By Griff Wigley, on May 5, 2013, 5:01 am
 In late Feb, I attended the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota‘s (BikeMN) third annual Minnesota Bicycle Summit on Capitol Hill, noting that I was "trying to get smarter about the state of bike advocacy in Minnesota…" (Blog post here.)
A few weeks later, for the same reason, I attended the Parks and Trails Council of Minnesota’s Day on the Hill which led to having lunch here in Northfield with Executive Director Brett Feldman and Northfield’s First Ward Councilor Suzie Nakasian in which we explored the pros and cons of forming a Northfield area regional bicycle council. (Blog post here.) Brett encouraged us to get in touch with BikeMN’s Executive Director Dorian Grilley.
  So with that in mind, I attended BikeMN’s annual meeting yesterday at Park Tool’s new headquarters in Oakdale.
During the meeting, my eyes widened as we heard details from BikeMN staff and board members about the myriad of bike-related activities, projects, collaborations that they’re involved in. (See the Education and Advocacy pages on their website for a glimpse.)
Dorian is well-connected and versed in national bicycle advocacy issues so I was pleased to hear some of the latest news, including the repercussions from Trek CEO John Burke’s speech last fall at Interbike (my blog post here).
  Afterwards, I did have a chance to talk with Dorian, as well as with Nick Mason, BikeMN’s Education & Technical Assistance Program Manager. Both offered their help to get things rolling in Northfield with a start-up of a local bicycle advocacy group and hopefully, one or more of their Bicycle Friendly Programs. (March blog post: Bemidji has earned ‘Bicycle Friendly Community’ status. Why not Northfield?)
And as I wrote back in March:
There are other [Northfield area] projects and developments that have a bicycle-component: the Northfield Depot; the East Cannon River Trail segment; the TIGER Trail (aka the Northfield Modal integration project); Safe Routes to School; the Gateway Corridor Improvement Plan; Northfield Roundtable’s Framework Plan; and the Cannon River Corridor recreational concept.
 I also put on my mountain biking hat (helmet?) and with MORC Board members Reed Smidt and Mark Gavin, chatted with Dorian about how BikeMN and MORC could work more closely together. One idea: give communities with mountain bike trails and pump/jump/BMX parks extra credit when they apply for Bicycle Friendly Community status.
You can keep up with all-things BikeMN via their blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook page. And consider becoming a member. These guys rock.
Click and scroll through the photos either one at a time or via a slideshow. (Memo to self: use a flash when taking photos with my smartphone of people indoors.)
  
  
  
  
  
By Griff Wigley, on February 27, 2013, 9:39 am
  
I attended the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota‘s (BikeMN) third annual Minnesota Bicycle Summit on Capitol Hill on Monday, as I’m trying to get smarter about the state of bike advocacy in Minnesota and who the players are. I became a BikeMN member a couple weeks ago and am impressed with all that they’re doing and how well-organized Monday’s Summit was.
Bemidji Mayor Rita Albrecht (@BemidjiRita) was one of the featured speakers, talking about Bemidji’s new designation as a Bike Friendly Community. From the BikeMN blog in October:
The city of Bemidji was granted the bronze Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) designation by the League of American Bicyclists(LAB) on Monday October 22, 2012. The award was the culmination of persistent efforts by many community leaders and advocates including Mayor Dave Larson, Parks & Recreation Director Marcia Larson as well as health, tourism, bicycling, law enforcement, transportation and environmental representatives from the community. BikeMN has been involved along the way and helped in preparing the BFC application.
I think the timing for mounting an effort to gain formal Bicycle Friendly Community designation is right:
Those two items are providing some incentive to figure out how Northfield’s downtown streets should be best managed for bicycling, part of the discussion going on this week on the Parking Management Plan blog.
What’s not clear to me is what city board or commission would be best to consider taking this on. The City of Northfield created a Non Motorized Transportation Task Force (NMTTF) back in 2007 that I think sun-setted a couple years later. Might it be time to create something similar but specifically for bicycling?
By Griff Wigley, on January 24, 2013, 8:38 am
  
