RecumBum

Last Wednesday, a friend and I did an unsupported century through several counties in East-Central Kansas.

Our ride happened to fall on the Autumnal Equilux, the day in the fall of the year when the day and night are of equal length. Sunrise was at 7:10am, and sunset was at 7:10pm. That bit of trivia has no bearing on anything, but is a fun fact nonetheless.

It turned out to be a beautiful day – the weather was absolutely perfect, with moderate temperatures and mild wind, and the route was largely flat, with one screaming downhill and a number of small and manageable hills. The traffic, except for a couple short sections, was generally sparse.

Starting at my house, we headed out at sunrise into a chilly morning with low-lying fog. For a few minutes I wished I’d attached a headlight to my bike, but the fog burned off quickly, and was gone by the time we reached 223rd Street in Spring Hill and turned onto Old KC road to our first stop at one of the convenience stores in Hillsdale.

After a quick snack, we continued south, passing through the roundabout at 68 Highway, and ultimately turning west onto 287th Street. We’d only gone a short distance before we took an unscheduled break waiting for two freight trains to pass on the railroad crossing. When the crossing cleared we made quick progress through the rolling countryside, aided by a very gentle easterly breeze, warming temperatures, and the very light traffic.

After another short break on Personville Road, we rejoined 68 Highway for a few miles. Although this is a two-lane highway with a 65 MPH speed limit, there was a three-foot shoulder and the road wasn’t busy, and the surface felt incredibly smooth after the previous ten miles of chip-sealed secondary road.

K-33 led us north for a few miles until I began to feel the surface of the road through my front wheel. Looking down, I thought that the tire was beginning to flatten out, and after a few more minutes I was certain – I had a flat.

Since it was apparently a slow leak, and we were only a few miles from the next scheduled stop in Wellsville, I pumped up the tire and rode on. If it flatted immediately, I’d fix it then and there. If not, I’d deal with it in Wellsville, where I’d have a nice surface to work on.

The tire held, and we rolled into the convenience store in Wellsville, where I tested it further. After a snack and refilling the water bottles, the tire appeared to still be holding, so we decided to proceed. A few miles down the road it was starting to get soft again, so I finally pulled over onto a side road and dealt with it. Since I was carrying a spare, I just swapped tubes, rather than patching the old one. After getting the old tube out, I searched for the cause of the flat, and ultimately I found a small hole in the tire. Hard to tell what caused it, but nothing was stuck in the tire, and it looked rideable with no boot required.

So in a short while we were back on the road and rolling through the tiny burg of Le Loup – hardly a town, just a small collection of houses, but a cool name regardless. Turning north onto Ohio Road, we soon traded the smooth asphalt of Franklin County for the rough chip-seal of Douglas County. After a short stop at the Pioneer Cemetery, which contains graves of many of the first settlers of this part of Kansas, we took lunch in Baldwin City.

Continuing north toward Vinland on E 1700th Road, we encountered more traffic than I had anticipated when planning out this route. Apparently this road is a short-cut between Baldwin City and Lawrence, and the comparatively heavy traffic continued until we turned east on N 1000 Road, when it suddenly stopped. And then for the next six miles we weren’t passed by a single motor vehicle. Go figure.

North again on E 2200th Road, we entered Eudora and hit another convenience store before heading over the Kansas river and on into Leavenworth County. As I climbed the hill leading from the river valley onto the bluffs, I looked back to see my friend about to be swallowed by a large farm implement. But then we reached the crest of the hill and rolled past the town of Linwood, back across the bottomland, and across the river once more to De Soto, where we made our final convenience store stop of the day.

The last twenty or so miles were the slowest of the day, as we were wore down by the miles. We took two more quick breaks along the way, and reached the end at around 5pm.

The total distance was around 103 miles (I say “around”, because our two cyclocomputers disagreed, with mine saying 104-something, and his saying 102-something, so 103 is about the average) in a tad over 7 hours pedal time (and nearly 10 hours total time). My average speed was 14.6 MPH, which is faster than my first century.

