End-of-Season Pizza Party

Tuesday evening marked our first annual (I hope!) fall, end-of-season pizza party. The club gathered at 6:30 PM at the Café Pizzaria on Kirkwood Ave for fellowship, food, and a brief business meeting. Club president Jim Schroeder presented our completely revised by-laws for formal approval of the club membership. After brief discussion they were approved unanimously.

Highlights of the new by-laws include five elected officers instead of four, staggered two-year terms instead of one-year terms, only elected officers (not committee chairs) have a vote in official decisions, a method of impeachment, and a vision statement. Committee chairs will continue to sit on the executive committee, with a voice but not a vote. All vestiges of the idea of a racing team were removed. Club officers will have their dues waived during their term of service.

The process of updating the by-laws goes back to the previous administration when then club president Keith Vogelsang initiated a review of club organization. The proposal went through several iterations and occupied the executive board off and on for a couple of years. John Bassett chaired a small committee including Jerry Arveson and Allan Edmonds to put together a near final proposal, which the board approved, with some changes. Finally Kathy Cummins gave the draft a thorough editing before the proposed document was distributed by email to all club members. We hope the new by-laws will serve us well over the coming years.

At the meeting club touring director John Bassett quietly distributed tokens of thanks to club members who had volunteered to lead club rides over the course of the last season.

Then we all turned to food and conversation. Soft drinks, salad, pizza, and brownies were provided to all.

Photo by club photographer Klaus Rothe

As we began to leave Jim offered free for the taking snack items left over from RAIN whose expiration dates had now passed. This being the Café Pizzaria, the IU basketball game was on in the background (with the sound off). In the picture above you can see Stan keeping an eye on the game. The game was too close to call when we left. But when we got home we found that IU had eked out a 73-72 win.

This may be the end of the official season but many club members will be going out for afternoon rides whenever the weather cooperates. I'm looking forward to breaking in my new lobster gloves later in the winter.

Our Road in Our Town

A few years ago BBC member Jen Miers initiated our participation in the Monroe County Adopt-A-Road program. Under her guidance we adopted a mile-plus section of Old 37, just southwest of town, from the south end of Walnut Street down to just over the bridge over Ketcham/Smithville Road.

The group meets at the former Better Way Moving just south of the Walnut/new 37 stoplight, about ¼ of the way along, where we sign waivers, don bright-colored vests and gloves provided by the county and each take a pair of bags, one for trash and one for recyclables. Then about half of us start at each end and work our way back to the middle picking up "stuff". The November 2 job was the last of the year. We had 8 folks out, which was just enough to accomplish the job in slightly over an hour. The weather was cool and pleasant, but warm enough to start to work up a sweat after you bend over from the waist perhaps 100 times.

A larger group will be needed next March when the club gathers again to pick up after a long winter, typically far and away the biggest job of the year. (This year in March it took 13 club members over 2 hours to do the job.) Usually a group goes out a total of 4 times a year, with a goal of contributing to the community and to keeping a section of county road that we ride on frequently clear of trash.

A special shout-out to Jen for starting this program and for shepherding it along for the last four years or so! She's always there with encouragement and advice, picks up and returns the equipment used, and even provides light refreshments afterwards.

Grant Thank Yous

From time to time our Grant Committee hears from the non-profit groups that have received BBC grants. I thought club members might enjoy them, so I'm including here some representative thank you notes. Click on the notes to enlarge them.

BBC Grant Program

As many club member realize, the BBC has an active grant program, funded by profits from our Ride Across INdiana.

As a new committee gears up for the next grant application process, now would be a good time to look back at this year's grants.

Janice Arveson, chair of the grant committee for the last few years, reports:

For 2013 the Bloomington Bicycle Club awarded $10,127 to 11 non-profit organizations, seven of which are new recipients of BBC grant money.  Different ways we'll see our BBC money at work around town are:

• A Summer Cycling Program at The Boys and Girls Club 
• 13 Share the Road signs in Monroe County
• Tricycles, locks, tubes, and a pump at The New Hope Shelter
• Support of the Bike to Barn ride on March 30th
• Prizes and counters at Bikes Week, May 16-20, sponsored by Bloomington Parks and Recreation
• Lights and bicycle repair supplies at the Bloomington Community Bike Project
• More safe cyclists:  The Red Cross partners with IU parking operations and receives bicycles for homeless Veterans.  Our grant will outfit 15 bikes/riders with a light, lock, reflective vest and helmet.
• Bike racks at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Bloomington Hospital, Monroe County United Ministries, and Mother Hubbard's Cupboard.  The BBC purchased bike racks at cost from Revolution Bike and Bean.  This ensured high quality racks, prevented redundant shipping costs, supported a local bike shop, and ultimately reduced the expense from the grant budget.  We are very grateful to Revolution Bike and Bean for their generosity and enthusiasm in helping us with this project.  Please support them and express your appreciation next time you shop there!

