Bloomington Bicycle Club Blog

Stair Climbing

2011-11-23T19:13:00.001-05:00

Note: This piqued my interest since I know some BBCers do some serious stair climbing in Ballantine Hall over the winter. - AE

American Lung Association's Fight for Air Climb

Stair climbing is a great way for cyclists to increase both strength and endurance during the winter months.

Stair climbing works the legs in a more balanced way than cycling, primarily working your hamstrings and glutes, and engaging your core. Most of us naturally have stronger quads. Stair climbing works other muscle groups, which makes it a good cross-training activity for cyclists.

Stair climbing can also help cyclists build endurance. Stair climbing burns more fat per minute than almost any other form of exercise and it is the easiest way to increase your intensity and cardiovascular condition. When you bike, you are always putting stress on the joints in the same way. Stair climbing is easier on the joints than walking, and by supporting and moving your own body weight, you burn more calories and strengthen your bones.

Cyclists who do not bike outdoors during the winter could replace their rides with stair climbing to come back stronger and faster in the spring.

Interested in stair climbing? Challenge yourself by participating in the American Lung Association’s Fight for Air Climb on February 18, 2012. Participants climb 32 floors to the top of the Hilton in Springfield, Illinois, or compete in the “ultimate climb” where they climb 32 floors as many times as they can in 1 hour. For more information or to register, please go to www.lungil.org or contact Kelsey Dyckman at (217) 787-5864.

Bloomington Bicycle Club

BBC Social Season Begins

2011-10-28T20:56:00.000-04:00

From Sylvia Stoub, the new Social Chairman of BBC.

My mission is to have our large number of bicyclists get together in other ways besides on the bike. Why? We've got so many levels of riders. The hammerheads know all the hammerheads; the owls know all the other owls. Some of the BBC membership including me hardly ever ride with the club. You see the picture? We all love bicycling!

I've got lots of ideas that will enable our club to be even more viable in so many ways. Please join me for some free pizza, salad, cookies, beverages at Cafe Pizzaria, the corner of Grant and Kirkwood, Monday, November 7th between 7pm and 9pm.

The BBC website also has a new Socials Page with more information about this and upcoming events.

Bartlettsville Squared

2011-10-23T15:21:00.001-04:00

By John Bassett

I was having a little trouble figuring out how last Saturday’s club ride got its name. Yes, the ride goes though the little north Lawrence County community of Bartlettsville. But, it was not apparent until I looked at the route map (south part shown here) that you actually go through Bartlesville twice (about mile 20 and 28). So, Bartlettsville x Bartlettsville = Bartlettsville².

Saturday was one of those great, sunny fall days that begs a bicycle ride and served to break the funk associated with last week’s cold and rainy weather. It was a little brisk in the morning (31oF) but soon warmed up to the very low 60s. About 20 riders assembled at 10:00 at Bryan Park, and we picked up at least one rider along the way out of town. The basic “A” route was on the order of 52 miles. Jim Schroeder had laid out “B” and “C” routes of about 70 and 105 miles, and there were several takers for those distances. I’ll stick with the “A” route having decided it was best not to spend the entire day riding my bicycle.

Bartlettesville Squared is sort of a lop-sided figure-of-eight centered at Bartlettsville. The top loop goes around Lake Monroe with the smaller bottom loop following rural roads in northern Lawrence County. The county roads in this area are generally very good and traffic is low.

The loop south from Bartlettsville is particularly scenic. After a steep climb with a switchback at about Mile 21, there is a nice view back to the north into the South Fork Salt Creek valley,

Then follows a very pleasant peddle along Ramsey Ridge Road through a piece of the Hoosier National Forest.

Coming back off Ramsey Ridge, there is a nice level section running several miles back down the South Fork Salt Creek valley, to complete the lower loop of the figure-of-eight, and across the Salt Creek valley to head back north.

At Mile 34 this pleasantness comes to an end with a long climb up “No Name” hill to Judah. This one appears to have a couple of false summits. But, not to worry, as refreshments are available at a couple of places once you reach Old 37 a few minutes later.

The ride follows Old 37 back north to Bloomington. The total climb of about 3,300 feet is comparable to a day of the Hilly Hundred and was a good follow up to last weekend’s event.

This was a very pleasant Fall day on a nice route with a great group of people. Many thanks to Jerry Arvesen and Jim Schroeder for leading.

Bloomington Bicycle Club Web Site

Breaking Away Ride - The Video

2011-10-20T19:30:00.003-04:00

Riders who attended the Bloomington Cycles – Breaking Away Ride led by Jim Schroeder on October 2 might be interested in this video of the event.

You Tube Link

From Dale Andrews

Bloomington Bicycle Club

The View from South Bend

2011-10-18T16:09:00.002-04:00

I just want to start off by saying that the BBC is a first class club.

I'm from South Bend have been visiting Bloomington for several years as my son attended IU and continue to visit family and friends. I regularly jump on your weekend rides when I'm in town. Also had the pleasure of riding RAIN two years in a row. Your members are always receptive,friendly and courteous.

Thanks,

Greg Olen

This Would Be McVille

2011-10-02T15:23:00.000-04:00

From John Bassett

Eastern Greene county is dotted with little crossroad communities like McVille. Although my wife who taught at Eastern Greene schools for 29 years had never even heard of it, McVille was one of the highlights of last Saturday’s BBC ride. Note: Clare M says that BBC should now stand for “Black and Blue Cyclists”!

It was one of those cool mornings when you knew that whatever you wore you would spend part of the day too hot, or too cold. It was apparent looking at the 20 or so riders who gathered at 10:00 AM at Bryan Park that all kinds of thermal strategies were being employed. It was a nice mix of regular riders and at least one new face, Charles V from Ellettsville.

The scheduled McVille, Newark & Solsberry ride is one of my favorites. Maybe it’s the long downhill section from Hartstraight Road on the west side of town to Rosie’s in Hendricksville, or the great tree-line county roads in eastern Greene, or maybe that steep climb to the traditional rest stop at Yoho’s in Solsberry that is most appealing. But, Google Map applications give this a modest 3,000 feet plus of climbing, so bring your better hill game for this 50 miler. This is Hilly Hundred Country.

The route west follows Vernal Pike (now open to through traffic) and SR 48 to Whitehall. Take a little break at the store in Whitehall and regroup.

Then fly along a fast, level section of SR 43 to Hendricksville. You might usually turn left here and follow Gardner Road back into Monroe County, but McVille, Newark & Solsberry turns west on CR 800W just past Rosie’s Dinner. At least it starts out as 800W. Be careful with road designations out there - this is one of those areas where numbering roads north, south, east, and west from the courthouse does not always work very well.

A good climb and a nice ridge top section brings you to the big blue water tower on the height of land. This would be McVille. A nice downhill and a stout climb brings you on to Newark (pronounced “New Ark” according to Greene County friends). Turn left there at the church and you are following the old Hilly Hundred Day 1 route. You then get to do the “Three Sisters” of Hilly fame, but going downhill since you are now riding the Hilly route in reverse.

There is rough section CR 480N to navigate through at the bottom of the Three Sisters, but you soon reach a climb back out of the valley and under the railroad trestle to Solsberry. Take a break here, regroup, and buy a pop a Yoho’s on the square.

From Solsberry the route gets increasing more familiar as you work your way back to Monroe County. That burning sensation in your legs also gets more familiar as you navigate east on both Elwren and Ison Roads. Some people had a little better luck with this than others. Keith V’s freehub seemed to be developing a terminal seizure at this point.

Overall, it was a very good ride and nice, clear, fall day. I’ll do it again next year.

The Positives:
Vernal Pike and SR 43 to Hendricksville
Scenic Eastern Greene County
Those great Ison Road rollers (east bound, at least)

The Negatives:
Bring your own potty
Did I mention all those cute little dogs?

OWLS do Bruster's

2011-09-30T08:30:00.000-04:00

After a nice sunny day, a group of 10 OWLS riders gathered for a final scheduled ride of the season, just as the predicted clouds were coming in. After a bit of discussion about the wisdom of riding on an evening like this, we all set out on our short, only slightly round-about, jaunt to Bruster's for ice cream. So it was over to Snoddy, down Moore's Creek, up Swartz Ridge, and straight up 446 to Bruster's. It was nice that we had perhaps the warmest day of the week for our end-of-season social. Bye and bye it was time to head home. Only then did it start to sprinkle. We all got home only slightly damp. I had over 13 miles, with on OWLish average of 13.6 mph, which probably didn't justify a waffle cone of pumpkin ice cream.

Note to OWLS riders: Gather as desired at 5:30 (note change of time!) on Tuesdays and Thursdays for short informal rides with no designated route or leader.

-Allan Edmonds

FOWLS Foul Weather Finale

2011-09-30T08:23:00.000-04:00

Seven (fool?)hardy FOWLS met for the final ride of this season under threatening rain clouds. After consulting our smart phone weather radars we decided to alter the planned Double Creek route to the east and instead ride west in hopes of avoiding or at least minimizing the rain. We rode to Ellettsville via Vernal-Woodyard and returned via Maple Grove-Bottom Road. We reached Ellettsville dry and a bit smug at having outwitted the storms. Unfortunately, Tlaloc had his revenge on the ride back as we slogged through rain varying from light sprinkles to heavy drops for the final ten miles. Although wet we all survived the ride having gone 23 miles at an average speed of 15.5 mph arriving back at Bryan Park right at sunset. It has been a fun season of rides with good companionship and sometimes adventurous routes. Thanks to all who participated in the F/OWLS rides this year.

Tom Reynolds

The Privileges of the Bicyclist

2011-09-20T21:31:00.000-04:00

As the season winds down our Tuesday-Thursday training rides are getting shorter. The Original OWLS group did a little over 20 miles, doing a variation of the standard BBC Fluck Mill Ride, adapted to start and end at our church parking lot starting site.

We had 9 people out for a nice ride. (Well, 10. But one rider got there early and went out into the neighborhoods nearby and didn't get back in time. We do start on time!)

We were a little worried because our route had us going and coming through the intersection of Harrell and Rohrer, which supposedly was blocked to through traffic until Thursday. We initially planned to alter our route. But one rider had passed through and said a bicyclist can get through.

So that's what we did! We carefully walked our bikes under or around the yellow tape that extended well into neighboring property and were on our way.

We were a bit worried about running into showers. But none caught us. And we got back to the start at least 20 minutes before official sunset.

B-Line Trail ride

2011-09-08T21:12:00.000-04:00

By Kathy Cummins

The combined T/Th training group, the FOWLS, and the OWLS met at Butler Park near the north end of the B-Line trail and rode together down to Grimes St. for the official opening of the B-Line trail. Because of the gloomy weather, unfortunately, we didn't have the mass of BBC riders that we had been hoping to have representing the club at the ceremony. The Bloomington band was entertaining a sizeable crowd at the Grimes St. area, and it began the proceedings with the Star Spangled Banner. At least two speakers (one being the mayor) followed, extending thanks to all those who worked on the trail. At the back of the crowd where we bikers were standing, however, it was hard to concentrate on the speeches, as we instead watched the dogs and kids and the rest of the crowd, which included the Andersons and other BBC members both on and off the bike, some also wearing a BBC jersey.

At about 6:15, we riders (I counted just 10) decided to leave the ceremony (which was supposed to be over by then anyway), and as a rarity, representatives from each of the three groups (T/Th training group, FOWLS, OWLS) rode together: first south on the B-Line, then south on Rogers to Old 37, where, fittingly, we rode "our" section of the local roads (the part of Old 37 that is our Adopt-a-Road), performing in a way our own celebration of the great riding in Bloomington.

Soon the different groups went their separate ways. Before long Bill and I turned around at the Starlight and headed back toward home, hitting some sprinkles along the way.

Sub-9 Super D, August 22, 2011

2011-09-03T19:34:00.000-04:00

Club member Dan Hickey shares the following report on his experiences at a recent mountain bike race in Brown County. Read and enjoy!

Race Report

Sub-9 Super D, August 22, 2011

Brown County State Park

Sub-9 Productions hosted their second annual Super-D downhill race at Brown County State Park on August 22. The 5.5 miles from Hesitation Point to the North gate has some fast and fun downhill. But it has some flats and plenty of uphill as well. This friendly event was great for first time racers like me, but also competitive for the many Cat 1 and Pro riders who showed up.

My Kid Put Me Up to This

Thirteen-year old Luc got this ball rolling. He returned from Palawopec (a fabulous summer camp in Nashville, IN) a more experienced and ambitious rider. Over several weeks we checked out new trails in O’Bannon Woods (lucky to have them), Brown County (Green Valley is fast and fun), Wapahani (cleaned up by the city and volunteers nicely after the tornado), and French Lick (incredible).

At French Lick, we ran into Sam Preston (Bedford) who convinced Luc that we should sign up for the Super D. After that we spent our trail time at Brown County finding the fastest line from the North Tower to the North Gate. This was the shorter mostly-downhill run for the juniors. I was chagrined and delighted to find Luc consistently beating me on that stretch. His used 1998 Trek hardtail humbled my cherished Santa Cruz Blur LT

The Real Race

We registered just a few days before the race. We discovered that the 13-14 Juniors were racing the full 5.5 mile course. Luc was disappointed at first. Then he realized he might beat me there as well. On our first practice run, I got away and Luc got lost. On our second run he passed me on the bottom stretch. For me, the real race was whether he could beat me. I had been waiting years for this.

On race day, we first headed over to the rocky hairpin near the start. We watched the first wave of Category 3 (beginners) weave the fifty-foot trench. Tim Carson (Pittsburg PA, who set the course record 19:39 last year) was cheering everybody on. Earlier, Tim coasted to a 46:46 with a broken chain. None of the Cat3s took Tim’s advice to pick the cheater line straight over stumps and boulders. Three fell and one crashed hard. But everybody made it.

I raced near the end of the Cat3 riders. My Blur served me well on the downhills. I found a nice inside line in the speed trap and clocked a decent 19mph. But on the uphills I really felt the previous day’s practice runs. My imagined over-the-top scrambles were supplanted with winded grinds. I finished with a mediocre 27:44.

The Super-D Courses at Brown County State Park

Luc Spooking the Shooter (Courtesy of Two Pedals Photography)

Luc went later. He did better than me on both the ups and downs. But he took the slower outside line on the speed trap. You can see from the photo that he took my advice to always look 10-20 feed ahead for the best line. But you can also see how he spooked photographer Michelle Spitz out of her trailside crouch. (Michelle and Two Pedals Photography did a great job and I was happy to purchase this and another print from their website).

When I caught video of Luc on the bottom berm, he had just passed his second Jr on his way to a solid 26:00. That put in first place in his age group and third in the Jr men. I ended up third out of six in my Cat3 age group. This seemed appropriate given that my overall biking goal is being in the middle of whatever group I find myself in. And my son beat me soundly

Promising Juniors

Red Zone Cycling from Louisville brought an impressive crew, including Katherine and Daniel Santos. Katherine passed at least two riders (click for video) to post the top Jr Women’s time of 25:49; Daniel was second among the Junior Men 13-14 at 24:17.

Drawing for Irony

Overall winner Chris Bowman of Indy posted 20:10, and was awarded almost an entire drive train from lead sponsor SRAM. Dylan Elliot who came down from Ontario posted the fasted time in the speed trap of 25 mph and also got some cool stuff with his trophy. The drawing for swag yielded the most ironic moment of the day, when Tim Carson won a new chain. But he was also happy that he held on to the course record by a full 30 seconds.

Overall Winner Chris Bowman (Courtesy of Two Pedals Photography)

Hitching back up to the road to the start, I ended up in a van with the Trail Patrol volunteers who had come in from Cincinnati. They were happy for the largely uneventful day, with just one Jr crash resulting in some scrapes and bruises. They said they were looking forward to coming back for the Brown County Breakdown on Oct 8-9. Also a Sub-D Productions, the Breakdown is the major fundraiser for the Hoosier Mountain Biking Association, who we can thank for all of our outstanding trails.

Last Ride of August

2011-08-31T11:33:00.000-04:00

By CE Taylor

The last OWLS ride of August departed the church Tuesday evening for a ride north of town. Sixteen bikes plus one tandem headed out Highway 45 to Tunnel Road. We had short stops at Mt. Gilead and Tunnel Road to regroup. The ride down Lentz was far more pleasant than the climb up Lentz we did a month ago. The group had split into several smaller groups by this time. After the climb up Firehouse Hill on Old 37 we met for the last time at the fire station. The route then went east on Bethel and then south past Griffy Reservoir. It is sad to see the water plant infestation in the lake. As usual on our evening rides, once we got back to town, riders split off and rode their separate paths home.

It was a great evening for a club ride. We had good weather, challenging hills to climb and friends to ride with. If you haven’t been out riding with one of the weekly groups you are missing out on a good time.

RAGBRAI 2011

2011-08-28T16:10:00.000-04:00

By Jim Schroeder

Sylvia Stoub, Sandi Owen, and Jim Schroeder travelled to Iowa for their summer vacation.

Iowa? an exotic destination? in July? the heat? the humidity? corn? why?

If you know anything about bicycle touring, then you'd all know that Iowa in July means RAGBRAI - The Register's Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa! They've been doing it for 39 years now. There's 10,000 riders registered for the week; 5,000 more on day passes and about 10,000 more bandits or locals. This should be on every biker's bucket list! This is the only ride I've been on where state highways are closed off by law enforcement for the bicyclists. Small towns shut down and cater to the bicyclists passing through and will sell anything that is edible or drinkable or photographable for their local fund raisers! Each day is about 65 miles and each town that RAGBRAI passes through is like a county fair. The overnight cities bring in top name entertainment, but we were usually too exhausted after setting up our tent, showering, and eating supper.

This is one ride that is not about the miles nor the bikes. It's about the people: the bicyclists, the city folk, the farmers, and even the vendors! At least every mile there would be a vendor selling or giving away water, gatorade, freeze pops, smoothies, secret potions, lemon shake-ups, french toast, pancakes, corn dogs, pork chops, ice cream. or even beer.

Lance Armstrong even dropped in for a day's ride. I didn't see him, though. I was relaxing under a huge shade tree in some farmer's front yard. I guess the ride could be described as a Hilly Hundred on steroids. We spent more time eating, drinking, and relaxing. We met a lot of nice people, especially those from Iowa that are awful proud of their state and this ride.

Oh, did I tell you about the heat? It was over 100 for two days, and the remainder highs were always in the mid 90's! Iowa could have sold us shade but they didn't. The funniest sales pitch was "$1 for a dip in our swimming pond, free for skinny dippers"

For a week long ride there were highs and lows. Most cyclists are worried about two things at the end of the ride: showers and supper. Each hosting city had a different list of priorities. The best would have to be the small college towns. They had it figured out. Don't ask me about Altoona, though!

Here are some of Jim's photos. Click on them to see full-size images.

Tire Tools

2011-08-19T21:39:00.001-04:00

By Allan Edmonds

After my experience of a couple weeks ago with four flats with bad tubes (and my blistered right thumb) I was primed to be thinking of alternative tire tools. Although I've never had much problem getting a tire off using two standard tire tools, my hands and wrists just aren't strong enough to muscle a road bike tire all the way on without tools more than one time in ten. (I've always succeeded well enough with the larger tires on my commuter hybrid.)

So I perked up when we got email from new BBC member Jim Walls about an invention of his from some years ago that he is now actively marketing, called the COBRA TOOL. Here's a picture:

Jim wrote,

"I am a new member to the BBC. I am also the inventor of the Cobra Tire Tool. This is a new tool that I introduced to the cycling world at last year's Hilly Hundred. I designed the tool over 13 years ago but just recently started producing it for sale.

The tool is totally homegrown as I designed it here in Bloomington and contracted with a manufacturer just south of town to produce the tool.

