You might have seen the Bike to Blazers Night Ride in the Willamette Week. If not, I’ve scanned it for your viewing pleasure. They even made up a nifty little bike graphic to go with it.
Unfortunately they left out contact information and they included a few facts about the ride that I want to clarify:
- The ride is on Saturday, April 15th (not Sunday).
- The Blazers aren’t “sponsoring” the ride. I went to them with the idea (actually Jeff Bernards and I both had the idea) and they liked it and they’re working with us to make it successful. They didn’t come to me and I’m not making any money off of this.
- “Get Lit” is not a safety-advocacy group. It is a program started by one guy (Alice Award Winner Jeff Bernards) with help from Shift to Bikes.
- I’m not sure whey they mentioned Paul Allen providing us with parking. Mr. Allen has nothing to do with this ride (he just happens to own the team).
And just for some background on the motivations behind this ride. It’s sort of personal. Basketball was my first love (before bikes and before girls). At one point (before my 5 knees surgeries) I was an aspiring NBA star myself; I ate, slept and drank hoops. Basketball was my life in the same way that bikes and racing became my life later on in college.
The other reason I’m excited about this ride is because it has potential to bring bikes into the psyche of a new crowd. I think the vast majority of regular Blazers fans aren’t the most bikey people in the world…but I bet all of them have an old bike hanging in their garage. I hope this ride helps show them that bikes are cool and that there’s a huge, supportive, fun group of Portlanders just waiting to ride with them.
I hope you’ll join us. Tickets are going fast and the biker section will be rockin’. You can buy your tickets online at our very own Bike to Blazers Night Ride ticket page on Blazers.com.
“Bike-centric jurno-slash-activist Jonathan Maus”
That description of makes you sound like a cross between Jonathan Nicholas and Tre Arrow. But even with the risk of being surveilled by the FBI at the game, the Bike to the Blazers Ride sounds like a ton of fun! I’m gettin’ my tickets today.
I love the idea of a whole section of bikeys for basketball. Between Filmed by Bike and The Bunny on a Bike Ride it’s going to be one busy weekend of bike fun.
And sorry the WW screwed the promotion of your event up. Not even a contact listing and wrong day of the week. Poor poor editing! Ah well, you’ll fill the Rose Arena anyhow. And I do indeed love your new title. From now on you are not just Jonathan, but the bike-centric jurno-slash-activist — don’t let anyone tell you different. I wonder what my title should be as my area of interests cover bikes, bunnies, and bathtubs!
Good luck on this new event.
-Carye
Cost of tickets would have been a nice detail, also. See what happens when you take too many “free writing” creative writing classes in college and not enought Editing 101?