Author: bbcbike

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!

Jack had a flat on the Clear Creek trail. Even th…

Jack had a flat on the Clear Creek trail. Even though he fixed it quickly we had already lost the group with traffic and stop lights. We were climbing up That Road hill when my phone started to ring. I called back when we crossed Hwy 37 but by that time the peleton was on the move. Thinking back I should have called and left someone a message but it didn't cross my mind at the time. We skipped the first rest stop since we had already had our stop earlier. The rain continued until we reached the corner of Tramway and Victor Pike where our group turned left for home. It may have been a wet ride but it was a fun ride.

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.