A Wallingford company is hoping to change the way you keep your bike chain in tip-top shape. Runaway Bike Industries, a company lead by brothers Bob and Doug Montclair, has launched a Kickstarter for a paraffin-based bicycle chain lube that requires a little more work (and, they say, reaps more benefits) than simply drizzling some Tri-Flow.
They know that not everyone is going to completely remove their chain and heat it up on the stove in a tub of their new Hot Tub lube. But they’re betting a lot of you will (you know who you are).
The Hot Tubs will be manufactured in Seattle, assuming they make their modest Kickstarter goal of $2,000. Details: (more…)
People who use the Burke-Gilman Trail in the Bothell area should plan on King County workers closing the tunnel near Wayne Golf Course for overnight repair work.
To help keep the trail open for commute hours and busier daytime use, King County Parks is conducting the work at night. Expect the tunnel to be closed between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. Monday through Friday of this week.
UPDATE 3/21: Sounds like the delay will continue until March 27. From King County Parks: “Just got word late this afternoon that the nighttime closure of Wayne Tunnel along the Burke Gilman Trail in Bothell must be extended into next week – March 24-27, reopening March 28 (fingers crossed).”
Not only will the repair work help keep the tunnel in good working order, but it will also prepare the walls for a mural planned to be painted later this year.
The annual fundraiser bike ride for urban farming collective Alleycat Acres is May 10, and registration is open now.
A 65-mile ride around Lake Washington and to the Snoqualmie River, Streets & Beets has a history of being many people’s first ever long group bike ride. In 2012, 64 percent of riders were women.
The ride is the major source of funds for Alleycat Acres, which runs an expanding number of small urban farms in Seattle (two in the Central District and one on Beacon Hill so far). This year’s ride includes new partnerships with the MLK YWCA and Rainier Valley Food Bank.
It costs $25 to register (to pay for the ride itself), and riders are urged to raise at least $100 in donations by the start of the ride.
The exact reach of the decision is not yet known, as lower courts still need to figure out what to do with the Supreme Court’s 8-1 decision (PDF) siding with a Wyoming landowner trying to regain control of a stretch of the Medicine Bow Trail that crosses the estate’s property. We reported on the case back when it went to the Supreme Court.
What we do know is that the decision only affects sections of trail in which land was sold to private owners during a specific timeframe while a later-abandoned railroad still operated on it. In essence, the private landowners claim that once the railroad was abandoned, ownership reverted to them. Rail-Trail advocates argued that the corridors reverted to the Federal government. The Supreme Court agreed with the private owners.
In the case of the Foothills Trail in Pierce County, efforts are already underway (and have been for some time) to purchase right-of-way needed to complete the trail. Obviously, this increases the cost of trail projects, and the decision to sell is at the discretion of the current owner. But it could be the necessary way forward for some trails, which is certainly disappointing for many communities.
Rail corridors are incredible opportunities for trails because they are continuous and have level grades. One missing section, no matter how small, can diminish the value and public benefit of the entire corridor.
Washington Bikes is gearing up its bike tourism efforts around the state, hoping to make bicycle travel an economic boon for communities across Washington and expand statewide support for bicycle safety and access projects. Blake Trask from WA Bikes says that his organization and other partners will be diving into what the decision means for these vital state trails, but the full scope of the decision’s affects are not yet known: (more…)
The city is catching its groove on neighborhood greenways this year, setting a pace for installing and planning them in all corners of the city simultaneously.
While neighborhood greenways so far have been somewhat experimental and one-off projects, 2014 is set to be the year where — with the help of SDOT Community Liaisons Dawn Schellenberg and Emily Ehlers — the city hits a consistent pace with outreach, design and construction happening on several different projects. With the new system, the city should be able to ratchet up the number of these projects it can get on the ground each year and improve the public outreach process so neighbors have a chance to weigh in on their safety problems early on.
Instead of coming into a neighborhood with a set plan and trying to sell it to a potentially skeptical crowd, the new process includes an initial listening session where neighbors can tell the city what safety problems exist (“I can’t cross this street safely,” “people speed down this residential street to avoid traffic on the main street,” etc). Then, after analyzing the public feedback and looking at city-wide bike and walking route connectivity, the city will return to the neighborhood with a neighborhood greenway plan that addresses the biggest needs. Neighbors — who now have a sense of ownership on the project — then have another chance to weigh in before construction begins.
There are currently 13 projects in the study or construction phases for 2014 and 2015, including two routes in Rainier Valley, one in West Seattle, three in northeast Seattle, one in Ballard and six in central and eastern neighborhoods.
Here’s the work plan (exact routes and installation schedule are subject to change):
As you waited on the deck of the University Bridge, staring out at Portage Bay as a tall vessel passed through the open bridge deck, you probably did not spend any time thinking about the computer system that helps operate the bridge openings. But if you had, you probably would have assumed there were sophisticated systems at work.
You would have been wrong.
It turns out, the bridge operates in part using a Compaq 8080 running MS-DOS and using 5.25″ floppy disks, the Seattle Times reports.
Well, this week, the city is updating the bridge’s electronic systems, including hundreds of wires, circuits and, yes, the trusty Compaq. Due to the work, bridge openings may last ten minutes instead of the normal five. So be prepared for some extra wait time.
Maybe if you ask nicely, the bridge operator will let you inside for a quick game of Oregon Trail while you wait.
A Wallingford company is hoping to change the way you keep your bike chain in tip-top shape. Runaway Bike Industries, a company lead by brothers Bob and Doug Montclair, has launched a Kickstarter for a paraffin-based bicycle chain lube that requires a little more work (and, they say, reaps more benefits) than simply drizzling some Tri-Flow.