Thanks to all members of the BBC for supporting these worthy organizations through your dues, RAIN registrations and jersey purchases.  The grant committee consists of Janice Arvesen, Jerry Arvesen, Carol Bodnar, Mike Bodnar, Sue Perin and Linda Woods.

Janice has now stepped down from chairing the grant committee after doing an excellent job for several years. Recently the BBC board approved Brett Nelson as committee chair for the coming year. I suspect he'll be asking for volunteers to serve with him on the committee. Perhaps you would like to be part of this effort.

Bryan Park to Spring Mill

By John Bassett

The touring ride on Saturday, October 5, from Bryan Park to Spring Mill, was an original creation by Nathan Rogers.  It was designed as a multiple distance event to appeal to riders of various abilities and was a complement to last month’s Spring Mill to the Ohio River ride.

So, here is our situation / response question for the day:

Situation:
• It is late in the riding season and your legs are a little weary
• You are at Bryan Park at the Saturday ride start time, and it is raining
• It is forecast to rain off and on all day
• Your ride choices are 43, 54 and 94 miles
• You need to clean the house

What do you do?

Response:
• Plan on cleaning the house on Sunday
• Go Long

I captured Saturday on the Garmin GPS as shown on this map and profile.

We left Bryan Park as a group of a dozen or so promptly at 10:00.  We proceeded down 446 in a steady, light drizzle.  Our first regroup was at SR 446 and Chapel Hill Road about Mile 19 on the map.  At the Guthrie Road turnoff, about half the group, including Craig, Laraine, Dr. T, and Klaus, followed Clair’s lead and turned west making their ride into the Hoosier Hills 60K – and a wet one at that.  Four other feeble-minded riders (L to R below: Dana, Nathan, Catherine, and Jim) and myself headed on south to Bartlettsville Road bound for Spring Mill State Park.  Catherine, an Indianapolis native, was in Nashville on a holiday and had decided to join the BBC ride.  She turned out to be a sub-eight-hour RAIN rider and was a great addition to the group.

We followed a pretty standard route south along Bartlettesville Road, past Bedford North Lawrence High School, then west along US 50 to Tunnelton Road, before veering back south on the Buddha Bypass.  There is a lot of new pavement along Buddah Bypass extending all the way down across the East Fork White River Bridge to Spring Mill State Park.  We took the secret bicycle entrance into Spring Mill, and pedaled through the park to bypass a piece of SR 60.  Exiting the park onto SR 60 we followed Grissom Road west into Mitchell.  Light rain continued.

I had searched the Subway Restaurant web pages and identified a store in downtown Mitchell for lunch.  Unfortunately, after peddling around the block, we realized it had closed, or moved, or whatever.  This left us a bit of a pickle.  Catherine noted a convenience store down the street that turned out to have a small sit-down café, so we decided to try that.  I had an excellent homemade sandwich; the ladies opted for some hot waffles and coffee.  Dana was a bit dismayed when her plate was cleared away before she got to lick up the remaining syrup.

Once you are south of the East Fork White River, it is important that your route back north directs you back to a bridge.  Nathan’s solution on this trip was to use the Stumphole Bridge located west of SR37.  This involved biking north from Mitchell on Meridian Road, west on Yockey Road, north on Old 37, then west along Art Gallery Road to New SR 37.  Crossing SR 37 on Blue Spring Caverns Road we pedaled west across seemingly endless sinkhole rollers.  A couple of turns later we crossed Stumphole Bridge at map Mile 63.  I had last done this on a bicycle maybe 30 years ago when it was an old iron bridge.

Crossing the bridge we tuned north and picked up a nice tailwind up to SR 450.  SR 450 was more familiar territory being on the southward leg of the Williams Covered Bridge Ride.  A short time later we were back in Bedford and made a quick refuel stop at the Countrymark on 16th Street about Mile 70.  By now the pavement was dry, and the radar indicated the remaining rain in the area was headed to the north.  This was good news.

