 the two-wheel revolution here on thinktecawai.com. This is a program where we talk about the geeky word micro-mobility or personal mobility or getting around in ways other than cars primarily. Bicycles, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards, and pretty soon we're going to have e-skates, I think, to talk about. But today we've got two guests from the Hawaii Bicycle League, and of course bicycles are still the main way that people do get around when they're not on the bus or in automobiles. So welcome to Travis Council, who's Executive Director. Hello, hot Travis. Thanks for having us. And Chris Thales is the Events Manager for HBL and who's pretty busy right now because we're only about three, a little over three weeks out from the Century Ride. Is that about right, Chris? Yeah, just over three weeks. It'll be three weeks this Sunday. All right. So many people will see this after the event, but it is before the event. It's on the 24th of September. And tell us about it. Tell us what's going to happen. Tell us what to expect. It is the 40th anniversary of the Honolulu Century Ride. It's a ride that starts and ends at Kapliwani Park. We head out along the coast, out to Hawaii, and then through Kailua, through Kapolei, or I mean Kaneohe, and then up to Swansea Beach where we turn around and come back. It has seven aid stations and it's fully supported, and a great time and a good excuse to get out since it's our largest fundraiser. All right. Now, I personally don't want to ride 100 miles. What am I going to do? We have shorter options. There's 25, 50, 75-mile turnaround points. Of course, you could turn around wherever you feel comfortable with riding that day. We do have a Loha Fun Ride, which is a short, family-oriented ride that just takes you off to Kahala and back. It's only eight miles, but it uses the same finish area as the Honolulu Century Ride, so there's plenty to celebrate there. All right. And did you say how many people expect we're going to be riding? We're expecting around 1,200, 1,300 people this year. Is that a high number or a low number for these rides historically? Historically, it's a little bit lower compared. We saw some pretty good participation in the early 2000s, but for the last decade, it seems pretty on par with what we've been seeing. But you missed a year or two with COVID, I think. Yes, we did. We missed 2020 and 2021. Okay. Travis, what's the significance of the 40th time this event has been held? It's a pretty awesome number. What's the significance of 40 times? Yeah. I mean, it just really shows the longevity of an event like this. You can kind of see behind me. We keep a lot of the ride shirts from our older rides all the way back into the 80s. And a lot of our members have participated in dozens, if not more, of those rides. It has certainly evolved and changed a little over the years, but in general, the course is about the same as it was in the 1980s. And it's an amazing event that really is, we pinned it as the best day to ride Aloha, just because you're going to be out there with a thousand of your other cycling friends. And it does support a great cause. It helps fund our advocacy and our education events throughout the year. And Chris, what goes into pulling off an event like this? It's kind of a big deal, roads closed, cops everywhere, age stations. What's involved? Orchestrating the permits for the street usage and park usage, getting the cops there, and assigning what intersections they're at to kind of facilitate traffic. And we advise everyone to follow the laws and that it's just a ride, not a race, but it's still a great time to be out there. So safety is always number one concern. And with that, we have a roaming course support that can help you if you need help with the flat or if you have some other mechanical. And then all the aid stations have medical and mechanical help as well with like stuff to rehydrate with and refuel with. We have snacks out there, a lot of moving pieces, but it all comes together. And it's always an amazing feeling when it's all over and said and done with. And you get to take a couple of days off maybe. So what's going to be like at the finish line? You're going to have all these different, the 100 milers, the 50 milers, the family fun folks who are all going to be at the finish line and copy on your part. What's going to be happening there? We have some live music scheduled at the bandstand. We have the Royal Hawaiian Band and the Air Force Band and the Pacific Fleet Band all playing starting at 10 30 in the morning. We'll have food vendors. We have some of our nonprofit partners that we work with throughout the year that will be there giving out information and educational materials. And we're going to have some activities for the kids, a little bike rodeo where they can bike through cones and do a little obstacle course. But yeah, good times. All right. And speaking of kids, Travis, one of the big functions or activities of the HBL is education. And can you tell us a little bit about that? Remind us what kind of education programs are going? Of course, yeah. So education, as you said, is one of our kind of three focuses. We have advocacy, education and events. So education is definitely the one that that probably has some of the biggest impacts in the community sense. Our largest program and our oldest program is our bike ed Hawaii. Probably more people know bike ed than they do HBL. But we administer that program, which teaches fourth grades across Oahu bike safety. It's a week long course, basically like a gym class for the students, but teaches them how to ride their bikes safely to school and kind of the basic rules of the road, if you will, so that they're out there being safe. We also have adult education programs like fixing a flat or teaching somebody how to ride comfortably on the road with traffic. And we even have senior cycling. So this is adult recumbent bikes so that balancing is less of a concern, but just keeps people moving at an older age as well. And I think you joined us on one of those a couple months ago and got to experience that program out in the Pearl Harbor Historic Trail. Yeah, I did. It was great. You have a bunch of, I don't know how many, but certainly enough for us, you had, there were coming