DIY Snow Tires for Your Bike

Photo Caption: Studded snow tires cost upwards of $65 apiece!

Winter 2011 in St. Louis is less than halfway over and it's already been the snowiest winter on record. Ok, that's a lie, but it sure as hail feels like it. Even the hardiest all-weather cyclists seem to take snow days or even snow weeks from cycling due to the snow- and ice-covered roads. Thanks to the DIY ethic of hipster cyclists, we are proud to bring you a low-cost solution to transform your bike into a snow machine.

The folks at the Dutch Bike Company blogged about how they transformed their bikes into all-weather monsters with nothing but a package of zip ties, a pair of scissors, and a beer (optional).

Photo Credit: Dutch Bike Company

Aside from the great how-to photos on their blog, my favorite part of the post was the authors admission that he didn't invent the technique:

It pains me to admit this not because my ego suffers, but because the zip-tie-DIY-bicycle-snow-chains idea appears to have originated with my favorite bicycle industry whipping boy: fixed gear hipster culture. Several years ago, I'm sure, some bright child with extremely tight pants and an asymmetrical haircut had a genius-caliber idea, and I hate that it wasn't me. So here it is: Fixed gear street bike hipster guys, I'm sorry for the things I've said over the years. It's not true that the only drink you like is 4Loko. It's also not true that you're not allowed to wear shoes that don't match your bikes. You can wear whatever you want. And finally, you have come up with a good idea besides brightly colored deep-section rims.

Check out the full post and photos here:
http://www.dutchbikeco.com/_blog/Dutch_Bike_Co_Weblog/post/Seattle_Snowpocalypse/

Another Reason to Eat Fresh Foods

Photo Caption: Meat or not meat -- THAT is the question. Photo from Gizmodo

According to the folks at Gizmodo, Taco Bell's "beef" taco filling is actually only 36% beef. The remaining 64% is not beef or anything even remotely related to a cow. Taco Bell's website refers to this 36% beef product as "seasoned ground beef". When barely a third of the substance is beef, wouldn't it be more accurate to describe it as "beef flavored seasoning"?

This realization is thanks to a class action lawsuit against Taco Bell by an Alabama law firm.

Read more on Gizmodo's website, including the suggestion that USDA rules may not even allow Taco Bell's taco filling to be referred to as "meat":

http://gizmodo.com/5742413/this-is-what-really-hides-in-taco-bells-beef

Missouri Farm to School Workshops Announced

Learn how to connect your schools to healthy, fresh and local foods.

The Missouri Farm to Institution Project is pleased to announce that registration is now open for four Farm to School workshops. Please join us to help build the Farm to School movement in Missouri. The dates and locations are listed below:

Friday, January 21
Truman State University, Kirksville, MO (Snow date: January 28)
8:30 am to 4:00 pm (Registration opens at 8:00 am)

Wednesday, February 16
St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO
8:30 am to 4:00 pm (Registration opens at 8:00 am)

Wednesday, March 2
This workshop will be broadcast to TeleCenters in Maryville, Trenton (tentative), Independence, Columbia, Salem, and Poplar Bluff. Addresses to be provided upon registration.
8:30 pm – 3:00 pm

Wednesday, March 30
Springfield-Greene Co. Botanical Center, Nathaniel Greene-Close Memorial Parks, 2400 South Scenic, Springfield, MO
8:30 am to 4:00 pm (Registration opens at 8:00 am)

All workshops will follow a similar format and feature presentations in the morning by farmers, distributors, food service directors, and others who are making farm to school happen. The afternoon will include breakout sessions geared toward either farmers or school food services to provide more in-depth information about starting and sustaining farm to school programs.

Workshops are free and lunch is included. Registration is required. Contact Stacy Colley at 573-882-5114 or ColleyS@missouri.edu to register for a workshop. Please indicate the location that you will be attending, whether you will be in the Farmer or School Food Service afternoon breakout session, and if you have a dietary/meal consideration.

For more information, email Bill McKelvey: mckelveywa@umsystem.edu

Singin' in the Rain

I looked outside this morning and thought “35 degrees and raining...sounds like a great day to ride to work!” Now, before you go saying “he’s just a ‘hardcore cyclist’ who’s crazy enough to ride in anything,” hear me out: People drive slower when it rains. There’s less traffic on the road when it rains. The rain on a helmet creates a soothing noise that can help calm your nerves. You’re still getting exercise outside even though it’s raining, and think of how good it’ll feel to get warmed up once you reach your destination!

