Indy Upgrades Illinois Street Bike Lane

Downtown Indy's new Illinois Street bike lane

I hadn't biked into downtown Indianapolis for a while, so when I turned the corner from Michigan onto northbound Illinois, I was astounded to see that the bike lane stripe at the right-hand side of the road had been scraped off, even though the "Bike Lane" signs were still up. It took a block or two before I noticed the bright green lane on the far side. Yep, Indy has (finally) moved into the '90s when it comes to bike lanes.

Your Bike Mechanic's Best Buddy

Park Tool AWS-1 Allen Head Tri Wrench

Park Tool AWS-1

There are some tools cyclists take along on a ride and some they do not. Smart cyclists carry a multitool (the bicycling equivalent of a Swiss Army knife) with standard hex wrench sizes and screwdriver blades, and maybe a chain tool – or maybe not. Multitools, even though they have saved more than person’s bacon on the road, are actually lousy tools for working. They’re designed to be compact and lightweight, not ergonomic and convenient. When it comes time for putting the bike on the shop stand for routine maintenance or repairs, that’s when you break out the tools that are meant for the shop: tools like the Park Tool AWS-1 Y-shaped hex wrench.