Call for Volunteers – Tour de Tempe (Oct 26)
Please join the City of Tempe and TBAG for a community bicycle ride this Sunday, October 26th.
We’re looking for 8-10 volunteers to serve as parade marshals for the mellow, 10-mile ride. Marshals help direct the cyclists and assist with any minor repairs (mostly flats) along the way. Volunteers must be able to meet at Kiwanis Park (the parking lot off of All-American Way just north of Guadalupe) by 7:30 AM. The ride starts at 8:30 and lasts 1-1.5 hours. All participants will receive t-shirts and breakfast goodies. Because this is a City of Tempe event, HELMETS ARE REQUIRED. Goofy costumes are optional, but highly encouraged.
If you would like to volunteer for this event, please email Kate: [email protected]
Official Event Info:
1,500 bicyclists expected at annual Tour de Tempe bike ride
Tempe, Ariz. – More than 1,500 people are expected to participate in the 13th annual Tour de Tempe community bike ride Oct. 26. The ride starts and ends at Tempe’s Kiwanis Park (Parking lot off All-America Way just north of Guadalupe Road). Riders will enjoy some of the most distinct bikeways in Arizona during this 10 mile ride that begins at 8:30 a.m. Registration starts at 7 a.m.
Tour de Tempe, Tempe’s free leisurely community bike ride, is a fun, non-competitive ride that weaves through diverse neighborhoods, public art projects and other Tempe sites.
All riders will receive free breakfast snacks, and artist-designed T-shirts will be distributed to the first 800 registrants. Helmets are required.
Tour de Tempe sponsors include Back East Bagel Company, Berning’s Fine Jewelry, REI, Starbucks, Whole Foods Market, Wildflower Bread Company, Clif Bar and Tempe in Motion.
Tempe has more than 165 miles of dedicated bikeways, including on-street bike lanes and off-street multi-use paths and is designated a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists. For more information, call (480) 350-2775 or visit www.tempe.gov/tim.
I’d totally volunteer to help out if my bike didn’t get stolen Monday night from in front of my apartment. 🙁 Hell, I’d be going to the Tour de Tempe if I still had a bike!
Try these tactics to increase chances of recovery:
If you have the serial #, file a police report and register it stolen with the National Bike Registry (99 cents for 6 months)
If you have the serial #, register it here for free http://www.stolenbicycleregistry.com/
Sign up for an ebay account if you don’t already have one, and then create a saved search on the brand name and model of the bike (Schwinn Hardrock for example) and have it email the results to you daily (it will email you any new items posted that match “Bike Brand/model”). That way you can keep an eye on ebay.
There are also several craigslist auto-search tools, one that I use is on http://www.4info.net, this is a mobile alerts site, if you sign up for an account you can create a phoenix craigslist alert and have it search on the brand name of the bike and send text messages to your phone when new items are posted on craigslist in the For Sale > Bikes category that match the bike name. Another one that runs on your desktop is called CLBuddy, google it if you’re not interested in the text message alerts.
This way if someone tries to sell it on ebay or craigslist you can notify local authorities. If you do see the bike pop up, make sure you don’t accuse the seller of stealing the bike, pretend you’re an interested buyer, arrange a meeting place, and then get in touch with the police and let them know you may have found the person that stole the bike and ask them for assistance.
If you didn’t write down the serial #, keep that in mind for future bikes.
The best way to prevent your bike from being stolen is to use a U Lock from OnGuard (you can get these as cheap as $20 on amazon) or Kryptonite.
See here for a u lock bike locking strategy: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html
hopefully I will be in Globe by then.
Tom, thanks. I filed a ploice report Monday night immediately after I dicsovered it missing, and they even sent someone out to get fingerprints off the cable. My husband and I have both been keeping an eye out on craigslist, and it’s registered with the Stolen Bicycle Registry, and I believe the National Bike Registry. I’ll be sure to check ebay. I’m more upset that they took it from in front of my apartment, not 10 feet from my front door, while I was home.
I’ll be there – would love to help…
I missed this event last year, so I put it on my calendar this time. It’s had a huge turnout each year. Free breakfast was provided by Back East Bagels, Whole Foods, Clif, Wildflower, and a few other generous sponsors. Starbucks was there early, but bolted before I got there – no coffee for Monk! But I got a pretty cool t-shirt which made me happy.
I rode down from Scottsdale, 13 miles, to help with the gang at the TBAG booth. Super easy. All I had to was ride the route along with the rest of the attendees and stop to provide assistance to anyone that had bike trouble along the way.
Right off the get-go, an unfortunate and very disastrous accident caused a woman on a road bike to be taken away in an ambulance. I’m not sure what happened, but I understand she will be okay except for a broken wrist.
That, and a really aggressive and ignorant driver that caused some brief issues. Her path from a quiet side street led directly into our group of one thousand-plus Riders. She very intentionally tried to take my bike out while her passenger beligerently shouted “you people should be off the road; you should be in a bike path!” Then the driver decied to push her way through and swerved into and between the stream of bicyclists, including children >:(
Tarantula and I pulled up on each side of her car and told her she seriously needed to find another route; this was a Tempe Police sanctioned event and she was not going to win. Once she and her passenger finally accepted the circumstances and turned off, things smoothed out and there were no further incidents.
The Tour was a family-friendly event with riders of every age, from retired couples on tandems to Kindergartners on training wheels. If you’re looking for a casual, sunny ride next year, check it out!
This was the first year that my family participated in this event as we are fairly new to Tempe. Let me just say, we will be back every year from now on!!!
Not only was the ride FREE, but they gave away free helmets and T-shirts!!! The sponsors of this ride are to be highly commended for such awesome donations!!!
It was an incredible ride that was very well organized. I wish there were more frequent rides like this throughout the year!!!
Thank you to all of the organizers who worked on this event!!! We’ll see you next year!