Cycling Tips & Stories

An AP reporter bicycled across the U.S., mostly following the TransAmerica route. In Missouri she left that route and took the Katy Trail:

On a particularly remote stretch [of the Katy Trail], a too-large feline figure occupies the center of the trail ahead. It walks in a circle, sits and stares. The "get outta here" yell seems inappropriate. I turn tail and find a path leading to a gravel road and a long looping detour into the nearest community, where people confirm sightings of mountain lions. The big cat was probably heading to the nearby sheep farm for lunch, they say.

The only reasonably direct way into Kansas from the end of the Katy Trail in Clinton, Mo., is by Highway 7. It isn't pleasant.

Busy and hilly and, worst of all, no services for many miles. I finally come to a convenience store late in the day, with 30 miles to go to the nearest town.

Reminding me, that we've just got to get a better connection from the Katy Trail to Kansas City . . . and you can help make that happen.

[Though in fact there are MUCH better road connections available than Highway 7!]

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permanent link to article: "The AP bicycles across America"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/30/2005 08:30:00 AM |comment on this article

Avid cyclist and businessman Al Dziewa of Farmington passed away after a battle with cancer last September. Al was sponsor of the Long John Silver's Cycling Team.

The Park Hills Daily Journal wrote about Al in its end of year roundup:

Al Dziewa was a man who loved to share fun, but he also was not a man afraid of work. An avid cyclist, it was just a routine for the Farmington businessman to ride his bicycle to Taum Sauk Mountain and back, a round trip of 70 miles, to see the fall leaves. He was just as avid a sports fan and worked hard in support of kids' sports programs. Very active in civic projects, he led the way in getting a bicycle trail through the city and organized a midnight ride as part of Country Days. Dziewa put much effort into his successful Long John Silvers restaurant and added the A&W Root Beer line to the pleasure of his customers. But with all that he did for the community and the effort to succeed in business, Al's greatest love was his family. Dziewa died Sept. 22 at the age of 49.

permanent link to article: "Memorial to cyclist Al Dziewa"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/29/2005 08:20:00 AM |comment on this article

According to an article in the Fulton Sun:

Armstrong was honored Wednesday as The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the fourth straight year. He is the only athlete to be selected by sports writers four times since the honor first was awarded in 1931.

Armstrong received 30 of the 83 votes cast. Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush of Southern California was second with 23 votes, and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was third with eight, followed by tennis star Roger Federer and golf's Tiger Woods with seven each.

"It's nice to win," Armstrong said. "I'll never win again."

permanent link to article: "Lance Armstrong selected as AP athlete of the year"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/29/2005 08:00:00 AM |comment on this article

Bicycle-riding MU math professor Steven Hofmann solved the decades old "Kato Conjecture"--partly while riding his bike:

Hofmann became curious about the problem as an undergraduate when a professor introduced him to it.

The professor was unable to solve the problem. Hofmann, 47, would have more success when the problem began to take over his life in 1996. Until he solved it in 2000, it was the last thing he thought about before he went to bed and the first thing he thought about when he woke. He spent two to eight hours each day on the problem, working periodically with several colleagues.

"I could be out for a bike ride, and I would be thinking about it," Hofmann said. "Sometimes I would be doing something, get an idea and have to stop ... and write it down."

Read more on the KMBC-TV news web site. permanent link to article: "Bike riding mathematician solves famous math problem"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/28/2005 06:59:00 AM |comment on this article

Communities around the nation are discovering what Missouri learned with the Katy Trail:

Many people are aware of the health and recreation benefits that trails offer to nearby communities but a less talked about benefit is the economic resurgence a trail can spawn. A prime example is the town of Cairo, W. Va., on the North Bend Rail Trail. Like most towns along a defunct railway line, business had suffered with the closing of the railway and opportunities were limited. But, the NBRT has become the social and economic center of the community and has brought an improved quality of life in a growing tourism-based economy with this beautiful and inviting
resource.