In total, we hit five counties (Johnson, Miami, Franklin, Douglas, and Leavenworth) and nine small towns (Spring Hill, Hillsdale, Wellsville, Le Loup, Baldwin City, Vinland, Eudora, Linwood, and De Soto). The route was largely rural, and it was an excellent time of the year for it. It was a bit too early for the leaves to be turning, but we saw farm crops in the midst of harvest, and animals in abundance.

All in all it was a glorious day.

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has selected the Katy Trail as their second inductee into the Rail-Trail Hall of Fame. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy selects inductees on merits such as scenic value, high use, trail and trailside amenities, historical significance, excellence in management and maintenance of facility, and geographic distribution.

The first inductee, selected in July, was Pennsylvania and Maryland’s Great Allegheny Passage. Additional inductees will be selected in October, November and December, and will continue until 25 trails have been selected.

The Katy Trail eastern terminus is in St. Charles, and it parallels the Missouri River westward until dipping southward to the end of the line at Clinton, for a total of 225 miles of primarily crushed limestone.

Learn more about the Katy Trail
Read my journal of the 2007 Katy Trail Ride

Thanks for Biking Bis for the heads-up on this.

Cyclists often add a personal touch to their bikes. Some go for wild handlebar tape, perhaps a whimsical mascot strapped on somewhere, or even a cute bell.

I went in a slightly different direction with my personalization:

I purchased the sign from Bannister Designs for what I consider to be a very reasonable cost: $3.50 (plus $3.50 shipping). It’s a two-layer 2″ x 6″ plastic nameplate, with the top layer black, and the bottom layer white; the black layer is engraved, leaving the white layer showing through.

I drilled holes in the plastic and attached the sign to my seatback by using two small split-rings threaded through the seat material. This leaves the sign to swing freely and makes it easy to put on and take off. I used a sharpie to fill along the edges and in the holes and make everything nice and black. It fits nicely with my current rack bag setup, but may not be visible with a larger bag.

Shameless? Perhaps. But it’s my bike and my web site, so why the heck not?

After initially deciding not to try catching another stage of the Tour of Missouri, I made a last-minute decision to go ahead and go for it. After looking more closely at the route maps, I realized that the route was heading right past my sister’s place in Holts Summit, on roads I knew well. That was just too much to resist!

So on Friday morning I took off for the three-hour drive to Jefferson City. I arrived a bit earlier than expected, so I decided to try to catch the tour south of town, then make it back over the river before the bridge was closed. I set up position just north of Eugene, where Route 17 turned onto Route BB. This turnoff was not far from U.S. Route 54, so I’d have an easy way to get back on the highway and head north after watching the riders move past. Turns out I wasn’t the only one with that idea, as there was a fairly good crowd at this very rural location – perhaps 40 vehicles parked along nearby roads.

Immediately after the turnoff there was a small but steep hill, and I was near the top. A small breakaway came by first, about two minutes in front of the main field, which was being led by the Discovery boys, with George Hincapie in the yellow jersey tucked in behind them.

After the entourage had passed, I headed back north, through Jefferson City, over the Missouri River on the Jefferson City Bridge, and on to Holts Summit. Although there was a sprint line in Holts Summit, and a feed zone just past that, I decided to watch the riders climb the long hill from 54 Highway up Summit Drive. Although this is not a terribly steep climb, it heads upward and around a corner at a steady grade for about half a mile.

Again, there was a good crowd here, and again, the breakaway came through, led by Steven Cozza wearing the Build-A-Bear Best Young Rider jersey. A few minutes later the main peloton began snaking its way up the hill, once again headed by the Discovery Channel team. The photo below shows Fuyu Li, Benjamin Noval, Alberto Contador, and George Hincapie.

I’d planned to leapfrog ahead to catch them one more time, but ended up being delayed by road closures, so I decided to skip that and spend the rest of the day with my sister and her family.

The next morning stage 5 was to begin at the state capitol building in Jefferson City, and we arrived around an hour before the start of the race. Teams were just arriving, and I had a chance to mill around among the riders as they prepared for the race. I didn’t do the autograph thing, but I took a lot of pictures. I waited a bit outside the Discovery team RV, but there were so many people there that I finally gave up and moved up to the podium where riders were beginning to sign in.

