The two riders started out with a pre-ride visit to the Ultra Violet show the Upstate Artists Guild and then cruised back into the Park to pick up late comers (of which there was none). We lucked out by hitting the outstanding Underground Artist exhibit “Athletic Annex” during the downpour. Once again, the Underground Artists mounted an innovative and exciting show spread through three floors of the handball courts at the University Club on Dove.

We next visited the Trifecta Pop-Up Gallery on Hudson, the Opalka Galley on the re-paved (thank you Albany) New Scotland Ave, and ended up at the Massery Galley on Madison Ave. (hopefully soon to be three lanes with bicycle lanes).

Written by Lorenz Worden

Lame fake excuses aside here we go. *Turns ignition*

The First Friday Gallery Spin has been rescheduled for today as it usually falls on the First Friday event that happens in Albany every, you guessed it, first Friday. Stan Lee type alliterations aside, the reason for this change was that MoHu Fest, whatever that means, is happening this weekend. So instead of our usual activities we present to you a super charged day of cycling and art as you have never seen before.

“2011 marks the inaugural outing of this annual 9 day-long arts festival to be held every October in Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer and Saratoga counties. MoHu features theatre, dance, music, visual and random acts of art throughout the region.”

I like that phrase “random acts of art.” It makes it seem like the greasers are going to come by and paint the Mona Lisa on any blank surface they can paying attention to the intricate brush work with the skill of a master artisan.

Written by Chris Belsole

Eighteen happy riders – ranging in age from six on up – headed out from the Lark St. Daily Grind Café at 10:30 AM on the eve of Tropical Storm Irene. It was a beautiful day and commemorated the fifth consecutive year that the Daily Grind Café has sponsored this enjoyable Albany Bicycle Coalition ride from Albany to Troy.

Our one-way distance along the Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail and the streets of Watervliet and Troy was 9.6 miles at a lightening clip of 8.7 mph. Once settled in at the 3rd St. Troy shop, we enjoyed a variety of beverages and luncheon items generously hosted by the Daily Grind. After lunch, the majority of the riders walked a block over to the world-famous Troy Farmers Market to check out the edibles and several riders stocked up.

Our riders were Ethan, Kathleen, Chris, J.P., Willow, Sam, Jill, Bert, John, Jackie, Toni, Stacy, Margaret, Ken, Dan, William, Kent, and Lorenz.

Written by Lorenz

So what can you do to make sure bicycles get their due space on the road? Today Albany 2030 is hosting a ride where you will go around the city and check out all the bicycle accommodations camera in tow and tell them through the art of photography what you want to see more of and what ways the city could improve.

(click on the image to make it larger)

Written by Chris Belsole

When darkness fell we had a great fire, and continued the conversation sitting around the fire keeping warm. Everyone stayed up pretty late, except for me. I was beat, I headed to bed early, so I have no idea how the rest of the night went.

The next morning everyone was up early rising with the sun. Everyone was so quiet and peaceful that morning. We made pancakes with blueberries, and had fruit salad to start the day off. Breakfast was a happy event, everyone talking and laughing having fun. We spent the rest of the morning soaking up the sun,  just relaxing. After lunch everyone went on a ride down the trails that are around the campsite and into Thatcher Park. Everyone was gone for around 3 hours, and I guess there was a flat tire involved. I was still sore from the climb the prior day so I happily stayed behind.

Another couple of people joined us for dinner and smores that night around the campfire. John even came up with a jolly song about our trip:

We are a family…

Toni, Ken, Claire, Bert and Me…

We ride in Albany…

To Thompsons Lake and Schenectady…

Sunday was the day we were leaving so the object of breakfast was to use up the food we have left. We had reservation to meet at Indian Ladder Farms for Brunch at 12:30, so we had plenty of time. Once camp was broke down and everything put away, the people who rode up had the great pleasure of riding down. Let me say that I am pretty sure that was the fastest I had ever rode on my bicycle. It was slightly scary, but a lot of fun. The climb was almost worth the decent down the hills. I was really glad that I didn’t know how fast I was going. The Brunch at Indian Ladder Farms was awesome and it was sad that it was the last meet up before everyone headed home.

