OWLS Start the 2011 Season

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

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

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

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

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

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

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