Dot Bike

8th Annual Bicycle Film Festival

A Celebration of the bicycle as art and the diverse sub-cultures associated with cycling

BOSTON DATES: Thursday August 14th through Sunday August 17th

The Bicycle Film Festival is a celebration of all things BIKE!  We guarantee that if you can name it, our bike-savvy team has tested it, rode it…experienced it.  Tall-Bike Jousting, Mountain Biking, Track Riding, BMX, Recumbent cruising, Critical Mass-ing, Bike Polo-ing, Track Bikes, Alleycats, intense road racing; ….clearly cycling speaks to many “walks of life”.  We invite you to join us as we celebrate these diverse lifestyles through art, film, music and performance at the 8th Annual, Bicycle Film Festival.

On Thursday, August 14th, ride on over to the official “kick-off” party hosted by Jamaica Plain based bike shop Revolution Bicycle Repair and Indie film connoisseurs, Video Underground in their outdoor courtyard.  Expect BoldSprints Roller racing, DJ’s, food and fun.  Then on Friday, August 15th we are rolling the party on over to Davis Square, Somerville with screenings at the Somerville Theater and an after party with bike-happy Redbones.  Films continue at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) on Saturday, August 16th and conclude with the “Bikes Rock”, after party hosted by our friends at the The Weekly DIG and Allston’s finest, Great Scott’s.

Then, join us as we wrap up party-central weekend with a late morning bike ride and brunch hosted by contemporary home furnishings and apparel mavens, Union Square’s own Grand.

Tickets for all screenings of the Bicycle Film Festival in Boston are available for purchase on the website; Full Festival Passes are only $27.00!!

Visit the Bicycle Film Festival online for trailers, complete events & screening information.

Bicycle parking provided by MassBike at all film screenings.

If you are interested in volunteering, contact Boston Producer, Seth Davis seth@bicyclefilmfestival.com

Just a reminder to mark your calendars for the upcoming Dorchester Beach Festival happening on August 16th from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.  Ride to the festival with DotBike.  We’ve added a whole new page with information, links to the festival web site and DotBike activities to the blog so click on the tab above or go directly to the page here.  Come by bike if you can - we’ll provide the parking - and even if you can’t stop by our table and say Hi.

WHERE:MBTA Police Station
At entrance to Mattapan Square T Station - take the Mattapan High Speed Line
500 River Street, Mattapan

WHEN: Wednesday August 6th 7:00 p.m.

WHY: To learn about progress and plans for the Neponset River Greenway. We’d like to work with this group in closing the gaps in the Harbor Trail in Dorchester and extending the trail to the south.

The Tour de France recently concluded with Carlos Sastre of team CSC-Saxo bank winning the final yellow jersey in Paris.  For many people the Tour de France is the only bike race they may have heard of and that is likely due to that guy named Lance who won seven in a row.

However, there is a whole world of bike racing out there at various levels and disciplines and here is just a little taste of where you can go to find out more if you are interested.  I follow road racing so will focus on that but there are Mountain Bike, Cyclocross and BMX specific sites and reports out there if that is your thing.

Most of the teams that race the Tour de France are the top level elite Pro Tour squads (actually there is a question as to whether there is going to be a ‘Pro Tour’ next year - but that is another story).  These are teams like CSC-Saxo bank, Columbia (formerly T-mobile/High road) and Astana.  They have multi-million dollar budgets and consist of about 25 riders whose talents are divided between climbers, sprinters, time trialers, roulers and all-rounders.   These are the major league of cycling.

There is a second level of teams, the pro-continental teams, that have slightly lower budgets and fewer riders but some of these can hang with the big boys and get invites to the Tour due to strength of their results in other high profile European stage races.  Teams such as Garmin-Chipotle and Agritubel.  These are like baseball AAA minor league teams.

However, the vast majority of professional cycling teams in the U.S. and Europe are classified as continental teams.  These teams usually have relatively small budgets and anywhere from 5-15 riders.  They tend to race mostly in their home country but sometimes get a chance to race overseas.  A DotBike member, Adam Myerson, who lives in Fields Corner races on just such a team, Time Pro Cycling.  Time Pro Cycling is in its first year with a professional license and is focused on developing up and coming talent by mentoring young racers with more experienced riders.  Adam (check out his blog here) is one of those more experienced racers and currently he is leading in the USA Criterium Series (which is pretty awesome if you ask me).

Then there are those who like to race for the fun and fitness but don’t make their living by racing.  There are clubs in the area including the Blue Hills Cycling Club who support this type of rider.

Aside from the links to the teams and organizations above there are some great web sites that will allow you to follow lots of bicycle racing at all levels.

There is the VeloNews website with a bit of a focus on american racing, Cycling News based in Australia (I think) which is entirely on line and has pretty comprehensive race coverage and the Bicycling magazine web site which is more of a general bicycling information site but does have some race coverage.

