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Bike Lane Cleanup

03.16.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

A Bike Noob reader who prefers to remain anonymous emailed me with a gripe the other day:

“As a daily bicycle commuter, I don’t ride on weekends. On Saturday and Sunday morning I decided to do some trail maintenance. I spent about an hour cleaning two of the bike lanes I ride in north Austin. Attached are the images of what I picked up. About 10 pounds of nails, screws, bolts, wood, chain, car parts and many pieces of lane reflectors. Any one of these items could cause a crash.”

My correspondent encourages us all to spend some time cleaning the bike lanes or roads that we ride. In addition to the trash pickup, he also cuts tree limbs that hang into the bike lane and sweeps up loose gravel.  Best time to do this kind of work: early on Sunday morning, he says, because traffic is light.

Wow. I must say, bike lane cleanup is not something I’ve ever done. Occasionally, I’ll stop to pick up a piece of metal and toss it off the road, but nothing organized like our friend. And yet, I think we can all say that this kind of cleanup is something that needs to be done. If we wait for the city street sweepers to do it, we’ll be waiting for months.

Do you, or your bike club, or just a group of like-minded bikers do any organized cleanup of bike lanes in your area? Share your stories.

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Categories // Community, Safety Tags // road cleanup

The Bike Fest

09.19.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

This morning I decided to forego my usual Saturday morning ride to volunteer for the Kiker Bike Fest. This is the second year in a row that my club, the Circle C Ranch Cycling Club, sponsored the bike fest at Kiker Elementary School in southwest Austin. It’s a chance for kids to learn cycling skills and have some fun in the bargain.

Last year, the bike fest attracted about 300 kids from the area, and we expected that many or more this year. Stations are set up to fit kids with new helmets, do quick bike repairs, learn the correct way to start and stop, ride a tight figure 8, ride in traffic with correct hand signals, and even ride a mountain bike trail behind the school.

JoeJoe, who leads our Sunday morning A group rides, fits a girl with a new helmet donated by the Texas Medical Association.

Stay inside the lines!
Stay inside the lines!

Pat and I handled the Straight Line – Scanning station. The kids had to ride a straight line between two chalk lines 18 inches apart. Then, we brought them back again to practice looking over their shoulders. Once they got halfway down the lines, I yelled “Look!” and they were supposed to look back, make eye contact with me, and continue. Because most of them were quite young, I did not point one way or another, as is usually done in this exercise, and they did not have to say which way I pointed. For many of them, staying upright on the slight downhill track was challenge enough.

It’s been awhile since we had kids at home, and both Pat and I were disconcerted to see how some parents hover over their children. One mother grabbed her little girl’s handlebars, and pulled her down the lines — nearly tipping her over several times.

But mostly, people seemed to enjoy the event. Parents liked how well organized the whole affair was, and many indicated they would be back again next year.

DebDebra gets a young rider rolling on the traffic safety course.

One highlight of the morning was a group ride on the nearby Veloway, led by former Tour de France racer (Motorola, Cofidis, U.S. Postal, Telekom) Kevin Livingston. This was assuredly not a hammerfest, as kids on BMX bikes jockeyed for position with their sometimes-wobbly parents and fully kitted-out weekend warriors.

KevinKevin Livingston waits for the group ride to begin.

RideHold your line!

“Just to show you how committed I am to this,” said my friend David, “I’m missing ESPN Game Day — and it’s here in town.” Texas is playing Texas Tech today, so I guess that is a good barometer of club participation. Besides, the game isn’t until this evening. Cycling education AND football — now there’s how to spend a Saturday.

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Categories // clubs, Community, Safety Tags // clubs, education

Kevin Underhill

08.18.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

Kevin Underhill
Kevin Underhill

One of the unexpected rewards of writing a blog is coming into contact with people I would never otherwise get to know. One of these was Kevin Underhill. I was stunned upon returning from Hawaii yesterday to learn that Kevin died Sunday of injuries sustained in a crash during the Thursday night Driveway race in Austin. The Austin American-Statesman ran the story this morning.

It turns out he was a reader of Bike Noob, although not a noob himself. As far back as 1985, Kevin took a monthlong bike tour through Germany and Austria. Last year, he did a three-month tour around Japan. But he described himself as a “recreational/fitness rider.”

He emailed me back in June after he thought he saw me while riding in the country south of Austin. “I did my first group ride in Austin yesterday and was between Buda and Kyle on Jack C Hays Trail when a saw a man coming the other way wearing a red shirt with a big ’50’ on it and it finally clicked that that might have been you.  Sorry for not waving, I was using all my energy to try and stay with a paceline.”

Others have commented elsewhere about how nice a guy Kevin was. He checked the blog that day to see if I mentioned the ride, and when he found that I had fallen, offered detailed directions for an alternate route.

He also told me that he lived in the Cedar Park area, northwest of Austin, and commuted between there and South Austin not far from my house twice a week. That “commute” for him is an extension of the Dam Loop, one of Austin’s classic bike rides, and roughly 35 miles one way.

Kevin wasn’t concerned with his image. “I ride a black touring bike with a pink rear luggage rack, usually with panniers on when I commute.  A somewhat less than normal recreational rider. :)” He wore plain bike jerseys, and unless in an organized ride that required it, he preferred to ride without a helmet. It’s ironic that he was wearing one in the race when he crashed.

In his Bike Journal profile, Kevin said he was “having delusions about trying a bike race.” He noted that in my post on my time trial back in May, he’s partly visible wearing red shorts in the picture of the check-in table. It was his first attempt at a time trial, too.

I never met Kevin, but because of our contact through the blog, I know I’ll miss him.

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Categories // Community Tags // people

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