Overall, the camping trip was awesome. Everyone had a great time, and it was so worth the climb on our bikes up to Thompsons Lake. I would so do it again, which says a lot since the climb up there took my forever.

Written by Toni Cameron

Disclaimer: I am a commuter; I like to ride to places. I am not the type of person who can just go out and ride big loops, just to ride. I ride to the library or Hudson River Coffee house, and sometimes even to my work when I am feeling energetic. I hate hills. I avoid going down State Street like no tomorrow, and when I am leading a ride with ABC you know I won’t take you up a hill if I can help it. I am also a slow rider; someone who isn’t in a rush and likes to enjoy the ride.

Now, that you know where I am coming from you can imagine the terror that filled me when everyone wanted to ride up to Thompsons Lake. It involves not just hill, but what I would call a small mountain. There was no way around it; I was going to have to ride up Thatcher Park Road. My only other choice was to drive up, and while there were people who did drive up to go camping with us, I just couldn’t do it. Therefore, I had to make it up the mountain on my pretty little bike.

For courage I bought some gloves so my hands wouldn’t hurt as bad and a new jersey that I thought I looked cute in. Going on this ride with me was Claire, aka Mom, and without her I don’t think I would have made it. Google maps says it takes 2 hours by bike to make it up to Thompsons lake. Maybe for someone who like hills, not for someone like me. So we left early, like 3 o-clock, since I knew it was going to take me forever. Ken who still had to leave was going to leave at five, and I knew I might not make it before dark if I left at five.

So off we went, heading towards the small mountain in the distance. We passed through Voorheesville, and we hit a small hill, which to me was torture. My goal was to make it up without walking. I did that, but I did have to stop. All that was running around in my head was “that really wasn’t even a big hill.” It was just a small one to get my blood going. It took some time, but then we were there at the bottom of Thatcher Park Road. We were standing there talking so I could rest and try to get my courage up.

To be completely honest standing at the bottom, I didn’t think I could make it up that hill. I had seen others go up it, and I really thought that they were crazy. It just wasn’t on my to-do list or even can-do list. Yet, I made it that far and had to keep going. Off we went. I knew that this was going to be hard. At the very beginning there was a jogger heading up the hill and I tried to keep up with him. I kept my pace, and then he took two steps in front of me leaving me behind. Claire passed me and kept pace with the jogger. Seeing her go up the hill was inspiring.  I thought maybe I could do this.

My eyes stayed on her backpack as I slowly climbed. Finally I had to stop and take a breath along with some water. Then back on my bike I went. I focused on each telephone pole and mail box. Bit by bit I made it along. When I needed to stop, I stopped. I didn’t get discouraged or feel rushed. I had friends above me on the mountain and Ken below me who hadn’t left yet. My goal was to not get passed by him. Finally, I saw Claire waiting for me next to a turn off to make sure that I went the right way. I stopped and relaxed for a moment while she spoke on the phone to Bert and John who were already at the campsite. I really needed that moment of just standing there. It kept me on my feet. That break did turn into a pit stop as I waited for my heart to stop pounding. Then off we went again heading towards the park and the lookout.

Getting to the lookout where I could see the starting point was awesome. I felt like I could do almost anything. Staring out over Albany, and knowing that I got up there by bicycle was something that everyone who rides should experience. I understood why people would ride up that freaking hill, and that they weren’t crazy; just really really smart. The rest of the ride to the campsite was awesome. I was tired but filled with joy. Bert and John rode out to meet us, the laughing and talking really kept me going. We had to stop to take photos at the sign to the Thompson’s Lake and I believe that part of me was in shock. I couldn’t believe that I actually made it up there on my bicycle.

It was awesome, and I thank everyone who has helped me get to that point. Especially, Claire who would tell me stories as we rode so I had something to think about besides how far we still had to go.

Written by Toni Cameron

We arrived at Saratoga Springs High School and met up with Brent, our contact there. We got bright yellow t-shirts that said we were volunteers. He split us up; each of us teamed up with a radio operator and a vehicle, and around 9 we were off.

