Light Up Your Ride Contest!

From Instructables-

Days are getting shorter and with the loss of Daylight Saving Time bike riders will be riding home from work in the dark. This makes riding around much more dangerous and to encourage everyone to ride a little brighter and safer we are having a Light Up Your Ride Contest!

Show us how you make your bike or yourself much more visible at night to the cars passing you and win a pair of the brand spankin' new Bike to Work Pants from Cordarounds! These pants aren't just stylish for work, they also keep you safe while riding your bike. Flip up the pant cuffs and pull out the pockets to instantly become more visible.

So how do you make yourself a safe rider? Have you replaced the LEDs in your blinkies, installed reflective materials in crazy places, made your own turn signals? We want to see it!

We're giving away three Bike to Work outfits! These will include one pair of Bike to Work pants and one Instructables Robot t-shirt. One for the most votes, one selected by Cordarounds, and one selected by Instructables staff. Four runners-up will win an Instructables Robot t-shirt. Good luck!

Catholic Worker coffee Line

While the Norfolk Catholic Worker serves breakfast on the streets to the hungry and homeless three mornings a week, I only make it out to work on bikes on Thursdays.


Last Thursday was particularly joyous- Obamamania was in the air. To mark the occasion, some kind soul had bought a hundred or so fair trade, organic chocolate bar. After receiving soup, sandwich and a cup of coffee, Catholic Worker Steve Baggerly handed each person a chocolate bar, solemnly intoning, "To mark the election of the first African-American president, a chocolate bar." I think I've heard Steve speak in the same gravitas when distributing Communion wafers...

I spent an hour truing wheels and adjusting derailleurs.
Here are a few of the guys I've come to know through their bikes:

Melvin with his mountain bike on the repair stand.

Even though it's too big for him, Melvin still posed for a portrait next to my bike.
(Complete with full fenders, aero bar, lights and a Bob trailer.)

Lee always has a good bike.
His aluminum Red Rock is on the work stand behind him.
What Lee needs now is a decent bike lock.

Steve needed a new tube.

Will.
Looking for a good beach cruiser.

And lastly, Curtis.

Sometimes it's hard to distiguish between the Catholic Workers and the hungry...