Tim and I met up with Dominic and Joe for the Sunday coffee ride. I was riding my LHT, Tim on his new Kona Ute. Joe was riding an awesome looking Surly Steamroller with red-wrapped mustache bars.
The few decent pictures I took are below.
The weather has not been friendly to long rides in the country, but these Sunday coffee rides are a nice break from everyday life.
Sunday 2/21/2010, We’ll be leaving from Heine Brothers at Bardstown and Douglass at 10:00 am.
The exact route hasn’t been chosen, but we are planning on hitting a couple of stops for coffee and/or snacks. We’ll probably cross the bridge into Indiana. We’ll probably do 20-30 miles.
We rarely every cancel a ride due to weather (as in we haven’t yet), so come prepared for snow, rain, freezing rain, or whatever mother nature throws at us.
RCCS rides strive to be social events, and staying together as a group helps. We won’t have cue sheets, but won’t leave anyone behind either.
If you drive, please don’t park nearby. There is limited parking at the site.
Sunday 2/14/2010, We’ll be leaving from Heine Brothers at Bardstown and Douglass at 10:00 am.
The exact route hasn’t been chosen, but we are planning on hitting a couple of stops for coffee and/or snacks. We’ll probably cross the bridge into Indiana. We may do 34 miles, or cut it shorter if conditions get bad.
**You can follow this link to an updated possible route (this one 23m+), which gets everyone home a little quicker for Valentine’s Day.
We rarely every cancel a ride due to weather (as in we haven’t yet), so come prepared for snow, rain, freezing rain, or whatever mother nature throws at us.
RCCS rides strive to be social events, and staying together as a group helps. We won’t have cue sheets, but won’t leave anyone behind either.
If you drive, please don’t park nearby. There is limited parking at the site.
How about another coffee ride tomorrow morning?
Tomorrow, Sunday 2/7/2010, We’ll be leaving from Heine Brothers at Bardstown and Douglass at 10:00 am.
The exact route hasn’t been chosen, but we are planning on hitting a couple of stops for coffee and/or snacks.
RCCS rides strive to be social events, and staying together as a group helps. We won’t have cue sheets, but won’t leave anyone behind either.
If you drive, please don’t park nearby. There is limited parking at the site.
Don't get no better, LHT, Bomba and Litespeed
We had a very pleasant time yesterday on our 2nd coffee ride. If the first was rife with damn-cold weather, the second drenched us in heavy rain and 40F, but no matter. The pic above is considerably more impressive than our actual cycling effort, which for the group ended up being 23 miles. We started at Heine’s at the Loop where, to be amazement, I found two amazing bikes for our foray. Dave was there with his new, shiny Surly Truckacchino LHT, and for the first time, Patrick came along with his (newish) Rivendell Bombadil. I brought the Litespeed Blueridge because titanium doesn’t rust in the rain, right? I dare say you couldn’t find a flashier batch o’ bikes in the city unless you happened upon a crabon convention, but what fun is that? Dominic even came by briefly before he headed on for some work.
We headed through the parks and towards Mockingbird Valley Rd., which Patrick had never been on, being new to the area. We window-shopped at that new shop down next to Zorn who’s name escapes me. We continued to Frankfort and up we went- well, until Dave lost a bag- and then up we went some more and stopped at Java for a cup. Yum! What a great treat with the cold and damp. Patrick needed to head home so Dave and I followed into St. Matthews, where Patrick split and Dave and I did some St. Matthews noodling before going back into the parks. I dare say Dave has picked up an automatic mph or two with this new steed. We looped through the Cherokee Triangle and made our way to a 2nd coffee stop, this at Highlands. After that, we returned towards the Loop where I bid adieu to Dave and thusly ended the ride. A total of 23 wet, cold miles, was significantly improved with 3 coffees, and we had a good time, especially talking bikes, cool bikes.
This Sunday, January 17th, We’re hosting another Sunday Morning Coffee Ride. We are leaving out from Heine Brothers at Bardstown and Douglass at 10:00 am. Maybe we’ll have warmer weather this time. The ride is probably going to be about 20-25 miles, within the city. The exact route hasn’t been chosen, but we are planning on hitting a stop or two on Frankfort Avenue.
RCCS rides strive to be social events, and staying together as a group helps. We won’t have cue sheets, but won’t leave anyone behind either.
If you drive, please don’t park nearby. There is limited parking at the site. You have a bicycle! 
Hope to see you there!
With the very short notice, it was great to see 4 total brave souls showing up for a Sunday morning Show-n-Go. We left from Heine’s at the Loop and our first cup of the trip. Our path took us through the Deer Park area and down to Jefferson St. where, aside the many red lights, we had an easy-going time. After a quick stop in Shawnee Pk., we headed back via Chesnut and took Shelby north to Sunergo’s on Preston. Dom had never been there, but he was duly impressed with the excellent joe available there. Ben and I snuck over for a Nord’s doughnut as well. We made a quick side trip to Vic’s Classic Bikes on Preston, but he wasn’t following his “Sunday 12-4″ signage, so we were only able to view the interesting steel treats from outside the window. Ben headed home from there (he had been to church earlier in the morning as well and was dressed accordingly. Good show!). Dom peeled off soon thereafter and Dave and I headed back to the Loop where we had a hearty brunch at Twig-n-Leaf before calling it a 26m day. A really nice day it was, and it seems like we’re doing it again next Sunday, prolly at 10.00, prolly at the Loop again, but in a different direction. More to come (from Dave).
