Tag: Leah Missbach Day

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Show #661- December 18, 2024

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Guests: Leah Missbach Day; Bill McGann

The holidays are literally around the corner and today, I wanted to offer up one of my favorite year-end opportunities for giving.

Leah Missbach Day is one of the founders of WBR, and World Bicycle Relief is about to turn 20.

In the years since its inception, it has grown from aiding 20,351 people in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Tsunami to 850,000 bicycles on the ground in 7 African countries and in Colombia, South America.

Calling it “50 kilograms of love,” Leah Missbach Day joins me to talk about World Bicycle Relief and the bicycle that is changing lives all over the African continent and beyond.

With some new components innovations as well as an independent study that showed incredible results, WBR lives up to its motto of Empowering individuals to access education, healthcare and economic opportunities through life-changing bicycles.

These bicycles have helped girls to go to school, health workers to deliver life saving aid, and farmers to get their goods to market. 

The Buffalo bike provides a sturdy, reliable machine that offers not only transportation but safety to the thousands of people who ride them.

The S2 Drivetrain
The Impact Study

 

 

 

In the second half of the show, I’m joined by Bill McGann.

Bill started out as a bicycle retailer in a 750 square foot shop in California back in 1974 with a $3,000 bank loan and a lot of chutzpah.

In his new book, Why Your Bike Is Made in Asia: My career in bicycles as I watched two continents squander an industry, takes us from early bicycle history through the 10-speed craze and on into the industry’s move to Asia as a result of some wrong-thinking on the part of American and European manufacturers.

It’s an interesting look at the bike industry from a very different perspective.

In the many conversations I’ve had with bicycle historians over the years, no one has mentioned the single tube bicycle patents OR how Asian-made bicycles came to overtake the European and potential American markets back in the 70’s and 80’s.

Bill McGann lived that transition, and he tells us all about it in his new book, Why Your Bike Is Made In Asia, My Career in Bicycles as I watched two continents squander an industry.

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Show #531 – December 5, 2020

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Guests: Leah Missbach Day; Mike Lessard; Dan De Vise

 

Leah Missbach Day is the co-founder of World Bicycle Relief and shares how the organization is adjusting to a new normal and finding ways to not only do what they have always done; but to expand and flourish.

Over the years, we have talked about how a bicycle can change a life – making it easier to travel for work or school or to deliver life saving healthcare.

We’ve talked about how having a bicycle empowers people in countries with little besides what they can grow or make on their own.

But, how has a worldwide pandemic affected not only the ability to do all these things, but also the organization that has been providing the bikes for over 15 years.

Then, Adventure Cycling Association‘s Tours Director Mike Lessard fills us in on some new tours for 2021.

As with most companies that offer bicycle touring, AC had to curtail and for the most part cancel the 2020 season.  But, armed with some new protocols and looking at what people might be able to do going forward into 2021, AC is offering Long Weekend Tours – just 4 days.  Already booking and, in some cases, already filled, these tours promise to get us back out on our bikes in a safe and fun way.

Lastly,  Dan De Vise, the author of The Comeback – Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legenday Tour de France, is back to give us an update on the Congressional Gold Medal we spoke about in September, 2019.

At that time, the bill had been introduced by Congressman Mike Thompson (D-Ca) to and passed the House of Representatives and was on its way to the Senate.   Last week, the law passed and Greg LeMond WILL be a Congressional Gold Medal honoree.Image result for congressional gold medal

 

 

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Show #481 – December 7, 2019

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Guests: Leah Missbach Day; Dieter Drake; Christine Acosta with Leah Shahum

As we count down to the holiday giving days – Chanukah beginning on the 22nd, Christmas, December 25th, and Kwanza December 26th, I thought it would be a great time to chat with WBR’s co-founder, Leah Missbach Day.

World Bicycle Relief, founded in 2005 after the devastating tsunami in Sri Lanka, is one of the most successful charitable organizations in our bicycle world. Its vision – to supply bicycles to help students, health care workers, and small business owners travel to and from their respective destinations – has resulted in , 487,000 bikes delivered and 2.5 positively impacted.

