Blog Post

Thanks again to Autumn McCoy for organizing such a fabulous meal in a very classy setting!

–Keith V.

I really enjoyed the spring party this year! Great food, great people.

By Allan Edmonds

Club members declared March 7 the First Day of Spring. March 7 marked not only the first official ride of the 2009 ride calendar. It also marked our annual meeting and party. This year we had an elegant buffet dinner at Chapman’s Restaurant in Bloomington. Social chair Autumn McCoy did all the organizing for a wonderful event. The menu included green salad, melons and grapes, a sliced tomato-parmesan dish, steamed vegetables, rice, vegetarian lasagna, baked fish, baked chicken, and dinner rolls. Dessert included lemon custard, chocolate mousse, apple pie, and coffee. All food was paid for by the club. A cash bar was available. There were about 80 or so club members, including family and guests. A nice time was had by all.

After dinner, club co-president Mark Napier presided over a brief, formal business meeting, in which the club approved a small change to the by-laws that will follow recent practice to allow club officers to live “near Bloomington,” replacing the former requirement that they live “in the city of Bloomington.” Officers for the coming year were also elected. Keith Bobay presented a slate of officers on behalf of the nominating committee. Mark Napier and Jennifer Miers were re-elected co-presidents, Tom Whitehead was elected vice-president, and Joe Anderson was re-elected treasurer, and Keith Bobay was re-elected as secretary. Keith also presented two new committee chairs: (1) Sandi Owen, who will take over as Membership Chair, as Jim Lang devotes his time to upgrading our computerized budget and accounting system to QuickBooks. And (2) Jim Schroeder, who will head up a project to update our collection of route maps.

Mark introduced many of the continuing committee chairs, each of whom spoke briefly about their activities on behalf of the club.

Co-president Jennifer Miers talked about Adopt-a-Road. Our section of road is a one-mile stretch of Old 37, just south of where Old 37 crosses State Road 37 heading toward Harrodsburg, see the map. Dates for this year’s four clean up days are on the club calendar. People should contact Jennifer ahead of time if they plan to help so that she can be sure there are sufficient reflective vests and gloves to go around. Besides being a good public service, this is a good way to help drivers appreciate cyclists more. There are signs at both ends of our mile stretch that announce that the BBC has adopted this section of road.

Tour Director Mike Finger talked about the ride calendar and being a ride leader. A group of ten or so club members responded to Mike’s invitation a few weeks ago to gather and put together the main Saturday ride calendar for the upcoming season. Pictures taken at the meeting by Klaus Rothe can be viewed here. Rides were selected and ride leaders were recruited. More ride leaders are still needed, especially for rides in the second half of the season. Mark chimed in with a plug for the idea of co-ride leaders. When we have large groups it’s too difficult for one person to keep track of everyone. It’s an easy way to get a feel for what’s involved with being a ride leader to volunteer to assist and experienced ride leader. Typically, one person leads out and shows the way, while the other keeps an eye on the tail of the group being sure no one gets dropped or lost or accidentally left to fend for themselves. In general all club members have a shared responsibility to help be sure no one falls behind or otherwise has trouble. So keep an eye on those near you, and offer a helping hand where it might be needed.

Outgoing Membership chair Jim Lang announced that we now have 188 members, and that memberships can now be paid on-line through a secure credit card payment link.. Just go to the Membership Page of the club web site to renew, if you haven’t already done so. Note that your credit card statement will show this as a payment to RAIN. (The club is saving money by piggy-backing on the system set up for RAIN registration.) The current membership roster can always be viewed in the private area of the club web site. Jim was accepting membership renewals at the meeting. Reminder: club memberships expire each year on May 31. Here’s a photo of club member Dave Tanner renewing his membership for 2009.

