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Velopalooza Poster Contest!

ATTENTION all artists and bike lovers alike:

Think you can create a poster that represents bike fun in Vancouver? We are accepting submissions for the 2011 Velopalooza poster. The chosen poster will receive an award, be posted around the city, be shown on the velopalooza.ca, and used as handbills.

Details:
* deadline is December 15th
* winner announced by December 17th
* prizes: $300 cash
$50 gift certificate to Vanprint.com
and more to come...

Email your submissions to info@velopalooza.ca with "Velopalooza poster" in the subject line. (if it's a big file, e-mail a link to download it from.)

Things that need to be included in the poster are:

* Velopalooza
* June 3rd-19th 2011
* velopalooza.ca
* Two weeks of Bike Fun
* a space for sponsor logos

Submissions should be a black and white or color rgb png, tiff, or jpeg (300dpi), and if chosen you should also be able to supply a vector format.

Design for 11x17 inches. but also be able to scale (with tweaks) to various sizes:

* poster (both 11 x 17in and 19x27in)
* handbill (4.5 x 5.5in)
* web site (approx. 250 x 313px)
* magazine cover (8.5 x 11in)

It's probably a good idea to keep text on separate layers, as the text may need to change a bit

Last year's poster was used in the Georgia Straight, on the cover of Common Ground, printed on t-shirts and can be seen on our website at www.velopalooza.ca. (and while you're there check out the upcoming rides.)

RIDE ON!!!

Velopalooza is 17 days of bikey fun. With 4 events, most organized by individuals, bikers of all persuasions are likely to find many events of interest. Nearly all events are free.

Obama Replaces Costly High-Speed Rail Plan With High-Speed Bus Plan

Pretty funny video that touches on roadway hierarchy, speed, public transport spending, busses and trains, class, and the general insanity of our current car cult:


Obama Replaces Costly High-Speed Rail Plan With High-Speed Bus Plan

It's interesting how in this video the idea of bus becomes synonymous with poverty and inconvenience. In the USA generally public transport is more divided by class than even in Vancouver. Often public commuting rail projects are seen as a way to introduce a higher income class to the public transit system.

Bogota is a place where they actually built a high speed bus service, used existing roads - they took the centre lanes and have cement barriers not just painted lines - and were able to build a system nearly as capable as a subway for a fraction of the cost. It's a good idea to repurpose existing car lanes - that's one of the few things we no shortage of. But the political will is rarely there to take away the mythical "open road" fantasy.

Who wants to see the gymnastic German cyclists in Vancouver?

Fun news from the VACC

-- PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY --

You've seen the amazing 2 German women doing an athletic routine on fixed-gear bicycles (their YouTube went viral in cycling circles)? They are looking for a host and place to perform here in Vancouver March 2011, since they'll be in the area for the Seattle Bike Expo.

They are willing to visit and perform in schools and I've been told they get school kids super-excited. See below for a description. Please pass the word to ANYONE who will give them an opportunity to come up to Vancouver!

Your contact if you're interested is:

Cascade Bicycle Club - diane.english@cascadebicycleclub.org

PO Box 15165, Seattle, WA, 98115

206-517-4826 Office 206-522-2407 Fax

update!
Please email Artistic cyclist Corinna Hein directly if you are interested in bringing them to Vancouver:
Corinna.Hein@gmx.de

[This from the Cascade Bicycle club's description] --------------------

World Champion Artistic Cyclists from Germany!

Corrina Hein, Stefan Musu and Lukas Matla

You may have watched the sensational indoor cycling video featuring young German athletes performing amazing stunts and tricks as it made it's viral rounds on Facebook and the like. These videos made quite the splash not only on national television, but also landed in the inbox of several staff members at the Cascade Bicycle Club office.

Rather than just enjoy the video, we decided to invite the new UCI World Champion in single artistic women, Corinna Hein, plus one of the world's best pairs in men's double, Stefan Musu and Lukas Matla, to perform at the 2010 Seattle Bike Expo!

Artistic cycling is a form of competitive indoor cycling in which athletes perform tricks (called exercises) for points on specialized, fixed-gear bikes in a format similar to ballet or gymnastics. The exercises are performed before judges in six minute rounds by singles, pairs, four or six-man teams. "Kunstradfahren" is the German term for a particular discipline, recognized by the UCI of artistic trick cycling. It's done on fixed bikes with 1:1 transmission, upturned (shallow) drop bars, horizontal top tube, tires pumped up hard for high precision and a couple of other bits and bobs added to the bike

The sport, although new to most of us on the USA, has been popular in Europe for quite some time. The first official artistic cycling World Championships were held in 1956. This sport is most popular in Germany, where there are no fewer than 10,000 lisence holders! As a sport, artistic cycling is a bit like ice-skating or gymnastics. It is a discipline requiring skill, balance, concentration and courage. The competitors (entering either as individuals or in pairs) offer a 6-minute program with a musical accompaniment. During competitions, a jury judges the quality of the figures.