I had the wonderful opportunity to volunteer with NNTMA's great event, 50 Bikes 50 Kids on MLK, jr. day. Kids ages 9-17 are nominated by community members and are judged based on their character traits: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. Fifty kids are selected to build their own brand new bicycles on this day. It is an amazing event! Although I'm sure it had to be chaotic juggling all the volunteers and supplies needed to keep everything running smoothly, from my point of view, it came together beautifully! Abbey, Mellissa, and Becky of the North Natomas Transportation Management Associate worked so hard to put this on. Everyone had such a wonderful time and you could tell from the students' faces that they were thrilled with their new bicycles.
The decor and DJ made for a festive atmosphere! Every time a student came through with their finished bike, the DJ announced them while everyone cheered.
The bikes and crews await.
Volunteers helping one of the students put together her Specialized bike.
Most of the students couldn't wait to get on and ride away!
 Jim Brown of SABA demonstrates how to properly lock their bikes and hands them a new u-lock. |  Each kid was given a helmet and learned how to properly fit it. |
The final group photo!
Arlete, another LCI, and I were in charge of the skills course so the students could have a chance to practice with their new bicycles and learn some quick bike handling lessons. We had a range of skills from brand-new riders to confident cyclists.
The North Natomas Flyer was on hand so students could practice loading their bikes on the new racks. The Jumped at the chance to get my Haul-a-Day onboard.
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The second great event I was a part of last week was our January Kidical Mass ride. Melissa, one of our Sac Kidical Mass board members, had arranged through her work at Regional Transit to have a bus for us to practice loading bikes onto their new three-bike racks. I was really glad to have gotten a second opportunity to test out these bus racks with the cargo bikes because these racks were significantly different from the Flyer's.
Big Brother's Islabike was a piece of cake to load up. The front handle swings around and the hoop secures the front wheel.
One the third-longest OSATA setting, the Haul-a-Day's back wheel hung off the back of the rack. It was a bit nerve wracking but still seemed pretty secure. Turning around the front wheel didn't help to shorten the wheelbase because the rack's hoop interfered with the fender.
Keith showed up with his new tiny-wheel-longtail cargo bike of his own design. These are 16" wheels but the deck is incredibly long. He was jealous of my ability to ride the train with a cargo bike.
After some impressive hefting with the bus driver's help, Lamaia was even able to get her Mundo on the bus rack. While it might not be a great long-distance solution, it was possible. The driver was confident that it could work even though the back wheel hung off quite a bit. As long as the front wheel was secure, the back of the bike wasn't going anywhere.
We had a great group for our January ride from park-to-library, about 31 riders from our count, many of them solo kids! The beautiful weather and funny magician at the library kept everyone in a happy mood.
The conglomeration of cargo bikes!
A busy week filled with friends and bikes!
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