Summer Bike-To-Work Day coming June 26

Summer Bike-To-Work Day is just around the corner ! 

 Wed. 6/26/2013 6:30 – 9:30 a.m.

This year the entire NRRC campus will be coming together to sponsor a Breakfast Station at the intersection of the Spring Creek and Mason bike trails, just NE of the NRRC campus.

Last year, over 300 cyclists enjoyed goodies from La Luz Mexican Grill and Great Harvest Bread, and photo-ops with Smokey Bear at our station.

We need plenty of help serving this happy throng, so go to our VOLUNTEER SIGN-UP PAGE and sign up for a guaranteed good time.

Bike-To-Work Day is a city-wide event sponsored by FC Bikes.  Check out their web page to find an interactive map of all the breakfast stations and information about other activities during Bike Month.

Bike-to-Work Day ridership surpasses expectations

By 8:30 A.M. the cupboard was bare at the NRRC Green Team Bike-To-Work-Day breakfast station.  Three hundred twenty two riders wolfed down 220 La Luz burritos, 19 loaves of Great Harvest bread and 32 quarts of juice on the 25th annual celebration held on June 27, 2012.

Most excellent banner by Sheryl Romero

The city-sponsored event featured 42 breakfast stations throughout the city and 6 evening stations for the ride home.  Like most stations, ours also offered expert bike repair support.  Eric Drake of Drake Cyclery offered a quick lube or brake adjustment for those who dusted off a neglected steed for the event.  Bicycle ridership at Building A on the NRRC campus was also up for the day – 50 bicycles were counted in the racks and adjacent trees at noon.  This level participation gives us an “effort index” score of 2, meaning our participation was twice as high as would be expected for a company (building) of our size.  The “effort index” is a formula that adjusts for company size.

Thanks go to volunteers from the NRRC campus, patrons of the NRRC Green Team fund-raisers, Larey Kerling for the great Fort Collins Bike buttons and to Barbara Menzel for the great photographs.

La Luz burritos – YUM

BTWD revelers ham it up before chowing down.

Servers had to move quickly to keep up with the rush of bike commuters.

Bike Fort Collins buttons compliments of Larey Kerling in Bldg. A.

Bike Library helps FS Planners have greener meeting

Did you notice a few extra bicycles in the Building A bike racks during the first week of May?  The Fort Collins Bike Library loaned

Bikes from the Bike Library fill the racks at Building A.

bicycles to seven attendees of the Forest Service Regional Planners meeting in NRRC Building A.  With the help of a truck borrowed from Brave New Wheel bike shop, Stacy and Mikal from the Bike Library did their first on-site bike delivery.  The cyclists, who dubbed themselves the “back-pedaling planners”,  biked between the meeting and the Hilton hotel, and took advantage of the bike trails close to the NRRC campus.

Want to make the meeting you are planning greener?  See the post on Green Meetings and give the Bike Library a call.

The Bike Library delivers bicycles to FS planners attending a meeting on the NRRC campus.

Smokey warms the hearts of winter bike-to-work day riders

The NRRC-A Green Team, together with participants from the NRRC campus and local businesses, hosted a wildly successful breakfast station during the annual winter Bike-to-Work Day on December 14, 2011.  Frosty riders braving the morning chill were treated to breakfast burritos from La Luz Mexican grill, baked goods from Great Harvest bread company, and hot coffee and cider.  Drake Cyclery was also on hand to keep everyone’s wheels running smooth.

Many of the 97 cyclists that stopped by the station were treated to a rare sighting of Smokey Bear, hosted by the Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forest.  Smokey had a blast too, shaking hands and posing for photos with the cyclists.

The 640 miles ridden by these cyclists saved 80 kg of carbon that would have been emitted if they had driven to work.

Wheel Dogs at the Bike-to-Work-Day breakfast station

See additional photos of our station taken by the Coloradoan staff photographer: Coloradoan gallery.  Photos 2-5, 9, 14-16 were taken from our station.

Motto of cycling commuters: I have a bike; I go to work; I ride my bike to work – no big woop.

Smokey takes a spin to show his support for BTWD

NRRC to host “official” Bike-to-Work day breakfast station

Volunteers from NRRC will join with local businesses to sponsor a Bike-to-Work day breakfast station on the Spring Creek trail, 7:00 – 9:30 a.m.  on December 14.  The NRRC-A Green Team will be joined by volunteers from other USDA buildings on campus, La Luz Mexican Grill and Drake Cyclery to provide tasty breakfast burritos, hot drinks and light bike repair to cyclists participating in the event.  Our breakfast station will be located where the Spring Creek trail goes beneath the railroad,  northeast of the NRRC campus.  The annual event, sponsored by FC Bikes, will feature 16 other breakfast stations across the city.  If the promise of a free hot meal is not enough to lure you from your winter den, our station will offer a rare appearance by Smokey Bear, sponsored by the Arapahoe & Roosevelt National Forests (building E). Come join your fellow cyclists and Smokey for a hot breakfast in the crisp winter air.  “I have a bike; I go to work; I ride my bike to work – no big whoop.”

Join cyclists in bid for open space

Have you noticed that the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) parking space close to Building A has been empty for the last 4 months?  A small group of cyclists pooled their resources during last year’s CFC auction and won rights to the space for July thru October.  Because the cyclists “don’t need no stinkin’ parking space”, you have enjoyed a lovely bit of open space on your daily stroll through the parking lot.

Bidding is now open for the coveted parking space as part of the 2011 CFC fund raising activities.  All proceeds go to the local United Way.  If you would like to join with others to preserve this parking space as “open space”, contact Bruce Meneghin.

Encourage visitors to travel Green

Are you hosting visitors to NRRC from out-of-town?  Encourage them to leave the rental car behind and visit Fort Collins by bus/bike/foot.  Two airport shuttles, the Hilton and the Fort Collins Bike Library make this a very feasible and fun option for business travelers to NRRC. Travelers picking up their baggage in DIA around the top of the hour can make it to the Fort Collins Hilton on a shuttle in about the same time it would take them if they rented a car.  For a three-day meeting this would save about $180.  The Fort Collins Bike Library loans bikes for free.  There are pick-up locations at CSU Lory Center and downtown.  For our Planner’s meeting in May, the Library has agreed to let us pick up and deliver several bikes right to the Hilton.  You can point your visitors to this custom Google Map that shows the area around NRRC or this electronic brochure that gives them all the information they need to plan their Green visit.