Nathan’s way home followed a new route north from Bedford.  We headed out east on SR 58 and tuned north on GM Drive past the Powertrain Plant.  This would also have been the return route for the 54 mile route.  We followed Broomsage, Mt. Pleasant, and Judah-Logan Roads northward.  About Mile 80 I was back in familiar territory again at the base of the long hill up to Judah.  A last brief rest stop at the BP at Judah and we headed back north on Old 37 to Bloomington.

This was a fun ride as the five long riders managed to stay together the entire day.  The Garmin measured 94.7 miles, with over 6,000 feet of climbing.  Nathan led his first BBC ride and did an admirable job with the new route.  Jim, a Terre Haute resident and now BBC member, finished his tenth consecutive Saturday club ride.  Dana showed her usual prowess for distance rides, and we might even have picked up a new club member in Catherine – overall, a great day – even with the rain.
Time for a little house cleaning - after I get the bike cleaned up.

Open Streets

This Sunday was the first Bloomington Open Streets event, in which a few blocks of Kirkwood between College and Rogers were blocked off and given over to the people for fun. This is an idea that has been catching on around the world. In some places much more than a few blocks are closed to car traffic. You can read more about the broader Open Streets movement at this link.

The view of Bloomington's Open Street looking west. Yes, that's a portable climbing wall down the way!

The BBC had a table at the eastern end of event:

Thanks to Advocacy Chair Ron Brown for arranging our table. And thanks to Jim and Sylvia Schroeder and John Bassett for setting up and managing the BBC table throughout the day.

One of the big questions that comes up is how can the BBC be a group for "ordinary" cyclists who only want to ride around town, to work, to shop, or for relaxed enjoyment, without big expense and funny clothes and weird shoes, etc. As Jim has noted, the more cyclists there are of all types the better off we all are. Let's all be thinking about things we can do to promote cycling for all.

Here are club president Jim Schroeder's observations, sent to the club email list. His words are worth reading again.

"As a biking community, any time a new person gets on a bike, we need to celebrate that," says Veronica O. Davis of DC's Black Women Bike organization..."

Sylvia and I just got done spending most of Sunday at the Open Streets on West Kirkwood between College Ave and Rogers St.  Make sure to thank Ron Brown for organizing this grand opportunity to inform like-minded people about our Bloomington Bicycle Club.  Also, John Bassett for loading the big table and being there to answer questions.

The above quote rings true for bicycling in Bloomington.  This town is so bicycle crazy with Little 500 and our club's membership and RAIN and Hilly 100 and Brown County mountain biking and I can go on and on.

BUT, we forget about all those people who are just getting into bicycling let alone exercise.  We forget that we all were in those same shoes way back when.  So many of today's comments were about being worried about their present level of fitness and being quite intimidated by the "lycra" crowd.

I'd like to do something about that.

Lots of people picked up our website promotion cards to check us out. Sylvia has already contacted Klaus and asked him to add to the membership website page a picture of a cyclist with regular clothes on a hybrid or cruiser bike (with a helmet, of course). This may help reduce the intimidation factor. 

Ron had a few interested riders on his ride today, and one didn't have a helmet.  It just so happened that IU Health was fitting and giving away free helmets to anyone willing to wait in line.  Sylvia quickly got him in line and Ron's group waited at least 20 minutes for this young man to get a helmet.  I also educated him that a fall from even a stationary bicycle can even be deadly without a helmet.  Well, the group waiting for that man was indeed a celebration.

We talked to a lot of people and suggested the Nice & Easy ride and the OWLS ride.  However, I talked to a man who said he got dropped twice on the Nice &  Easy ride, and the OWLS rides are just too fast and fit for novices. Our club needs to promote and have more beginner rides and follow the "no-drop" clause.  We also need to have opportunities with neighbors, family, and friends interested in getting some exercise and recreation through bicycling. 

Road biking has been reported by many publications as elitist and snobbish, and I am sorry to have to agree. Maybe it's because of our constant hassle with the motorized NASCAR wannabe's out there or the indifference and ignorance of our rights of the road from law enforcement.  Maybe that would be why mountain biking has not gotten that label. Warning to the elite: BBC will be attracting more mountain bikers and commuters to the club.

We need to make more of an effort to embrace new members and keep tabs on their efforts to fit into our club.  I encourage the board and membership to discuss this issue. The more "normal" we become, the more our deserved rights and respect will be honored.  

