I did a review of the BFF as a show and of the first eight short films presented at the screening. Below are the reviews for the remaining nine short films from BFF Program 3.

Urban Bike Shorts

Pixel Gear Bikes – A short 1-minute video of 8-bit Paperboy-like bike riders doing stuff like riding in the city blowing red lights, pulling tricks and eventually crashing against a car door that opens suddenly. 1980s Nintendo synth music completes the package. Cute.

Cooking Up Bike Co-Ops in Los Angeles – This 5-minute documentary was just fantastic and represents another part of why I like film fests, the chance to see pieces that introduce people to situations they may not be aware of. The doc takes us to discover the Bicycle Kitchen, Bike Oven & Bikerowave, three different bike co-ops in LA, non-profit spaces where volunteers help people learn how to repair their own bikes, and the amazing community that has gathered around them. A short but inspiring film, you can view it in its entirety at Streetfilms.

Some Things Ride A Bicycle – Another 1-minute little animation, this one of chalk-drawn things, like an octopus, kittens, a tree or a tornado, riding a bicycle. Silly but very amusing.

What’s A Girl To Do – This video by Bat For Lashes is plain gorgeous all around. The song has this captivating ethereal quality that is expressed in the video by the dark, misty road with only Natasha on her bike in the tenuous spotlight. I have no clue whatsoever what do animal-headed BMX riders pulling tricks has to do with the song but it doesn’t matter because it works. If the photography is superb, the editing is just phenomenal; the animal riders emerge and fade behind Natasha all in the same shot with nary a cut in sight. Unexpected, but very pleased this was included in the program. Catch the whole video on YouTube.

Belle Epoch – There’s a guy in Italy that apparently one day woke up and said, “I want to ride my bike up a mountain, without using my hands, while playing four different musical instruments.” His name is Giuliano Calore, and this 3-minute film shows clips of that precise stunt, along with others he decided to do just because he could, like ride up a mountain without having a handlebar or brakes. It’s old footage, but fascinating; you find yourself joining in the crowd that lines the roads, cheering Calore on.

Ski Boys – Let us all go back to 1970s rural Ontario, Canada, and join the Ski Boys as they pass the time riding custom-built freak bikes and wheeled skis and toboggans, and jumping off barn roofs onto piles of (hopefully soft) who-knows-what. For the grand finale, check them out riding a bike up a steep ramp and flying off into a pond. Billed as the “lost reels of the Ski Boys” (I’ve no idea who the Ski Boys are, but it is the same director as Where Are You Go, shown in Program 2), this was a romp through the carelessness of childhood. See the entire film on Vimeo.

The Scraper Bike King – I learned about scraper bikes last year when someone linked me to the Scraper Bike music video on YouTube. This documentary gives us a snapshot of the creator of the Scraper Bike concept and how it has grown in his home of Oakland, California. Even if you are not into tricking out your bike with aluminum foil-covered rims, the idea of these kids (and not so kids) in such a dangerous city as Oakland finding a creative outlet is something to cheer for. I’m also glad this was included in the festival because it shows another (and the far more numerous) side of urban cycling, regular people on regular bikes, fairly often because that’s what they have as their form of transport. Scraper Bikes have become a movement far beyond the city limits of Oakland, though I’ve yet to see one in Miami. Who’ll be first?

Broadway Bomber/Bridge Battle/Monster Track – If Empire disgusted me, this pastiche by director Lucas Brunelle of three illegal bike races through the streets of New York revolted me to the core. It’s one thing to pull tricks while riding alongside traffic, but in the alleycat races depicted here, we see riders going full speed without any regard besides getting there fast and first. Riders regularly weave in between moving cars, blow intersections, zig-zag in between pedestrians and ride any kind of horizontal surface they can in devil-may-care fashion. We see riders slam against people crossing the street (including an old lady stepping off the sidewalk at a crosswalk), barely miss people stepping off a bus, and one rider try to take a red light only to wipeout when the car with the green light starts to move. I wish I could say this was a film showing the dangers of illegal bike racing, but it wasn’t; it was a celebration of (to quote the blurb on the program) “urban cycling at its finest.” Anyone who in any capacity normally works to improve the bicycling environment in their city should be appalled by the glorification of illegal bike racing and condemn it. If these had been people on racing cars instead of bikes the outrage would be through the roof, but because it’s bikes it’s ok? No. And much like with Empire, a large part of the audience ate it up, which is also revolting to me. Miami has alleycat and loose cannons races monthly, and the alleycat co-branded with the BFF was filmed by Brunelle so it might show up in 2010′s BFF, much to my distaste.