tricycles. So you are leaning back and you're pretty hard to fall over, I think. I couldn't do it. And if I can't fall over, nobody can fall over. I always started my bike riding when I did bicycle touring and Europe. I always have to have one fall so that once it's out of the way, I don't have to worry about it anymore. I don't advise that, but it seems to be the way it works. Okay, so and that education program, is there more you would do, or do you think that covers the waterfront? Are there other educational items? And I'll tell you why I asked. At the end of the show, I'm going to do a little promo for an e-bike course that the League of American Cyclists and People for Bikes have put online. And for somebody that's just getting started or hasn't started, I think that's probably a pretty good start. But with more and more e-bikes, I wonder if there's going to be a need for a particular e-bike, electric bike courses or are there other education programs you think we need to look at? Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head with the e-bikes. We've done a couple smaller kind of test e-bike classes or kind of intros or people that are curious about e-bikes. And we're actually working with the Hawaii Department of Transportation to potentially have some funding to expand those offerings so that people that either get an e-bike or are curious about an e-bike can kind of learn, you know, there aren't different rules of the road, but they are a different than a traditional bike in the sense of the speed that they might go or the power of those types of things. So that's really important there. And I think kind of even expanding that to just some of the more emerging technologies you mentioned at the beginning of the show around scooters and the one-wheels and the different devices that aren't your traditional car, bike, walk mindset. So I think expanding into that. Additionally, we have education workshops and kind of presentations that I'd like to see expanded that are focused more on the other users of the road, predominantly the people driving, really to just emphasize safety and responsibility of sharing the road and being aware of other users. When you explain to somebody that a person on a bike has the same rights as the person in a car, it sometimes surprises people. But the more that you can kind of emphasize that the laws are, you know, in fact there, that you can kind of make more people aware and ideally less conflicts and less crashes and ultimately less injuries and fatalities. All right. And I noticed you said crashes. We don't say accidents anymore, right? We say crashes because they're the result of somebody not doing what they needed to do. They're not accidents. Exactly. Accident removes the concept of fault. As soon as you say accident, there's no fault there. It's just an act that happened. Where the crashes is more just a term. It's a fact that occurred. So we allow basically either, I don't want to say fault, but responsibility and additional details to fill in the gaps. But at least in the initial stage that the crash or collision, it's not an accident. Accidents are fairly rare. Let's put it that way. Okay. Chris, going back for a minute to the century ride, you told me, I think that there's some people who have been who've written other century rides or written many century rides. Tell me a little more about that. Yes. A couple of people have reached out to me asking questions about the ride. They're coming from the mainland. They've ridden in 49 states, a century ride in each of them, and they've saved Hawaii as their crown jewel, their 50th century ride in a state. So that's pretty exciting that they have chosen and planned out and set that kind of bucket list goal for themselves to ride a century in every U.S. state. And they're all three of them are choose like independently. They aren't known to each other. Just happens to be that they are choosing this century ride to do it, which is exciting and fun. That's cool. Are you going to get them a special jersey or a special number or something so we can see where these 50th does. The first one, because I think she's celebrating her birthday as well, like now a bunch of friends to do it. I gave her the 50th bib. So that should be a surprise to her. All right. Good to take care of her. So eventually this is going to be like the holiday marathon, right? It'll be a big tourist event. People will become small over the country, all over the world to ride in century rides here. Would that be a good thing? That would be a good thing. I think we are already seen. We see some international people coming. We have, I think just compared to last year, we have more people from like California, Oregon, Washington that are coming. I've checked the registration and it seems like our mainland numbers are up. So that's nice. As a runner as well, I feel like it's just a little bit harder. You have that increased cost and problems and logistics of bringing your bike when you travel. But yeah, we would love to see the Honolulu century ride grow to be as big as the Honolulu marathon. It will take a few years. There are some logistical problems with the bikes. Hey, have it grow a little bit a year. On that note, in addition to being the 40th anniversary, this year is our 20th or I guess 20th event, but over 20 years of support from Japan Airlines, one of our sponsors, and they're a big partner of bringing a couple hundred, at one point, almost a thousand people over from Japan, largely because they provide a bike waiver to travel with your bike if you're coming over and flying with them. So I think that helps make it a little easier to bring your bike to this event and kind of create a partnership with the Japanese riding community. Yeah, that's terrific. I didn't know that Japanese are big bicycle riders, both for just logistically getting around their neighborhoods, getting to the train stations and things like that. So that's great. And, you know, as this grows into a national international event, the White Tourism Authority ought to kick in a couple bucks to help make that happen, you know, make that a reality. You said that. They were actually, this year is the first year that we've received their Community Enrichment Program Award. So they are a supporter as well this