Hope Ride 2013

The Hope Ride, out of Hope, Indiana, just east of Columbus, is a favorite with many BBCers. A good number of Bloomington bike riders were seen at this year's event, along with about 2400 others. The weather was cool and a bit windy, but we still enjoyed the relatively flat terrain.

There were many different options, including short at 25 miles and very short for 13. Our group took the 50 mile figure eight loop that brought us to the town square shortly after 1 pm for a taco salad lunch and live music. We opted for another 25 mile loop, which got us back to the start at Hauser High School in time for the root beer floats.

Here's a photo of our riding group at a rest stop on a farm around mile 70. Craig, CE, Allan, Steve, Laraine, Gail, Rachel. Thanks to Klaus for the photo. For all but one of us this was our first time doing the Hope Ride.

Others, including Jim, Sylvia, and Klaus opted to do the final 25 mile loop to bring their total to about 100 miles for the day.

Classic Corn Jersey

On a recent ride KDS stopped at a vegetable stand and purchased several ears of corn to take home. He convinced his friends to carry some of the corn. As it happened GM was wearing her classic 2012 RAIN jersey, aka the "Corn Jersey" and modeled it with the corn.

She only carried one ear home. The group hadn't let her forget that last year she bought some farm produce that her riding buddies helped to carry home for her. At least no one bought a watermelon!

Short Wet Leonard

This evening's OWLS ride was called Long Leonard, a 25 mile loop to the west and south.

We had a fairly big group, perhaps 24 riders. Indeed as the summer ends we've got fewer people away traveling and more people new to town showing up.

By the time we reached our first regrouping stop at Monroe Hospital we waited awhile for 4 riders who didn't show up. They didn't answer a quick phone call . One person volunteered to go back and look for them, while the rest headed forward to the famous intersection of Leonard Springs and Leonard Springs.

By this time it was lightly raining and then some. We looped down south Leonard Springs and Rockport to Tramway for our second regroup. By that time we were pretty much wet and chilly. Wet feet, wet gloves, wet brakes, wet everything.

Several of us (ultimately 7) decided to turn left on Victor and head back to town, while the remainder headed further outward to complete the long route. We ended up with around 22 miles instead of the expected 27 or so, allowing for getting between home and the start/end point. We were happy enough to get home a little early and get those wet clothes off.

Hope everyone else made it home safely too.

Bridge Out--Really!

We had the fourth annual Larry Limestone Tour this Saturday, a favorite club drive-and-ride. It starts at the old school in Heltonville, 20 miles south of Bloomington, and loops through Lawrence County backroads, highlighted by the Devil's Backbone, before taking somewhat more familiar hills between Bartlettsville and Heltonville. Jerry Arveson, who first proposed the ride to the club, and who has led it each year. The ride was originally put on by the Limestone Girls Club of Bedford back in 2008.

Jerry did his usual fine job of leading from behind and being sure no one took a wrong turn.

All his good work did not prevent our group from getting somewhat flummoxed when we came across a "Bridge Out Ahead" sign. We continued anyway with the expectation of being able to get across. As it happened the bridge really was out!

That didn't stop Mike Finger and John Bassett from carrying their bikes down to the creek, a ways downstream, to look for a way across. The rest of us said "no thanks" and proceeded to retrace our route to look for a detour. You can see our retracing toward the lower right of the map.

The downside for the main group was that we missed the main part of the Devil's Backbone and also had to take on a serious long climb. We also had a bit of trouble reconnecting with Mike and John, who really did make it across, because we didn't know who was ahead and who was behind at that point. Mike took his shoes and socks off and carried his stuff. John just waded through with his shoes on!

There's a second, planned appendix in the middle where we did an out-and-back to the convenience store at the south end of 446. (Overall the route has relatively few opportunities for food or drink.)

As we approached the last part of the route (in the upper left corner of the map), leader Jerry proposed that our trailing group take the Ramsey Ridge route back down to Heltonsville, avoiding one last major climb along Dunn Bridge Road out of Bartlettsville. We all accepted the proposal. (I think we did the same thing last year.)

It's always nice to get a little bit away from our standard rides around Bloomington. This is a ride that should stay on our yearly calendar, for sure.

Bicycle Indiana

As part of RAIN our club donates $1 per rider to Bicycle Indiana, our state-wide advocacy organization. Treasurer Jerry Arveson recently made that payment and received a note of thanks from the folks at Bicycle Indiana.