Northfielder and Monkey See Monkey Read bookstore owner Jerry Bilek is competing in the Arrowhead 135 this weekend. As you can see from the photos sent to me by Eric Johnson and Bill Nelson, Jerry is going to use his Salsa Mukluk fat bike for the race. Other winter ultra-athlete racers compete on foot and skis.
Here’s a peek on what’s he’s in for:
MPR, January 27, 2012: ‘Carnage’ a draw for some Arrowhead 135 ultra-marathoners
Frostbite. Sleep deprivation. Harrowing descents in pitch blackness. It’s all part of the strange allure of the Arrowhead 135: an extreme ski, bike or foot race in far northern Minnesota that begins before dawn on Monday morning. It’s one of the nation’s craziest endurance races, and a huge challenge for participants.
Strib, February 9, 2011: 135 miles: Do or die
For the next three days, they will haul themselves and their survival gear 135 miles through Minnesota’s North Woods — from International Falls to Tower — in the most mind- and toe-numbing endurance race in the lower 48 states.
Trekking the equivalent of St. Paul to Iowa while dragging a sled behind you on 30-below nights might seem a sadistic death sentence to most. Relocate the quest to Minnesota’s most remote wilderness in the midst of a bitter winter — with rescue an iffy proposition — and you’ve got a race that’s irresistible to some
By Griff Wigley, on December 10, 2012, 11:12 pm
   
I attended Freewheel Bike‘s 2nd annual Winter Bike Expo ("the world headquarters of winter riding fanatics") on Saturday at their Midtown Bike Center. (I blogged about the event on my Mountain Bike Geezer blog here, including my photo album). While the event had offerings for bike commuters, the bulk of the action was aimed at mountain biking in winter, using fat bikes especially. QBP’s brands Surly and Salsa each had a big presence at the event, as both offer a number of fat bike models. (They’re sold locally by Mike’s Bicycle Shop here in Northfield and Milltown Cycles in Faribault.)
I’m doing some consulting work on the 2nd Annual Fat Bike Winter Summit & Festival coming up at the end of January in the West Yellowstone area, so I’m locked in on the trend. And the Expo gave me a picture of how much enthusiasm there is here in Minnesota for fat biking.
I don’t (yet) own a fat bike. Last winter I didn’t need one, since we had so little snow. My hardtail 29′er worked fine just about everywhere I went. But with a solid 8 inches from our weekend snowstorm, things are looking up for a decent winter. And more and more of Minnesota’s mountain bike parks and other trails allow mountain bikes.
So let’s use the discussion thread attached to this blog post to discuss winter biking locations, conditions, equipment, group rides, and events.
By Griff Wigley, on October 23, 2012, 7:07 am
 I got an email a couple months ago from Carleton College psychology professor Neil Lutsky inviting me to speak to his fall class, Measured Thinking: Reasoning with Numbers about World Events, Health, Science, and Social Issues, about the bike helmet issue that I’ve raised here on LoGro this year. (See all my bicycle helmet-related blog posts here.
His idea was to have his students take a close look at the relevant research that’s been cited to support or oppose my contention that the promotion of helmet wearing for around-town bicycling is bad for public health.
 
I spoke to his class on October 5 and yesterday asked him for an update. He wrote:
The class is divided into four groups investigating the questions listed below. They will have reports addressing these ready at the end of the term. That’s where things stand at the moment.
By the way, if you have any suggestions for the question list (which the students are also modifying as they get into their research), please feel free to share those.
I suggested to Neil that I post the four groups of questions here on LoGro and invite suggestions and discussion from interested citizens.
1. Bicycle accident overview
- What is the overall risk of injury in cycling?
- Who is injured? Where or under what conditions are injuries more or less likely to occur?
- How does this risk and injuries sustained in accidents vary as a function of helmet wearing?
- Is correct helmet use related to injury outcome?
- Do helmets make injuries worse (considering rotational head injuries vs. concussions and
abrasions)?
- What are these accident numbers like in cross-national comparisons?
2. Helmet use promotion
- What laws and programs exist to promote helmet use?
- How much helmet use is there? Do people wear helmets correctly?
- Do government policies have an effect on helmet use?
- What evidence suggests the suggestion or imperative to wear a helmet inhibits cycling?
- What are common attitudes toward helmet wearing?
3. Helmet wearing and rider and driver safety
- Is the density of ridership related to cyclist safety?
- Do cyclists wearing helmets behave in a riskier fashion? Is this due to helmet use?
- Are drivers less cautious when encountering cyclists with helmets? If so, why?
4. Health and inactivity
- What are the health consequences of inactivity?
- What are the health benefits of cycling?
- Does cycling make a difference to physical health and the health of the environment?
- If people weren’t cycling, what would they do? What alternative forms of exercise and transportation are there?
By Griff Wigley, on August 19, 2012, 11:31 pm
 
