Another national publication, Adventure Cycling, featured Trempealeau County, along the Mississippi River as another cyclist’s destination.

This is prime bicycling country, surprisingly undeveloped considering the nearby urban areas. Thus, the proposal seems like good news for bicyclist (unless, of course, it results in more traffic).

Congressman Oberstar is the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. It is widely acknowledged that he has done more to promote the funding and development of bicycling infrastructure and programs than any other member of congress in the past decades. This is not a campaign event. Rather, it is an in district celebration promoted by the Paul Bunyan Trail Association to honor his efforts and show off the work that has been by DNR, Mn/DOT and the cities of Brainerd and Baxter.

For more information about the ride, click here.

Bicycling Magazine and other organizations rate cities on the number of bike lanes and paths, the laws and other such things, but perhaps the best indicators of a bike friendly city are more cultural. Some examples:

When the Nature Valley Grand Prix bike race came to uptown Minneapolis,  the pro riders took time out from their warm-up laps to photograph the overflowing bike parking space near the course.  The Pros had never seen so many spectators arrive by bicycle.

College students, fresh in town from outstate, are often startled when asked “Where’s your bike?” as they prepare for a night on the town.

The Stupor Bowl, the largest and oldest Alley Cat race, is run on Super Bowl weekend in mid-February.

The Minneapolis Institute of Art, a staid institution more accustomed to working with high end donors than bicyclists, was talked into holding a bike themed art show. Ridrs were allowed to ride their bikes through the lobby into an inner courtyard, where the bikes were parked and watched over by security.  The response from cyclists was overwhelming, and eye opening to the museum’s curators and publicists.

Average ridership on the Midtown Greenway,  a once abandoned railway running through the heart of Minneapolis,  hovers around 3,000 cyclists per day. with records of up to 5,000 riders in some areas.

This, along with over 60 bike shops in the metro area, thousands of cyclists riding into downtown Minneapolis daily, more thousands of families and individuals riding the bike paths, and a general sense that bicycling is cool, make bicycling feel like an important part of the fabric of life in the Twin Cities. As a cyclist, these are the things that make Minneapolis a great city to live and work in.

Bikeverywhere will offer many of its products at a discount during the event. We also enjoy doing these events because they give us a chance to talk with you about bike routes, suggestions for improving the maps, new products you would like to see, etc. Stop by, even if you already own our maps and books. This is a great opportunity for some one on one discussions.

That’s a lot of miles to cover, but the challenge offers incentives along the way. For each stage of the Tour that you complete before the Pros finish that stage, you are automatically entered into the prize drawing for that stage.  If you ride and enter 600 miles by July 8, for example, you will have completed the Prologue Time Trial and 5 stages of the Tour. That makes you eligible for up to 6 prize drawings. (Not all stages have a prize list.)

Instructions and rules are available on Greenlightride.com, but the basics are easy. Register on the site, then either join a team that is already in the challenge or create your own team and enter the team in the challenge.  There’s no cost and  anyone can enter, but the prizes will only be awarded to US citizens over 18 years of age.

Full disclosure here. I work part time for Quality Bicycle Products, host of the Greenlightride.com website. Quality is a wholesale bicycle parts distributor that sells to bicycle dealers throughout the country.  The goal of the site is to encourage more people to ride and to help the bike manufacturers who supply us with  parts to get their products in front of more people. I’m the web administrator and I have an interest in making the site more popular.

Check out the site. If you like what you see, sign up and start entering the miles you’ve ridden. All miles count whether bike commuting, recreation riding, errand running, touring. It doesn’t matter. It’s all about setting goals, riding more, and maybe wining some cool bike parts.

The report also states:

• Bicycling creates 13,000 Wisconsin jobs
• Non-residents spend $535 million on bike-related events, food, and lodging
• 49% of Wisconsinites participate in recreational biking
• A 20% increase in biking could increase economic activity by $107 million and create 1500 more jobs

My adult bicycling habit began in Wisconsin 40 years ago. I started as a bicycle commuter at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and within the first year Phil VanValkenberg,  one of Wisconsin’s best known bicycle gadflies, introduced me to bicycle touring in the rolling hills of Wisconsin’s Driftless area.  That hooked me, and that part of Wisconsin is still my favorite bicycling haunt.

“That was two weeks before my thirtieth birthday.” She wrote later in an email conversation. It was the beginning of what is now a two -and-a-half year odyssey that has taken her from non-cyclist to bicycle advocate who is using her bike regularly for transportation and recreation. Her story is inspiring because Eli is not a naturally gifted cyclist. She’s had to work at it and even now she is cautiously expanding her range and building confidence.