Follow Me to Wilbur

It only happens once a year. Although I don't remember doing it before, Ron claims I did it with him some years ago. It's the Wild Ride to Wilbur, a 78 mile ride to unfamiliar territory. The ride starts out standard enough, heading up Old 37 past the Morgan-Monroe Forest, cutting across New 37 at Pine Blvd to connect to Paragon Rd and thence to Paragon, where we had our first real stop at the grocery store at West and Union, which re-opened this year.

 (Look carefully and you can pick out where we stopped in Paragon.)

It was the middle part of the ride that is unfamiliar and not so often encountered, roughly miles 23 to 46, including Wilbur itself at about mile 41. It is a hilly sequence of zigs and zags, where it's easy to get lost.

(The portion of the route north of the Morgan-Monroe Forest.)

According to Joe Anderson this route originated with Frank Prosser, perhaps back in the 80s. He called it the "Follow Me" ride. He did not provide maps! (Did he even know for sure where he was going to go?)  As a scheme to try to keep the club group more together he didn't announce turns until he got there. And often he let those riding off the front go on past the turn until he go to the turn and then yelled at them to do a U-turn. Not sure it did much good for keeping the group more together, but it did make for an interesting ride. Of course now we have maps, made by Joe. Even with the maps one has to be careful. And then there are those of us with pre-mapped GPS units who don't have to worry.

We started out with about 15 riders, with leaders Jim and Sylvia mostly leading from the rear on their tandem. Joe and Doug did a short option heading up to Martinsville, where it was rumored they were going to get a ride home. It was good to see Doug out looking good, on his first club ride since a collar bone break early in the season.

From Paragon the rest of us were basically in two groups, a small lead group of 4, a middle group of 7, and a couple toward the rear.

We all met up again at the Subway in Centerton, where the route crossed 67 for the second time. Some had sugar and caffeine, while several of us had a full lunch of sandwich, chips, and drinks. Here again we left in three groups that mostly stayed together, with only minor adventures including one flat. Again the stretch of Bluff Road from Centerton into Martinsville is only occasionally encountered. It's rather flat and one can fly along there. After Martinsville we were back in familiar ground again for the ride home.

We were all glad that the possible afternoon thunderstorms did not come our way. Altogether a good ride with good friends.

Beginners Do Cascades

From Sylvia Schroeder

Today Tammy led our beginners group to the Lower Cascades.

Beautiful scenery, nice shade and a breeze as long as we kept riding.

Appreciation Notes

[I will add any additional notes of this sort as they come to my attention. - Allan]

The Ride Across INdiana is one excellent ride!

Thanks to whoever sets the rates for day-of registration for NOT gouging us. The cost was acceptable and I know the chances that are taken when a certain number are allowed on the day of the ride. Many thanks.

The ride was wonderful (yes, even with the wind) and the rest stops and volunteers were outstanding. Plenty of GOOD food to eat there and take with, volunteers who knew what kind of moods everyone could be in and plenty of patience for those silly people .... helpful and happy.

We'll be doing this again!

Thank You.

Joyce Beebe
Cincinnati, Ohio


Thank you Bloomington Bicycle Club and volunteers of RAIN 2013!

Saying “Thank you” to each and every person who supported RAIN 2013; such a well-run event! This was my 52nd birthday gift to myself, as well as, the first time I had participated in a ride event. While I did not obtain an official time, I did get my finisher medal/key chain; my husband said my time was 2102. The time really was not the goal- I DID IT- I RODE 160 miles IN ONE DAY!

“tired, but not sleepy; sore, but no pain -- all good”

Certainly, It is only with many hours of work that this event is possible, and only with the multitude of encouragers in route do many of us complete the course. Again, Thank you! What a life cherished accomplishment you have made possible for me.

Cynthia Moorhead



Bicycle Repair

I was one of the ‘unlucky ones’ that had a technical issue on my bike (at the first rest stop, my bike got tipped over and the derailer bracket on my 2011 Cannondale Synapse snapped)….I rode unsupported and got help from Sarah and Fred, who were the bike mechanics on the site. I was wondering if you knew the number of where Fred (he was the mechanic working the first rest stop) as I want to call him and personally thank him for helping me out.

I had no sag, and Fred went out of his way to call ahead to the Bicycle Garage of Indy to find me a new derailer bracket. He also transported me to the next rest stop where I had access to a friend’s car and then could drive to Greenwood where I got my derailer bracket fixed, drove back to Rest Stop #2 and then started the ride again at 1 PM.  I made it back to Richmond by 9:15 PM and finished.