Anima D’Acciaio (Soul of Steel) – Even for someone who doesn’t really know anything about the sport of Cycling and bike racing, the name Ciocc rings a little bell. This portrait of bike builder Giovanni Pelizzoli, nicknamed Ciocc (the name he also gives to the bikes he makes), is a great window into the craft of frame-making by hand. It is when witnessing Ciocc bend over the tubes that will form the bike frame that you can truly understand how a bike can be a piece of art; Ciocc is a sculptor and steel is his medium. Even more interesting is the juxtaposition of the Ciocc, the old bike builder who’s created racing frames that have been Olympic winners (1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics), creating a new freestyle fixie for GOrilla Bicycles. It’s a shame that this angle wasn’t pursued more as it would have made a very compelling film subject.

There you go, some great, some very much not. I’m hoping the festival does return next year and we see a much wider picture of the bicycling world. Looking forward to BFF 2010.

Yesterday I reviewed the BFF as a show, so now I’d like to review the 17 short films that I saw in Program 3. Short films are one of the things I like most about film festivals, as you rarely get to see them otherwise and they tend to pack a lot of variety of subjects, exploring the whole gamut of the topic.

Overall, the ones shown at BFF were entertaining and interesting, and in various cases, great conversation starters (for better or for worse).

I’m breaking the reviews up into two posts for easy reading; here are the first eight of the bunch.

Urban Bike Shorts

On Time – From 1987 we get this undergrad student film about Jimmy, an unlucky bike messenger in NYC trying to deliver a package on time. Jimmy runs into every calamity you can imagine, ending up carrying his bike by the middle of the short film, only to realize his luck right at the end when the package he had to deliver at 2 PM sharp turns out to be a bomb that blows up the recipient. The film is exactly what you would expect out of a film school project, but that also gives it a kind of rough charm. It’s also interesting to see 1980s New York via this bike messenger’s ride through the city. It also confirms that bike messengers have always ridden like asses (see Empire).

One Less Horse – This is a 3-minute video of two polo teams, one on horses and one on fixies, getting ready to throw down in a game. (Apparently bike polo is a popular sport, as it shows up on a couple more of the films.) There is no real narrative to this film except the preparation of the teams and then them throwing down in a game, but it is well photographed and interesting in its parallels between the two kinds of steeds. At three minutes it is about as long as it needs to be, which is great.

Safari London – A 4-minute, time-lapsed, atmospheric film of a riders evening through the streets of London set to a nice techno-beats soundtrack. Also well shot and edited; the fast-forwarded streets of London provide beautiful light shows that frame the simple lines of the bike rider crossing the city.

An Apology – The Neistat Brothers submitted a film last year about how easy it is to steal a bike in NYC. They got a morning show invitation out of that, and they decided to play a prank where one of them filled his chest pocket with packs of ketchup which he exploded as he leaned over the portable circular saw his brother was using on the demonstration. The TV reporter obviously freaked out, even more when she found out it was a joke. This film was their apology. Funny, but really, that’s all it was.