There were a lot of cyclists there. I heard rumors that there were 2000. When you have rides of different mileages, you get a lot of different people. Obviously the vast majority were racers in full kit, but I saw some people on trikes, some nice cruisers, young guys on mountain bikes, and a lot of kids. They took off in waves, and it was impressive to see so many cyclists.

Dave, my radio guy, was a real pleasure to work with. He was very familiar with the area and had a lot of great stories. We were “Roamer 2″, and we patrolled Area 2 in a donated Nissan Xterra.

I don’t know why they gave us a mammoth SUV to drive around with cyclists, and I told them as much. Of course, event coordinators understand that, but Lia donated the vehicles and they probably just wanted to show off something shiny.

Most of what I did was pump up tires. People who had problems would notify anyone with a volunteer shirt, who would notify control, who would notify us to go help them. By the time we got there to help out, most people had already swapped tubes. We usually showed up just in time to pull out the big air pump and wrap things up.

I did have to tinker with a lot of kid’s bikes. This is my only real judgmental complaint. I don’t understand why people ride a department store kid’s bike 25 miles, without tuning it up first. That’s got to be brutal. The nice thing, after helping them out, was looping around through the route and seeing these kids still on the road, pedaling away.

It was interesting to see all the cyclists riding on roads with cars. Despite being told to follow the rules of the road, most blew through stop signs and red lights, and often look the entire lane making it impossible for cars to get by. At one point we had to tell some people to get out of the lane for oncoming traffic. There’s a lot of room for education at events like this.

After a few hours of that we got lunch. And ice cream.

I had a good time. I don’t consider myself much of a bike mechanic, but it was really nice to help out, even with my meager skills. Maybe next year, the ABC can send more than two people.

Written by Ethan

This months 1st Friday Gallery Ride turned out to be pretty awesome. The weather was perfect for the whole ride from the start at the monument to the very end. We had an interesting group of riders with Chris and I at the helm. I totally wanted to check out the gallery at Dave Jones Locker along with the fish. So that was our first stop. The trip downDelawarewas nice. I love seeing those Sharrows on the road. It gives me hope thatAlbanyis going to keep moving forward as a bike friendly city.

Dave Jones had a really cool exhibit of NYC buildings painted on what seemed to be the side of old building’s brick facades and shutters. It was a really cool concept as far as I was concerned. From there were headed down to Lark toUAG. They had a really colorful flowers show and an awesome flower piece made out of the hubs of bicycles. Next was EBA Dance Theatre which had really colorful paintings of emotion. After that we headed down Lark to Central to New York Expressive Art where there was a very cool Batman painting.

At that point a discussion of where to go to dinner broke out. After riding around to a few different places, one was too pack, another closed, we finally ended up back on Lark & Spring at Kinnaree. Kinnaree was fantastic, if you are on Lark and want some Thai, Korean, Japanese, or Chinese food you have to check it out. It was one of my best meals inAlbany. Everyone in our group loved it. I can’t wait for a chance to stop in for another great meal. It ended the ride the perfect way with everyone full and in a great mood.

Written by Toni Cameron

Just finishing is a feat.

From their site:

An award-winning feature film about the world’s toughest mountain bike race, which traverses over 2700 miles along the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains. The film weaves the story of three characters’ experiences with immense mountain beauty and small-town culture as they attempt to pedal from Banff, Canada to a small, dusty crossing on the Mexican border.

The documentary follows the participants of the 2008 Tour Divide.

…the race clock runs 24 hours a day and the riders are allowed no outside support other than access to public facilities such as stores, motels, and bike shops. The record time to complete the Tour Divide in its 2010 routing is 17 days, 23 hours and was set in 2009. The Tour Divide has been raced and completed on both single speed bicycles and on a tandem bicycle. There are neither entry fees nor prizes in either race.

Have you ever seen a bike race where the riders had to stop and wait for a bear to clear out of the roadway? If not, come join us this Monday the 9th at 7pm down at the UAG.

Click here for directions.

Written by Ken Burford