You might remember my friend Joe from a few cycling hashtag posts that he did for us a while back. Well, today he’s caught up in one super cool event and I just had to write about it.

Due to a two day closure of the 405 Freeway in LA, JetBlue Airlines is offering people a $4 non-stop flight from Burbank to Long Beach to help assist with the road issues.  The local LA cycling scene was joking around about how the closure is no big deal when you’re a cyclist and this all blew up to the incredible race that is taking place today….and it all started with this tweet:

Local cycling group, the Wolfpack Hustle got on things and challenged JetBlue to a race between Burbank and Long Beach to show people that it’s faster to get there by bike than by plane.  Pretty awesome, huh?

It all goes down today and Joe will be riding on the JetBlue flight and covering things from the air.  You can follow Joe on twitter at @ohaijoe or check out his website at www.bikecommuternews.com.  You can also follow the hashtags #FlightVsBike and #CARMAGEDDON to get details as well.

I’m putting my money on the cyclists….we’ll know the official results this afternoon.

This isn’t the first time this kind of challenge has taken place.  Have a look at this race between a cyclist and helicopter that took place at rush hour in São Paulo, Brazil a couple years ago.

It’s got to be one of the most popular (and repeated) cycling quotes of all time….and who doesn’t just love that Jens Voigt dude?  You can’t keep an awesome quote like this one away from Twitter, and #shutuplegs has definitely become a well used hashtag.  But do you know the history of “Shut up Legs” or when it was first spoke?

I know I didn’t, so I went to my blog mentor, biking brainiac, and Cycling Tips mate to find out.  Wade is definitely a fan of Jens and those famous three words of his, and sells “Shut Up Legs” shirts over at his site.

Shut Up Body

Before “Shut Up Legs”, Jens actually used the phrase “Shut Up Body”.  He was caught on tape saying this during the 2008 Tour de France:

Shut Up Legs

But then later, at the 2010 Tour Down Under, he was filmed saying “Shut Up Legs”….and the rest is history.  This quote has totally blown up and can now be found on several different T-shirts (Do a Google search and you’ll find a bunch of options), website posts, and definitely on Twitter as the hashtag, #ShutUpLegs.

For more on Jens Voigt, check out the Jens Interview on Cycling Tips.

I’d have to say that the very first cycling hashtag to ever catch my attention was #30daysofbiking. It was a genius idea by @patiomensch and @zachamon, and officially launched on April 1, 2010 (and I’m still kicking myself for not thinking of something like this myself).

On April 1 they’ll kick off round three of #30daysofbiking….are you committing to riding your bike every single day in April?  Never heard of #30daysofbiking?  Well, simply put:  It is the commitment to Bike somewhere every day in April, then tweet your adventures using #30daysofbiking.

Most of you have likely seen countless posts, tweets, and advertising for this April’s #30daysofbiking, but we’re here to bring you the background and beginnings of this fantastic creation……Here it is.

#30daysofbiking

LTB: How did the hashtag, #30daysofbiking, first come about? Where were you, who were you with, and how did the idea pop up?

@patiomensch: It began with a 10-person-strong group ride on the eve of my 27th birthday, a ride shyly led by me and Zachariah Schaap, a.k.a, @zachamon, my truest, bestest friend.

Through Twitter and Facebook, we assembled cyclists on March 16, 2010, bicycling en masse from deep uptown Minneapolis to a bike shop called Angry Catfish in south Minneapolis. As we rolled up to ACF, store owner Joshua Klauck met us with a plate of green St. Patrick’s cookies. Then, we all drank beers and ate burgers at the amazing burger joint next door and biked to Dinkytown’s Kitty Cat Klub, for more drinks, in the dark. I didn’t ride home till past 1 a.m.: the night ended with local veggie messenger Randall Dietel’s bike pumping electronic music as, all together, we rode past East Bank university buildings toward home.

That was the originating ride, the ride that got our little group together. A week or so later, @lizbastian, on Twitter, got something called #30daysofyoga started. I wasn’t into yoga—I’ve tried to get into it, since, and it worked for a few days!—so I proposed #30daysofbiking. @zachamon and I began to promote it hardcore, while everyone from my pre-birthday ride, including @nicycle, @sloped, @marcoscopic, @jessinader and @darcialexis,  jumped on this new hashtag. Everyone they knew followed suit. I created a list of those who’d pledged to ride. The list grew long and longer. Then suddenly, thanks to the intervention of @rycera, we had a domain name in 30daysofbiking.com, and #30daysofbiking turned into a rocket: It took off.

“We ride our bikes every. friggin’. day.”