I am trying to get the word out locally and would like to offer the Cobra Tire Tool to the BBC members at a discount. "

The information on the Cobra Tool highlights its use in removing a tire. (That's the part that's never given me much trouble, although others may differ.) If you've struggled with tire removal this might be just the thing for you. Check it out! They don't say much about using it to put a tough tire back on the rim. What they do show seems to involve using the Cobra Tool by hand just like any other tire tool to pop the last hard bit back onto the rim.

Here's a review of the Cobra Tire Tool by Jim Langley at RoadBikeRider.com, entitled "Cool Tool for Tire Removal".

And here's a link to Jim's web site at cobratiretool.com where you can view a video of the use of the Cobra.

Good luck to Jim marketing his neat invention. If you've struggled getting tires on or off, you might like to give it a try.

Jim is offering the Cobra at a discount to club members. He writes "I would like to offer the tool to BBC members for $4.75 ea. including sales tax. Members can contact me direct on my email for questions or to make a purchase. Shipping and handling may be additional depending on quantity and destination. All orders that are hand delivered will be for free!" Contact him jimwalls@cobratiretool.com.

***

For my own purposes the best I've found for remounting a road bike tire has been the VAR tool. You can read about it at this blog posting . It has two parts that together can be used like ordinary tire levers for removing a tire. The creative part is how you take the main"wishbone" piece, straddle the tire, and pop the last, hard bit onto the rim. The VAR tool is reputed to be hard to find. But a web search should turn up something. I bought mine several years ago at a local shop. The funny thing was that in a pinch I always seem to forget just how to use it. I'm hoping that this latest study of the two alternative bike tire tools will help me remember how to use the VAR next time I need it.

P.S. While working on this post I discovered a You Tube video that shows a technique for working a tight tire onto a rim by bare hands, by pushing the done parts so the bead is deep in the rim well, giving just a bit more slack on the diametrically opposite side of the tire. The demonstrator uses string or toe straps to hold the done parts deep in the rim. It looks pretty good for working at home, but not like something I could pull off out on a ride.

Four Bad Tubes

2011-08-19T19:46:00.001-04:00

By Allan Edmonds

A couple of weeks ago I rushed out to the garage at 7:30 am to pump up my tires in preparation for heading to Bryan Park for the Saturday. The tire flatted. I proceeded to change out the tube and discovered a leak at the base of the valve stem. That's one reason I don't like smooth valve stems. Every time I put my pump on, it pushes the stem into the wheel slightly. After a year of that it eventually gave out.

I put a new tube in, pumped it up, and re-mounted the wheel on the bike, and it went BANG! Oh, no. I must have a bad tire.

At that point I gave up all plans of going on the club's Cordry-Sweetwater Ride.

Later I inspected more closely and couldn't find anything terribly wrong with the tire. What I did find was a long 8 or 10 inch split in that unused tube.

In any case I went downtown and bought a couple new tubes and put one in the tire and one in my seat pack, while waiting (impatiently) for Tuesday's OWLS ride.

We didn't get any farther than Snoddy Road when my tire went flat again. I changed out the tube (with another 4 inch split) with assistance from a few friends on the ride. Pumped it up. put it on the bike. FLAT AGAIN, with another split! John offered me his spare. To be safe he pumped it up slightly and found that it didn't hold air either. Another brand new tube with a pin prick hole. By then CE had come back looking for me and offered me his spare tube. That one held up.

By that point I was exhausted. That's when I noticed my right thumb hurt. It turned out that I had created a big blister trying to get my tire back on the first time without using a tire tool. (Subsequently my friends encouraged me to use a tire tool for the last little bit, which worked.)

My bike was working, but I decided just to head home.

Four Bad Tubes

Next day I bought two more tubes from another local shop. So far so good. I've done a Saturday tour and two weekday training rides with no problems. And a week and a half later my thumb is almost healed. A heck of a week, though. And that sore thumb got me to thinking about tire tools and how change tubes more easily.

A True Experience

2011-08-19T19:16:00.000-04:00

By Allan Edmonds

After having some issues with bad tubes, which I'll report on separately, I realized my rear wheel had some very loose spokes and was badly out of true. So for the first time I took out my never-before-used spoke wrench, consulted my bike repair book, turned my bike upside down, and endeavored to fix things. I actually improved the wheel a little bit, so that at least it wasn't rubbing on the brake pads. But it still had a major wobble.

At that point John Bassett offered to loan me his professional quality Park Tools truing stand. I accepted the challenge and studied up some more on truing wheels, listened to John's voice of experience, and set to work on the wheel.

I removed the tire. I also lightly oiled each spoke nut. One of the things you need to avoid is just twisting the spoke without ever turning the screw end.

So I found the worst spot and loosened a couple of spokes on that side and tightened two or three on the other side. Then I repeated that process several times.

Overall the whole wheel was pitched slightly to one side so I also carefully loosened all spokes on that side a quarter turn and tightened the ones on the other side a quarter turn.

I checked for roundness of the wheel and didn't see any major problem. Then I checked for trueness again, made a few more adjustments and finally declared the job done. I reinstalled the tire and was ready to go the next day.

It may not be perfect, but it's a lot better than before. And I was happy to use that spoke wrench I got for Christmas a couple years ago.

Dark and Wet

2011-08-19T19:05:00.002-04:00

By Allan Edmonds

Thirteen OWLS debated among themselves whether to do the planned route, do a shorter route, or jump ship altogether, given the questionable skies and weather forecast. Eventually we decided to do the planned 26 mile Triple Creek Ride, originally designed by former club member Al Abbott (now retired and living in Arizona, and by all accounts primarily doing mountain biking). That led to our uncharacteristically late departure at 5:48 PM.

All went well as we headed out to Kerr Creek off of 46 (= East Third Street) just east of 446. We sailed down into the valley along Kerr Creek, then turned up along Getty's Creek, stopping briefly at the new bridge where we joined up with Mount Gilead Road. We next stopped at the church on Brummett's Creek Road, near Unionville.

It was time to start heading back toward town and the sky in that direction did not look good. But there was nothing to be done but set out. Soon it was thundering and raining and we naturally had to slow down a bit, especially on the down hills. Those who had rear flashers or headlights along all turned them on.

Before long we were pretty well soaked. Suffice to say we were not hot. Pretty soon we had to climb Fleener, one of the steepest climbs around. As Dave remarked he was never before so comfortably cool after climbing Fleener. There was a near problem when one rider tried to stand up on the pedals and had his rear tire slide out from under him. and then when he put out a foot that slid out too. He barely missed me, and I was able to continue riding. But four bikes behind were forced to stop mid hill, and they all had much trouble trying to get started again.

Several people wisely opted to walk down one of steeper down hills since their wet brakes seemed unreliable and the wet road was very slippery.

By the time we were back to the top of Kerr Creek Road the rain was pretty much over, and I began to feel better and safer. In due course we all made it home safely, with an average close to 13 mph over 26 miles, after one of the more memorable rides of the year.

P.S. Reports are that the FOWLS cut their planned 30 mile ride short and were back to Cascades Park before they, too, got wet.

Larry Limestone Tour, August 13

2011-08-14T17:07:00.000-04:00

Jerry Arveson led a reprise of his fun "Larry Limestone Tour," a drive-and-ride out of Heltonville, about 20 miles south of Bloomington, on Highway 58, just off of 446.

One group left Bloomington early by bike to turn the ride into a (near) century. See Mike Finger's report below.

I was the last to arrive, about 9:08, by which time the whole group had already started out. A couple of friends saw me drive up and waited a few minutes for me to catch up to them. Otherwise I would have been riding by myself the whole way.

It was a beautiful cool morning for a ride that takes us onto some roads that we rarely ride on out of Bloomington.

The route went clockwise, starting at Heltonsville. The main group stopped at a store in Leesville, but had just left by the time my little trailing group got there. We did meet up at the next stop (at the turn south of Buddha ad Pinhook) and had a larger group riding along, including ride leader Jerry.

At two points we encountered evidence of severe tornado damage. Here's a photo of the first one, along the eastern part of the route:

The main group had a refueling stop at a convenience store on an out-and-back along Highway 50, where 446 ends, teeing into 50 (see the map).

It was a great day for a ride but that last LONG, STEEP climb before Heltonville was universally felt to be a killer. See the elevation chart:

Our group end up averaging about 14.2 mph for the 56 mile ride.

REPORT FROM THE CENTURY GROUP BY MIKE FINGER:

I arrived at the designated meeting place (Brusters) promptly at 7:47am to find I was the only one there. OK-I admit I was 2 minutes late. At about the same time Tim Dowling showed up and we waited about 5 minutes before setting out for Heltonville. We hadn't gone far when Tim announced that there was another bike chasing us from behind and it was gaining fast. A few minutes later Kevin Hayes caught on to our back wheel, and then we were three. Kevin announced that he wasn't doing the club ride, only looking for an out and back to start his day, so he could do most of the pulling. Tim and I gladly took him up on the offer and we proceeded to fly south

Shortly after passing Chapel Hill Rd. we became aware that we were slowly gaining on some bikes going the same way and we subsequently caught them to discover it was Stan Ellis, Doug Edwards and Tom Schroeder. They had arrived at the meeting place early (what a strange concept!) and had departed at the stroke of 7:45am. Now we were six. Kevin continued to pull until we reached the bottom of the long downhill, and partway up the short rise on the other side, whereupon he pulled out for the back portion of his out and back. We thanked him for his good work and rode the last few miles into Heltonville. We arrived in time to hang around a few minutes before the large group set out, and to see more bikes arriving that had made the trip down from Bloomington. I had a fast start to my day, averaging over 20mph on the way down, thanks to the good work of Kevin.

Jerry handed out maps and words of encouragement and shortly after 9am we set out. After a leisurely ramble down Hwy 58 in a large group we made our turn onto Back Creek Rd. At that point Colin Allen and Andreas (sorry, Andreas, I don't have your last name) pushed up the pace a bit and a few of us followed in pursuit. Within a few miles we seemed to have established our working group of Colin and Andreas, Tom Schroeder, Tim Dowling and myself. Once again we were fortunate to have a real machine in Colin to stay at the front and set the pace for the majority of the day. Somehow we managed to follow the map and make all the correct turns in spite of the fact that almost all of the road signs were missing. That's right-the poles are there, there are just no signs on top of them. I decided that people must be stealing them to use as wall hangings in their homes-a sort of Lawrence County decorator chic. We continued to make good time and found our way to the lunch stop on Hwy 50 at the terminus of 446.

After a bit of relaxing and refueling we set out on the second half. Once again Colin was setting the pace, and the rest of us were doing what we could to maintain contact. With a few exceptions, we found the roads to be in great shape with a lot of new pavement. The weather was beautiful and the temps reasonably cool all day long-a perfect day for riding! We kept flying along and it wasn't long before we were approaching the last big climb on Dunn Bridge Rd. before dropping into Heltonville. The pace of the day hit me pretty hard on the way up that climb on Dunn Bridge-if I'd had a lower gear I would have been going slower. However, we had nearly 80 miles for the day, and just a quick jaunt up 446 to finish the day, so I was feeling pretty good.

As we were leaving Heltonville Tim announced he was going to take his time and to not wait for him, so we became four. The four of us stayed together (with Colin pulling, of course) all the way to the climb up from the Causeway, where I made a strategic move to the back. My last view of the gang was to see Colin and Andreas dwindling in the distance up the hill, with Tom about half way in between us and dwindling fast as well. I didn't mind. If the day was going to devolve into a bitter solo grind to the finish, that was a decent place for it to happen. I was still averaging 18.5mph for the day, and was set to finish in under 6 hours, so was quite pleased with my day. As I was approaching Moores Pike, nearly within sight of the finish line, Stan Ellis caught up with me and we finished together. He reported he had done a somewhat shortened version of the basic ride, but was still going to have 90 miles for the day by the time he rode home. When I pulled into my driveway I had a total elapsed time of about 5:50 and a rolling average of 18.3mph over a total distance of 98.15 miles. A good day on the bike!

Old OWLS and New FOWLS

2011-08-03T14:07:00.000-04:00

This week marked the beginning of parallel OWLS and FOWLS rides. Here's a report on our first day.

The Original OWLS met at Sherwood Oaks Church and did its "Long Leonard" ride to west south west. We had 9 bikes = 10 riders, averaged 13.1 or so door-to-door over about 26 miles. I was often at the end but could always see the leaders. We had two new faces, which was nice. We kept together until the end, when we split over going back to town on Fairfax or taking Ramp Creek. Two of us did Ramp Creek while the others took the shorter, perhaps easier, but more traffic option.

Over at Bryan Park the Faster OWLS or FOWLS also had 9 cyclists. Tom R reports: the training ride group joined us for the first 8 miles then went on alone while we regrouped at the Vernal-Howard intersection. The repaired surface on the final section of Vernal before the highway was most welcome. We rode 35 miles, "enjoying" Whitehall hill along the way, engendering mutterings that I had mapped the ride in the wrong direction! The pace was fast while we were with the training group then slowed to a more reasonable FOWLS pace once they left us behind. We encountered a kind young lady on Reeves Road who gave a bottle of Gatorade to one of us who had run out of water possibly saving a life. We have nominated her for a CNN "Hero" award.

BBC Summer Picnic

2011-07-23T21:01:00.002-04:00

BBCers gathered for the second annual BBC summer picnic at the Lions Den at Cascade Park. The weather was hot, but the food was good. As usual some key people were out of town for vacation. But there was a really nice mix of people who did come.

President Keith Vogelsang took this opportunity to recognize many of the volunteer leaders who helped to make RAIN a success this year. Many, many club members and friends and family members pitched in to prepare registration packets, to run registration In Terre Haute, to run rest stops all along Highway 40, and to run the finish line at Earlham College in Richmond.

Keith recognized RAIN committee chair Mark Villanova and Jim Schroeder, RAIN route mapper, who had to miss the picnic. He gave special mention to the following: Jennifer Miers, who ran registration; John Connell, who was in charge of the finish line; Keith and his family, who serviced the rest stops, driving a truck across the state, getting to the finish just ahead of the lead pack; and Klaus Rothe, who took over 900 photos documenting the event from beginning to end. All received a round of applause from club members.

Helen Steussy's RAIN blog

2011-07-23T12:50:00.001-04:00

Enjoy part I of Helen Steussy's excellent RAIN blog at

http://theflightcontinues.blogspot.com/

This year she sagged so friends could ride. Many photos along the way!

She writes that she hopes to get out Part II Sunday since she leaves to bike to Missouri Monday. And she asks: "Any idea what route would be best to Missouri?"

Good Job, BBC!

2011-07-21T09:46:00.000-04:00

By Kathy Cummins

I successfully completed my first RAIN ride because of the experience of fellow rider CE Taylor and the strong day experienced by second-timer Ken Dau-Schmidt. CE has already posted a report for our group -- to his report, I would add another HUGE thank you to his and Ken’s wives, Letha and Betsy, for their hard work in our support vehicle. Their attention to our needs was amazing and speedy. I just had to express a wish and it was immediately fulfilled. Near the end, as I was saying “ow, ow, ow” every time we had to restart after a stop light, because the legs hurt, Letha and Betsy were also near the end of their ropes after a very long and busy day for them. Thank you so much!

A very fun part of the ride was seeing the BBC volunteers at every rest stop. All of them were working hard while being cheerful and helpful. Thanks to all who helped make RAIN a marvelous club event, especially Mark, Keith, and the committee leaders. You did an exceptional job as we moved to our new all-volunteer format for the ride.

As someone who finished near the end of the official day, I would also like to thank those finish-line volunteers who stayed well after the end of the ride to greet the late finishers. If I had been one of those who arrived after 9:00 pm, I would have been extremely happy to still have been greeted with my medal and an appreciative reception from someone at the finish line of my long day and accomplishment.

As much as I would love to ride RAIN every year now, I think I will take my turn next year as a volunteer. It is worth it, and also something to be proud of as a BBC member.

A RAIN Rider Says "Thanks"

2011-07-20T20:53:00.002-04:00

Submitted by John Bassett

Many thanks during last Saturday’s RAIN ride to:

Dan Hickey for his bucket of ice
Clair Murphy for encouragement at lunch
The Gruppettos (see their Blog post) for the GU and fantastic late afternoon tow

I could not have done it without you.

I was standing in line at the Dairy Queen a short distance back down from the street from the RAIN finish line. I was primed to order a chocolate milk shake, my favorite post-ride treat.. Having yet to change out of my salt-stained Spandex, I was an easily-identified cyclist. A local Richmond rider struck up a conversation. It was about 9:30 PM, the official end of the ride, and nearing darkness. My friend had finished hours before. As we exchanged our observations about the day’s ride, we began to note the steady stream of eastbound bicycle headlights passing by on US 40 behind us. Some were single lights - some were in groups of two or three. Some had PSVs tailing them with their hazard lights flashing. We knew that each bike had a rider who had started the day in Terra Haute 163 miles away. Each rider was bound and determined to make that finish line a few blocks away. And, we thought, there would not be much of a celebration left for them.

So, it was rather spontaneous on my friend’s part - to each passing light he would yell:

“Great job. You’re almost there. Not this traffic light, but the next one. Turn right and you're there. You did it!”

Most yelled back, some just groaned, some were too spent to say anything. But, I think all appreciated that small acknowledgement of their personal effort.

I’d say few of our fellow Dairy Queen patrons had any idea what that yelling was all about. But, kudos to the RAIN finish line staff for passing out those late medals.

RAIN from the Inside…of a Very Big Truck

2011-07-20T14:09:00.003-04:00

By Keith Vogelsang

As the registration numbers continued to climb, I became increasingly anxious about the job of provisioning all the rest stops along the way. I had lots of help shopping for food from Klaus Rothe and my two boys, Mac and Ethan. This was the first year using our new large-capacity, high-volume watering system (the four big tanks seen below). RAIN Committee Chair Mark Villanova and I had completed a full-capacity wet test the month before, using our largest (225 gallon) water tank, and determined that the engineering was fast, safe, and clean.

I wasn’t quite sure how I would get everything into one truck, and I almost didn’t! But my wife, Kim, and the boys all pitched in to make it happen, and by late Friday evening, the boys and I had arrived at the first rest stop to begin setting up for the next morning. I couldn’t sleep that night; as I was still unsure that I could get it all set up in time. The boys and I started out around 5:00AM to get 225 gallons of ice cold water into position. Mac set up the food table, while Ethan and I filled up across the road at the Marathon station. This is the same site south of Greencastle that we’ve used for some of our club’s century rides. The owner there loves bicyclists, and goes out of his way every year to make sure we have what we need in terms of ice and water.

Ethan filling up one of the transport tanks.

Unfortunately, I miscalculated on the elevation to get the water transferred from the truck. The system was designed to be gravity flow all around, but I could have used another three or four inches of rise from the truck down to the tank stationed on the ground and a better transfer hose to prevent kinks. Fortunately, a PSV driver named Frank, along with Vince Caristo and Doug Steury from the city of Bloomington arrived just in time to form a bucket brigade to get the water transferred and iced down. Thanks guys—you saved the day!

Here’s a shot of one of the smaller tanks in action at the Plainfield stop. Mark Villanova, Amy Cornell, Kim Vogelsang, Ellie Dahlgren, Grayson McKim, Mac and Ethan (and Pongo) staffed this stop. I’m grateful for their Nascar-level speed at getting the truck unloaded and the tables set up. We’ve received lots of great feedback about this stop, too.

Pongo

The first stop along U.S. 231/40 and this year’s new Greenfield water stop were the only stops where water had to be trucked in. The other stops were simpler, as we could just fill up with our new drinking-water approved hoses. Dan Hickey, Clair Murphy, and Matt Hoffman from Indy met me at the Franklin Middle School lunch stop. And they moved like a military operation to get the lunch snacks and water stop set up. Jill and Christina Beyerl answered our call for volunteers, and helped Jim Schroeder and Sylvia Stroub at the Greenfield stop. As a new stop, we weren’t sure how it would work; the help we received here from the Beyerls was crucial. My thanks to all of you! By that time of the day, Jim and I were both running very late, so the extra hands were very much appreciated.

