Blog Post

This is a great route, but oy! Those darn dogs of Greene County…

And yes, I my freehub wasn't up to the full route, so I called it quits at the edge of town and dropped my wheel off at Bikesmith's on the ride home.

–Keith

From John Bassett

Eastern Greene county is dotted with little crossroad communities like McVille.  Although my wife who taught at Eastern Greene schools for 29 years had never even heard of it, McVille was one of the highlights of last Saturday’s BBC ride.  Note: Clare M says that BBC should now stand for “Black and Blue Cyclists”!

It was one of those cool mornings when you knew that whatever you wore you would spend part of the day too hot, or too cold.  It was apparent looking at the 20 or so riders who gathered at 10:00 AM at Bryan Park that all kinds of thermal strategies were being employed.  It was a nice mix of regular riders and at least one new face, Charles V from Ellettsville.

The scheduled McVille, Newark & Solsberry ride is one of my favorites.  Maybe it’s the long downhill section from Hartstraight Road on the west side of town to Rosie’s in Hendricksville, or the great tree-line county roads in eastern Greene, or maybe that steep climb to the traditional rest stop at Yoho’s in Solsberry that is most appealing.  But, Google Map applications give this a modest 3,000 feet plus of climbing, so bring your better hill game for this 50 miler.  This is Hilly Hundred Country.

The route west follows Vernal Pike (now open to through traffic) and SR 48 to Whitehall.  Take a little break at the store in Whitehall and regroup.

Then fly along a fast, level section of SR 43 to Hendricksville.  You might usually turn left here and follow Gardner Road back into Monroe County, but McVille, Newark & Solsberry turns west on CR 800W just past Rosie’s Dinner.  At least it starts out as 800W.  Be careful with road designations out there – this is one of those areas where numbering roads north, south, east, and west from the courthouse does not always work very well.

A good climb and a nice ridge top section brings you to the big blue water tower on the height of land.  This would be McVille.  A nice downhill and a stout climb brings you on to Newark (pronounced “New Ark” according to Greene County friends).  Turn left there at the church and you are following the old Hilly Hundred Day 1 route.  You then get to do the “Three Sisters” of Hilly fame, but going downhill since you are now riding the Hilly route in reverse.

There is rough section CR 480N to navigate through at the bottom of the Three Sisters, but you soon reach a climb back out of the valley and under the railroad trestle to Solsberry.  Take a break here, regroup, and buy a pop a Yoho’s on the square.

From Solsberry the route gets increasing more familiar as you work your way back to Monroe County.  That burning sensation in your legs also gets more familiar as you navigate east on both Elwren and Ison Roads.  Some people had a little better luck with this than others.  Keith V’s freehub seemed to be developing a terminal seizure at this point.

Overall, it was a very good ride and nice, clear, fall day.  I’ll do it again next year.


The Positives:
Vernal Pike and SR 43 to Hendricksville
Scenic Eastern Greene County
Those great Ison Road rollers (east bound, at least)

The Negatives:
Bring your own potty
Did I mention all those cute little dogs?

By Jim Schroeder

Sylvia Stoub, Sandi Owen, and Jim Schroeder travelled to Iowa for their summer vacation.

Iowa? an exotic destination? in July? the heat? the humidity? corn? why?

If you know anything about bicycle touring, then you’d all know that Iowa in July means RAGBRAI – The Register’s Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa!  They’ve been doing it for 39 years now. There’s 10,000 riders registered for the week; 5,000 more on day passes and about 10,000 more bandits or locals.  This should be on every biker’s bucket list!  This is the only ride I’ve been on where state highways are closed off by law enforcement for the bicyclists.  Small towns shut down and cater to the bicyclists passing through and will sell anything that is edible or drinkable or photographable for their local fund raisers!  Each day is about 65 miles and each town that RAGBRAI passes through is like a county fair.  The overnight cities bring in top name entertainment, but we were usually too exhausted after setting up our tent, showering, and eating supper.

This is one ride that is not about the miles nor the bikes.  It’s about the people: the bicyclists, the city folk, the farmers, and even the vendors!  At least every mile there would be a vendor selling or giving away water, gatorade, freeze pops, smoothies, secret potions, lemon shake-ups, french toast, pancakes, corn dogs, pork chops, ice cream. or even beer.

Lance Armstrong even dropped in for a day’s ride.  I didn’t see him, though.  I was relaxing under a huge shade tree in some farmer’s front yard.  I guess the ride could be described as a Hilly Hundred on steroids.  We spent more time eating, drinking, and relaxing.  We met a lot of nice people, especially those from Iowa that are awful proud of their state and this ride.

Oh, did I tell you about the heat?  It was over 100 for two days, and the remainder highs were always in the mid 90’s!  Iowa could have sold us shade but they didn’t.  The funniest sales pitch was “$1 for a dip in our swimming pond, free for skinny dippers”

For a week long ride there were highs and lows.  Most cyclists are worried about two things at the end of the ride: showers and supper.  Each hosting city had a different list of priorities.  The best would have to be the small college towns.  They had it figured out.  Don’t ask me about Altoona, though!

Here are some of Jim’s photos. Click on them to see full-size images.

Thanks for posting your experience. I have never attempted to true a wheel but after reading your account I feel less daunted by the possibility. You made it make sense! Thanks again.

