Friday, August 05, 2011

Bke Lanes in New Albany Indiana

Last weekend, three of us were at the end of a 52 mile bike ride that began at Wicks Pizza in New Albany. On the way back, we went down Spring and used the new bike lanes.

And then...some idiot lady passed us and turned right immediately after passing us. In other words, she turned right in front of us as we were traveling at a good speed. Just like we were not even there. Fortunately we all maneuvered our way through it all, not hitting her or each other or any other cars in the lanes.

We then decided to go on the other side, thinking maybe less people would be turning from that direction.

I never feel safe in bike lanes. I think they make drivers and pedestrians LESS aware of bikers than if we just take the lane. I don't like them.

What are your experiences?

Climbing Hills In New Albany Indiana

Hey we need more posts on here. But maybe everyone is busy riding!

The past few years, my husband and I have been watching the Tour de France and I really love watching it. Man those guys are something else. My rider is Andy Scheck, he's my hero and by golly next year he's going to win!

If you've ever watched the Tour, you know how they "categorize" the hills they climb by difficulty. A hill has to be a certain grade and length to be categorized and the scale starts at 5, moves to 1 and then they have the crazy steep and long mountain rides that have HC, which is a French phrase I guess but I think it translates to "steeper than hell!"

Anyway, I was using MapMyRide.com the other day, hadn't looked at it in a while and saw that they have elevation and it categorizes climbs. So I looked at one of my rides that goes up Corydon Pike and guess what? It's on the scale! Yeah, it's a category 5, but it's on the scale. I can't tell you how cool I think this is.

I can climb a category 5 hill. Pretty soon I'll be ready for the Tour.

(Image from Wikimedia)