   
While strolling through New York City’s Central Park when we visited there in late July, we came upon a section of the park cordoned off for dance skating, run by the Central Park Dance Skaters Association:
Every Saturday, Sunday and Holiday from 2:30 to 6:30pm from mid-April through Halloween. The CPDSA sets up a sophisticated sound system and plays music for all dance skaters. The event is free and is supported by the membership of the CPDSA. Our Circle is attended by hundreds of skaters and enjoyed by thousands of spectators each weekend.
It not only drew a large group of dance skaters but an even larger crowd of onlookers because the skaters were pretty entertaining, if not for their skating ability, acrobatics and various antics then for their outfits.
It occurred to me that something similar could easily be done on and around Bridge Square in downtown Northfield. All it would take would be some local organization (YMCA? Community Ed and Rec? NDDC?) to take it on for a season.
See this 30-second video:
By Griff Wigley, on August 12, 2012, 11:12 pm
 
StarTribune columnist Jon Tevlin (crappy 2007 photo with Tracy and Ross at the GBM above) covers the bike helmet issue in his column today, Bike helmet debate hits evocative fork in road:
In a Star Tribune story earlier this week, Minneapolis Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Shaun Murphy was photographed on his bike, without a helmet. He told the reporter that he doesn’t always wear a helmet because he doesn’t want the activity to appear dangerous or scary. "I just want it to be seen as something that a normal person can do," said Murphy.
As you might imagine, comments posted online and letters to the editor took Murphy to task. After the story ran, Murphy was told by supervisors that he now has to wear a helmet on the job. But at least one Minnesota bike advocate is on Murphy’s side, presenting some counter-intuitive data that is stirring up controversy on two wheels.
That advocate would be me.
"The studies out there are irrefutable that wearing a helmet is safer than not wearing a helmet," said Bufton. "The cost is low and the return is high. We’re not militant on it and we’re not at the Legislature asking for mandatory helmet laws."
Bufton misses my point. The cost is low for an individual person but from an overall public health impact, we’re inadvertently paying a high price by such over-zealous promotion of helmet-wearing for casual biking.
Wigley is happy about that. Meanwhile, he will continue to ride his bike and wear a helmet, but he sure won’t tell you what to do.
Not quite. I no longer wear a helmet for around-town/casual biking. I do wear a helmet at all other times. And if you’re a public official, I will tell you what to do: for the sake of public health, set an example like me.
By Griff Wigley, on August 5, 2012, 9:47 am
  
Bill Metz and pals from the Cannon Valley Velo Club and SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education) hosted the 9th annual Tour de Nick bicycle tour yesterday. The event raised over $6,000.
 
