Thursday, May 23, 2013


Little Red is just one week away! We are excited and hope that you are too! Here at Little Red, we've been working around the clock to get everything planned down to the last detail to make this the greatest ride ever.

However, there is one thing that we cannot plan for, and that is How You Obey the Rules of the Road.

We want every rider to have a FUN and SAFE experience at Little Red. We have done our part to mark the course, plan a safe route for you, put up ample signage, have plenty of SAG and support on the course and have even hired local law enforcement - ALL FOR YOUR SAFETY. But we need each and everyone of YOU to keep this course safe.

Please remember that LITTLE RED IS NOT A RACE. While we enjoy the fun of racing just as much as the next woman, Little Red is not the time or place to try your fastest ever speed on a 100 mile course. There are many (nearly 4000) riders on the course so expect lots of congestion until the first rest stop. BE PATIENT with yourself and with other riders. Those first 10 miles are slow going and packed with cyclists on the road.

Ride single file or two across. ALWAYS PASS ON THE LEFT and give a little warning when you do, such as, "Coming up on your left!" so that riders know you are there. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER pass on the right. This is a big NO in cycling etiquette and safety.

OBEY ALL TRAFFIC SIGNS. That means you must STOP at a STOP SIGN or STOP LIGHT. Watch out for cars, slow down at railroad crossings, ride with some caution and keep alert.

USE YOUR HAND SIGNALS! Just as when you are driving a car, hand signals are important in letting other riders know if you are slowing or stopping, turning left or right, etc... Communication is the key!

ABOVE ALL, RELAX AND ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE. The course is beautiful on every single route. The rest stops are packed with food, goodies and helpful volunteers. Remember to thank them! They are your friends, neighbors and family members who are donating their time so that YOU can have a great ride. So please take a moment to say THANK YOU!.




Please Read and Follow These 
Rules of the Road for SAFE Group Riding!
* From the League of American Bicyclists

Be Predictable
 In a group, your actions affect those around you, not just yourself
 Riders expect you to continue straight and to ride at a constant speed
 Signal and announce your intention to turn or slow down before you do so

Look Before You Make a Move

Use Hand and Verbal Signals
 Use hand signals to indicate turns and point out hazards to others
 Left turn, right turn, slowing or stopping
 Back them up with verbal signals


Give Warnings
 Announce “Left turn!” or “Right turn!” well in advance
 Warn of road hazards
 Avoid sudden stops or turns except for emergencies

Ride One or Two Across
• “Car back!” is the signal to get into single file
Riding more than two abreast is illegal

Change Positions Correctly
 Pass on the left; announce “On your left!”

Watch for Traffic: Rear and Ahead
 “Car back!” when a car is approaching from the rear
 “Car up!” on narrow roads or when riding two abreast

Watch Out at Intersections
 “Slowing!” or “Braking!” or “Stopping!”
 “Car right!” or “Car left!” if there is cross traffic
 DO NOT say “Clear!” if there is no cross traffic; each cyclist should verify for him/herself that it is safe to enter the intersection.

Stop for Stop Signs and Signals

Don’t Pass at an Intersection

Announce Hazards
 Point down to left or right to inform cyclists behind
 Shout “Hole!” “Gravel!” “Oil!” “Glass!” “Bump!” and so forth.

Warn of Foot Traffic

Watch Out for Railroad Tracks
 Cross perpendicular to the rails.

About Drafting
 Drafting , or pacelining, can save a lot of energy due to reduced wind resistance, but...
 Drafting requires the ultimate in predictability and trust
 Do not attempt to join a paceline if you are not sure you know all of the elements of paceline
etiquette.


Mass Rides Pose Special Challenges!
 Single-day and multi-day rides with hundreds or thousands of riders present some unique challenges.
 First: So many bicycles on the roadways at one time. Even with staggered starts, the road can
be very crowded.
 Next, the sorting out stage: The danger of bicycle-with bicycle crashes is greatest. Adrenalin-driven riders sprint around large groups of cyclists, often taking up all of the oncoming lanes to do so.
 Other cyclists may sprint by on the right side of riders preparing to turn into a rest stop area or
to stop by the side of the road.
 Probably the biggest challenge: The variety of skill levels among entrants, so
cyclists must ride with special care.

Cyclists should use extra care to:
o Avoid erratic behavior such as changing lane position without looking back.
o Avoid passing other cyclists whose skills they aren’t sure of, when surrounded closely by
them. Ride at the same speed, or slower.
Group Riding Etiquette
 Don’t wear headphones
o Obstructing the road can create a dangerous situation and cause a traffic jam

Be Courteous
 Be courteous to others with whom we are sharing the road, whether they are motorists or cyclists. This is part of being a responsible cyclist, and it will help improve our image.