I finally made it to Richmond just minutes ahead of the lead pack. Jim Schroeder coordinated this year’s route for the RAIN committee, and his extra few miles gave me the edge I needed. Susan Bassett (in the red visor) was one of the many heroes at the finish line, helping to process riders. We’ve received rave reviews about “that nice woman at the finish line” cheering everybody on. Yep, that was Susan! John Connell coordinated this year’s finish line, and set up a new system that worked brilliantly for keeping finishers organized. We’re especially grateful to all the nice folks at Earlham who provided technical support and helped keep the food and drinks flowing.

There are so many great folks who stepped up to help—it was really gratifying to witness first-hand what we were capable of as a club. Obviously, the ride is an enormously complex logistical and technical operation. It’s not easy to get 1600 endurance athletes safely from point A to point B, when those two points are separated by such a vast distance! But I’m proud of the work the new RAIN committee put into the event, and I know we’ll make even more improvements next year as we get valuable feedback from our riders.

Preparing for RAIN

2011-07-20T11:19:00.000-04:00

by Keith Vogelsang

An impressive group of club members showed up last week at Jennifer’s house to sort apparel and stuff rider packets. I stopped by briefly to pick up some RAIN items, and decided to take a few photos:

Jerry Arveson and Clair Murphy sorting labels and bibs

Kim Benton and John Bassett

Jennifer shows off this year’s RAIN jersey.

Steve Holbrook and Andrew Hettlinger sort rider information cards. Anndra Morgan, Andy Loeb, and Janice Arvesen work in the background.

I had improperly configured my camera, so several other shots I took did not turn out. But with the exception of the bathroom, there was a crew stuffing or pasting in every room of the house! Jennifer informs me that their work ended up filling two truck beds, stacked three boxes high. Mark Villanova and Jennifer each transported the load to Terre Haute. Nearly 1600 envelopes were filled and would be distributed in roughly four hours at RAIN packet pickup at the Drury Inn in Terre Haute. Seeing this much club enthusiasm to make RAIN happen was exciting to witness, and Jennifer reports that the action at the Drury was even more intense.

And our efforts have been noticed by riders and other participants. Here’s a brief sampling of some of the comments we’ve received from the weekend’s events:

“ Just a note to let you know what a wonderful experience I had on the RAIN ride. All of the volunteers deserve a standing ovation. They were all kind, helpful and polite. I was even more amazed that, even though we arrived at an incredibly late hour, you searched for us, gave our our finishing medalion and cheered for us as we came in. I know that you did not have to do that. You could have closed up by 9:30 or 10:00 and gone home to much deserved rest, yet you did not. You waited. I am very greatfull for all you did. Thank you all so very much.”

“Finished my first RAIN ride yesterday, hopefully, at 64, it would be the first of many more to come. Yes, I have heard this before, that to ride the RAIN once, you are a hero. Twice? You are an idiot. I don't believe that. I can't thank the Bloomington Bike Club folks/volunteers enough for a great event well done, please convey my gratitude to all.”

“First off, thanks for putting together RAIN this year...It was hard, but a pretty good ride nevertheless. However, there are 2 comments I have to make regarding changes. One is big, the other is just small.

1. Lunch. Please don't try to make this like Hilly. Most people don't want to have a picnic lunch with hot macaroni, beans, and hot sandwiches. Bring back the cold cuts (Ham, turkey) & Veggies, Chips, etc. I know some of the problems people were having were due to the heat but i don't think lunch helped out either. And having people serve us, in 1 line, waiting in line in the hot sun, is something all of us could have done without. The 2 tables of self service lunch is better in my opinion. That was we can get in and out asap.

2. If we start out at the college again, make the starting line just the one driveway, and block off that 2nd driveway where people were merging into from the left. It just slowed things down like crazy right at the start. Anyways, I will probably be back again next year, so I hope to see you again then.”

“John,
My wife and I wanted to thank you for retaining us and allowing us to help with the wonderful RAIN event. We feel you did an outstanding job. I was very impressed with your organization and the improvements you made to the finish area. Please let us know if there is any way we can be of service for next year's event. As you and the BBC determine dates, simply contact us so we may free-up our schedules. I look forward to working with you in the near future. Please give my regards to your wife Sue, as well as Keith, Mark, Jennifer, Ted and all those who helped make it such a memorable experience. Thank you again for your support of Earlham and its campus.” Nick Johnson
Nice job, BBC!

RAIN Ride 2011: Report from the Gruppetto

2011-07-18T16:10:00.000-04:00

My RAIN Ride report starts at 5:30 in the morning with a big breakfast at Denny’s. My wife and I split a Grand Slam breakfast. Letha had one pancake and I ate the rest plus a bowl of grits. This is my traditional breakfast and it works for me. Then Ken Dau-Schmidt, Kathy Cummins and I were off for the start. We made the start just minutes before 7:00 a.m. It was a nice, cool morning and a good start for an all day ride. I don’t have much sense of the ride in relation to actual time of day but I know we were slowly falling behind my time schedule I had set for a sub 12 hour ride. I was still feeling fine at my unofficial halfway mark crossing Hwy 37. This year’s route deviates from past years by turning south on Bluff Road and then left on Stop 11 road. I enjoyed this year’s route much more. It was a long straight shot across and seemed easier to me. As we approached the 92 mile mark for lunch I found myself really looking forward to a break. The general consensus in the group around me was the same. We had great support at the rest stops from Letha and Betsy. At lunch they set up chairs for us under some pine trees. Our lunch stop was rather long but by this time the goal was to finish and not die trying to beat 12 hours.

The next section of the ride from lunch to Casey’s General store isn’t terribly long but it always seems to be the hardest for me. I always end up riding that section during the hottest part of the day since I am not fast enough to get through it earlier. Seems like my streak was intact again this year. I have learned that a Camelbak full of ice and water is a great thing to have for this section. You have lots of cold water and the Camelbak actually cools your back and keeps the sun off of it too. I often drink two water bottles and 60 plus ounces of water during that 23 mile stretch. After completing that section we refueled at Casey’s General Store. I knew Letha would be waiting for me there so we skipped the club rest stop.

Usually I know I have it made and will finish once I get to Hwy 40 at Casey’s General Store. I felt the same way this year, at least I did for the first few miles back on Hwy 40. There was a slight headwind the rest of the way to the finish. It wasn’t much and it wasn’t all the time but the more usual tailwind would have been much kinder to us at this point of the ride. I should comment that there were a lot of riders stopping in whatever shade they could find along Hwy 40. We even stopped a time or two for rest in the shade to eat, drink and rest. The only year I have seen more people stop to rest was in 2006 and it was 95 degrees with a heat index of 105 degrees. People were dropping like flies that year. The last 30 miles were the hardest. If it weren’t for my riding buddies, Ken and Kathy, I don’t know how I would have done it. RAIN is a physical and mental challenge. Having friends to ride and suffer with you makes it easier.

We finished around 8:30 p.m. It took us 13 and a half hours, my personal longest finish time ever. I am still proud of my ride no matter how long it took. My riding buddies, Ken and Kathy had great rides and finished with me. Ken finished his second RAIN Ride and he was much stronger this year. Kathy rode her first RAIN Ride this year and finished very well.

I will quote Paul Sherwin from Versus TV when I say, “The harder to suffer, the sweeter the memory” sums up RAIN 2011 for me. Kathy reminded us with ten miles to go of another Paul Sherwin quote. I had asked her how she was doing and she replied that she “was reaching deep in the well of pain and agony” but was OK. It is moments like that that makes the RAIN Ride worth it for me.

CE Taylor

25th Anniversary RAIN Route

2011-07-15T16:32:00.000-04:00

Jim Schroeder shares this years RAIN route of 163 miles:

and the elevation profile, showing a total climb of just over 3,000 feet.

Last Ride Before RAIN

2011-07-14T22:10:00.000-04:00

Tom Reynolds led a mixed group of 20+ riders on his "Limestone Tour" ride to the southwest, past several quarries. We had a number of people doing their last "easy" ride before taking Friday off before doing the RAIN ride on Saturday. Club member Dave Tanner was spotted among that group. He was instrumental in organizing the very first RAIN and has ridden in everyone of them. This will be his 25th straight RAIN! Several regulars were missing, having already gone into "rest mode" in preparation for Saturday. Others were there for the regular ride and were planning to volunteer on Saturday. Others, like me, have to be out of town and will only be able to experience the big day vicariously. Good luck to everyone riding or helping out or both on Saturday! We hope for a great day and a safe day for everyone.

BICYCLE DREAMS

2011-07-14T14:24:00.000-04:00

AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY FILM ABOUT

RACE ACROSS AMERICA

COMING TO BLOOMINGTON JULY 31

Bicycle Dreams, the award-winning feature-length documentary about Race Across America (RAAM), will premiere in Bloomington as part of the film’s ongoing nationwide tour on Sunday, July 31, at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater at 7 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Bloomington Bicycle Club. Tickets are $10 in advance, at www.buskirkchumley.org .

Race Across America is considered by many to be the most challenging sporting event in the world. The 3,000-mile coast-to-coast race, in its 30th year, was held last month and passed through Bloomington on its way to the finish line in Annapolis, Maryland.

The film, which has won numerous awards at film festivals all over the world, “is an up-close look at what RAAM riders go through,” says Stephen Auerbach, the director and producer of Bicycle Dreams. “They deal with searing desert heat, agonizing mountain climbs, and endless stretches of open road. And they do it all while battling extreme exhaustion and sleep deprivation. It’s a great subject for a film.”

“Bicycle Dreams is a spectacular and heartfelt film that offers a riveting portrait of extreme courage in the face of inhuman obstacles,” writes TheLoveOfMovies.com. “It is an artistic triumph that renewed my belief in the power of desire and the strength of the human will.”

“We are very excited to be able to bring Bicycle Dreams to so many locations along the route that have never had access to the film before,” says Auerbach. “Viewers will be overwhelmed by the amount of pain and suffering these riders go through. Hopefully, many of them were able to see it all first-hand when the racers come through Bloomington last month.”

To capture the mammoth scope of the race, Auerbach worked around the clock with a complement of 18 cameras. Embedded camera operators traveled inside the racers’ support crew vehicles, gaining unprecedented access to the cyclists and their teams. Their footage captured emotional and physical breakdowns, late-night strategy sessions, and great moments of personal triumph, all in intimate detail. Auerbach then took on the enormous task of editing hundreds of hours of material and forming it into a powerful and inspiring look inside the most difficult race on the planet.

Bicycle Dreams has won major awards at the Fallbrook and Breckenridge film festivals, as well as the Yosemite, Grand Rapids, Red Rock and All Sports LA film festivals, among many others.

Most recently the film added the Best Foreign Film trophy from the Krasnogorski International Festival of Sports Films in Moscow and was also invited to be included in the 2011 World Cinema Showcase in New Zealand as well as the Mountain Film Festival in Istanbul, Turkey. And before that it made its Australian debut at the Big Pond Film Festival in Adelaide.

Tour de Upland

2011-06-30T21:56:00.000-04:00

Doug Dayhoff, BBC member and owner the Upland Brewing Company, has passed along a note that Upland is hosting the second annual Tour de Upland: 30 hours of cycling, beer drinking, camping, and music in the hills of Brown County on the weekend of August 20th and 21st.

More details and registration information can be found at www.tourdeupland.com. Check it out!

Bicycle Tour of Colorado

2011-06-30T12:50:00.000-04:00

By Jerry Arvesen

From Sunday, June 19 through Saturday, June 25 I participated in the 17th annual Bicycle Tour of Colorado (BTC). This year’s tour started and ended in Central City just west of Denver, and promised the Peak to Peak Highway, the crossing of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, Steamboat Springs, Glenwood Canyon, a day off in Glenwood Springs, and finishing with Vail and Loveland passes.

My wife, Janice, and I drove out and cycled in South Dakota for a few days en route to Boulder, where she was to stay with friends while I was riding the BTC. Our first pedal strokes were in Badlands National Park, marking my first time in South Dakota. Fellow BBCer Jim Schroeder had kindly given us some SD cycling routes, which we followed religiously. The Badlands is laid out as a rolling end-to-end road through the major sections of the park, so Janice and I did a 45 mile out and back. It was a warm and sunny day, with little traffic, and we saw plenty of prairie dogs, mountain sheep, and moonlike scenery.

JANICE IN BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK

After a drive to Custer State Park, the next day we rode to Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore. The Crazy Horse mountain carving was started in 1948 and is still far from completion. Designed to be about 10 times higher than Mount Rushmore, it’s no wonder. The terrain this day was much more challenging, with 2-3 mile long uphills, major road construction, and heavy tourist traffic. Fortunately, we had shade and rest breaks as we lingered leisurely at the attractions. In the state park we also had heavy bison traffic, and at one point a line of vehicles had slowed down to gawk at a herd on the shoulder of the road. Having already seen my share of these creatures, I proceeded ahead only to have one grunt and take a step towards me. That resulted in my fastest sprint of the week! 59 miles for the day.

JANICE & JERRY AT CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL

ONE OF OUR FOUR-LEGGED FRIENDS

After a day off, we headed to Spearfish Canyon in the northeast corner of South Dakota. This area was a nice and beautiful surprise. Our hotel was fortuitously located in a rural setting right on the highway, and we enjoyed waterfalls, rugged pine forests, rock outcroppings, and wildflowers as we rode 13 gradual miles downhill at the start of our ride. Unfortunately, we had to pay the price, as we had two major four mile uphills with traffic starting to build around the gambling mecca of Deadwood. The heat and hills were starting to get to us, and we slowed our pace considerably. These hills reminded me of our SR446 causeway hills, but once at the top we coasted and cruised easily for about six miles back to our hotel, for a total of 48 miles for the day.

JANICE IN SPEARFISH CANYON

On to Colorado, where Janice indulged me in my quest to see if I could conquer the mountains of Colorado. We had seen about half of this year’s BTC route on a family vacation about 15 years ago, but fatherly duties kept me from riding significant miles. I was curious if my middle-aged, southern-Indiana legs could keep pace with the serious riders from mainly western states that this ride attracts. Janice joined me as a bandit on Sunday as we rode the Peak to Peak highway from Central City to Estes Park. The day started out cool and cloudy, then turned to rain as we finished. We were able to get a great taste of the week to come, however, with gorgeous scenery and the thrills of carving the turns on the downhills. I like going fast on downhills…no doubt about it…and the Peak to Peak highway would prove to be one of the best of the week for that purpose. Janice and I got separated towards the end, and I discovered my cell phone was not working because it got wet in the rain, so we had problems hooking up. I got to the school first and started hustling with the tent (instead of watching for her), as the rain had subsided somewhat. Wrong marital choice. My phone would receive her calls but I could not hear her nor could I make outgoing calls. Finally we hooked up, made peace, and met our Boulder friends for dinner. There was a terrific thunderstorm during dinner, and upon returning to camp I noticed my soaked and flattened tent. Bummer! Now I was on my own for the rest of the week, and I had to start off with some wet clothes and gear. It would not get better soon.

JERRY ON PEAK TO PEAK HIGHWAY TO ESTES PARK

No doubt, one of the highlights of the entire BTC was the opportunity to ride Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park. Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous paved road in the United States, climbing to 12,183 feet and connecting the towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake. The Park Service tries to open it by Memorial Day every year, but this year they couldn’t until June 6 due to the most snow seen this late in the season in thirty years. Even at that, because weather conditions can change rapidly, we were to be prepared for the possibility that the road would be closed for the day and we would have to ride back to Central City and be shuttled to Granby, our next town. We awoke to the promise that a yay or nay decision would be made by the Park Ranger at 5:00 am, then 5:45, then 6:30. Something was happening up there, because the weather wasn’t too hospitable at the school either. I was dressed in my heaviest winter cycling gear; three layers on top, shorts and tights, and full-finger gloves and ear band. I guessed it was about 45 degrees when we got the go-ahead at about 7:30, and there was an en masse cheer and sprint for the road as impatience met with thoughts that we should take off before anybody changed their minds. Why were we so excited about a 25 mile uphill climb? Everybody soon hunkered down in a comfortable gear and cadence. Clouds, mixed with some sun and mist, formed a rainbow over a valley near the entrance to the park, and groups even stopped to take pictures during a sunny moment at one of the major junctions on the road. The more we climbed, however, the more foreboding the weather became. I started seeing riders coming downhill towards me going the opposite direction, and noticed they had BTC stickers on their bicycles. Finally I reached the first sag stop at mile 20, and encountered a huge backup of bicycles and cars, because the Park Service had closed the road due to worsening weather conditions. Crap! What to do? Do we turn around and grab a shuttle bus to Granby? But, wait! Rumor is that they’re reconsidering! Sure enough, the time that I spent refueling was time well spent, as we soon queued up and were released up the road in groups of 50 riders or so.

ENTRANCE TO ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATION PARK & TRAIL RIDGE ROAD

I remember a ride report from RAIN a few years back when it was reported that they “had everything but snow”. Well, this time we had everything but sun. It started raining, then sleeting, then downright snowing with blizzard-like conditions. The wind was fierce and gusting sideways. Despite the sick irony of riding in these conditions and “enjoying” the arctic scenery, my thought was to keep hustling and get off of the summit as quickly as possible, and maybe conditions would be better at lower elevations. What alternative did I have? I stopped at sag stop #2 just long enough to get the pictures to prove it, and the same for the Visitor’s Center at the summit, where I basked in the warmth of the shelter and in my glory of having pedaled to the top. No time for pictures at Milner Pass, the Continental Divide, because it was on the downhill and it was raining heavily. I had looked forward to this long downhill as my reward, but it was hardly enjoyable as the cold, pounding rain made it hard to see and required full concentration. In addition, I thought I could feel my bike shimmying on the descent, a new sensation for my trusty Trek. However, I soon discovered the real reason: I was so cold and was shivering so violently that I couldn’t keep the bike stable. Regardless, I quickly arrived at sag stop #3, where the volunteers and park rangers were hustling us off our bikes and urging us to warm up in one of the many vehicles idling for this sole purpose. My clothes still soaked, but with the worst of the weather gone, I finished the last 15 miles or so to Granby and made a beeline for indoor camping in the gymnasium, required wrist-bands be damned. 65 of the most exciting, harrowing, adventurous miles on the bike I’ve ever had.

STILL BALMY AT 11,000 FEET

SAG STOP #2, TRAIL RIDGE ROAD, JUNE 20, 2011

VISITOR CENTER AT SUMMIT OF TRAIL RIDGE ROAD

The next two days to Steamboat Springs and Glenwood Springs, respectively, were sunny with friendly clouds, dry air and light winds. It was cool at the start, requiring a jacket, which we shed by midday when the temperatures hit the mid-80s. We were now riding in wide-open Colorado, home of big skies, scrubby ranch land, buttes, wildflowers, and a small town every 30 miles or so with the requisite coffee shop and bakery. All that and a mountain pass or two thrown in for good measure. After setting up camp, I enjoyed the beer gardens, live music, and the offerings of the food vendors in the parks in each town. Each cyclist I talked to had their own story to tell of Trail Ridge Road, which seemed as if it would quickly turn into a legendary day. I later found out that I was in the minority of riders who were able to complete the whole route that day, the others needing to be shuttled by bus over to Granby. 90 miles each day to Steamboat and Glenwood Springs.

