Redbud 2012 -- Happily Abused by Gravity

Members of Team Bag Balm first rode the Redbud ride, in London, Kentucky, in 2010.  We were awed by the beautiful scenery, challenged by the hills early in the season, and warmed by the friendliness of the people.  Several of us signed up for 2011, but the weather was genuinely awful, and most stayed home.  A few brave souls, like Jim Whaley, rode the event, and reported hail and having to ford streams with their bikes.  Epic.

In 2012, Redbud added a Friday ride, a 40 miler in the afternoon, starting at Union College in Barbourville, about 25 miles from the London start of Saturday's event.  We had a group of three riders from Louisville, Marty Kinney, Dave Runge, and me, together with Wayne Collier from Lexington and his friend Ken from Chicago.  The weather was perfect for April, with blue skies and temperatures in the mid-70's.

The course was moderate.  There was a climb of about 350 feet at the beginning, with some grades up to 10%, but most of the route was rolling without any other significant climbs.  Knox County is pretty, and less gritty than some of the eastern counties.  Much of the route was in farmland or forest, and it looked as much like the Bluegrass region as the mountains.  Union College was a fine place to start and end the ride, and we added a visit to the Thomas Walker state shrine near the end, the site of the first building in Kentucky constructed by European settlers.

The online map and data from my Garmin 800 are online.

Predictions of rain for Saturday proved correct.  The temperature stayed in a narrow range between 52 and 55 degrees, and was actually a bit cooler at the end.  Five of us rode the 70 mile Green Monster route:  Bob Hower, Marty Kinney, Ernie Patterson, Dave Runge, and myself.  While we had seen a number of Louisville Bicycle Club jerseys on Friday, most of the LBC riders elected to head home when the rain and cold moved in.  We had heavy rain, moderate rain, or light rain for at least 60 of the 70 miles, but the green landscape and friendly rest stops overcame our concerns about the weather.  Best of all was the indoor, heated stop at the Letterbox Church in Jackson County, where we were treated to a hot barbecue lunch.  Mike Davidson and Jim Risch successfully navigated the 40 mile option.

On the 70 mile route, there is one climb, Tussey Hill, which hits 22%.  Dave Runge remarked that we were "abused by gravity."

Here's the Garmin data and map for the Green Monster.

After two years of adverse weather, 2013 is bound to have more sunshine.  This ride is a Kentucky classic and deserves a spot on the calendar of every dedicated recreational cyclist.

I have posted a few more pictures here.

Rock Run Ride in PA

A group of five riders from Eagles Mere Wheelmen set out on Thursday for a 30 mile loop down the mountain by Rock Run to Beaver Lake, and back. 30 miles sounds like a short effort to most recreational riders or racers, but the mountainous nature of the terrain makes it significantly more challenging. Since my Garmin popped off the handlebar earlier in the week, I don't know the total amount of climbing, but my estimate is around 2,500 feet. The final segment involves a climb from Katie's Country Store back to the 2,126 foot summit, for a total ascent of around 900 feet.




Lance Robson led the ride, and Dino Pinto from the NJ suburbs of Philadelphia accompanied, along with husband and wife John and Heather from the Bloomsburg area. All are accomplished and fit cyclists. They're shown standing next to Beaver Lake, which is just before one of the 12%+ climbs.

Here's a video shot at the top of the Beaver Lake climb; I'm surprised I had enough breath left to speak while recording:




I kept a digital log of the trip on my iPhone, using the app for MapMyRide:





We were back in time for lunch, and, most likely, naps after all the climbing.

Wheelerville Mountain Ride

There was a light mist in Eagles Mere when we started this 68 mile ride on the day before July Fourth. Two riders from Philadelphia, one from Eagles Mere, and I rolled out at 8 a.m., headed north into Bradford County to the town of Canton. The route would take us down into the basin of the Loyalsock Creek, through World's End State Park, Estella, and Shunk, before climbing over the 2,300 foot Wheelerville Mountain. By the time we returned, the sun was shining, some of us were a bit cooked, and we had climbed over 6,000 feet. Hard work, at least for your correspondent.

Here's a version of the basic route, courtesy of Google Maps:


View Larger Map

Finally, here's a photo of our leader Rick Liebert, on the way back from Canton, with a scenic agricultural valley behind him:

Recommendations on Lights for Commuting

I asked the friendly and knowledgeable folks at kycyclist for their recommendations on lighting for urban commuting. There were a number of replies, and I've pasted them here in one place for reference.

