Category Archives: Events

Articles on events that are going on around Albany.

by Toni | September 21, 2010 · 5:05 pm

1st Annual ABC Picnic

The day started late, and it was totally my fault. I broke my crank arm on my bicycle and had a loaner. Everyone else arrived at the monum ent on time, I arrived late at 12:45… Thankfully, that was the only downfall on the perfect day. The weather was perfect as we started riding towards Five Mile Waterworks. We took Western to the loop around UAlbany to Fuller rd. The ride to the park was nice and slow. We arrived at Five Mile around 1:30 and John was there with his van with a great spot picked out. It didn’t take long for the charcoal to get going along with interesting conversation.

Whenever a bunch of us get together the conversation is always great. This time we also added awesome food. I give thanks to everyone who came and brought dishes, it helped make the picnic such a success. Chris B brought vegetable bruschetta with awesome bread, Lorenz makes a kicking cucumber salad, Paula besides carrying coolers on her big momma brought awesome fresh pears, chips and burgers which we didn’t even get to. John, Ken and I brought skewers with lots of veggies and different kinds of meats on them. John also brought the makings of s’mores which was the perfect finish to the meal.

Everyone was stuffed by the end of that meal and there were a ton of leftovers. Overall, it was a perfect day with an interesting ending with something found discarded in the grass.

Written by Toni Cameron

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by Toni | September 4, 2010 · 11:13 am

1st Friday Ride

1st Friday always starts off at 6pm with a meet-up at the Monument in Washington Park. Everyone slowly rode in and began talking about different bicycle related events ABC is planning. A decent amount of riders showed up and we had a few stop by just to chat before they went off on their own rides.

By 6:15 pm we set off from the Monument. The first stop on the ride was the Wine ‘n’ Diner on Delaware Ave. We spent some time there waiting for a few people to catch up from a stop at the Downtube. The art work was really interesting and the place was really busy.

From the Wine ‘n’ Diner we headed back down Delaware riding down the newly installed sharrows, down to Davey Jones Locker (Gallery). The photography inside was fantastic, along with an awesome painting of a squirrel with a lovely miniature hamburger. We spent a good amount of time there, and by the time we started to gather to leave, the sun was getting ready to set.

The next stop on the ride was Grand Street Community Arts Center, where they are getting ready for an auction later in the month. The ride down to the old church was fantastic, as we blew down the steepest part of Madison Ave. It’s usually a fun ride. While there, we met a former NYC bike messenger who just moved to the area and hopefully will be joining us on future rides. It seems everywhere we went last night we kept running into people who rode bikes. It was also great to hear that everyone knew that we met up at the monument for 1st Friday and Critical Mass. Hopefully we will see some new riders.

Our third to last stop was the Broadway Art Center, where we saw some fantastic photos and had a chance to speak with the artist, who was nice enough to keep the gallery open until we had a chance to look around.

The 1st Friday ride is such a great time, and its great when we ride somewhere and everyone is excited to see a pack of bikes rolling up.

The second to last stop was the “Warehouse” (Marketplace Gallery) on Broadway which was one of the coolest stops, as usual. Many of us signed up for a future Papergirl ride, put on by the artist responsible for much of the bicycle art there that night.

We ended the art tour here, but we continued our ride back up to Lark to spend some time getting food at Soho Pizza and having great conversation. Cheers to another awesome 1st Friday Ride. I hope to see you all at the next one.

Written by Toni Cameron

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by Toni | August 27, 2010 · 9:41 pm

Critical Mass – Tour de Garden

Everyone met up at the monument around 5:30, the first fearless leader was chosen, Toni. She decided to take us from the monument over to Madison, and down to the Egg. The riders rode lazily in the breeze around the plaza. Fearless leader #1 came up with the idea of tagging new leaders while riding in the plaza. Chris was suddenly tagged as fearless leader #2. He lead of the group away from the plaza and back up Madison. His goal was a nice ride down Morris. Traffic wasn’t bad as we all chatted about where to go next. After awhile on Morris we headed over to Central when fearless leader #3 was tagged, Ken. On Central the goal changed to scoping out something to eat. The conversation revolved around food at this point and what everyone wanted to eat. No one really could decide so Fearless Leader #1 took control leading the group to Sukhothai, for a very delicious meal.