Here’s her story, mostly in her own words.

“My childhood started out fairly normally. I had the tricycle; I had the training wheels; the training wheels came off. Then my mother informed me that I was free to ride my bike as much as I wanted: in the driveway. Even at age eight, this could only hold my interest for so long before I got bored and just…gave up.

“In May of 2007, my wife Leora and I moved from St. Louis Park to south Minneapolis. As we explored our new area, I said, “Everything around here is a little too far away to walk to, but close enough to feel like a schmuck starting the car to get there.”

“They’re perfect biking distance,” Leora said.

“They are,” I agreed, “if you know how to ride a bike.”

What followed was an extensive search for bike classes. Eli found plenty, for kids 5 to 12 years old. A short time later, at the Living Green Expo, I suggested lowering the saddle on her bike and shuffling around until she got a sense of the balance.

“That sounded like crazy talk,” Eli remembers thinking, “but after two other people gave me the same advice, I figured there must be something to it.” She and Leora got new bikes in August. Eli’s was an “eggplant-colored” bike that she named aubergine or “Aubey.”

“I quickly came to appreciate the shuffling technique. Even on foot, I’m not graceful, and staying upright on a bicycle requires a sense of balance that I had to dig deep to find. Inch by inch over the next few months, I raised the seat, until I was shuffling at normal riding height. Then the snow came.”

So ended her first year.

“When spring melted the snow, I was gripped with terror. If bicycles had never evolved beyond their draisine ancestors, I would have been the queen. But cyclists nowadays will insist on pedaling the darned things. Maybe I could slip Aubey onto Craigslist and forget the whole thing.

But Leora was eager to get on her own bike. I told her, “If you want to ride, you have to help me. You have to do the Dad thing.” With her holding the back of the seat, I pedaled until I mostly had the sense of it – and then she let go. I wobbled up and down our alley until I could get from one end to the other without crashing into the neighbors’ garages and recycling bins.

“A series of “firsts” commenced: My first “real” ride (to the Mississippi and along the River Road); my first night ride (unintentional; we didn’t plan to stay at the party that long, really!); my first solo ride (I don’t know if that scared Leora or me more).

“Always, Leora was a tireless cheerleader, riding either just ahead of me to call out hazards or just behind to watch how I was doing. I was running into a lot of cars, but otherwise I was making progress.”

For Eli, her first errand by bike demonstrated how obsessed she was becoming about riding. “The errand was to our corner grocery store, a six-minute walk, but I wanted to ride that much.” She says.

“There was one other “first” to overcome: The first fall. I’d made it to the river and almost all the way back without incident and with a minimum of wobbling. I got cocky. I took the turn into our alley far too wide. I knew I was going to slam into the curb.

“Calm came over me. I was going to hit the curb. It was going to hurt a lot. I made peace with that inevitability, and I suspect it hurt less than if I had gone down fighting. That’s not to say that it didn’t hurt.

“I spent the following Sunday morning working on turns and stops in an empty parking lot. It was an important rite of passage. I’d had a real fall. I was a real cyclist.

“I started riding to doctor’s appointments, parties, picnics with friends – if I could get there by bike, I did. Nothing daunted me. Only the cold is stopping me at the moment. I’m not ready for winter riding yet.”

What’s next?

“For now, I’m content riding Aubey around my neighborhood, riding the River Road with Leora, or making a dash to the store.

“I’m aiming for the St. Paul Classic or the Minneapolis Bike Tour next year (or both), and I may eventually work up to long-distance fund-raising endeavors, like the AIDS ride or something else ridiculously long and involved.

“I’ve become convinced that the bicycle was the greatest invention humankind ever wrought, and that belief has made me a bicycle evangelist. I don’t have to proselytize. All I have to do is pedal.”

“What an amazing gift it is to be able to ride a bicycle.” Eli says. “I don’t take that gift for granted.”

New Luce Line alignment

The Bassett Creek Trail, leading from the SE corner of Theodore Wirth to the Cedar Lake Trail, has been renamed the Luce Line Trail. It is now possible to ride from Downtown Minneapolis to Watertown on two trails, the Cedar Lake Trail and the Luce Line. I don’t have an exact distance, but it is close to 50 miles one way. The Luce Line Trail is paved to I-494, then turns to a new crushed limestone surface.

Because of the trail extension, I’ve removed the bike route designation on Duluth St. from Golden Valley Rd. to Douglas St. I’ve also removed Olympia St. and the stretch of Douglas connecting Duluth St to Olympia St. The Luce Line is a much more desireable route and will get riders to the same general area.