow me on Twitter @michaelknorris