Klaus Rothe talked about the new web site he is designing for the club, which he hopes will go live in the next month or so. It will have an up-to-date, visual focus. For those who can’t wait, a preliminary mock-up of the new home page can be seen at this page. Many changes are still being made, but you can get a rough idea of what to expect here. By the way, for those interested Klaus uploaded some of the photos he took at the party to BBC Banquet. (The second and fourth photos in this story came from Klaus.)

Advocacy chair Keith Vogelsang talked about his role keeping an eye out for issues and being a general gadfly. Keith’s comments provoked a brief discussion from the floor about the developing B-Line Trail. It is a multi-use trail. Bicyclists may use it to get from one place to the other, sharing it with walkers, runners, skateboarders, etc., but it won’t substitute for our regular road cycling. Keith specifically asked club members to keep him informed about issues they hear about related to bicycling. Cathy Meyer, chair of Safety and Education (which overlaps a bit with Advocacy), chimed in with a call for some new committee members. Their activities involve such things as requests for assistance and kid’s bike rodeos and being a presence at other events where they can hand out safety literature.

Allan Edmonds talked about the OWLS (Older or Wiser or a Little Slower) riding group and encouraged people to come out for their moderate training rides on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 5:45 pm, starting in April, and typically go around 25 +/- miles in a couple of hours. See the on-line ride calendar for more details. Those who have never been on an OWLS ride but might be interested can get a sense of them from a series of OWLS ride reports Allan put together last summer. This year we’ll have the rides on the club calendar. CE Taylor is helping out planning rides for this season.

Allan also talked about this new BBC Blog that is replacing our sometime newsletters. Articles will be published here as they come in, with brief announcements being sent to the club by email. Ride reports and articles of general interest should be sent to him by email. Contributions from club members will be important in making this a successful venture. So take up the challenge of sharing your thoughts and ideas with club. Use the email address blogger@bloomingtonbicycleclub.org to submit articles.

In the absence of RAIN Director Joe Anderson, Mark discussed plans for RAIN 2009 and the importance of club members helping out as volunteers, both on the day of the event (July 18) and in getting things organized in the weeks ahead of that time.

Jennifer Smallwood, chair of the grant committee, talked about this year’s grant process. Grant recipients who were present were introduced and the others were mentioned. In particular Madi Hirschland of Earth Care Bloomington talked about the group she represents and their program of encouraging bicycle racks at area religious organizations. She showed a poster advertising Walbicus—Walk Bike Carpool or Bus to Worship weekends — scheduled for 2009. Here is photo taken by Klaus.

Click here to see a copy of the poster.

After all the business and reports were completed, Norm Houze presented a program on deCycles, including a 45-minute video documentary on their 2008 trip, three weeks in the Southwest, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. The 2009 trip is already completely filled. It will be a three-week round trip from Bloomington, called Appalachian Mountains 2009, riding south to the Smokys, then along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and back home via West Virginia. Check out the deCycles website for the full story of last year’s trip and to follow day by day accounts of the 2009 trip. Norm invited all club members to come out as a bicycling escort when the group leaves Bloomington on June 20. More details on that will be available later.

After the program many members and guests continued to chat informally for a while before heading out. We hope not too many people forgot to reset their clocks for Daylight Savings Time when they got home!

By Allan Edmonds and Keith Vogelsang

We had a tremendous turnout for Saturday’s ride to Ellettsville. There were lots of familiar faces and some new ones too. But the group was too big to go around introducing everyone. Riders were still pulling into Bryan Park and assembling their bikes after our scheduled 11:00 start time, so we started a bit late to give all 35 riders an opportunity to join the first club ride of the 2009 season.

Eventually ride leader Keith Vogelsang got everyone organized and away we went. Naturally with a group this size we soon split up into at least three smaller groups.

With so many riders, staying together as a group to get out of town would not be possible. Nearly all riders successfully re-grouped after crossing State Highway 37 at Vernal Pike. Two new riders, however, were struggling a bit, so Keith and Ethan, his 8 year old stoker on their tandem, stayed with them to make sure they had an opportunity to complete the route.

