Boise Bike Crawl is happening on Sunday in Ann Morrison Park, plus Avimor Demo Days Saturday

Hi all,

In this week's outdoor tip, I'm focusing on two events coming up this weekend -- the Boise Bike Crawl Sunday at Ann Morrison Park and Avimor Demo Days Saturday at Avimor.

The Boise Bike Crawl will occur from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. by the Old Timer's Shelter in the east end of the park next to the Boise River Greenbelt. I will be there working for ProHelmet.org, giving away free helmets to adults and kids, plus I will be promoting the Idaho mountain bike license plate to support trails statewide, and providing information on where to ride your road bike and mountain bike in SW Idaho.

The bike crawl is a great partnership event. Participating groups include Boise Parks & Recreation, Let's Move Boise, Boise Bicycle Project, SWIMBA, the Treasure Valley YMCA, Idaho Transportation Department pedestrian and bicycle program, Ada County Highway District ped and bike program, Boise State Cycle Learning Center, Look Save a Life, and Safe Routes to Schools.

Tree City Juice & Smoothie is our food and beverage vendor. They'll have delicious drinks and food available throughout the duration of the event.

Stop by and learn about:

• Bike etiquette on roads, trails and the Greenbelt. 
• Rules of the Road for people riding on streets and highways - local laws and safety basics. Like, which way are you supposed to ride on streets? Against traffic or with traffic? 
• Helmets - Why it's important to wear them, proper fit and distribution. 
• Bike Maintenance - Do you know how to fix a flat on the fly? Do you know how to fix your gears when they skip in between sprockets? 
• Connectivity - Bike route maps, safe routes to schools and other resources for commuters. 
• Wellness - How to tap into the many indoor and outdoor fitness activities in the greater Boise area. 

For more information, contact me at 208-484-0295 or send me an email at sstuebner@cableone.net. 

On Saturday, Avimor is serving up a real fun fest from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. "Enjoy all the dirt, beer, wine, food and music you can handle," organizers say. Avimor is a new community located along Idaho 55 several miles north of Boise. You can't miss it on the right-hand side as you're traveling north. They have 90+ miles of trails to explore. 

SWIMBA will provide a beginning mountain bike class for the uninitiated, and it also will lead a 7-mile and 14-mile ride on a mix of new and existing trails. Group rides are meeting at the SWIMBA tent at 9:45 a.m., and riding at 10 a.m. I'm planning to go out there to experience the new trails, listen to music and hang out with friends.

As the name implies, there will be demo bikes on hand to try out from local bike shops like Reed Cycle, Meridian Cycle, George's Cycles and Ridgeline Specialty Sports. Steve Fulton is the headliner for music. The tunes will crank up at 1 p.m. and go till 4 p.m. 

Riding to the top of Sheep Rock is one of the longer rides at Avimor. 

One thing that's cool about riding or hiking at Avimor is that you've got the place to yourself. It won't be that way forever. 

Seems like a great opportunity to ride the latest and greatest in mountain bike technology, check out new trails you've never ridden before, enjoy live music while hanging out with your buddies and sipping on a cold beer.

The new trails built by SWIMBA at Avimor include:  

1. Willow Creek

2. Bovine Nirvana

3. Shooting Range

4. Twisted Spring

5. Harlow Hallows

6. Harlow Connector

7. Broken Horn Trail

BTW, Boise Parks & Recreation is asking for public input on the Boise Foothills Management Plan. Three public meetings are being held in the coming weeks to get input on a wide variety of topics and issues. For more information, contact Julia Grant, jgrant@cityofboise.org or (208) 493-2533.

Have fun! 

- SS 

Swing by the Greenbelt Bike Crawl on Saturday by the 36th St. pedestrian bridge

Map of Greenbelt Bike Crawl location (click to enlarge)

Hi all,

I want to encourage cyclists of all kinds, families and kids to swing by the first-ever Greenbelt Bike Crawl on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. to visit with the who's who of the Boise bicycle community, pick up some free swag, learn about local bike clubs, safe routes to schools and maybe even get a free helmet!

I'll be there representing ProHelmet, a nonprofit group that promotes helmet safety. St. Luke's Children's Hospital has donated more than 50 helmets for the event. I hope that I'm able to give all of them away to kids and adults who don't have one of their own.

Our motto at ProHelmet is that you've got only one brain. No one ever plans on having an accident when cycling or roller-blading on the Greenbelt, but accidents can happen in the blink of an eye. If you're not wearing a helmet, you could be knocked unconscious, suffer severe head injuries or worse. Look at what happened to Poor Jimmy!

We have almost 10 different bike groups that will be participating in the Greenbelt Bike Crawl. Everyone will be set up between the new 36th Street pedestrian bridge and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County (610 E. 42nd St.) on the Garden City side of the Greenbelt. (Boise Parks & Rec doesn't allow bike events on their portion of the Greenbelt; Garden City was gracious enough to allow us to hold the event on their turf).

