On Saturday June 6, Bull City Cycling and McKinney will host the Inaugural Clive Sweeney Memorial Ride: Ride for Clive.

from the event organizers:

In remembrance of Clive and to promote bike safety, Bull City Cycling and McKinney are hosting Ride for Clive on June 6 starting at 8am in front of the Durham Performing Arts Center. Participants will bike 12 miles on the American Tobacco Trail from the American Tobacco Campus to Southpoint and back. If this is an event you are interested in, please join us! It is a free, recreational ride for people of all ages.

For more information or to RSVP, visit http://rideforclive.com.

I found this photo (there are many more photos, with accompanying stories) at Up in Alaska, the blog of a mountain biker in Alaska. They were a really interesting read.

Any thoughts on mountain biking in the snow?

Nick: Hey Jim, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself and your interest in cycling.

Jim: Thanks Nick. I live in Durham with my wife and two boys. I’ve lived here for about 13 years and I currently work for the City of Durham as a Sr. Budget Analyst and CIP Coordinator. My interest in cycling began at the same time it begins for most people. I was about 5 years old when I learned how to ride without training wheels. I never really stopped riding, but I consciously took it up as an interest when I began commuting to work by bike nearly 10 years ago. That’s when I got my first bicycle from a local bike shop as opposed to a department store bike.

I still use that bike as my beater, but I have another one now that I just acquired in December. My 10 year old bike is a hybrid and we’ve been through a lot. In addition to commuting to work on it, I also rode it in Cycle NC this past fall across North Carolina. I can say that preparing for that ride took my interest in cycling up a few notches. I did a lot of riding leading up to that event. Although I commute by bike in all seasons, I do not really ride recreationally in the winter. I enjoy riding in every other season and do it as much as possible.

This year I began keeping a log of how I get to and from various places. As of February 14, I’ve only driven the car on 5 days this year which includes 3 days on a trip to visit family. I just don’t care for driving and try to avoid it if I can.

Nick: You have a great site that proves to be a nifty and very useful resource to cyclists in Durham. How did you come up with the idea for the site? Tell us a little about its development.

Jim: I first thought of it a while ago. I was supposed to have a meeting at Elmo’s on Ninth Street and I wanted to ride my bike there. I searched the internet to see if there were any bike racks nearby, but couldn’t find anything useful. Once there, I couldn’t find a bike rack, so I locked my bike to a sign in the parking lot. I found out later that there were racks a reasonable distance from there that I could’ve used which would’ve made me more comfortable.

That planted the seed. I then heard about Google Maps and saw some of the possibilities that provided. I’ve always been somewhat interested in techie stuff, so I thought I’d give this type of web development a try. At the time my bike was about dead. I was waiting on parts to replace the entire drive train and I had time on my hands. I did some research and mostly borrowed code from other Google hacks.

I then began taking my camera everywhere and snapping pictures of bike racks. I used my GPS to mark the spots so I could map the coordinates in my web application. I use a simple XML file to hold the data. The response to the site has been very positive, but I’m not sure how much others actually use it. I use it because I don’t want to have to think about how I’m going to lock my bike up when I go somewhere. It was also quite fun to create something unique and hopefully useful to at least this niche of the population.

Nick: You probably read about Durham’s CityRacks program. You have a unique perspective of the racks, in that you are out there mapping and photographing new racks as you learn about them. What do you think of the progress/ success of the program?

Jim: Soon after the program was settled upon, Durham’s Bike/Ped Coordinator left her position. I think the program lost momentum after that as that position sat vacant for months. I know the position is filled now and the person actually works right down the hall from me. I need to check in with him to see how things are going. I’m not aware that any progress has taken place as of yet. I could be wrong.

Nick: If there was one (or two) things that you could do to improve Durham’s bicycle friendliness, what would it be?

Jim: That’s a tough one. I’d say bike racks on every corner would be a good start. Seriously though, I think Durham has a lot to offer at this point. I would like to see trails and greenways continue to be developed, and I would especially like to see the existing trails maintained properly. I like the ideas that came up for bike lockers and other amenities that would encourage reluctant people to try bicycle commuting.

There are other very good ideas floating around about lane marking schemes and education for motorists that would be quite useful as well. I think the trails and greenways really encourage the recreational riders to get out and have fun, so I’d put that at the top of my list as it would have the most impact.

Nick: Any further comments or advice you’d like to give to anyone?