During dinner it was decided to loop up to Russell Rd to check out the garden of a rider. While everyone was getting ready to get back on their bikes the group met two new cyclists in the area who will hopefully be joining the group on some future rides. The group took a detour onto Berkshire, where Lorenze suddenly lost his bike computer. Before it could be retrieved a car ran over it and it was sadly a casualty of the ride. The rest of the trip to the garden was uneventful and the garden tour was rather nice. Everyone was offered different varieties of tomatoes to try. From there the group decided that the ride was a success and everyone wished everyone else to have a good night.

A really cool map of our route is below, you can thank Chris for it!

Map of Tour de Garden

Written by Toni Cameron

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Tagged as Critical Mass, rides

by Mary Lou | July 26, 2010 · 8:11 am

ABC monthly meeting 7/29/10

ABC, Inc. Monthly Meeting 7/29/10

LaSalle School, Chapel – Cultural Center, 391 Western Ave., Albany, Traffic Circle

NOTE – Pre-meeting – Web Design Meeting – 6:15 (Ken, Paula, Rohan, Chris (not attending), and Mary Lou.

WEB DESIGN AND RE-EXAMINIATION – We are devoting the major portion of the meeting to planning the future of our internet presence and of our relationship with other websites/blogs.

UPDATES

– Summer Rides –2010 Fall Rides -2010

Fri – 8/6	Albany	Rohan	1st Friday ride. Assemble at Albany Soldiers and Sailors Memorial, Washington Pk. 6:00 PM
Sun – 8/15	Historic Mansions	John V.	Tour historic sites. Depart Soldiers and Sailors Memorial 10:30; Quackenbush Square 11:00. End approx. 2 PM
Fri – 9/3	Albany	Rohan	1st Friday ride. Assemble at Albany Soldiers and Sailors Memorial, Washington Pk. 6:00 PM
Wed – 9/15	Urban Cruise #1	Lorenz	7:30, Albany Soldiers and Sailors Memorial
Fri – 10/1	Albany	Rohan	1st Friday ride. Assemble at Albany Soldiers and Sailors Memorial, Washington Pk. 6:00 PM
Wed – 10/13	Urban Cruise #1	Lorenz	7:30, Albany Soldiers and Sailors Memorial

– Road Project Reports – (Mary Lou) (2 min) – Fuller Rd. meeting 7/22, 6:30

– Albany Bike Rescue – (Mary Lou) (2 min)

– Other – quick updates

ANNOUNCEMENTS & REMINDERS

– Road Hazard (pothole, tree limb, etc.) – call 434-CITY to report. Also “Fix It Map” at http://blog.timesunion.com/gettingthere/fix-it-map/

– Next Meeting – Thr, 8/26/10 – PICNIC?

– Next Rides – Community Bicycle Ride (Critical Mass) – Fri, 7/30, 5:15 PM (Depart 5:30); 1st Friday Ride – Fri 8/6, Mansion Tour – Sun, 8/15

– LCI Road l Classes/Savvy Cyclist – Contact Claire and Bert cbnolou@yahoo.com

Written by Mary Lou Nolan-Gillham

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Tagged as Meeting Notes

by Mary Lou | July 19, 2010 · 10:17 am

Albany Bicycle Coalition upcoming rides

Friday July 30, 2010 5:30 Critical Mass ride. Washington Park Albany Soldiers and Sailors Monument Join other bicyclists for leisurely ride around Albany.

Friday August 6, 2010 1st Friday Ride 6:00 PM Assemble at Albany Soldiers and Sailors Memorial, Washington Pk.

Sunday August 15, 2010 Historic Mansions Ride Tour historic sites. Two Departure locations: Soldiers and Sailors Memorial 10:30; Quackenbush Square 11:00. Ride End approx. 2 PM