done

final 47, or "yes, there are too hills in Iowa"

we did it! and it was hilly. 18 percent grade on one hill--didnt walk at all, I'll have you know. it was the prettiest day of the week, wide panoramas of rolling farms.... sad it's all over but glad to be done at the same time. we dipped our front wheels in the Mississippi to complete the route.... Till next year!

last night

feeling a lot better about life at this point than I was 12 hours ago. we had rain all morning, not a warm summer rain, but a pelting cold rain for hours. on a bright note my legs did feel better, I think yesterday broke me. i am starting to feel more normal on a bike than walking...and feeling much stronger than in the beginning of
the week, too...over 60 miles felt like a normal day.....after charging through rain till noon it finally let up and blue skies suddenly appeared and we enjoyed an alternative rock
cover band and cookies for a while before meandering into Manchester.

ill miss the community here, and the culture.... not looking
forward to lonely Illinois rides....but looking forward to sleeping in a bed. I'm feeling very lucky to have had the time to spend with a couple old friends and thousands of bike lovers and even more generous iowans. thanks.

my legs hurt

don't get me wrong it is totally awesome to wake up and consider that the only thing I have to
do is ride my bike, but today was almost 80 miles, with hills and wind and trying to keep up with carbon frame Joe, cross-country runner Matt, and single speed supreme Steve..... then we tacked on 10 more miles going to downtown Waterloo (forfeiting our shower opportunity, boo)-- so my legs are done for the day, hopefully renewed by tomorrow....

Parkersburg 12:15am

day.....4?

this morning feels like a long time ago and yesterday blends into the day before... and I'm certain I'm not the only one with this problem. I started this thinking it would be a physical week that might be really fun as well- now it seems more like a vacation that also has a physical element. today's ride was
nice, short, with some rolling hills, lots of beautiful wind turbines (and some wind), ending at a river town, Charles city, or chuck town. the ever-present cover band is currently playing Magic Man in the background.

theres lots of costumes out here, even more today it seemed.... leisure suit guys, three fat elvises, some chickens, green guy, and tutu ladies...

the rain last night wasn't too bad although I suffered through some childhood memories of wakin up in a puddle- but my tent held up well, and it's way better to have rain at night, in my opinion, than during the day.... tonight is cool-- good sleeping weather...

how to feed 20,000 biking hobos

I had no idea what to expect for food along the route-- I just knew to bring money and snacks. turns out the way it works is pretty awesome-- basically there is someone offering something
every couple miles- parked on the side of the road in the middlenofna
field-- from cold water and gatorade to pork chops to homemade ice cream to pie-- it's hard to not stop at all of them-- you really have to strategize. it is nice to feel hungry every couple hours, for sure...,today we had Amish ice cream, pizza, pancakes, smoothies and beer. the only time this seems reasonable, I guess, is when you spend all day on a bike. the food vendors are well-known mainstays, selling every day along the route, and back every year it seems. the lines are long, but you have to think about how,really, what else are you supposed to be doing? and there's a great bike parade right there and good company and always music, so. plus, doing it every year, they're pretty efficient.

rope jump!

chris cakes

swaledale 930am

surprisingly not easy

sailed along early, ate some delicious breakfast tacos for lunch, and found the hobo museum, which was a room full of photos and doodads and a documentary in the background. the town is at a crossing of two railroad tracks so it became hobo capital and now holds a convention with a king and queen every year. the last couple legs were windy and hot and the road was bumpy- it felt longer than it was, but the swim at he end was awesome! clear lake- not as clear as storm lake, though.

spin doctors just played a set as matt and I sat and watched the lightening come in- it's supposed to rain tonight. most people ive talked to on this trip come together to catch up with old friends to do it, and I think it's a great way to reunite. you get time to just hang and catch up and time to do something active and adventurous and no one has to worry if their bathroom is clean because everyone is using cornfields or portopotties. tomorrow is the easiest day , only 50 miles or so

Uploaded - 7\27\10-2

Learning with Vince - Class 2!!!

If you missed last week's bike repair class, coming to tomorrow's Bike Maintenance class will start fresh. We'll go over basics of the bike operations and then I'll do a short demo of cable routing before letting folks ask questions or deal with cable-related issues.

So come join us! This class is meant for beginners and those new to bike repair stuff.

tonight: the bike project general meeting!

6pm sharp at the Campus Bike Project. 

