Help!

I want to reach you at your most venerable. I want you to know, to understand what we at The Ride Of Silence are up against.

Understand, this ride is celebrating its 10th anniversary this coming May 2013. The ride started in May of 2003 as a desperate act of frustration at the status quo, namely, how cyclists are second class citizens. How, as cyclists, we've been willing to take whatever scraps the city we live in, gave us. How we are not a priority, or even on the list, though THOUSANDS are killed every year.

This ride as grown far beyond anyone's imagination. No one knew the nerve we were striking, or how the problems in Dallas are the same in Boston, Albuquerque, Des Moines, or Savannah: Trying to stay alive on two wheels! But we are all deeply thankful and appreciative for every thought and action that has gone it to The Ride Of Silence.

Now I am asking for your help to keep The Ride, and its primary resource, the web site, going.

Like a ship that is continuously at sea, our site is showing major signs of wear and tear. It needs to be over hauled. But, organizing a free bike ride around the world yields less income than the results of our work.

This is what our computer person, Ben (a Ride Of Silence organizer himself) explained to us tonight: "I had one of my software engineers look at the site to give me an estimate of the workload involved in renovating it... he rolled his eyes and say 'there is a lot, a lot of work to do. 2-3 months of full time work for an expert designer.' Especially if we want to expand the forms, functionalities implement SEO, forum and other shop or donate features. Our rough estimate, we are looking at a ceiling of USD 10,000-15,000, if we outsource it to India."

That is an unbelievable amount of money to us. Unfathomable. Can't even picture it. Now I come to you.

Can you help? Would you help? Anything you could do would be VERY appreciated as we want to keep the site going so we can help you and others like you, grow. So The Ride Of Silence can continue to spread the word of sharing the road.

Can you help us help the site? We're asking, please, donate.

"Give the GIFT to ROS - so that we can keep our site working for you."

Please?

Thank you!

Chris Phelan

2012 Directors, thank you!

Thank you, ride organizers.

It was another successful year for The Ride Of Silence because of your passion and dedication to the memory of those that have gone before us, and to the future of cycling.

Thank you for raising awareness in your community, knitting together your state and country, and joining the world on this one day, on a bike no less. If we can save one life, it’s worth it.

While the time is ripe, send in your ride report.

Here’s the link:

http://www.rideofsilence.org/reports/

Beside your location (city, state, country), the most important piece of information is the approximate number of riders you had in your ride.

Although there is space for 5 links to photos, news stories, and videos, if you have more, simply enter in what you can, hit “Submit Report” at the bottom, then return to the same page and submit more photo, news story, and video links. Quite simple, really.

But we really need the approximate number of riders.

The date for next year is May 15, 2013, at 7pm. Please mark your calendar now as we’ll be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the ride. (Keep on the look out for shirts and stuff!) You should hear from us no later than December 31 this year, asking to submit your ride for 2013. If you have not, PLEASE contact us so we can get a head start and we put your location on the map. We are looking forward to more cities, towns, states, and countries joining us next year, shooting for 350 locations and 25 countries for the 10th anniversary.

Thank you, again, and please submit your ride report. Well done and congratulations!

Please join us May 15, 2013, 7 PM.
363 Days to go!

Chris Phelan, Founder

The Ride Of Silence

http://www.rideofsilence.org/

http://www.facebook.com/rideofsilence

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Ride-of-Silence/33924790161?ref=ts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttNHKTRMtK4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNWj-OU5kBc

On Twitter: @RideofSilence

Wednesday, May 15, 2013, 7 PM

We all ride. Now we can ride as one.

One day. One time. One world, world wide.

Let the silence roar.

The 2012 Ride Of Silence

314 locations world wide

20 Countries

6 continents

0 words spoken

A million powerful memories.

Order Shirts Today

4/23/12, 1:50 PM, CST

Today is the final day for order a 10th special edition Ride Of Silence bike jersey.
The link will be taken down at 6 PM EST (5 PM CST).
If you want one, do it now.
By my clock, you have 3 hours and 10 minutes from now.
The orders close today.

C

Shirts!

