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.

We have been having a blast this summer attending many of Vancouver’s bicycle events: bike to work week (VACC), bike month (BEST), critical mass rides, the Velo-City exhibit at the Museum of Vancouver, Commercial Drive Car-free Days and the opening of the Central Valley Greenway. Now it’s our turn…Bikes on the Drive has decided to organize some fun of our own!

When Robert first joined our team, as web designer extraordinaire, in the early summer we knew he was quite the coffee aficionado. But what we grew to learn about coffee and what Robert grew to learn about The Tree had a lot in common with each other.

One day over a couple of americanos Robert and I had this coffee tour idea that was done exclusively by bike. We hit a few coffee shops on Commercial Drive and then take the 10th avenue bike route to Main Street and finish up just off Broadway.

Both Robert and I thought this would be a great way to do some education and advocacy of coffee, showcase some excellent roasters, cool cafes and a great commuter bike.

Will be meeting outside Bikes on the Drive on the morning of Saturday July 11th and if you arrived with a flat will be able to fix any small problems you might have to get the tour underway.

Here are the Details:

The East Van Biking Coffee Tour

Sponsored by: Bikes on the Drive & Vancouver Indy Coffee Scene
Meet: 10:30 am at Bikes on the Drive 1350 Commercial Drive ~ Rain or Shine.
Day: Saturday July 11, 2009
Cost: Your choice of coffee beverage at cafes we will go to.
Distance Travelled: 9.5 kilometers
Finishing around: 2:00 pm give or take time taken at cafes.

Will have some funky door prizes at the last cafe and hope you can attend.

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).