Riders were joined by Delicia Jernigan who’s riding from Portland OR to Portland ME on her So Many Roads Tour which is:
… dedicated to raising awareness of suicide statistics, the survivors they leave behind, and bringing inspiration to anyone that has suffered from depression and loss.
See the large slideshow of 34 photos (recommended) or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:
See the Nfld News article: Northfield’s ‘Tour de Nick’ to support suicide awareness.
By Griff Wigley, on August 1, 2012, 8:46 am
I’ve authored three blog posts in recent months about bicycle helmets:
These posts came to the attention of National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), the national body that governs high school mountain bike racing. I had taken their training to be an assistant coach this fall for the Cannon Valley Mountain Bike Racing Team for area high school students. They also came to the attention of the Cannon Valley Velo Club (CVCC), where, as a member, I had volunteered to be the mountain bike ride coordinator and therefore became a club officer.
I wrote to NICA, summarizing my position:
I think public officials and other community leaders should stop the promotion of helmet-wearing for around-town bicycling and instead, work on all the other issues related to getting people, including kids, to ride bikes more, including doing what it takes to make the activity safer. There’s a considerable body of research to support this.
I have very few, if any, kids reading my Locally Grown Northfield blog. My blog post that’s titled “Photos of Northfielders biking around town without helmets: all the cool kids are doing it” was not aimed at kids and contains no photos of kids. The phrase “all the cool kids” is a generic, cultural reference that doesn’t directly refer to kids but anyone (for example, Suing Madonna, Self-publishing, Quitting Facebook).
But it’s very likely that kids will find out about my helmet-related blog posts, either on their own or from teachers, parents, or members of the local bike clubs. If they ask me, I’ll explain my position.
In Northfield and elsewhere in MN, the vast majority of high school age teenagers using their skateboards and BMX bikes in municipal skateparks don’t wear helmets. Insurance doesn’t require it as long as the obstacles are under 48 inches high. But if you go to a BMX or skateboard stunt show, all the performers wear helmets. Most kids would understand why: speed and height make a difference. An analogy: should parents let their kids play in the street? Pretty much everyone would say that it depends on the age of the kid, the type of street, and the type of play. Kids gradually learn the subtleties of playing in the street and by the time they’re in high school, it’s a non-issue. Likewise, with helmet-wearing.
Boys especially don’t want to appear to be overly concerned with safety. I insisted that my three sons wore helmets from the time they were toddlers but once they were 14 or so, they refused to do it for around-town biking. They had no hesitation on wearing a helmet when I took them mountain biking or road riding.
I’m 100% in favor of promoting the importance of wearing helmets for mountain biking, road biking, gravel riding, and all forms of bike competition and I would hammer this point home and enforce it rigorously with the high school student athletes. And I would not use my coaching/face time with them to promote my position about helmets and around-town biking.
NICA gave me a choice:
…while NICA’s rules do not govern what Griff does outside of the context of his high school mountain bike coaching, NICA does find his position on helmet use contradictory to our risk management and safety standards. Thus, NICA staff are not supportive of his position regarding helmet use nor his public blogging on this subject. NICA encourages Griff to chose between abiding by the NICA rules at all times – in order to serve as a role model – or not coach.
I replied in part:
One thing I didn’t state in my “Griff’s position” statement was that it never occurred to me that my blogging about helmets for around-town biking would have anything to do with mountain biking. I simply never made the mental connection. If I had, I probably would have avoided the issue altogether.
While it’s unfortunate, I don’t regret doing it. I really do believe in what I wrote about the issue so I can’t in good faith go back on it. So I have decided to withdraw as team director and assistant coach.
And while I’ve put in a lot of hours in this over several months, I have no regrets — no bad feelings whatsoever. I’ve really enjoyed and benefited from all of it, especially the two-days of Leadership Summit training…
I met with the officers of the CVCC to clarify my position that I would always insist that anyone on a club-sanctioned mountain bike ride with me would have to wear a helmet. Their response:
In the end, most felt that we can’t as a Club endorse a position which suggests publicly that riding without a helmet at any time on the bike is advisable. It was very tough to decide whether this meant that individuals within the Club are speaking for the Club, but in the end it was decided that anyone whose name is on the CVVC home page “Club Officers” table could be construed as speaking for the Club. Given that your position as expressed in blog posts is in conflict with our helmet policy (and that you stand by this position), we decided that this means your name should not be listed as a club officer.
So as a club member, I can informally invite others to go on mountain bike rides with me. I just can’t be an official ride leader.
I harbor no ill will towards either NICA nor CVCC, even though I strongly disagree with them. It’s a tricky issue and insurance/risk management makes it even more so.
There are many ways for me to contribute to the sport of mountain biking and bicycling in general. I won’t be shy about letting you know what I’m up to. If it’s Northfield-related, I’ll let you know here on LoGro. Otherwise, stay tuned to my Mountain Bike Geezer blog and/or follow MTBikeGeezer on Twitter.
By Griff Wigley, on July 3, 2012, 7:58 am
   
