Enlightened Confusion » Cycling

Cycling Route for 8/9

mas — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:07:55 +0000

Wow, what an awesome day for cycling! Is was partly cloudy and cool…well, the mid seventies, which is cool for this time of year. I rode up past the Fishers airport and up Eller Road to River Road. I took that up to Noblesville. There, I had to stop for water…I really need to get a Camelback, because I was already dehydrated by the time I stopped. I continued up to Cicero, stopping for a rest at the Morse Lake park. I continued out 234th from Cicero to SR 37. I took that back down to Noblesville, and then Lantern Road back down to Fishers and Castleton.

morse-lake

Cycling Route for 7/19

mas — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:10:24 +0000

It’s been a while since my last ride, and I could really feel it. I’ve had an allergic inflamation of my left eye, and I’ve tried to avoid exacerbating that by staying away from the places where my allergies flare up. Those just happen to coincide with the type of places I like to ride. My eye doctor gave me some Allerex eye drops. Those seem to help, so I thought I’ld give it a try…we’ll see how the eye looks tomorrow. I’ve walked the Fallcreek Greenway before, but this was my first time riding it. All in all it was a nice ride; except, there was a nasty wind out of the south which had me exhausted by the time I hit the Monon. Anyway, here’s the route:

Fallcreek and Monon Greenways

Cycling Route for 6/8

mas — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:03:17 +0000

I made a few of mistakes on my ride yesterday. First, I decided to leave at around noon on a very windy, ninety degree day. Next, I left on an empty stomach. Third, I only brought one bottle of water with me. Finally, I got 20+ miles from my house before I realized this all was a mistake. The net result was that I was too exhausted when I finished to post this yesterday.

Anyway, it’s an awesome route. It’s one I rode a lot last year. There are a lot of variants of this route, and optional extensions that can be applied to various place from downtown. So, without further adieu, here’s the route:

Greenways and Downtown

Cycling Route for 6/1

mas — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:30:46 +0000

I had a strong head wind coming out of the north, so the first third of the route was kind of rough. Now that 146th over to Hamilton Town Center is complete, traffic is quite a bit heavier on Cumberland Road. The new pavement on 146th and the bike lane on Oleo Road rock. Coming back out of the Geist valley, not so much. Bit of rain toward the end, but I was so exhausted and dehydrated that it felt good Anyway, today route:

Cycling Route for 6/1

Why Cyclists Ride on the Road

mas — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:51:21 +0000

I’ve had several people that know I cycle a lot ask me why cyclists insist on riding on the road even in places like Hamilton County that have an abundance of mixed use sidewalks. Well, there are a number of reasons. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, let’s start with one I took on my ride yesterday:

I usually take this sidewalk along 146th between Allisonville and Hazel Dell because it’s pretty smooth pavement, and it’s a pretty steady grade making it rough to keep the kind of pace I usually like to keep in traffic. However, as you can see, the entrance to a new subdivision has taken precedence, and fifty foot of the sidewalk has simply disappeared. There’s a median making it difficult to get to the other side of the road here, so I got to portage the distance.

Rest assured, they’ll put it back. Local building codes require them to. But, you can bet that there will end up being a steep, three foot elevation difference between the sidewalk and the entrance, that the signage and landscaping around the entrance will make it difficult to see traffic coming out, and that the pavement they put in won’t be as nice as what was there. Heck, they may even add some nice hilly, curving landscaping to the sidewalk itself just to make it more interesting.

Keeping a steady pace is the ideal in cycling. While the mixed-use sidewalks are nice, the constant elevation changes at every subdivision and strip mall entrance, the frequent gaps between subdivisions, the accumulated debris, and the presence of pedestrians, make keeping the steady pace nearly impossible.

A Properly Adjusted Seat makes all the Difference

mas — Mon, 26 May 2008 03:11:42 +0000

While riding a section of my route on the Monon Trail today, I had the opportunity to observe a lot of other riders. One thing that stuck out to me was that the majority don’t have their seats adjusted properly. The seat of the bike should, ideally, be set so that the leg is nearly straight at the bottom of the stroke. This allows you to minimize the horizontal movement of you legs and maximize the energy of the downward thrust.

Granted, it can be kind of awkward at first. With your seat this way, you will barely be able to reach your tip toe to the ground when you come to a stop. However, it makes a big difference on how far you’ll get on the energy expended.

Cycling Route for 5/25

mas — Sun, 25 May 2008 23:56:26 +0000

Finally, a weekend without rain. I got the bike out and did one of my favorite routes from last year:

Cycling Route

It was an awesome day for a ride: partly cloudy, not too windy, and not too crowded on the stretch of the Monon that I covered. Best of all, traffic was light because of the 500.