Hamilton County Opens New Section of Monon

What's arguably Indy's favorite multipurpose trail can now take cyclists (and hardy runners) almost all the way across Hamilton County as well as between Mass Ave and SoBro. On Wednesday,  county officials cut the ribbon on a newly-paved section some three miles long, giving users access to an off-street trail that now reaches all the way to the outskirts of Sheridan, nearly at the Hamilton-Boone County line.

A Modest Proposal: Bike-Friendliness in Indy

Carmel's a "bicycle-friendly community."

If you climb on your two-wheeler and pedal north on Indy's Monon Trail, you may have noticed that slightly past 96th Street as you enter Carmel, there's a smallish blue and white sign. It says, "Bicycle Friendly Community," and it was awarded by The League of American Bicyclists. If, however, you turn around at the nicely appointed trailhead between 96th and I-465 and head back south, you won't see such a sign as you enter Indianapolis.

It's a Cap! It's a Headband! It's a Balaclava! It's... It's a Buff!

Buff UV Protection Headband

Me and my buff

A gazillion years ago when I worked in surgery, one of the OR techs made himself a new "hat" every day from a length of orthopedic stocking. Never figured out how he did that - until I got a Buff UV Headband in the colorful Osaka print.

"What's a Buff?" you ask. Well maybe a better question would be, "What isn't a Buff?" It looks like a simple cloth tube maybe twenty inches long and five inches in diameter; but it's so much more. The lightweight Coolmax® Extreme fabric with its wild print can be twisted and scrunched into a headband, neckerchief, cap, foulard, do rag, pirate hat, hat liner, face mask, balaclava, hood... a version of just about any kind of soft headgear you've ever seen or heard of. And since it's made with Coolmax, it wicks away moisture to keep your head cool in hot weather and dry in damp weather. The knit on the UV Buff is tight enough to block 95% of UV rays, yet it's so stretchy it fits almost any head in almost any orientation. It's also treated with Polygiene® active odor control if you don't like your headgear getting stinky.

Park Tool CC-2: Check, Please!

Park CC-2 Chain Checker

It doesn’t make any difference whether you pound a two-wheel machine against the rocks of the Sierra, slide through muddy twisties in the upper Midwest or power along the pancake-flat highways of the Gulf Coast, there is one thing that you will someday learn to be true: your chain gets infinitesimally more worn with every spin of the crank. I am fully prepared to bet that almost everyone who has ever taken a bicycle into the shop for that first-ever tune-up was told, “Your chain needs to be replaced.” More than a few of you also learned, “You probably need a new cogset, too…”

A Clean Chain is a Happy Chain

Park Tool Cyclone Chain Scrubber - CM-5.2

On a recent visit to the local bike shop I got to listen while a couple of… may I say “dilettante”? cyclists brought their bikes in for repairs of the most basic sort: one’s tire kept getting soft (a slow leak) and the other’s computer wouldn’t read (a misaligned sensor).

My word, their chains must be a mess…

Not so around our house, because we have a chain cleaner: a Park Tool Cyclone Chain Scrubber CM-5.2. This handy little device is one of the keys to long drivetrain life and smooth-shifting chains. The Cyclone is a simple little plastic box that fits over your chain (any width) so you can clean out all the old lubricant plus the grit and grime accumulated on your rides.

The M.U.L.E - CamelBak Goes for Volume

CamelBak M.U.L.E Hydration Pack (100 ounce)

The exercise docs tell us that we should consume about 32 ounces of water per hour while performing endurance sports. I know, I just asked over at WebMD (a pretty trustworthy source, IYAM). As our longer rides crested three hours and headed for four, the 70-ounce CamelBak Rogue I’d used for several years was overmatched. One dare not suffer dehydration in the sweltering steam bath of a central Indiana summer day, so an alternative seemed in order. That alternative was a CamelBak M.U.L.E. (“M.U.L.E.” is a carefully contrived acronym), with its 100-ounce capacity. It’s more than a mere water bottle, however

The MULE’s designed with cyclists in mind, a low-profile pack that rests on the rider’s back out of the wind. Like all CamelBaks, there’s a polymer tube that routes from the water bladder over the shoulder to a bite valve near the cyclist’s “intake.” This pack is also designed as a sort of biker luggage, with storage galore and lots of comfort features.