Everyone regrouped two or three times more times. But one group decided to add an extra five miles or so on their own. (At least that was their plan…we didn’t go along!) By the end people trickled back in small groups to the park.

As the trailing group made its way out of Ellettsville, one of the riders (Mark) stopped to assist a motorist in distress. The motorist was having car trouble, and was in tears because she couldn’t get in touch with anyone to help her. Mark, who happens to be the minister at First Baptist Church in Ellettsville, suggested she pull her car into the nearby church parking lot and wait there until help could arrive. While Mark escorted the woman to the church lot, Keith, Ethan, and Kevin continued at Mark’s request.

While pedaling back into town, the sweep group encountered other riders that began with us at Bryan Park. Were these riders doing the Ellettsville loop a second time while we were still on our first loop?  No–but they were the ones who had decided to add extra miles, and were now catching up to us, which was easy to do at our leisurely pace. When it’s early March and the weather is as pleasant as it was on Saturday, however, any pace is the right pace for a bike ride.

Overall one rider’s GPS recorded an average speed of 12.3 mph from home, not too bad for the first ride of the season, especially given the strong winds. The GPS recorded a total climb of 1815 ft.

Included with this report are both a small map of the route and an elevation chart. We leave it to interested people who weren’t on the ride to puzzle out whether we did the route clockwise or counterclockwise, using only the map and chart.

by Joe Anderson

It doesn't work very well in Bloomington, IN, our hometown. During 9 months of the year, bicycling in southern Indiana is fantastic, as featured in the movie "Breaking Away." Our Bloomington Bicycle Club has route books that list over 100 loop rides (from 10 to 200 miles in length). While Bloomington offers some of the most scenic and varied bicycling opportunities in the country, when winter sets in it is difficult to get many outdoor miles. I'm a 65-year-old destination rider, one who does not enjoy riding a trainer or doing a spin class at the YMCA. I ride to eat and to see and experience the countryside and meet the local people.

In search of warmer riding conditions, Barbara and I headed southwest this winter. We loaded up our motor home and headed for our first destination, Houston, TX, where we spent a couple weeks with Barbara's sister, Marcia. Being avid bicyclists we had packed two bicycles for the trip south: my Trek 5200 and our folding Bike Friday tandem.

Although Houston is not the ideal bicycling destination, by scouting neighborhood roads it was possible to find a decent route out of the city. After only five miles of city streets I could be in rural Texas, riding to places like Pecan Grove and Fulshear. The main problem isn't traffic congestion, once the ideal exit route is found, it's the flat terrain. If the Texas winds aren't blowing, I can do a 60-mile ride without changing gears, not ideal for someone trying to get his butt back in shape after a month off the bike.

The second leg of our southwestern trip took us to Big Bend National Park where we spent two days, me riding my Trek and Barbara hiking to "The Window" in the Chisos Basin before meeting for lunch at the lodge and watching the Arizona Cardinals earn a trip to the Super Bowl. My ride was 28 miles with ten miles of gradual downhill, ten miles of gradual uphill, and eight miles of granny gear, grinding it out, uphill. Barbara's hike was a 5-mile, 500 foot of climb personal best for her.

After leaving Big Bend, we stopped in Las Cruces, so I could complete the final six miles of my 1998 coast-to-coast bicycle trip. A late March snow storm in Cloudcroft, New Mexico that year, required us to be hauled off the mountain until we were below the snow line. I started at the top of the pass this time and coasted the six miles required to finish my route, then I rode back up to the pass and coasted the sixteen miles at 30+ mph from Cloudcroft back to Alamogordo. It was indeed satisfying to relive the excitement of that trip.