All Bike Project members are invited and dinner (maybe pizza?) will be served... kinda like this:

easy

smoothest 80 miles ever! when folks have boomboxes on the back of their bikes playing michael Jackson and there's a nuke tail wind and not so many hills-- makes riding easy. stopped in a bar at the way and it was like spring break for 40 somethings - watched a guy dance so hard on a chair that he fell right through it. pressed on, and flew into town pretty early and took my first shower in the high school nearby. today I was struck by how many kids and families do this- there are tons of tandems with little kid legs pedaling away- so cute.

tomorrow is just 60 miles.... and the hobo museum

dero fixit

Last Friday in Iowa City, we spotted this great outdoor mini "bike shop" outside the New Pioneer Food Co-op.  Placed near their bike racks, the "shop" includes a bike stand, a pump, and all the necessary tools for most repairs.  The pump and tools attach to the stand by cables, making sure they'll always be there when necessary.

The stand looks sturdy and well-made.  "It looks pre-fab," we said.  As it turns out, it is: it's a Dero Fixit stand, made by a Minnesota-based company that produces many other different bike racks for municipalities, businesses, et al.  Here's an image of the stand in action:

photo credit: dero.com

These stands would look very nice placed strategically throughout Champaign-Urbana.

(One quick blog note: for the rest of the week, Bike Project volunteer Emily will be guest posting between rides at Ragbrai, assuming her solar iphone charger works.  And I'll be taking the week off.)

day one

I referred to this morning as yesterday-- it was a long one, with a great ending..... started with lots of rolling hills and puffy clouds and lots of sun and that's actually how it was most of the day. as it turns out hills are fun! except the last couple, I found them really enjoyable. ... there's food everywhere, riders everywhere, bikes everywhere--- it is a well-oiled machine of mayhem. and it really can be about a thousand different rides- from meditative to wild, athletic to mardi gras. some inspiring riders: the blind guy, the seatless guy, the pennyfarthing, the unicyclist.....

it was hot and I was tired towards the end but we decided to stop just before storm lake at the sign for free beer, and caught an awesome cover band playing on the porch of a farmhouse and enjoyed said free beer as the sun started to get slanty. as we rolled into town, we saw the storm lake beach and impulsively went swimming---- highlight of the day by far, it felt so good!

Iowa sky

Joe & I dip into the Missouri

all you can eat

get set

here's a conversation that must happen every morning:
"honey what year ragbrai jersey are we wearing today?"

the fellow camped next to me has an intense caffeine habit. how do I know? he was screaming about it at 530am.

so now I am sipping on some coffee myself, as he reminded me of my caffeine habit, and watching the endless bike parade get started. someone said it's important to "ride your own ride", and I like that--

68.5miles to storm lake!

Sioux city!

enjoying my free Des Moines register, off to get some food and maybe gamble on a riverboat, and dip my wheels into the Missouri river, as tradition dictates. there are lots of nice bikes here! and nice people! summer camp- like apprehension has given way to summer camp-like excitement. a little nervous about the 2,600 ft climb tomorrow--- I forgot how hilly Iowa is! or I've been living in Illinois too long

totally excellent bike mini-shop in Iowa city

at TBP we have tossed around ways to provide the public with bike tools available 24 hrs. a day, but so far nothing has really worked well. we tried a public locker with tools and parts in downtown champaign and have been tossing around ideas about a trailer/stand/traveling shop, but this idea seems really functional-- hard to tell what is prefab and what isn't, but somebody has done well! it's next to their food coop, which totally rules too, has beer and a deli a la strawberry fields in
the good old days

i80

I-80, where I will really start to feel at home--- on our way to grinnell, my Alma mater. over my four years there i made many many trips across the midwest on i80.... maybe we'll get some maid-rite sandwiches and corn nuggets... tomorrow morning i get to see some buddies from college, and we grab the charter to the start-- sioux city, yeah!

this may be a very good idea or very bad idea, but it's an idea I've tossed around long enough that it really is time- notwithstanding my thesis defense in three weeks. i am not sure what to expect... but like what I hear-- there's so much pie, for instance, it's likely you gain weight while riding 440 miles. also have heard about ham balls, slip n slides, the spin doctors, and a hobo museum!

tbp at ragbrai

Bike Project volunteer Emily's riding in Ragbrai next week and plans to blog about it here. 

Ragbrai's a "tour of Iowa," a state which I'm told is much more topographically interesting than Central Illinois. 