Other groups participating Saturday include:

• Boise Bicycle Project - our community's favorite nonprofit according to the latest Boise Weekly Best of Boise survey. BBP will help folks with bike maintenance tips on Saturday.
• SWIMBA - the Southwest Idaho Mountain Biking Association, the top mountain bike advocacy group in Boise. They're a great resource for learning how to mountain bike, discovering great trails, building new trails and protecting our access to trails.
• Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance - a group that assists commuters and road cyclists in the Treasure Valley.
• YMCA Safe Routes to Schools program - Looking for the best route for your kids to walk or bike to school? These folks can help you out.
• Look! Save a Life! - a group that advocates safe cycling and provides tips for riders on how to avoid getting into an accident on our busy streets and sidewalks.
• Idaho Transportation Department Bicycle and Pedestrian Program - Meet the great folks at ITD who assist communities with new pathway projects and safe routes to schools. ITD is one of the few agencies that finances some of these projects.
• Boise State University Cycling Learning Center - This is a relatively new campus-based service focusing on developing healthy and sustainable lifestyles by promoting the use of bicycles and multimodal transportation options.
• Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County - The club facility at 610 E. 42nd Street in Garden City is a great place for boys and girls to hang out after school, play games, do homework and learn about ways to realize their full potential in life. The club teaches kids respect for others and good clean fun. I'm hoping to give away a lot of bike helmets to these kids on Saturday.
• Cycling Sistas - This is a group of female cyclists from the Boise area who are cancer survivors. Great way to meet people who have suffered the same plight for inspiration. The Cycling Sistas are looking to add more members.

The weather on Saturday is supposed to be sunny, so grab the kids, ride over to the Greenbelt and learn about all of these great cycling resources in Boise! You won't go away empty-handed, that's for sure. You might even learn something!

Hope to see you at the Greenbelt Bike Crawl. If you've got any questions, please give me a call at 208-484-0295 or send an email: sstuebner@cableone.net.

- SS

ProHelmet promotes helmet safety in high-risk sports

Hi all,

This week's tip focuses on helmet safety. I am working together with a group of five dynamic women to launch a new group called ProHelmet. Our mission is to promote helmet safety for people who engage in high-risk sports such as bicycling, roller blading, horseback riding, skate boarding and skiing/snowboarding.

Our message is that we've only got one brain. That's all we've got for our whole life. One brain. Take care of it.

ProHelmet will be at the Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium on Saturday, giving away our logo stickers to everyone who takes the pledge to wear a helmet. Watch for us at the Team Exergy tent and watch for our banner: "You only get one brain. Always wear a helmet."

No one ever plans on having an accident when enjoying a favorite sport. It just happens in the blink of an eye. And suddenly, if you're not wearing a helmet, you could be knocked unconscious, suffer severe head injuries, or worse. Look at what happened to Poor Jimmy.

I must admit that I was a bit of a problem child :) I rode my bike everywhere, and I rode fast. A bit reckless, too. Occasionally, I hit a pot hole or a mailbox or a station wagon (all true!), and I suffered concussions in two of those instances. One time I was totally knocked out after flying over my handlebars from hitting a pot hole, and the next thing I knew, I was lying in bed with my family gathered around, wondering if I would wake up.

But they didn't have any helmets for kids in those days, so I just tried to be more careful.

Everything went smooth until I started mountain biking in the mid-80's. I rode with a ball cap on because, again, there were only those really goofy and ugly Bell helmets available in those days, and I didn't think I needed it. Then I rode down Bob's Trail, flipped over my handlebars and landed directly on the top of my head. It really hurt, and it knocked some sense into me. Plus, helmet technology and manufacturing was rapidly improving because of the skyrocketing growth of mountain biking. So I've used a bike helmet ever since.

ProHelmet was started by Dr. Jill Beck, a pediatric ear, nose and throat surgeon in Boise, Olympic gold-medalist Kristin Armstrong, Debora Kristensen, an attorney with Givens Pursley, Lynn Johnston, a community activist, and Susie Pouliot, CEO of the Idaho Medical Association. All of them are active women who engage in multiple sports and understand the need for stronger education about helmet safety.

Dr. Beck can tell you stories about seeing patients who fell off their bicycle in a parking lot and lost their hearing because of a head injury. If they had a helmet on, it would have been a scratch. Wouldn't those people like to turn back the clock?

Kristin is so passionate about the issue that she is making time for the ProHelmet cause in between having a portion of Bogus Basin named after her today, being inducted in the Idaho Hall of Fame tonight and signing autographs and leading a kids lap at the Twilight Criterium on Saturday.

Dave Beck, founder of the Idaho Velodrome and Cycle Park and cycling coach for the Boise Byrds, has been a vital supporter from the beginning. I am the group's part-time executive director.

It's an important cause. Each year, bike-related crashes kill approximately 800 people and injure 567,000 others in the United States. Although more people than ever are using bike helmets, only half of the more than 80 million bike riders wear them all the time; approximately 43 percent never use helmets. Wearing a bike helmet reduces the risk of serious head and brain injury by 85 percent. Source: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

ProHelmet is working on public education to start with. We gave away more than 200 helmets to a group of foster kids in SW Idaho in May. We co-sponsored an event with St. Luke's Children's Hospital called "Wear Your Helmet to Work Day." There are many other educational opportunities ahead.

For now, if you support the cause, go to www.prohelmet.org and take the pledge to wear a helmet. Or take the pledge Saturday night, and we'll give you a sticker.

Idaho has one of the lowest rates of helmet use in the nation. Let's see if we can turn that situation around and save our collective brain power for a lifetime of productive activity.

-SS