Ride Of Silence 10th Annual Commemoration T-Shirt, and Bike Jersey


In 2012 commemorate the 10th anniversary of the first ever Ride of Silence event that was hosted the 3rd Wednesday in May, 2003. This t-shirt has been created especially to mark this 2012 event. All proceeds benefit the Ride of Silence. Buyers may purchase any type of t-shirt (including long-sleeve, sweatshirt, ladies', and kids' sizing) in any color, any quality. All available options are available under "choose your style and color." For example, you could add text "I ride in honor of ________" to the front &/or back AND they order long-sleeve for those chillier locations, or in more fitting ladies' sizing. Please note that the price will go up based on your selections. The base price for the t-shirt as listed is $24. Orders for THIS year's ride must be in by April23, five days from this writing.
Button, sticker, t-shirts:
www.tinyurl.com/ROS2012

Bike jersey:
http://mtborah.com/our-products/team-gallery/ride-of-silence/

Spread the word.

c

Tweet Up!" and "Calling Europe"

Instructions for folks to tweet-up:

In honor of the 10th Anniversary of the Ride Of Silence, we are encouraging a World Ride of Silence Twitter tweet-up.

Every local RoS will checks-in on the hour at the start of their ride or at a set time in their respective time zone.

Objective: At the start of every hour around the world, for 24 hours, RoS riders tweet-in for the cause using hashtag #RideOfSilence2012 at the start of their ride.

The result: We could trend the cause into a world record and trend social media like no one will have ever done before!

On another subject:

Why, why are Europeans not joining the rest of the world for the Ride Of Silence? It makes no sense. England? France? Portugal? Spain? Germany? Italy? Eastern European countries? Why? What is needed? What do we need to do? Contact us. Talk to us. Talk to someone. This is about solidarity, all of us, together, making a statement around the global, in your particular neighborhood. Tell us, show us what you need to join the rest of the world on May 16th, 7 pm, your time. Please. Help us help you. Not just your country, but the world wants you.

Join us, May 16, 7 pm

The 2011 Ride Of Silence:
322 locations world wide
24 Countries
7 continents
0 words spoken
A million powerful memories.

Ride Of Silence organizers and volunteers,

Welcome to the 10th year since The Ride Of Silence first rode. The history of that first gathering in Dallas, TX, has become almost mythical, as I am asked to re-tell the story many times over. I don’t mind, one syllable.

A ride or event, of this nature or scope had never taken place before. Not one of us knew what would follow, how it would impact cyclists, or just the term, “Ride Of Silence” would become well known in its own. After it was given birth, the ride seemed to take on a life of its own. We merely guided its energy as it exploded around the globe. It’s been amazing to see and be a part.

I appreciate those who have manned the helm year after year because your consistent message has continued undeterred. You must realize each year you host this ride, there is someone hearing our messages for the first time, …and statistics tell us, someone is hearing it for the last time. Keep up the consistency. Our purpose is noble, our cause is just. The Ride of Silence is an event worth continuing and protecting.

As for those of you who are just coming aboard, I welcome your passion. Something ignited deep inside you that made you want to do something, to become involved. Hold on to that reason because it will inspire when the work is long or hard or frustrating. We that have done this year after year, realize we are many times embarking on new ground for city offices and government officials. Use that enthusiasm and passion, or maybe a person’s name who you knew was killed by a motorist, that gave you a reason to start.

For all of you, let me tell about what’s new on the Organizer Resources page of The Ride Of Silence web site. Each year we try to make it easier for you to host a ride.

First, note because The Ride Of Silence is world wide, there are different languages on the web site to assist you and in getting the word out. If you don’t find your language, submit it, and we’ll post it.

Second, we’re close to finalizing a special anniversary Ride Of Silence bike shirt. This will be a limited run of maybe only 100. Elizabeth Adamczyk from Chicago, our newest board member, is heading this up. Be on the watch when this becomes available. As I said, there might not even be 100 of these made. When they’re gone, they are gone.

Next, the new poster for this year (courtesy of Mark Hagar, RoS Vice President, Mich. coordinator) is on the web site to help you publicize your ride. Along with it is a handout or flyer. You can download both.

An Organizer Checklist is also new! Use this handy checklist to help you better prepare and organize your event. (courtesy of Elizabeth Adamczyk, Chicago Organizer, RoS Board member) The Safe Riding Rules Handout template (courtesy of Mallory Hicks in memory of sister Paige Hicks) makes a good companion to the checklist, or the "Road Rules: Eight Tips For Safer Cycling", provided courtesy of Brushy Mountain Cyclists Club, provide useful information that you can hand out to your riders and promote safe cycling practices.

In an attempt to make letting us know how many riders you had for your event (an important piece of information when talking to the media), please check out the new Event Reporting Form. We encourage you to use this to report event details, upload photos, links to articles, etc. NOTE: DO NOT include a comma when inputting the number of participants (if you had more than 999 riders).