Good luck Emily!

subsidizing bicycles

Yesterday, hippie-wesbsite alternet.org featured an article about how the rise in bicycle ownership worldwide helps reduce carbon emissions.  Lots of interesting facts in it, including this:

World bicycle production, averaging 94 million per year from 1990 to 2002, climbed to 130 million in 2007, far outstripping automobile production of 70 million. Bicycle sales in some markets are surging as governments devise a myriad of incentives to encourage bicycle use. For example, in 2009 the Italian government began a hefty incentive programme to encourage the purchase of bicycles or electric bikes in order to improve urban air quality and reduce the number of cars on the road. The direct payments will cover up to 30 percent of the cost of the bicycle.

It turns out that cycling-friendly countries generally subsidize bikes -- in a variety of ways -- while also implementing policies to make driving more difficult and expensive, such as "taxes on car ownership, use, and parking."  Meanwhile, the U.S. and U.K. don't, although the Obama administration's floated-then-retracted plan to tax drivers for the miles they drive rather than for the gas they use might have been a step in this direction.

Learning With Vince UPDATE!

Just an addendum to the previous post about the Bike Repair classes coming up: this first one is really meant for people who have NO to little experience wrenching (that's what we call fixing bikes). So if you don't even know what "righty tighty - lefty loosey" means or don't know the difference between the stem or the handlebar, well this is the class for you!

And even if you do know what those things above are, I will try to inculcate folks with ways to think like a mechanic. Or at least how I think like a bike mechanic. So this means more of understanding how things works as opposed to memorizing a set of procedures to do when X happens.

Hope to see some new folks tonight during open hours at the UC-IMC shop!  This is a great way to get involved and orientated to what these fancy (and not so fancy) tools do.

bikers vs. mosquitos

Today the Daily Illini featured an article about two UIUC students working as "mosquito abatement bikers" for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District:

As mosquito abatement bikers for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD), Kathleen Doran, recent graduate of ACES and Claire Keating, a senior in Fine and Applied Arts and Illini Media employee, travel around Champaign County to spread mosquito larvicide to help prevent the coming of West Nile Virus, a disease of the brain transmitted through infected mosquitoes. The CUPHD hired the two students as part of the district’s special program to reduce Culex mosquitos, the insects that cause the disease, said Jim Roberts, director of environmental health for the CUPHD.

Doran and Keating bike around C-U dumping larvacide into stagnant water, thus totally refudiating moquito breeding grounds and helping to fight mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile Virus.  Check out the article!

tbp century ride

Saturday, a peloton of The Bike Project's volunteers completed a century: 100 miles in a loop from Champaign west to Clinton Lake, southeast to Monticello, then back to Champaign.  It took us 11 or so hours, albeit only six and a half in the saddle.  We stopped pretty frequently to ward off heat exhaustion; the weather advisory even suggested this was a bad idea:

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL
308 PM CDT SAT JUL 17 2010
HIGH TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER TO MIDDLE 90S WILL COMBINE WITH
HIGH HUMIDITY LEVELS TO PRODUCE AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING HEAT INDEX VALUES OF 100 TO 105 DEGREES.

Plus, we had to ford a river near Monticello...

...after Google Maps lied to us about a washed out bridge.  But I'll give Google Maps a chance to redeem itself; here's our route:



We made it back safe and we all learned something.  I, for one, learned that my saddle sucks.

Congratulations Carl, Michael, Vince, Chris, Joel, Emma, Emily, Phil -- and me! -- for making it back alive!

Learning with Vince! - a bike repair class or something like it.

Yes, you heard correctly - a bike repair class! Or something like it.

TBP will be holding informal bike repair classes during the hour of the Wed hours (say, 6:30 til 7:30pm) and this will be open to all members. It's informal b/c....well...I don't have quite a schedule laid out. So far, it'll probably look something like this:

Week One: Safety check of the bike, identifying parts of the bike, and basics of wrenching.
Week Two: How brakes and shifting works, drivetrain (chains etc)
Week Three: Installing Stuff
Week Four: Fixing Stuff.

As you can tell, the last two weeks are up in the air. You'll be learning some basics of bike repair as I learn how to teach it. A big win for all.

So keep an eye out on this blog as I'll post more specifics of what I have planned for Wed Night Repairs. Let us know if you're interested in anything in specific and I can address that if you'd like in the future.

you and yourn loves bikes

 (...friends of The Bike Project You and Yourn...)

photo credit: Cody Bralts/youandyourn.com

... and they're playing today, for free, at the Krannert Center's "Uncorked" series.  Show starts at 5pm.

next wednesday: bicycle infrastructure webinar

From an email to the Champaign County Bikes discussion listserv:

On Wednesday, July 21 at 2pm CT, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) will present a webinar on Bicycle Boulevards and Neighborhood Greenways. Morgan Johnston of Facilities and Services at the University of Illinois has graciously arranged for access to the webinar in the conference room of Public Safety Building on campus at 1110 W. Springfield Ave in Urbana (NE corner of Goodwin and Springfield). The webinar is free and open to all that are interested.

