Burrard Bridge VACC opening celebration and cake give away

After a day inside the bike shop I decided to bike along false creek,  and check out the new Burrard Street Bridge bike lane before heading the Bike-In-Movie at the MOV (Museum of Vancouver).

It was an awesome ride across the bridge with a great view of the inlet and plenty of space to safely maneuver my Tree.  It was so enjoyable that I forgot to take a photo while traveling over the bridge.  So once I got to the other side, I had a nice piece of cake from the girls of the VACC.  Then I had to ride over the bridge again, just to get a photo!

Arriving at Vanier Park I ran into David Niddrie, Photo Editor of Momentum Magazine and I joked about having to ride the bridge twice just to get the photo. Apparently I wasn’t the only as David had to travel the bridge twice as well.

Crossing Burrard Bridge on The Tree

We were both there for the Museum of Vancouver Bike-in-Movie, The Triplets of Belleville. It was a somewhat cool and cloudy night on the shores of English Bay, but I was impressed with the large crowd that showed up. Unlike car traffic that can only arrive from the parking lot, people on bikes were coming in from all directions – from the street, the seawall and of course from the Burrard Bridge.

I rented some blanket real estate from the VACC crew and enjoyed the movie. It was pretty awesome art flick with some inside bike jokes I wouldn’t have understood as little as a few months ago. I saw another Tree at the movie, and meant to ask the owner how he enjoyed it, but food had arrived and I was hungry!

Museum of Vancouver Bike in Movie

Another strange occurrence happen when the movie was over and 300+ cyclist left all at once. There wasn’t a huge traffic jam. When I arrived at Burrard and Cypress there were 20 cyclists who were stopped at the light. Could you imagine what that would have been like with car traffic?

So I made my third trip over the bridge in as many hours, and even at this time of night I felt completely comfortable traveling over the bridge and realized how important this was to the future of bike commuting in Vancouver.

Once we arrived at the Art Gallery it was hard to find a spot that wasn’t already covered in people.  We knew the June Critical Mass is the biggest one of the year, but seeing the huge numbers of people for the first time was a sight to see.

June Critical Mass view from the Art Gallery

Walking up the front steps of the Art Gallery really gave me a sense of how large this event has actually become.

There was also a large number of people who were getting themselves body painted in preparation for the ride and a few of us just couldn’t resist getting a few trees painted on ourselves.

Tree Face Painting

For Cam MacLeod this was his first Critical Mass in Vancouver and he was riding a Tree. While we were cruising down Burrard he mentioned how easily the bike carried itself.

“It is very robust, but a lot lighter then it looks, I didn’t think it would be a fast as it is,”

Cam has only worked for us for about two weeks and after a short one hour ride he was impressed by the quality that went into this bike.

I have also been amazingly impressed with this bike. Since taking mine home last week and putting it through both street and field testing I can certainly say this bike has out performed any two wheeled transportation I have ever ridden on.

Robert stencils a Tree on to the sidewalk of The Drive

Bikes on the Drive woke up early on Sunday morning and we hit the streets like a bunch of guerillas and a few tree stencils and a bunch of green chalk.

One of our new employees Cam Macleod was given the task of stenciling over 100 tree symbols all over The Drive for Car Free Days. Cam has a bit of a marketing background and was up to the task.

It was quite the community effort with my next door neighbor Andy Hurcum building the plywood stencils for me it was a lot better the the cardboard contraptions I had made.

Cam and I had tons of fun stenciling trees all over The Drive.  There were lots of questions about The Tree while we were out and about. We talked and chalked and had tons O’fun.

One of our larger guerilla installations that we did when the drive finally closed to vehicle traffic.

Once we ran out of green chalk we decided to call it a morning and head back to the shop to help open up.

We set up out booth with a couple of nutcase helmets some Chain J and our beloved Tree.

By the time we had set up shop and grabbed our second cup of joe for the morning, it was time to give away our second Tree of the summer. We shut down the shop for 15 minutes and joined the party on the street ilan gave a talk about why we put our time and resources into the The Tree.

During ilan’s little bike evangelism we amassed quite the crowd of people. It was really nice to capture the attention of the drive community on one of the biggest days of the year.

The draw was made and we are pleased to announce that Deepak Vyas you are the winner of a Bikes on the Drive Tree by Devinci.

ilan speaks about the Tree just before we drew Deepak Vyas name out of the box.