There’s also How to organize a Ride of Silence™ (General information and tips), a press release to get the word out to your local media (examples are provided), a Sample State Resolution (Approach your state's bicycling coalition or League office and ask for a resolution like this - thank you North Carolina!), a list of web sites where you can submit the details of your local Ride of Silence and get the word out, a Memoriam Powerpoint slideshow (web browser viewable - best viewed with Internet Explorer; show before or after rides, or during stationary group rides, and a YouTube Public Service Announcement produced by Michael Friedoff. (He has filmed the Dallas ride over the years but very few had seen his clips. He put this 30 second PSA together to be aired anywhere and everywhere.)

Other resources to help you and your ride is our Mentor Program for new locations or new site directors who have questions about starting a RIDE OF SILENCE in their community. Contact: Mark Hagar - our Michigan director who has helped make Mich. the state with the most RoS events for several years running, or Benoit Valin - International, English or French (Benoit is our Singapore organizer whose event drew almost 500 participants in 2009, his first year as organizer!).
Also on the site are copies of “Ride of Silence.” “Share the Road Same Road,” and “Same Rules” small signs you can use to laminate and pin or zip-tie to panniers, jerseys, etc.), as well as banners - 2 different sizes with RoS inspired messages were designed to be mounted to large boards mounted to bike-trailers, adapted from the design below by Tim Potter, E. Lansing, MI organizer (2010).
Last, there are mapping tools, logos, and a Ride Of Silence disclaimer form. As you can see that’s quite a lot that’s there for you.

I want to thank those who came out to The National Bike Summit in Washington, DC, March 20-23. Louis Vivanco, Burlington, VT; Steven Hardy-Braz, Farmville, NC, Tim Blumenthal, Bikes Belong; Aaron Chang, Houston, TX; Lyndsay McKeever, Blacksburg, VA; Celeste Burr, Marietta, GA, Jennifer Buntz, Santa Fe, NM; and Vincent Cooke, Ownings Mills, MD.

Congratulations on inspiring so many people, and getting the message out to others who probably were hearing this for the first time. It was inspiring to meet some of the ride directors, to hear their stories, and successes with the ride.

This is an important date for your community. Cherish it. Through its people, your town has taken a giant step in the right direction toward cyclist safety.

As you probably do, we see this as a very significant event, if only because it is held world wide on the same day, at the same time. But more so, because it remembers those lost doing what is a legal right.

Again, thank you for being part of this world wide event. It is appreciated. Thank you for your passion. I look forward to partnering with each of you as we continue the tradition of excellence that distinguishes The Ride Of Silence, and as together, we envision the path for the future. Our purpose is noble, our cause is just. The Ride of Silence is an event worth protecting.

Through the web site, be sure to let us know how it goes, especially how many people attend. (Send reports to: http://www.rideofsilence.org/reports/)

Thank you!

40 Days to go!

Chris Phelan, Founder
The Ride Of Silence
http://www.rideofsilence.org/
http://www.facebook.com/rideofsilence
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Ride-of-Silence/33924790161?ref=ts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttNHKTRMtK4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNWj-OU5kBc
On Twitter: @RideofSilence
Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 7 PM
We all ride. Now we can ride as one.
One day. One time. One world, world wide.
Let the silence roar.

The 2011 Ride Of Silence
322 locations world wide
50 U.S. states
24 Countries
7 continents
0 words spoken
A million powerful memories.

Photosby Tim Potter: Chris Phelan navigates Washington DC, March 30; meeting other RofS ride directors and cool people at the National Bike Summit: Jennifer Buntz, NM; Ann Swain, Wash DC; Vincent Cook, Owings Mills, MD; RofS Founder; Elizabeth Adamczyk, Board Member, Chicago;

The Ride Of Silence

Wichita Falls, Texas, start of the Hotter 'n Hell Hundred; cyclists just waiting for a bus to cut them off.

I just watched the video of bus purposely driving and swerving into a cyclist on a busy city street. The cyclists received a fractured leg and wrist. The bus driver, 17 months in jail.

http://gma.yahoo.com/video/news-26797925/bus-driver-hits-cyclist-caught-on-tape-28342258.html#crsl=%252Fvideo%252Fnews-26797925%252Fbus-driver-hits-cyclist-caught-on-tape-28342258.html

To find these two modes of transportation pitted against each other is a David and Goliath story.

The venerable and defenseless, self powered cyclist who can’t help but ride beneath the 30 MPH speed limit, vs. the metal behemoth that belches diesel with abandon, stops in No Parking Zones, runs red lights, speeds through city streets with the power of a weighted right foot on the gas pedal, and turns recklessly in and out traffic.

Is this even a contest?

With its protruding mirrors, the dinosaur of the street has lances to strike unsuspecting pedestrians as well as cyclists and other cars. City buses appear to get a free pass from state inspection agencies.

Yeah, yeah. I know their big and bulky. There’s a solution for that. Take them off city streets, make the buses smaller – thinner and shorter length, or aim for higher driving skills from the operators.