Have a great ride ladies and Thank You for making Little Red 2013 a SAFE and FUNtastic experience!!!

Friday, April 5, 2013

The Best of Utah is at Little Red!

Here at Little Red, we are proud of our tradition of giving you the best experience on two wheels that Utah can offer. From our themes, costumes, and decorations to our music, entertainment, vendors and food, we strive each and every year to make this ride and event unlike any other you've experienced.  

Others may copy, but Little Red is the original! 
 We've been growing and improving for over 25 years and each year we  
somehow seem to top ourselves yet again.

This year, we are especially proud to highlight two Food & Drink 'specialists'
that will be catering to your taste buds. These two businesses were recently profiled 
 


Check out what City Weekly has to say about  Tandoori Oven -
who will be serving dinner on Friday night, and  Caffe Ibis
our favorite coffee supplier for several years now.
Both are local Logan, Utah businesses that Little Red is proud to support.

 
We hope you'll enjoy their delicious food and beverage offerings at Little Red!
 

From City Weekly:

Best Under-the-Radar Indian -  
Tandoori Oven



 
"This is the kind of place that defies expectation. Yes, the Tandoori Oven is located in the same building as a gas station, in a remote agricultural/college town. But it might be some of the greatest Indian food you’ll ever eat—really. Cache Valley residents are fully aware of the secret, as the place is always packed with people getting their fix of the magical flavors Sham Singh and family conjure up in the kitchen. The menu is huge, with a few specialties that aren’t available at any Salt Lake Valley eateries, like chana saag: spinach cooked with garbanzo beans, onions, garlic, cream and spices. Indian-food newbies can get  recommendations from the welcoming staff, but you can’t go wrong with anything from the tandoori oven, or the perfectly crispy, charred naan."

Remember - you must purchase your meal tickets ahead of time for the Friday night dinner, if you want to taste the delicious offerings from Tandoori Oven! Click Here to buy your dinner tickets!

Tandoori Oven
720 E. 1000 North, Logan

TandooriOvenLogan.com





From City Weekly:


Best Break  From the Grind -  
Caffe Ibis Gallery Deli






"This cozy, cheerful coffee shop is a hippie-dippy haven just off of Main Street. Ibis runs on principles of being green (there’s a recycling bin for each part of your coffee cup, from the lid to the stirrer) and giving back to the community. But here you don’t have to choke down terrible coffee in the name of planet Earth—Ibis really focuses on the coffee. It’s triple-certified, sure, but it tastes amazing. Ibis sells its beans to coffee shops near and far (including Salt Lake City favorite Coffee Garden). Four roasts are available each day, and non-coffee drinkers will love the gourmet cocoa and spicy chai tea. The coffee of the day sells for just $9.49 a pound, or visit the giant wall of beans and grind your favorite variety (red velvet cake dessert coffee? Yes, please)."

Caffe Ibis
52 Federal Ave., Logan 
CaffeIbis.com 

certified 
 
More About Caffe Ibis 
Caffe Ibis® is a family owned and operated award winning "Green Business" and artisan custom coffee roasting house founded in 1976 by Randy Wirth and Sally Sears. Caffe Ibis'  focus is on Triple Certified, Organic, Fair Trade, and Smithsonian Shade Grown "Bird-Friendly"® coffee from around the world. Caffe Ibis is proud to be "unbeatable on quality and freshness while supporting social justice and environmental stewardship."

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Friday Night Activities at Little Red!

Our Friday Night Kick Off for Little Red
will have plenty of action and fun!
 
  • COSTUME CONTEST - It's always a treat to see the great costumes our ladies come up with and this year, with our BOLLYWOOD THEME, the costume contest is sure to be especially colorful and exciting!
  • DINNER -  A delicious Indian feast.
  • MUSIC, DECORATIONS & A FESTIVE ATMOSPHERE - Nobody does it better than Little Red and we promise not to disappoint. Come and groove to the sights, sounds, colors and ambience of Bollywood!
  • LITTLE RED BOUTIQUE - Our boutique sells out every year. Once you see our entire line of Little Red 2013 clothing, how can you possibly resist?
  • VENDOR EXPO - come visit our many exciting vendors. You'll want to be sure to bring some cash or a credit card because we guarantee that you will find one, two or ten things that you absolutely must have!!
  • CAMPING - If you don't have hotel reservations are you planning on camping? See below for camping details at the Lewiston Fairgrounds. You can camp for FREE! 