The two close-up shots below were taken as the riders exited the stage and signed autographs for fans. Alberto Contador was particularly gracious and generous with his time. I was about 5 or 6 rows deep, and had a heck of a time getting any clean shots. I had to hold the camera way above my head and try to snap within very narrow windows of opportunity. Most of my photos of top riders were either blurry and/or partially obscured by others. The two below were the best of the bunch.

Once the riders were signed in, they staged themselves at the starting line, and then they were off for a quick two laps around the capitol, then they headed back across the river and were gone, on to St. Charles.

I was very impressed by what I saw of the Tour of Missouri. I’m not a huge racing fan, but still, it was thrilling to see them fly past, and particularly, to get up close and personal. The crowds along the route were bigger than I’d expected, and very enthusiastic.

This first year was a great start for the Tour of Missouri, and the entire race really couldn’t have gone better. I’m hoping that the Tour raises the awareness of cycling among local residents, and leads to more respect on the roads, but I’m not terribly optimistic in that regard.

Although the race seemed to be extremely well-organized and smoothly run on the roads, the online execution was poor at best. The live race video was of very poor quality, and the reliability of the video feed was just awful. It was a painful experience to watch the live coverage. The reliability and detail provided by the “tour tracker” page was also not very good. Even the main Tour of Missouri site seemed to take forever to be updated with daily results. If I’d been watching the race exclusively online, I wouldn’t have come away with a very good impression of the Tour of Missouri. Watching it in person was incredible, but the online coverage was just plain frustrating.

In addition to the pictures above, I have a number of other shots, which you can view at my Tour of Missouri, Jefferson City Image Gallery.

A friend and I took a short road trip into Platte County to catch the first stage of the inaugural Tour of Missouri, a six-day, 600-mile stage race from Kansas City to St. Louis, which features some of the top professional riders in the world, including riders from the soon-to-be-disbanded Discovery Channel team.

The race started and ended in KC’s Plaza district, but we decided to skip the anticipated crowds (which later estimates put at over 40,000 people for the entire route), and opted for the seclusion and intimacy of rural Missouri.

The race started at the Plaza, headed north through downtown Kansas City and across the Heart of America before entering the small river town of Parkville. After a short climb to the day’s King of the Mountain line, the route headed west on Route 45.

We situated ourselves on a slight rise after a long downhill, just west of where the riders turned onto Route 45. By the time they reached us, the entire peloton was back together, and the group just flew past us at a very high rate of speed, and were gone almost before we realized it.

We then headed up to Platte City and took position at the turnoff from Route 92 onto Route N/4th Street, where the route headed back south toward the city. This turned out to be a good location because the riders and support convoy had to slow down a bit going around the corner, and we had a chance to enjoy it for a little longer.

If you look closely, you’ll see George Hincapie in the picture on the left, the center of the three Discovery riders.

From what I saw, there was a pretty good turnout for the race. On Route 45, there were a half-dozen cars parked on a side road watching the cyclists roll past, and local residents set up lawn chairs in their yards to watch the show. In Platte City the local high school marching band and cheerleaders lined the road as the peloton blew past, and there were a good number of spectators at the intersection and along the streets. Motor vehicle traffic wasn’t held up for very long, and drivers didn’t seem too perturbed by the inconvenience, even if they did seem a bit puzzled at the whole spectacle. However, predictably, local media seemed to spend nearly as much space discussing traffic tie-ups as they did the event itself.

I was halfway tempted to follow the race around the state, but couldn’t quite convince myself to spend the time or money to do so. Still, it was an amazing opportunity to see elite athletes up close, and I’m glad I had a chance to witness it. There’s supposed to be a three-year commitment for the Tour of Missouri, so it should be back next year. I’m definitely looking forward to it!

In addition to the pictures above, I have a number of other shots, which you can view at my Tour of Missouri Image Gallery. For even more photos, browse hundreds of Tour of Missouri images at Flickr.

For more local coverage and photos:

• In Vino Veritas
• KCBike.Info
• KC Bike Commuting
• LocalCycling.com
• Maced with Grace
• Missouri Bicycle Federation
• Roger Kramer Cycling

The Bell Night Shield is an inexpensive, but surprisingly good, bicycle tail light. I think I paid around $8 for it at Wal-Mart, and I’ve seen it advertised for even less. I’ve been using it for about six months, and it’s been quite reliable.