With that said, here are a few rainy day cleaning tips for those who still like to jump in puddles...

• Brush foreign objects off the tread and check overall condition of the tires


• Wipe down or hose down the bike if it’s very dirty (especially with road salt); be careful not to direct water at bearings or other sensitive components; bounce the bike to shake off excess water and store it in a warm, dry place.


• Dry off the saddle if it’s wet.


• If the chain got wet, wipe it down and apply some fresh chain lube


• Remove the seatpost, turn the bike upside down, and let the seat tube drain; apply fresh grease or antiseize before reinstalling the post (except where carbon fiber is involved).


• Check hydraulic brake lines (if you have them) for kinks or splits)

Cleaning Tips Courtesy of The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance and Repair for Road & Mountain Bikes, by Todd Downs

New Healthy Grocer Opens in North City

Video by KSDK

A new community grocery store, YOURS Market, opened just last week in St. Louis City. The 9000 sq. ft. market, located at 8005 N Broadway, features a wide variety of foods and fresh produce. The market will host nutrition education programs, a garden for growing produce, and eventually two greenhouses on site. This new store is an exiciting step towards addressing the "food deserts" that exist throughout much of North St. Louis City and County.

Click here to see the KSDK Video.

Click here for a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Click here for a story in the St. Louis American.

Click here for a story in the St. Louis Business Journal.




Old North Grocery Coop
A similar store opened earlier this summer just north of downtown. The Old North Grocery Co-op, located at 2718 N. 13th Street, features many fresh and healthy foods produced within 100 miles of the store. In addition to stocking food and household goods, the Old North Grocery Co-op provides a variety of cooking, food preservation, and nutrition classes as well as space for community events. The 13th Street Community Garden is located adjacent to the building and home to some very friendly egg-laying chickens. The Old North Grocery Co-op, the 13th Street Community Garden, and the nearby North City Farmers’ Market create a formidable axis of edible with the mission to provide affordable, fresh, healthy food to the community.

Click here to visit the Old North Grocery Co-op website.

St. Louis Gets $1 Million to Connect Arch to Bikeways

Photo Caption: A mother-daughter duo participating in one of Trailnet's rides to the Arch

The Metro transit agency (AKA Bi-State) just learned that it will receive a $1 million "Transit in Parks" grant to enhance the connection between the Arch grounds and adjacent bikeways, including the North River Front Trail and the proposed South Chouteau Trail. Trailnet worked closely with Metro, Great Rivers Greenway, the City of St. Louis, and other partners to shape the vision for this grant. The grant was one of 47 awarded throughout the US. Click here to see Metro's announcement.

“Connecting people to our parks, refuges, forests and historic and cultural sites is one of the primary goals of President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative to establish a new conservation ethic for the 21st Century,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. “With these projects, we are opening the way for many more people to discover the beauty, history and culture of America.” Click here to see the Federal Transit Administration's announcement.

We're very excited about this opportunity to work with Metro, Great Rivers Greenway, the City of St. Louis, and the National Park Service to enhance connectivity between the Arch, the River, and adjacent St. Louis neighborhoods. The St. Louis riverfront and the Arch are two of the greatest, yet woefully disconnected assets in our region. This grant will help bring our region a little closer to our natural and cultural heritage. Stay tuned for updates this spring...

Bikes are Great. Famous People Agree.

How does riding a bike make you feel? Leave a comment below!

"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride."
-John F. Kennedy

"Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia."
-H. G. Wells

"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle."
-Ernest Hemingway

"And I love to ride my bike, which is great aerobics, but also just a great time for me to think, so it's like this terrific double bill."
-Robin Williams

"I thought of that while riding my bicycle."
-Albert Einstein

"Next to a leisurely walk I enjoy a spin on my tandem bicycle. It is splendid to feel the wind blowing in my face and the springy motion of my iron steed. The rapid rush through the air gives me a delicious sense of strength and buoyancy, and the exercise makes my pulse dance and my heart sing."
-Helen Keller

"Bicycles are almost as good as guitars for meeting girls."
-Bob Weir

"Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There is something wrong with a society that drives a car to work out in a gym."
-Bill Nye the Science Guy

"If I can bicycle, I bicycle."
-David Attenborough

"A lot of fun stuff happens when you go out on a bike compared to when you're in a car. You're more in the environment. It's enjoyable. Even when It's raining, it's still fun."
-Stone Gossard, Pearl Jam guitarist and long-time Seattle resident

"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel...the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood."
-Susan B. Anthony, the woman, not the coin

"The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets."
-Christopher Morley

"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race."
-H. G. Wells

Walking is Great. Famous People Agree.

