Author: bbcbike

OWLS Airport Route

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.

Executive Board Meeting

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

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.

MCUM Thanks BBC

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




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

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

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.

I took the short option, along with Chris, Kathy, …

I took the short option, along with Chris, Kathy, Gail, and Shelley. Yes, we got wet, too. The storm rolled in quickly, and we could tell that the long distance riders were likely to encounter rain. From the morning's forecast, it looked like we had plenty of time to ride before the storm landed, but it didn't turn out that way.

Even so, I had a great ride.

–Keith

Southwest to Hobbieville

By Allan Edmonds

Over 30 riders gathered at Bryan Park on a perfect May Saturday morning. Mike Finger got us organized on this ride that turned out leaderless because the scheduled leader was out of town for the weekend. We decided on regrouping after crossing 37 and again at the turn from Rockport onto Rockport East, and stopping only at the store in Cincinnati where 54 and 45 intersect.

As usual we naturally fell into riding groups. Around 10 people left the main route for the 30 mile short option. They took Harmony Road off of Rockport, heading north at that point, eventually reaching Vernal Pike.

The rest of us continued on to Cincinnati. As usual more than one person remarked that they hadn’t known there is a Cincinnati, INDIANA. Indeed, it doesn’t rate a name on the map above. And you don’t find much through Google: http://indiana.hometownlocator.com/in/greene/cincinnati.cfm  At the park we had discussed the state of Rockport East, which last year was in bad condition. We can report that it is absolutely terrible. Perhaps the worst excuse for a paved road that I have ridden on.

At the stop in Cincinnati we all got a bit nervous about the ominous weather with a little thunder in the distance. One rider used his smartphone to check out the weather map and found an active thunderstorm at Bloomfield, 10 or 15 miles away. We all took off pretty quickly at that point.

Pretty soon the rain came. It was never hard, but we did get wet and uncomfortable.  Our little group of 5 never stopped again more than for a few moments of regrouping. After Solsberry the rain was never more than a sprinkle.

Considering that the morning seemed almost perfect it was something of a downer to have the rain. I suppose the temperature was in the upper 50s, which wasn’t too uncomfortable.

We do wonder whether the short route riders made it home without getting wet.