July results are in!

We had our best month ever in July 2010! Miles commuted by bike totaled 3,312, consisting of 332 trips!

Our mega-mileage girl for July is Alma Schiefer who commuted 342 miles by bike, followed closely by Mike Rushford at 328 miles and Mark Szymczak at 324. Neil McGovern had a very respectable 300 miles.

For shorter-distance commuters who simply can't rack up the big miles, we had a good showing from a number of members this month, including Amador High teacher Tom Hall at 25 trips, the Casamajors at 22 trips, and Ursula Goldstein at 20 trips.

If you don't see your name above, please know that every mile and every trip you ride adds up. YOU are a role model for how we need to commute in the Tri-Valley. I know that many of you ride often and regularly. Without you, there is no BCC.

Something new! Our first ever BCC book review, submitted by Neil McGovern:

Pedal Power: The Quiet Rise of the Bicycle in American Public by Harry Wray.

Neil writes: "I've read several books on biking over the last few years. Some are the 'How Lance Won the Tour' type books, some are history books (The Tour, History of Bikes, etc.), but the ones I enjoy most are the ones about regular people who go sorta nuts about their bikes in a happy way (I'm not really into the Critical Mass 'confront drivers' thing, being as how I am a driver myself and all that - and so are most of them I suspect).

Anyway, Pedal Power is one of the books I read that I enjoyed and want to recommend.

This book focuses on bikes and politics. The good thing about bike advocacy is that we don’t ask for too much (it is really cheap to paint some lines on the road and the letters ‘Bike Lane’ and it makes a lot of people happy – politicians LOVE this stuff).

The book also has a great picture of the future – let’s face it, we all like a happy ending

Keep pedaling,

Neil McGovern"