If you live downtown and need your car tomorrow (4th of July), move it before you go to bed tonight because the barricades for the 13th annual 4th of July Criterium (bicycle races, for the clueless) start going up at 5 am on the 4th.
One of Mary Witt’s sons, Ben Witt of Milltown Cycles, is the organizer of this event so she was out last night plastering flyers on the doors of all the downtown area residences. The flyer reads in part:
If you live within the course and will need the use of your car during the day of July 4th, you will need to move your car outside of the course prior to the event. Exceptions will not be made and cars will not be permitted under any circumstances during the duration of the day.
By Griff Wigley, on June 30, 2012, 11:10 pm
By Griff Wigley, on June 29, 2012, 7:31 am
 As part of my public health campaign, I’m going to use this blog post to feature photos of Northfielders bicycling around town without helmets. Why?
Because there’s substantial research available showing that:
- the promotion of the wearing of helmets significantly discourages people from using their bikes for around-town bicycling
- the fewer the number of people bicycling on a given street or in a concentrated geographic area, the more bike-car accident rates rise
In short, riding a bike around town without a helmet is a relatively safe activity. And society benefits (health, transportation, environmental, economic, etc.) the more that people do it.
(See my May 22 blog post, Bike helmet promotions are bad for the public health of Northfield, for more. Chime in there if you want to discuss the issue, not here.)
For some of the photos, I’ll identify people by name. For others, I’ll just post them with maybe a note about where the photo was taken. As I add photos to this blog post, I’ll add a comment to the thread to alert everyone that a new photo has been added.
   
By Griff Wigley, on June 24, 2012, 11:04 pm
By Griff Wigley, on June 16, 2012, 11:27 pm
  
Many eyes, including mine, are on the temporary skate park in Riverside Park, to see if the youth using it police themselves. That includes keeping it clean.
It should be noted, however, that adult athletes aren’t perfect when it comes to the latter. While riding my bike by one of the ball fields at Sechler Park last week, there were cigarette packs and beer cans strewn about after a softball game, with a box of empties left behind.
By Griff Wigley, on June 9, 2012, 7:36 am
Since I rediscovered mountain biking a year ago, I’ve been promoting the sport to whoever’s willing to listen to my lecture: the new style, erosion-resistant flow trails are hugely fun, even for beginners. And while it helps to have a mountain bike, some of the beginner trails can be ridden with a hybrid bike.
As the new mountain bike ride coordinator for the Cannon Valley Velo Club, I’m going to be scheduling rides for all levels of riders in the coming months. (If you’d like to be kept informed, register here.)
First up: A C/D Level ride at Salem Hills Mountain Bike Trails in Harmon Park, Inver Grove Heights, a 35-minute drive from Northfield.
C Level: experienced at riding gravel or dirt trails/roads, few hills, no obstacles
D Level: little or no off-road experience
Riders with A or B level skills are welcome to attend but you’ll be on your own.
Salem Hills was built specifically for beginning/intermediate riders:
The park is about 70 acres, laid out in a long north/south direction with gently rolling hills, a small pond and wet land area. A major portion of the park is reclaimed farm land that has been seeded with natural prairie grasses and wildflowers. The city also has sections seeded with hardwoods along with a few small sections of pine forest and a few sections of hardwood forest.
  
Details:
Wed, June 13: meet at Bridge Square at 4:45 pm if you need a ride. We depart at 5:10.
Meet at Salem Hills at 5:45. We head out on the trails at 6 pm and return to the parking lot no later than sunset, but more likely between 8 and 8:30.
If the trails are wet, they’re closed, so check here for an update. I’ll confirm the ride by noon.
Bring a water bottle. Wear athletic shoes. You have to ride with a helmet on your head. I’ll have tools.
By Griff Wigley, on June 4, 2012, 9:49 pm
 I took this photo of Cody Larson and Jake Olsen biking to work this morning. They weren’t wearing bike helmets, a perfectly reasonable and safe thing to do for around town biking according to the research discussed here.
These gentlemen need to look their best at work, so they leave their helmets at home when commuting and biking around town. Plus, they know that they’re helping to contribute to the overall public health of the community by setting a good example. Yep. The promotion of the wearing of bike helmets for around town biking reduces bicycling and the public health benefits of cycling. Who’da thunk of those unintended consequences?
(It’s absolutely not true that Jake and Cody were smoking cigarettes and texting while biking just before I took this photo. That’s just a vicious rumor circulating on the intertubes.)
 Contrast their fresh, cool and professional appearance with the way I looked this morning when I arrived at GBM after a hard commute from my house wearing a helmet.
See?
By Griff Wigley, on June 2, 2012, 8:34 am
 
Two groups of road riding members of the Cannon Valley Velo Club (CVVC) met at Bridge Square this morning at 7 am. The B Ride route: a 38-mile ride from to Farmington and Hampton and back. The A Ride, part of Bruce Anderson’s Long-Distance Laughing Ride Series:
This is a long sucker, but it rolls through some beautiful, quiet country. Main rest stop is projected at the Straight River Inn Cafe in downtown Hope, MN at about 67 miles. There will be opportunities for water and convenience store food/beverages in Waterville (35 miles) and Nerstrand (113 miles), but it’s wide open country otherwise, so plan food and water accordingly!
See the club’s road ride categories for more details on what to expect on the group road rides: A, A/B, B, B/C, C, D/Family.
Some photos of riders heading out on the A Ride:
  