JERRY STRADDLING THE CONTINENT

After a day off in Glenwood Springs, we headed eastbound to Vail, paralleling I-70, and riding on either US6, US40, or a nice paved dedicated bike path. The weather again was ideal, which helped as we literally were riding uphill for the first 50 miles or so for the day, culminating in a rather steep (for mainstream Colorado) 6-8% grade, eight mile climb up Vail Pass. The little town of Frisco, 20 miles east of Vail, was our destination, and I enjoyed re-kindling my memories and bike rides of our previous vacation in this area. Our camp was at the high school south of town which services Frisco and Breckenridge, and the two towns (and the whole county as well) are connected via a nice separated bike path system. After dinner I rode to “Breck” to meander and get some dessert, and I watched a red fox for a few minutes as it sniffed around the bike path and trotted casually not fifty feet from me. 85 miles for the day.

NEAR THE SUMMIT OF VAIL PASS

Our last day’s route took us past Keystone and Arapaho Basin ski resorts and up Loveland Pass on US6. A-Basin was still open for skiing…amazing to me, but a fellow told me they’re normally open in June, mainly due to their geography and their orientation to the sun. Again we were to start out with at least fifteen miles uphill, and the eight mile Loveland Pass proved to be a make-or-break, as the accumulated miles were clearly wearing on many riders’ legs. Throughout the week, I found that one cannot ride these climbs like the hills around Bloomington…you can’t sustain standing or try to power up them, rather you have to hunker down, take your time, sit and spin, and think of how to solve world peace. There was a celebratory atmosphere at the sag stop at the summit of Loveland Pass, as people took pictures and relaxed, knowing that the week’s last major climb had been completed. The downhill was one of the week’s best, with open views and a fun twisty road to carve. We all came to a quick halt, however, as the Clear Creek Sheriff’s department held us up and released us in groups of fifty or so onto the shoulder of Interstate 70. Riding a bicycle on the Interstate is legal where there aren’t obvious alternatives. In this case we were riding the shoulder downhill for fifteen miles or so at a 5-6% grade, coasting at speeds of 35-40 miles per hour. We had to avoid the grooved rumble strip, road litter, and most definitely the right-hand lane of the highway. At the bottom of the grade, and after the last sag stop, I waited for Janice at our pre-determined meeting point, and watched the riders pedal the last climb into Central City. 49 miles for the day, 425 for the week, 40,000 feet of elevation gain, and a mixed sense of happiness and melancholy as the tour came to an abrupt end.

JERRY AT LOVELAND PASS SUMMIT

Random thoughts:

The National Park Service rangers had full authority and police power over Trail Ridge Road. While they were incredibly polite, accommodating and well-trained, it was obvious that their word was paramount and a person did not want to get on their bad side. I suspect in all about 40-50 ranger personnel were involved in traffic control and ride support.
Likewise, the Colorado State Police were in evidence all week, patrolling the route on motorcycles and ensuring that cyclists maintained road decorum on the narrowest roads, and keeping in contact with the sag drivers.
I saw t-shirts or bike jerseys from RAIN, TRIRI, Hilly Hundred, IU, DALMAC, 3 State 3 Mountain, and TOSRV, among others. I also met BBC member Jim Isenberg at one of the sag stops, as he was wearing a current BBC jersey.
I have no problem touring by myself. (I’m my own best company.) I rode and shared meals with others, meeting riders from all over and talking about our shared experiences of the road. Most everyone asked about the movie Breaking Away, and had heard favorably about Bloomington. That being said, it sure was nice to see and be picked up by Janice at the end, and to sit on an upholstered seat wider than 4 inches on the ride home.
Early to bed, early to rise, makes a cyclist fast and wise. I was asleep generally by 9:30 pm and awake to the cacophony of zippers by 5:30 am. I always felt like I was playing catch-up in the mornings. Get used to it if you want to tour.
I felt that I was continually organizing my gear: Clean clothes, dirty clothes, bike gear, getting stuff ready for the next day. Housekeeping duties never ended.
T-shirt of the week: “What’s so hard? It’s half downhill.”
The ride attracted experienced touring cyclists and campers. 99% of the riders were safe, smart, strong, and climbed the hills, if not with aplomb, at least with no complaints. This was not their first rodeo. I think most any BBC member could handle this ride. As I’ve remarked before, “If you can ride in Bloomington, you can ride anywhere.”

Williams Bridge Ride

2011-06-25T16:38:00.000-04:00

Tammy subbed for husband Glenn who had originally planned to lead this ride. Thorough leader that she is, Tammy had already ridden the 70 mile route on Monday to check it out. Her main reports: roads are all okay; you can no longer ride across the covered bridge since it has a locked gate now; the view of the old bridge from the new bridge is excellent; the store in Williams has minimal stuff for cyclists: no Gatorade or Powerbars.

Here's a photo of the initial group at Bryan Park.

Almost that many more showed up before we took off around 9:10 or so. As you can see it was an excellent day for biking. Fair skies and moderate temperatures.

On the way out of town on Grimes we just glimpsed the big DeCycles group heading north on Rogers for their big adventure to the east coast.

Then fairly far south on Rogers Dan H. had a flat. The whole group stopped for a while. Eventually most of us took off and left a small group of faster riders to offer moral support. It looked like they would make quick work of it. But as it turned out they didn't catch up until the stop at the convenience store in Judah, where old and new 37 cross.

At that point two of us headed back toward town via Guthrie and the "Alps" and by Lake Monroe, following Strain Ridge and then Ramp Creek back to town. Some others were still considering the shorter 50+ mile option, but most were aiming to do the whole route.

Quite frankly I was completely satisfied to do a 35 mile ride, arriving home before noon. Of course I'm not training for RAIN.

(If someone wants to send me some notes on the rest of the ride I can add that to this short report.)

-Allan

RAIN Billboards!

2011-06-23T21:22:00.001-04:00

Take a look at the RAIN billoard that Klaus Rothe has succeeded to get LAMAR advertising to place along US 40:

(click to enlarge)

Klaus just reported to the BBC board:

"It's official! I've just heard from Lamar that two, count them "TWO", 14 x 40-foot billboards declaring the RAIN ride will be going up. One will be on the west side of Terre Haute, the other in Plainsfield facing toward Terre Haute. What you are viewing here is the actual art.

"If you're wondering where our logo for the BBC is, or where any mention of the BBC is -- that was not allowed as the Convention and Business Bureau cannot give promotion directly to an organization or business. I tried, but they slapped my hand."

It will be great! Thanks, Klaus, for engineering this!

BBC Double Century 2011

2011-06-20T20:39:00.000-04:00

By Eugene Kase SAG Driver

Dateline: June 18, 2011

We initially had 5 riders for the 200+ mile ride and three for the 100+ ride, and one rider meeting us in Terre Haute and riding to Sullivan. The ride was to start around 6:00am. But with the weather not being friendly and yours-truly not liking a ride in the rain, it dwindled down to 5 riders....Jim S., Tom S., Paul T., Stan E., and Dan H. I need to point out that at this time, we had an abundance of SAG navigators/drivers. My daughter and her friend, as well as my 12-year son wanted to come along. Yes, 2 teenagers and a pre-teen, waking up at 5:00am on a Saturday morning to support biker riders for a long period of time, I was surprised. But, I sent my daughter and her friend home in my car (with my bike...mistake #1) while my son Michael and I would handle the SAG duties in our Odyssey.

At 6:30am the 5 riders left the First Baptist Church in Ellettsville with plans on meeting the SAG vehicle in Clay City, about 33 miles away via bike. It was in Clay City that the rain started to let up and the skies started to clear. It was also where most of the rain jackets came off of the riders :)

After the brief stop at Clay City, the next stop was at 3rd St. & Cherry St. in Terre Haute @ mile 61. It was this stop where Paul was ready to go without his helmet, leaving it sitting in the grass! We all quickly pointed out that he was missing something on his noggin.

So off to Subway restaurant in Paris, IL. The riders did a ride thru Saint Mary’s of the Woods College (this years starting point for the RAIN ride) on their way to Paris. The stop in Paris is about 24 miles from their break in Terre Haute. The route from TH to Paris was quiet and almost traffic free. These roads are straight, pretty flat, but without ‘dan-henry’s’, I waited at questionable intersections to make sure they stayed on course. I was envious watching them in the rear view mirror in a perfect pace line. A couple of times I asked my co-pilot Michael to count and make sure there were 5 back there, so not to lose anyone.

The stop in Paris is where substantial food consumption and relaxing at the picnic tables took place. It was also where one rider asked “where is that Gatorade?”, and the answer was “it’s in the blue cooler”. I think there were 7 blue coolers in the van.

From Paris it was off to Marshall, IL, near mile 108. The riders would hit the century mark right around Clarksville, IL.

Clouds did show up around mile 93. The winds picked up and the temp dropped. I stayed close ahead of the riders thinking any minute it was going to come down. My co-pilot even asked if we might have a tornado. This big cloud literally passed right in front of us. A few drops hit the wind shield, but that was it. The stop in Marshall, IL was quick and simple. Drinks, snacks and back on the road, off to Hutsonville, IL. about 26 miles away. At about mile ~125, Dan H. decided he would join me in the car. As I loaded Dan’s bike on the van, I told this other 4, to stay on course into West Union and make a left on HWY 1 and we’ll meet up in Hutsonville. Hutsonville (mile 134) is where Dan treated the pilot and co-pilot to a soft serve ice cream cone and a large root-beer float.
After Hutsonville, the riders by-passed a stop in Sullivan and headed east on route 54. I waited at a Casey store at the top of a hill in Dugger, IN, at mile 158.

The stop at Dugger is around the 3/4ths point of the double century. Our next stop would be in Worthington. But we also decided I would pull over every 10-12 miles to make sure the riders were still alert, there was enough light, etc. The stop in Worthington was quick and un-eventful...other than a rider demonstrating the process of embrocation while the gas station attendant observed outside her window. From Worthington to the church in Ellettsville, it’s about 30 miles. It was getting late and the riders were chasing daylight. At this point the four riders broke up into two groups (Tom, Stan, Paul in one and Jim in another), so Dan, Michael, and I decided we would leap frog. I would drive up wait for all four to pass me and then drive up ahead of them again, never more than a few miles in front.

The SAG vehicle pulled into Ellettsville a few minutes ahead of the riders, allowing us to locate a “beverage store” to purchase a cold “recovery drink” for the riders. The final rider pulled in the church parking lot around 9:30pm.

A few notes to re-cap:

Stan went through 13 gu packs.
Tom ate his potato stew at almost every stop. He may want to patent that recipe.
I didn’t get lost until Dan took over the co-pilot duties from Michael. Next time, let’s not wake Dan up.
Michael was content in the van for 13 hours with his Kindle, Nintendo DSi, word search book, and a Harry Potter DVD.
At one point I had the camera around my neck, the route map on my lap, and my phone/gps in my hand...and as I rider mentioned “our lives in your hand”.

Improving Tuesday-Thursday Training Rides

2011-06-17T14:54:00.000-04:00

BBC member Wes Harris contributes the following commentary aimed specifically at the Tuesday-Thursday Training Rides. But his comments apply perfectly well to all club rides, and especially those without a designated leader. - Editor.

___________________________________

Several people have suggested to me that we need to address a few of items about the weekly Tuesday, Thursday training ride.

1) The pace of the group out of town is a little fast. We should keep the speed down and observe traffic rules to help keep the group together as this is really just warm-up time anyway. Once we hit the open road outside of high traffic areas then we can increase the pace to whatever.

2) Identify rendezvous points prior to start of the ride and get a head count of riders at the park.

This will help keep track of stragglers. It’s also nice to let the group know if you intend to drop off or turn back so we don’t wait needlessly.

3) Rendezvous points should not be at the top of climbs. I know this seems like a logical place but it’s actually physically a bad idea. The last thing you want to do after a hard effort like a hill is stop and let the lactic acid that has just been built up stay in your legs stay there. It’s better to pedal easy down the road a ways first after the hill to a rendezvous point. Also we should attempt to stay out of traffic as much as possible at the RP.

It’s also a good idea to let new riders to the TTTR know what is going to take place and what they can expect. Mike Finger does a great job with this and this is in no way meant to diminish his contribution.

Hail M & M !

2011-05-22T17:15:00.000-04:00

From Tammy Berger

Mike F. wanted to catch a "longish" ride on Sunday morning, so five of us (Mike F, Bob D, Paul T, Stan E, Tammy B) headed out on a reverse Martinsville & Mahalasville route. Paul wanted to add some miles and some climbs, so we started the day by going out Kerr Creek, Birdie Galyan, and Brummets Creek.

We reached the top of Brummets Creek only to find Mike had broken a spoke. After a few minutes of deliberation Mike decided to head back to town to get the bike fixed and the rest of us headed out. We had smooth sailing until Lick Creek when the rain first started dripping on us. It stayed light and even stopped for a while and we had hopes to make it to Martinsville without significant rain, alas that was not to happen. When we reached the wide open flat of Mahalasville Rd the storm broke over us. The wind was so strong that the HAIL that was pelting us was actually horizontal! The wind finally won out and literally blew us off the road. We took shelter in the ditch for about 10 minutes as the storm blew over us, then rode the last 3 miles into Martinsville in the pouring rain.

We stopped at Starbucks to get something to warm us up just as the rain cleared. After warming up for a little while, comparing welts from the hail, and slightly drying out we headed out for the return to town. Paul just had to have one more good climb and took us all home by way of Hacker Creek. I for one was just happy to make it to the top today! Shortly after the climb to Hindustan we met Mike again with fixed spoke and Mike and Paul chose to return to Martinsville to complete a "longish" ride for Mike. Stan, Bob, and I chose to return to Bloomington and I am happy to say we had an uneventful end to our 70 mile HAIL M&M ride!

95 Epic Miles and 9600 Feet of Climbing

2011-05-20T09:14:00.001-04:00

Jim Schroeder reports on his informal group's assault on Mount Mitchell in North Carolina last weekend:

This was our second annual trip to the Asheville, North Carolina area. A few newbies joined the crowd and we ended up with 8 people with 7 riders for this ride. We started arriving Friday afternoon at the KOA a few miles east of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and 4 of us rode 33 miles on the parkway to limber up those dormant legs form the trip. The predominant talk among us was not if it was going to rain, but when was it going to rain. Friday's ride was surgically planned between the forecasted rain cells on the radar. After riding a couple more exploratory miles Dave (Tanner) and I got slightly drenched in the last 1/2 mile, while Paul (Mowery) and Nancy (Lichtensteiger) arrived a bit earlier and dry!

Saturday was no better. But, when would the rain hit? Our first stop was early at Black Mountain where Klaus' friends own a very hospitable bed and breakfast. Due to a scenic route diversion or in other words, Jim ( Schroeder) got four of the party lost and missed out on the city plantation showing. The two groups converged at the end of Old Highway 70, but quite recently the abandoned 70 has become a serene and scenic bike path through a very thick new grown forest. Dave was enthralled at this new find.

The path turned back into Old 70 all the way to Old Fort amidst a few historic markers, train trestles, and old train stations. The South seems to take pride of their history a bit more than the Midwest; and it's not just Civil War! This town was rather quaint but had quite a lot of factories. We later found out it was the home of Ethan Allen Furniture, quite a Carolinian industry.

Well, it had to happen and the liquid stuff started dripping off and on. The route turned gravel, a Jimmy standard, so we backtracked back to the busy US-70. This first chapter was mostly rolling where all of us got used to each one's riding style and speed.

The second chapter was our approach to the Blue Ridge Parkway on SR-80. The rain had stopped as Dave and Jim stopped and gazed at a foot and a half turtle hitchin' on the side of the road. This new-felt mugginess reminded me of southern Indiana in the summer as we passed a rather large lake complete with dam and waterfall from the spring rains. We all stopped at a camp store for a snack before the switchbacked climbs up. The first section of those was just a prelude and got us complacent with our abilities. Alas, the last four miles were steep and the switchbacks kept on piling on us. There were markings on the road every half mile as this was the route of The Assault on Mt Mitchell that starts in Spartanburg, SC. In fact the race this year was the following Monday. There was also a photographer taking pictures and had a website peddling his Pix. Klaus' are much better!

We're finally on the Parkway and all seven of us are strung all over western Carolina. A few stopped to reconsider while Paul got mixed up and went north on the Parkway for a few extra miles. Jim didn't stop and kept plugging away on the worst chapter (3) of the ride: up to the 5 mile long entrance to Mt Mitchell. We always forget about this long agonizing stretch before it really gets agonizing! Sylvia came upon us one by one as she was driving the Subaru to be our "crew gal" supplying us with needed amounts of encouragement. Meanwhile, Jim was shocked as "wrong way" Paul blew by me as if I was standing still!

The winds they started a-blowin' as we're climbing up to 5500 ft. Jim had to stop at the entrance and compose himself searching for some gumption to get up to the highest point east of the Mississippi. The first two miles were known to be the toughest and that they were. But, the the winds picked up, then a little of hail and rain to make it memorable. Dave was up there already taking in the museum and all. As Jim was traversing down, Glenn and Tammy Berger were teaming it up to the top.

Jim dried himself out at the restaurant restroom and was greeted by some long awaited sunshine. Klaus and he headed back down to the entrance for the last climb to Craggy Gardens as the sun was tossed aside by this rain cloud that we actually were riding through. The rain and cloud was so thick nothing was seen by us while we were hoping the cars would still see us! This was one time it was better to be climbing as our work kept us warm.

As soon as we reached Craggy we knew the ride was in the bag as it was 18 miles down to Asheville. However, the rain was still pounding on us while we were chattering through tunnels and waves of water on the roads. The rain started to dissipate as our altitude fell, as we even saw from above sections of sun baking up the distant hills.

We all completed this heart wrenching ride of 95 miles with 9600 feet of climbing putting this one into the "epic file" of our bicycle memories.

Up the Dam Hill Ride

2011-05-17T21:27:00.000-04:00

Seven slightly crazy riders showed up for this evening's OWLS ride. Tom R had planned for us to go down Old 37 (almost) to Harrodsburg, then up the big hill toward the Monroe Dam and back toward town on Strain Ridge. But where was Tom? Worried about a little light rain and cool temperatures, we guess. It would have been okay weather for March, but this is the middle of May.

We were left to our own devices and just followed Tom's route. It wasn't until the way back that we started to feel just a little chilly.

Despite being a small group we welcomed a new rider to the group, Rachel, as well as her friend Cameron who has ridden with the Bryan Park training group a couple of times. They're both strong riders and, together with Jen, got a little ahead of the rest of us. We came along a slightly different way in Smithville and didn't seem them, so, as it turned out, we accidentally went home two different ways.

Mary Loeb

2011-05-14T22:26:00.000-04:00

By Allan Edmonds and Keith Vogelsang

We learned today that Andy Loeb's wife Mary died May 12th of cancer. Andy rode with us today to Gosport.

Here's an obituary about Mary from a newspaper in Florida, where they lived before coming to Indiana.

Andy and Mary joined the club last year when they moved to Bloomington for her to undergo cancer treatment. We don't think she ever rode, due to her illness--but Andy rides regularly on Saturdays and has ridden with the OWLS.

On behalf of all club members we offer our most sincere condolences to Andy.

Texas Ridge to Gosport

2011-05-14T20:13:00.000-04:00

This was one of our leaderless rides. Friends gathered at 10 am at Bryan Park and got caught up on the latest news and events. One father-son pair was spotted (Dave Elkins and son Addison). Touring Director Mike Finger got the group organized.

One trick was dealing with the Vernal Pike/Woodyard situation. The official route calls for turning onto Woodyard after crossing 37. But that's no longer an option. We did what has become standard and went as far as we could on Vernal and then switched over to Woodyard.

The next question was whether we could actually make the last 2-3 miles into Gosport before heading back. That area is often subject to flooding when the White River is high. But we had no problems.

From there we stayed on the standard route zigging and zagging south and westward, coming pretty close to McCormick's Creek State Park.

