The 2012 Ride of Silence is happening this evening at 6 p.m. at Reid Park.

The ride was started as a way to remember cyclists that have been injured or killed while riding bikes and takes places in location all across the world.

Here are the details from GABA, the group organizing the ride:

The Ride of Silence™ will begin in North America and roll across the globe. Cyclists will take to the roads in a silent procession to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways. Cyclists have a legal right to share the road with motorists, but the motoring public often isn’t aware of these rights and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.

Please join us in our participation in the National Ride of Silence on the 16th of May 2012 at 6:00 P.M.

The purpose of this ride is to HONOR those who have been injured or killed on our roads by a vehicle.

We are working to RAISE AWARENESS that we are here and have the legal right to the road.

We ask that everyone SHARE THE ROAD with respect for the law and each other.

Your presence would confirm your support of safety and education for the benefit of our large community of cyclists.

Start: Reid Park at west side Ramada #22, located at the Park’s northernmost parking lot on Country Club Road, gathering at 5:45 pm for light refreshments and send-off. Distance is approximately nine miles.

Leave: 6:00 pm. From the parking area, head south on Country Club Rd., west on 22nd Street, north on Tucson Boulevard, east on E. Elm St. which becomes Pima St., south on Columbus Blvd., west on 22nd Street, north on Country Club Rd., and return to parking lot.

Another Ride of Silence will take place in Green Valley this evening as well. The ride starts at the Green Valley Recreation East Social Center parking lot (Abrego/Esperanza intersection). Light refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m.

This weekend’s Tour of the Tucson Mountains will mark the 26th time Perimeter Bicycling of America has hosted the annual ride. It will also be the last.

Perimeter president and El Tour de Tucson creator, Richard DeBernardis, said ultimately the decision to discontinue the ride after Saturday’s event same down to economics.

It’s something the group has been wrestling with for the last three years.

“It took three years to make the decision,” DeBernardis said.  “I really didn’t want to let it go. It’s like losing a family member.”

They finally decided to end the event after seeing this year’s registration numbers.

300 fewer cyclists are registered for the event, which is the lowest it has been in 15 years. The decrease in riders this year represents about a $30,000 loss to Perimeter.

He said having two events in April may have led to the decline in ridership. They host the Tour de Mesa ride in early April and the Tour of the Tucson Mountains at the end of April. He said on 25 percent of the cyclists attend both rides.

He hopes the move will increase the ridership for the Tour de Mesa rather than have people decide to do one or the other.

DeBernardis said there are so many other non Perimeter events in April that is makes it tough for cyclists to find the time to ride them all. He said cyclists are sending them a message about the ride and it’s importance.

“If cyclists are not going to support it then there is not reason to have it especially if we are going to lose on it,” he said.

DeBernardis said he didn’t want to risk the health of Perimeter as a whole to protect Tour of the Tucson Mountains.

“If we keep losing on this. it could take down all of Perimeter and we don’t want that,” he said.

The move leaves the group with El Tour de Tucson, The Cochise Classic and El Tour de Mesa, but DeBernardis said he’d like a fourth race that doesn’t compete with the others and is looking outside of Arizona.

He said Colorado Springs has contacted him about hosting a ride in the summers and even offered to pay the group $100,000 to organize it. He said they aren’t sure they will end up there and are looking elsewhere including in parts of Canada. He he said he does want to create a ride in June or July somewhere that cool weather.

In the interim, DeBernardis is coming to terms with the decision and believes it is the best way to ensure the health of El Tour de Tucson. He is however saddened to lose the second race he ever created.

“It breaks my heart to lose it.”

Editor’s note: This article is authored by Kylie Walzak, Janet K. Miller and Greta Anderson, original members of the Tucson Bicycle Belles. The Tucson Bicycle Belles are a diverse group of female bicycle enthusiasts who aim to share the joy of cycling with other Tucson women by hosting low-stress rides coupled with fun events and short educational workshops. Find us on Facebook.

After the rainy weather left us feeling shorted after Tucson’s Cyclovia earlier this spring, we decided to join the fun in Los Angeles for CicLAvia. We rolled by train to the big city and joined 100,000 other participants on Sunday, April 15. The route, which has remained mostly unchanged over the last four events, covers ten miles of the city and connects many interesting neighborhoods into one huge block party.

The train trip was an adventure in itself and it’s a great way to travel with bikes. For a small fee you can box up your bike and load it on the train like luggage, and only a few small bits of disassembly are necessary (pedal wrench and allen wrench will do!). We left around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday after a drink at Maynard’s and slept (or not) on the train. We awoke to day break in the Palm Desert with snow-capped mountains in the background.

