bike week 2008

the goal: ride to work at least twice during bike week 2008 since after all I won a bike last year and I never did ride it to work again last year. Though I rode it around town alot.

However the weather was just too nice NOT to ride a third time, which netted me a sweet 105 miles for the week. Granted I'd like to be able to do that in one day, but jeebus, not on that bike and that's a different kind of riding anyway.

So for your entertainment and my self-indulgence after swilling $2 coors lights for the last few hours, I have a photoessay of my ride home from work, May 16, 2008. And I haven't quite mastered the Blogger integration of photos. I don't get why every time I add a picture, it just plops it up at the top. Um, that's not where I want it, but don't worry, I'll cut and paste. Nor did I resize my pics, so they're big if you click 'em.

I never thought it would be possible to bike to my job, not so much the distance as the impracticality of finding a decent route through Johnson County. But I have a really excellent route. It only sucks for a very short time, right around I-35. There are some really good hills, but also long stretches of relatively flat road where you can really cruise.

Brookside - Lenexa

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

So my starting point, a totally boring, beige, corporate office park in Lenexa, Kansas. However, we have a bike rack. Granted it's not attached to anything ...



Yeah, nice rack, baby.






After a very short stretch on Lackman, I cut through a parking lot and into 'Sar-Ko-Par' Park, which has a little pond where people appear to fish. Last year I rode through some fishing line actually. I'm not sure why they have these bikes in the pond, but I think they are sorta cool.







Sadly you cannot imbibe in cereal malt beverages in any Johnson County park.











I emerge from the park on 87th Street and I do a bad thing there. I ride on the sidewalk. It's only for a few blocks but I feel very guilty about it. But 87th is ugly and it's only a couple blocks to a stoplight and then another block past the light to the entry point to some trails that go for several miles through the beige 'burbs of Lenexa and allow me to avoid riding on Lackman, which is very, very busy and very, very hilly. I don't shy away from hills but the traffic on Lackman is scary. But to get down the trail, we must ride down stairs .... Which I might do on my mountain bike and without 15 pounds of crap on my back end.

The trails are nice, full of strollers and dogs and kids, which really slow you down but it's a nice warm up on the way home and a nice rest on the way in.



You get to ride by what must be the biggest tree in Lenexa.









The trail runs along a stream (part of Mill Creek?) for at least 20 blocks.


















And you can see some 'Johnson County taupe.'








So there was a news conference this week about making KC a 'platinum' bike city by some point in the future. I would say we have a long ways to go. Apparently, Shawnee, KS, has achieved bronze status. I'm not sure what this means but they do have bike route signs along Midland and 67th. And the road is nice and wide and mostly free of potholes, tire-eating grates and other crapola.





The best I-35 crossing has to be 67th. It's a lot less busy than 75th or, god forbid, Shawnee Mission Parkway. However it can still be a little dicey depending on what time you hit it.









After this not so fun stretch under I-35 and a quick 4 block run on Antioch, we enter the 'home stretch' on 71st. At this point, the route flattens out and the street is wide and not very busy. Metcalf is the only crappy crossing, because they have put these goofy medians in the road that make it a little narrower, which can suck when you're leading a line of cars through the light.

And today, I witnessed the best laugh of bike week. There is a stop sign on 71st for Santa Fe. There are usually a few cars there, so you have to actually stop, instead of the slow-down-rolling-stop-i-don't-want-to-unclip on a bike that you can usually do. So tonight I see a car with a bike strapped to a rack on the trunk and I figure he'll let me roll through since he's a cyclist. Well, whatever, the dude stares at me like he's going to go through but does hold up finally. I make sure to stand up and pedal so he can see my totally hot spandex-ed ass. &&&.

So he turns onto 71st, acclerates his super-cool Toyota Camry stereo blasting "No parking on the dance floor...." Guess his wife doesn't let him listen to that when she's in the car. And nice aerobars doofus. Bet I can dust your ass up a hill ...


My route goes through my favorite 'burb, Prairie Village. If I absolutely, positively HAD to live in a suburb, it would be Prairie Village, hands down, no questions asked. It has mature trees, some interesting architectural styles (ranch, Cape Code, modern-esque) and character. I hear gay people even live there.





And I like this garden art.









Finally, after forever or an hour and 15 minutes, we are safely back in Missouri and our Brookside 'hood and have racked up nearly 35 miles for the day.










And, believe it or not, this is what I crave most after a long ride .....