Eventually we were coming back toward town on Vernal Pike. The plan then was to take Old Vernal down to Loesch and go north on Loesch until we got to Woodyard. Then it was retracing our steps Woodyard to Vernal and across 37.

Our small group of 5 or so opted to use the B-Line trail instead of going through downtown. One takes the B-Line to First St. (using a side street for the last block). Then you take First all the way to Woodlawn. It was easy to do and relatively pleasant compared to fighting traffic through town. I recommend it.

By the end the ride came to about 48 miles. The club map classifies the ride as "difficult". There was indeed a lot of climbing.

But one shouldn't forget the scenery. I think we can safely say that this was IRIS DAY. There were many iris beds and clumps in many different colors in full bloom. I find this interesting because 30 years ago I know that our irises were in full bloom at the end of May, not the middle!

A few of us were a little worried about the increasing likelihood of rain as the day wore on. But not to worry. We encountered no rain or threat of rain. And, indeed, as I write this Saturday evening, we still haven't seen any rain.

Betsy Sabga Remembered

2011-05-13T21:46:00.000-04:00

It is with sadness that we report the death of club member and fellow cyclist Betsy Sabga this week, of an illness.

Betsy was a local doctor with many outside interests. Besides medical volunteer work she sang in a chorus, played drums in a rock band (Don't Call Me Betty), and challenged herself with endurance sports including triathlons and more. Her obituary appeared today in the Bloomington Herald-Times and is also accessible at The Funeral Chapel.

Club members can relate to this photo of Betsy with a big smile on her face after finishing RAIN a few years back.

We offer our condolences and heartfelt sympathy to Betsy's husband and biking companion Dan Melamed.

OWLS Lawson Loop

2011-05-13T19:56:00.000-04:00

Thursday night saw another typical OWLS group of about 20 riders do a helium balloon-on-a-string route, called the Lawson Loop, by leader Tom Reynolds.

Tom led the group north through the neighborhoods, through town, out through Cascades Park, and eventually to Bottom Road (yes, it is clear and dry).

We climbed Simpson Chapel up to our regrouping point at Lawson.

At that point our group was slightly fractured. One person had decided to head back to town. Another had a flat and had to catch up. When we headed back toward town a small group split off to come back via Old 37 instead of Bottom Road.

We did about 24 miles (depending on where one started and stopped) in about 2 hours, including regrouping stops. All together it was a beautiful evening for a ride.

Bloomington Bike Summit

2011-05-13T19:42:00.003-04:00

by Keith Vogelsang

The city held its first ever Bike Summit on April 28th, hosted by city staff and held at the Bloomington and Monroe County Convention Center. The BBC was a proud sponsor of the event, along with help from Bikesmith’s , the Bicycle Garage, Bloomington Pedal Power, Bloomingfoods, Downtown Bloomington, Inc., City of Bloomington Commission on Sustainability, and BTOP.

Chad Roeder, owner of Bloomington Pedal Power

What is a Bike Summit? That’s the question the city’s Transportation Manager Scott Robinson raised in his opening remarks. Essentially, this was a very public opportunity for the city’s Platinum Task Force to begin rolling out some of their findings, and get feedback on what kinds of projects should receive priority. The city has set an ambitious goal of earning a Platinum-level award as a bicycle-friendly community by the year 2016. The League of American Bicyclists directs the program and evaluates applications. Implementing recommendations from the Platinum Task Force will be a crucial part of upgrading Bloomington from in current silver to gold or platinum. The final report of the task force is expected sometime this fall.

Scott Robinson discussing bike survey results

Communities are scored along the five “E” rubric of Engineering, Evaluation & Planning, Education, Enforcement, and Encouragement. Summit participants were organized into focus groups around each of these five categories, and asked to develop their own list of projects. Then, each focus group displayed their priorities list, and the entire assembly then had an opportunity to vote on projects. Each participant received five red stickers to be allocated at will. Some of us put all five stickers on a single project, while others preferred to spread the votes around equally.

Voting on engineering prioritie

Vince Caristo, the city’s new Bicycle Coordinator originally proposed the idea of the summit to the task force. Vince then approached me for help in making it happen. The BBC was well represented at the summit, and it was gratifying to see how our partnership with other sponsors could bring together so many bicycle enthusiasts. There seemed to be enough energy (along with great food and drink) for the meeting to have continued beyond our scheduled three hour block of time. The city staff did a splendid job organizing and keeping the event moving along to get the most out of our limited time. The organizers even provided extra bike racks to accommodate the group. Even with the thunderstorms, the racks were at capacity.

Cathy Meyer chats with Raymond Hess

Mitch Rice from the city's Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Commission

City councilman Chris Sturbaum

Platinum Task Force member Jim Rosenbarger

BBC Safety Director and Platinum Task Force member Chris Tietz discusses enforcement

Triple Creek, Alt.

2011-05-11T21:50:00.000-04:00

We had a nice group of about 20 out for the Tuesday OWLS ride. Tom R went over the planned Triple Creek route.

We had hoped that the flooding along Brummett's Creek Road would not extend as far north as the intersection with Fleener. But one person had heard that the intersection was indeed flooded. So on the fly Tom worked out an alternative route. We started as planned down Kerr Creek, a wonderful, long, shady downhill and through the valley. At Getty's Creek Road we planned to turn north instead of south. When joined Mount Gilead and headed north to Highway 45. We then jogged over to Robinson Road via Tunnel. We took Robinson to Old 37, up Firehouse Hill, and back into town via Cascades. We took a short rest stop at the Fire House, where fresh water is available.

Altogether it worked out to about a 28 mile ride for those who made the full loop back to the church parking lot. A great job of re-routing!

Breaking Away Ride, Year Three

2011-05-10T22:06:00.000-04:00

By Dan Hickey

“Why is it that a team from the BBC could never win the Little 500?”

This was the riddle that Jim Schroeder used to kick off the Breaking Away tour, a gentle 30-mile excursion that visits many of the scenes from the movie that made Dennis Quaid a star and helped get a generation of kids on bikes with its 1979 release. It was a perfect Spring day, one day after the 60^thannual Little 500 bike race that was featured in the movie. Jim pointed that this was the first time ever that the ride did not have to be postponed because of rain.

From our gathering place in Bryan Park, we first headed up Lincoln Street, and just up the way was the Free Methodist Church shown in the very first part of the movie.

Onward north to the corner of Lincoln and Dodd, Davey’s house, with its distinct slate roof, was instantly recognizable. From there it was a few miles west to the intersection of Highways 446 and 46, the starting line for Cinzano 100. In case you have forgotten (because of course you have seen the movie), Davey crashed out when one of the smarmy Italian riders jammed a bike pump in the young upstart’s spokes.

We headed down 446 and stairstepped SSW across five miles of familiar roads to the Empire Mill and Quarry. About half of us cleated our way down the gravel road to the quarry. It was the first time I had seen actual quarry and it was awesome!

It looked just as inviting as it did in the movie, and if it had been warmer I might have gone for dip. From there we headed up the Clear Creek trail (which was definitely not there in 1979) to Woolery Mill on Tapp Road. This was a working mill when the interior scenes were shot. Now apparently in a state of suspended-renovation, the mill itself is still wide open and you can ride right through it. Curiously, an old bus now rests in the cavernous mill pit.

From the mill we headed up Countryside Lane and Rockport Road back into town on South Walnut. We first came to 1010 S Walnut. This was the site of the used car lot where Davey tried to get his dad to buy back the boy’s crapped-out Corvette (“refund? Refund!!!). Next was downtown to the square. We first passed Opie Taylor’s, which was Pagalia’s pizzeria in the movie. Jim pointed out that William’s Jewelry is the only business currently on the square that was there when they were filming.

Then around the square for a full view of the Monroe County Courthouse where Moocher and Nancy got married, after combining their spare change for the wedding license.

We got sight of Bike Smith’s, bike shop whose owner Jean Smith built the custom road bikes for the Italian team. Several years ago on a ride, Jean had told me the story of how the producers had given him carte blanche to build the bikes, and how great it was that they then just gave them back to him after filming. We didn’t stop in but apparently there is some good memorabilia from the film in the shop. Then past Indiana Theatre and Nick’s English Hut, both which were prominent featured.

After a short hop to the IU campus, we got to take some laps around the track at Bill Armstrong stadium, the current location of the race. The race banners were still in place, and the cinders were well-packed from a rainy race.

We rode past the Wells Library to Arboretum, the site of the original track where the race formally took place. At the stone structure that was formerly a ticket booth, we checked out the brass plaques honoring previous winners. Jim pointed out the plaque honoring Dave Blase. Blase was the legendary 1962 Phi Kappa Psi champion who provided team mate and IU grad Steve Tesich the inspiration for the screenplay. Blase ended up with a role in the movie as the race announcer. Jim explained that because they filmed the race scenes in the summer, they had trouble finding enough students to fill the stadium.

When we got to the Indiana Memorial Union, Jim finally clarified something that has confused me ever since I watched the movie. I could never figure out the location of the drive-by scenes that led up to the big fight with Robin’s boyfriend in the IMU. Jim explained that before the Sample Gates were built in 1987, the road went right through campus and right past the IMU. Mystery solved.

From the IMU we headed to Rose Well House outside of Maxwell Hall. The gazebo is where generations of IU coeds reportedly could clinch a future husband with a midnight kiss. I am pretty sure this gazebo is where Davey confesses to Chi Delta Delta Robin that he is not really an Italian exchange student after all. She slaps his townie face (hard!) and breaks his townie heart.

We finished with the Tri Delta house where Davey had earlier serenaded Robin and her sorority sisters.

We also learned that the Subway on 3^rd Street was the franchise where the biggest-loser-of-all Jared lost 240 pounds while living in the second floor apartment upstairs. He was featured in article in the Indiana Daily Student which then got picked up nationally. You know the rest of the story.

While I certainly did not get much of a workout, this was one of the most entertaining rides of my life. After I got my car in Bryan Park, I drove back up to get a shot of Davey’s house. The current owner was out front working on the garden. I can’t recall his name but he was full of stories about the house and actually had overseas guest inside who had come to town just for Little Five. He explained that he had been working in France in 2009 when Jim led the first Breaking Away ride. A photo of the group in front of Davey’s house ended up in the Herald Times, and a friend mailed it to him. It ended up being a rather complicated bit of hometown quaintness to explain to his French colleagues. I propose that next year we ask him to let us stock his bar in exchange for letting us use his house for the pre-ride screening of the movie.

And yes of course, the riddle. So why is that Bloomington Bicycle Club team could never win the Little 500 race?

“Because they would be slowing all the time to point and exclaim ‘gravel."

Sorry to make you slog through all of these details if you were only interested in the answer to the riddle. If it made you laugh then it a sure sign that you have ridden with the BBC, and perhaps with Jim. As some of the nicest cyclists you will ever meet, BBC members are compelled to warn everyone behind them of every pothole or spot of gravel as the ride past them.

I took the pics with my phone, which seems to have lost some functionality halfway through the ride. You can view the Breaking Away Trailer at YouTube.

Almost to Paragon

2011-05-01T19:12:00.000-04:00

By Allan Edmonds

Saturday saw the club ride head north to Paragon, as we typically do once a year. It was a well-deserved day of nice sunny weather, if a little windy.

Leader Bob DeGroff got the large group of about 40 riders organized, and off we went.

It was an interesting group of all levels of experience. It was clear from the beginning that we would - and should - break up into several smaller groups, after regrouping a couple of times on the way out of town. Bob took the leader's role of watching out for the newer and/or slower riders seriously.

Bob assured us that he had checked that Bottom Road was unflooded and passable, although he couldn't vouch for the final 4 miles into Paragon.

A few people took the 29 mile shortest option, including Tammy and Glenn B. who were riding dual tandems with kids on the back. They've often been out with a tandem, but this was the first time they brought both kids and both tandems, and they thought it prudent not to push their luck too much.

I was in a small group that decided not to to the out-and-back portion to the stop in Paragon and do the 38 mile middle option.

We were taking a short break in the Morgan-Monroe Forest when some of the other riders caught up to us. It had turned out that the route into Paragon was flooded and they had given up trying to ride through the water. At that point some riders had opted for extra miles by going on to Martinsville and following our M and M route. Others met up with us and decided to go through the forest, DOWN Beanblossom Hill and back to Old 37 on Anderson Road, instead of staying on Old 37 the whole way back into town.

For those new to the club, who naturally wonder how fast club rides go, I note that my small group averaged around 13.5 mph, including time in town on both ends, and a little under 12 mph including stops. For most of the ride we were averaging somewhat over 14 mph. We were definitely among the slower riders.

P.S. I was a bit surprised to have gotten a bit of a sunburn on my arms. I guess it's time to start being more careful about sunscreen.

P.P.S. Note for next year's ride calendar: We've been flooded out several times on this ride. Maybe it needs to be a little later in the Spring!

Hoosier Hills 60k

2011-04-18T20:59:00.000-04:00

by Keith Vogelsang

With such cold, gloomy weather this past Saturday, I certainly didn’t expect much of a turnout for the Hoosier Hills ride around Lake Monroe. The Doppler radar indicated a narrow window of opportunity as our 10AM scheduled time approached, and because I was the designated ride leader, it was my call on whether to roll or not.

I’m glad we went for it. Eight of us showed up at Bryan Park, including Mark and Andrew, two new members. At the halfway point, Mike, Stan and Paul split off to add some extra miles. Here’s Mike’s summary of the day:

“Paul, Stan and I enjoyed our extension to today's ride. We went to (near) Heltonville by way of Bartlettsvile, then back to Bartlettsville. From there we worked our way over to Judah and back into town on Old 37 and the Ketcham cutoff over to Victor. Distance of 65 miles, avg. speed 16.4, climbing of 3500 ft. We weren't too cold as long as we kept moving, and though it started raining again on the way back into town, we managed to stay fairly dry. It's not the kind of day I would have chosen for a ride, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I had a blast.”

Yeah, that about sums up my day, too. We had a fun group, all working at the same pace. Although my toes were cold and the skies gray with drizzle, I stayed dry enough to get in a good workout on the hills. Jim and I both narrowly missed the same frightened, confused squirrel on a fast descent down Ramp Creek—lucky day for us and the squirrel!

Fortunately, my first experience with the Hoosier Hills ride coincided with beautiful riding weather. And during Saturday’s ride, it occurred to me that this particular route was my initiation into recreational cycling in Bloomington. Years ago, the city hosted a 20k, 60k, and 100k version of the Hoosier Hills ride as a fund raiser for the local food bank. And at one time, the Bloomington Bicycle Club used the ride as its own fund raiser.

Back in 2004, a friend suggested that we take our kids, clamp on our trailer bikes, and sign up for the Hoosier Hills 20k. Surely we were both strong enough to complete a short 20k route with kids in tow; right? While chatting during the ride, we missed our turn onto Swartz Ridge Road from 446. By the time we had realized our error, we were nearly to the causeway, and decided to just keep going and try to complete the 60k. We knew there were hills, but no one told us about “the alps!” Oy…

I remember feeling so empowered after completing this challenging route with my eldest son, Mac, in tow. It’s hard to believe that was about 28,000 ride miles ago, but it was this particular ride that motivated me to seek out other touring opportunities, and eventually, brought me into the BBC.

Roundabout Trouble in Bloomington

2011-03-31T19:44:00.001-04:00

Some of you are aware of the city's plans to construct a roundabout at the intersection of Sare and Rogers Rd, near where our OWLS group starts most of its Tuesday-Thursday training rides. We send large groups of cyclists through the intersection about once a week in season.

Just take a look at the planned monstrosity:

It looks like something more appropriate for I-69. It is completely unacceptable for use by all but the most daring bicyclists, and completely unacceptable for pedestrians.

This plan is on the verge of final approval!

Local transportation activist Buff Brown (founder of B-TOP) made an eloquent plea a couple of weeks ago to the Citizens Advisory Committee, pointing out serious flaws in the plan and advocating for a more sensible, vastly smaller, four-way stop sign. (Even in its current state the intersection is vastly too wide, at 100 feet between the east and west stop lines.)

The proposal is part of a larger package - called the Transportation Improvement Program - of such roundabouts. In addition to its intrinsic flaws it will eat up much or all of our local federal allocation for transportation infrastructure. It is now moving on to the Metropolitan Planning Organization's Policy Board meeting, Friday, April 8, 1:30 pm, at City Hall.

If you are concerned about bicycling infrastructure (not to mention urban sprawl, increased vehicle traffic, speeding traffic, etc.) it would be worth putting in an appearance at this upcoming meeting. There will only be a limited opportunity to get this proposal changed.

Buff Brown has prepared a detailed 16 page document addressing fundamental concerns about this proposal and proposing more reasonable alternatives. Click here to download it. (6.8MB PDF file)

Edit Monday April 4: Taking into consideration the public input we have received, including the resolution passed by the Citizens Advisory Committee, Mayor Kruzan has decided to postpone the construction of the Sare and Rogers roundabout by one year until Fiscal Year 2013. This will allow for more consideration of the design and details of the roundabout. The City will be making this recommendation at the Policy Committee meeting on Friday, April 8. [From City Director of Public Works, Susie Johnson.]

Goodbye to George Van Arsdale

2011-03-29T21:47:00.000-04:00

This last Saturday afternoon we remembered and said goodbye to George Van Arsdale who died on March 13, 2011, after a several year battle with a rare type of cancer. George was a long term member of the BBC. A funeral mass was held at Trinity Episcopal Church, with several BBC members attending. He had lots of connections in the community in addition to biking. The arts community was especially well represented.

I took the photo above out near the Waterworks in the fall of 2006 during the Persimmon Ride led by Joe Anderson.

I think we all recognized George in the description of him in the eulogy. A serious talker with knowledge and opinions on almost everything. He was unique and we'll miss him.

George served a term as president of our club back in the 1970s. He recorded some of his memories of the early days of the club in a document that used to be on the club web site. I searched for it, but couldn't find it there. I did eventually locate a copy by going to www.waybackmachine.org and searching there using the presently dead URL http://bloomingtonbicycleclub.org/history.html in the year 2007. You, too, could find it there. Here's a link for the history that currently works http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20071021074419/http://bloomingtonbicycleclub.org/history.html Maybe it will reappear on our regular web site again sometime. But if you've ever lost something on the web, there's at least a chance you can resurrect it using the Wayback Machine!

OWLS Start the 2011 Season

2011-03-22T21:30:00.000-04:00

This evening marked the beginning of the OWLS Tuesday-Thursday rides for this year. We had an amazing 28 riders out for a pleasant 19 mile ride out to the Pine Grove boat ramp and back. The Bryan Park training group probably had a dozen or more riders. (I haven't heard anything definite, although I saw a few people gathering there as I hurried home from work.) I imagine the club had over 40 riders out this evening.

All day long the weather looked a little questionable and around 5 there were a few very light sprinkles. But as the time came the rain held off. The weather was warm, indeed too warm for jackets.

I was the ostensible leader, but was a bit delayed at the office. I rolled up at 5:44 PM to the parking lot of the Sherwood Oaks Church on Rogers Rd. But by that time Tom R had already briefed the gathered group on the route and away we went. I was happy to take up a position near the rear.

At the turn-around at the lake club Safety Czar Chris Tietz offered a few useful suggestions reminding us to ride at most two abreast when there is any traffic at all and also to split up into smaller separated groups so that it is easier for a car to get around us.

It was a perfect opening day for the 2011 OWLS group.

Annual Meeting and Banquet

2011-03-06T20:46:00.000-05:00

The club's annual meeting was held on Saturday, February 19, 2011. As an experimental change of pace we has a luncheon meeting, again at Chapman's. There were about 35 members in attendance. We've already heard a report of the meeting from President Keith Vogelsang by email on February 20-21. Here we share several images taken by Mike Finger. Click on any photo for a larger version.