Hundreds of registrants later, Zach and I were interviewed for the Star Tribune, for Minnesota Public Radio on “All Things Considered,” and most exhilaratingly, on live television by KARE 11. Our KARE 11 interview took place in the studio’s “backyard” lot, where—with his sweaty bike clothes on—Zach complained he stunk. In response, KARE’s legendary meteorologist Sven Sundgaard stepped from the shadows and said, “Don’t worry, they can’t smell you on television.” Not being smellable is sometimes important to dudes who bike all the time.

After these promotional efforts, our first group ride for #30daysofbiking, on April 1, 2010, was a monster. At least 40 people showed up, and it was a little overwhelming. We had no idea how to lead a ride that large, but somehow, we corralled everyone around a few lakes in Minneapolis and ended up at dinner at Chatterbox Pub in South. That’s how it began.

LTB: Who all was involved with getting the word out and making it happen?

@patiomensch: Zach and I were the primaries, but the crowd I mentioned above tweeted and blogged non-stop for the cause. Nicole Weiler, known in Twitter land as @nicycle, was especially essential to our early efforts. She and associate Paul Wichser created one of Round 1′s signature group rides, the Short Shorts Ride to ARTCRANK, for which I wore pink lycra short shorts of which all photographic evidence should be destroyed. The bits were visible—it was cold and smooshed out!

Also notable was Raccoon Rally, an alleycat perpetrated by Greg from Urban Bean Coffee and @darcialexis, whom we’ve lost to New York City. Gratifyingly, that got Minneapolis’ bike messenger community involved in our event.

LTB: How do you feel about the success of the first two #30daysofbiking events?

@patiomensch: The success has been staggering, overwhelming, life-changing, exciting, endlessly impressive. All of this started with a few tweets. Round 1 was big, but Round 2 (September 2010) had almost 1,000 participants from all around the world; I don’t know anyone from Costa Rica or Malaysia, but residents of those countries have participated in something I created. People we’ve only met through tweets tell us #30daysofbiking has changed their lives profoundly. How do you respond to statements like that, or incorporate them into your sense of your life and what you feel you’ve accomplished? It’s amazing!

Each registrant makes of #30daysofbiking what they want. We can only post a few tweets, but it’s you—the rider—who defines how #30daysofbiking will go for you. Where you’ll ride, how far. It’s a moldable thing.

LTB: What will be different for round 3 starting on April 1, 2011?  What are you doing to make it bigger and better?

@patiomensch: The key is that we’re getting more and more exposure than ever, which means more and more people will sign up. We’re professionalizing our advertising, with help from dudes like @loganogden, @scoharris and @pfutz. We can tweet like magicians, now, and everyone who participated with us in the last two rounds seems more interested than ever in getting their friends and cities signed up, too.

More people equals more success. We as cyclists know that when more of us are on the road, we are more safe—we became a fixture, not an invasion. #30daysofbiking is about increasing exposure to cyclists and, ultimately, about changing the public image of a cyclist—from a sub-cultural law defiler to a regular guy or gal on their way to work, but on a bike rather than inside a car.

We have even more spectacular group rides planned for this year. A fashion-centric ride, another short shorts ride, a denim ride. Another 50-mile Grand Rounds ride. I’m planning a month-long geocache alleycat that will take cyclists all around Minneapolis and St. Paul. It’s going to be a great adventure, with another party and another alleycat race at the end.

LTB: What is the coolest or most interesting thing that has happened as a result of #30daysofbiking?

@patiomensch: I met my girlfriend for one, with whom I now live.

I’m most impressed by Matthew Jensen, who makes rare appearances on Twitter as @omgmrj. He hasn’t missed a day of bicycling since we started the event, on April 1, 2010, and because we’re closing in on our first anniversary, that means he’s nearing the famed next level of #30daysofbiking: #365daysofbiking. I co-created this thing and even I haven’t managed that. Daym, dude.

Do it.  Commit to 30 days of biking and show off your passion for the bike.  Oh, and follow the #30daysofbiking hashtag during April…..It’s going to be one very busy tag.

Register here for #30daysofbiking which kicks off April 1.

For all of you living in places where the cycling streets are covered in white stuff all winter, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.  Yes, my friends….Spring is on it’s way. I’m definitely a cold weather riding wimp and could never imagine riding through a cold and snowy winter, but I’ve met a lot of hardcores who do it each and every year.

Sam Haraldson (@sharalds) and his group of riding buddies from Bozeman, MT don’t let winter get in the way of their riding…and last November they launched the cycling hashtag #ridethroughwinter to help celebrate this fact.

#ridethroughwinter

LTB: When did you first send out a tweet with #ridethroughwinter?

