Bicycling in Bloomington

 Sunday, March 31, 2008

After a good start to the week, I didn’t get as much riding the rest of the week. Thursday, it rained. Friday, I was home most of day doing my taxes. Saturday morning was sunny and bright, so I rode to work instead of driving which I usually do on Saturdays. I’m actually happy that I got ride my bike to work 4 of 6 days this week.

Today, I hoped to do an interesting ride. Last night, the weather report indicated that the rain wouldn’t start until the afternoon. But, when I checked weather.com before starting, I could see rain in Greene County. So, I chose to ride the same ride as last week.

However, when I got to the south end of Harrell Rd, the rain started. I turned around instead of going to the water treatment plant. When I got to Jackson Creek School, it wasn’t raining hard, so I decided to join the ride I did earlier this week. By the time I got to the apogee of the ride near Bloomington Speedway, the rain started again.

Overall, the timing was good. As I opened the garage door, I heard the first thunder and the heavy rains started. The ride was a couple clicks less than 25 miles and I rode for 1.75 hours. A little more than the intended 1.5 hours but I was glad to do as much riding as I could on a not so cheerful day.

The Bicycling Comic

On Friday, a member of the Bloomington Bicycling Club posted a message about a new bicycling comic on its listserv - Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery (http://www.yehudamoon.com/). I think it’s pretty good. It’s helpful to start at the beginning of the series to understand the characters. It won’t take long to view all the daily comics.

I also listened to an interviewer with the comic’s author - Rick Smith - on a podcast on The Fredcast (http://www.thefredcast.com/). Rick Smith mentioned that he is focusing some on the differences between the utilitarian cyclists (Yehuda) and the more intense cyclists (Joe).

I see a lot of Yehuda in my fellow Bloomington bicycling bloggers (Ear to the Breeze and Biking the Hoosier Uplands. For me, I guess I’m closer to Yehuda on Monday - Friday (or Saturday) and more like Joe on Sunday. Overall, I can see a lot the bicycling in Bloomington reflected in the strip.