Bay Area-ites have the chance tonight to engage in a fun project to protect international development, the Cycle for Security Cross-Country Bike Tour. Laguitas will be providing free brews at Rally Pad starting at 6:30 as friend Janessa Goldbeck (@jgoldbeck, formerly with the Genocide Intervention Network) prepares to take off on a 4,200 mile cross-country bike trip. It’s not just for the exercise but to talk with Americans about the importance of foreign aid programs that provide millions of people around the world with nutrition, education, and health care.
Given that funding for these programs is in jeopardy in Congress, the effort is important for raising awareness about how vital they are to saving lives abroad and keeping Americans safe. Go learn about it.
Chrome opened its 4th Street doors for a late-in-the week launch of its new custom bag design program. Created to give cyclists and computer carriers a chance to pick their own fabric and tarp hues, the program is created not for online selections (a la Mission Bicycle Co.) but for walk-ins to stores in San Francisco, New York, and (as of this summer) Chicago’s Wicker Park.
Two existing bag shapes can be customized–think hologram effects and basic bolds–for an extra $30 per bag. When participants meet Mike, the resident custom bag and fixer-upper guy, I challenge them to take less time than I did (40 minutes) selecting the colors seen on the in-development bag below (fuschia, turqoise, and deep purple won out). The colors of the Velcro, panels, flaps, and vintage badges are at shopper’s discretion, but know that the seatbelt fastener isn’t going anywhere.
Inspired by the local Team In Training teams that rode the Solvang Century this weekend to raise funds for blood cancer treatment, I wanted to share a new collaboration between clever teams at design consultancy IDEO and Stanford. They’re using the former’s community platform for brainstorming and project development to encourage more people to consider donating bone marrow (the transplant of which can be a life-saving course of treatment for people with leukemia and lymphoma). Current concepts consider how Girl Scout cookies, lemonade stands and the launch of Gmail can all inform a public action campaign. Won’t you consider adding your own ideas and, in the word of a friend who works on the initiative, consider how your own acumen can inform the community at large?
Should you be searching the tubes for great pants or lofts with views you can’t afford (in lieu of just walking around, say, Potrero), give Design Bureau a peak. The Chicago-based magazine recently released its inaugural issue and I was honored to review Velo, a book chock full of photos of bikes and their owners:
Most bicyclists ride for a specific reason—as a mode of transportation, a good workout or just for fun. But others ride because it’s their passion. And for these die-hard pedal pushers, Velo was created. Velo: Bicycle Culture and Design from Gestalten is a striking visual journey into the multifaceted world of cycling and the diverse tribes that inhabit it. The 240-page tome chronicles bicycles and their riders in all shapes, sizes, speeds and styles. Editor Sven Ehmann, an avid cyclist himself, created the book as a celebration of cycling as a broad, democratic cultural phenomenon. Read more.
Apply In The Sky, one of the startups that demonstrated its product at Women 2.0′s recent PITCH night, has quickly proved its value with pals who are applying to B school. SF-based Emily Chiu founded the application organizer with Chicagoan Chiara Piccinotti before launching around Labor Day. Together with tech lead Ryan Kaminsky, one of the creators of the MBAPlanner iPhone app, the founders are looking to eventually streamline law and medical school applications and job searches (all in an attempt to become a platform for making life changes more manageable). If you’re about to be shelling out money and synergistic language to study management, this could be your first step.
And if you’re intending to go your own way, this weekend will mark the first of two Saturdays and Sundays for the Global Startup Battle. Intended to inspire company ideas around the world during Global Entrepreneurship Week, teams will still have only 54 hours each to develop teams and functional prototypes–they now just can do so from Beirut, Tulsa, and lots of other host cities.
Last year’s ARTCRANK poster show was well worth the 4th Street crowd and jammed bike parking (and not just because it ended with a conversation with legendary cyclist Gary Fisher, the father of modern day mountain biking). Chrome plays host to the free event, and prints by the likes of local designer Celeste Prevost are $30 a pop. Get thee there on Friday night.
Now that the Tour de France is over (and with it the de California), we San Franciscans are gearing up to do it our way: handcrafted and well-aled. Though we’re no Houston, the annual Tour de Fat bike extravaganza promises a calorie-filled destination for all locals who bike over to Lindley Meadow this Saturday. But you need not go it alone: Valencia Street bike builder Mission Bicycle Co. will be leading a bike train to Golden Gate Park for New Belgium Brewing’s “costumed celebration of human-powered transportation.”
As though South Park weren’t already a wonderful enough place to kill an hour between meetings, European-style bike maker and shop Public Bikes is now inhabiting a bright space across the street from the swing set (sounds like a dream, I know). Their “Public M” and double diamond frames come in orange, white, blue, and green, and no local would be surprised to hear that the color that’s sold the best is the one that no other word rhymes with. The website and store have clothing, bike accessories, and a certain book whose logo I love for its similarity to the forthcoming SanFranista redesign.
While I’m away at another music festival this weekend–that being Wanderlust near Lake Tahoe–I’m eager to hear about experiences at the Bicycle Music Fest in SF taking place day and night this Saturday. A non-profit project of the SF Parks Trust, the self-proclaimed world’s largest 100% bicycle-powered music fest is to include a 2,000 watt pedal-powered PA system and 15 bands on “bike-haulable” stages. With likeminded organizations from the SF Bike Coalition to the volunteer-run repair shop Bike Kitchen, this won’t be just your average cruiser con boombox.Thanks to David Pescovitz (he of BoingBoing and Institute for the Future) for the reminder.
If you’re having a day when you’re less than loving the City by the Bay–and it happens, though cool July nights may play a role–a quality viewing of Massan for Leader Bikes by Brandon Finks Video/AnimationMacaframa could be just what’s needed. The beautiful city shots and tight editing could have you spinning down Fell (though the results may not be as picturesque). Not bad for a project whose graphic elements were completed in a day, but then, the work of the crew of local TV show Finktoons suggests nothing less.