@sharalds: The hashtag was born November 18th 2010, about the time I put the studded tires on my bicycle in prep for our beloved Montana winter.

The first tweet it appeared in was as follows:

@sharalds: Rode home from @BZNBikeKitchen with a beautiful flurry of snow falling from the sky and accumulating on the street. #ridethruwinter.

I got a few complaints from friends that disliked the word “thru” and it then morphed into #ridethroughwinter.  In fact there is a Tweet from fellow BZN cyclist @singletrackm1nd questioning this dilemna:

@SingletrackM1nd: Ok Bzn peeps I need a ruling here. Is it gonna be #ridethruwinter or #ridethroughwinter? I’m getting confused, although that’s easy to do.

My group of friends are all year-round cyclists and when the weather gets bad we tend to give each other virtual high-fives regarding riding in these conditions so a hashtag like #ridethroughwinter is the perfect way to do that.

LTB: What city are you from and what is it like to ride there through winter?

@sharalds: I reside in Bozeman, Montana where winter can start as early as October and end as late as June.  We have snow and ice on the streets for at least six months of the year and regularly get cold snaps of -20 deg F that can last up to two weeks.

LTB: How many years have you been riding through winter?

@sharalds: I started commuting year-round in ’06 or ’07 when I was living in Duluth, MN.  I consider my new home of Bozeman to be absolutely tame compared to Duluth.

LTB: Have you seen the #ridethroughwinter hashtag used a lot?  Can you remember a favorite tweet that included it?

@sharalds: I was interested to find fellow Bozeman cyclists picking up the use of the hashtag but haven’t been paying attention to whether it has spread viral at all.  Anyone that would tag a tweet with it would probably get along with me because it takes a certain someone to ride their bicycle all year round and I like that kind of person!  Just knowing that a few hard men and women are bicycle commuting to work in 25 deg F temps strengths a bond between us. If I was to suggest a favorite tweet of mine that used the hashtag I would say it was:

@sharalds: The bite of a Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro into ice atop asphalt. #ridethruwinter

LTB: You’re almost done with #ridethroughwinter….how excited are you about #SummerRiding?

@sharalds: Bicycling-wise I’m just as excited for summer as I am for winter.  I get to ride a lot no matter what time of year it is so I’m always stoked. Come summer I’ll swap my snowboard for my mountain bike and that will be nice but here in SW Montana we try to live in the moment and keep ourselves from always looking ahead to the whatever the next season will bring. I throw another hashtag around from time to time (winter and summer) and that’s #cycle300.  I set a goal for myself this year to ride 300 days and am so far on track to do so.

Sam has a bunch of his winter cycling photos up on his Flikr account, and can be tweeted at @sharalds. Thanks for sharing your #ridethroughwinter story with us.

Photo c/o Sam Haraldson

You knew it was just a matter of time before I’d feature #bikeschool in our Hashtag Tuesday series.  #bikeschool is that crazy little idea that my good friend @bikerly had last summer….and it just grew, and grew, and grew.

Secret Evol Plan

It all started as something he deemed a Secret Evol Plan (Evol = Love backwards and even more dastardly than the regular evil) and when it came time to turn the plan into a reality, the idea of Bikeschool was born.  It was August 10, 2010 that the Evol genius’ of @bikerly, @egggman, and @lovingthebike joined forces and kicked off the #bikeschool tweets.

#bikeschool Tweet Chat

It began as simply a hashtag that would attach to a tweet about something you learned about life while out on your bike.  The tag took off quite nicely and immediately we had a bunch of bikeschool fans….but @bikerly knew this thing had to be something more.  Secret Evol Plan #2 took effect and on Thursday October 21, 2010 #bikeschool became a weekly Tweet Chat happening on Thursday’s at 9PM EST.  To learn more about the Thursday Tweet Chats, check out this post that explains it all.

The #bikeschool Revolution

#bikeschool has taken on a life of it’s own and has given us more internet fame than I could have ever imagined.  We have a loyal group of classmates who are always demanding more…..so watch for the #bikeschool jerseys coming out this spring, and a #bikeschool road trip happening next winter.

Have you checked out #bikeschool?  It’s become a very active hashtag each week on Twitter….watch out though, some #bikeschool tweets can be quite strange.

It all started with a random thought (tweet) by @FunctionalCycle in December 2009:

It was not a new idea to @FunctionalCycle, as he had always made a conscious effort to be positive in everything that was being promoted, but the above tweet was heard and then sparked the creation of #whyweride….a great Twitter hashtag put together by our friend, @Ohaijoe.

