Show #430 – December 8, 2018

Guests: Jacob VanSickle; Stephen Swift; Joe Roggenbuck

This week, we can congratulate ourselves for taking action and getting the AV Start Act language changed before the bill comes up before the Senate. Your calls and letters made a difference!

Then, we say a brief. sad goodbye to one of the most famous voices in our sport, Paul Sherwen. His untimely death at the age of 62 will leave an enormous gap in our enjoyment of the Tour de France in July.

Then, we welcome back Bike Cleveland‘s Executive Director, Jacob VanSickle. Last month, the advocacy organization presented a one-day Strategic Summit to re-cap where the organization is, what it has accomplished since its inception in 2011, and where it’s going… all of which is pretty impressive.

We speak with Stephen Swift who is about to wrap-up a 6 years, 26,000 mile journey that has helped him recover from unbearable loss and gives him hope for the future. He’s been both helped and harmed along the way; and, his forthright and honest description of life on the road tells a story unlike any we’ve heard in the past.

Our final guest this week is Joe Roggenbuck from Cobra Frames in Syracuse, NY. He’s a frame builder, a tool maker, and a very refreshing young man who sees his craft from the eyes of a 28 year old but with the wisdom of someone so much older.

 

Show #319 – October 29, 2016

Guests: Jacob VanSickle; Euan Wilson; Mighk Wilson

Great Show with 3 guests and 3 topics.

First up, Bike Cleveland’s director Jacob VanSickle talks about the Cleveland Refugee Bike Project. In its initial fund-raising phase, the project is “looking to fund a one-year pilot program, launching officially in Spring 2017. Before the project officially launches, the project partners – Bike Cleveland, Catholic Charities Migration & Refugee Services, and the Ohio City Bicycle Co-Op – will work together to secure the necessary supplies and develop culturally appropriate training curricula to provide to participants.”

According to the information on the fundraising platform, ioby.org:

Approximately 1,000 refugees relocate to Cleveland each year. They can provide new life and serve as an economic driver for our region, but only if they are able to access opportunities. Most new refugees lack access to a car, and many struggle to get around on a public transportation system that continues to cut service and raise fares.

The Cleveland Refugee Bike Project will provide refugees with a bike – an economic lifeline that can connect them to new employment, educational, and social opportunities. We will also give participants the training and tools they need to learn how to safely bike around the region. In this way, the program will help them to build a new life in Cleveland and guarantee that the city benefits from all the assets they bring to the table.

Then we head all the way over to Inverness Scotland to talk with Euan Wilson, director of H+I Adventures. The company offers mountain bike tours worldwide and just introduced a brand new 8 day tour to the Fjords of Norway they are calling Into the Labyrinth. Not for the faint of heart, the tour is rated “advanced” and offers spectacular riding along with breathtaking views.

Finally, we head down to Orlando to catch up with Mighk Wilson from Cycling Savvy. Mighk will be heading up to Philadelphia for the Philly Bike Expo where he and John Schubert will be talking about the instructional courses that Cycling Savvy is offering along with some current information about riding safely and confidently on the road.

Show #212 – September 20, 2014

Guests: Jacob VanSickle & Lambert vanBeers talk NEO Cycle; Joe Prisel – mountain bike park designer and builder; author and historian Richard Moore

#ShutUpHour! Jens Voigt makes history – no surprise – riding 51.115km in one hour, smashing the old record! GO JENS! Someday I hope to have a chance to chat with Jens – just to yuk it up with him.

This week the Outspoken Cyclist offers up a brand new weekend of cycling with NEO Cycle – an urban cycling festival sponsored by a whole host of great companies including The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, Ohio Savings Bank, General Electric, Forest City Enterprises, and Spynga – Cleveland Heights.

The director of Bike Cleveland, Jacob VanSickle tells us about the event and the co-owner of SpyngaFlows, Lambert vanBeers talks about his involvement in the Grand “Fundo”.

Then, we talk about indoor mountain bike parks – only this is about the MOTHER OF ALL INDOOR MOUNTAIN BIKE PARKS. Opening in January, the Louisville Mega Cavern Mountain Bike Park will offer 350,000 square feet of mountain biking that will include some fascinating options you may never have imagined. Joe Prisel helped build the original Ray’s Mountain Bike Park, went on to help design and build the “Lumberyard”, Portland, Oregon’s Park, and now lives outside of Seattle where he designed and built the Burlington Mountain Bike Park.

Lastly, we welcome author and Tour de France historian Richard Moore back to the show. Richard’s new book, Etape: 20 Great Stories From the Modern Tour de France, highlights all new interviews with both famous and sometimes obscure riders from a variety of stages beginning with 1971. Richard, who also wrote Slaying the Badger and Tour de France 100 knows so much about the riders, the routes, the stages, and the stories and is able to recall and share them with us this evening.

Show #200 (wooo-hooo) – June 28, 2014

Welcome to our 200th Show! It’s been a privilege to bring you everything cycling for all these weeks and I hope we can bring you many more! Here’s a bit of information on this week’s show.

Discovered through the “twittersphere” by Editor-in-Chief of Velo Magazine, my first guest, Dan Wuori shares his particular brand of cycling – both humorous and serious – with us as my first guest this evening.

Out of an “innocent” comment on his twitter feed, Dan was asked to write for the iconic magazine and has since found himself in the enviable position of being the author of “At the Back” – the humorous-editorializing piece that appears each month on the back page of Velo News.

He also covers races and personalities through his work on Tour Chats (currently on hiatus but about to reappear in the not-too-distant future,) with his on-air partner Neil Browne.

Dan also gives us his views on our U.S. National Championship winners Dr. Eric Marcotte and Alison Powers, the Tour de France, and more…

We’ll also talk with Bike Cleveland’s Jacob vanSickle who will share some positive ideas about how we here in Cleveland are working with government and law enforcement to start making cyclists (and pedestrians) safer on the roads.

Show #187 – March 22, 2014

Guests: Jeff Koenig, Big Poppi Bicycles; Jody Dzuranin, Consider Biking; Jacob VanSickle, Bike Cleveland

Three different guests, and three different perspectives on the recently completed National Bike Summit in Washington, DC.

First up is Jeff Koenig, co-owner of Big Poppi Bikes, in Manhattan, Kansas, to talk about the role your local bike dealer plays (and doesn’t play) in bicycle advocacy. Jeff not only attended the summit, but gave a presentation as well.

Our downstate friend, Jody Dzuranin of Consider Biking in Columbus, Ohio, joins us to give her perspective on the summit, including a warm reception from the Republican senator from Ohio, Rob Portman. Advocacy can be a tough gig in a sprawling state capitol, but the Consider Biking crew has made great strides in their young existence, including the 2nd Annual Ohio Women’s Bicycling Summit, coming up on May 3rd.

Lastly, but closest to home, we check in with Jacob Van Sickle of Bike Cleveland, who has also been busy pushing for bicycling accommodations in a city that is not exactly flush with cash for discretionary projects. And yet, great things are slowly happening for cyclists in our fair city and the surrounding region.