Open Streets St. Pete is coming!

Woohoo! We have dreamt that a Cyclovia would someday come to St. Pete. Hopes and dreams are great and all but when you’re tired of waiting, how do you make things happen?? You do it yourself! Well, not all by yourself, but, find some friends to help you. That’s what we did. We are so lucky to have the best friends a little co-op could ask for! Our friends at Shift St. Pete were tired of waiting too. So we teamed up with the City of St. Pete, with Shift St. Pete, of course our pals over at Keep St. Pete Local, and nearly 100 others. Some of the coolest people, organizations, vendors, activities around and low and behold we’ve made our dreams come true! Our very first ever Open Streets St. Pete is 3 weeks from Sunday! Vendors have been selected for Indie FamFest at Open Streets St. Pete and that includes the 12+ food trucks that will be participating in the first Food Truck Rally at Williams Park! We’ll start sharing info on Monday about the vendors. You don’t want to miss this phenomenal day in #StPete! Here’s what will be happening:

• Streets around Mirror Lake & Williams Park will be closed to cars & open to the community to bike, stroll & roll! (see map on OpenStreetsStPete.com)

• 20+ Activities will be taking place on the streets, including Tampa Bay Rowdies “Human Foosball”, Bike Rodeo by All Children’s Hospital and City of St. Pete transportation. Free helmets! Yoga, pianos, dancing, bike riding, bubbles, pretty much all the fun we can squeeze into the largest public space we own, our streets! The City will also be demonstrating what a “Complete Street” could look like.  You deserve a Sunday Funday, don’t you?

• A new family & pet-friendly festival, Indie FamFest at Open Streets St. Pete, will be taking place at Williams Park from NOON – 5 pm, in conjunction with Open Streets St. Pete

• The festival, presented by Keep Saint Petersburg Local and sponsored by Happy Feet Plus, features the ●●● 1st Food Truck Rally ●●● at Williams Park with 12+ trucks and 60+ family-friendly & pet-friendly vendors/participants, including engaging activities for all ages hosted by our local arts & culture organizations

• Pet Corner, presented by Cathedral Church of St. Peter with pet blessing, pet photo booth & pet costume contest

• Live entertainment, sponsored by St. Petersburg Music Factory, with student bands, Music & Me, LLC, hooping by Hoola Monsters, LLC, & other performances to be announced

• Bike valet + bike decorating station sponsored by makeme

Start inviting friends and family to the event page, so they don’t miss out! https://www.facebook.com/events/1724838631063390

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Our beautiful Sunshine City!

We love this this new video showcasing our amazing sunshine city! Kudos to everyone involved in its production! Check it out and keep your eyes open for a tweed ride shot at 0:35! Love it!

A wheel good time!

Saturday, 28th of May, 2016 will be recorded in the grease-stained pages of St. Pete Bike Co-op’s historical records as one of the really, really awesome and feelgood days for our little organization. It will be noted as a smashing fundraising success and a great example of what is possible when small groups of bike- and community-minded people work together toward a common goal. There were many parts and bikes bought and sold, super cool raffle prizes won, conversations and new friendships made, and everyone smiled and enjoyed themselves while mingling and sipping on refreshing Green Bench brews. As usual, our skilled team of iPhone reporters was on site to record the event for digital posterity and you can view all of their photos on our flickr page at your leisure.

While planning the event we all hoped for a fun and well-attended one, but we never really expected all the bucketloads of good vibes and generous support bestowed upon us from our incredible hosts and sponsors, our hero volunteers, and everyone that visited our tent. I must have said a year’s worth of “thank you’s”  in one afternoon! Seriously, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH again!

THANK YOU to all our superstar volunteers that braved the relentless heat while selling raffle tickets and answering questions. THANK YOU to all the incredible vendors and sponsors for all your generous love and support – Top Gun, American Classic, Cruzee, Black Crow Coffee, Vertical Ventures, The Body Electric Yoga Company, Trinity Graphics, Danni LeTendre of  Spring Green Handbags, Chad Cardoza of Kick Start My Art, Help Earth Ride and St. Pete Critical Mass, and Shift St. Pete – you guys are the true local heroes. High fives all around!

And finally, one super monster, tandem-size bike THANK YOU to our most awesomest hosts Green Bench Brewing Co. for their incredible generosity and support. Seeing their incredible gift of a luxurious tool cabinet glistening in all its shiny spankin’ new splendor really surprised us and just about melted all our hearts – we can’t wait to put it to use! You have our sincerest love, kisses, hugs, and eternal gratitude.

And THANK YOU all you wonderful citizens of St. Pete for attending and riding your bikes and supporting local makers. You make this town amazing and we can’t wait to see ya all at the co-op!

Vendors are setting up and we’re almost ready to start!

Carrie and Brad calling out the winners of some super great raffle prizes!

Lotsa cool deals on gear from some of our killer local vendors.

Yep, Weimar.

Our precious! Thank you so much Green Bench!

 

 

 

Inaugural Swap Meet!!

 

Wheels and Deals! Hop n Roll Swap Meet! A wheelie cool bike swap meet to benefit St. Pete Bike Co-op at Green Bench Brewing!

It’s National Bike Month! We’re taking over Green Bench! Let’s celebrate our love of beer and bikes, and sell off that bike pile that has been collecting dust in our garage/spare room/entire house forever and ever. You know you have too much crap! Get rid of it, hang out, drink beer, talk about beer and bikes all day. What could be better? Set those unused bikes and parts free! Become a vendor by applying below. Make some beer money!