Other area’s of interest we wanted to make note of:
Instead of commuting to work why not just bring work with you, Driven by Profit won hands downs for the most unique use of a boardroom table ever. We just not sure commuting on top of a boardroom table is the most sensible and eco-friendly way to commute. But guaranteed you’ll never be late for your next meeting.	Driven by Profit mobile board room
The free hugs girl outside Bikes on the Drive who gave well over 1000 people hugs that day.	Free Hugs Girl
The mimes (Victorian era ?), They were just amazingly awesome to watch and how they interacted as they strolled down the drive.	Mimes on the Drive
Our friends on eight wheels instead of two at the roller disco on Graveley St. They were really kicking the tunes and looked like they were having a great time.	Roller Disco on Graveley St

Also did you enjoy car free days? Well if you did you should let your mayor and counsel know.  Drop them a line I am sure they would love hearing some positive feedback from the days events.

Ricky with a car-free sticker and a Nutcase Helmet Photo: Nigel Boeur

Ahh Car Free Days, Who doesn’t love when they close down the drive to motor vehicle traffic and open up the streets to entertainers, street vendors and community groups.

We at Bikes on the Drive will be giving away one of our Tree commuter hybrid bicycles. And you can either fill out a entry form in shop  or download the entry form at bikemonth.ca and drop it off at the shop, 630 Commercial Drive, before 6:45 PM on June 13, 2009.

The draw will take place at Bikes on the Drive at 12 Noon, June 14, 2009.

Along with the fab-tree give away we will have a table out front that might have a few specials for you to gander at and one of us will be out their talking about the Tree.

See for us The Tree is more then just a bike we sell it is about the ideology of what we see in a new urban commuter for Vancouver and being the advocates of sustainable culture that we are we’d really like talking about it. (Were total bike geeks, but you knew that)

So we hope you’ll stop by the shop amongst the Old School Roller Disco, knittervention, and street hockey and I what I am sure will be day full of merry mayhem (car free of course).

Autumn arrives on the red carpet of the Museum of Vancouver Velo-City exhibit opening night. photo credit: BOTD / MOV

The whirlwind trip The Tree has been on this spring just got a little bit more historic.

The Tree is on display at the newly branded Museum of Vancouver (the MOV; Formerly the Vancouver Museum) and their new show Velo-City: Vancouver and the Bicycle Revolution.

The Tree was chosen by Nick Rust from Propellor Design who heard about The Tree through the grapevine and thought it was an awesome project. He approached Autumn about having the bike as part of the show.

“We were blown away Nick asked us to have our bike as part of the show and though it would be awesome to be part of the exhibit.” said Autumn.

Autumn dolled up a large Tree with the disc brake upgrade, some lights and a pannier. She jumped on board putting foot to peddle(s) and headed to Kitsilano, the bikes new home for the next six months.

The Opening

The gang from the shop took off a little late and hit the 10th street bike route, we had a hilarious time biking across town trying to race each other on the hills. Darcy had his old school, three-speed Raleigh and was giving us gear heads a run for our money.

Renee is superimposed over a bike route map in Vancouver. photo credit: BOTD / MOV

We then turned down the Cypress Avenue bike route and were welcomed by a cool breeze and a drop in temperature as we neared the ocean shore next to the venerable Museum.

We were impressed with the red carpet treatment by the Bike Valet. While we dropped off our bikes with Shera Kelly, a Bike Valet attendant, Jaimie had a little photo shoot with Rebecca Blissett outside the museum. Who knew we were so popular?

Walking into the exhibit I was completely impressed with the curator of the exhibit, from 1980’s road racing jerseys, to the exceptional quality of Tito Precott “Three Wheeled Method of Convenance” and a special performance of the BCclettes to cap the night off.

I kept on returning to the tree, trying to get a decent photo. Trying to shoot a black bike against a black room with a point and shoot camera is darn harder than you might think. But it allowed me to see a array of different people checking out our little creation.

Bikes on the Drive Tree at the Velo-City Exhibit. photo credit: BOTD / MOV

It was far from the flashiest bike, the most expensive cycle, or most popular exhibit at the opening, but what I did hear was a lot of people coming by taking a closer look at the frame, inspecting the components, making subtle comments to friends about how cool the concept of our bike was.

Of course we are somewhat preaching to the converted at the opening of a bike show where the bike valet is as full as the parking lot.