Photo Credit: ALBOWIEB on Flickr

"All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking."
-Nietzsche

"The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best."
-Thomas Jefferson

"Anywhere is walking distance, if you've got the time."
-Stephen Wright

"One step at a time is good walking."
-Old Chinese Proverb

I can remember walking as a child. It was not customary to say you were fatigued. It was customary to complete the goal of the expedition."
-Katharine Hepburn

Walking is man's best medicine.
-Hippocrates

"My grandmother started walking 5 miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now and we don't know where the hell she is."
-Ellen DeGeneres

"There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country. A fine landscape is like a piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo."
-Paul Scott Mowrer

"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, " I hear music," as though there's any other way to take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it, but it did not work."
-Mitch Hedberg

"From walking - something; from sitting - nothing."
-Bulgarian Proverb

"Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called 'walking'"
-George W. Bush

Drive Less... For the Kids

Photo Caption: Buckle-up for safety. Walk for even safer safety.

Our friend Alex Ihnen, a regular contributor on the UrbanSTL blog, recently posted a piece asking the question: Why doesn't someone tell you to drive less as a key way you can reduce the risk of injury or death when you have kids?

It is, in fact, a primary way that we can decrease the risk of child injuries. Yet, with all the advice that is given to new parents, no one ever recommends less driving. Is driving so deeply ingrained in our infrastructure and culture that we no longer see driving as a choice? (Exempting, of course, people who have no choice in the matter, including people with certain disabilities, living in poverty, too old, too young, and all the other significant groups that can't drive who in total make up ~30% of the population)

The American love affair with cars was largely about freedom--Route 66, the open road, Kerouac. But how free do you feel when you have to drive a one ton vehicle to Walmart to get a loaf of bread? Has the pendulum swung so far in the car-centric direction that we no longer have the basic freedom to utilize bi-pedal locomotion to get about our daily lives? Are we safer or less safe?

Visit UrbanSTL and read Alex's take. While you're there, take some time to explore the site -- it's a great St. Louis blog!

Missouri is Low in Annual Health Ranking

Smoking helps you lose weight?
For other pictures of the benefits of smoking, visit: http://www.nsma.org.au/propics.htm

The United Health Foundation recently published their annual ranking of America's healthiest and unhealthiest states. According to the report, which takes into account a myriad of factors, Missouri ranks as the 39th healthiest state or the 11th most unhealthy. According to this report, Missouri is tied as the 5th worst state for smoking prevalence and the 9th worst for obesity prevalence. Illinois ranked above Missouri as the 29th healthiest state overall.

To see the 2010 ranking, check out this article from Forbes.
To learn more about the report, visit the project's website.

Smoking and obesity are known to be two of the most significant risk factors for a variety of diseases -- including heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, and type II diabetes -- which is likely one of the reasons that Missouri ranks so low overall. If Missouri is able to significantly reduce smoking and obesity rates, it is likely that overall population health will increase and we will ascend in the rankings.

Two Pertinent Pieces of News
First, the Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) was recently awarded a grant through the federal Social Innovation Fund to tackle both smoking and obesity at the same time. MFH received $2 million of funding that they are matching with another $2 million of their money to create the Social Innovation for Missouri (SIM) funding program. This pool of $4 million will be granted to approximately 10-16 communities throughout the state to integrate two successful models: Trailnet's Healthy, Active & Vibrant Communities Initiative and Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights Support for Local Tobacco Policy Change. Trailnet is thrilled to be part of this effort and will be serving as a technical assistance provider to communities that receive SIM funding from MFH. The deadline has passed for communities to apply, but stay tuned for the funding announcement in the first quarter of 2011. The SIM communities will be charting exciting new territory in the years ahead as they work to tackle both obesity and tobacco use simultaneously.

Second, the indoor smoking bans in St. Louis County and St. Louis City go into effect January 2nd, 2011. The County Health Department has launched this webpage with information about the new restrictions. Just last week, Mayor Francis Slay announced that Lambert St. Louis International Airport would finally go smoke-free. And, St. Louis County recently received a $7.6 million federal grant to help reduce smoking prevalence.

