Blog Post

Club member Jim Schroeder’s vision of ABC rides for Saturday club rides worked almost to perfection this week for the annual club ride to the Williams Covered Bridge.

The primary route, designed years ago by Joe Anderson, one of the premier route makers in the whole country, is a 70 mile loop through Bedford to Williams, southwest of Bedford, including a 3 or 4 mile out-and-back to the longest wooden covered bridge in Indiana. (Or so Williams folks claim. It is said that Medora also claims that honor for its covered bridge.)

Joe’s route, like many of the routes in the club books of maps, includes a shorter option of about 57 miles. Jim calls this the A option. The main loop is the B option.

Jim’s addition was a 116 mile C option that extended the ride from the Williams bridge further south all the way to French Lick.

The ride itself was leaderless, as the person who volunteered back in the winter to lead the ride found himself doing the deCycles ride instead. Ride coordinator Mike Finger therefore got our group of 24 riders organized. He brought a few maps, but most people had already printed their own map (if needed) from the club web site.

Some nine riders committed themselves up front to the C option. The largest group were planning to do the B option. A few were planning the shorter A route (even it was 58 miles, for God’s sake). And a few more were hedging their bets, hoping to put off the decision as long as possible.

To accomodate the new C route Jim decided to do the A and B routes counterclockwise, instead of their usual clockwise. By itself that made the ride interesting for those of us who had never done it backwards. Jim prepared a new cue sheet for the backwards routes, which was quite helpful.

The group took its first real rest stop at the store in Springville, familiar from the Popcorn Ride. About 6 miles later came Fayetteville, where people had to decide about the A route. At least one group of 3 took that route while the rest headed on toward Williams. That group included Laurence, Andy and Ben. None of the three were very familiar with the route.

Laurence reported for the 57 mile A group that Ben did a great job getting help and directions from residents and drivers and got them back on course after a short detour. She said they made it back to Bryan Park around 1pm.  “The short ride took us across a number of beautiful, scenic areas which we all greatly enjoyed.”

We had naturally broken into comfortable riding groups that got somewhat separated along the way.  A couple of dropped chains, and a flat tire leaving the stop at Springville, contributed to the separation.

Another group of 4 missed the turn toward Williams at Fayetteville and added a couple of miles on their own before finding the rest of the group.

All of the B/C riders eventually gathered at the store in Williams for food and drink.  Pretty soon the main C Centurions, super century riders, headed out toward the bridge and beyond. Meanwhile another smaller group of B riders left for Bedford and Bloomington without visiting the bridge. That left 8 more of us who were doing the B route at a relatively moderate pace. All but one of us then did the out-and-back to the bridge, where we observed Joe Anderson’s Dan Henry for the just completed 2010 TRIRI “Warning-Walk bike or bend rim”. We all successfully rode our bikes through, however, and stopped for a photo-op.

Our group of 8 OWLish riders then continued on our way with stops just outside of Bedford and the BP at Judah. One rider decided to take a longer break there. The rest of us set out for home on Old 37. It was hot, in the lower 90s as expected, and the last couple of hours weren’t nearly as much fun as the morning part of the ride. Our group got back about 2pm, having covered a little over 70 miles, averaging something like 14.3 mph on the bike, in a little over 6 hours, confirming my rule of thumb for these rides allowing for about 12 miles an hour, including stops.

Meanwhile Jim reports for the Century group:
The C group were 9 hardy souls as we travelled around the crevices of the boards of the longest active covered bridge in Indiana.  BBC legend, Kevin Hays, led the way through the hilly Hoosier National Forest down to our lunch stop at French Lick where the PGA golf tournament was going on during the weekend.  We headed back north in the rolling prairie of Orange County to Orleans.  The weather turned to what I call “ugly hot” as capitan Kevin led this French foreign legion cycling troop.  The White River had receded so there were no alternate routes needed.  However, somewhere around Buddha and Bedford, Kevin sprinted home as he was pressed for time, Charles vanished (I’ve confirmed his survival), and the lucky seven struggled home.  A parade in Judah forced a stopover of 20 minutes, and Jim took an extended oasis at the BP.  It’s safe to say all of us were pushed to our limits.  Add Aaron Prange, Charles Chancellor, and Kevin Hays to the Centurions of Bloomington Indiana.

We had another good evening for biking. The OWLS had 19 riders, including one on his first club ride. Allan Edmonds and Tom Reynolds got the group organized, with Allan getting everyone to introduce themselves, while Tom went over the designated route, which we call Old 37 to Strain Ridge (link to PDF map). Tom recruited John Bassett to serve as sweep, which he did admirably.  Tom planned out our standard regrouping spots on Victor just after crossing 37; Ketcham where we switch onto Old 37; Strain Ridge just after climbing that dam hill; and the PO in Smithville. Allan was just about to send us off right on time, when Kathy Avers announced that she had a flat. As usual several guys moved over to help. It was good that Kathy had her car there and a floor pump. The guys got the tube swapped out and ready to go in just 9 minutes. Pretty good for a bunch of amateurs! Our latest start in two years!

Everyone did a good job of staying together even though this turned out to be one of our faster rides. Somewhat surprisingly all but a couple of riders decided at the Post Office to take Ramp Creek rather than Fairfax back to the church.

We were coming in along the Waterworks route on Handy when Kathy had her second flat of the night! Again several people stopped to help, but for safety’s sake it made sense for most of us to continue on toward home.

According to a note posted on the BBC homepage, Google Earth can now import and display data directly from a GPS. So we gave it a try. Here’s a screen shot of the evening’s ride displayed in Google Earth. Next project is to figure out to link to a “live” version in Google Earth.

Overall this was a bit faster than our typical OWLS ride. I averaged 15.2 mph for the basic 26 mile loop, tempered a bit to 14.3 by the time I added in 4.5 miles round trip between my house and the start. We climbed a bit over 1500 feet total and had a downhill max of just over 35 mph.

Sounds like you've created a new "urban interface" ride! And I've taken wrong turns in those same neighborhoods more times than I care to admit.

Keith

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.