Mark

By Allan Edmonds

After my experience of a couple weeks ago with four flats with bad tubes (and my blistered right thumb) I was primed to be thinking of alternative tire tools. Although I’ve never had much problem getting a tire off using two standard tire tools, my hands and wrists just aren’t strong enough to muscle a road bike tire all the way on without tools more than one time in ten. (I’ve always succeeded well enough with the larger tires on my commuter hybrid.)

So I perked up when we got email from new BBC member Jim Walls about an invention of his from some years ago that he is now actively marketing, called the COBRA TOOL. Here’s a picture:

Jim wrote,

“I am a new member to the BBC. I am also the inventor of the Cobra Tire Tool. This is a new tool that I introduced to the cycling world at last year’s Hilly Hundred. I designed the tool over 13 years ago but just recently started producing it for sale.

The tool is totally homegrown as I designed it here in Bloomington and contracted with a manufacturer just south of town to produce the tool.

I am trying to get the word out locally and would like to offer the Cobra Tire Tool to the BBC members at a discount. “

The information on the Cobra Tool highlights its use in removing a tire. (That’s the part that’s never given me much trouble, although others may differ.) If you’ve struggled with tire removal this might be just the thing for you. Check it out! They don’t say much about using it to put a tough tire back on the rim. What they do show seems to involve using the Cobra Tool by hand just like any other tire tool to pop the last hard bit back onto the rim.

Here’s a review of the Cobra Tire Tool by Jim Langley at RoadBikeRider.com, entitled “Cool Tool for Tire Removal”.

And here’s a link to Jim’s web site at cobratiretool.com  where you can view a video of the use of the Cobra.

Good luck to Jim marketing his neat invention. If you’ve struggled getting tires on or off, you might like to give it a try.

Jim is offering the Cobra at a discount to club members. He writes “I would like to offer the tool to BBC members for $4.75 ea. including sales tax. Members can contact me direct on my email for questions or to make a purchase. Shipping and handling may be additional depending on quantity and destination. All orders that are hand delivered will be for free!” Contact him jimwalls@cobratiretool.com.

For my own purposes the best I’ve found for remounting a road bike tire has been the VAR tool. You can read about it at this blog posting . It has two parts that together can be used like ordinary tire levers for removing a tire. The creative part is how you take the main”wishbone” piece, straddle the tire, and pop the last, hard bit onto the rim. The VAR tool is reputed to be hard to find. But a web search should turn up something. I bought mine several years ago at a local shop. The funny thing was that in a pinch I always seem to forget just how to use it. I’m hoping that this latest study of the two alternative bike tire tools will help me remember how to use the VAR next time I need it.

P.S. While working on this post I discovered a You Tube video that shows a technique for working a tight tire onto a rim by bare hands, by pushing the done parts so the bead is deep in the rim well, giving just a bit more slack on the diametrically opposite side of the tire. The demonstrator uses string or toe straps to hold the done parts deep in the rim. It looks pretty good for working at home, but not like something I could pull off out on a ride.

It was a dark and stormy night and one of the hardest rains I have ever ridden in. I walked the first hill in a long time and it was DOWN Birdie Galyan out of fear of crashing. It seemed as if the hardest rain came when we went up Fleener and up Kerr Creek hills. Always nice to overcome a challenge.

By Allan Edmonds

A couple of weeks ago I rushed out to the garage at 7:30 am to pump up my tires in preparation for heading to Bryan Park for the Saturday. The tire flatted. I proceeded to change out the tube and discovered a leak at the base of the valve stem. That’s one reason I don’t like smooth valve stems. Every time I put my pump on, it pushes the stem into the wheel slightly. After a year of that it eventually gave out.

I put a new tube in, pumped it up, and re-mounted the wheel on the bike, and it went BANG! Oh, no. I must have a bad tire.

At that point I gave up all plans of going on the club’s Cordry-Sweetwater Ride.

Later I inspected more closely and couldn’t find anything terribly wrong with the tire. What I did find was a long 8 or 10 inch split in that unused tube.

In any case I went downtown and bought a couple new tubes and put one in the tire and one in my seat pack, while waiting (impatiently) for Tuesday’s OWLS ride.

We didn’t get any farther than Snoddy Road when my tire went flat again. I changed out the tube (with another 4 inch split) with assistance from a few friends on the ride. Pumped it up. put it on the bike. FLAT AGAIN, with another split! John offered me his spare. To be safe he pumped it up slightly and found that it didn’t hold air either. Another brand new tube with a pin prick hole. By then CE had come back looking for me and offered me his spare tube. That one held up.

By that point I was exhausted. That’s when I noticed my right thumb hurt. It turned out that I had created a big blister trying to get my tire back on the first time without using a tire tool. (Subsequently my friends encouraged me to use a tire tool for the last little bit, which worked.)

My bike was working, but I decided just to head home.

Next day I bought two more tubes from another local shop. So far so good. I’ve done a Saturday tour and two weekday training rides with no problems. And a week and a half later my thumb is almost healed. A heck of a week, though. And that sore thumb got me to thinking about tire tools and how change tubes more easily.

What a great idea and execution. Ok, you didn't get the BBC logo on but what's more important is awareness of the ride to those traveling RT 40 and asking themselves, "is there some sorta bike race goin' on?" Very cool. I rode RAIN in '10, couldn't make it this year but hope to be back in '12.

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