Here’s a notice from Brett Kelver, TSP Bicycle Liaison:

There has been a lot of interest expressed by participants in the pedestrian-bicycle workshop about integrating the concept of bike boulevards into the Transportation System Plan (TSP) update. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time at the May 5^th meeting to fully discuss the idea, so we are holding a third bicycle workshop to focus on this issue. Please plan to join us for this special public meeting scheduled for Saturday, June 2, 2007, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon at Milwaukie City Hall (10722 SE Main Street).

If you are a staff/liaison, your hard copy packet is being mailed/distributed to you today. The electronic packet is available on our web site.

Here is what we hope to achieve at this meeting:

• Develop a shared understanding of the bike boulevard concept.
• Evaluate proposed bike boulevard routes and determine which should be on the TSP Bicycle Master Plan.
• Discuss the priority of bike boulevard routes in the context of the proposed Bicycle Capital Projects list.

Through the TSP update process, the City has been able to hire a consultant specialist to assist with this special Bike Boulevard workshop. Rory Renfro of Alta Planning in Portland will be leading the discussion on June 2nd. Rory and Alta Planning bring considerable expertise in bicycle transportation to the table, and we are excited to have them involved to strengthen this portion of the TSP update.
In addition, there are several useful websites that have information and examples of bike boulevards. If you have not seen some of these already, take a look as part of your preparation for the conversation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_Boulevards
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/transportation/Bicycling/BB/BicycleBoulevard.html
http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/transportation-division/bike-index.html
http://www.bta4bikes.org/at_work/bikeboulevards.php
http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/portland-or-bicycle-boulevards

As always, please contact Brett Kelver if you have any questions. We will be aiming to have this discussion within a 2-hour timeframe, so please plan to arrive in time to start at 10:00 a.m. on the dot. See you on Saturday, June 2nd at Milwaukie City Hall!

Brett can be contacted at: kelverb@ci.milwaukie.or.us

The PWTC has changed the name of the Spring Century back to the original Pioneer Century to reflect the history of the Champoeg, Canby and Molalla areas.
They have changed the route to include two loops of 55 miles and 45 miles.
The 55 mile loop is in the Molalla, Canby and Scotts Mills area an will be the more challenging of the loops.
The 45 mile loop is in the more rural area of Champoeg and doesn’t appear to have a lot of challenging climbs.
The entire ride promises to be a bit more difficult than the old Spring Century.
Here are the elevations gains.

• 45 mile route: 1327 feet
• 55 mile route: 3087 feet

The ride is on our ride calendar.
I am guessing that even though there appears to be more climbing, that the course no longer climbs Bird Hill. It is a climb you really don’t know is coming until you have turned the corner. It includes a section of fairly steep pitch, and features a false summit. The spring was my first century, and with my old Schwinn super sport, I was able to summit with only one stop during the climb to insure that my heart would not explode. Many more miles later, and with a newer bike, I have been able to nail this climb in the years since. It is encouraging to look back and measure the improvements in your health and performance as your bike mile increase.

To me, one the the hardest things about this century is the two loop format. After you do 45-50 miles, then end up back at the car for one of the rest stops, the temptation to bag your earlier century plans and climb into the car is alluring. Especially if its cold or raining. This is the same formula used by the Watermelon ride. The afternoon headwinds in the valley flat-lands of that ride can make that mid ride bailout a nice option to have. On the other-hand its nice to be able to drop off your warmer clothes or otherwise regroup before heading out for the rest of the ride.

In any case, this has always been one of the best local rides. The route, support, markings, and rest stops are first class. Once again, we will be there!

And, this from Ann Morrow of PWTC

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Saturday was the 2007 edition of “Reach the Beach“.
Sunday was my day of recovery, and shopping with Honey.
Monday is time to think back on the ride and make notes.

• I chose the century route which started at Scholls Heights in Beaverton, and finished at Pacific City. The change to this new starting spot was ostensibly to reduce the route from 104 to 100, and to cut out a big climb at the start of the ride.
• Parking at the school was non-existent. I needed to park in the residential neighborhood 7 blocks away. The area residents must have loved having their streets clogged by cars with bike racks all day long.
• The changed route at the start substituted some busy highway with quiet forested roads, which was good. It also added much more climbing than in years past and more most everyone expected and seemed to slow peoples times.
• The course didn’t feel as full of riders as in years past. Perhaps the threat of rains held out the late comers?
• There are always a few bad riders on these rides. We came upon three slower riders riding abreast, taking the entire lane of a busy two lane road, which forced another line of riders lead by a tandem to veer into the oncoming lane to pass, just as a SUV approached and overtook them from behind, actually driving onto the opposite shoulder to pass what was now 4 riders abreast. That is wrong on so many levels.
• The food was really pretty good, and better than years past. Except for their over reliance on apples as the fruit of choice and the fact that all the lunch lines were out of chili when it was our time to go through, the fuel support was ok.
• At various times there were little Cliff Bars, bananas which are always popular, boiled eggs, which Honey hates but I think are useful, I saw one tub of licorice, which is like instant carbs, and always cookies. Any ride is a good ride if they have cookies.
• “Panera Bread” did a great job in volunteering to provide the breads and carbs for the riders. They had bread available at nearly all stops, and the sandwiches at Grand Ronde were perfect. Many thanks to “Panera Bread” and hope they can return again.
• Why do they state that the course closes at 5:00 on rides of a 100 miles or more? There were still riders coming in when we left town at 7:00.
• Moving up the spot of the last rest stop was good. That stop is most useful for those riders who are struggling and need one more rest, but the previous location, which is off the road during a downhill section, is too often passed by unseen by riders. This one was much more visible. Think riders enjoyed the guy with the bullhorn dispensing information and encouragement, although because of the cooler temps, he wasn’t getting any takers for his super soaker water gun.
• There was a spot on the ride that required riders to stop and cross over a very fast and busy Highway 99 between Dayton and Amity, and it shocked me that the organizers provided no support or warnings at this point at all. Many thanks to the driver who stopped on the highway which allowed a large group of bikers to cross. We all gave the driver encouraging waves of thanks in the spirit of mutual livability.
• The route is fairly well marked, and with a large number of riders usually not hard to follow, but in spots the signage was not always obvious, and easy to miss if you were not careful.
• The finishing stage is nice and all, but charging a rider who has just ridden 100 miles $4.00 for a cup of bear just seems criminal.
• Finished with 103 miles, a few sore spots and…..a plastic lei.

In a previous post, I started a list of reasons a person would want to commute by bike.
Today, I add another.  I have said before that one of my commuting strategies is to bring in a bag containing a clean set of clothes.  I like to plan to have an extra set here just to cover any unexpected issues and thus reducing the possibility I spend the day at the office in bike clothes.

Today, I did not ride.  But I did manage to spill coffee on my pants in a potentially embarrassing manner that I did not want to have to explain. Since I would be standing in a room of 14 people during a status meeting in about 10 minutes, I wanted a way out.  My extra set of jeans in the locker room was a perfect solution!

There are just so many good things about biking……