Cottonwood, Arizona, was our final destination, and we have already spent five weeks in this area. Cottonwood has some great bicycling opportunities that can be combined with hiking and sightseeing. The local bicycle club, the Verde Valley Cycling Coalition (VVCC) offers many opportunities to ride with other cyclists of various abilities, speeds, and distances. Barbara and I rode our tandem on VVCC club rides. Their Monday 11:00 am rides with Maggie took us to various destinations depending upon the wind and the temperature. We've toured Dead Horse Ranch State Park, Oak Creek Valley Road overlooking Cornville, and the fish hatchery at Page Springs. The leisurely pace of the Monday rides allow us to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Each Friday at 10:00 am the VVCC enjoys a twenty-mile loop ride from Jerona's Coffee Shop through the Cottonwood Ranch community before flying down 89A to Clarkdale on our way to Tuzigoot and back through Old Town Cottonwood. The group, which can be as large as 20 riders, always stops for coffee and pastries after the ride. VVCC also has a regular Saturday ride which starts in the Village of Oak Creek (VOC) and traverses the red rock country toward Sedona before circling back to VOC for side trips up Verde Valley School Road and Jack's Canyon Road. Of course the National Forest Service Visitor Center on Hwy 179 and the beautiful, new smooth roads with marked bicycle lanes make this Saturday ride a real delight.

Barbara and I drove to Prescott for shopping and a movie one day. I, of course, took my bike so that I could return via Mingus Mountain and Jerome while Barbara spent time in the shops. Coming up Mingus from Prescott is much easier than riding to the top from Cottonwood, as I discovered last week. The elevation change from Cottonwood goes from 3,000 feet to 7,020 in about 13 miles. Highway 89A over Mingus has lots of switchbacks, seven percent grades, and spectacular views of the Sedona red rocks, the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff, and the Verde River valley.

Yesterday, the day before we were scheduled to drive to Sierra Vista, I rode from the Thousand Trails Camp on Hwy 260 through Sedona and up Oak Creek Canyon to the overlook with the Indian market. This is an 83- mile round trip with another 4,000 feet of elevation change and is a traditional cross-country route used for the Race Across AMerica. The Decycles group, a bicycle tour with about 60 teens and their chaperones, from Bloomington climbed it last summer after enjoying swimming at Slide Rock State Park.

Riding in the southwest is quite different than riding in Indiana where the biggest hill is only 400 feet high. Granted the grades on those hills can be in the fifteen to twenty percent range for short distances, but the rolling terrain and quiet back roads are hard to beat. Here in Arizona we ride on wide shoulders with lots of traffic just a few feet away. Recent highway improvements to 89A in Cottonwood and the new divided SR 260 from Cottonwood half way to Interstate 17 is also great for bicycling. The northbound lane of 260, however is old and doesn't have a shoulder. That, the rumble strip and the debris along the edge make this quite dangerous. The beautiful four lane divided route from Cottonwood to Sedona with the 10 foot shoulders outside the rumble strip is great, so long as broken glass doesn't cause a flat tire. We have been here five weeks already and truly enjoy the area with its wild life (eagles, antelope, white tailed deer, coyote and dead skunks).

Gary Felix, a VVCC riding buddy from Jerome, once said you can only see five percent of Arizona from the road, so Barbara and I, with Al Abbott's encouragement, have purchased hiking poles and put our bike water bottles on straps or in a belt bag and set out on two eight-mile hikes in the Sedona Red Rocks. It is truly thrilling to see Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock, Courthouse, Cock's Comb and many other rock formations from the back country. We are in training for a trip to the Grand Canyon, only 150 miles away and hope to do some of the Bright Angel Trail when we return to Cottonwood in a couple of weeks.

Very cool! Shucks, the snow’s all gone!

Sweet! Next winter, I will let you know if this same approach works on my street bike.

By Keith Vogelsang

Why let a little snow get in the way of cycling fun? With a few dollars worth of hardware and a sturdy mountain bike, you can transform your off-road trail machine into a winter snow machine. Dedicated winter cyclists often invest in studded bike tires. A less expensive option, however, is to outfit your existing wheels with steel chains that provide the extra traction needed to chew through snow and ice.

