Author: bbcbike

Oh We of Little Faith, Tuesday, August 4

After a stormy afternoon with heavy rains and high winds in the area, five intrepid riders showed up for the Tuesday OWLS ride. Interestingly enough, those who showed up were all people who had been unable to ride this last weekend with the club and were itchy for a ride, come hell or even, more likely, high water.
After some discussion of opting for a shorter ride they eventually decided to do the scheduled basic out and back ride to Muscatuck, which comes in at over 28 miles or so, from the usual OWLS starting place. Rains were predicted with probability of 50% by 7 pm, but it now looks like they lucked out and got the whole ride in before the rains came. Yours truly just showed up on my hybrid to take a picture of the brave souls before they set out. No way I could keep up on my hybrid anyway. Hope to see a bigger group on Thursday.

Dan, Klaus, Greg, Leader Shelley, and Kathy, Bravehearts All

Annual Pool Party, Sunday, August 2

Club members and their families enjoyed a nice evening at Bryan Park Pool. The turnout seemed a little lower than usual, with many people out of town. We hoped to see more of those completing Rudy’s Double Century, but just talked to a few who only did the morning half.
Club VP Tom Whitehead was selling our club jerseys and several people got them. If you’d like one, just contact Tom by email at . As a special bonus, surplus 2009 RAIN t-shirts were offered for free to any club member at the party.
Linda shows her new club jersey.

Mark displays his new club jersey, while Bob looks on.

Most people just talked and ate. But most kids swam and even a few adults.
Proof that at least one club member swam a lap.


I still can’t understand why more people don’t take advantage of the opportunity to fly down the water slide a few times. When else does a grownup get such a chance? And with no wait in line to boot.
There was lots of Avers pizza. A number of people took some home. And we even gave pizza to the lifeguards when the end of the evening came.

Larry Limestone Tour, August 1

By Allan Edmonds
It was an almost unbelievably perfect summer day and a perfect ride.
Jerry Arveson developed this new “drive and ride” route for a 56 mile loop starting at Heltonville, encompassing new territory on the south side and encompassing parts of Hoosier Hills rides on the north side. He included a 42 mile short option, cutting off a good part of the upper left loop heading back to Heltonville.
Larry Limestone Route Map

There were three riding groups taking part. A group of 8 or so “hammerheads” who opted to ride in the 22 miles or thereabouts from Bloomington, turning this touring ride into a century. A group of 6 or 8 OWLS types drove to the meeting place at the old elementary school on State Road 58. There was also a good female contingent, including one on her first Saturday club ride. Of course the dividing line between these groups wasn’t entirely fixed. Altogether around 20 riders took part.
As Jerry reported, he adapted this route from a local fund raising ride he discovered on the web. He scouted it out carefully and prepared good maps for everyone. He made sure no one missed a turn at the two or three places he thought someone might go wrong.
Jerry planned three refueling stops. We stopped briefly in Leesville. Each group stopped at a little store old-fashioned shop in Buddha for quick refueling. Most took a second stop at a service station at the intersection of State Road 446 and US 50, requiring a 1 mile out and back on a slightly busy highway. (And those Hammerheads refueled again in Heltonville before heading for home.)
Stop in Buddha

I can’t speak for the other groups, but the OWLS had a great day. It was a good distance and the weather was a treat. And it was fun to explore some new territory. And it was nice to sit comfortably in a car for the half hour drive back to Btown.
P.S. Whoever named that stretch along the southern edge of the route the Devil’s Backbone knew what he was doing!
P.S.S. Mike Conway took the photo above and some more, which you can view at

Triple Creek Tuesday, July 28

By Allan Edmonds


Brad and Beth Schroeder led a good ride following the BBC Triple Creek map, suitably modified to leave from the standard OWLS starting place at Sherwood Oaks Church parking lot. Beth had a flat at home and changed it, only catching up later, so Brad got the group organized on his own.

Here’s a group picture taken at the church on Brummett’s Creek Road. Click for a larger version.

Tom Whitehead and I opted to bypass the last couple of hills by coming in on 46. Very nice new pavement. Not much shoulder. But the road is wide enough that cars didn’t seem to come too close as they whizzed by. We did have to climb. But it was longer and steadier….not to mention a somewhat longer distance.

Here’s the basic route we took, proceeding clockwise around the loop.

