Dan on Bike

The other morning, I was driving to work and came upon my neighbor on his bicycle. Now, he is a great guy, and I enjoy riding with him, but he does have one less than safe behavior – he tends to ride as far right as possible. When I slowed behind him (and he didn’t know it was me), he moved right against the grass line. (There is not room for a cyclist and driver to share the lane on this narrow road.) He finally pulled over in the grass and stopped to let me by.

I have mentioned here before that I have found that riding too far to the right invites bad, risky behavior on the part of some drivers. They will pass unsafely, trying to squeeze between me and the inevitable oncoming car. To discourage this, I position myself approximately two feet away from the fog line. TAKE THE LANE!! My neighbor has seen me do this hundreds of times, but hasn’t taken the hint.

I felt the need to write out my frustrations, so I had planned to write a post called “Don’t Be a Gutter Bunny”. However, I instead came across this post by Dave Moulton with the same title that voices the problems of taking this position and shows how taking the lane can help avoid injury in some dangerous situations. His writing style is much clearer and more entertaining than I could ever be, so I saw no need to try to top it. Please give it a read and share with your friends. I may anonymously mail the link to my neighbor.

Don’t Be a Gutter Bunny

Making a beer delivery at work today.

I had a break in my routine recently, and I wisely took advantage of the situation to turn it into a cycling opportunity.

Short story: I dropped my truck at my son’s apartment, taking my bike in the back, and then rode to work.

He lives a few miles north of town, so I saw this as a chance to take a different route to my office. The apartment complex is located along a busy divided highway, but luckily there is a wide shoulder for us pedal people. Actually a fairly low stress way to travel, even though it is a bit noisy.

At Cumberland Ave, I was able to jump onto the Cattail Trail, which runs along the edge of Celery Bog towards campus. The quiet scenery with the occasional runner is a big change from the cacophony of the highway.

However, I found that the trail was closed at Lindberg where a long running construction project to build a bridge over the bog has raised the roadbed above the level of the trail. Haven’t heard yet how the trail will be routed once the project is complete.

My detour took me down McCormick Rd and then onto Cherry Ln, where I encountered my first screaming motorist in quite a while. Not sure what the driver of this oncoming truck was saying, but I think it was “(something, something) trail right over there!”. He also gestured to the Cattail Trail running along the north side of the street. Since I was riding on the shoulder on the other side of the street, I am not sure why he was upset about me using the pavement (American definition) instead of the pavement (British definition). Whatever! I was having too much fun to care.

At the end of Cherry I flew down Northwestern Ave, stopping at Greyhouse Coffee for an iced tea latte and coffeecake. Breakfast of Champions.

Also, here are a couple of photos of bikes that have been languishing in my camera.

The break in the seemingly endless summer heat wave that we’ve experienced recently has been good for my riding schedule. I’ve had the opportunity to ride three times in the past week.

My ride to work on Thursday was uneventful, but the meeting I had at 8:30 was not. It was only after I sat at the table in the small conference room that my body decided it was time to sweat. I had to excuse myself to go towel off. (TMI – I know)

Saturday found me on an early morning ride to Granville. Nothing special, but at the same time very special, as the quiet cool morning was very conducive to wandering thoughts and fast rolling.

This morning, I rode into town to visit the Greyhouse. My daughter met me there, and she did homework (before the school year starts – how weird) while I web surfed.

A quick update on the construction site for the US231 bypass. Crews are hard at work building a temporary road to steer traffic around the new intersection with SR26.

The forecast shows more great temperatures until the middle of next week, so I’m looking forward to more rides.

Regular readers will remember that I’ve been trying to focus on commuting by bike this year. However, the weather has not cooperated. We jumped from two months of near constant rain to this past month of heat. This makes the one or two days a week when my schedule allows a ride in less likely to be suitable. With my work environment, I can’t really arrive rain-soaked or sweat-soaked to a meeting.

Anyway, I got a couple rides in during June, but July has been a wash.

However, yesterday the neighbor came over to ask if I wanted to ride before work. Sure I do!

We started at 6:00 and a had a nice hour of foggy riding to Granville – after we retrieved my dog that decided to run off while I was pumping up the tires of my long neglected road bike. I’m not giving up on commuting, but morning rides may be a better option some days.

Today is Memorial day in the US. Even though I was off work, I’m going to count this ride as a commute, since I followed the same route, and tackled work-related programming projects at the coffee shop. Traffic was nearly non-existent on the way in.

There has been some progress on the highway this week. Cranes have been brought in to install anti-cave-in devices where a culvert will likely be built for the creek to follow under the new road.

With the Indiana monsoon season in full effect – rain every day – there isn’t much else to do other than drive out to the hardware super store and hang out. At my local Menard’s, I found this electric assist bike for sale – next to a great deal on tubular hack saws.

I wonder how many bike blog posts for today are titled “Bike to Work Day”. Never let it be said that I can’t jump onto a bandwagon.

Yes, today was Bike to Work Day, and after missing it last year, I was bound and determined to ride. However, just like the last two years, my department’s monthly staff meeting was scheduled for the same day. This is a business-like affair in which I am asked to present the latest fundraising numbers, so I feel obligated to dress appropriately. Usually means that I wear a suit.

I thought I would look pretty odd pedaling down the highway in my best JC Penney greys, but I got over it quickly. (Thanks to both my wife and commenter Natalie for the encouragement) As I did a few years ago, my jacket was inside out and rolled up inside my grocery bag pannier.

Once again, the picketers at the US231 construction site got a morning greeting from me.

On the way home, I stopped to look at the new sign that had popped up at the entrance to the work area.

I’m assuming that this was in response to the union guys hanging out at the edge of the road. There’s not much room on the shoulder for everybody.