Shame on buses. Shame on our society for their proliferation.

It’s disturbing to read the mindset of some who commented and condoned that this kind of behavior is OK, to nearly kill another person, despite their defenselessness, or the out sized battle between a bus and a bicyclist. It’s abhorrent.

And, yet, it exists.

I’ve read comments where motorists, right here in Dallas, ranted with such ferocity as to almost set my computer creen on fire. Pure and raw, hatred for people on two wheels spoken from the superiority of being safely encased on four wheels, poured out on to people’s keyboards. It’s shocking this atmosphere even exists, let alone tolerated, at a time when every soccer mom wants to hang the school yard bully from their own SUV rear view (make-up?) mirror. How can this be?

Oh, don’t pretend it only happens “in that other town,” or “in another state,” and now, “in THAT country.” No, not any more, ladies and gentlemen. Not any more. The problem is so perverse and pervasive as to cause grassroots organizing. One is the annual Ride Of Silence that was begun right here in Dallas, at White Rock Lake.

One of the things that was learned via The Ride Of Silence was how problem motorists aren’t just in Dallas, or in Texas, or in the good ol’ US of A. Nope. Put on your helmets because they’re everywhere. Even in that land of eternal sunshine, blond hair, and youth, California. “We have met the enemy. And he is us.”

Through the Ride Of Silence, we have learned that every state, E V E R Y state, has tragic cases (multiple) of a motorist flying into a rage and slamming into a cyclist, some times many cyclists. (The free and slow Ride Of Silence will take place on Wednesday, May 16, 7 PM, world wide. www.rideofsilence.org)

And as we can all see, these not-so-rare cases haven’t chased off the two-wheeled population. In fact, just the opposite. Cycling has grown by every category. Bikes sold, organized rides, stores, training programs, and number of cyclists. Been to White Rock Lake lately, on a Saturday morning in August? You’d think we lived in Europe.

Face it! They’re every where! And they’re here to stay. Bicycles are not suddenly going to be outlawed or disappear into garages like prohibition stills. They’re not.

The best thing a motorist can do is get with the program, realize “they’re out there,” and get used to the cyclists riding on the road where they are legally supposed to be. Additionally, motorists have a legal obligation to share the road with a cyclist and others. Have you noticed those signs around town, “Share The Road?” Didn’t think so.

Really, bicycles are the best thing for any neighborhood or street. Studies show that where there are cyclists there are fewer accidents, less crime, and a healthier population. So why not embrace cyclists? Why not?

They lessen congestion, aid toward cleaner air, help to keep motorists at or below the speed limit, and encourage other users of the roads and sidewalks such as walkers and runners, in particular.

There is no reason, NO REASON, to point a bus or any motor vehicle at a cyclist with the intent to scare, injure, or kill. No reason. I’ve been hit a few times (broadsided, head on, and from behind), had glass bottles thrown at me from a car traveling 40 MPH, and a metal rod pointed at me with the intent of taking out my eye, all from a motor vehicles right here in Dallas.

Why? Because I’m going 20 MPH? Really? That’s your reason? Really? Turn on “American Idol” if you want to get angry.

I’m thinking of Fred Mercury’s yell from vinyl history. “Get on your bikes, and ride!”

You are inspiring many people through this ride, while getting the message out to others who probably were hearing this for the first time. I'm happy to hear you’re doing this.

This is an important date for your community. Cherish it. Through its people, your town has taken a giant step in the right direction toward cyclist safety.

As you probably do, we see this as a very significant event, if only because it is held world wide on the same day, at the same time. But more so, because it remembers those lost doing what is a legal right.

Again, thank you for being part of this world wide event. It is appreciated. Thank you for your passion. I look forward to partnering with each of you as we continue the tradition of excellence that distinguishes The Ride Of Silence, and as together, we envision the path for the future. Our purpose is noble, our cause is just. The Ride of Silence is an event worth protecting.

Through the web site, be sure to let us know how it goes, especially how many people attend. (Send reports to: http://www.rideofsilence.org/reports/)

84 Days to go!

Please join us May 16, 2012, 7 PM

Chris Phelan, Founder
The Ride Of Silence
www.rideofsilence.org
Follow & interact with others on the National Ride of Silence page on
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rideofsilence
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Ride-of-Silence/33924790161?ref=ts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttNHKTRMtK4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNWj-OU5kBc
On Twitter: @RideofSilence
Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 7 PM
One day. One time. One world, world wide.
Let the silence roar.

The 2011 Ride Of Silence
322 locations world wide
24 Countries
7 continents
0 words spoken
A million powerful memories.