Upon arrival in LA, we were eager to reassemble our bikes and ride! We were met at the station by Ann Chanecka, a Tucson Belle, and Amy Turnbull from Los Angeles. CicLAvia started just a few pushes from the train station and we got there just in time to watch Mayor Villaraigosa start his ride.

Unfortunately, we just missed the big news announcement of the day that almost upstaged CicLAvia itself. Villaraigosa had just announced that Los Angeles will receive the country’s largest bike share program in the next 18-24 months with 4,000 bikes spread out over 400 stations at a cost of $16 million funded entirely by a private company. There were lots of camera crews around for that and we managed to crash the LA times newscast (Check us out at 1:46-1:49. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0416-ciclavia-20120416,0,375790.story ) Because we wore our homemade “Tucson Bicycle Belles” T-shirts, lots of people welcomed us to LA and asked if we had biked there. (Our beaux Troy and Paulus wore dapper threads and a “Tucson Bicycle Balls” shirt made its appearance. Those gentlemen looked good!)

There is so much to say about the ride itself and the fun stuff on the route. There were intersection art installations, food truck hubs (yum!), solar-powered DJ stations with music pumping, lowrider bikes, games, bunny costumes, rollerblading dancing fashion savants, a minister blessing bikes, bubbles, kids on skates and tricycles, hipsters on fixies, dogs on bikes, people lounging on astroturf in the middle of roundabouts, tall bikes, bike clubs, bike traffic (bumper-to-bumper!), and new and old friends along the route. The TBB added to the quirkiness by spoonbombing, putting some fresh BICAS stickers at key locations, and keeping up the vibe with our monster grins and out-of-towner giddiness.

Late in the afternoon the central hub of the ride was gridlocked with bike traffic. It took three light changes to get through the intersections, but it had a celebratory vibe unlike any automotive traffic jam. Overheard was the cutest, freckly-faced little girl proclaim “Us bikes RULE this place today! I LIKE this kind of traffic!”

Not surprisingly, but worth mentioning, not one of us witnessed any collisions during our four-hour long bike ride and many beginners were out struggling to gain momentum with that first, wobbly pedal stroke up a steep hill. The CicLAvia event organizers had great signage reminding people to take it slow. There was a real sense of how important it was to look out for your neighbor and take care riding around slower riders and pedestrians.

In that crowd of 100,000 cyclists in a far off city, we were amazed to casually bump into at least four people we knew. Coincidence? Not really; when we’re out on our bikes riding together and talking to one another we realize how interconnected we are.

Alas, after four short hours of riding that flew by like 45 minutes, we scurried back to the station, reboxed our bikes, and boarded the train home to Tucson.

We watched the sunset over the Mojave desert from the observation car on the train, sipping delicious adult beverages and reminiscing fondly about the art, bikes, and people we shared the day with. We returned inspired to spread the joy and make Tucson’s future Cyclovias even better and more frequent! There really is nothing better than car-free streets, good friends, a bicycle, and glorious sunny weather.

Check out more images from the trip.

Editor’s note: Karilyn Roach wrote this post. She holds a MS in Urban Planning from the University of Arizona and works as a Program Coordinator with Watershed Management Group, a Tucson non-profit. She currently sits on the Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee and rides a Jamis Aurora Elite.

Snow and mud greeted riders at the entrance to the race course on Saturday.

The fifth race of the MBAA 2012 season, the Prescott Punisher, was set to be held on Saturday, April 14. After four inches of snow fell on the trails Friday night, race organizers and the Forest Service decided “it was in the interest of rider safety and trail sustainability” to cancel the event.

According to the MBAA website, organizers are looking at the possibility of re-scheduling the race. However with the Whiskey 50 Off-road race to be held in Prescott in just two weeks, and the last MBAA race in Flagstaff in one month, they will be hard pressed to find time.

Some hardy Tucson riders – TJ Woodruff, Charlie Roach, and John and Nora Beck – decided the day should not be wasted and braved snow and mud to pre-ride the Skull Valley climb section of the Whiskey 50 course.

John and TJ, from Momentum Racing, after the ride.

Here are a few more photos of their adventure and the muddy race course.

This year’s spring GABA Bike Swap had a slightly new location off of Fourth Avenue and a new method for reserving spaces.

Greg Yares, the bike swap organizer, said for this swap he charged vendors $100 to reserve a space in the prime sales area in the center of the swap.

He said the cash goes directly to GABA and reserving the space means vendors don’t have to compete to get good spots by arriving at 2 a.m.

Yares marked off free areas for the swappers who didn’t want to pay the $100 reservation fee.

Check out the video and photos from the swap.