It features five super-bright red LEDs that function in six modes: all on solid, all flash fast, all flash slow, and three modes that flash the LEDs in various patterns and speeds. I generally use the “flash fast” or “flash slow” modes.

The LEDs are quite bright and visible in both darkness and on overcast days. They tend to wash out in direct sunlight, but that’s a problem with most small LED lights.

Battery usage has been quite good. It used two AAA batteries, and I’m still on the first set of batteries. Ruggedness has also been excellent. The light has fallen off my bike twice at speed (through no fault of the light itself), and still works perfectly.

Mounting the light onto my bike has been the main problem I’ve experienced (click on the pictures on the right for close-up views). Initially, I mounted the light (using the included clamp) onto my seatback, and this worked with no problem for a number of months. Then I changed to a new rack bag, and had to move the light.

In my first attempt, I used an existing mounting bracket on the rack, which had been designed to hold a rear reflector. I bent the bracket and twisted it 90 degrees to mount the Bell tail light. The first time I rode with this configuration, the light rattled in its clip and made a good deal of noise. I quieted it by inserting a piece of rubber inner tube under the clip. This worked fine for about a month, until I passed over a railroad track and heard a clatter behind me, and looked back to find the light on the road. The metal of the bracket had apparently been stressed by the bend and twist, and had ultimately failed.

For my next attempt, I removed the broken metal bracket, screwed a wooden dowel to the top of the rack, and attached the light to the rack using its clamp (as if the dowel were a seatpost). This appeared to be functional and rugged, and worked fine for about a week. Then once again I heard a racket behind me and found that the light had again ended up on the road in pieces. The clamp had slipped off the top of the dowel.

One final tweak – I drilled two small holes in the top of the rack, on either side of the dowel, then passed a tie-wrap through the holes and over the light clamp. This should keep the clamp from lifting off top of the dowel.

Will this hold? It certainly looks like it should. With two batteries in the light, and the light hanging off the back of the rack, there’s apparently a fair amount of mass bouncing up and down every time I hit a bump. So eventually something will have to give. Either the tie-wrap will break, or the plastic clamp, or the plastic clip on the back of the light will give. But it’s cheap enough to replace when it does.

(And yes, I know that I have the light mounted upside-down, but I wanted the switch to be on my left-hand side, and besides, I don’t really see that it makes any difference in functionality.)

Bottom line: I recommend the Bell Night Shield as a good-quality tail light at a very reasonable price. I’m sure there are better lights, and there may even be cheaper lights, but the Night Shield is readily available and certainly a decent choice.

The morning of the last day of August was nearly perfect with temperatures in the mid-seventies, low humidity, light wind, and a cloudless blue sky that was just achingly beautiful. I’d left around 9am, planning on only a short ride. But the weather was just so gorgeous that I couldn’t bring myself to turn around and head back home. This seemed like one of those days where you never feel the miles, and can just keep going and going forever.

And so I did.

I headed west on 199th, took Gardner Road south, then west again across the Antioch Wetlands branch of Hillsdale Lake, where a doe (a deer, a female deer) ran across the road, leapt the fence, crossed a pasture, and disappeared into the woods.

I took Sunflower Road north to Edgerton and stopped at the convenience store there. I was still feeling strong, so continued north on Edgerton Road to 143rd. At this point I began to feel the onset of fatigue, which became more serious as I climbed a hill on 135th in too high of a gear. The remaining fifteen miles or so turned into a bit of a slog, as the intervals I’d done the day before caught up with me. By the time I reached home my legs were gone, and even climbing the stairs at home made my legs feel rubbery. It was only 46 miles, but between hitting it hard the day before, and 48 miles the day before that, I was done for.

But still, it was a great month: 570.5 miles, 14.43 MPH average, 2175 miles year-to-date. Those may be modest numbers compared to commuters or tourists, but they’re pretty impressive for me. In fact, August was my biggest month of the year, and my second-largest month ever. Riding my first century probably didn’t hurt, either.