As the 11th most unhealthy state in the US, Missouri has a long way to go. However, these and other promising efforts are setting the stage for important and long-overdue improvements to Missouri's health landscape.

Seriously Cool Bike Parking!

If you speak German, we would love a translation...because we really want to find out how we can get our hands on one of these!

-Trailnet's Office of R & D & A (Research & Development & Awesomeness)

Support Specialty Bicycle MO License Plates TODAY!

The design of the proposed license plate

TODAY is your last day to send a letter of support for the proposed Same Roads Same Rights license plate!

Our friends at the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation have been working for five years to create a specialty license plate (for automobiles) in support of bicycling in Missouri.

The specialty plate application has now been accepted! The next step is a hearing in the Joint Transportation Committee of the Missouri General Assembly.

Through the end of the day TODAY, November 30th, 2010, we can submit comments in support of the specialty automobile license plate. Our legislators will consider those comments when they decide to approve or disapprove the specialty license plate.

Proceeds from the plate will be used to support and promote bicycling in Missouri--bicycle safety education and related programs.

Visit the MO Bike Fed website to submit your comment. It will take you less than a minute:

http://mobikefed.org/LicensePlates

Livable St. Louis Conference 2010. What Have You Done?

Photo Caption: Bike parking at the 2010 Livable St. Louis Conference overflowed beyond the racks!

Six months have passed since Trailnet hosted the 2010 Livable St. Louis Conference with the theme Creating a Movement of Healthy, Active & Vibrant Communities. Since that time, Trailnet's staff has been busy working with out partners to develop bike and pedestrian master plans, adopt complete streets policies, secure a HUD sustainability planning grant, and host community events that promote biking, walking and play.

What have you done since the conference?
Our hope was that the conference would spark new ideas, foster new discussions, and develop new partnerships to create a more livable St. Louis region. Did you take away ideas or inspiration from the conference and turn it into action in your organization or your community? Leave a comment here or on Facebook and tell us what you have been up to?

The Social Costs of Traffic

Ferguson Twilight Ramble - RECAP

Photos courtesy of Live Well Ferguson on flickr

How do we get from here to there?

Seems like a simple question, right? The typical answer to this question is often a simple set of directions: first do this, then do that, then do this other thing, and whalla! you're "there".

But when "there" refers to a community full of bikers, walkers, and runners and "here" refers to your average American community, the road map is not very clear. In fact, just the thought of attempting to shift an entire community's habits is enough to make the average brain go numb. After hanging out in Ferguson last Sunday night for the inaugural Live Well Ferguson Twilight Ramble, I am proud to say there are no numb skulls in Ferguson! (Like how I pun-ted that one?)

The City of Ferguson and their many partners are on a mission to shift the culture of Ferguson residents to become more active. The Twilight Ramble was just one more in a series of great local events aimed at getting residents off of their couches and into the parks and the streets to play and be active. The event was actually a series of three bike rides: 1-mile, 5-miles, and 15-miles. The event was specifically designed to appeal to bike riders at all levels, from training wheelers and adults who haven't ridden since shortly after their training wheels came off, to experience cyclists. To ensure that riders at all levels were prepared, there were free helmets (courtesy of the North County Optimists and the St. Louis County Health Department) and free bike tune-ups (courtesy of Trailblazer Bikes).

Caption: Some people came prepared with their own awesome helmets


Caption: Trailblazer Bikes was on hand to provide free tune-ups

Caption: The beginning of the 5-mile ride

The last ride of the evening, the 15-miler, started just at dusk and carried on into the evening. The route weaved all throughout Ferguson, never doubling back on itself and never retracing its path. It went up hills, down hills, past community gardens, past community colleges, through sleepy neighborhoods, down the Ted Jones trail and finally ended at Ferguson's new Plaza @ 501. I am proud to say that I regularly ride my bike, and I am not ashamed to tell you that there were a few hills in Ferguson that gave me a run for my money.

The City of Ferguson has hit a home-run with this new event. As with their Twilight 5K and their Sunday Parkways events, the Twilight Ramble was a great event that I can't wait to see grow in the next few years. Kudos to all the folks who worked hard to make this event such a success. Well done team Ferguson!

Caption: Ferguson's Plaza @ 501 served as the trail head for the rides