I have used bicycle boulevards in Portland and Berkeley and I believe that they would make a great addition to the bicycle infrastructure we have already started to build in Champaign-Urbana. They are particularly attractive to people who do not want to bicycle on busier streets and they allow side-by-side bicycling that is so useful for families bicycling an essential for introducing young bicyclists to on-street bicycling.

the bike project still seeks an americorps volunteer

We're still hiring for an Americorps volunteer position.  And we've extended the deadline for applications til 14 July.  The position is for a Volunteer Coordinator based at the UC-IMC shop.

If you'd like to apply, check out our pdf announcement for instructions.  And if you have any questions, email us at thebikeproject@gmail.com.

saturday: health and wellness bike ride

This Saturday, 17 July, join other families in Urbana on the Health and Wellness Bike Ride, organized by Champaign County Bikes. 

It's a self-paced, self-guided tour of Urbana beginning at 9am from Urbana's Farmers' Market and supported by organizations like the Urbana Free Library and Common Ground Food Co-op.  The ride aims to show just how easy it is to get around by bicycle in Urbana.

A drawing for prizes will be held after the ride on the porch of Common Ground Food Coop at Market at the Square. Prizes include gift certificates, pool passes, a bike helmet,  and t-shirts.  You can preregister for the ride at: www.champaigncountybikes.org.

today: open hours plus hum!

This isn't bike related; it's just fun: tonight Hum will reunite to play a free show at Champaign's 150th birthday celebration, a festival Smile Politely rightly declared to be "not that bad!"  Remember Hum?



They're on at 9pm, when the heat should have abated.  Before then, you're invited to escape the heat by stopping by open hours in our (thankfully) air conditioned shop in the UC-IMC.  We've got a few bikes for sale or you can join the co-op and start a build-a-bike.  Our volunteer staff will help you learn how.  Open hours run from 2-5pm today.

PS: Go Heat!

smile politely investigates hit and run crash involving cyclists

Today, Smile Politely featured a long article about a couple of hit and run crashes involving cyclists that have taken place around C-U over the past year:

Dornick was riding near the back of the pack, and immediately noted how quickly the honking car was approaching, close to 100 mph in his estimation. By the time a rider had called “Car back!“ the vehicle — a blue Chevy Impala with heavily tinted windows — had reached the cyclists, slowed to around 35 mph, and was rapidly moving through the group.

As Hand describes it, “Almost immediately the car was already up in the middle of the group.  We had already tried to start moving over and were probably halfway over.  I saw the car moving into the group.  It sounded like he was driving in the grass for a second, and then that sound went away and it looked like he was moving toward us.“

As the pace line tried to move to the right to clear room for the driver, riders at the back of the pack saw the car pass less than a foot to the left of their bikes.  Cyclist Sean Walker watched the passenger side mirror pass over his handlebars, narrowly avoiding a hit.  The driver then hit Dornick’s left elbow with his passenger side mirror, knocking him off-balance.  Dornick was able to remain upright, and the driver continued forward.

At this point the driver had reached the middle of the pack. Nangle was riding near the back of the pack and had an unobstructed view of the vehicle as it approached the center of the pace line.  Nangle watched the driver reach the middle of the pack before “clearly, deliberately turning to the right and moving the car into the pace line of riders, clearly making an attempt to hit one or more of the riders.“  The other cyclists confirmed this unmistakable display of intent.  Rob Raguet-Schofield observed “a good four feet of pavement and at least one or two feet of solid grass shoulder to the left of the car.  It was absolutely, unmistakably clear this was no accident.  This was intentional.“

 Incidents like these spurred Governor Quinn to sign an anti-harassment law compelling drivers to give cyclists at least three feet of space on the road.

Quinn signs anti-harassment legislation

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed two bills into law yesterday, one of which "establish[es] penalties for motorists driving recklessly and unnecessarily close to, toward, or near a bicyclist.  Depending on whether serious injuries result, it is either a Class A misdemeanor or Class 4 felony." The other bill creates a "Share the Road" license plate. The laws will go into effect January 1, 2011. Read more about the League of Illinois Bicyclists legislative agenda here.