Great ride though.  And I will be back next year to do it again (hopefully without a mechanical failure!!).

Thanks

David Weber
Cincinnati, Ohio

RAIN 2013 is History

Here's an early shot taken near the start of Saturday's 27th Ride Across INdiana.

By all accounts it was a great day for a long bike ride in July. Significant headwinds almost all day made for a challenging experience.

Here's a picture of the 160 mile route as recorded by my GPS:

A big congratulations to John Connell (in charge of finish line), chair of the RAIN committee, for a first-rate event. We mention several other people in charge of major aspects of the event: Tammy Berger (in charge of merchandise and jerseys), Jen Miers (in charge of Registration), Jim Schroeder (in charge of route and start), Mark Villanova (in charge of rest stops). But many, many more club members volunteered help during the event, stuffing packets, running registration tables, packet pickup, merchandise sales, helping to direct traffic near Saint Mary of the Woods, staffing all the rest stops, and staffing the finish line.

Some I personally saw during the ride, and recall now off the top of my head, includ Tammy at the first rest stop, members of the Solar Bike Team at the second stop, Linda, Dan, Clair and Larraine at the lunch stop, John B at the ice stop. (I can't wait to see that picture John took of me prone and only semiconscious, stretched out on the grass in the shade!)

A good number of club members rode, but many more volunteered. All got to experience the energy and excitement of the ride. This is the club's premier event and main money-raiser, supporting our other activities, including our grant program. It couldn't have happened without all of you.

More details to come.

Wednesday Beginner's Ride Continues

The Beginner's Ride meets each week at the Bryan Park Pool parking lot on Woodlawn Avenue. Here's the description from the club website:

BEGINNER'S SHOW AND GO
Wednesdays, 5:45 pm
Pace:10-12 mph

This is a beginner's "show and go" no drop ride intended for those new to cycling who desire the camaraderie and safety of cycling in a group and who wish to develop their cycling skills. Speed will be dictated by the slowest rider. We anticipate 10-12mph on flat land and slower on a hilly route. Route and distance will be decided by those in attendance. The rides will begin promptly at 5:45.

Organizer Sylvia Schroeder reports on this week's ride:

Two of the riders in our group, Shaili and Angela.

Angela led our ride this week. We started out on trails then rode some challenging roads. We had a great time riding and getting to know each other.

pRAIN STORM

By John Bassett

When I wrote a blog post about last year’s pre-RAIN ride (pRAIN) I titled it “PRAIN in the Rain”.  Unfortunately, as it turns out, I should have reserved that title for this year.  So, for lack of a better title let me call this “pRAIN STORM” (Pre-RAIN Same Thing only Rain More).

A nice group of BCC and affiliated riders arrived in Terre Haute last Friday evening in preparation for an early Saturday start to the one-day one-way 160 mile bicycle adventure that is the RAIN route.  Well, that is not exactly true.  Dave, who had ridden a touring bicycle to pRAIN from Kansas City, did not arrive in Terre Haute until 4:30 AM, having completed a 225 mile ride through most of the night to get there.  This was after spending the previous week at the Tour of Colorado!  After changing a tacoed wheel with a replacement Dana had brought over and loading up on some caffeine, he was sort of ready to go.

Assessing the weather early Saturday morning, we realized there was going to be little chance of staying dry.  The best we hoped for was to get started before the rain hit.  We did not get all our ducks in a row very early and got off to a rather late start.  Here we are all lined up at the RAIN starting line at St Mary’s Road and US 150 (left to right - John, Jen, Zack, Stan, Ron, Eugene, Mike, Cissy, Dana, and Dave).

We managed to roll out promptly at 7:30AM, and were able to get all the way over to the east side of Terre Haute before the first wave of rain hit.  We got thoroughly drenched for an hour or so and spent the rest of the morning in and out of passing showers.

We took our first break at Putnamville / US 231 where our cadre of SAG support vehicles had assembled.  We very much appreciated the services of Cissy’s sister, Sasha, Jen’s sister, Lynnae, Eugene’s wife, Teresa, my wife, Susan, and Ron’s wife, Janet (my sister-in-law) in supporting this event.  We sincerely appreciate their efforts.