Empire – The blurb reads “Empire is a film about having fun riding your bike in the city.” To which I would add “while being a complete asshole and endangering lives all around.” Though Empire is not online, you can see a sample of the kind of “fun riding” we’re talking about in another video from the same group on YouTube, just for reference. I cannot begin to express my disgust with this film, not because it wasn’t nicely shot (it was ok), not because I dislike fixie riders doing tricks (I don’t mind the tricks themselves) but because I dislike with a passion fixie (or any) riders doing tricks while in the middle of traffic, opening themselves to an accident or worse, possibly causing one in which other people get hurt. Fixie tricks are neat (see Paris Vision and Kant), very neat actually, when they are done in a separate area away from traffic or bystanders. Not content with pulling tricks while riding along fast-moving traffic on the streets of Manhattan, these riders also pull off mind-bogglingly stupid moves weaving in between cars and pedestrians. The celebration of this kind of riding revolted me, though not as much as the enthusiastic reception it received from the crowd. As I said in my previous post, I was clearly in the minority.

Barend Jam – Pure BMX fun in the woods somewhere in the UK. The photography is elementary but it captures the fantastic jumps and twists of these BMX riders perfectly, including great shots of rider after rider going up and down a series of ramps, looking like a choreographed dance on wheels. There are awesome tricks and ouch-worthy wipeouts in these three minutes of fun in the dirt. More of a very short doc-style piece than a narrative, but a nice window into competitive (and fun) BMX riding.

Paris Vision – It’s hard to make Paris look bad on film, but the photography on this short didn’t take that for granted and showed, through the association with the fixie riders featured, a new side of the City of Light. The riders are followed through the winding streets of Paris, from Montmartre to the Île de la Cité, shown from various angles, sometimes as independent subjects, others as part of the panoply of the city. Something I keenly noticed, especially after Empire, was that when they showed the riders pulling tricks it was always either in a set-up shot (slow-mo across the shadow of Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower), in a separate area or in an empty street with no cars or pedestrians in sight. Whenever they are shown riding alongside traffic, they just ride, normally, safely. It made the scenes with the tricks that more powerful because you could just concentrate on the skill and form of the rider and bike (not to mention the shots were just gorgeous). This was certainly on my Top 3 of the festival shorts.

Kant – More fixie riders (sensing a theme here?), this time in Yokohama, Japan. Much like the other fixie films, it involves groups of fixie riders pulling tricks, though again like in Paris Vision, these are shown doing so in separated areas (with a couple of exceptions), which makes it all about the trick itself. Fairly cool are the very simple yet effective parallel moving shots of the bikes, achieved by cameramen on skateboards. Japan is *the* epicenter of the whole idea of subcultures, and they do fixie hipster stylishly. Check out the trailer and another video from the same crew on Vimeo.

Tomorrow I’ll finish with the last seven short films.

The Bicycle Film Festival (BFF) came to a close on Saturday, Dec 12, with the film part of the equation, three screening slots at the Colony Theater in Miami Beach. Program 1 at 5 PM showed WHERE DO YOU START WHERE DO YOU STOP and TOUR OF LEGENDS/ TOUR DES LEGENDES; Program 2 at 7 PM showed MADE IN QUEENS and WHERE ARE YOU GO; and Program 3 at 9 PM showed 17 short films. Because of it being a Saturday night and us having to wait till Shabbat ended to get ready and make it down to the theater, we only caught Program 3 at 9 PM, though this is the one I was most interested in. The BFF had other events associated with it on the two previous days, including a couple of parties, a Goldsprint, and two races. I only attended the one screening on Saturday and none of the associated events, so I guess you can make that statement my caveat for the review.

First of all, kudos have to go out to everyone who worked hard to get this event down to Miami and put it together. It couldn’t have been easy, and I only get to have an opinion because your dedication gave me the opportunity to experience this event. For that I am very grateful.

In general, I liked the BFF and wished I could have made all the screenings (or had more opportunities to see the films). The Colony Theater was a very nice venue to host the festival, with ample space for the audience (the 9 PM program did not sell out, but it was fairly well attended). The location right at the end of Lincoln Rd meant that the bikes could all be near the theater, thanks to the Bike Valet service offered by the Green Mobility Network. I have to say, it’s normal to see lots of bikes on Lincoln Rd, but it was a treat to the eyes to see the large extra contingent drawn in by the film festival.