  •  
    Buy Your Meal Tickets! 
     
    • Dinner will be catered by TANDOORI OVEN, a local favorite for great Indian food, from Logan, Utah.
    • From 5:30PM-8PM, they'll be serving up:

    Mixed Green Salad with Yogurt Dressing
    Chicken Tikka Masala
    Vegetarian Coconut Kurma
    Naan
    Chocolate Brownies


    Costume Contest!
      

    It's time to start working on your costume for Little Red!
     
    The Costume Contest at Little Red is a beloved tradition that takes place Friday night.
      
    Have your picture taken, dance a bit, strut your stuff and let the judges check out your costume. Coordinate with this year's theme, or plan your own crazy ensemble. Whether you're part of a team or on your own … great prizes will be awarded!

    So get working on your costume NOW!
     


    Camping! 
     
    FREE, On Site
    Overnight Accommodations
    Lewiston Fair and Rodeo Grounds
    100 East Center Street and 200 East Center Street 
     
    v  Tent Campsites and RV Parking 
    v  Available all day and night Friday and Saturday, May 31 – June 1 
    v  Park next to your tent campsite – weather permitting 
    v  RV Parking anywhere parking is allowed on the fairgrounds 
    v  Facilities include portable restrooms and wash sinks 
    v  Plenty of tent campsites and RV parking available 
    v  No reservations required – First Come, First Served
     
    Walking distance from these fun-filled weekend activities:
    • Friday Dinner 5:30-7:30 PM ($12 advanced ticket purchase required)
    • Friday night Women’s Expo from 5:30-8:30 PM
    • Friday night Costume Contest
    • Saturday Continental Breakfast starting at 7:00 AM/Lunch/Ice Cream
    • Massages after the ride
    • Friday night and Saturday afternoon Bollywood-style band entertainment
    • Start Line and Finish Line activities 
    Please note: No RV hookups or indoor showers available. No campfires allowed. Questions or concerns can be submitted to lrrh@bccutah.org or at the event at the LRRH Information Booth


    You can also find information on other campgrounds and RV Parks at the links below:

    Go Camping in Logan, UT area
     


    Saturday, March 23, 2013

    A Short History of Women & Cycling - Annie Londonderry

    On a Monday in late June 1894, Annie Cohen Kopchovsky (aka Annie Londonderry) climbed onto a Columbia bicycle in Boston, Mass and rode into history. Aside from two quick lessons in the previous days she had never ridden a bicycle, yet Annie was the first woman to bicycle around the world.

    Her ride was described by the New York World on October 20, 1895, as “the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman.” Londonderry claimed that it was set in motion by a novel wager by two club members in Boston - a claim made by other travelers during the "round the world" fad. Londonderry’s challenge was to circle the globe by bicycle in 15 months and to earn $5,000.

    The Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company paid her $100 to carry its placard on her bike and also contracted with her to adopt its name. Travelling with a change of clothes and a pearl-handled revolver, Londonderry earned her way by turning her bicycle and body into a billboard, carrying advertising banners and ribbons through cities around the world. She was a remarkable sight to Victorian eyes!

    The venture was a test of a woman’s ability to fend for herself. Despite having seldom ridden a bicycle, she pedalled out of Boston, leaving her husband and young children behind.
    
    Read about the bike Annie rode

    Having travelled onto New York and then to Chicago, she exchanged her skirts for bloomers, and her woman's 42-pound Columbia bicycle for a 21-pound men's Sterling. Possibly due to winter, she switched her route from west to east and headed to Europe via New York City. She arrived in Le Havre, France on December 3, 1894. Despite bureaucratic difficulties, Londonderry said her trip through France was the highlight of her experience. She made Paris to Marseilles in two weeks to public acclaim. She steamed across the Mediterranean to Egypt, making short tours throughout Egypt, Jerusalem and modern-day Yemen, before sailing to Colombo and Singapore.

    Returning to the United States at San Francisco on March 23, 1895 she cycled to Los Angeles, then El Paso, and north to Denver where she arrived on August 12, 1895. Along the way, she regaled audiences with fanciful tales of her journey, and seemed to thrive in the lime-light. She arrived in Boston on September 24, 15 months after she had left. Despite criticism that she traveled more "with" a bicycle than on one, she proved a formidable cyclist at impromptu local races en route across America.

    After the trip, Annie Kopchovsky moved her family to New York, where under the by-line “The New Woman,” she wrote sensational features for several months for the New York World. Her first story was an account of her cycling adventure. “I am a journalist and ’a New Woman,’” she wrote, ”if that term means that I believe I can do anything that any man can do.”

