Dan on Bike

Arnett Clinic in West Lafayette Has No Bike Rack
CVS Has a Bike Rack, But It’s Blocked
I should have talked with the manager about the lawn furniture chained to the rack, but I didn’t want to bother. I guess they’re not too worried about attracting the cycling customer.

Miles Ridden: 13.0

With a southwest wind already blowing at 9:30, I decided to head west and south to West Point. Then I headed east and north on some roads I’ve never ridden before (500S, 500W, and SR25). Here’s the route:

Click to View in GMaps Pedometer
Just over the Granville Bridge, I saw a gathering of greyhounds. There were about 10 dogs and seven or eight people in a fenced field behind a house where I had seen a couple of greyhounds before. These dogs were wearing muzzles and running around the field having fun. We used to have a couple of greyhounds, and I remember how much they loved seeing others of their kind. They acted differently with greyhounds than they did with other dogs.

On 700W, as Spanish company has planted a couple of fields of black walnut trees. They are growing them for hardwood, so it will take at least 30 years (or maybe more, not sure) before they can harvest. Those are some patient investors!

East of West Point, I saw a pothole wetland. surrounded by trees and bushes. The bushes haven’t leafed out yet, so I had a good view of it.

The 5MPH wind from the beginning of the ride had turned into 15MPH with 25MPH gusts by the second half. Lucky for me, I was heading north for most of that time, so my speed was pretty good.

Miles Ridden: 24.0

I’ll have to do three times that much EACH DAY of the RAGBRAI in July. I’d better get to training!

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Tom made the paper!

Enjoy bicycle touring and commuting

I’m sure you have noticed the annual trend of gas prices rising in time for the summer season — not that it’s very summerlike. One answer to this is to ride your bike to work or on your vacation if you have the time.

There are several benefits to this lifestyle change: health, economy, and stress relief. It’s said that every hour you spend exercising adds two hours to your life.

The reduction in stress is another major factor as well. Have a bad day at work? Take the long route and ride the stress out — your wife, kids and family dog will thank you for it.

Now, the vacation aspect: My wife and I are doing a short bike tour this summer. The average cost of a camping bike tour is about $25 to $50 a day. You don’t have to buy gas, and you actually get to see things. It’s very cool to have a deer just amble across the road when you are rolling along at 10 mph, and you don’t spook it. You get to see things you’ll never even notice if you are blasting by at 70 mph in a sealed glass and steel box.

The best thing, though, is that it’s just about the journey — no complications, no worries about how far you are going to go.

We average about 40 miles a day on tour and take it easy and just have fun.

Tom Leonard

Lafayette

(link)

The neighbor and I took a quick ride almost to West Point and back.

Miles Ridden: 18.1

Allegro Terranaut
This bike has been chained to the bike rack at my office for at least 18 months. It is an Allegro Terranaut. I don’t know if it was ever worth anything, as there was only one result in my Google search that referenced a bike. It is now pretty rusty everywhere except maybe the frame. (Sorry for the lousy picture. I didn’t notice the shadows in the shot until I got home.)

The other bike that had been there with the Allegro disappeared last week. I don’t know if the owner came for it, if Physical Facilities cut it off (and couldn’t cut through the major league chain on the Allegro), or if someone took it. I can’t imagine it was worth very much – a dept. store bike with more rust than metal left. The Allegro was knocked over but otherwise untouched.

Anyway, I had a good ride in today. It was in the 40s; about 10 degrees warmer than the past two mornings. Unfortunately, the sunny weather from lunchtime changed to rain by 5:00. My kids told me over the phone that it was just misting, so I turned down my wife’s offer of a ride. By the time I got out on the road, the misting had turned to sprinkling, and that soon became a shower. I was both cold and soaked by the time I got home. Still, I got to ride, so I had a good time, and there’s a neat story to tell at work tomorrow.

Miles Ridden: 6.9

Nice rides today. On the way in, I came upon a freshly killed deer on the road. An oncoming car was trying to drive around the carcass that was blocking his entire lane, so I pulled over to let him around. A co-worker told me that when he came through a half an hour later, someone had apparently pulled Bambi to the side. I won’t go into details, but it looked NASTY!

I’ve been feeling very comfortable lately while taking my place in traffic. My ride up Salisbury street up to and across Sagamore Parkway requires that I take the left lane for about three blocks. Once I saw a break in traffic and got over, I was confident that I was OK there. No one seemed too upset.

Walgreen’s Has A Bike Rack, Sort Of
I don’t know why Walgreen’s put their bike rack so far from the door and so close to the building. I eventually turned the bike around with the back wheel against the rack so it wouldn’t fall over. With the sidewalk kind of narrow, I was pretty much blocking access to the ramp at the end. In fact, right after I clicked the lock, a lady came out with a cart, and she seemed a little steamed that she had to push it over the edge of the sidewalk to get to her car (although, if she hadn’t pulled up so far, there would have been room).

I saw lots of commuters, students, and recreational cyclists riding around.

Miles Ridden: 13.0

Oh, I almost forgot about the weird bike I saw. Some kid was riding what looked like a 20″ BMX bike with a normal rear tire, and a 26″ front tire. He must have changed out the forks to handle the bigger wheel. Plus, the back tire was flat! I was going to ask him if I could get a photo, but he took off the wrong way down a one way street, and I didn’t feel like following him.

Moe at Bike Commuters submitted this post about why he likes being a commuter. One line that made me laugh out loud was “I check on my bike from time to time, yeah, it is still there, waiting for me for the ride back home.” I realized that I do that as well. When I have a meeting on the south side of the building or just walk by a window, I have to look down to see if the Trek is still there. It always is.

Also, Commute by Bike posted a poll asking where we park at work. So I thought I would take a shot of the bike rack out of the meeting room window to demonstrate my parking situation, and to make sure I had a ride home.

My Bike on the Rack
My plan today was to drive my daughter to her 7:00 orthodontist appointment and then take her to school. I would leave my car in the middle school parking lot and pull the bike out of the trunk for the ride to and from work. However, the appointment took all of 3 minutes, so we went out for breakfast and then back home for her to catch the bus. On the way to the Doctor’s office, we passed Bill Arthur.

My ride in was the normal straight shot, and I saw two other commuters on the way. (One shot past me on the hill as if I were standing still – and I almost was.) Coming home, I took a slightly abbreviated North Work Route, cutting south on Klondike and Sharon Chapel roads because of the bridge construction on Division Road.

Miles Ridden: 10.6

Finally, a good day for a bike ride!

I had planned to just wander around the roads of unincorporated Wabash Township for an hour or so, but I ended up heading into West Lafayette and across campus.

Burial Crypts Behind the Cemetery
Where the Cattail Trail loops behind the cemetery, we pass the storage area for the burial crypts.

Ross Building
This is the Ross Building where the OnePurdue team is housed, and where I have meetings every week or two.

Trail Still Closed
The portion of the Cattail Trail between Lindberg and Cherry has been closed since last fall. The construction work on Cherry Street has just finished, but I predict it will be a couple of weeks before they re-pave the trail.

On the way home, I rode around campus while Spring Fest was wrapping up. They had a good crowd today after the near rain out yesterday.

Miles Ridden: 16.2

After the ride, I went to the LBS for some chain lube, and I found that they were having their Super Sale weekend. I ended up with a frame mountable pump, 3 tubes (for $9.99), two Team Discovery water bottles, and two different types of lube. I love sales!

(Not sure why I was in a black and white mood today.)

I saw a student riding one of these as I was driving home today.

Might be fun to try out.