According to James Jones of the Ritchie County Tourism Bureau, The trail is the centerpiece of Ritchie County tourism. After the trail opened, a bike shop, a new restaurant and a couple of bed and breakfasts sprang up. Nadine Maxwell, a clerk at RC Maxwell Hardware in Cairo, reports that the NBRT has “brought a lot of business to the area. Businesses always do better in the summertime when people are out on their bikes.”

Read the rest of the story in the American Discovery Trail Society Newsletter (PDF file). permanent link to article: "Trails boost local economy"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/26/2005 04:01:00 PM |comment on this article

Yesterday's KCStar had an article about Mike Mullen, Kansas City's cycling Santa:

At Christmastime, Overland Park resident Mike Mullen transforms from an avid bicyclist to a Santa on wheels. . . .

Mullen loves onlookers’ reactions. Cars slow down, drivers honk and children holler “Hi Santa” through the windows of their cars.

“As we go by them, I see big grins on people’s faces,” Mullen said.

Shiny ornaments dangled from his bike’s crossbar, itself wound tightly with metallic greenery. Multi-colored lights covered the rest of the frame, and special spoke lights made patterns when they spun.

Mullen bought his Santa suit, complete with a curly white beard, just this year.

He crisscrossed the fuzzy suit with red lights, cropped and tapered the legs so they wouldn’t get caught in the spokes and took in the coat — Mullen, who rides up to 100 miles a week, is a trimmer Santa than most.

His helmet was securely fastened but hidden by a Santa hat and white miniature lights that blinked.

To power his glowing get-up, Mullen stocks the nooks of his bike with custom-made battery packs. He sewed special pockets inside his coat to hold batteries for the lights on his costume.

permanent link to article: "Cycling Santa rides in Kansas City"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/25/2005 01:31:00 PM |comment on this article

Bicyclist Ed Chasteen of Liberty, MO, writes about riding in the winter:

As I write this, we're almost three weeks short of official winter.
You wouldn't know it, though, from what we're wearing.

Heavy sweaters, caps, facemasks, gloves, mittens, thermal socks, shoe covers, goggles. As little skin exposed as possible.

The thermometer says 28. That biting east wind will blow right in our faces as we pedal out old 210 toward Orrick and breakfast at Fubbler's Cove.

And a cove it indeed will be this morning, as stiff and hungry bikers come in from the cold.

Eleven of us show up this morning for our 7:30 start from Biscari Brothers Bicycles. None of us expected to see so many on this first below freezing ride. Many others there will be before spring zephyrs bring welcome warmth back to us. But any day without ice is a good day to ride.

Jeff from St. Louis also points us to this article about bicycling in the Minnesota winter. permanent link to article: "Winter riding"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/22/2005 03:03:00 PM |comment on this article

St. Joseph's KQ2 News has a story about the latest activities of the Mark Reynolds Foundation:

A St. Joseph family fights to keep the memory of a loved one alive. Mark Reynolds was killed by a mountain lion while biking in California almost two years ago. His mother now works to ensure Mark`s death isn`t the end of his dreams....

A wheelchaired Dakota can only ask on question about the vision before him." Am I getting a new bike...."

For Dakota and many others in the group of special needs children these are their first bicycles. A dream more often than not, out of reach because of the bike`s cost and the price family members pay to raise special needs children.

Mark Reynolds Children's First Bicycle Fund web site. permanent link to article: "Mark Reynolds Fund give bikes to special needs children"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/21/2005 08:21:00 AM |comment on this article

Bridges.MidWestPlaces.com is a beautiful web site listing all historically interesting and important bridges and tunnels along the Katy Trail. There are numerous detailed photographs of each bridge, map of the bridge location, facts about the bridge such as the date of construction and bridge type. permanent link to article: "Historic bridges of the Katy Trail"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/18/2005 04:56:00 PM |comment on this article

Cross-country bicyclists Elizabeth Davis and Katherine Nelson give their impression of riding through Missouri:

Sometimes they got more than a roof over their heads. For instance, Shawneetown, Ill., was the first place they were asked to convert, to Baptists, and later in the trip they were offered Mormonism, and in a poor Missouri town, money.