For the remainder of the day, we rode Jim Schroeder’s 2013 RAIN route exactly, following the trail of yellow raindrops that the BBC had placed earlier in the week.  I can attest to the fact that those yellow raindrops show up very well on wet pavement!  The 2013 route is slightly different than 2012.  As shown on the map below, a loop is added south to Mooresville and basically the entire length of Edgewood Avenue is used in lieu of Thompson Road along the south side of Indianapolis.  There are also a couple of other minor changes, but the entire route remains 160 miles (160.2 miles if you prefer that level of detail).

We rested a moment at the city park south of the Plainfield Middle School which serves as Rest Stop 2 of RAIN.  We had a leisurely lunch at the Subway at the intersection Southport Road and Bluff Road (Mile 81.5) almost exactly half way along the route.

At lunch, Stan noted that every time he cleaned off his glasses it would rain.  He cleaned his glasses, and I cleaned mine.  We soon found ourselves in a genuine downpour heading north on Bluff Road.  We decided it would be best if we did not clean our glasses again. 

Eugene took a small break to put on dry cloths and warm up after lunch.  He came back at Greenfield with a vengeance, taking on a couple of massive 10 miles pulls heading east on US 40 from Greenfield.  His efforts along with a very nice tail wind, particularly during surges of rain, allowed a group of five of us to average 22 to 26 mph over long stretches of US 40 east of Greenfield.  This was delightfully pleasant riding, when it was not raining.

We regrouped for a final time at SR 1 near Cambridge City about 13 miles from the finish, allowing Mike and Cissy, who had flatted, time to catch up.  Most of us arrived in Richmond within a few minutes of each other.  Here are Cissy and her brother Mike doing a little celebration thing at the soon-to-be RAIN finish line at Earlham College.  These guys, along Cissy’s twin sister Sasha, are a real dynamic trio.

It was fun to have all of them along.

Dave and Dana arrived only a short time later with Dave expressing his gratitude for Dana’s strong pulls in the latter part of the ride.  It was a remarkable achievement on Dave’s part.  He seemed to get stronger throughout the day, and Dana was there every pedal stroke. 

Initially, I was very pleased with my best-ever moving average speed of 18.2 mph.  That was until Eugene told me he was well over 19 mph!  I also had a personal best total time, which could have been even better had I not spent so much time off the bike socializing.  But, that is what happens when you ride with such a great group of people.

We concluded the day by loading up and driving back to the east side of Indianapolis where most of us enjoyed a very fine Mexican dinner.

This weekend is the real RAIN.  By doing the pRAIN thing, I have both the satisfaction of both doing this great ride and helping the BCC on event day.  It really is the best of both worlds.  The rain was pretty miserable at times, but I concentrated on enjoying that first-ever tailwind!  It was a great day.

Good luck to all you RAIN riders!

Mother Century

Three of us (Allan, Kelly, and Jim) did Jim's midweek "Mother Century", a drive-and-ride out of Columbus. Kelly is from Columbus and found the ride via the RAIN Facebook page and its link to the Southern Indiana Centurions FB page. Allan and Kelly were training for RAIN. Jim just does centuries.

The ride took us ENE on a clockwise loop out of Columbus, passing through towns important to Jim's mother's growing up in Indiana. We passed near Hope (of Hope Ride fame), Greensburg (Honda factory and tree growing out of the top of the courthouse), Oldenburg (German town where we at lunch in a cafe downtown), and Jim's mother's childhood home near Milhausen. The large country house appears to be well-maintained by the current owners.

The day started along the Peoples' Trail in Columbus. We took a bit of a detour to get off of some loose chip and seal. We also had something of a head wind out of the east and were looking for a nice tail wind later in the day, which unfortunately never materialized.

Although the majority of the route was pretty flat by Bloomington standards we did encounter some climbing toward the middle of the route near Oldenburg. Even so we did finish with a 15.2 average for the day.

It was shortly after Milhausen that we encountered a couple of miles of gravel that was very slow going, where we averaged between 5 and 10 mph, also significantly reducing our average for the day. Jim noted that it was worse than it had been last fall. By and by Jim had a flat. The repair didn't go so well as the tire didn't seat right in the rim and Jim had to use his last tube and borrow a CO2 cartridge to make it right. Jim did allow as how we probably should have backtracked from his mother's place to avoid the gravel!

And no rain! Altogether a great ride!