When: Saturday, May 28th 2:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Where: Green Bench Brewing, 1133 Baum Ave North, St. Petersburg, FL

How: Facebook Event Page – https://www.facebook.com/events/948201768619991/

Vendor/Sponsor Sign Ups are open until end of April or until we fill up, whichever comes first!

What: Bikes! Rides! People who ride bikes! Food trucks! Bikes you can buy! Bikes you can sell! Bikes you can trade! Bikes you can donate! Local Bands! Local Beer! Bike parts you can buy! Bike parts you can sell! Prizes! Raffles! Exclamation Points! Bike puns! Off the chain! Get in gear! Jugglers? Clowns? Beards? You’ll have to attend to find out. But there definitely won’t be any clowns.

Just be there, man!

 

Pinkbike spotlights Santos Trails in Ocala

If you haven’t already, definitely check out this excellent, in-depth article on Santos Trails in Ocala recently posted on Pinkbike. Santos Trails are indeed the jewel in Florida’s off-road riding crown that deserves a wider national attention, and the article does an outstanding job of showcasing this award-wining trail system and people responsible for making it one the most fun and beautiful trails you’ll ever set your knobby tires in. Kudos to everyone at Ocala Mountain Bike Association (OMBA) for creating and maintaining the trails and hopefully we see more of these types of articles in the future. If you live in Florida and haven’t experienced Santos yet, what are you waiting for!? Whatever your skill level – chill beginner, solid intermediate, or super-awesome-woah-bro challenging – Santos has it all and good times are guaranteed. Go do it!

Tweed Ride 2016 – ’twas the best one yet!

How much fun was that! Gorgeous and sunny Florida winter weather, outstanding tweed fashions, abundance of red lipstick and waxed moustaches, and some truly unique vintage bicycles all came together at world famous St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club for yet another Tweed Ride through our beloved downtown St. Pete.

Approaching almost 400 participants, this year’s event was definitely one for the books and by many accounts the best one yet! We started by munching on a plethora of delicious scones lovingly prepared by chef Dan Schmidt of Eat This! fame, washed them down with hot tea, and headed out for a ride through downtown ringing our bicycle bells and waving at many smiling pedestrians. As always, a group photo was taken at the waterfront park, and we headed back to Shuffleboard Club for some delicious bourbon cupcakes and a tweed cake by Kimberly Wetherell of the Friday Shuffle Snack Bar, refreshments generously provided by brewers extraordinaire at Cycle Brewery, and jazz music by legendary Buster Cooper and his band.

Below are a few photos from the event, and you can see the entire album on our Flickr here.

If you never participated in this event, you really should – it truly is one of the great ones that make this city such a cool place to live! You’ll end up counting the days until the next one – we know we are!

 

 

Localtopia 2016

We didn’t let the rain stop us from having fun and parking a bunch of bikes at this year’s Localtopia! A giant, galaxy-sized THANK YOU to all the volunteers that braved non-stop wind and chilly temps to help spread the good word about the co-op and cycling in our beautiful city. Although not as great as we expected, the turnout was still pretty awesome and we met and talked to so many cool people. Hopefully, we’ll see some of them at the co-op this week wrenching on their bikes and getting them all spic and span for Tweed Ride this Saturday!

Carrie and Lucas all ready to answer your questions and park some bikes.

 

Matt explaining the cool factor of pins to a young visitor interested in bikes.

Tour de Shine

Amazing turnout, beautiful weather, hard-working volunteers, and jaw-dropping art made Tour de Shine a phenomenal success! Two sold-out tours (160 riders in total) pedaled around downtown area visiting murals recently completed during the Shine St. Pete Mural Festival. Co-op’s own Margaret Murray did a great job talking about each of the artists and sharing some insights about inspirations behind their murals. The interest in the ride was definitely high and we just might have to organize another one soon! In the meantime, if you missed it, you can check out the the full photo album here taken, as usual, by our very own team of excellent iPhone on-bike photographers. Big thank you to everyone that volunteered and everyone that signed up for the ride!

BP FOR BIKE SHARE!!

Your action is needed to make Bike Share a reality in St. Pete! Email City Council today to show your support!

**** COUNCIL@STPETE.ORG*****
Haven’t had a chance to email St. Pete City Council in support of using BP settlement money for Bike Share yet? We’ll we made it easy! Just cut and paste the text below. Use as much or as little of it as you want. and personalize at will. Just be sure to leave your name and address so council knows that Bike Share is important to living, working, and playing in our great city!
————————————

BP FOR BIKE SHARE

City Council members,

I am writing to express my support for Mayor Kriseman’s proposal to use $1M of the BP Oil lawsuit settlement to help fund a Bike Share program for our city.  This modest investment would provide economical, emissions free, healthy transportation options for our residents.   Additionally, Bike Share will provide an easy system of transportation for tourists to experience all our great city has to offer – from our local businesses and restaurants, to our arts districts and museums, historic neighborhoods, and the miles of waterfront parks along our beautiful bay – all while reducing automobile traffic and parking demands.  

As a resident of St. Pete, I also believe Bike Share is important because… [insert personal message, optional]

As councilmembers, you have the opportunity to invest in a program that will benefit our city economically, make us healthier, less oil dependent, and increase our resiliency as a city and community.  This is why I ask you to support the allocation of $1M of the BP Oil settlement for use on the proposed Bike Share program.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Name
Address

Tampa goes from 0 to 11!

The League of American Bicyclists recently recognized 11 Tampa businesses in their 2015 Bicycle Friendly Businesses roundup. You can read the full story on League’s website here.

Congrats and big kudos to the business owners and all the bicycle friendly people in Tampa that made this possible! Way to go everyone!