First is the original inquiry, then the responses.

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Thanks in no small part to the efforts of LBC members to promote Bike to Work Day, I have regained my enthusiasm for bike commuting. In the past, I have commuted principally during the warm, summer months, when it's always light when I ride.

I want to extend my commuting into the shorter days of the fall -- I know we're not there yet. However, when the days get shorter, I would like to have my bike set up with a decent lighting system, principally in terms of a headlight which will make me highly visible to oncoming traffic.

I know there are many solutions to this. I'm not quite ready to rebuild a wheel to create a dyno-hub setup which would allow automatic recharging. So, I'm looking for some reasonable, rechargable system for an urban commute. I'll be on streets with street lamps, so I'm more interested in being seen by motorists than in illuminating dark roads. I ride about 7 miles each way, from the St. Matthews area to downtown.

Right now, I use a pretty big handlebar bag as part of my commuting luggage, so something which mounts on the helmet might have some appeal. Or, I could ditch the handlebar bag, put on a rear pannier on my commute/tour Trek 520, and do a handlebar mount.

I suspect there are some opinions on this, so I would welcome your suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

Jim

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I'm using a Serfas HL-1.1 headlight for being see during my commutes,
pretty happy with the way it flashes-strobes.

http://www.serfas.com/product_details.asp?ID=678

Perry

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The Cygolite Milion 200, which I have used for two years and am very
happy with, is bright enough to light your way after dark and works
well as a be-seen light, too. It's a compact, all-in-one unit with a
quick-connect handlebar mount. It can also be mounted on the helmet
with the included hardware.

On top of that (and I know you'll be jazzed by this feature) it is
USB-chargeable.

http://www.cygolite.com/products/new/Milion/milion200.html

Duc

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I use a combo of two lights, one "to see" and one "to be seen".

My "to see" light is a Busch and Muller Ixon IX, which has properly focused
auto-style beam, with an upper cut-off and puts 90% of its light on the
road. It runs off rechargeable AAs, which can be recharged without removing
them from the unit, and it can also be charged through a dyno system if you
ever decide to upgrade.

My "be seen" light is a Cateye LD-150-F. I also run this off rechargeable
batteries (AAAx2). I like its very wide, unfocused beam. It's quite bright.
It includes an adjustable mount which can go around bars or even your fork.
It also includes a clip which can hold it on clothing or a blinky loop on
your bag (I have mine attached to my handlebar bag this way)

Timothy

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I use industrial generic rechargeable batteries in my lights. The charger is <$10 and the batteries are about $1 ea. They last forever. They hold the charge for quite awhile. Over 2 weeks with continual use including daytime. I charge the AA's one Sunday night when I go to bed and the AAA's the next. Don't fall for the name-brand crap.

Debra L. Hutchins

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I don't use rechargeable NiMH AA/AAA in my lights, but I do use them
in other applications (camera, mainly, but I use said camera while
riding, to be on-topic) and I've yet to find any that lasts "forever"
or even half that. I've tried many different brands, popular and
obscure, and they all lose the ability to hold charge sooner or later,
usually sooner and nowhere near the service cycle that was claimed.
And I do use a "smart" charger that doesn't overcharge, can trickle
charge, and can "renew" the batteries.

What's your secret? What brand of batteries are you using?

Duc

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You know, I honestly don't know. They don't have a manufacturer's name on them. I got them from the "battery guy" at the Dayton Hamvention about 4 years ago. I typically run 2 headlights (4XAA) and 2 tails (4XAAA) daylight and night, but then I have to ride around UK. :) I have about a dozen of each in back-stock but I'm still running with the original set. The charger is equally generic. It's not a fast one but it doesn't overcharge.

Debra L. Hutchins

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i have a niterider usb mounted to an extra helmet which i use solely for after-dusk riding. it's now two years old and works great.

the value to having a helmet-mounted light vs one that's bar-mounted is that you can look around corners or use it to stare down motorists who appear to be encroaching on your space.

price: ~ $139


from a driver's perspective, it seems that anything that flashes makes riders more visible, so if i were commuting a ton i'd include a front mounted blinky into the mix.