This is the BFF’s 9th year but the first one in Miami so it’s hard to judge it in context. As a stand-alone event, I find I want to like the BFF a whole lot more than I actually did. And I did like it, don’t get me wrong, but I guess it had built up a hype that didn’t deliver for me. I don’t care about the parties, and I especially don’t care the least for the races, so those were inconsequential to my experience of the festival (though I’d venture to say that for most people I saw at the theater, these would be some of the highlights). More screening opportunities, the associated art shows that were seen in some of the other BFF venues, local bike company spotlights (we’re not Portland but we do have a couple), these would have been more in line with my experiences at other film festivals and/or what I was expecting.

I understand it’s the first year here, and that they probably only had use of the venue for the one day so screenings had to be the way they were. Perhaps an alternative venue can be used in coming years that will allow for more screenings (some of the venues around the world had two- and three-day screening programs, so it can be done). I guess the way this BFF connected with the local scene was through the two races; seeing how I’m not a racer nor into that kind of riding (whether fast or illegally), it left something to be desired. Then again, when considering the make up of the audience I saw at the 9 PM screening, it was painfully obvious that (a) it was the racing/fixie/hipster subcultures that most responded and supported the BFF this year (thus I was in the minority) and (b) that the BFF (whether by design or limitation) did not advertise enough to reach beyond the subculture pockets into the mainstream.

All this said, I am thankful that the BFF made it to Miami and I hope it can make it down here again next year, so it has a chance to improve and grow.

I’ll review the 17 short films from Program 3 in a separate post(s) as I have a lot more to say there.

In an occurrence that boggles the mind, considering how Miami gets passed over for so many events, the Bicycle Film Festival is coming to Miami Beach on December 10-12, 2009, with all film screenings happening at the Colony Theater on Lincoln Road (just a couple of blocks away from my apt!).

Miami Bike Scene has a very comprehensive schedule of events so check it out.

I’m not sure we’ll make it to any of the associated parties (and obviously the Friday night events are right out), but we’ll be making it for some of the film screenings (there is one program at 5 PM, which is still before Shabbat ends and we can make it over).

Needless to say, everyone should ride their bike to the Bicycle Film Festival. South Beach is actually pretty nice to ride in (and with the possibility of a Bike Valet being provided, that would make it just rock out to 11).

We’ll have a review of the films we catch afterwards. See you there!

Starting today, you can enjoy the Miami Book Fair International Street Fair in the Miami-Dade College Wolfson Campus in Downtown Miami. A month ago I exhorted people to Go By Bike to the Book Fair, and mused on how great it would be to have bike parking at the event. After emailing a number of people from the City of Miami government, Miami Book Fair and independent advocacy groups, I’m happy to say that it all worked out.

The Green Mobility Network will be operating a bike valet at the corner of NE 2nd Ave & 3rd St so all those who bike to the Book Fair can leave their bikes in a safe area. Furthermore, those that bike to the event can get a $3 discount on their entry ticket by picking up a voucher at the bike valet.

In a twist of irony, even though I was the one to start the proverbial snowball that resulted in this, because we are moving this weekend, my wife and I will not be able to make it to the Book Fair, by bike or otherwise, which makes us very sad. Though perhaps it’s a good thing, considering we just finished packing some 10 large boxes just with books (not counting the two boxes we’re donating to the library).

I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to City of Miami Bike Coordinator Collin Worth for enduring my many emails and Facebook messages on this subject, to John Hopkins of the Green Mobility Network for early guidance on what was effectively my first shot at advocacy with an actual entity and for running the bike valet, and to the folks at the Miami Book Fair International for accommodating this idea so late in the game. Next year we’ll do something with more time to plan and I’ve no doubt it will be awesome.

Enjoy the great weather as you bike to the Book Fair!