“A 19-year-old stranger came up to us and said, 'God told me to give you guys $40,' just like that,” Nelson said. “So we were psyched and went to the pizza buffet. That same day, same town, a woman walked up to us and said, 'My kids don't want you to sleep outside,' and bought us a $100 hotel room for the night.

“Usually after a few days of cycling in a state we'd get an overall sense of the place,” she continued. “But in Missouri we said, 'Huh?' right up to the border.”

permanent link to article: "Missouri="Huh?" say cross-country bicyclists"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/16/2005 07:56:00 AM |comment on this article

Recently seen in St. Louis:

Photo courtesy of Karen Karabell permanent link to article: "Don't just share the road--OWN it!"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/15/2005 06:12:00 AM |comment on this article

With most of Missouri covered in snow and accompanying cold temperatures, it's a good time to remind everyone about the IceBike web site.

Believe it or not, people from places a lot colder and snowier than Missouri enjoy riding their bikes all winter long.

You might not want to start out there, but by following some of their great tips on equipment, riding techniques, clothing, you could easily extend your bicycling season a few more weeks in the fall and in the spring. By following some of their advice on clothing, I find I'm comfortabe to about 5 or 10 degrees colder than last winter--and also a lot less bulky.

Some reasons the winter bikers do it:

City traffic can make it faster to cycle commute even in winter than it is to drive
Parking at the destination can be easier and cheaper with a bike than a car
You love the outdoors
You have a desk job and need the exercise
You have Cabin Fever, and have to get outside
Its fun fun FUN
You do some of your best thinking on a bike
The weather is not that bad
Its just as easy to STAY in training as to try to regain your form every spring

permanent link to article: "Riding comfortably (?!) in cold and snow"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/10/2005 10:27:00 AM |comment on this article

The recently launched AllBikeMag.com website, features all sorts of articles about all types of bicycling--mountain, road, folders, transportation, recumbent, tandem, folder, etc etc etc.

The AllBike angle is that bikes and bike cultures are connected to each other and to other aspects of sustainable culture: stand together, rise together!

I'm also offering various bike-culture media and goodies for sale. It'll all be high quality stuff that you might have a hard time finding otherwise.

Check it out--there is some interesting stuff there already. permanent link to article: "New AllBike website"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/10/2005 10:19:00 AM |comment on this article

The LessTraffic web site has an interesting idea for making neighborhoods more walkable and bicycleable:

Pace Car drivers pledge to drive within the speed limit, stop to let pedestrians cross, walk when they can, and do something to their car to make others smile. They turn their car into a 'mobile speed bump'. (One that gets out of the way of emergency vehicles!). When enough people join, traffic is effectively calmed city-wide. Pace Cars calm drivers rather than streets.

The Pace Car is now operative in many cities.

Springfield is currently using the Neighborhood Pace Car idea to help with a newly lowered speed limit in one area of the city. permanent link to article: "Neighborhood Pace Cars help calm traffic"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/06/2005 10:12:00 AM |comment on this article

Two interesting articles about transportational bicycling in America from Slate:

From Andy Bowers:

A few months ago, I decided to try the absurd: I would start commuting the four miles to my office on a bike. In Los Angeles! I'd like to say it was environmental awareness or the high price of gas or even the desperate need to get more exercise that coaxed me onto Raymond Chandler's mean streets without my protective steel cocoon. I suppose each of those played a small role. But what really pushed me over the line and onto the bike was an August dispatch from Amsterdam written by my Slate colleague Seth Stevenson.

Seth described watching a crowd of Dutch theatergoers in their 50s and 60s leaving a play, hopping onto their bikes, and riding off into the night. I couldn't help picturing that lovely scene through an Angeleno's eyes: Wow, I thought, an event without valet parking! Seth went on to quote a friend: "There's something about riding a bike that makes you feel like you're 5 years old." Since that's a feeling I wouldn't mind more of in my life, I decided to get out of my Honda and onto the bike.