Charles

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Tim said:

I made a 12 volt 50 watt system using a small lawnmower battery and halogen landscape lights. I have about $40 tied up in the whole setup. The battery goes in a handlebar bag with an inline switch and fuse. The light is a cannibalized maglite, it also has small red trailer light. If I make one again I think I'll go with a larger volt battery 17.5 and over volt the lights. Cuts down on the light life, but lights the area even more. Landscape lights are dirt cheap.

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Eric said:


I'm using the Sefras TSL-150 True light. It is insanely bright, lithium
ion rechargeable via standard USB, last 15 hours, has 3 brightness modes
including strobe. Extremely pleased with it. They have a 250 lumen model
as well. I wanted a really bright light so that it could be used during
the day in strobe mode to improve visibility as well.


http://www.serfas.com/product_details.asp?ID=835

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If I left out anyone's response, I apologize. I hope this is useful to others; it certainly is useful for me. Thanks to all!

Booneville to Brutus Ride

Four cyclists from Team Bag Balm in Louisville traveled to eastern Kentucky for a 100 kilometer cycling route in Owsley, Clay, Perry, and Breathitt Counties on Saturday, June 11, 2011.

There's a more complete set of photographs posted on Picasa.

Here's a clip of the group riding on KY 11, between Booneville and Oneida:






When we arrived in Oneida, we stopped by a Baptist boarding school for high school students, and visited with the president's wife and the director of international admissions. Here are two of the riders outside the president's office:



From Oneida, we rode on even smaller roads, toward the hamlet of Brutus, and then to Saul. The road to Brutus was mostly following a creek, which made for moderate riding, but once we turned on KY 484 toward Saul, the serious climbing began. In Brutus, we tried to find out if the Saul post office was still open (answer: no, it burned to the ground.) One of our team members, Ted Wathen, had photographed the PO back in 1977.



The store in Brutus -- calling itself the Bullskin Trading Post, after a nearby mountain creek -- featured a couple of local fellas lounging on the front porch, discussing what the best time was to paint a house. It seemed to us that the best time was about three hours earlier, but we did not volunteer that theory.



We climbed on up to Saul, a bit of a tough, winding ascent over the ridgeline which separates Clay County from Perry County. Saul, isolated from the rest of Perry County by Buckhorn Lake, is very remote and poor. There is some mining in Perry County, and logging in the Daniel Boone National Forest, but not much else. We discovered a strange, folk art school bus in Saul, across the road from an inactive store. We took several photographs, but when we heard a gunshot on the adjoining ridge, we decided it was time to go! (To be fair to the fine people of eastern Kentucky, at no point did we think the shot was toward us or that we were ever in any danger. It just seemed like an appropriate punctuation mark for our brief visit.)




After leaving Saul, we hit a very isolated, very hilly road, KY 2022. It runs north through the Daniel Boone Forest, making two county ridgeline traverses, while passing within a mile of the oddly named (and now deserted) hamlet of Whoopflarea. .

As we descended KY 2022 gradually along a creek to Buckhorn, I grabbed a bit more video of Ian riding next to the creek. Watch for the classic eastern Kentucky footbridge at the very end of the clip:



After lunch at the Buckhorn store, we headed back on KY 28 to Booneville. This winding and hilly segment of road is part of the Transamerica Trail, the bicyclist's network of roads which runs from Yorktown, Virginia across the continent to Astoria, Oregon. It's always a spot to meet some hearty wanderers, and we encountered a fellow from New York City riding the trail all the way on a 49 cc, two stroke moped. He thought we were the crazy ones, riding across the ridgelines on our human-powered bicycles.

Overall, the route as we rode it was 61.4 miles long, with about 3,800 feet of climbing. When we rolled into the Booneville courthouse square, the bank thermometer registered 92 degrees. The loop is demanding, although the navigation is straightforward. There's essentially no cell service anywhere. There's a minor store in Oneida, one in Brutus, and one in Buckhorn. If you were to ride this, you would want to be in strong riding shape, and have the navigational and mechanical skills to problem solve on your own. We encountered no coal haul traffic while riding this loop, and saw no signs of any signifcant, active mining other than one mine entrance road near Brutus. Here is the map of the route, from Google maps:


View Larger Map

In closing, eastern Kentucky has some beautiful, obscure, challenging riding for the self-reliant cyclist.