  
By Griff Wigley, on June 1, 2012, 8:53 am
   
Robbie and I attended the world premiere of Reveal the Path at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis last night, along with a few hundred other bike nuts and quite a few Northfielders:
 A visually stunning adventure by bike: Reveal the Path explores the world’s playgrounds in Europe’s snow capped mountains, Scotland’s lush valleys, Alaska’s rugged coastal beaches and Morocco’s high desert landscapes…
Filmed across four continents and featuring Tour Divide race legends, Matthew Lee & Kurt Refsnider, this immersive film is sure to ignite the dream in you.
  
Luminaries from QBP and its Salsa Cycles division, the main sponsor of the movie and the event, were on hand. They were marginally adequate as movie theater attendants:
Left: Former Northfielder John Gaddo, QBP Outside Sales Rep
Center: Andy Palmer, Salsa Customer Service
Right: John Gaddo and Jason Boucher, Salsa General Manager. See Jason’s ImagineGnat blog ("Bicycles – Photography – People – Exploration")
  
Some Northfielders and other bike nuts at the schmooze fest in the theater lobby:
Left: Northfielders Curtis Ness and Ben Witt, Milltown Cycles, with Mike “Kid” Riemer, Salsa Marketing Manager.
Center: Ben Witt with Northfielder (Webster, actually) Mryna Mibus, blogger, freelance writer, and future mountain biker who was there with her husband Owen and kids.
Right: Mike Dion, producer and director of Reveal the Path and its predecessor Ride the Divide.
See the large slideshow of 17 photos (recommended) or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:
By Griff Wigley, on May 26, 2012, 6:34 am
 
Some out of town visitors were at GBM when it opened at 6 am today. Two were awake after playing softball all night. One wasn’t.
The Carleton wiki ("an unofficial, student-run website") says that Rotblatt:
… is an annual drunken softball game played during Spring Term. It has as many innings as the number of years since Carleton was founded. In recent years, T-shirts for people who arrive at Rotblatt early has become a major CSA budget item, exempted by tradition from rules that prohibit spending on personal property.
By Griff Wigley, on May 22, 2012, 7:55 am
 No, this is not a faux news piece. I heard this story on PRI’s The World a month ago, Why Germans Don’t Like Bicycle Helmets, and started poking around to learn more.
It turns out that the promotion of the wearing of bike helmets, and especially helmet laws, reduces bicycling and the public health benefits of cycling.
The best site I found for research: The Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation in the UK.
 So while wearing a bike helmet might be good for you personally (I always do but even the research on that is questionable), it’s bad public policy to promote the wearing of bicycle helmets.
If you’re a parent and insist that your young kids wear helmets, realize that you’re likely creating a strong incentive for them to abandon bike riding when they become teenagers and to see driving a car as the only socially acceptable form of local transportation.
The Northfield Hospital, Northfield Community Services, the City of Northfield, and other organizations in the area concerned with the health and safety of the citizenry should quit the bike helmet safety promotions.
May 23 8 am update: I’ve changed the name of the blog post from “Bike helmets are bad for the public health of Northfield” to “Bike helmet promotions are bad for the public health of Northfield.” See the discussion below.
By Griff Wigley, on May 22, 2012, 7:11 am
  As the new mountain bike ride coordinator for the Cannon Valley Velo Club (CVVC), I’m planning to lead some rides starting in June.
To help me plan the rides, please fill out this form. (You don’t need to be a member of the CVCC to fill out the form.)
I’m especially interested in beginners, even if you only own a hybrid bike.
Got questions or suggestions? Attach a comment (preferred) or contact me.
By Griff Wigley, on May 20, 2012, 6:03 am
 
While riding my bike though Riverside Park last night, I noticed that the blacktop pad has been recently seal coated. A few minutes later, I got the official word from these skateboarders that the temporary skate park will open sometime this week.
May 24 update: Installation began yesterday afternoon. See these photos:
 
Cecilia Cornejo was capturing video of the process. More about her work in this Nfld News article: Northfield Skate Park Coalition becomes subject of documentary.
May 26 update: All the equipment is in place and was evidently in use last night. Photos:
  
By Griff Wigley, on May 14, 2012, 7:32 am
I’m appreciative of Northfield’s media organizations who have been very helpful in drawing attention to Tuesday night’s (May 15) information meeting for the new Cannon Valley Mountain Bike Racing Team for area high school students.
   
