Earlier today, Austin on Two Wheels reached a milestone: 1000 posts. It has been a fun ride since our humble first post nearly a year and a half ago. We’ve tried to be a resource for the Austin cycling community and are working to improve the site in the coming year.

To help us make improvements, we like to get your feedback from time to time. We’ve put up a reader survey again to see what you like, see where we might go, and allow you to tells us your thoughts.

To sweeten the pot a little, we are also going to do a drawing for some cool prizes from everyone who participates in the survey from now until 7 PM CST on Wednesday, January 6, 2010. We’ll draw two names and announce the winners on Friday, January 8, 2010. We’ll be giving away a Flashbak lighting system and your choice of a racing, touring, or upright sprung Velo Orange saddle.

Click here to take the survey.

If you missed out on the free tickets, you can still go to this great concert kicking off this year’s Bicycle Film Festival. Bikes Rock will be featuring The Black Angels and Tia Cerrera starting at 8 PM tonight at La Zona Rosa. Tickets are $15 and can be ordered online.

For those who missed the Austin Bike Culture Quiz or couldn’t figure out all the answer, here are the questions and answers linked to the A2W article they came from.

1. What monthly bike jamming event happens in Austin on the last Friday of the month?

Critical Mass

2. In June, the Austin Master Bike Plan was updated by the Austin City Council. What year was the first Austin Master Bike Plan adopted?

This one was a bit tricky. The original Master Bike Plan was passed in 1996 but was incomplete. The other half was passed in 1998. We accepted either year.

3. What company will be sponsoring Lance Armstrong’s cycling team next year?

Team Radio Shack, baby!

4. This year was the 30th anniversary of the movie, Breaking Away. Earlier this month, there was a single speed track race in Austin to commemorate the movie’s release. What was the name of the real life race depicted in the film that the event sought to imitate?

The Little 500

5. Name at least one local, Austin bicycle frame builder.

We accepted the names of the builders or the company name. Here’s a run down.
Crumpton Cycles
Dominion Bicycles
Firemans Texas Cruzer*
Giano Fabricata*
Kirklee Bicycles
Liquor Bikes
Sexy Cycles
True Fabrication
Violet Crown Cycles
Willits Bikes
* These are companies that are based in Austin but have their frames built elsewhere.

6. In Texas, cyclists can legally treat stop signs as yield signs, only having to stop when yielding to another vehicle. True or false.

False. Many people wished it were like Idaho.

7. In January, Austin police arrested a bike thief who targeted owners of high end bikes by befriending them on bike rides, finding out where they lived, and then breaking into their homes to steal the bikes. He then sold the bikes online and when arrested had over $60,000 worth of stolen bikes and components in his possession. What was this notorious thief’s name?

James Clayton

8. This fall the second annual Texas Custom Bicycle Show will be held in Austin. What are the dates of the show?

October 23-25. Most of the builders from question 5 will have booths at this event within an event at the LiveStrong Expo

Thanks again for playing and make sure you get out to the Bicycle Film Festival.

On Wednesday, August 5 at 8 PM, the Bicycle Film Festival will kickoff it’s tour stop in Austin with the Bikes Rock concert at La Zona Rosa featuring The Black Angels and Tia Cerrera. Tickets are $15 and can be ordered online.

In partnership with the BFF, Austin On Two Wheels will be giving away four pairs of tickets to this great concert. In order to win the tickets, you need to correctly answer these questions about Austin bike culture.  UPDATE: We will draw winners from the the submissions with the most correct answers. If you don’t know all the answers give it a shot anyway! OK, we’ve received over 4 submissions with all eight questions correctly answered. The bar has been raised by our knowledgeable local cycling community, so you have to answer all 8 correctly to be in the drawing.

The answers to all of these questions are all found in the pages of Austin On Two Wheels. Please e-mail us with your answers, your name, and a phone number we can reach you at by 5 PM on Tuesday, August 4. We’ll announce the winners Wednesday morning as well as the answers to all these questions.

1. What monthly bike jamming event happens in Austin on the last Friday of the month?
2. In June, the Austin Master Bike Plan was updated by the Austin City Council. What year was the first Austin Master Bike Plan adopted?
3. What company will be sponsoring Lance Armstrong’s cycling team next year?
4. This year was the 30th anniversary of the movie, Breaking Away. Earlier this month, there was a single speed track race in Austin to commemorate the movie’s release. What was the name of the real life race depicted in the film that the event sought to imitate?
5. Name at least one local, Austin bicycle frame builder.
6. In Texas, cyclists can legally treat stop signs as yield signs, only having to stop when yielding to another vehicle. True or false.
7. In January, Austin police arrested a bike thief who targeted owners of high end bikes by befriending them on bike rides, finding out where they lived, and then breaking into their homes to steal the bikes. He then sold the bikes online and when arrested had over $60,000 worth of stolen bikes and components in his possession. What was this notorious thief’s name?
8. This fall the second annual Texas Custom Bicycle Show will be held in Austin. What are the dates of the show?

