Las Vegas Bike Share

Cannot let 2016 end without letting everyone know that Las Vegas Downtown has a Bike Ride Share program with 21 locations and 180 bikes that have been available 24x7 since Sept. 30th.  Use this link to view the bike locations: https://rtcbikeshare.bcycle.com/  Explore the menu at the top of this page to see all the FAQs.

For you tourists, remember that Downtown is the Fremont Street area (not the Strip, God forbid that the big casinos would want you out riding a bike around instead of gambling away your money). Currently the cost is $8/24 hours for members or you can get a 30-day membership for $20. Can't beat that!

Slippery Elm Trail

Hello!!  The big gap in posts was due to lack of time to post, not lack of time to bike. Although I wish I could have biked twice as much, I have added 1180 (in 2012), 1294 (in 2013), 493 miles (in 2014) to my odometer, and 248 so far this year. I'll try to find time to fill you in on past rides but for now I'll report on my latest trail, Slippery Elm, which is found in western Ohio.

My cousin, her husband and I rode the 13 miles from North Baltimore to Bowling Green on 6/18/15. After a nice lunch in this sweet little college town we rode back to our cars at the North Baltimore trail head. Luck was with us as we totally dodged an early morning and late afternoon drenching. The trail is paved and very flat, passing through agricultural land. There were a few wild cherry trees that provided occasional shade.  They also were dropping carpets of cherries that threw up a red muck on the undersides of our bikes. The path was well engineered. There was no standing water despite more rainy than sunny days for the past six weeks. The path is starting to show its age (20 years old). The cracks have been repaired and are of no consequence to bicycles but I'll bet the ride is a bit bumpy for inline skates, skate boards, razors, etc. Here are a couple of links to more information if you are interested: ohiobikeways.net/slippery.htm and WoodCountyParkDistrict.org

Riding the CA South Bay Bike Trail

The week between Christmas and New Year’s provided the perfect opportunity to explore Santa Monica and the South Bay Bike Trail (this link is the best description of this trail that I was able to find). The traffic between LV and LA is difficult to endure so we don’t go into CA very often and this was our first visit to Santa Monica. In the past we have concentrated on the great museums but from now on I think our excursions will definitely combine biking and museums. We absolutely loved our little visit. We enjoyed lovely warm weather for December (better than in LV) as you can see from my pictures and, even though it was during the Christmas holiday, we avoided the summer crowds. California has tons of inviting bike trails and we are anxious to explore further. Have you ever biked in CA? What trails do you recommend?

Riding in Death Valley

Seems like we’ve been almost too busy lately to bike and I have even less time to write about it. Still we do try to sneak in a few excursions here and there. One, last November, included our first time to bike Death Valley. We love that park and have visited several times, but this was our first time to take the bikes. There are plenty of long runs with more challenging grades than you would expect. Then factor in the strong, steady winds that occur many afternoons, probably because of the extreme temperature changes between night and day, and you’ll have a pretty good work out. Although there is but one short bike-only trail for roadies like us, usually the narrow roads are not crowded and most of the time cars can easily pull into the opposite lane to pass. We visited during the 49ers Encampment last November and even then the road traffic from our Furnace Creek tent site to Badwater and back (35 miles) was not unbearable. By the way, the annual November encampments are one of the best values around for your “nature entertainment adventure” dollar and I highly recommend joining them for a couple of days some year. This non-government commercial site for Death Valley has many additional links that help when planning your visit. Note: I do NOT recommend biking Death Valley during the summer months (usually May - Sept).

Missoni Bicycles for Target

For a country locked in the economic doldrums, it is hard to understand why people go crazy over fads and fashion, unless they have fallen prey to the same "flip" mentality that powered the collapse of the housing market here in Las Vegas and elsewhere. Yesterday's news about people standing in lines for hours to be the first to get into Target so they could buy various items in the Missoni for Target collection that went on sale, about both the Missoni and Target web sites crashing from the heavy traffic, was hard to believe. Then I heard that one of the items was a bicycle. When I investigated I found out that there are several "fashionable" bike models that are available at a variety of stores - Missoni is just the latest of this ilk. Sometimes I'm afraid I'm unAmerican anymore. To think that I've only been concerned with price, size, weight, durability, a comfortable seat - and I have not given 2 seconds of thought to fashion.... I'm probably too old to be reformed. At least I can get a chuckle out of a fashionable bicycle. If you want to see what this sensation looks like, visit BikingInDallas.com

Folding Bike

Last summer Max bought a folding bike. Here is a slideshow of Max folding up his bike and stuffing it in the trunk for transport to a trailhead on the Towpath Trail in Ohio. It is pretty slick. Now I have to decide if I really want to be able to fold a bike, too. I'm not sure yet. (If you are interested, after viewing the slideshow you can take more time to view this annotated set of photos in Flickr.)

Happy New Year

Blessed by lovely weather this week, I reset the odometer for a new year and managed to log an initial 45 miles of short commuting trips. Can you guess what one of my resolutions is? For you locals (Las Vegas), hope you have investigated the RTC Club Ride program. What a great incentive to take the time to green up our environment. (I'll let you know if I win anything this year.)