On Saturday, November 7, Miami Beach hosted a 13-hour long, cultural extravaganza called Sleepless Night which featured over 100 different events in stages scattered all around the city. The event premiered in 2007, and had to take a hiatus last year due to the bad economic climate. We missed 2007′s Sleepless Night, but 2009′s was going to be our playground. And the best way to enjoy a festival scattered over a 13-mile long city was by bike.

I set up a Sleepless Night Slow Bike Meetup to encourage people to bring their bikes to the event. Though it wasn’t going to be a ride (given how many events there were, it would’ve been unfair to force people to follow a set route), anyone that wanted to ride along as we headed down to South Beach from Normandy Isle was welcomed to do so. Unfortunately, I was late to the meetup point (which teaches me that an hour after the end of Shabbat is not enough time to get everything prepped up, so I know for the next one) and only met up with the two friends that came along with us, Diana and Anymir, and Daniel from the Dolce Vita Bicycling Group, who joined us as well. Later I would find out there was indeed a member of the Slow Bike Meetup group there (hello, Olga), and we just missed each other (again, a lesson for the next meetup). At 8:15 PM the five of us headed down to South Beach.

Riding the length of Miami Beach at night with four other people was fantastic. We took to the road the entire time, everyone with their lights on and blinking proudly proclaiming “we also belong here.” We had a couple of people honk at us as they sped by on the next lane, but we also had some people honk and wave at our two-wheeled caravan. Indian Creek Dr remains the absolute worst part of North Beach to ride on, which sucks because it is the only way to get to 63 St where one can connect with Pinetree and LaGorce, the calmer backroad alternatives to hair-raising Collins Ave. On LaGorce we took the lane and even picked up a lady that was riding along ahead of us for a couple of blocks. Once we hit 47 St we took to the bike lanes in the area, riding them all the way down to Dade Blvd, then going on Meridian Ave to Lincoln Rd. You can see a map of our route here.

Upon reaching South Beach, our group broke up with Daniel heading his own way. We mulled around Lincoln Rd for a while, saw a cool New Orleans jazz band, then headed to the Botanical Garden to see the light sculptures there. We got to bike the canal-side path between Convention Center Dr and Washington Ave while some wacky and disturbingly great sound effects made from ambient sound played, then headed down to catch a Flamenco show at the Miami Beach Ballet. The doors had been closed by the time we got there, so we decided to check out the Bass Museum. Even in the middle of this mess of people, someone actually recognized me from this blog (hello, Dario), which was insane in a cool way. At the Bass we saw a piano recital of a selection of Chopin pieces that was beautiful and intense.

As we left the Bass, our group broke up again, with Diana and Anymir heading their way while Yvette and I took to the Beachwalk paved promenade and rode in bliss down to Ocean Dr. We actually spent the rest of the night just riding up and down Ocean Dr as there were three stages there and a bunch of acts, including most of the after-2-AM ones. The most amazing part of being on Ocean was seeing all the other people that were riding their bikes. There was some serious Cycle Chic going there; both men and women, dressed to the nines, riding all kinds of bikes, enjoying the (very windy) night and the events. I only took a couple of photos because I’m still too self-conscious about taking pictures of strangers on their bikes (I always feel it screams “stalker” rather than “bike lover”).

The only drawback was that there just wasn’t sufficient bike parking space, not by a long shot, so we ended up locking our bikes to trees or lamp posts (we actually developed a technique for tying the bikes together). I will say that I am pleasantly surprised to see that people were very respectful and no one messed with any of the dozens of bikes parked all over the place. People would stop to look at our bikes and take pictures, but that was it. I wouldn’t be surprised if, after all the attention our bikes got that night (we do have very unique bikes around here, though Willow is by far the bigger rock star of the two) we see more Amsterdams/Euro city bikes around the Beach soon.

By far the best act we saw that night was a group known as MASS Ensemble, a group that fuses music with architecture by way of custom instruments such as the Aquatar (a large 3-in-1 guitar/bass/gigantic mix-of-the-two) and the Earth Harp, a harp whose strings were actually anchored across the street from their stage to the top of the Park Central Hotel on Ocean Dr. The band was amazing, performing their music with zeal even at 2:30 AM, giving everyone about a second (or third or fourth) wind. Truly spectacular.