    In 2007, Annie's great nephew Peter Zheutlin, published her story in Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride. Revisit her amazing adventures as she cycled and traveled her way around the globe. Her story was also featured in Bicycling Magazine. You can read more about Annie's fascinating adventures and take inspiration from her remarkable courage, stamina and bravery over 100 years ago.

    Sunday, March 17, 2013

    A Short History of Women & Cycling - The Early Years

    The invention of the bicycle has had an enormous effect on society. A short hop around Wikipedia revealed the following, fascinating information.

    Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century in Europe. As they became safer and cheaper, more women had access to the personal freedom they embodied, and so the bicycle came to symbolize the New Woman of the late 19th century, especially in Britain and the United States. The New Woman was a feminist ideal that emerged in the late 19th century and had a profound influence on feminism well into the twentieth. The term "New Woman" was popularized by American writer Henry James, to describe the growth in the number of feminist, educated, independent career women in Europe and the United States.

    The bicycle craze in the 1890s also led to a movement for so-called Rational Dress, which helped liberate women from corsets and ankle-length skirts and other restrictive garments, substituting the then-shocking bloomers. The Rational Dress Society was an organization founded in 1881 in London. It described its purpose as follows:

    The Rational Dress Society protests against the introduction of any fashion in dress that either deforms the figure, impedes the movements of the body, or in any way tends to injure the health. It protests against the wearing of tightly-fitting corsets; of high-heeled shoes; of heavily-weighted skirts, as rendering healthy exercise almost impossible; and of all tie down cloaks or other garments impeding on the movements of the arms. It requires all to be dressed healthily, comfortably, and beautifully, to seek what conduces to birth, comfort and beauty in our dress as a duty to ourselves and each other.”

    The Lady Cyclists' Association, established in 1892, was the United Kingdom's - and probably the world's - first cycling organization expressly for women, set up to provide rides, tours and social gatherings for women cyclists. The organization published a handbook, containing details of reasonably priced places to stay while cycle touring, and a monthly journal, the Lady Cyclists' Association News.

    The bicycle was recognized by 19th-century feminists and suffragists as a "freedom machine" for women. American Susan B. Anthony said in a New York World interview on February 2, 1896: "I think it has done more to emancipate woman than any one thing in the world.  I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and away she goes, the picture of untrammelled womanhood."
    











    "Let go — but stand by"; Frances Willard  
    learning to ride a bicycle.

    In 1895 Frances Willard, the tightly laced president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, wrote A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle, with Some Reflections by the Way, a 75 page illustrated memoir praising "Gladys", her bicycle, for its "gladdening effect" on her health and political optimism.  Willard used a cycling metaphor to urge other suffragists to action.
     
     







    In Western Society, the bicycle gave women unprecedented mobility, contributing to their emancipation in Western nations. Who knew the debt we owe to the humble but brilliant bicycle?

    Wikipedia Sources:
    History of the Bicycle
    New Woman
    Rational Dress and Victorian Dress Reform

    Sunday, March 10, 2013

    GET TRAINING!!!

    Little Red is coming up fast. Spring is just around the corner, the days are getting warmer, the sun is shining and it's time to get riding! We've been asked time and time again
    "How do I train for Little Red?"
    We've got a few ideas to get you out there on the road and ready for the big day. A few suggestions from some seasoned riders. Pick one, pick two or pick them all.

    Just get riding!


    Follow a training plan
    There are plenty of training plans out there that will help you build up miles if you like a structured approach. These plans focus on riding 100 miles, but you can modify them to fit your personal goals:

    Training For A Century Ride
    Ride A Century in 8 weeks
    The 100 Mile Goal



    Grab Your Posse
    Get your friends, neighbors and family together and get your riding group going! Its always more fun to ride with friends and it helps the miles to pass quickly. The more fun you have, the faster those miles seem to go.

     
    Take It To The Next Level and
    Cycle with the Bonneville Cycling Club
     
    Make new friends, learn new routes! The BCC has rides throughout the year, for every level of cyclist. You do not have to be a member to ride with the BCC and we have a large variety of rides, routes, distances, challlenges and members.
     
     
    Check out our Ride Calendar 
     
     ... then come and check us out! You'll find a fun & welcoming group of people - all ages - who simply love to bike for the pure joy of riding. The BCC has dozens of rides scheduled every month with a variety of terrains, routes and miles to choose from. Ride with us and you'll be ready for Little Red in no time.