Northfield News reporter Jordan Osterman: Northfield high school mountain bike team forming
KYMN News Morning Show host Jeff Johnson: Griff Wigley and Peter Behm on C.V. Mountain Bike Racing (blog post with streaming audio). Alternate: download/listen to MP3. (Peter Behm is a student at ARTech.)
Northfield Patch reporter Michael Garlitz: Cannon Valley Biking Team Pedaling Toward Starting Line
One point Wigley stresses when talking about forming the team is that the activity is open to girls, as well as boys.
“The big push nationally is to get girls involved,” he said. “And, there is an incentive for having girls on your team. Points earned by girls are worth more, which helps in recruiting.
Can’t make the May 15 meeting? Area student-athletes who are interested can now fill out a form on the CVMTBT website to be kept informed on next steps on the team’s formation.
By Griff Wigley, on May 6, 2012, 11:49 pm
  
I’ve had my Team Director hat on this past week, putting up a new website for the Cannon Valley Mountain Bike Racing Team (also a Facebook page and a Twitter feed).
I also started plastering posters around the area promoting the first information meeting for student-athletes and parents: at misc retail locations, eg, GBM; with Activities Director Tom Graupmann at Northfield High School); at ARTech High School and the ALC; and at area bike shops FIT to be TRI’d, Mike’s Bicycle Shop, and Milltown Cycles.
It should be noted that this team does not yet exist! So this meeting is for those student-athletes (and their parents) who might be interested in joining this new team. Details:
WHEN? Tuesday, May 15, 7 pm
WHERE? the Northfield High School cafeteria
 Gary Sjoquist, Founding Chair of the Minnesota High School Cycling League and QBP’s Advocacy Director, will be presenting. Head coach Sue Welch and I will be there as well.
Help spread the word by downloading and printing out this poster (DropBox link) and putting it up in public places.
The QR code in the lower right corner of the poster links to the Cannon Valley Mountain Bike Racing Team website.
By Griff Wigley, on April 25, 2012, 11:22 pm
The Minnesota High School Cycling League held their first Leaders’ Summit last weekend. I attended both days (Head and Assistant Coach licensing) along with Northfielder Sue Welch, Community Coordinator for the Cannon Valley Velo Club.
   
Gary Sjoquist, QBP’s Advocacy Director, organized and hosted the event at their Bloomington headquarters. Austin McInerny, (NorCal High School Cycling League, Berkeley High School Mountain Bike Team) did the classroom instruction on Saturday. Michael Hayes, Colorado Rocky Mountain School, conducted the skills training (in the classroom and on the bike) on Sunday.
Austin and Michael were impressive instructors: very thorough, great storytellers, well-organized, interesting, and funny. Gary treated us royally with breakfast, lunch and even dinner on Saturday, with ample snacks throughout each day and happy hours at day’s end. The only disappointment: it rained all day Saturday and on and off on Sunday so the end-of-the-day-rides had to be cancelled.
I’m pretty enthused about all this. Sue and I will soon host a community info night in Northfield for interested student athletes and parents.
See my album of 27 photos (large slideshow recommended) or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:
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So with that in mind, I attended BikeMN’s annual meeting yesterday at Park Tool’s new headquarters in Oakdale. 
Afterwards, I did have a chance to talk with Dorian, as well as with Nick Mason, BikeMN’s Education & Technical Assistance Program Manager. Both offered their help to get things rolling in Northfield with a start-up of a local bicycle advocacy group and hopefully, one or more of their Bicycle Friendly Programs. (March blog post: Bemidji has earned ‘Bicycle Friendly Community’ status. Why not Northfield?)
I also put on my mountain biking hat (helmet?) and with MORC Board members Reed Smidt and Mark Gavin, chatted with Dorian about how BikeMN and MORC could work more closely together. One idea: give communities with mountain bike trails and pump/jump/BMX parks extra credit when they apply for Bicycle Friendly Community status.
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