Bike Week 2007 was a great success! For 2007 we brought everybody a better than ever Bike Week of great bicycling events. This year our favorite activities returned—Bike to School Day, Bike to Work Day, Bike Week Celebration, and the Children's Festival. New for 2007 was a Bike Film Festival, a weekend bike tour, a Ride of Silence, two bike clinics, and three presentations at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. We are appreciative to all those who shared the joy of bicycling with us!

In times of rising energy costs, declining fitness, and growing obesity, the humble bicycle can provide the solution to all those challenges. Bike Week paraded the benefits of bicycling before our community. Here is a listing of events that took place. Will Bike Week 2008 be better? You better believe it!

	May 12, Fourth Annual Bike Week Celebration, sponsored by our Bicycle Coalition and Firestone Ale. World cycling tourist Willie Weir, back by popular acclaim, was the featured entertainer. This year he brought us tales of adventurous biking in Cuba, the forbidden island of sugarcane, cigars and socialism. Once again, everybody enjoyed a catered dinner at the Chase Palm Park Center, 236 East Cabrillo Boulevard in Santa Barbara. It started at 6:00 PM with drinks on the patio, followed by dinner, bicycling awards to Pedro Nava and Vie Obern, and then Willie on Cuba. Learn about Willie at his site www.willieweir.com.
	May 13, Bicycle Repair Workshop, sponsored by Santa Barbara BiciCentro. This was a community biker get together for bike repair, skill sharing, construction, and great company. 12:00 noon-5:00 PM, La Casa de la Raza, 601 East Montecito Street, Santa Barbara. Volunteers appreciated, donations loved. Details from Ed France, 310-936-0857 or edfrance@gmail.com.
	May 13, Bike Clinic, sponsored by Open Air Bicycles. This Bike Week clinic covered bicycle maintenance basics to give participants confidence to make repairs when away from home. It helped prepare for Bike to Work and School Days. Open Air Bicycles, 224 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara, 8:30-10:00 AM. Phone 962-7000, or email MFasth@aol.com for details.
	May 14-24, Bike Week Flags, sponsored by our Bicycle Coalition. This year our 125 handsome Bike Week flags were mounted along State Street in Downtown Santa Barbara.
	May 14, Bike Film Festival I, sponsored by HopeDance and our Bicycle Coalition. This evening featured a group of bicycle short films organized by HopeDance. Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 East Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara. Starts at 7:00 PM. Suggested $5 donation.
	May 15, Bike to School Day, sponsored by COAST. Events were arranged at individual South Coast and Solvang schools. Bike rodeos and bicycle safety instruction were offered at participating schools prior to Bike Week. Contact South Coast coordinator Debbie Castanha at debbie_castanha@hotmail.com, or Solvang coordinator John Padfield at jpadfield@mac.com.
	May 15, Bike Film Festival II , sponsored by HopeDance, UCSB and our Bicycle Coalition. This evening featured selected short bike films and edited parts of several longer ones. Scheduled for 5:30-7:00 PM at the Marine Science Building auditorium, UCSB. Free admission thanks UCSB's Associated Students BIKES committee.
	May 16, Bike to Work Day, sponsored by UCSB and the City of Santa Barbara. Both locations hosted an event 7:00-9:00 AM. In Santa Barbara, bicyclists received free food, drinks and bells at De la Guerra and State Streets. At UCSB, it was on the bikepath up from Goleta Beach, for bike pancakes and prizes.
	May 16, Ride of Silence, unsponsored. This ride commemorated those lost or injured in bicycling crashes in our area. The ride was started in Texas in 2003, and has since grown to over 250 locations worldwide. It was a slow, silent ride of about 8 miles. To learn more about the movement, look at www.rideofsilence.org. The ride began at 6:00 PM at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara. The ride ended just before Willie Weir's talk (see next listing) that began with a moment of silence for those bicyclists whom we have lost.
	May 16, Willie Weir Bikes around South Africa, sponsored by our Bicycle Coalition. We were delighted to have Willie offer another presentation. He pedaled for five months in post-apartheid South Africa just after Nelson Mandela had been elected president. Eager to travel in the homelands of the Zulu, Xhosa and other tribes, he faced a daunting obstacle—hundreds of people warned of grave consequences. This was at Farrand Hall, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara. Show at 7:00 PM, suggested $10 donation.
	May 17, Climb Old San Marcos, sponsored by Goleta Valley Cycling Club. This climb up Old San Marcos Road helped keep local cyclists in shape. It was a short but tough climb to Highway 154, and a lovely fast descent back down. It bagan at Tuckers Grove County Park at 5:20 PM.
	May 17, How to Plan a Cycling Adventure, sponsored by our Bicycle Coalition. Learn from Mark Sapp and Wilson Hubbell how to choose and load your bike, and plan a bike trip. This was an introduction to bike touring for those doing the weekend trip to El Capitan State Park on May 19-20th, and for anybody else interested in an enriching, healthy means of travel. It was at Farrand Hall, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara, 6:00 PM, free admission. Note that it was followed by more adventure cycling (see next listing).
	May 17, Bicycle Touring Abroad, sponsored by our Bicycle Coalition. Those attending were treated to tales of biking in foreign countries. Ralph Fertig and David Bourgeois showed photos and describe the joys and challenges of biking in France, Spain, Thailand and Cambodia. Popularity of cycling and bike facilities were described for those countries. Farrand Hall, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara. Show at 7:00 PM, free admission.
	May 19, Children's Festival, sponsored by the Family Service Agency. Our Bicycle Coalition teamed up with COAST to help children safely walk and bike to school and other destinations. We sold and fit low-cost, but safety certified, bike helmets. 11:00 AM-4:00 PM, Alameda Park, Santa Barbara. Details at the Family Service Agency site www.fsacares.org/spotlight.htm.
	May 19-20, Cycling Adventure to El Capitan, sponsored by our Bicycle Coalition and Firestone Ale. Participants biked along with Mark Sapp, Wilson Hubbell and others from Santa Barbara to El Capitan State Park. They camped overnight in the bike-in, walk-in campground, and unwound with cold Firestone Ale (carried in a bike trailer). Details were presented at the May 17th meeting at the Museum of Natural History. It was bike touring with a congenial, supportive group.

Bike Week history

Each May since 1994, the Bicycle Coalition has promoted activities that encourage people to enjoy bicycling more. This has always included our Bike to Work Day that attracts 1000-to-2000 bicyclists to multiple sites around Santa Barbara County. This not only rewards those who regularly bicycle, but it encourages first-timers to give it a chance. Also, by collecting so many individuals together at once, it underscores the seriousness of bicycling as a realistic way to get around and promotes it through exposure in the media.

Starting in 1999, Bike to Work Day was expanded to Bike Week. Our vision for Bike Week is to fill it with new events each year as resources permit and enthusiasm directs. We have archives of Bike Week 2005 and Bike Week 2006 for you to look back at.