The rest of our night was spent going from stage to stage checking out the various acts. In general, most were a bit late starting and some were downright canceled because of the heavy winds, but the crowds were patient and having fun anyway. We hit the nearby CVS Pharmacy at 4:30 AM to get something to eat (finding Kosher food was next to impossible) which we did hanging out by the beach-side promenade. Then we caught some cartoons (an act called Toons & Tunes), saw MASS Ensemble play one last set just as the day started to break (which was, honestly, just magical) then went to the water to see the sun rise, something neither of us could remember when was the last time we’d done it.

We were exhausted at the end of the night, but it was just a great experience, something so completely out of the ordinary even for this alive-at-night city. Riding back home in the early morning was a way to come down the night’s high (not to mention an exercise in endurance due to the wind and how tired we were) and after picking up some guava pastelitos, we hit the sack for some well-earned rest.

Sleepless Night was just fantastic, and I am already looking forward to it returning next year. By then we’ll have been living in South Beach for close to a year and it will be a lot easier to partake of all the activities. And you can bet that once again we’ll ride our bikes.

Sleepless Night, Miami Beach’s city-wide, all-night-long art festival, is coming on November 7, starting at 6 PM, and with it a perfect opportunity to ride your bike all up and down the Beach, enjoying all the artistic events going on. This is precisely what my wife and I had planned to do; though daytime temps in Miami are still in the 90s, at night it cools down to a very nice mid-70s, especially the closer you get to the beach, making it a perfect time to ride relaxed, and in full cyclechic fashion.

It then occurred to me that there might be others that would enjoy riding their bikes during Sleepless Night, so I decided to use my powers as South Florida Slow Bike Movement group assistant organizer to put together a meetup that night.

Miami Beach Sleepless Night Meetup

It won’t be a bike ride per se, but rather a meetup to greet the night and then take off on our bikes. There are over 100 events going on that night all over the 13 miles of Miami Beach and it wouldn’t be fair to force people into a bike ride schedule. Besides, as much as I love organized chilled out rides, I’m far more interested in getting people bicycling around as their normal way of transportation.

I’m very excited about this meetup, if only because it will be the first time I’m organizing anything, though meeting other slow bicyclists will be pretty cool as well. Next step, organizing an actual ride. That will have to wait until we have finished our move to South Beach.

You can also find the Miami Beach Sleepless Night Meetup on Facebook.

Join us!

The Florida Dept of Transportation is going to hold a hearing to gather feedback regarding three proposed segments of bike lanes in an upcoming roadways project in the Normandy Isle section of Miami Beach’s North Shore district. I’m thankful that Bike Miami blogged about this because I have not heard anything about this meeting from any other source, including the City of Miami Beach.

Normandy Dr, eastbound, from West Bay Dr

This is the Beach segment of NE 79 St in Miami and the JFK Causeway in North Bay Village, the last mainland-t0-Beach connector before leaving the City of Miami Beach. As such, it always features heavy traffic, and for the most part, it’s a virtual race track at any time of the day. It is also right next to my home and on my daily biking route. Bike lanes for Normandy Dr/71 St? Yes, please!

The meeting is on Thursday, November 5, 2009, from 6-8 PM, at the North Shore Park Youth Center, 501 72nd Street in Miami Beach.

There are three proposed segments mentioned in the announcement Bike Miami obtained from the FDOT. I have mapped them below for visual reference:

1. 71 Street, from East Bay Drive to West of Collins Avenue (segment B-A)
2. Normandy Drive, from Rue Notre Dame to East Bay Drive (segment C-B)
3. 71 Street, from West (Bay?) Drive to East Bay Drive (segment D-C)

The last one is a little confusing. If it means West Bay Drive as I mapped it above, then the bike lanes begin right at the edge of the city of Miami Beach. If it means West Drive, that would mean the bike lanes would extend through practically all of North Bay Village in an eastbound direction. Since the other segments are all in Miami Beach and North Bay Village is not mentioned anywhere else, I’m going to assume my interpretation, mapped above, is correct.