This little project is barely into its first month and yet we’re already getting a huge and equally important positive response to our first cycle. So please drop by the museum, check out the choppers, the fixies, and the chalk murals. It is a great show and we could not be prouder to be a part of it.

ilan gives a touring safety talk in Grandview Park

Our major goals at Bikes on the Drive (BOTD) is advocacy, education and awareness of bike commuting, bike culture and overall community building in the East Vancouver community itself. For any business owner it just makes sense to be an active, contributing member of the local community.

One way that we do this is through supporting Global Agents for Change. This registered non-profit was founded in January 2007 by a group of young professionals, university students and social change agents from Vancouver, Canada.

During one of the many conversations ilan has with his customers, he heard about Global AFC in 2007. Being the sociable and knowledgeable guy that ilan is, (yes he did pay me to say that), ilan offered some tour consulting to new riders who might be going down in the group.

“I invited the senior people of the group down to the shop and I gave them the full run down on touring bikes; The challenges people have with bags, peddles, shoes, living out of a bike for a month,”

What we found out was that it was the first time they were given this type of knowledge and information, which you really only find out by doing or talking to someone who has.

Agents Jenni Panek-Christie, left, Rachel Eisenberg, Anna Fleming and Patrick Cheung at the send off BBQ in Grandview Park, Vancouver, Canada.

The result was that they booked the entire team of riders to come in and talk with ilan.

It was also a complete coincidence for ilan, a former financial planner who dealt in-risk management and lending and now manages  BOTD, to find a charity that dealt in touring, cycling and microcredit lending to break the cycle of poverty in developing and third world countries. It’s a good fit to say the least.

Since that time we have offered both education for riders on repairs and maintenance of their bikes while on a trip, along with a safety briefing and equipment knowledge.

The shop also sells gear to the riders at cost to the shop.

“We had sold really strong touring packages worth up to $3,000 for $1,800 and donating all the labour associated with bikes and components,” said ilan.

With both a Mexico and European tour with a total of 71 riders, the shop was a little packed this spring and the boys (and Jaimie) were a little busy in preparing a number of bikes for the trip.

Bugsy Delesalle enjoys a water break at English Bay with her fully-loaded Tree.

Two additional things happened this year: One with the launch of The Tree commuting and touring cycle first aid attendant, Agent Bugsy Delesalle purchased one of the first BOTD Tree by Devinci after talking with Autumn, and had it loaded for bare as she left Vancouver for Mexico: Two, ilan had gone a step further and approached the supplier and manufacturers of components and equipment for the BOTD and told them about Global AFG. As a result Brodie, Arkel, Avid, Tubus and Shimano either offered at cost or at a discount on top of whatever BOTD was offering the riders.

And while according to the official Global AFC blog, Bugsy offically hates hills. Apparently she is doing fine and heading to Seattle as we speak.

Nigel, left, Monica, and ilan--they're laughing as always, (usually at each other). This was just before the start of the May Critical Mass through Vancouver.

We at the Bikes on the Drive (BOTD) have been working hard this summer, so hard we had our busiest month ever at the shop in the month of May. And while we feel chained to the shop sometimes we decided to close the shop down and hit up Critical Mass while riding our new Tree bike by Devinci with some riders from Global Agents for Change.

And while we had a mini mass of 15 riders heading down to the Art Gallery to join over 900 cyclists we can honestly say it was the best idea we have ever come up with at the shop.

It was also the first time I took out a Tree for an extended ride. I had rode the bike around East Van and down to False Creek, but this was the first time I had rode the bike for more than an hour and in a lot of traffic (cars and bikes).

A trio of riders (Lian, Shani are centre and left) cruise down the southside of the Granville Street Bridge during the May Critical Mass through Vancouver.

I also really like my old school Norco I have been riding around for the last year, it isn’t flashy or new and the frame is at least 20 years old. But I can honestly say that all of that changed when I took the Tree through its paces over the course of the night. It was by far one of the smoothest, hard-frame rides I have enjoyed since I started riding in Vancouver last year. I also had to shoot picture with one hand and ride with the other, so I felt it was a quite stable ride too.

After the ride the group from the shop went down to the Global Agents for Change BBQ in East Van where we rested our tired feet and filled our bellies with some nicely cooked burgers while meeting riders from across North American who would be taking part in the ride.

This is where ilan came up with the idea of closing down the shop on Critial Mass Friday. It was by all accounts the best critical thinking he had done all day.

So for the rest of the summer will be closing the shop at 5 p.m. on Critical Mass Fridays and enjoying a nice, long ride at the end of the week. Being a bike enthusiast yourself we hope you know why we decided to close down early one Friday a month and hope you will join us!