Jim: People often ask me why I ride to work. They often assume it is related to the environment or health, but I simply do it because it’s fun and I like it. I like to remind them to think back to when they were kids and remember the sheer joy of riding a bicycle. There’s nothing quite like it.

Nick: Thanks for your time. :)

While I was in the mountains skiing not too long ago, I noticed that a handful of ski resorts offered mountain biking in the summer.

I was browsing the web and found this article about the risks of biking at ski areas. I read it more as background than as an assessment of the risks. It reported that approximately “158 NSAA member resorts reported having mountain bike trails at their areas, while 85 offer lift-serviced trails”. Well, I guess that’s more than a handful.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I thought it was an interesting concept. Would you go mountain biking on a ski slope?

Today was a snow day. My brother wanted to ride, but once he felt how cold it was and saw the icy roads, we decided it would be better to wait until it dries up this weekend. It might not be as snowy as in the photo above, taken here in Durham a few winters ago, but it was enough to ice up the roads a little.

Above: My brother’s road bike, laying in the snow next to the sidewalk.

I’ll be sure to post some more updates once I get a good chance to ride. It’s a little chilly today (well, by North Carolina standards). Not exactly a cycling day, if you know what I mean. I think I’ll go have some hot chocolate for now :)

The weather was great (it was before the cold front with all this snow rolled in on Tuesday) and they had a nice (not too long) ride. The three of us have ridden the MLK parkway many times, and since it has bike lanes it is an easy way for us to get to the old South Square and Homestead Market area.

Above: Dustin leaving the MLK parkway and turning into the bike lane.

On his way home, Al was not more than 1 or 2 blocks away from home when he got a flat tire. When he returned, we discovered that a fairly large staple had become lodged in his tire and caused the flat tire.

Above: Pulling the staple out of Al’s tire.

We removed the staple, and then removed the wheel so that we could replace the inner tube. We didn’t have an extra tube the correct size, so the next day I headed over to Dick’s Sporting Goods to buy a new tube. Sure enough, I bought the wrong size, and it was not until today that I was able to return to Dick’s and exchange the tubes. Tomorrow we should be able to switch out the tubes on Al’s bike and he will be ready to go.

Above: The car-shaped bike rack between two parked cars. It “shows that bicycle related ’street furniture’ can be fun and functional.” (via cycling edinburgh, photo & design Adrien Rovero).

Above: This combination bike rack and pump, Heklucht, was designed by the Dutch design studio Himom. This is probably the most useful bike rack I have seen (although a bit pricey). (via Cycling Edinburgh, photo Himom).

Above: Bike rack in front of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, shaped like a bull with a red head. There is a similar one at the Farmers Market. (photo Durham Bike Racks).

Other Websites: cheap exercise bikes

Above: Bike lane on Cornwallis Road. (via BPAC, photo Mary Ross)

In the comments of that post, Adrian agrees with what I was trying to get at: “It’s definitely a hassle when there’s not enough lane width for bikes”.

He also brings up another point: “…adding a stripe doesn’t help in my opinion”. He talks about the bike lane “disappearing at the RR tracks, sending cyclists out of the through lane and then across the freeway exit/entrances”.

Overall, I enjoyed riding in the bike lanes in my ride through RTP (it was on the weekend, so traffic was not bad), but can understand what Adrian is saying. It can be confusing where bike lanes begin and end, and how bicycles should behave in intersections, crossings, etc.

In this accident in December, a dump truck turned at the same time a bike (in a bike lane) was going straight. It clearly exhibits the confusion sometimes presented by bike lanes. I don’t know the full details of the accident, but there was a lot of discussion on the Bike/Ped listserv about how to prevent a car from attempting to turn right at the same time a bike is attempting to go straight. California solves this by requiring cars to move into the bike lane before making a right turn.

Another idea (pointed out by Phillip on the Bike/Ped listserv) is separated bike lanes. These are bike lanes that are physically separated (by a median, barrier, etc.) from traffic. They are created by reversing the parking and the bike lane: placing the bike lane against the sidewalk and separating it from the cars (you could put parking there). There is a great video on YouTube (advocates from Transporation Alternatives, The Project for Public Spaces, and The Open Planning Project join “Gridlock Sam” Schwartz and Enrique Penalosa) which thoroughly presents the case for separated bike lanes in New York City.

Just some ideas… let me know what you think, and your comments on bike lanes here in Durham.