This past Saturday was a bike-tography extravaganza for Yours Truly. The 28th annual El Tour de Tucson drew me and my camera to the Downtown finish line for some photographic fun. First, the anticipation. The top finishers hadn’t arrived yet. But Tucson’s tifosi were waiting for them… The 109-mile race was won by Eric Marcotte,…
America’s second largest bicycle swap meet happened in Tucson this past Saturday. The fall 2010 edition of our two-wheeled buying, selling and trading extravaganza drew thousands of cyclo-philes to Fourth Avenue. And the bike swap had something for everyone. So, you say you need some new sneakers for your favorite mountain bike? Gotcha covered… Or…
Yesterday evening was one of those times when the "Yeah, right!" storm clouds stomped through central Tucson. You know those clouds. They throw out plenty of thunder and lightning, but rain? No way. So, I got on my bike and pedaled over to Main Gate Square’s First Thursday Art Walk. This month’s event featured work…
When I was in my early twenties, I set the goal of bicycling through all 50 of the United States. I accomplished this over a 12-year period, and wrote and published two books about my experiences. My travels also took me into Canada. During a 1987 ride down the Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Banff,…
The diversity of Tucson’s cycling scene never ceases to amaze me. In addition to the wide variety of bicyclists, our two-wheelers are used for a lot more than just riding along the terra firma. Take, for example, the riders from Southern Arizona Freestyle Entertainment. They treat their bikes like aircraft… This gravity-defying demo was part…
Last month’s Swap Meet was a great place for the buying, selling and trading of anything having to do with bikes and bicycling. It also presented a wonderful opportunity to engage in the art of bike-tography, which combines bicycling and photography. In addition to getting wide-angle shots of all the action, the Swap Meet was…
This past Saturday, hundreds of bicycle racers and fans converged on the University of Arizona. The draw was the all-day UA Criterium, which wound its way around the campus. This one’s from a men’s race that took place during the afternoon…
My previous post on Dillinger Days was mostly about cars. Well, I’m here to tell you that a lot of people rode their bikes to Dillinger Days, so it’s time to give some equal time to the two-wheelers. Like this one, which casts an interesting shadow on the Toole Avenue sidewalk …
Well, it’s December, and the Christmas shopping season is hopping. Time to join several hundred thousand of your best friends on Fourth Avenue for Tucson’s Winter Street Fair. Along with several dozen other Watershed Management Group volunteers, I worked the edge of the fair. My job was to prevent people from leaving with open containers…
Was riding across the Snake Bridge, which is just east of Downtown Tucson. This is a bicycle and pedestrian bridge over Broadway Boulevard, and the outside skin has a snake pattern. The southern entrance has a rattler that goes off whenever someone approaches. The juxtaposition of the Snake Bridge, the traffic below, and my venerable…
Last month, I was walking along Congress Street in Downtown Tucson. It was a Monday night, not much happening, and I spotted this lone bike outside the Rialto Theatre. No acts performing at the Rialto, so that didn’t explain why the bike was there. It almost seemed as if it was forgotten, but it was…
If you’re a bike-tographer like I am, El Tour de Tucson draws you like a magnet. This annual event goes around the perimeter of Tucson and attracts cyclists from all over the world. I didn’t ride in this year’s El Tour, but I went Downtown to photograph the finishers. And to indulge in some artsiness……
Tucson, AZ – Martha Retallick, local photographer, community activist, and volunteer, just launched a stock photo website for ad agencies, photo editors, businesses, and organizations. BicycleStockImages.com features photos of the bike culture, including bicycle racing, bicycle touring, utilitarian cycling, and artistic close-ups of bicycles, bike tools, and bike parts. A practitioner of “bike-tography,” Retallick, who…
On the lighting front, we’re getting to an interesting part of the year. Tucson’s days are getting shorter, but we’re not seeing the weak twilight of the winter months. In the hour before sunset, the sun’s still showing strong light while casting long shadows. Here’s a bicycling example…
This past Saturday was our nation’s 233rd birthday. This All-American event was celebrated with parades, speeches, picnics, and fireworks. Here in Tucson, it was a great day to take Old Glory for a bicycle ride. And that’s just what I did. Taped a small flag to my tire pump, then stowed the pump and flag…
In Tucson’s Armory Park neighborhood, I came upon this gate sculpture. Obviously done by a bicyclist wishing to find another use for all of those old bike parts… March 2019 update: Oops! Looks like that photo went bye-bye when I had this blog redesigned. But, never fear, here’s a bit of bike part art.
This past Saturday, the northeast portion of the University of Arizona campus played host to several hundred fast bicyclists and interested spectators. The occasion was the UA Criterium, a street race over a course that was closed to motorized traffic. The Criterium competitors far outnumbered the spectators, so it was easy to find a place…
Tucson’s 2009 St. Patrick’s Day Parade happened a couple of days ago. But an Ides of March Parade just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Like any notable Tucson parade, it had its own touch of weirdness. If such an award were given, the Green Man Group would have won first prize for having…
This past Saturday, thousands of bicyclists converged on Fourth Avenue near Downtown Tucson. While many of the two-wheeled legions rode to the semi-annual Bicycle Swap Meet, there was more looking than riding. With so many people gathered in one place, it was hard to get more than a couple of pedal strokes in. Besides, there…
Today is National Park(ing) Day in Tucson and other cities. It’s an an opportunity to celebrate parks in cities and promote the need for more parks by creating temporary public parks in public parking spaces. Tucson’s insta-parks were created by a wide variety of public and private entities. City High School set up an outdoor…
Was pedaling around the University of Arizona late yesterday afternoon. Had the camera draped around my neck so I could quickly catch anything interesting. Went by the entrance to the business school, and the late afternoon sun and shadows got my attention…