Clay City True Century with Updates

This route grew from Joe's 96 mile "almost a century" to 98 miles by the time an alternative route was picked between Spencer and Patricksburg Road in order to avoid STR 46 entirely. With at least a mile each way between home and park, I ended the day with 100.4 miles, my first true century of the season.

We had 12 eager riders show up at 8 AM for the early start. Of those one, Ron, turned at SR 43 in order to get back to town in plenty of time to attend the Taste of Bloomington, where he expected to engage in advocacy activity, with the large number of city and county officials in attendance. In addition Ron rode the entire route by himself on Tuesday and thanks to him we had the alternative route out of Spencer. Ron is adopting a plan of appending to official club maps a page of alternate routes and updates. That's how he shared the excellent alternate route for today's ride.

Three more, including Andy, Tim, and Ben... came on into Spencer but departed another way to do a 63 mile "short" option.

The remaining 8 of us embarked on Ron's proposed detour route. It was a nice road, but did seem to add significantly to the hill climbing for the day, 5800 feet of ascent according to my GPS/ The rest of us stuck pretty well together.

We had lunch at the A and W in Clay City, where "refills are free" on the root beers in cold mugs.

From there we engaged in some of the traditional pace-lining, over the next 10 miles or so averaging over 17.5 mph. (This OWLish group averaged about 14.2 for the entire 100 miles.)

By this time the day was seriously heating up and we were starting to feel it. We stopped again in Worthington for drinks and AC

By the time we got to Solsberry and Yo-Ho's around 2 PM we were all wilting some more. Dana needed to be sure to be back home before 4 PM so she took off on her own (and ultimately made it home by 3:35 she reported). The rest of us lingered in Yo-Ho's over cold drinks and ice cream. By the time we were leaving around 2:30 a cold front and clouds were coming through, and we began to feel a little better. We made a last short regouping at Whitehall and took off for the last 10-12 miles home. But by the time we got onto Vernal Pike it was sprinkling and soon turned into honest rain for the entire rest of the ride. (Dana reported that she, too, got caught in the rain just as she was crossing 37.) The Taste of Bloomington was pretty empty when we went by close to 4. We all agreed that rain is better than 90+ degree hot sun. But we were all quite soggy in the end. Allan, Dan, and Steve were the lead group in the end, with CE, Ken, Tom and Thom just slightly behind.

We got home before 4:30, dripping wet in steady rain. After a warm shower the next task probably should be to wipe down the bike and oil the change. Check and check.

We never saw any folks from the 9 AM group. I guess that means they got caught in the rain even further out than we did. I hope to add their report of the day's events.

Added Monday, from John Bassett:


 It sounds like the 8:00 group fared better than we did.  I was kind of mid-pack in the 9:00 group riding with Bob DeGroff and Dana Fielding.  All told, after lunch at Clay City we got rained on three times and hailed on twice.  Hail was a new experience, but was OK until the lightening started.  So, we took shelter in a barn south of Coal City and were soon joined by a farmhand who had been planting beans.  There we were, all dripping wet.  For the next hour, we heard a monologue all about the wet spring weather as it pertained to corn, beans, and hay.

Bob and Dana were itching to get started again so we took off south for Worthington when the rain had almost stopped.  But we hit another big storm that hailed on us again and was accompanied by a fierce crosswind.  We raced through the storm to a convenience store in Worthington.  The temperature had plummeted and Dana was shivering uncontrollably.  Inside the store was cold, but there was no wind.  Outside the store was a little warmer, but the wind blew you sideways.  My bike that was leaning against the building blew over and my helmet rolled away.  I thought somebody had stolen it, but I found it about 50 feet downwind.

When the lightning stopped, we headed out east on SR 157.  One mile east of town it had not rained at all!  Soon however, another black cloud rolled up from the south.   We discussed whether or not we could get to Yoho’s before we got pounded again.  We did not.  We did the Three Sisters and all that stuff south of Newark in the rain, and arrived at Yoho’s saturated. I called my wife and told her we were a bit delayed due to storms but would be in Bloomington in an hour or so.  She said not to hurry because Bloomington was under a flash flood warning!

Bob suggested we take a short route back and not even try to ride back to the park.  Bob usually does not say this kind of thing, but these were extenuating circumstances.  We all agreed and decided to follow the Hilly Hundred route to Hendricksville and Gardner Road back to the south side of Bloomington.  This last 20 miles was in continuous rain, making this a pretty epic day.  But, we all had in excess of 100 miles for the day and that was worth the effort.

There is something to be said for leaving early.