year. So hopefully that'll be a sign of good things to come for future years as well. That's terrific. Because everyone says, and I believe that Hawaii is the place to bicycle. It's ideal in terms of weather year-round. We need to get a little more infrastructure out there. We need to get a little more driver education and bike cycler education. But, you know, we're on the way to being the Copenhagen of the Pacific, right? I was always like a cyclist. I always enjoyed it. But when I moved to Hawaii 15 years ago, it really just enabled me to really lean into it and develop a passion for cycling. Like I still remember the first time I rode to Waikai and turned around and saw how far away Diamond Head was and all that. It's really a great place to bike. Yeah. Yeah. I cycled when I lived in Japan before I came to Hawaii to go to University of Hawaii at Manoa. And I did a bicycle ride from the north to the south, ending up in Chikoku in Japan. And then I packed my bike into a bag and I brought it with me on the plane and got off the plane. And I didn't quite have the guts to put my bike together and ride it up to Manoa. But I was riding pretty soon after that. So, you know, I think that's great. Speaking of travel and international stuff, Travis, I know you've been traveling a bit and you were going to tell me about Sydney, I think. Yeah. We were speaking offline just briefly. I had literally just a layover. It was 24 hours in Sydney. And we wanted to kind of see it all. And my wife and I were traveling. And it was one of those experiences where I walked away saying, this is an amazing city that has some things figured out. Some examples that I would love to bring home. In particular, their public transportation was just amazing from moving people around and ease of access. You didn't have to get a rider card or anything. It just, you tap your phone or your credit card and it fills you at the end of the day, which was impressive. No bus cards or anything like that. And it even included ferries and trolleys and buses. So quite cool to see that. And then a lot of bike-specific infrastructure. Most of it either divided in the sense of protected or completely off the road. I had the unique experience of actually walking on a multi-use path from the International Airport to our hotel, which was in an off-site hotel, about 10-minute walk away. I don't think I've ever walked. I could have biked. There were nice bike walkers and things from the airport to our hotel. I was quite impressed with that infrastructure and took some notes to bring back to some of our advocacy meetings and conversations locally here as well. Well, that's cool. And usually I think of going to, as I said, Copenhagen or Amsterdam to see what bikes could be. But you're saying we should go to Sydney and take a look. Yeah, it's still not a short flight, but it is another great destination. And I've had the fortune to go over to Copenhagen or some of the other Scandinavian cities up Norway and other places that are truly amazing and decades ahead of where we are, but certainly worthwhile examples that we should be striving to work towards. All right, Chris, I keep thinking of things I want to ask you about the Sentry Ride. You can't possibly put all this off without a number of volunteers, I'm guessing. So what kind of volunteer help do you need? We need volunteers for just about almost everything. I think we over the course of the Sentry Ride, we have about 300 volunteers, everything from helping at a packet pickup to loading the aid station trucks and delivering aid supplies across Oahu, that 100 mile course. We have course marshals that are out there driving, helping cyclists that need help. Yeah, it would not be possible without volunteers. And so if someone does see this before the event this year or in future events in future years and they want to volunteer, how do they do that? We have a little spot on the website at hbl.org slash hcr that has information for volunteers, but then also Lauren is our volunteer coordinator and you could reach her at lauren at hbl.org as well. Last year I think you initiated the bus and bike or bike and bus. Yeah, bike and bus. Bike and bus, okay. Are you doing that again this year? Yeah, it's essentially for someone that wants to see the whole course but only bike half of it. You can bike the 50 miles out to Swan Lake Beach Park and then catch a bus back to the park. We handle the bike transportation and we have a partnership with Robert's Hawaii that supplies the bus and it's a nice little setup for you to see the whole course without riding all 100 miles. Can I do it the other way around? Can I take the bus out there and bike back? You know, we thought about that last year but it saw no interest. I'm the only one that wants to do that. Don't bother for me. That would also put you biking in the hottest part of the day. That's a good point. That's a good point. So I ought to do the bike while it's still relatively cool. So there's so many ways to be involved here and just for the record, are there any kind of bike, any kind of two-wheel, three-wheel, four-wheel, can I pay for my electric bike? Are there any kind of limitations here? The only thing we say is that ideally you're going with the flow of the other people riding. So you are bringing an e-bike. It's not a high-powered or electric motorcycle style. Ideally, it probably doesn't even have a throttle. It's more of a pedal assist. This is a bicycling event so it should resemble a bicycle and kind of be able to not be a safety hazard by going faster than everybody else. But e-bikes are certainly welcome and we do see a lot of them which is great as the range gets better and better. People can go a little further too. I'm guessing that you're going to see more every year. I think the electric bike is changing and is going to change a lot of things. I'm enthusiastic as you well know. I see them in Europe more and more everywhere. They take away some of the sweat factor and they take away some of the distance factor and make them ideal. I bug Bikki every time I talk to Todd. When are we going to get those electric bikis? I'm waiting. I think Hawaii Island will actually see electric bike share bikes before Bikki. So it'll be a good test run over there. They've got a transportation