I love the idea of these bike lanes, with one criticism: add them as well on westbound Normandy Dr, from East Bay Drive to West Bay Drive. I see no reason why they would set out to create bike lanes traversing all of Normandy Isle and leave out the westbound segment, which is just as dangerous for bicyclists and the eastbound one (71st St). Likewise, it seems to skip 71 St, from Rue Notre Dame to East Bay Drive.

I plan to attend the meeting to voice my support for bike lanes in Normandy Isle, and to make sure that the bike lanes just travel the length of both 71 St and Normandy Dr, from West Bay Drive to Collins Ave.

September 21st will see the final summit to present the City of Miami Bicycle Master Plan for public review. This will be the last chance for the public at large to see what the City of Miami is planning to do in regards to bicycling, including programs and infrastructure, and more importantly, to give feedback on the proposed plan. The two previous summits were a success in terms of public participation and education, so I’ve no doubt this one will go off without a hitch as well. Sadly, we won’t be in attendance, as we already had something scheduled for that night.

Final Miami Bicycle Summit

Monday, September 21, 2009
6:30pm – 8:00pm
Belafonte TACOLCY Center
6161 Northwest 9th Avenue
Miami, FL
Google Map here

For more information, check out the City of Miami Bicycle Master Plan page. Though some of the documents need to be updated to reflect the second and now third bicycle summits, you can see detailed PDFs of the City of Miami Bike Related Projects for 2009 and 2010, as well as the proposed (and hoped for) combined bike lane/path/way network at the end of 2010 (frankly, if half of those proposed bike corridors can be put into service I will feel that it has been a success).

Bicycling Magazine hosted one of their BikeTown events here in Miami today, from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, at Bayfront Park. I missed when the original announcement of this went out, as I was in Puerto Rico, so I was not able to enter the contest for one of 30 new Jamis commuter bikes being given away. Regardless, I wanted to go Downtown for the event to show support for those that did win and for the City of Miami’s bike initiative, which ultimately is what brought BikeTown to our city. I’ve been off the bike for months now, so I wasn’t sure that doing the North Beach-Downtown 2-hour trek would be the best idea; I decided to drive Downtown and then bike around for a while. I got to Bayfront at around 12 noon (thanks Miami Beach traffic) but I was still on time to catch most of the proceedings. Which really amounted to a few people giving speeches: people from the City of Miami, from Bicycling Magazine, from MetLife (sponsors of the event, and apparently the reason why this was held on a Thursday at noon), and from Elite Cycling (the shop that put together the bikes). Once this was done, it was time for the pictures.

Each winner had been notified prior to the event so each one had a bike already pre-assigned, built to their measurements. Once everyone had found their respective bike, the next 10-15 minutes were all about the official pictures and video (which I’m hoping will show up on the news, but I’m not holding my breath). That taken care of, the three remaining unclaimed bikes, plus an extra one provided by one of the sponsors, were raffled off (again, I missed the sign-up for this – a cosmic sign, you think?), so in the end, 31 new bikes were given away.

I have to say that I was very surprised (in a pleasant way) to see about 60-ish people there, considering the weird time for this event. Yes, most of it were the winners and organizers, but there were also fans of bicycling in Miami in attendance. In the end, BikeTown was pretty much a photo- and video-op for those involved in it–there was no rally built around it, no peripheral events meant to capitalize on the excitement, which is understandable considering the weekday noon time–but it was a nice event nonetheless. If nothing else, it is proof positive of the City of Miami’s efforts to make Miami into a bicycling nexus, and the City appreciates it.

As I drove back home up Biscayne Blvd, I could not help but notice the amount of cyclists going up and down the street in all sorts of bikes, more than I recall seeing months ago, before this whole BikeMiami thing started. There’s your BikeTown right there.

You can check out the photos in the slideshow below or at Flickr: BikeTown Miami – 08/27/09.