Cyclist Beware, John McLeod is Watching You

Clevelander John McLeod can tell if you're a jerk or not, just by the words on your jersey.

Read his letter in the Mailbag section from October 21 on velonews.com. Last letter on the page.

And two responses from the October 23 Mailbag, including one from Greg Jackson, owner of Spin

WKYC TV-3 Feature on Cycling to 50th College Reunion

This story was aired on the WKYC Channel 3 11:00 pm news last night (Saturday, August 22nd).

Astute readers of CTC's News from the Road already know about this tour, which included our own Matt Soebel. Still, it's good to see some positive coverage of cycling by the commercial broadcast media:

Cycling in the Local News

A couple of recent articles highlighting very different kinds of local bike culture events:

From the News-Herald:
Kids on decorated bike and trike parade the Chardon square on July 4th.

From the Plain Dealer:
Hunting and Fishing reporter does a Night Ride on the Towpath and lives to tell the tale.

Walk+Roll Cleveland: Old Brooklyn & Brooklyn Center

Walk and Roll Cleveland's next community event is coming on Saturday, July 18th in Old Brooklyn. This event will feature a diverse mix of activities including biking, walking and trolley tours of the neighborhood, a homes tour, live folk music and a bunch of other cool family-friendly stuff. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is also nearby.

The activities run from 11:00 until 4:00, with the Brookstock music fest ramping up at 4:00 in the nearby Brookside reservation.

All tours and activities start and end at the Gavin Lee Party Center, 3315 Broadview Rd, Cleveland, (near the intersection of Pearl and Broadview Roads).

For more details, visit walkroll.com.

Help!
Walk and Roll is also looking for some experienced cyclists to help with the neighborhood tours. Basically, you'd need to ride along with cyclists who may not be familiar with cycling as traffic on city streets. Contact Lois Moss through the Walk and Roll website if you're interested and available.

Berkshire Road Time Trial

Test your hill climbing prowess and see how you stack up against others! The course runs from the intersection of Berkshire Road and River (the No Truck sign) from a dead stop all the way to the STOP sign at the intersection of Berkshire and Old Mill. It's a 300 foot climb over 1.9 miles (average 3% grade). Top male and female finishers posted here. Just leave your time, gender, date, and screen name in the comments and you'll be in the running for self-proclaimed KoTM!

POSTED TIMES
6:59 Mike Oct 11, '09
7:00 Conrad Aug 26 '09
7:02 Ed E Sep 9, '09
7:08 Tom D Jul 4 '09
8:00 Emilio Jun 21 '09

Lake Metroparks Thursday Night Mod-Pace Rides

In case you missed it, today's News-Herald contained an article in the Life section about the Lake Metroparks Thursday night rides. Twice a month, Lake Metroparks organizes a social casual pace ride starting at 6:30 pm and returning by 8:00 pm. Current routes are 10 miles, working up to 30 by the end of May.

This pace and distance is probably a bit tame for most CTC members, but maybe you have a significant other who would enjoy a non-intimidating introduction to group riding.

At 12 - 15 mph your reaction time is greatly increased, which gives you the opportunity to look around and notice things you would miss at 18 - 20 mph. Riding at a casual pace once in a while is good for the soul, and reminds us that 'it's not about the bike (or always the velocity).

For details about Lake Metroparks Thursday night casual pace rides, call 440-585-2800.

Cyclists To Be Detoured by Work on Chagrin River Bridges

Courtesy of Steve O'Bryan:

Work on Chagrin River bridges will add to detours and extra miles already necessary for cyclists to avoid the closure of Old Mill between County Line Road and Mayfield Road. (When taking Old Mill north, the current cyclist detour is to take County Line Road south to Hillcrest Road east to Westchester Trail north.)

Two additional projects to replace or repair deteriorating bridges over the Chagrin River will overlap the work already begun on the Mayfield Road bridge. Mayfield Road is a good road for cyclists to avoid in ideal conditions because of heavy traffic. With the construction, only one lane will be open in each direction through August 31, 2010.

Preconstruction work is scheduled from mid-April through mid-July on the River Road bridge near Old Mill Road in Gates Mills, which is scheduled to be replaced. There will be a temporary traffic light, and traffic will be reduced to one lane. A good detour for cyclists is the pedestrian bridge that is a few hundred yards north of the bridge off of River Road. You access it from a short sidewalk, and it’s easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it. Once you cross the bridge, you can turn left on Old Mill to return to River Road or turn right on Old Mill, left on Epping, and right on Beverly or Berkshire to bypass a blind turn on River Road.

The biggest challenge for cyclists will be the third bridge project—on River Road where Wilson Mills jogs from south to north. Construction will probably start in May and will take about three months. The road will be completely closed during that time. Cyclists who take the trail through North Chagrin Reservation to Wilson Mills (or Ox Road to River Road going south) will only be able to turn north on River Road or west on Wilson Mills.

Do you live in a flat area like Wickliffe or Mentor-on-the-Lake? It’s time to hone up your hill-climbing muscles, and get ready to climb Rodgers Road (yah!) to access areas south of North Chagrin Reservation. Our Wednesday and Thursday night ride leaders may need to be pretty creative, but we’re sure that they’re up for the challenge.