And Bill Gifford:

It seemed easy enough. I'm what the newspapers call an "avid" cyclist—rhymes with "rabid." I own four bikes, which I rarely use for actual transportation. Like most of the 90 million Americans who swung a leg over a bicycle last year, including our president, I rode for fitness and recreation only.

Then, last month, I went to Amsterdam for a friend's birthday party. I was amazed: Everyone rode bikes, everywhere. I saw 80-year-olds pedaling along beside young mothers with two and even three small children perched on various parts of their bikes, and dads trundling off to work in business suits and nice Italian shoes. The Dutch, I later learned, conduct 30 percent of all their trips—to work, for errands, socially—by bike. In America, that figure is less than 1 percent. We drive 84 percent of the time, even though most of our trips are less than 2 miles long. More than three-quarters of us commute alone by car, compared with just half a million (way less than 1 percent) who do so by bike, according to the 2000 Census. As a "committed" cyclist—another loaded adjective—I'd always tut-tutted these kinds of statistics.

In late October, I took a vow of automotive abstinence. I'd go everywhere by bike: daily errands, social events, even the "office" (a Wi-Fi cafe where I often work—4 miles away, over a decent-sized hill). I don't commute to an actual job, but I would go somewhere every day, rain or shine.

My own comment about making transportational bicycling work is this: most of us do a lot better if we do NOT make an all-or-nothing proposition.

If it is too cold, too hot, too far, too rainy, too snowy, or too-whatever-else-makes-you-miserable-riding-a-bike, then my advice is, just skip it and use some alternative transportation.

You're a lot better off doing 10%, 30%, 40%, or 60% of your trips by foot or pedal power and being happy about it than doing 100% and being miserable.

Because if you are miserable, you won't be doing 100% of your trips by bike for long . . . it will probably be more like 0%. permanent link to article: "Bicycling in America"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/05/2005 06:10:00 PM |comment on this article

Pennsylvania has a great "Bicycle Driver's Manual" available online.

The manual teaches safe, practical on-road bicycling skills.

It is also a great reference for what can be considered standard, safe bicycling practice--for instance, for use in court cases involving bicycling, or to help teach local officials or police officers about accepted safe bicycling practice.

The Pennsylvania Bicycle Driver's Manual can be viewed here. permanent link to article: "Pennysylvania bicycle driver's manual available onlinef"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/04/2005 10:20:00 AM |comment on this article

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently wrote about BicycleWORKS, a program to introduce bicycling to kids. After going through some tought times, BicycleWORKS and it companion program ByteWORKS are making a resurgence:

On the BicycleWORKS side of the organization, Patrick Van Der Tuin has taken over things. He's slowly but surely inflicting organization on the shop at the intersection of Thurman and Shenandoah avenues, where kids from the neighborhood and beyond come to take classes about bicycles, eventually earning their own free bikes from the stockpile of donated bikes that fills the basement. Volunteers clean and fix up the bikes, selling some to generate BWorks' only current income.

"Patrick's young and ambitious for the program," Perry said. "He's done more good in six months than was done in the previous three years."

permanent link to article: "At St. Louis BicycleWORKS kids can earn a bike"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/04/2005 10:17:00 AM |comment on this article

MoBikeFed member Doug Kiburz wrote today to let us know that a new mountain biking trail has recently opened at the Bothwell Lodge State Historic Site just north of Sedalia.

The trail is three miles long, mainly through trees, and is moderately technical.

The Bothwell Lodge with its distinctive castle-like appearance, is visible from Hwy 65 just north of Sedalia.

The phone number for Bothwell State Historic Site is 660-827-0510. Details, including location are on its web site (though the web site does not yet seem to include any information about the new mountain biking trail). permanent link to article: "New mountain biking trail opens near Sedalia"
posted by Brent Hugh at 12/01/2005 07:39:00 PM |comment on this article