Nancy Tibbit of Bicycle Indiana demonstrates the yard stick being used to promote their "Don't be a Hogassaurus" Share the Road campaign, aimed at educating drivers to give bike riders at least 3 feet of clearance as they pass.

Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan joined the meeting and spoke to the club about what's going on in the city.

Here we are going through the buffet line.

Chatting before lunch.

Gathering for the business meeting.

Club VP Mark Villanova talks about plans for this year's RAIN.

Cub members Clair Murphy, Bob DeGroff, Keith Vogelsang and Bob Austin chat after lunch.

Examining the county map of all our bike routes.

Ron Brown and Jim Schroeder examine an electronic map.

This must be Ron's winter commuting bike with its studded snow tires.

First Club Ride of 2011 Riding Season

2011-03-06T20:25:00.000-05:00

As we all heard by email the first official Saturday club ride of 2011 was rained out on March 5. But as Tammy Berger reports, Sunday's Nice and Easy Ride went on as scheduled.

She writes, "With the rain all gone 4 brave souls (Ron B, Clair M, Bill S, and Tammy B) braved the cold but dry conditions today on the Sunday Nice 'n Easy ride. We had a nice 21 mile ride in the 35 degree weather on the Nice 'n Easy Tramway route. The cold was definitely numbing, but it was nice to get out and ride with friends again. Looking forward to a great riding season."

I know others were out riding as well. CE, Gail, Tom, and I went out a little earlier on a route that combined elements of the airport ride and Tramway. We originally planned a 29 mile route, which we shortened a bit at the end, mainly because of cold toes.

Congresswoman Giffords

2011-01-18T19:13:00.000-05:00

Some BBCers might have noticed in the coverage of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that she is an avid biker. Indeed according to the New York Times she went on a bike ride around Tucson with a friend the evening before the Saturday shooting.

BBC member Jim Schroeder passed along a link to a story about her and bicycling from the Tucson Velo, a local online bicycling newsletter. Check out her custom bike made by a local Tucson builder.

2010 A Year-End Retrospective

2010-12-30T14:33:00.002-05:00

From: Keith Vogelsang, BBC President

In the spirit of year end retrospectives, I thought I would take a moment to summarize what our organization has accomplished in 2010. I’m grateful to the Board of Directors and to all the club members who have stepped up and contributed to an active and thriving club. We should all be very proud, as I’ve received numerous compliments throughout the year from other athletic clubs, out of town visitors, ride participants, elected officials, and grant recipients on the great work we do as a nonprofit.

To begin, we completed an ambitious touring schedule under the direction of Mike Finger. This schedule saw the growth of several regular riding groups, including our Tuesday/Thursday Training Rides, the OWLS, the SlowSpokes, Wednesday Night Women’s Ride, the Sunday Nice ‘N Easy, in addition to our regular Saturday schedule. We had more cyclists riding in more rides than at any time in our club’s history—a truly exciting development to be a part of. And our major invitational ride and primary fund raiser, the Ride Across Indiana (RAIN), under the direction of Joe Anderson, saw its most successful year ever with over 1500 registered participants from around the country. We hope interest continues to build for all these riding groups, as word gets out and our club continues to attract new members of all skill levels. My thanks to Mike and all the ride leaders who consistently step up, know the routes, and make sure we roll on time.

Our new website went live this year thanks to the design efforts of Klaus Rothe and the programming efforts of Ron Brown. I attribute the growth in interest of our club largely to our new online “look” as it is attractive and the content stays fresh. New links continue to be added and we’re hoping to make more improvements in the coming year. Mark Napier’s online registration tool has also been an important factor in promoting membership, as it makes joining quick, safe, and convenient. Mark’s data then goes to Membership Director Tammy Berger, who efficiently processes our nearly 300 members. The Bloomington area has thousands of bicyclists, and it would be great if we could continue to build our organization. As our numbers increase, so does our influence in terms of advocacy for needed infrastructure. As more of us ride, we can better demonstrate safe and courteous riding habits to new riders and motorists alike. I’m grateful Tammy is up to the job.

Our Advocacy programs have never been better under the direction of Ron Brown, as he continues to monitor the activities of various governmental agencies and lobby for the rights of bicyclists. Ron recently met with the Monroe County Highway Director Bill Williams and Williams agreed to put Ron’s idea for a bicycle and pedestrian bridge across SR 37 near Menards into the county’s long-range plans. We feel this was a major accomplishment and it is my hope that the BBC can be a major player in improving the bicycling infrastructure in and around Bloomington. These kinds of improvements will help all of us, regardless of whether we ride for simple exercise, recreation, transportation (or some combination of all three). Other local officials have also expressed interest in Ron’s vision. I’d also like to thank Jean Smith of Bikesmiths for representing the BBC on INDOT’s Citizens Advisory Council for I-69. Jean organized two advocacy rides and urged members to weigh in on proposed road closures due to freeway construction in southwestern Monroe County. The BBC Board passed a resolution back in October requesting accommodations for bicyclists at proposed closures so that we can continue to have access to the rural areas that make cycling enjoyable.

We are also fortunate that Safety and Education Director Chris Tietz was selected to serve on the City of Bloomington’s Platinum Task Force, which is a group charged with coming up with recommendations for how Bloomington can win a Platinum designation from the League of American Bicyclists. Bloomington graduated from Bronze to Silver this past year. The BBC was instrumental in that effort, and we will continue to be an important corporate partner in the city’s efforts to become Gold or Platinum. In addition to the BBC Board and the city’s Platinum Task Force, Chris has also recently been elected to the board of Bicycle Indiana, the statewide advocacy group that our club belongs to.

As many of you know, we’ve seen some important organizational changes to the BBC this past year. Back in May, the Board decided that the interests of the club were best served by severing the historic relationship between the BBC and TRIRI by the end of 2010. The split into two separate entities has now been completed. We became aware of some important legal considerations throughout this process that nonprofits need to be particularly sensitive to, and as a result, the Board has implemented a Conflict of Interest Policy that should offer additional protection to the entire organization. We’ve updated our insurance policy to include Directors and Officers Liability, in addition to our general umbrella policy that every organization of our size needs. We secured a business line of credit to improve accounting safeguards, while at the same time simplifying our finances and club expenditures. The Board created a cash reserve account and also a large grants program that will allow our club to target projects for funding that we think would make significant improvements to local bicycling infrastructure. We hope to see lots of member input when the time comes to identify and fund these future projects.

The RAIN Committee has also re-organized, and is now being chaired by Vice-President Mark Villanova. Our 2011 Ride Across Indiana will mark the 25^th anniversary of this signature event. The new RAIN Committee consists of Mark Villanova, Klaus Rothe, Beth Plale, Jennifer Miers, Jim Schroeder, John Connell and myself. We’ve made great progress towards next year’s event scheduled for July 16th, with a fabulous jersey already designed, a new lunch vendor (Holy Smoke Hog Roast), and we anticipate registration opening up very soon. The success of this event will depend on lots of BBC members stepping up to volunteer and/or ride. Please contact us at rain@rainride.org to volunteer.

In 2011, we’ll continue to pick up roadside trash, set new strength records, ride farther and faster than we ever thought possible, fund bicycling initiatives and generally have a great time. Happy New Year, everyone!

What Happened? My Hilly Crash

2010-11-11T21:09:00.000-05:00

By BBC Member Tim Gehres

It’s been four weeks since the operation and a few days prior to that when the crash occurred. Yesterday, the Doc pronounced his blessing and declared it safe for me to hit the road once again. At 59 and a competent rider, the nagging question was how “could this have happened”. After three years of trying to get in the Hilly Hundred, I was so excited to finally get a chance to take on the Hilly only to crash just a mile or so past the Lunch stop on Saturday. I had rested over an hour at lunch and hadn’t really pushed it the first half of the day, so I felt great. But what could have been the cause? The crash happened so fast that I don’t ever remember it at all. The first thing that I remember afterwards is someone asking me some stupid questions about what day it was. All I wanted to know was “how’s my bike. Pain? What pain? On a scale of 1 to 10, about a 9, but never mind that, how’s my bike?

After returning to the scene of the accident this last weekend, I discovered the cause, or at least the contributing factor as so many accident investigators would say. It was in the form of a pothole patch, somewhat camouflaged, about a foot in length across the road, four inches wide and 2 inches high at the bottom of a shallow down grade. Now imagine rocketing along at a mere 20 mph on a road bike with one hand on the handlebars while trying to figure out where you are at on the GPS, never mind that there are at least 20 bikers around you, and suddenly your front wheel, a 700X23 with 100psi in it hits this little “Hill” in the road. Wheel stops, weight goes forward, handle bar suddenly jerks very sharply sideways and launches the poor hapless rider into space. $20,000 later for a new metal bone brace with which to annoy the TSA agents at airports, I am happy to say that my collar bone is mending quite nicely and that it felt really great to be back on the bike today. But the real question is how is it that out of 5,000 riders, I’m the only one that hit that stupid bump?

All Good Things Come to an End

2010-11-01T19:40:00.000-04:00

Final Nice and Easy Ride

Ron Brown led the final Nice and Easy ride of this season on Halloween. The group took the Clear Creek Trail to Victor Pike, around Crop Circle and on to Tramway and back for a total of 21 miles. The sunny sky and beautiful fall leaves compensated for the mid-50's temperature. The goblins were active and provided two tricks in the form of flats to compensate for the treat of a final Nice and Easy ride. Thanks to Ron for another summer of enjoyable rides at a relaxed pace with lots of opportunity for socializing.

- From an Appreciative Rider

End of Season Ride Around Bloomington

2010-10-28T21:38:00.000-04:00

This Saturday marks the official end of the BBC summer riding season with leader Jim Schroeder's slightly modified version of the club's Ride Around Bloomington. Here's a link to an online GPS map of the route. The elevation profile shows a total climb of 2788 feet. Hope to see a good turnout for the last ride of the season.
-Allan Edmonds

I-69 Crossings

2010-10-19T21:41:00.021-04:00

By Allan Edmonds

Jean Smith, BBC member, club representative to the I-69 planning groups, and owner of Bikesmith's led a group of 18 cyclists on an exploration along roads near the currently planned "new terrain" segment of the proposed I-69. This part of I-69 starts from a planned interchange, where it begins heading southwest from Bloomington, leaving the present Highway 37 corridor where That Road crosses 37.

Jean explained the route to the group before we set off.

Our route started from the Clear Creek Trail parking area off of That Road and at the far extreme got into some relatively unfamiliar territory, on Burch and Evans Roads.

Below is a segment of the I-69 route map. The big blue stars are interchanges. The green dots are planned overpasses. These include Tramway, Lodge, Rockport. The purple dots indicate where current roads cross the route and are tentatively planned to be closed. These include Bolin, Harmony, Evan Ln, and Burch Rd. Jean thinks it likely that Harmony will become an overpass anyway, based on recent public comments about closing off Harmony.

A bigger version of this map and more information about this segment of I-69 is available at I-69 Tier 2 Studies. At this site you can enter public comments. Note that the current deadline for comments is coming up very soon on October 28.

Hilly Review

2010-10-12T21:56:00.000-04:00

ByAllan Edmonds

The Hilly Hundred for 2010 is over. I know lots of BBC members took part. For some it was a long family tradition; for others it was a new family event; for some it was the culmination of a year of training; for others it was another ride on familiar but crowded roads. The weather was unbelievable...well, really too hot, don't you think?

In the rest of this post I'll share comments I received from club members in response to my request for personal stories, plus a few observations of my own.

The first to respond was SW who somewhat gruffly complained that Day 1 was 57 miles, not 50, and that the total for the weekend was going to go well over 100. "If they're going to call it the Hilly Hundred, then it should be exactly 100 miles!"

DH, who didn't ride, participated vicariously. He was one who loaned a bike to JA who was having something like 20 family members coming to town for the event, honoring her late father who had ridden it many times. He wrote to say how moved he was by their story.

TB rode along with her husband who road a tandem with their 5 year old on back. She wrote:

"It really was fun to experience this ride from a 5 year old's perspective. She was happy and smiling seemingly regardless of what was going on. She loved the music at the stops and we spent lots of time just watching her enjoy the time off the bike. She was in a 5 year old heaven at stop 3 on day 1 when there was a slide and swing set to play on!

"For both days the only real complaints we heard from her were about 30 miles in on Day 2, the road was a bit rough, she was tired, and she was beginning to hurt. We convinced her to go the long route so we could stop at rest stop 3 in Stinesville. When we got to the stop we laid down under the sycamore tree, listened to the music, and watched the hawks circling high overhead. After a good LONG stop we finished with Jessica smiling and happy once more. She has been proudly wearing her Hilly cap the rest of the day.

"It really was a great weekend! I would not have changed a thing."

At Tuesday's OWLS ride we had a small group of just seven coming out for our ever shorter rides. I was amused that five of the seven had done the Hilly. All 5 had those neat helmet mirrors that one can only easily get at the Hilly and three were wearing identical souvenir socks.

For pictures and more personal commentary from another Indiana rider, see the blog by Helen Steussy.

2010-10-09T20:26:00.001-04:00

By Allan Edmonds

I went out for a 20 mile ride this morning by myself. I just did a version of the club's Fluck Mill Ride. We're getting to the point where there's not quite enough sunlight to do a route like this on the OWLS rides in the evening. The weather was beautiful as everyone who is doing the Hilly Hundred know well.

I'm more and more using the new multi-use train in the "Goat Farm", running from the roundabout at High and Winslow/Rogers to Sherwood Oaks Park. It makes for a good route for getting in an out of town.

I stopped and took a quick snapshot of the fall foliage down on Victor Pike, near Fluck Mill.

There was very little traffic and absolutely no other bicyclists (I wonder why!). Well, actually on the way home in Sherwood Oaks I saw a dad out with his young son on a small bike and then I saw a granddad on the new trail teaching a grandson to ride without training wheels.

Tour de RAIN

2010-10-03T14:38:00.000-04:00

About 20 riders braved a questionable weather forecast and cool temperatures around 50 degrees to take

part in the club's annual Tour de Boat Ramps, led per tradition by Joe Walker.

Note the club's fanciest jersey and the Tortuga booties.

This ride does the standard basic route around Lake Monroe but builds in the prospect of going down, and back up, all the boat ramps along the route. There are ten altogether and it is each rider's decision how many to do. The basic route is 44 miles roundtrip from Bryan Park, and doing all ten ramps raises the mileage to 78 miles. Naturally this led to many small groups of riders.

I decided early on only to do one ramp. So I picked the flattest one, namely Cutright, just south of the Causeway. Here's GPS proof:

Cutright actually was fairly deserted, with a few cars and no boats in sight.

Shortly after our turn off on Chapel Road it started to sprinkle. Too late to go back. So we kept plugging along. Gradually the rain increased, but never got beyond light rain. It was only toward the end that hands and feet got really wet and cold.

It was actually a pretty good ride. But I doubt that very many riders did very many ramps this year.

Bridge Out! So What!

2010-09-28T21:23:00.000-04:00

We had another large group of OWLS riders Tuesday night. After a couple of weeks or so of grumbling about the bridge (re)construction blocking a favorite route on Mt. Gilead, today Tom R. led us on an out-and-back on Kerr Creek and Getty's Creek Roads up to the bridge project.

No one tried to get across the wide chasm! Altogether it was a beautiful evening to be out and a fine 18 mile ride, with plenty of light to spare in the end.

Hot Fall Rides

2010-09-22T21:51:00.000-04:00

Tom Reynolds continues his extraordinary work developing and mapping new rides for the Tu-Th OWLS group. He was really pushing us with longer rides. But even Tom has accepted that diminishing daylight has cut the time we can be out. The "long" options for this week's rides have been right at 20 miles. The plan now is to drop scheduled evening rides at the end of September, I think. But check the club ride calendar just in case. And if you are interested, maybe there will still be people for short rides in October.

Tuesday we went out 446 to Pine Grove and down to the lake. Quite possibly this was our last trip down that way to the lake.

After climbing back to 446, most of us headed back into town via Swartz Ridge and climbing Stipp. Almost always we go down Stipp. We should always do it that way once in the season. Some climb!

BikeMI

2010-09-19T20:09:00.000-04:00

That's Bike-MILANO, not Bike-Michigan!

Milan is one of several European cities that have recently instituted a bike sharing program. One first "joins" at a rate of 2.5 euros a day, 6 euros a week, or 36 euros for a year. (A euro is approximately $1.30.) One then has a name and PIN to punch into a machine at any of 100 bike stations, mostly around the center of the city.

You can take a bike at no further charge as long as you return it to one of the stations within 30 minutes. These stations are automated with a computerized docking system. You punch in a code and it assigns you a bike and gives you a few moments to remove it from the dock. When you return a bike, it registers that you've turned it in. a After another 10 minutes you are then able to take out another bike. If you don't get to a station within the allotted 30 minutes, then your credit card gets a small charge, which quickly escalates. After several hours it becomes 150 euro fine, and if this happens more than once you can be dropped from the system.

Ordinarily if there are no vacant locking docks available you get directed to the nearest station with open slots and are allotted an extra 15 minutes.

The photo shows the bike stand at the Cardano Metro Station at evening rush hour. As one can see there, the rule about having to dock your bike is honored in the breach at peak times. (Typical Italian, I suppose. It's hard to imagine this scene in Germany.) Indeed the van in the background is pulling a trailer to be loaded with the excess bikes to be distributed elsewhere. When I was there early the next morning all the randomly parked bikes were gone and only the nice neat row of docked bikes, plus 3 or 4 empty slots, was in evidence.

As you can also see from the picture, these are heavy duty bikes with little baskets, adjustable seats, and front and rear lights. They are clearly identifiable on the streets.

On my recent trip to Milan I had every intention of purchasing a one-week pass. In the end I bailed, however. First of all one needed a texting cell phone to receive the log-in name when signing up online. But I wasn't using a cell phone in Italy. Perhaps I could have gotten around this if I had found a place to register in person. But having a smart phone is somewhat important as it can show you the nearest stations and where bikes are available and where parking slots are available. Also, although I was staying at a hotel in the city center, the conference I was attending was taking place 9 km, about a 45 minute metro/tram commute, into the "suburbs", well beyond the locations of the bike stations. And with all the commuting, etc., we didn't really have much free time.

Despite all of this I was still aiming to give it a try. But then I got a first hand look at traffric in Milan and gave up the idea. Cars, mostly small ones, everywhere. Small trucks. Many motorcycles. Lots of bikes. All performing a complicated "dance", weaving in and out, squeezing through tight spaces, parking on the sidewalk. It all seemed to work. But I just wasn't up for it. As expected, also, I saw very few (but did see some) helmets.

Ah well. It was fun to consider even if I was too chicken to give it a try.

Flat Tires... eventually you will have one

2010-08-30T12:57:00.000-04:00

By CE Taylor

This isn't about how to fix them but how to tell if you have one. This may sound like a no-brainer but the last flat tire I had caught me by surprise and taught me a hard lesson.

I can't tell you how many times I have looked down at my rear tire while I was riding and swore it was flat because it felt like I was riding through sticky syrup. Usually it was just me but a few times I could see my tire bulging out each side of the rim more than usual and I knew it was going flat. One time I heard the tire making an unusual noise as it wrinkled around the rim it was so flat. I would guess that most club members could share their flat back tire experiences and they would be something like this.

My last flat tire was different. It was my front tire. Maybe I was having a good day since it was only 3 miles into the ride, but I never felt that sticky or soft road feeling that a rear flat tires gives you. What I did have but didn't realize why at the time was a slight wobble in the front wheel. It only happened two or three times in three miles. It was so slight and only lasted a couple of seconds each time that I ignored it thinking it was a rough spot in the road. That turned out to be a big mistake. A short time later, as I turned my bike left, the front tire rolled and/or slid to the right and I went straight down to the pavement. I later discovered a thorn in my tire which had caused it to go very soft. It wasn't flat yet but very soft. It was soft enough to reduce the tire's ability to grip the road when cornering. It was a learning experience I wouldn't recommend.

