The Best Way to Get to Bumbershoot

We recently spent three days in the shadow of the Space Needle supporting One Reel and in their effort to get more people to ride to the event. Parking for Bumbershoot has always been a problem so for two years now we've supported the bike parking. We watch over the hundreds of bikes that people leave in the bike corral. While we're technically not responsible for the bikes just being there lends a bit of security to the area. We also bring our tools and make small repairs to make sure that people can make it home from the event. We fixed a few flat tires, adjusted a few derailleurs and tightened up some brakes. There was plenty of work to be done, and no way to do it all. I was amazed to see the variety of bikes that people had. Everything from titanium Lightspeeds to thirty year old Peugeots.

This is the second year that we've worked with One Reel and the second event of the year. Here's to hoping that more events and event organizers see the benefit of providing bike parking. If nothing else, people love it. When we told people that the parking was free and that we'd be there until 11pm hanging out the response was always positive. Lot's of smiles, a few fist pumps, many utterances of "sweet!", "Awesome!", "You guys rock!" and other positive comments.

Many thanks to all the staff that came out to help with the event.

Wamu Family 4th and Bikes

Lot's of bikes!

For the second year in a row we were out at the Family 4th manning the bike parking area. The area last year ended up being too small and they people from One Reel did it right this year, expanding the area to fit what we estimate at close to 800 bikes by the time the fireworks started. The annual 4th of July event draws thousands of people and the parking is, as you can imagine, a nightmare. It's great that organizations like One Reel is looking to diminish the impact of their events by offering bike parking. And we're happy to be able to help.

So what are we doing while we're down there? Well, we're not responsible for the safety of the bikes, but we do watch the area the whole time, answer any questions that the riders might have about bikes or the event and fix things on the bikes that might have gone wrong and prevent the rider from making it home. So, we're not doing tune-ups but we are taking care of some fixes that people might need to make it home. Some of the things we fixed this year included flat tires, a crank arm that had migrated off the bike, a couple of brake cables and some other random stuff. All in all a great day to hang out at the park, help people out and, eventually, watch the fireworks.

Bumbershootin It

Along with title sponsors Clif Bar and Camelbak we sponsored the Bike Corral at Bumbershoot this year. With room for 500 bikes the bike corral was a huge success. Each day the corral filled up with all kinds of bikes and all kinds of riders who were very appreciative of the service. This is the first year that One Reel, the organization that puts Bumbershoot together, has done the bike corral and I don't think it will be the last.

We set up at the Broad street entrance and were there to help secure the area and help people out with fixes if they needed them. We pumped up a few tires, trued a few wheels and adjusted some shifting. But mostly we just talked bikes with folks.

This is Dan and Tony. They came out on Sunday to help out. Good fun was had by all. Thanks to Dan, Tony, Justin, Glen, John, Wayne, John Y, Garet, Rebecca, Jim, Kailey, Julian, Mary, Heather and David for coming out and helping. We couldn't have done it without you!

Mary and Heather took some time to chat with the local Law enforcement. But for the most part they stayed out of trouble.

Below is a little slide show of some of the great old bikes that people rode to the event. Cool stuff.

In the short video below Tony knew that he was having his picture taken but just before the footage below he decided that he should wave at the camera. This is the result...

Wamu Family Fourth

As part of our ongoing support of the cycling community we recently partnered up with One Reel to offer free bicycle parking at Seattle's largest 4th of July Celebration. With upwards of 70,000 people showing up to watch the firworks, One Reel and their commitment to be "dedicated to invigorating broad and diverse live audiences through imaginative and creative arts events of all disciplines in traditional and non-traditional venues" realized that promoting cycling as an alternative to driving to events made great sense. Here at Gregg's we believe that the more people that ride bikes the better we'll all be so it was easy to see that a partnership would benefit everyone involved and hopefully help people realize that it's easy to ride a bike to many of the great events around the city.

At about 10:00 we started setting up our tent near the official Family Fourth Bike Entrance to Gasworks park. We were there to provide friendly help in racking bikes, emergency repairs and, while not being officially responsible for the bikes in the racks, offer a bit of extra security.

All went well. We helped a few people with some shifting problems, tightened a few headsets, fixed a few flats and answered a lot of questions. The only problem was that we didn't have enough room for everyone that rode their bike down. Next time we'll have double the racks!

Thanks to One Reel for giving us the opportunity to come out and support the people riding to the event and thanks to all the people that rode their bikes. Way to ride!