If your intended route is especially steep or icy, you will want chains or studded tires for both wheels. I have found that for most days, I get sufficient traction with chains strapped to the front wheel only. Yes, riding with chains is noisy and much less efficient than riding without them. But winter riding has a special kind of charm, where efficiency becomes a much lower priority than it does during nicer riding weather. And there is something deeply satisfying about crunching through snow and ice on a bike under conditions that keep most folks inside the house crunching only potato chips. There will always be time to eat chips, but how often do we get to ride in the snow in Bloomington?

Here’s what you need to make chains for one tire:

– 20 feet of galvanized picture wire (70lb test or better)
– Approximately 2 feet of number 14 (0.08″ diameter) zinc plated jack chain.
– 2 hooked-end extension springs (0.08″ wire diameter)
– 4 aluminum compression sleeves to match picture wire
– Needle nose pliers
– Channel lock or line pliers
(Note: For corrosion resistance, stainless steel wire and chain would be better than using galvanized steel, but galvanized steel is relatively cheap and easy to find at most hardware stores, whereas stainless steel is not.)

Assembly (see photos):

Getting the length and width of the chains to properly match your tire can be tricky. For obvious reasons, the chains must clear the brakes and the frame. Front wheels are easier, as there is more clearance near the fork than there is along the rear wheel chain stay. If your bike has disc brakes, then the task is much simpler than it is for cantilever or V-brake systems. For a 2″ tire, 5 chain links per section work well for the front, but the rear might only have clearance for 4 links across. Each section should be separated by about 2 inches.

To determine the length of picture wire needed, measure the circumference of your fully inflated tire and wheel. If you like math, the formula for determining your wheel’s circumference is π * diameter. If you don’t like math, just run a length of wire around the circumference of the wheel, or use a chalk line and roll your wheel along the ground to complete one revolution and then measure the completed distance.

I’ve included photos of my set up. You’ll notice the actual wires (with looped ends) are a few inches less than the wheel circumference because they are designed to fit just below the knobby tread, and the looped ends are connected with an extension spring that must remain tight. A bit of trial and error may be needed to determine the optimal length for your particular tires. Consider, too, that installing the completed chains requires a partially or fully deflated tire. Once everything is lined up and the springs connected, inflating the tire pulls everything tight and keeps the chains from shifting around during use (very important!).

Once you’ve settled on the proper length, create loops in the picture wire using the aluminum compression sleeves. These sleeves can easily be crimped with pliers. When properly installed, the extension spring rides along the tire sidewall and pulls these two looped ends together .

Beginning just after a crimped sleeve, use your pliers to open and crimp chain sections as needed, taking care to minimize to exposed wire on the chain that could cause a flat. Working with one side of the chain first, measure and crimp approximately every two inches, or in a pattern that matches the knobby tread on your tire. Measure and crimp. Measure and crimp. Measure. And. Crimp. When you get to the end of one side, open the opposing link and connect the opposing wire to the assembly, working one section at a time. When your hand begins to ache from crimping, you are probably done. If not, keep going until you have enough 5-link chain sections in place to provide sufficient traction.

When everything is installed and the tire re-inflated, you should not see or hear any loose hardware, and the wheel should spin freely. If you get to this point in the project, you really should turn the computer off and go out and ride. The snow won’t last long.

(Click on photos for larger versions.)

By Jim Schroeder

Make sure you set aside a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to attend the North American Handmade Bicycle Show February 27 to March 1 at the Indianapolis Convention Center [Downtown north of Lucas Oil Stadium].

Times are 11am – 6pm on Friday and Saturday, and 10am – 5pm on Sunday.

Respond with a comment if interested in car pooling – need a ride or offer to drive.

This is a national event. Don’t be surprised if you bump into an old acquaintance from a past bicycle tour from who knows where!

Just click on the title to this blog entry to go to the web site for the show.

P.S. Here’s a link to a web site seeking volunteers for helping out with the show. Volunteers get in free after a 4 or 5 hour shift.

By Jim Schroeder