I don't claim to be an expert on flat tires. I can only share what I have experienced. Your experience may be different. I have learned that rear flats will usually make it harder to pedal. Front flats are more dangerous because they will cause a loss of steering and handling ability, possibly resulting in an accident.

I am sharing my recent experience with the hope that other riders can learn from my mistake and avoid having an accident.

Don't have any mechanical failures this week!

2010-08-25T11:15:00.000-04:00

I broke a spoke last night just as I got home from the OWLS ride. I should be grateful that it didn't happen earlier. This morning first thing I took the (rear) wheel to a local bike shop to get it repaired. I first was told that it would take a week to get to it, that this is the very busiest time of the year, with IU classes starting in a few days. As if to emphasize the point several people were already wandering in looking for things and needing help. Eventually it turned out that there was a cancellation and that they might be able to get it done by end of the day on Thursday. I appreciated that small bit of luck. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but not holding my breath.

P.S. Clicking on the title of this post takes you to the BBC homepage where you can check out what's new. And don't forget to look at more that just the homepage. You or your friends might be in a photo!

Daylight gets shorter; OWLS ride longer

2010-08-24T21:28:00.000-04:00

This month Tom Reynolds has been organizing the OWLS rides. He's taken a hint from Jim Schroeder and planned long and short routes, e.g., tonight's Limestone Tours of lengths 34 and 25 miles respectively. Check out the links in the Ride Calendar to the maps he's been creating.

Tonight we had our usual 20 or so riders, with half or more doing the long option. Daylight is sufficiently short that the long option requires holding stops to an absolute minimum. Hope they don't have any flat tires or other delays! Tonight we were also overtaken around the split between the long and short options by the training group coming from Bryan Park.

We also had a special treat as club web master and photographer Klaus Rothe showed up to take pictures before we started.

Gathering at Sherwood Oaks Church Parking Lot

Then he went out on the route by car in order to set up a few more shots.

Click on the title to tonight's blog to go see another photo on the club web site. (And by the way, do yourself a favor and check out the club web pages every few days to see what new things Klaus has posted. You'll enjoy it!)

BBC on WFHB

2010-08-14T20:26:00.000-04:00

By Jodi Pope-Pfingston

I was contacted recently by WFHB's Michael Glab with a request to do a series of interviews about cycling, the BBC, and the SlowSpokes ride. The series will be a part of the station's new concept for a sports program which will highlight some of the many sports that are important to the unique flavor of our community, but which get little mainstream media attention. According to Mike, cycling was an obvious choice for the new program, and the BBC was the best place to start. After taking a look at the ride calendar and the website, he decided that the SlowSpokes ride would make a great first interview, so he contacted me. The interview was recorded Sunday morning, and will be available soon on the air as well as on the WFHB website.

I was very happy to get a chance to spread the word about the BBC and what a great contribution it makes to our community. It will be interesting to see the future direction WFHB takes in its coverage of cycling and the BBC.

Summer BBQ at the Lion's Den

2010-08-10T18:32:00.003-04:00

by Keith Vogelsang

Nearly 60 hungry members and friends of the Bloomington Bicycle Club gathered at the Lion's Den shelter of Upper Cascades Park this past Sunday for a cookout. I arrived early to get fires started in the two large grills. But getting hardwood charcoal to heat up took longer than anticipated, and fortunately, Glenn Berger stepped in to assist with his pyrotechnical expertise. After a while, with kids and adults fanning the coals in earnest, we had enough heat to cook the first of many batches of teriyaki chicken kabobs, burgers, and bratwurst. We had three kinds of brats on hand: pork, chicken, and "buffalo" (which was most likely American bison meat, not truly a buffalo). There appear to be few limits on what can be stuffed inside a casing, and even fewer on what I will eat. We also saw great enthusiasm for marinated portobella mushrooms, garden burgers, and veggie kabobs.

Also on a the menu: a delicious variety of pitch-in items, including lots of fresh fruit, potato salad, bean salad, chips, cookies, and from Jim Schroeder, Amish country pie. The 20 or so miles I rode earlier in the day weren't nearly enough to offset this feast, but I suppose every little bit helps.

I took a moment after eating to explain some of the changes the BBC can expect with RAIN and what our long-term plans are for the funds raised through RAIN. I had sign-up sheets on hand, and several club members stepped up to serve on some of the different RAIN subcommittees, and we hope more members join us in the months ahead. My thanks to Kim, Klaus, Ron, Glenn, Tammy and everyone who joined us for a relaxing evening off the bike.

(Mood-capturing photo by Klaus Rothe.)

Shelley Says Goodbye

2010-08-07T21:31:00.000-04:00

Shelley Bradfield celebrated her last day in Bloomington with a 35 mile OWLS ride on Thursday through Harrodsburg and points south and west.

Shelley at a regrouping stop at the Smithville Post Office

Shelley has been a mainstay of the OWLS the last couple of years. Now she leaves us, fresh Ph.D. in hand, for a new job in Colorado. We wish her all the best!

Apple's Idea of a Smart Bike

2010-08-07T21:26:00.000-04:00

It was revealed a few days ago that Apple has applied for a patent for a "smart bike system" based on the iPod Touch or the iPhone. Read about their idea of a smart bike at
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2010/08/apple-introduces-us-to-the-smart-bike.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tidbits_main+%28TidBITS%3A+Mac+News+for+the+Rest+of+Us%29

Evolution

2010-08-03T15:13:00.000-04:00

o __o
°\___o /0~ -\<,
___oo~_______ /\ /\______/ \_________O/ O_________

Thoughts on the Classic Cyclist

2010-08-03T12:20:00.006-04:00

By Jim Schroeder

After RAIN 2010, I've questioned myself as to just what kind of cyclist am I. Well, I just got done reading a great article in Hammer Nutrition's Endurance News magazine. It's titled "The Classic Cyclist, Part One", and is written by Chris Kostman. Chris has ridden in races like RAAM, Iditabike, and 24 Hours of Canaan, and has organized endurance races including Badwater Ultramarathon and Furnace Creek 508.

I wasn't a "classic cyclist" during RAIN 2010 and paid the price. I was all the time before July 17 and will be in the future.

Here are some great excerpts:

"Road cyclists entering the sport over the past fifteen or so years have tended to come in by way of mountain biking, triathlon, running, or fitness, rather than pure road cycling. As a result, most of these "cyclists" lack the knowledge which makes up the foundation of the classic cyclists' repertoire and which builds upon the backbone of the sport."

"The best way to start a ride, or conduct any aerobic activity, is to warm up properly...A classic cyclist will take the first ten to twenty miles of a ride, or even a race, to warm up properly, usually staying off the big chainring and two smallest cogs. As a result, he or she will actually ride better and more quickly than the current jackrabbit style of cyclist who catapult onto every training ride or event."

"Most cyclists nowadays not only don't know how to ride in a paceline, but that they don't even understand why they should...Work together, and when it's not your turn up front, covet that rear wheel of your buddy! In the moment, you may think 'it's too hard to keep up at this speed,' but the classic cyclist knows that riding solo instead of with another means more work and less speed."

"This effort to keep the group together is specifically continued at checkpoints during events; those who arrive together, shall leave together."

"The classic cyclist accepts suffering as in intricate part of the experience. He or she certainly doesn't whine in person..."

"The classic cyclist shares a bond with all fellow cyclists. As such, other cyclists are always acknowledged along the road, usually with a tip of the head to riders in the opposing direction, or a cheery hello when passing or being passed. Classic cyclists never ride hi-lessly, wavelessly, and nodlessly by... All on bicycles are appreciated and respected."

A RAIN DNFer's Lament

2010-08-03T12:19:00.000-04:00

By Jim Schroeder

I DNF'd this year's Ride Across INdiana. I did everything that I've always coached others not to. As Mike Finger told me, "Jim, you pulled a Mike!". That, I did. Basically, from my past rides in all of 2010, my head was just too big for my britches.

I started RAIN way too fast not warming up the first 20 miles like I always did.

I blew up those hills east of Terre Haute blasting by all those flatlanders, forgetting that physiologically I'm still a flatlander and always will be. I was forming trains, meaning that everyone jumped on behind me while I was doing all the work. That really boosted my ego, but it depleted my energy stores.

I jumped way ahead of the Centurion pack after the first food stop, as I had my own sag driver and quickly exchanged bottles, while the other guys rested a little more as all six of them had Miss Melanie as their sag driver. Being 20 minutes ahead at one point again stroked my ego, but at what a cost too my legs!

Between Putnamville and Plainfield, I was pushing to catch the bogies ahead of me and I would even catch some pacelines, too. I should have continued to ride comfortably in a paceline and sharing the work. Catching the bogies should be reserved for the last 40 miles when there usually aren't that many pacelines to ride with.

I was sweating like a sieve but I was hydrating enough and downing plenty of electrolyte capsules. However, I wasn't taking in enough cliff blocks and hammer gels. Why? I guess it would slow me down getting it out of my rear pockets?

I didn't communicate well enough with my sag driver and we couldn't hook up after Plainfield until Camby. I also should have actually stopped at the lunch area for at least 5-10 minutes to "compose". I was still treating this as a race, and felt good that I passed the boys just a mile after they passed me.

So, while I was on my way to a sub-8hr, the quads started cramping. I tried everything to cure that but to no avail. Then each one would seize up, and then both quads simultaneously. There went my attempt for a PR.

I could have finished but there would be no pushing the gears and the last 50 miles would have to be no more than 15mph, and so I quit.

I've done countless numbers of RAIN in so many different ways and I never want to repeat 2010!

Local RAIN Article in IDS

2010-07-19T13:38:00.000-04:00

RAIN article in Indiana Daily Student at http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=76222

and 10 pictures in an IDS gallery at http://www.idsnews.com/news/multimedia/media.aspx?id=194&type=PG

Inspiring Commitment and Dedication

2010-07-19T09:48:00.003-04:00

I'm not a blogger normally, but just have to share that I have been watching Fr. Rick Ginther, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Church and St. Patrick Parish in Terre Haute, Indiana as he trained and prepared for the 2010 RAIN ride. His committment and dedication to accomplish this goal is nothing short of inspiring. Fr. Rick has an exhausting schedule with serving two parishes and the St. Patrick school, and yet he made personal time to train by himself and with others to grasp this opportunity to be a part of such a huge event. I'm honored to call him my boss, my friend, and an inspiration to all around him!

From Jeanne Blackford, Parish Secretary, St. Margaret Mary Church

A rider's RAIN Report

2010-07-18T21:48:00.004-04:00

By CE Taylor

Ken and I arrived for the start of the ride at 6:35 a.m. We were in line for the start by 6:50 a.m. According to my GPS it was 5:50 a.m. because we were standing in the Central time zone. We were at the back of the starting group, sort of. We had ridden past lots of people still unloading their bikes on our way to the start. The ride started on time but it was at least two more minutes before we could start pedaling. The hills on the way to the first rest stop were not too bad. We slowed down on the hills to save energy. We rode and rode and rode. It is always a relief to reach the first rest stop. A quick fill up of water and snacks and we were back on the road. The Plainfield rest stop is a little over 60 miles from the start. That means there are less than 100 miles to go. I mean that in a positive way.

It seemed like it took forever to get to the lunch stop, but it feels like that every year. We had a really long lunch stop, but it is important to remember it is a ride, not a race. Our wives had set up chairs under some pine trees waiting for us at the lunch stop. I can tell you that the combination of a chair, shade and breeze felt really good. (Note, our wives are the best SAG drivers ever.) We saw Rob, Eugene and Shane at lunch. One of them had a mechanical problem earlier in the day, which lost them about an hour. Later, they zipped past us on the road as did a lot of people. Remember, it's a ride not a race.

We had our Camelbaks on after lunch. I drank my 70 oz. of water by the time we got to Casey's General Store 17 miles later. It is important to stay hydrated. One year I ran out of water after lunch and I didn't want to do that again. That is a hot stretch of road that seems to go on forever. Leaving the hot county roads behind and getting back on hot US 40 is a huge relief. You have to experience it to understand what I mean. Turning back on US 40, only a block from Casey's General Store and knowing that your SAG support is there is a huge boost to your spirits. When I get to Casey's, I know I can make it to Richmond. I don't know why I feel that way, but since it is a straight, almost flat road to Richmond (there are a couple of hills that flat landers complain about) , the next 45 miles seem easier. Of course you still have to ride them but the end is in sight. We saw BBC'er Duane at Casey's and he joined us for the remainder of the ride.

We took a break at Dunreith to cool off and rest. Then, it was back on the bike for the final 29 miles. Our pace was slower on this section, but we continued towards the finish confident of the outcome. Turning into Earlham College for the final 50 yards is always a pleasant experience. Ken led the way to the finish. People cheered as we came in. Tom Whitehead was there congratulating finishers. It was nice to see him at the finish. Kathy Cummins was helping with recording of the times and rider numbers and it was nice to see her too. I asked her if she had any thoughts about riding next year. Her answer was that she had thought seeing the finishers might be motivation for her to do it next year, but seeing all the tired, worn out riders coming in may have had the opposite effect.

My goal was for Ken and me to finish the ride. We did it in 12 hours and 35 minutes. That was the exact time I had on my first ride across Indiana in 2006. We weren't the first finishers or the last ones either. I am proud of what we accomplished. For an event like this, I feel that riders learn something about themselves that is more valuable than how long it took them to finish.

I am proud that my club puts on this event. The event runs smoothly and every rest stop is hosted by friendly workers. Proof of its popularity is seen by the increase in the number of registrations each year. The volunteers are to be commended for their commitment to club.

Nashville on the 5th of July

2010-07-05T15:18:00.000-04:00

Key Points:

Bridge out between Helmsburg and Bean Blossom on Highway 45
New Fly-Over route option on MayMyRide.com

Three of us took an impromptu ride to Nashville on our official 4th of July work holiday. The ride was relatively uneventful. We took Lanam Ridge and then Owl Creek to Helmsburg Road into Nashville. Lanam Ridge Road is particularly rough and in bad need of resurfacing. After a brief stop at the Shell Station in Nashville we went went out Greasy Creek and over Bear Wallow to Gatesville Road, which is freshly paved, making up a bit for Lanam Ridge.

At the store in Bean Blossom we discovered that Highway 45 is closed for major bridge work between Bean Blossom and Helmsburg. We talked to some people to plot out a detour via Grandma Barnes Road. But then talking to some more local people we learned that no work was being done today and that we might be able to get through on foot. It was only a mile or two to the work site so we decided to chance it. It looked pretty bad. But we were able to get across on a wobbly gang plank. A couple on a motorcycle going the other direction abandoned any idea of getting across and we recommended Grandma Barnes to them.

Otherwise the ride was uneventful and we made it home in good shape before the day got really hot.

The other point I wanted to make was about the new Fly-Over option. Here's a link to the route we took
Nashville Route via Owl Creek and Bear Wallow If you follow that link, then click on the button "Watch Course Fly-By Video (beta)" you'll be treated to a video of approximately 13 minutes that has the effect of flying a helicopter along the route at 300 feet, say, using Google Satellite imagery. Pretty amazing, even if the photo montage is not exactly current. Naturally this wouldn't be recommended on a slow internet connection.

Up Lentz

2010-06-29T21:49:00.000-04:00

Twenty five riders; 27 miles; 3 good hill climbs; 13.5+ mph.

The route in Google Earth. (Click to enlarge.)

Elevation showing climbs up from Griffey, up Lentz, and up Kerr Creek. (Click to enlarge.)

Riders coming off of Boltinghouse Hill. What are those guys doing going the other way?

(Click to enlarge.)

Ride to Williams Covered Bridge and Beyond

2010-06-27T16:09:00.000-04:00

Club member Jim Schroeder's vision of ABC rides for Saturday club rides worked almost to perfection this week for the annual club ride to the Williams Covered Bridge.

The primary route, designed years ago by Joe Anderson, one of the premier route makers in the whole country, is a 70 mile loop through Bedford to Williams, southwest of Bedford, including a 3 or 4 mile out-and-back to the longest wooden covered bridge in Indiana. (Or so Williams folks claim. It is said that Medora also claims that honor for its covered bridge.)

Joe's route, like many of the routes in the club books of maps, includes a shorter option of about 57 miles. Jim calls this the A option. The main loop is the B option.

Jim's addition was a 116 mile C option that extended the ride from the Williams bridge further south all the way to French Lick.

The ride itself was leaderless, as the person who volunteered back in the winter to lead the ride found himself doing the deCycles ride instead. Ride coordinator Mike Finger therefore got our group of 24 riders organized. He brought a few maps, but most people had already printed their own map (if needed) from the club web site.

Some nine riders committed themselves up front to the C option. The largest group were planning to do the B option. A few were planning the shorter A route (even it was 58 miles, for God's sake). And a few more were hedging their bets, hoping to put off the decision as long as possible.

To accomodate the new C route Jim decided to do the A and B routes counterclockwise, instead of their usual clockwise. By itself that made the ride interesting for those of us who had never done it backwards. Jim prepared a new cue sheet for the backwards routes, which was quite helpful.

The group took its first real rest stop at the store in Springville, familiar from the Popcorn Ride. About 6 miles later came Fayetteville, where people had to decide about the A route. At least one group of 3 took that route while the rest headed on toward Williams. That group included Laurence, Andy and Ben. None of the three were very familiar with the route.

Laurence reported for the 57 mile A group that Ben did a great job getting help and directions from residents and drivers and got them back on course after a short detour. She said they made it back to Bryan Park around 1pm. "The short ride took us across a number of beautiful, scenic areas which we all greatly enjoyed."

We had naturally broken into comfortable riding groups that got somewhat separated along the way. A couple of dropped chains, and a flat tire leaving the stop at Springville, contributed to the separation.

Another group of 4 missed the turn toward Williams at Fayetteville and added a couple of miles on their own before finding the rest of the group.

All of the B/C riders eventually gathered at the store in Williams for food and drink. Pretty soon the main C Centurions, super century riders, headed out toward the bridge and beyond. Meanwhile another smaller group of B riders left for Bedford and Bloomington without visiting the bridge. That left 8 more of us who were doing the B route at a relatively moderate pace. All but one of us then did the out-and-back to the bridge, where we observed Joe Anderson's Dan Henry for the just completed 2010 TRIRI "Warning-Walk bike or bend rim". We all successfully rode our bikes through, however, and stopped for a photo-op.

Our group of 8 OWLish riders then continued on our way with stops just outside of Bedford and the BP at Judah. One rider decided to take a longer break there. The rest of us set out for home on Old 37. It was hot, in the lower 90s as expected, and the last couple of hours weren't nearly as much fun as the morning part of the ride. Our group got back about 2pm, having covered a little over 70 miles, averaging something like 14.3 mph on the bike, in a little over 6 hours, confirming my rule of thumb for these rides allowing for about 12 miles an hour, including stops.

Meanwhile Jim reports for the Century group:
The C group were 9 hardy souls as we travelled around the crevices of the boards of the longest active covered bridge in Indiana. BBC legend, Kevin Hays, led the way through the hilly Hoosier National Forest down to our lunch stop at French Lick where the PGA golf tournament was going on during the weekend. We headed back north in the rolling prairie of Orange County to Orleans. The weather turned to what I call "ugly hot" as capitan Kevin led this French foreign legion cycling troop. The White River had receded so there were no alternate routes needed. However, somewhere around Buddha and Bedford, Kevin sprinted home as he was pressed for time, Charles vanished (I've confirmed his survival), and the lucky seven struggled home. A parade in Judah forced a stopover of 20 minutes, and Jim took an extended oasis at the BP. It's safe to say all of us were pushed to our limits. Add Aaron Prange, Charles Chancellor, and Kevin Hays to the Centurions of Bloomington Indiana.