For more photos go to album

West Side Nice N Easy, Sunday, July 26

by Allan Edmonds
Club members enjoyed a pleasant afternoon biking Ron Brown’s West Side route on Sunday, July 26. Usually by this time of the summer it is too hot for me on a Sunday afternoon. But it was really quite nice.
Ten of us gathered in the shade on the grass at the south side of the Bryan Park Pool Parking Lot. After some chit-chat, we had Ron go over the planned route, so everyone new the plan.
We headed out Vernal and Woodyard to Loesch, then around Cook Incorporated and Ivy Tech. We went by the Airport, then stopped off at Karst Farm for a bit. Then it was by the Fairgrounds, which was a bit congested due to the County Fair, followed by That Road.
We finished up taking Clear Creek Trail and then neighborhood byways to get back to Bryan Park on Grimes Lane.
We covered slightly more than 24 miles in a little under 3 hours total, including slightly over 2 hours of riding, at a rate of 11.9 mph.
One rider dropped out on the way out of town, finding that he wasn’t keeping up. Another, Tammy and her 3 year old on their tandem, got picked up at Karst Farm by husband Glenn. There’s definitely a limit to how long a 3 year old can last on a bike.
Here’s a shot of our rest stop at Karst Farm.
For more pictures check out
http://picasaweb.google.com/allan.edmonds/WestSideNiceNEasy#
Here’s the basic route map. Note the cute little figure eight on the left!

Dam Ride, Tuesday, July 21

By Greg Simmons


Close to 30 riders did a 27 mile, mostly out-and-back ride to the Salt Creek Dam at the foot of Monroe Lake. The OWLS rides have been consistently drawing 15-20+ riders every week with varying levels of riding speed levels (much like the Saturday Club rides).


This date was 2 days after the R.A.I.N. Ride and several cyclists needed a “recovery” ride . I know I did!


The weather was perfect at around 70 degrees and was overcast but with no rain in sight. It was my first time on Ramp Creek since it had been repaved and it was very nice.


Thanks to Chris Tietz for leading the way up front while Terry and I rode sweep.


I will be leading another ride in a couple weeks that will be around 30 miles out to Bottom Road and back, so I hope we’ll have another big turnout for that ride.


Photos from the ride, by Allan and Greg. (Click the image for a larger version.)


Greg distributes maps:

Tom models his new RAIN jersey:
Gathering at 5:45
Regroup after climbing Ramp Creek hill:
Turn around at the dam:
Final regroup at the Smithville PO


Bloomington Criterium

By Allan Edmonds

This year the Bloomington Criterium, sponsored by local racing team Tortuga, ended up on the same day as the BBC RAIN Ride. It was a fun event for those of us not participating in RAIN (and even for a few who did RAIN!).

Here’s the route for the race (about 0.55 miles):

And here’s a snapshot of the Cat 3 (mid level, amateurs) racers making the corner from Grant onto Kirkwood by the Library. (Click on it for a larger version.)

For those not familiar with criterium racing, there’s a general description at Wikipedia.

Owls Ride Report July 14 2009

by Eugene Kase

I volunteered to lead this ride and was glad to see a small gathering at the church parking lot when I arrived about ~10 minutes early. More and more riders trickled in and as we were discussing a variety of topics waiting until the start time of 5:45pm, we all heard a loud pop and one unfortunate fellow’s tube popped. He replaced the tube and it popped again, at which point he gave us the go ahead to proceed without him.

At that point, 26 of us proceeded down Rogers thru Hyde Park, cut across on St. Remy to Smith road and up to 45.

We stopped at the beginning of Mt. Gilead and took a head count.
We took Mt. Gilead to 45, left, to Tunnel road where we stopped again for a quick refueling.

We proceeded down Tunnel a short ways and took Robinson, which had little to no traffic. At the last part of Robinson it does get a little rough but we stopped at Robinson and Old 37 and see if there were any takers wishing to go up Boltinghouse. Indeed there were, as 6 from the group took the challenge.

The remaining group stayed on Old 37 and up Fire Station hill. The 6 that went up Boltinghouse split at the top, with one going left toward 45, 3 going down Hinkle/Griffy Lake, and two going toward Old 37 where they hooked up with some of the Fire station hill route riders. We headed toward Cascade Park, then by IU Stadium and then home.

I want to thank everyone for riding and I hope you all enjoyed the ride as much as I did. Special thanks to Glenn, who was my sweeper for this ride. Also thanks goes to my daughter who took the pictures of us riding down Olcott/Hyde Park. I’m sure she would have taken more, if one of her hands wasn’t on her cell phone.