Here's a video from Channel 17 News (WAND) of Rick Langlois from Champaign County Bikes and myself talking about the hoped-for effects of the new law:


Thanks to Lisa Sparrow for reporting on this issue!

Mustache Ride 2 logo unveiled

Thanks Gillian!

Coming August 21, 2010

Facebook invite here

More details on the way soon

tonight: women and trans in transit night

Tonight from 6 to 9pm, The Bike Project shop in the UC-IMC will host our monthly Women and Trans In Transit night.  Most of the volunteers staffing will be female and child-care will be provided!

vets' cross-country bike ride arrives in c-u today!

Sunday's News-Gazette included a story about a group of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans (and others) trekking across the country on bikes.  C-U will welcome them today, with a ceremony taking place at Hessel Park beginning around 2pm:

A group of exceptional bicycle riders, many of whom are wounded Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, will be in Champaign-Urbana this week as part of a 3,696-mile tour.
The riders, whose trek is called Sea to Shining Sea, have undertaken the effort to pay tribute to service men and women and challenge perceptions about how Americans see disabled athletes. Some of the 19 cross-country riders have prosthetic limbs, while others with spinal cord injuries or without legs are using specially designed hand-powered bikes. They are from all branches of the service. Among the riders is Paul Bremer, the former diplomat who oversaw Iraq’s provisional government in 2003 and 2004.

They are scheduled to arrive in Champaign around 2 p.m. Tuesday. A welcoming ceremony will be held between 2 and 3 p.m. at Hessel Park in Champaign.

For more info, visit their website.

taco ride

Here's a fun ride: Champaign to Tolono.  10.2 miles south on First Street.  Once you reach the railroad tracks, turn right on Tolono's Main Street, which snakes through the interesting little town.

South of Champaign, First Street passes by UIUC and private farms, past some actual lakes and ponds (no doubt manmade, but I've learned not to be picky), past some out-of-place looking pre-fab housing in Savoy, then through soy- and corn-fields.

Best of all, there's a fun destination: the Taco Shack, which local renaissance man Seth recently reviewed for Smile Politely:

It's on Route 45/Neil Street, and you can reach it on Main Street after passing through Tolono.

If you'd rather not ride the 10 miles back up First Street, here's a 27 mile loop from Champaign to Tolono to Philo to Urbana.

don't ride your bike on the sidewalk

Urbana police are -- rightly! -- enforcing a prohibition against riding your bike on sidewalks.  You shouldn't be riding on the sidewalk in the first place, but the $100 fine for a citation might be more persuasive than our moralizing.  Here's a blog post from the City of Urbana:

please note that riding bikes on downtown sidewalk is prohibited. Due to the large number of pedestrians walking, diners eating outdoors, and shoppers stepping out of shops, the sidewalk is not a safe place to ride a bicycle. For everyone's safety, the City asks you to dismount and walk your bicycle on downtown sidewalks. Thank you for your cooperation.

Riding a bicycle on downtown sidewalks is punishable by a $100 fine.

Couch moving with the trailer

We're still populating the Campus Bike Project with furniture and ephemera, and yesterday we added a sleeper sofa and a vending machine to the mix. Thanks to Lisa Flenniker & family for the generous donation!

And of course, getting there is half the fun. We picked up the stuff in northwest Champaign with Emily's truck and our new trailer. Here's some video of Carl getting a ride down McKinley Ave. (he did the pulling the second half of the trip):

We spotted an elderly lady paused in the crosswalk at Washington and State and asked if she needed a ride. Without missing a beat, she said, "Yes, to 410 N. Prairie, in the back."

We dropped her off (it was only a block away), and she thanked us and shuffled away, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

After unloading the booty at the CBP, we made a celebratory trip to Custard Cup before moving on to the rest of our evening. 

Thanks to Emily, Kelly, and Carl for help with the move, and also for the pictures!

slate.com asks... "should cities build more dedicated bike paths?"

Or, as Slate's headline calls them, "bicycle highways":

And while the words bicycle highway might conjure something like this image of a rather pathetic bike lane along a high speed motorway in the United Kingdom, those two words used together are actually gaining a certain currency. In Denmark, for example, the city of Copenhagen is extending its bicycling network outward into the suburbs, creating what the blog Copenhagenize calls "bicycle superhighways," for commutes of 10 kilometers or more, with everything from "green wave" lights (cycle 20 kilometers to hit all green) to standardized signage to bicycle service stations along the way. In London, Mayor Boris Johnson's own network of a dozen cycling "superhighways" is taking root.

U.S. cities like Portland and Rochester have recently been considering the idea, too.