Old 37 to Strain Ridge

2010-06-24T22:19:00.000-04:00

We had another good evening for biking. The OWLS had 19 riders, including one on his first club ride. Allan Edmonds and Tom Reynolds got the group organized, with Allan getting everyone to introduce themselves, while Tom went over the designated route, which we call Old 37 to Strain Ridge (link to PDF map). Tom recruited John Bassett to serve as sweep, which he did admirably. Tom planned out our standard regrouping spots on Victor just after crossing 37; Ketcham where we switch onto Old 37; Strain Ridge just after climbing that dam hill; and the PO in Smithville. Allan was just about to send us off right on time, when Kathy Avers announced that she had a flat. As usual several guys moved over to help. It was good that Kathy had her car there and a floor pump. The guys got the tube swapped out and ready to go in just 9 minutes. Pretty good for a bunch of amateurs! Our latest start in two years!

Everyone did a good job of staying together even though this turned out to be one of our faster rides. Somewhat surprisingly all but a couple of riders decided at the Post Office to take Ramp Creek rather than Fairfax back to the church.

We were coming in along the Waterworks route on Handy when Kathy had her second flat of the night! Again several people stopped to help, but for safety's sake it made sense for most of us to continue on toward home.

According to a note posted on the BBC homepage, Google Earth can now import and display data directly from a GPS. So we gave it a try. Here's a screen shot of the evening's ride displayed in Google Earth. Next project is to figure out to link to a "live" version in Google Earth.

Overall this was a bit faster than our typical OWLS ride. I averaged 15.2 mph for the basic 26 mile loop, tempered a bit to 14.3 by the time I added in 4.5 miles round trip between my house and the start. We climbed a bit over 1500 feet total and had a downhill max of just over 35 mph.

OWLS Airport Route

2010-06-18T09:08:00.000-04:00

We had another good group out for a really nice evening of bike riding. Again Tom R got the group going. We had 21 bikes and 23 riders (two tandems). This was a route that headed out of town to the northeast, so it was kind of slow going for the first 5 miles. One neat switch was that Tom led us over to the B-line trail. We took First over to Morton and from Morton got on the trail and took it up to 7th Street, with a slight kerfuddle at Kirkwood where street work disrupts trail traffic.

The group stayed pretty well together, going at an overall very moderate pace, up to Karst Farm. At that point the tandems decided to take off ahead of the larger group with the aim of cutting a few miles off the route and getting home earlier for other commitments. Another couple of people decided to make their own way home a shorter way.

At that point the rest of us headed out of Karst Farm taking a right on Airport Road. This is a tricky turn, up hill to a stop sign. There was a fair amount of traffic coming in from 45. Thus all but a handful of us had to stop rather precipitously. Some people behind closed too quickly and there was what appeared to be a minor collision. Some lessons: people toward the front need to more actively CALL OUT "stopping"; people toward the rear need to EXPECT that as the group approaches a STOP sign we will actually stop.

Anyhow, most of us went on ahead, seeing no advantage to having 15 bikes stopping there in the middle of the intersection. It was quite a bit later at a subsequent regrouping point that we realized that we were missing three riders, including the two who had collided. We waited a while and even sent one person back looking from the point where we crossed 45. But we never saw them. At least there were three riders together.

From that point on we gradually lost people who headed home their own ways. At the very end just 4 riders went all the way back to our starting point. We averaged about 13.9 overall and about 12.6 on the first half out to Karst Farm. Our average including stops and regrouping time was about 12.1 mph over about 28 miles.

A True SlowSpokes Ride

2010-06-14T10:12:00.000-04:00

By Anndra Morgan

Running late to Bryan Park for the SlowSpokes ride, I gave Jodi a call to let her know. She informed me that she was not going to make it. No problem, I thought, there has always been someone show up who knows the routes better than I do.

On the way to the park I planned my course of action. If no one was there I would have my husband drop off my son and me and we will ride home. (I live in Ellettsville and I have yet to ride to Ellettsville from Bryan Park.) If someone is there, we will ride the loop that takes us past the Speedway and on the Clear Creek Trail.

Well I get there and there is one gentleman waiting who just moved to Bloomington one week ago. He knows where Wal-Mart and Bryan Park is. He rides 5 days a week, 4000 miles a year. Oh Boy, he is not going to be any help with getting through the subdivisions between Winslow and the Speedway! I explained to him where we were going, let him know that I might get turned around a few times because I wasn’t sure of the route (he was fine with that), assured him that I would get him back to the park and off we went.

Along the way I shared information about the BBC and some of its rides.

All went well until we crossed Winslow. In the subdivisions between Winslow and Rhorer Rd., we had to turn around several times because I just could not remember all the turns. We went in a few circles and at one point we ended up back at Winslow a little to the west of where we started. He assured me that was fine as long as I got him back to the park. (I was positive I could do that, it just might not be a BBC route) Finally I made it to a familiar road and managed to make to Rhorer Rd. We crossed Rhorer Rd. and I knew that we needed to go to the right, just didn’t remember when, and headed down a road that ended in a cul-de-sac. Turn around again. We finally made it to the Speedway and I was good to go after taking a few minutes to decide to turn right at the stop sign. We continued on the rest of the route without any more wrong turns and I was able to give our guest a mini tour showing him a little of downtown via the B-Line trail. I pointed out Bloomingfoods and the location of the Farmers Market and gave him advice on where to park. We continued up 7th street through campus and stopped at Showalter Fountain. (I had to wake my foot up.) Finally we headed back to Bryan Park via IU campus through the parking garage and arrived back at Bryan Park at 4pm.

According to his speedometer we had a true SlowSpokes ride of around 18 miles at about a average of 10mph.

Executive Board Meeting

2010-06-11T21:54:00.001-04:00

The BBC Board held its regular business meeting Friday evening, June 11, at 5:30 pm, in the public meeting room at Old National Bank at Third and College Mall Road.

Board meetings are announced on the club ride calendar. Members are invited to attend to get a feel for what's involved in running the club. I heartily recommend that club members consider attending a meeting sometime. There's lots of good discussion of bicycling issues.

The main purpose of this note is to convey a sense of what goes on at board meeting, not to substitute for minutes. Ordinarily minutes should be posted to the Members Only part of the web site. Unfortunately a glance there will show that minutes of only one meeting in 2009 were posted there. We can hope that minutes from 2010 will be posted regularly.

By my count the whole board was there, including 4 elected officers and 6 appointed officers. In addition two other club members were present as non-voting guests. There were Keith Vogelsang (pres), Mark Villanova (VP), Kathy Cummins (sec), Joe Anderson (treas), Chris Tietz (Safety and Education), Tammy Berger (membership), Allan Edmonds (blog), Klaus Rothe (web design), Mike Finger (Ride Coordinator), Ron Brown (web master), Mark Napier (guest, RAIN and registrations), Linda McNabb (guest, RAIN).

Keith had sent out the agenda to the officers. Here's what it looked like:

1. Introductions (3 min)

2. Announcements (3 min)

a) Adopt-a-road clean up scheduled Sunday, June 13 at 1:30.

b) Race Across America Time Station begins next week, with racers arriving as early as 7PM June 15, and extending through June 19th.

3. Approval of minutes (5 min)

a) May 7 Board meeting

b) May 8 Special Meeting

4. Reports (20 min)

a) Treasurer

b) RAIN

c) Membership

d) Website

e) Blog/Newsletter

f) Touring

g) Advocacy

h) Safety

5. Old business (30 min)

a) BBC credit card

b) Audit committee

c) Conflict of interest policy

d) BBC/TRIRI relationship

e) Safety/Advocacy Article

6. New business (40 min)

a) Reserve account

b) RAIN registration for 2011

c) RAIN committee and ride labor

d) 1099-misc reporting

e) Membership benefits card/roster for bike shop discounts

f) Summer Party

g) City of Bloomington Bicycle Task Force

7. Adjournment

What follows are just a few notes about some of what went on.

The next meeting will definitely not be until after RAIN.

There was some informal discussion of guerrilla bike light campaign by City and funded in part by a BBC grant. Great publicity for the club in the Friday newspaper.

Minutes will be kept short focussing on all decisions of the board but not trying to record everything said and discussed. But we do need an official record of decisions made.

Half the board in action: Klaus playing on his iPad, Mike and Ron meditating, Keith moving to the next agenda item, Linda (guest for RAIN), Joe studying the accounts, Kathy's laptop, Tammy's purse.

(A little tongue-in-cheek....ok?)

Treasurer's report shows $54,000 balance, the bulk of which is RAIN registrations in hand. $1800 dues so far this year, through March. Biggest expense so far is 50% down payment on RAIN jerseys.

RAIN: 795 rain registrations so far, compared to 576 last year, which was a record. Normally expect to double what we have at June 15, when late fee kicks in. Route changes around Plainfield are required. Finish line is changing backway into Earlham because of construction.

Membership: We now have 260 members after purging non-renewals, a healthy and encouraging number. As Keith says we have the membership to do a better job of staffing more of our volunteer needs for things like ride leaders and especially for providing good support for RAIN.

We want to make the website more useful for members, more interactive, with more news, etc. Expect that we will eventually integrate the blog with it. In the past the web site was perhaps oriented more toward new people and visitors. In the future it will take on an increased role as a resource for members.

One interesting thing was obtaining a club credit card. It has a low credit limit $2500. But the limit should increase in the next 1-2 years to a more useful level. Approved but requirement that authorized users sign an endemnity statement authorizing. Three elected officers will have cards, with different numbers. This will help in handling miscellaneous expenses associated with club activities.

Another new thing: Audit committee Sandi Owen and Jerry Arveson were asked by Keith to serve on an audit committee. They would be mapping out the business processes of the club; review of general ledger and tax returns; random sampling of transactions. They could get started later in the summer, probably August. They'll provide a report to the board. They would also make a recommendation on how to handle new IRS reporting requirements.

We approved the draft Conflict of Interest policy put together by Chris Tietz.

Chris was given the go-ahead to start work on a safety and education article we will hope to publish in the HT and on our web site.

There was substantial discussion about recruiting and managing volunteer workers for RAIN.

It was agreed to have a summer party in the form of a cook-out or picnic in a city part, but not the pool party we've have had the last several years. Not so many people actually take advantage of the swimming opportunity.

At that point the hour was late and the weather threatening, so we quickly adjourned shortly before 8 pm, leaving a few items for discussion at the next meeting.

I hope these notes capture a little of the flavor of the meeting and encourage interested members to consider dropping in on board meetings. There's a surprising amount of work and decisions that have to be made.

Guerrilla Bike Light Campaign

2010-06-11T15:06:00.000-04:00

By Keith Vogelsang

BBC members who attended this year's winter banquet may recall the safety presentation given by Raymond Hess, who works in the city's Planning Department. During that presentation, Raymond discussed his Guerrilla Bike Light Campaign, where police and city personnel would set up at dusk in an unannounced location and wait for scofflaws on bikes to appear from the shadows.

Once caught in the act of riding without proper lighting, these unsuspecting bicyclists would be given not a citation, but a new set of lights. Thanks to a program funded by the BBC, these scofflaws are now more visible on the road.

Raymond tells us the first year of the campaign, the supply of lights moved very quickly once word got out that the lights were being given away. For this year's campaign, I received highly classified intelligence of when and where the guerrilla give-away was going down, and made sure that I was there to witness this innovative safety campaign for myself.

I took pictures, I installed several lights, and offered maintenance, route, and safety suggestions to all who would listen. One guy even invited me to take a ride on his slingshot fixed-gear--what an engineering marvel this bike was!

Michael Malik, a reporter for the Herald-Times, wrote up a story for this year's campaign, viewable at http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2010/06/10/news.qp-6884236.sto (subscription required). BBC grants are supporting numerous innovative bicycle use and safety initiatives, and it was a lot of fun to participate in this one implemented by folks from the Planning Department.

Victor and Harmony

2010-06-10T21:04:00.000-04:00

By Allan Edmonds

It was a warm evening and a hilly route southwest of town. We had almost 20 riders show up for this leaderless OWLS ride on Thursday evening. The route went out Victor all the way to the end, turning on Harmony Road, eventually turning onto Leonard Springs and That Road back into town.

Even though we had no official leader our system actually worked almost perfectly. At 5:45 Tom Reynolds took responsibility and asked if everyone knew where we were going and then we all took off. People are getting the idea that they need to be on time and that they need to check the map shown on the BBC Ride Calendar in advance and make their own copies if they need them. Thanks again to CE Taylor for developing the maps. (Shelley Bradfield and yours truly helped CE lay out a schedule, and Ron Brown developed an OWLS Ride Maps Page. Check out that cute page if you haven't already done so!)

At some point Tom drafted Patrick Kelly to sweep and Patrick undertook the job beautifully, almost as if they had planned it all out in advance. He called out "car back" numerous times, including once when a car was starting to pass at just the moment a couple of riders started to pull out to pass a slower cyclist ahead of them. He helped one or two riders get their chains back on. And he even pushed Ken Dau-Schmidt up a couple of hills! This is a guy who can ride up steep hills no-handed sitting up straight. He was a perfect sweep: Perhaps the strongest rider in the group, yet able and willing to watch out for everyone.

MCUM Thanks BBC

2010-06-02T20:36:00.000-04:00

The following article appeared in the most recent monthly newsletter of the Monroe County United Ministries. Club members might be interested in hearing what one of our grant recipients has done.

Bloomington Hosts RAAM Time Station

2010-06-01T13:47:00.001-04:00

Where: CVS – O’Mallia’s Parking Lot, 510 S College Mall Rd
When: Tuesday June 15 to Saturday June 19
Contact: Jim Schroeder, 260-450-2007, jimmyschweb@gmail.com
Who: BBC members to volunteer to staff the rest stop, especially Wednesday (6/16) night to Thursday night and Friday (6/18)night to Saturday night.
RAAM Blog: ts38bloomingtonin.blogspot.com

In June, over 300 cyclists will race through Bloomington as part of the “world’s toughest bicycle race”, an extraordinary athletic challenge testing racers to the utmost limits of their physical endurance, mental resilience and commitment to a cause.

Competitors in the 2008 Race Across America (RAAM) will hop on a bicycle and pedal, either solo or in a team effort, across the length of the American continent, over 3000 miles from Pacific to Atlantic, stopping to sleep only when necessary.

Along the way, they will pass 54 “Time Stations”, spaced approximately 50 miles apart, where their crew must call Race HQ to report the rider’s or team’s arrival time and any other important news.

The Time Station in Bloomington will be staffed with enthusiastic volunteers and provide a festival-like atmosphere for spectators of all ages and the traveling group of racers and crews as they pass through the community.

The toughest endurance event in the world, RAAM offers long-distance cyclists the opportunity to challenge themselves to the height of their abilities. Over 1500 cyclists have completed RAAM since its first edition in 1982. Winners completing the course in approximately 9 days as a Solo racer and 6 days as a team effort, sometimes sleeping as little as 2 hours per day. These modern day heroes brave the desert, plains and mountain weather, lead a crew in a mini-organization of support, and raise thousands of dollars for charities around the world.

“RAAM unites people of all backgrounds, nationalities, and cycling histories in an adventure that challenges them to the core of everything they are,” says Fred Boethling, who bought rights to the race in 2006, after becoming the oldest man to successfully race RAAM Solo across the country. “It’s man against the elements, the road, and ultimately, him or herself.”

Racers are expected to pass through Bloomington between approximately 7:00 pm June 15 and 2:00 pm June 19, a careful calculation made by race organizers and posted on the RAAM website at http://www.raceacrossamerica.org.

The 2009 Bloomington Rest Stop

Media interested in interviews with cyclists, their dedicated crews, Time Station volunteers and race management will find them in Bloomington as they stop in town to eat and replenish supplies.

About the Race Across America (RAAM)

The Race Across America, known as the World’s Toughest Bicycle Race, will set over 250 competitors on a 3,000-mile route stretching from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland. Athletes race continuously day and night, on their own power or sharing the challenge with a team, and a crew of 8 -15 people following in support cars with food and supplies for the race. These courageous adventurers brave heat, wind, thunderstorms, altitude, the dark of night, fatigue, and sleep deprivation, cross two major mountain ranges, and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. For more information and race updates, see http://www.raceacrossamerica.org.

Memorial Day Ride for the rest of us

2010-05-31T20:11:00.001-04:00

By Allan Edmonds

Those wanting to get out on Memorial Day, but not up for Rudy's Medora Meander century ride, did an extended version of the the club's Forest Ride, for about 45 miles.

Tammy B. got us organized by email to the club and then with a brief discussion at the park. We had a total of 12 riders, with 2 doing shorter options.

As for the rest of us, we did Eugene K.'s extension of the Forest Ride.

Water Stop in the Forest

After descending Bean Blossom hill we turned off Anderson onto Shiloh and CLIMBED. That was the first time many of us had gone UP Shiloh.

After climbing Shiloh, most of the group went DOWN South Shore and UP Shuffle Creek. Four of us decided to skip that climb and went along Highway 45 to meet the other 6 at the top of Brummett's Creek. From there we cruised along, then did the big climbs on Fleener and Kerr Creek, before coming back into town. Here's an elevation chart, omitting the climb up Shuffle Creek:

Some of the group took advantage of the occasion by stopping in at Brusters for some ice cream.

At the beginning we worried about the possibilities for rain. But it held off nicely, all the way up to 6:30 pm. So we imagine the Medora Meander group had a wonderful ride too.

Perhaps the most remarkable rider today was Greg A. on his fixed gear bike with flat pedals and Crocs on his feet. He kept up great, and even did the "optional" Shuffle Creek segment. Finally he proved he is actually human by having to walk part of the way on Fleener.

A special thanks to Tammy for organizing the ride! She even checked in afterwards by phone, just to be sure I got home okay, since I was trailing the main group and didn't stop off at Bruster's.

Wineries Ride

2010-05-29T22:21:00.000-04:00

It was a warm late May Saturday for biking. We had another one of our leaderless rides. Stan Ellis volunteered to get the group going, and things seemed to work out all right. This actually turned into a Jim Schroeder-style ABC ride. A relatively small group of six of us did the basic, short option of 44 miles. Perhaps some others did the 44 mile option, too. Stan was doing an 80 mile or so extension by branching out to continue on the Cordry-Sweetwater route. Meanwhile some others chose to branch out not quite so far, extending the route using the basic Gatesville ride, for about a 60 mile option.

Cell Phone break on Anderson Road

As usual there were a number of familiar faces and some new ones, too. Two special ones stand out: Tom W was back after several weeks off after his accident and looking good. Brian F, long time member, has moved back to Bedford and will be riding with us again.

Distance about 44.4 miles. Average pace about 13 mph. Total climb around 1700 feet.

Pick out the climbs in Cascades, Simpson Chapel, North Shore, Tunnel, Firehouse Hill.

OWLS Dam Ride

2010-05-26T11:13:00.001-04:00

From CE Taylor

Twenty four OWLS met at Sherwood Oaks Church for a ride to Lake Monroe Dam Tuesday evening. We had a lot of regulars and some new riders also.

It didn’t take long for groups to develop as we rode along Snoddy and Harrell Roads. We regrouped at the church in Smithville after climbing Ramp Creek hill. Then we rode down Strain Ridge to Lake Monroe Dam. It was a great night for a ride.

Due to the resurfacing of Fairfax Road, we returned to town on Ramp Creek. Going north up Ramp Creek was a good challenge and everyone made it on two wheels. My GPS registered a 15% grade on the first half and a 10% grade on the second half. That’s a pretty good climb in my book.

A point to remember for the OWLS: From the online Ride Calendar you can connect to the map for the scheduled ride. Print the map from the website and bring it with you to the ride. We heard several "Where are we going?" comments before the ride. The group continues to look out for straggles. But when our rides have no assigned leaders there is more responsibility for each rider to know where we are going. Be sure to do your part!