No Oranges Were Harmed to Make this Degreaser

Pedro's Oranj Peelz Citrus Degreaser

If your preferred form of two-wheeled travel entails sweat, exertion and the occasional sore butt (as

opposed to loud mufflers, gray braids, and Harley-shop tee shirts), you’ve probably learned that one of the keys to keeping your machine at peak performance is keeping the chain in top condition. That means regular attention in the form of cleaning followed by treatment with a suitable lubricant. Whenever my chain feels like it needs some attention, I pull out the work stand and my Park Tool Cyclone Chain Scrubber and get down to business.

Although a small bottle of Park's Citrus ChainBrite came in the kit with the Cyclone, it was empty and the last time I hit my LBS they only had Pedro’s Oranj Peelz Citrus Degreaser in stock. It’s noticeably less expensive than the Park brand, and Pedro’s is a respectable name, so I bit.

Letting it Out On the Monon

You know those “Let it Out” comments in the Indianapolis Star? Sure you do – it’s where locals submit comments too short for a letter to the editor. There are quips, jokes, and lots of bumper-sticker ideas for solving difficult problems… oh, yeah, and a lot of political statements made by people so clueless you wonder why they're allowed to vote. But enough about that: last week, someone wrote in about the “mean” cyclists on the Monon Trail. The complaints? Not warning pedestrians as you pass them and using a strobe light. “The trail ain’t a disco,” was the complaint.

Is Indy a Bike-Friendly City?

Indianapolis Bike Infrastructure

In a word, no. Don’t just take my word for it, though, ask some of the national biking organizations what they think of the Circle City and you’ll find them frequently disappointed. The League of American Bicyclists says that Indy deserves a “bronze” award, which – if you ask me – is basically a participation trophy. By comparison, South Bend is a silver and Bloomington brought home a gold. What peeves this road cyclist is that Indy’s proudest accomplishments of the 21st century, according to the town's LAB report card, are the cultural trail and the bikeshare program. Big whoop. The town has a whole two staffers dedicated to bike programs; compared to Carmel, which has six for a population 1/10th that of Marion County.

What Cyclists Wish Drivers Knew #6: That White Line is not a Force Field

If you're a cyclist and you live anywhere there are on-road bike paths, you've been there, too. Let me recount: you're pedaling merrily along in the middle of a bike lane: maybe 30 to 40 inches of space next to the curb, marked by a thick white line between you and traffic moving 20 to 30 MPH faster than you are. Maybe there are arrows and icons of cyclists on the pavement, maybe there's a sign along the roadside that says something to the effect of "No motorized vehicles in bicycle lane."

What Cyclists Wish Drivers Knew #5: We actually do obey traffic laws.

I haven't always lived in Indy; in fact I've spent less than half my life in Indiana even though I moved away when I was well into my twenties. I recently moved back to town after "serving a seven-year sentence" in Houston, Texas. If there's one urban legend that permeates the driving community in Houston (where, in an average year, a dozen cyclists die on the roads, most in hit-and-runs), it's that "95% of cyclists run every stop sign and red light."

Well, I must be one of the 5%, then: I'm nowhere near stupid enough to run a red light in Indy, much less in Houston! As for stop signs, well, I'll admit to "Idaho stops" when there are no moving vehicles approaching from any direction. Over the past ten or so years (more than 20K miles on the bikes, I have never had a near miss because I ran a stop sign or stop light. I've had a couple of very close calls when drivers ran stop signs, though.

A Symposium on Shift Cables

A frayed, partially broken shift cable

A while back, I heard a participant in an indoor cycling class talking about shifting problems with her road bike. I could tell she was a distance rider with plenty of endurance rides under her belt, as opposed to someone who rides a few miles on the Monon Trail on holiday weekends. It was also pretty clear, though, that she had limited knowledge of how her machine works. I say that because her problem was a frayed shift cable, but she had no idea why it caused her problem!

My first road bike (a 1964 Garlatti) had shift levers on the down tubes: you could follow the entire length of the cables running from the levers to front and rear derailleur. Not so my current road bikes (a 1994 Trek 1400 and a 2015 Fuji Altamira): they both have Shimano STI® integrated shifters, with the end of the shift cable concealed inside the shifter beneath the rubber “hood.” Cables, in case you didn't know, aren't solid wires: they’re made of multiple strands of stainless steel braided together, which allows them to be flexible while minimizing stretch.