Immediately the tag took off and there were hundreds of #whyweride tweets going out each week.  Over a year later, the hashtag is still going strong…but @Ohaijoe admits that it needs new life breathed into it.  So here we are, highlighting it in our Hashtag Tuesday feature and seeing what happens from here.

Why do you ride?  If you’re on Twitter, let it be known….tell why you ride.  Please also let us know by posting your comments below.

In honor of my awesome weekend with my good friend, @bikerly…..I’m having him guest post on this fine Hashtag Tuesday.  He’s the creator of a great cycling tag called #seenonmybike.  This Hashtag is so much different than the regular tags you see on Twitter because it is so much more visual…it’s like you get to step right into the world of the person who laid out the tweet.  I gotta stop talking and let @bikerly give out the goods.

#seenonmybike

- Jim aka @bikerly

As if creating a school on twitter with @egggman and @lovingthebike isn’t nerdy enough, I have another confession. Last fall I used an advanced Twitter search to find all tweets with the words twitpic AND bike, OR biking, OR cycling. The search results from TwitPic were pretty cool, but there are a lot of other ways people share their cycling photos – Flickr, Blogger, Tumblr, Instagram, Posterous, yfrog, Facebook… the possibilities are many.

To keep track of my own bikey photos I started a Posterous and tagged the autoposts on twitter with #seenonmybike. And one fall weekend I threw out a twitter challenge, “Hey tweeps, it’s a beautiful fall weekend. How many bikey pictures can we tag with #seenonmybike?” Sometimes hashtags take off and sometimes they don’t. In this case it was reasonably successful with a small group sharing their photos from their weekend rides.

Jim: Just one of the things #seenonmybike.

Nothing tells a story better than pictures. Photo blogs like Amsterdamize, Cycle Chic, Let’s Go Ride a Bike, Pebble Pedalers and Shebicycles inspire like heck. Phone cameras and micro blogs are making it easier for us to share pictures commuting to work, pedalling to the grocery store, reaching the peak, or however we are loving the bike. Let’s collect, organize and inspire. #seenonmybike

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.  ~Ansel Adams

Jim is one of my #bikeschool co-conspirators and all around great guy.  He’s a bike guy, but doesn’t consider himself a cyclist.  He’s also a runner and just took part in the Livestrong Marathon this past weekend in Austin.  If you’re not already following him on Twitter, you are missing out.  You can also find him blogging on grouchosports.com on Thursdays, and bikeschool.tumblr.com on Tuesdays.

The name #cyclenerds conjures up a few different thoughts, but as it’s founder @sarahstanley explains, the tag is intended “to get kids excited about riding a bike.  Maybe girls want to trick their bike out with ribbons & baskets. Maybe its getting the whole family together and going for a ride on beach cruisers.”

And when you say kids, you mean us adult sized kids as well, right Sarah?  ”Totally”

The first #cyclenerds tweet went out on January 19th and has just recently caught on in Twitterville.  ”My friend Kate started the #runnerds tag and I thought it would be cool if we cyclists had one too. But let’s face it, I just wanted to justify my bike geekness ” says Sarah.  The purpose of the hashtag is to create a lot of fun tweets about cycling and the “geeky” type things we do for our passion.

So what’s next for #cyclenerds?  With a smile on her face, Sarah envisions great things for the tag and says:

At the top of the list is having a #cyclenerds Awards. Think Oscars, only bigger and better. I want to see #cyclenerds a top trending topic, because that is even better than getting an Oscar. Or a Golden Globe (is that what they are called?!) And what else? Well if I told you I would have to kill ya. Or make you ride 300 miles – Sarah Stanley

Sarah is a bit of a Twitter Hashtag addict and along with #cyclenerds you can find her tweeting out the tags #cycling, #winterriding, #hotcyclingchic, #bikechick, #bikelove, #hillsforbreakfast, #beactive, and #cyclingrocks.

Along with sending out cool tweets, she spends her days “training, writing, drinking water, working on various non-profit projects, helping others live a healthy life, speaking on such topics, traveling – basically a struggling athlete with a smile and a healthy side of snark ”.

Sarah rides a Trek 5000WSD (that stands for Womens Specific Design, not the grease can), but is not only a cyclist.  She’s a pretty dang hardcore runner as well.  Sarah has ran 8 ultra marathons (with the longest distance being 100 miles) and the Double Boston Marathon in 2010.  Yeah, she’s insane.

www.runrideinspire.com

In late August 2011 I will be embarking on a cross country journey. Run Ride Inspire is a project I started to create awareness on healthy living, eating real food, helping others and of course spread the love of running or cycling:) I will be attempting to ride 50miles in each state and DC. Do the math. – Sarah Stanley

If you need motivation, real health/nutrition advice or a kick swift in the pants to do something, I suggest you follow her on Twitter (@sarahstanley or @runrideinspire), and be sure to check out her site: www.sarahstanleyinspired.com.

