Hoosier Hills 60k

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

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

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

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.