We are having a meeting next Tuesday on August 5th at 7:00 p.m. at 34 Ditson St. #1 which is convenient to the Fields Corner T station. The main agenda of this meeting is to organize for the several events we are participating in the following week.  Hope to see you there.

The events:

• Tuesday August 12th and Wednesday August 13th are two ‘Community nights’ sponsored by State Representative Marie St. Fleur.  These events take place from 6-7:30 p.m. and two different locations.
  • Tuesday’s event takes place at the St. Peter’s teen center parking lot at 294 Bowdoin St. and we will have space to set up a bike check area.  There is a teen bike group based at the center who is expected to attend so this will be a great chance for youth outreach.
  • Wednesday’s event takes place at Project HOPE at 555 Dudley St.

• Saturday August 16th from 11-4 is the Dorchester Beaches festival at Malibu beach in Savin Hill - DotBike is having a ride to the festival,  bike escorts to and from the festival throughout the day, free valet bike parking and a table for safety checks, giveaways and other info.
• Wednesday August 13th is also our regularly scheduled commute ride home.

The Mayor and David Watson of MassBike will be speaking in the courtyard at the BU school of communication at 640 Commonwealth Ave. about the new Comm Ave. bike lane, installing bike racks around the city, and one other topic yet to be disclosed.  It’s happening next Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. and it would be really great if a bunch of bicyclists could show up.  See the event listing to the right for more details.

What: This will be a press event to announce the new bike lanes on Comm Ave. between Kenmore Square and the BU Bridge. The Mayor will be speaking along with David Watson, MassBike’s executive director.

Tuesday August 5th 11:00 AM
640 Commonwealth Ave
Courtyard, BU School of Communications

Topics: Commonwealth Avenue Bike Lanes, Rack installations…and one
item yet to be announced.

Please feel free to invite cycling friends and family, and bring your
bikes, of course.

On my ride in this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only was the resurfacing of the section of Perkins St. that goes between the Jamaica Way and Pond Ave. just north of Jamaica pond has been finished, but they’ve painted a bike lane.  This isn’t just a shoulder but actually has bike stencils and arrows that show they really intend it for bikes.

As I was on my way to work and running a bit late I didn’t see how far it went around the pond on the Brookline side - it ends at the rotary to go onto Pond Ave. heading north - but it seemed to keep going.

Now, this is probably technically in Brookline but maybe not and I think it is DCR managed property but whoever is responsible and whereever this is THANK YOU.

The Dorchester Beach Festival is happening on Saturday August 16th from 11-4.

This will be a fun and interesting event for all ages and interests.

DotBike is leading a ride to the festival.  This is a short (4.5 or 3 mile options) and relaxed ride appropriate for children and families.  Most of the ride will be along ‘The Harbor Trail’ on bike paths and low traffic roads.

For the longer ride you can meet us at the southern end of the Neponset Greenway Trail near the intersection of River and Central St. in Milton for a 10:30 departure.  Limited on street parking is available.

For the shorter ride meet us at 10:45 a.m. in Pope John Paul Park near the Hallet St. entrance next to the parking lot.

Here is a map with our ride route highlighted in Green with meet up locations indicated as well as alternate routes to bike to the festival if you are unable to join us on our main ride.

View Larger Map

While you’re enjoying the festival we will have FREE valet bike parking. We will also do some simple bike checks and tune ups and have some fun giveaways.

We will be providing bike escorts from and to Pope John Paul park in case you can’t make it until later or to show you how to get back to where you started. We’ll have someone leaving from Pope John Paul Park to escort riders to the festival at 11:30, 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30 and check at our table to get the times that we are heading back to the Park from the festival.

Hope to see you down at the beach.
And once your ready to go home and aren’t sure if you remember the way back don’t worry. If you can’t arrive at the festival until later we will

Mayor Thomas M. Menino cordially invites you to
The Healthy Main Streets
Where’s Charlie Family Fun Celebration
on Saturday, August 2nd at 10:00 a.m.
at Town Field, 1565 Dorchester Avenue in Dorchester

Come celebrate Healthy Main Streets’
Where’s Charlie initiative! There will be fun fitness giveaways and a free drawing for great prizes including a 2009 model Specialized Globe Carmel 1 bike from Back Bay Bicycles!

Over the month of July, Healthy Main Streets encouraged residents of all ages and ability levels to explore various Boston Main Streets districts in search of Charlie. More than 50 Charlies were hidden in Main Streets businesses in 7 participating districts. Those who found Charlie won a fun summer fitness prize-pack including a MBTA pass and a pair of sneakers! Congratulations to those who participated!

Come celebrate with your friends and neighbors who participated and you’ll walk away with some exciting summer fitness prizes as well!