Come join the #cyclenerds nation! Go ride!

We spent the first two weeks of our new Hashtag Tuesday feature giving you the origin and story of two great Twitter #’s…..thanks to my friend Joe Anthony. This week, it’s my turn and I wanted to talk about how cycling hashtags get started more than focusing on one specific tag.

Hashtags are synonymous with Twitter and in my opinion they are another one of the funky things that makes being a “Tweep” so very cool.  But in case you really don’t know what the whole Hashtag thing is all about…here’s a quick lesson.

Twitter Hashtags 101

Definition: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

Hashtags: helping you find interesting Tweets

• People use the hashtag symbol (#) before relevant keywords in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets to show more easily in Twitter Search.
• Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category.
• Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet.
• Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.

Example: Below, @marijolamarche added the hashtag before the words “Cycling”, “Paradise” and “PR” in her message referring to some tag words associated with a tweet about her Puerto Rico trip. The words are now a link to search results for all Tweets containing those words in the message.

Creating a Cycling Hashtag

Okay, so you’re on twitter and you want to create a cycling hashtag that will take off and get people tweeting about it.  Creating it is easy….but getting people to buy into it is another story.  @bikerly, @egggman, and I took #bikeschool and have had great success with it in Twitterville (but we’ll talk more about #bikeschool in an upcoming Hashtag Tuesday feature).  But I’ve seen a whole bunch of Cycling #’s that didn’t make it past one tweet.

Here’s some tips on how to make your Hashtag stick:

Length: Create a fairly short hashtag that is quite easily recognizable and definable.  I’ve seen things like #howwasyourridetoday and #izacyclist and kind of see why they didn’t take off.  An abbreviation or acronym can work as long as it’s a common topic….#NAHBS may not look like it would catch on, but because it the common acronym for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, it works.

Excitement: Create a hashtag that gets people excited or is something they are passionate about.  We all love and are excited about riding so it’s no surprise that area specific cycling tags are very popular (#bikeLA, #bikeTO, and #bikeUK)

Relevance: It seems like hashtags work very well when they relate to what is being mentioned in a tweet.  #cycling, #bicycle, #whyweride, and other relevant cycling hashtags continue to get used due to their relevance to what is being tweeted out.

Create It

With all of this said, there are a couple cycling hashtags that I’d like to see created.  If you didn’t guess, one is #LovingtheBike which is a tag to be used in tweets that pertain to people showing love for cycling.  Not only does it keep our brand strong on Twitter, but also provides a pretty Exciting, Relevant, and appropriate Length tag….if we do say so ourselves.

Another tag I’d like to see take off comes from my friend @RaceG206.  She tweeted once about Cycling being like a church….and a perfect hashtag to be created from that would be #CyclingChurch.  Let’ make it happen.

What kind of Cycling Hashtag would you like to see created?  Let’s hear about it and we’ll help you get it out there and trending.

We had a great response to last week’s blog about #twowheeltuesday, where we  interviewed @Aus10Nichols of One Tree Hill and Carol of @LACBC about its origins.  We’re back with our weekly cycling # feature, and once again Joe anthony has the honors of sharing this week’s story……#saveacyclist.

#saveacyclist

- by Joe Anthony

While we spend most of our time online sharing the irrefutable joys of cycling here, @lovingthebike, and @bikecommutenews….unfortunately the dangers that come along with cycling are all too common.

Transportation in itself is risky, with as many as 50,000 driver fatalities every year in the U.S. alone, but cyclists are particularly vulnerable on the streets. Despite existing laws protecting cyclists, and driver education that anyone with a driver’s license has undergone, many still don’t take care to watch out for cyclists on the roads. The tragedy is that so many of these deaths are preventable.

@bikinginla recently posted a great piece on the vulnerability of cyclists, and just how avoidable car vs. bike collisions really are in a blog posted on @KCRW: I Trust You with My Life. No really.

The truth is that collisions are actually hard to have. If you obey the law, pass and turn safely, and pay attention to the road in front of you — and I do the same — it’s virtually impossible to come in contact with one another.

That’s why, if you’ve noticed, I don’t use the word accident to describe a wreck. Because very few accidents actually are. In order to have one, someone has to do something stupid, careless or illegal to cause it.

And that’s why I have trust in you.

Because I can only control what I do on the road. The rest is your hands.

And I’m counting on you to make sure we both get home safely.