In January, I’d set my goal for the year at 3000 miles, and with low early-season mileage, it had begun to look unreachable, but now it’s looking more and more do-able. With solid September and October numbers, and perhaps a few nice days in November and December, I may just make it!

Extreme prunage on Sunflower Road
“Never mind those trees, the power lines must go through!”

The Django in front of a field of nearly-ripened corn

It was a pleasure to read c’Dude’s writeup of his recent late-night bike ride through the wilds of rural Johnson and Miami county (You don’t know the POW-ah…).

Once again, the full moon calls… This time, four brave souls amassed — as much as four people can “amass” — for the fifth edition of the Dark Side Ride aka Full Moon Fever.

The route carried the four from the new Spring Hill High School in a big loop towards the south and east – west on the newly-opened 199th street, south on Woodland to 223rd and then east, south on Lackman, east again on 247th, then north on Metcalf to 199th, west one mile on 199th, north on Antioch to 175th, west to Ridgeview, then back to the school.

The funny thing is, I rode nearly this exact route just this last Saturday morning, except that I started and ended at home, and took 199th all the way west rather than swinging north to 175th. It was a very fast ride (for me, at least) – nearly 36 miles at just over a 16 MPH average.

That’s actually one of my favorite local routes – there’s very little traffic, the roads are good, and the countryside is quite beautiful and peaceful.

I’ve never joined any of the Team CommuterDude rides, though I’ve often been tempted. I’d have been even more tempted to join this one if I’d known they were riding this particular route (the starting point and route are kept secret for some reason). I’m also not so sure about the safety of the riding-at-night thing, but that’s probably just because I’ve never done it.

I think my bike could be made night-worthy fairly easily – I have a front light I could mount up, and I already have a rear blinky light on board. I should probably add a few bits of reflective tape to the bike, but other than that it should basically be ready to roll.

Another magic night-time ride in the books…. morning will come quick, but the memories will last. I can’t wait to get down to the maps and plan the next one of these!

Oh well, maybe another time.

The annual Midwest Recumbent Rally took place recently at the Hostel Shoppe store in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. This was the 14th edition of the premier recumbent gathering in the US.

The three-day event is well-attended by recumbent manufacturers, making the rally a great place to try out dozens of different recumbents at once. You also get a chance to meet and mingle with hundreds of recumbent enthusiasts from all over, attend educational presentations, and participate in a number of rides of various lengths through the scenic beauty of rural Wisconsin.

I did not get a chance to attend, but I’d love to do so in the future. It would be amazing just to see so many different types of recumbents, and to be around so many people who share the passion for these beautiful machines.

Be sure to view the photo gallery of the event and take a gander at all the sweet bikes, trikes, and gear.

Thanks to Alan at The Recumbent Blog for the heads-up! Photo courtesy of Hostel Shoppe.

The intersection of 199th & Ridgeview in southern Johnson County, Kansas is now open for traffic. This intersection, along with a mile of 199th street from Ridgeview to Woodland, has been closed since spring. The following are a few photos of this new roadway:

199th & Ridgeview Intersection, featuring dedicated left-turn lanes on 199th

199th Street West of Ridgeview – Why is there no shoulder at the intersection?

199th Street West of Ridgeview – Beautiful wide shoulder

199th Street Near Woodland Road – Once again, the shoulder disappears.

The new section of 199th Street features a wide paved shoulder, making for what should be a very safe and convenient mile for both bicycles and motor vehicles. Unfortunately, the shoulder is not carried through the intersections, either at Ridgeview or at Woodland. The shoulder just disappears into nothingness, and it’s unclear why. There was certainly plenty of space on both sides of the road for the additional few feet of pavement.

With the construction at Highway 69 also completed, 199th Street is once again rideable from the state line west to Edgerton (with a small detour at Woodland, as the overpass is still under construction), and Ridgeview is also open from 191st to 207th.

It’s probably only a question of time until the remainder of 199th is similarly widened. It’s a bit of a mixed blessing, as better roads will probably lead to more traffic, but still, it’s a worthwhile tradeoff. As long as there are reasonable shoulders and reasonable speeds, the increased traffic is not a problem (see 175th Street, which made that same transition a few years ago, and is now one of the safest and most popular cycling routes in southern Johnson County).