alternatives grant that covers a few new stations which will have e-bikes incorporated in Kona and Hilo. And hopefully that'll trickle over to Bikki on Oahu as well. That's very good to know. I hope you'll let me know when that's up and running and I want to talk to whoever's in charge of that. And in a way the distance is the one thing about the big island is that they've got the space and the distance. So an e-bike would be especially useful there. I'm not sure if you're going to go across Saddle Road on one. That would be a little bit of a challenge. I think the nice thing here is we have the e-bike rebate. Not many states have an e-bike rebate and Hawaii has we've got statistics recently and there was almost 300 people that had taken advantage of the e-bike rebate which isn't a ton but it's certainly a good start and we're big supporters of expanding that program. So if we're going to be expanding we could talk a little bit about advocacy and that sort of thing. We only have about five minutes left but if you seem to me that it was a good start but then you look at someplace like Denver and they open up a new tranche of e-bike rebates and before the end of the day they're gone and they're all spoken for. What can we do to make our to get into that kind of uptake here do you think? Yeah I mean I think some of the barriers to entry that they've been looking to reduce specifically is the where and when you get that rebate. Currently it's a rebate where you have to purchase and then submit for reimbursement and then finally receive a check where in Denver the bike shop is the place literally at the point of sale you receive that discount off that bike and then the bike shop submits their records. So kind of reducing some entry points there would be great or making it easier. I think as we just see more you mentioned e-bikes are becoming more and more popular the technology is getting better the price point is coming down for some of them some of them still remain very expensive for fancy ones but I think we're going to see that demand increase and just as that grows we're seeing places like Costco and other places starting to carry e-bikes so I think ensuring that there's enough funds in this rebate program and that the promotion of it is widespread. There's some talk about expanding the eligibility that currently it's I don't want to say restrictive but it's certainly individuals don't qualify but but yeah just making sure that we get everybody that would benefit from this and make them aware of the program I think it's a big push. Okay I do know and I've been I am involved full disclosure and some of the advocacy efforts and I hope we'll have you come back towards the end of the year before this next session of the legend talk a little bit more about some of those activities because I think advocacy and making sure things happen in the right way is a very important part of what the HBO does and wants to do so we'll return to that if we can later in the year. I'm going to give you each a minute to wrap up here and then I'm going to have a micro mobility moment that I try to end every every program with so Chris give us give us the 25 words or less about why we should ride the century. 25 words or less I would say ride the century because it no matter how many miles you ride you don't I feel like it can inspire you to ride more like you never know where that passion might come from. I remember riding the my first century ride and just loving the challenge of it and it's it's a it's a great atmosphere and it's a great place to it's a great occasion to ride. That was 26 words but I'll let you go. Hi there's a little much. All right Travis from the Bicycle League what what would you say to people should they join should they send you money let me guess what can people do to make sure the the HBL is going to operate successfully. Yeah I think I think just general support is always welcomed we certainly represent far more people than just people who bikes it can be people who walk roll even people who drive should support better infrastructure for people that bike to to make the road safer for everybody so get involved in whatever way means means a lot to you and and we're here to to support those efforts great great network of collaborated collaborating organizations pushing towards safer streets. Perfect I think that was 27 words but that's great thank you very much. I'm going to ask the technician to put up the micro mobility moment now we try I try to end every program with a moment sometimes numerous sometimes serious this is going to have a little of each I hope next slide I'll show you that as I mentioned two very prestigious and well-known organizations the people for bikes and the League of American Cyclists which used to have an old-fashioned name but now because they've been around since 1880 something they have online a electric bike education program obviously it's not riding but it's learning about bike about safety about batteries which concern a lot of people the website is up there on the on the screen and I encourage you if you're thinking about it this would be a great place to start and then call call Travis at the HBL and say you want to take a course you want to learn more go buy one of the bike stores that has electric bikes they're very helpful about getting people started as well and with the final slide is a slide of some young man or that's me that's me learning to ride a bicycle when I was about 14 years old I was the last kid I was always a slow bloomer and this is how late I learned to ride a bike everybody else was riding him at three and four and five and I finally learned to ride when I was almost a teenager and I think just after this picture was taken I ran into a tree but it's been it's okay I've been riding ever since and I really encourage you to ride e-bikes regular bikes whatever and I want to thank Travis I want to thank Christopher both tremendously for what you do every day and for taking this time very busy time to spend a little time with me talking about it yeah thanks for having us all right and thank you both my regular listeners and anybody else who wandered in I say thank you very much for watching come back in a couple of weeks and we'll continue the saga of the two-wheel revolution aloha