The original Buffalo Bike is about to undergo a new iteration though as WBR ramps up to bring its vision to South America.

After we talk with Leah, we’ll heading out to Des Moines, Iowa to the meet the new ride director for RAGBRAI, Dieter Drake. Dieter has a long history of successful events in his back pocket and is looking forward to taking the reins of the iconic event as it prepares to launch year #48.

And, finally, Pedal Power Promoters’s Christine Acosta caught up with Vision Zero’s Leah Shahum (yes, we have two Leah’s on the show this week!) at the Vision Zero Cities Conference in October. Christine talks with Leah about what Vision Zero is doing, how certain cities are adapting Vision Zero principles with great success, and, the grim facts of what happens when we don’t address the issues of traffic, equity, and public health.

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Show #379 – December 16, 2017

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Guests: Leah Missbach Day; Aimee Ross; Patrick Brady

Twas the week before Christmas and there is snow on the ground here in NE Ohio.

But, we’ll bring some conversations to warm the heart as we look at our last “gift giving” show for the season.

My first guest is the co-founder of World Bicycle Relief, Leah Missbach Day. When Leah and her husband F.K. learned of the devastating tsunami in 2005, they flew to Indonesia to see how they could help. Out of that trip, World Bicycle Relief was founded and now, 12 years later, the organization is approaching 400,000 bicycles on the ground and working in a variety of African and Indonesian countries.

Leah gives us some insight into who needs these bicycles and how they help to keep people healthy, educate the young girls and women who receive a bike, and keep businesses thriving.

Then, IMBA‘s director of brand development Aimee Ross tells us about the “Dig In” campaign that is giving 68 mountain bike projects a lifeline in the form of grants and assistance. Aimee takes us back to the beginning of the mountain bike era and propels us forward explaining how IMBA helps facilitate projects all over the U.S. with its local chapters and millions of volunteers hours.

Lastly, Red Kite Prayer’s Patrick Brady gives us his first-hand insight into the fires that have been and are still devastating California. Evacuated from his home for almost two weeks, Patrick tells us about the scores of boxes that have arrived to help local riders who lost everything to the fires as well as what the Sonoma Pride campaign is doing to get peoples’ lives back on track.

If you are ready to write those year-end giving checks, perhaps one of more of these three conversations will help you make up your mind.

Happy holidays from The Outspoken Cyclist! And, here’s to a peaceful, healthy, and happy 2018!

 

 

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Show #243 – April 25, 2015

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Guests: Phil Liggett; Leah Missbach Day

Last show in April and it’s a doozy!

Tonight I speak with the person who arguably has the most famous voice of all time in professional cycling.  From his early days as a budding journalist to the announcer of all the European Classics including Paris-Roubaix, Fleche Wallone, Giro D’Italia, our American Amgen Tour of California, and of course the Tour de France, Phil Liggett is a wealth of information and fun as he makes bike racing thrilling for us all.

Phil talks about his love for statistics, what he sees as those things that have changed bike racing irrevocably, and how cycling is again coming around to being a sport we will want to support and watch.  And, because of Phil’s close bond with Africa, we talk of the rise of the MTN Qhubeka team and how he too sees an African on the Podium in Europe in the not-too-distant future.

We wrap up our conversation with his Helping Rhinos campaign (watch the video too!)– which means as much to him as his work as a journalist.  He tells us how we can support the cause, ride with him in several events, and about the efforts being made to protect the few remaining Rhinos from the horrific poaching that is going on in Africa.

We have news of course – including a massive recall from Trek – and then head on to SRAM headquarters in Chicago to talk with Leah Missbach Day about World Bicycle Relief.

WBR celebrates 10 years this month and Leah, who along with her husband FK Day, are the founders of the hugely successful movement to get people who could not otherwise go to school, work, or even bring food and water to their families on the African Buffalo bike. We talk about the very first delivery of bikes right after the devastating Tsunami in 2004 through the Africa Rides trips that you can take.

So, get ready for a great evening of cycling talk as we head over the pond to speak with Phil Liggett!