Events

The Bikeleague’s National Bike Summit is coming up soon! This year’s theme is “Climbing Capitol Hill.” With so much going on in the Virginia legislature, we haven’t finalized our plans. But rest assured, VBF will be at the Summit! This is a great opportunity for Virginia bike advocates to meet, so please contact us ahead of time if you’re planning to attend.

If you can’t make it to the conference Tuesday evening and Wednesday (it’s pricey for many of us), you can still attend the lobby day on Thursday, to meet with legislators on Capitol Hill. Even without attending the entire conference, there’s still plenty of chance to meet and network with other advocates, [click to continue...]

A team of Virginia filmmakers led by director David Deal will hold a fundraiser for their upcoming film, “Road to Roubaix,” on Saturday, Jan. 26, 7-9pm, at the Arts Center in Orange, 129 East Main St., Orange, VA. The event will feature a preview screening, and an auction for a large, limited edition photographic print of Lance Armstrong. For more information about the film, see the Masterlink Films website.

The New River Valley Bicycle Asssociaion presents a special screening of the classic cycling movie, “The Flying Scotsman,” at The Lyric Theater in downtown Blacksburg, Saturday Jan. 12 at 3:00pm. The movie is the true story of amateur Graeme Obree, who in 1993 broke a world record with a bike of his own design, made from scrap metal and washing machine parts. Admission is just $1 for the general public, and free for members of the New River Valley Bicycle Association — including new members who join at the event.

Bring a useable bike part to donate to the Blacksburg Bicycle Collective.

Everyone is encouraged to ride their bike to the event.

“The Flying Scotsman” is rated PG-13.

For more information, call The Lyric Theater at (540)951-4771, or visit their website at www.thelyric.com.

The League of American Bicyclists (LAB) will conduct a Bicycle Friendly Community workshop in Roanoke on January 8, 2008. Municipality staff and elected officials from Roanoke and the New River Valley should attend this workshop, to help them work toward achieving the LAB’s Bicycle Friendly Community award. Besides the obvious benefits to cyclists, this award has tremendous PR value for any municipality that earns it. Please contact your local government officials and staff, and urge them to attend this workshop.

Andy Clarke, the Bikeleague’s Executive Director, will conduct the workshop personally. Later that day, Mr. Clarke will travel to Blacksburg, to give a presentation at the Town Council meeting.

The workshop will be held at [click to continue...]

Bike Virginia is the state’s largest bike event, with over 2000 participants. A multi-day tour and celebration of bicycling, Bike Virginia is a movable feast, held in a different part of the state each year. For 2008, Bike Virginia comes to southwest Virginia — the cities of Bristol, Abingdon, and Kingsport, TN — featuring the Crooked Road Music Trail. Details can be found at the Bike Virginia website. 2008 will be the 21st anniversary of Bike Virginia.

Bike advocates statewide should attend VCN’s Legislative Workshop, to help plan for the upcoming legislative session in January. This workshop will be held Saturday morning, December 1, 8:30am-12:30pm, in House Room 3 of the Capitol Building in Richmond. Cost is only $10, which includes a continental breakfast. Click here for more information.

Join the VBF Board of Directors for a last minute meeting before Lobby Day 2008, at Bud Vye’s house in Richmond. Details soon.

Join VBF at the Virginia General Assembly for Lobby Day 2008! Meet with your legislators to discuss bicycling issues, along with VBF lobbyist Bud Vye, and other VBF members. Last minute VBF Board meeting the day before at Bud’s house in Richmond — all VBF members are welcome — RSVP.