Good Luck!

Here’s what he needs:

Little poems, cartoons, small stories about why you love your bike, anything
creative.  All submissions will be read, all will not be published.
We also need listings for any and all events that are happening, big or
small to be included on our calendar.  If you are throwing a party in May
and you ride a bike it can go in this publication.

The deadline is approaching sooner than you think – it’s April 15! So to get all you people out there writing and sending things in, we’re going to sweeten the pot by giving away a few FABULOUS PRIZES to the submissions we like best. (Dear Austin bike shops – can you send us a few fabulous prizes to give away so we don’t have to pay for this one all out of pocket like we did our last contest? We’ll give ya a mention and our undying gratitude.)

So here’s what to do if you wanna send something in AND be considered for our little sub-contest :

Send in your submissions to Russell and then copy US too! Just don’t forget to copy us both or we’ll never know what beautiful prose you’ve written.

The prize: Wald basket and bag

Momentum magazine is putting on a very open-ended contest. They want to hear about your “real life on a bike,” and the winner wins the Wald bag and basket to the right.

So, if you have the urge for shameless self-promotion, wanna see your mug in Momentum, and need a new basket, enter their contest here. All ya gotta do is fill out eight questions about yourself, give ‘em a picture (of you, hopefully) and you’re in!

The contest deadline is April 15.

If you think you have the photography skills and you’re on Flickr, follow the instructions on their Flickr group page and submit some!

They’re giving away an SE Lager singlespeed, bags from Crumpler, some nice Swobo attire, and other prizes.

Wait right there, I'm getting my mug...

This picture was from Thanksgiving day, 2007, when i was still living in Denver.

My friends threw a party at one house the night before and the weather got bad(snow/rain mix) so no one ventured out of the house to take beer from the keg. So i woke up the next morning to find the 2/3rds full keg on the porch, since i was on my way to another party that day i thought i should just bring it along. I dont own a car and it was a holiday so all the taxis were off or at the airport, and it was too cold to ride all the way down town to get my pedicab.

So i just took the Wald basket off his girlfriend beach cruiser, tied the keg in with a old tube and off i went on a 3 mile ride, the keg was heavy and the ride was very unstable under 10 miles an hour, so i just rode slow and steady, and timed all the lights, some cars even let me through a few of them, and people i saw were cheering and shouting. The shelter i rode by had about 150 people outside waiting for turkey, and one guy asked for a drink. but i had no tap.

Quite a feat, I thought, especially having something like that on the front of your bike blocking your view and making turning slightly tricky, to say the least!

By the way, look for details on a NEW Austin Bike Blog contest coming soon! What is it this time? I’m not telling, just yet.

Chris from Madison, Wisconsin, our first prize winner, did a hell of a job campaigning and rounding up votes to win our contest in a landslide. Marcus and I might want to hire him to do some get of the vote work for our day jobs. We hope you enjoy your Brooks B17 saddle, Chris.

First Prize Winner of a Honey Brooks B17 Saddle- Chris from Madison, Wisconsin

Second Prize Winner of a copy of “City Cycling” by Richard Ballantine- Mark from Austin, Texas

Third Prize Winner of a 24oz White Polar Bottle- Mark (not the same Mark as above) with a roll of carpet

Thanks again to everyone who took the time submit their photos for all of us to enjoy.

Now is the time when you, the Austin Bike Blog reader, get to help determine who will win our fabulous contest prizes. Below are our 10 finalists for your review. Please take a look and tell us which finalist is the most impressive display of hauling a load on their bike. Some hauled items with a trailer, some with a third wheel, and some by just strapping their load to their bike. You be the judge of which feat is the most impressive. 

How to Vote

To voice your vote, please e-mail us the single best entry with either your chosen finalist’s number or name. Feel free to try to sway the vote with your impassioned arguments posted in in our comments section below. The finalist with the most votes will receive our grand prize with second and third going to the next top vote getters. Marcus and I will break any ties.

Voting is limited to one vote per unique e-mail address, and your vote is due by midnight CST on Tuesday, October 7, 2008.

Now the Finalists

Finalist #1: Richard from Ottawa, Ontario

Finalist #2: Mark with his Bakfiet

Finalist #3: Daniel from Chattanooga, Tennesse

Finalist #4- Mark from Austin, Texas

Finalist #5- Tony and his string bass

Finalist #6- Chris from Madison, Wisconsin

Finalist #7: Mark from Ottawa, Ontario

Finalist #8: Mark (not the same Mark as above) with a roll of carpet

Finalist #9: Tim from St. Paul, Minnesota

Finalist #10- Shane from Berkeley, California

Now to this week’s semifinalist.

Semifinalist #9: Tim from St. Paul, MN
 

Semifinalist #10- Shane from Berkeley, CA