LHT in Shawnee
Shawnee gathering
Sunergo's coffee stop
How about a fun 20-miler starting from Heine Brother’s Coffee tomorrow (Sunday the 10th) at 10:00 am? We’ll be coming back by Sunergos on the return trip.
This will be an easy-paced, social event. Dress for the weather! I hope to see you there.
The RCCS took up a quickly organized New Year’s Day ride leaving from Sulpher, IN. The only ones to show up were the usual suspects, meaning Dave and I. Typical. Everyone else who didn’t show missed quite a time out in rural country with mixed-terrain aplenty and cold enough temps to prove you fortitude.
Our route left from Sulpher, IN and headed down the IN66 hill that had been our nemesis on other occasions. Speaking of downhill, the most cogent piece of information to start the day were the temps. Aside the significant climbing and gravel, the tenor of the day was ruled by our starting temp of 17F, although the sunshine helped the psychology a bit. That starting descent already had Dave’s fingers quite cold at the bottom, so an extra pair of gloves were on and away we went up Old Union Church Rd., which gave us a warm-up of 1.5m of climbing with a high grade of 15%. Steep gradients would be another theme of the day. In hindsight, this climb was one of the toughest.
From here we took a left onto King Rd. and found our first gravel of the day. I made the appropriate decision to put a 1.95″ tire on the front of my LHT and that proved an excellent choice for such texture. After a quick stop to adjust a front brake, we turned onto one of my favorite roads of the day, Eaton Rd., a bottomland gravel road that had a very remote feel to it. We spent a good time here discussing the merits of Surly LongHaulTruckers in general, me exhorting Dave to try one out.
down King Rd.
Eaton Rd.
Stinking Ford along Eaton Rd.
We crossed IN62 and I-64 and made our way up the gentle uphill of Eckert Rd. until we arrived at another half-mile climb with a high gradient of 18%. Whew! At the top we were honored with an outstanding view
northward on the IN and Hoosier Nat’l Forest countryside. Wanting more gravel, we found it on our left turn onto Hatfield Rd.
Eckert Rd. view
top of Eckert Rd. climb
Hatfield Rd. mixed-terrain
Hemlock Cliffs
LHT
After a dicey, steep descent on Hatfield Rd., we passed by the access road for Hemlock Cliffs. We saw a young couple exiting the road in their Subaru and I wondered if they had camped, but the map shows no such official access. After some lumpy riding that almost appeared to be ridge riding- and no savage climbing- we quickly dropped a perilous descent into Mifflin. We can make much fuss about climbing gradients, but his downhill brought a max 19%, and this on gravel. I have a feeling we were both white-knuckling it here. Once through Mifflin, we took the turn up Trestle Rd. with one listed portion of 16.9% and it allowed us to pass by Yellowbirch Ravine Nature Preserve, although the N.P. has no facilities. From there we used our only busy road of the day- IN64- towards English. We turned off onto Tunnel Hill Rd. where we found more gravel , more climbing and Sycamore Springs. A little googling found that this is a privately-owned campground and outdoor park with a little bit of everything, all with a “family feel”. It might be worth a daytrip to see what it’s about, especially if you take grandma.
Abandonment along Trestle Rd.
Faint signs of Yellowbirch Ravine N.P.
Sycamore Springs Family Park outside English, IN
English brought us our lunch stop, although our well-laid plans went awry here. I called ahead on New Years Eve to ensure that Big Al’s Pizzeria would be open. Once we climbed the 10% climbed into English, we found that Big Al’s was closed up. No good! We ended up eating deli sandwiches from the JC’s across the road, but that was by far the biggest failure of the day. When we left, we noticed a big 4×4 parked in front of Big Al’s and the ‘open’ sign was lit. Oh well, too bad for us. We descended back into English and made our way south towards our return destination. An interesting note about English is that the entire town was moved from the creek valley up onto the hill in 1990, making it the 2nd largest move in the U.S. I was really hungry coming and cold going, so I didn’t take any pics of this bizarre place.
English In, speaks for itself
Sawmill Rd. outside English, IN
From the almost high point of the day we dived down onto S. Magnolia Rd, for me my fav road of the day. It had a nice mix of gravel, rough pavement, steep pitches (13% at one point), and scenery. Hopefully the pics below show it to be a really, really nice ride.
S. Magnolia Rd.
view along S. Magnolia Rd.
If S.Magnolia was a highlight, then our turn onto Riddle Rd. was not. We were tired and cold, the roads were poorly marked and Riddle Rd. was strewn with crappy houses and high traffic (relative to what we had experienced earlier). We were glad to find Camp Jerry Rd. near our return into Sulpher. Camp Jerry Rd. included a very long gravel descent (2m total) into the creek valley and to our final challenge of the day, the ascent of Camp Jerry. I had seen the %gradients while planning the route but didn’t know to expect. Ridewithgps claims portions of 24%, with a top of 28.5% in the switchback. I had personally never done such a steep climb, but up it we went. I won’t speak for my ride partner, but I made it up with one stop near the top to suck in enough oxygen so as to not collapse right in the middle of the road. It was breathtakingly steep and I would begin to try it without my LHT mtbike gearing.
We just passed an Amish house construction before seeing this sign.
Camp Jerry Climb
We made it, though, and cruised into Sulpher with 40 slow miles under out belts. The temp when we finished was 21F and it felt every bit that. The only thing that disappointed us was the variety of roads that weren’t quite gravel, but not quite pavement. Most of the route was a mix of gravel, pavement and chipseal. At the end, I decided on a new designation: paved, sorta paved, and gravel. Many of the roads were sorta paved, and I was glad to have fat rubber underneath. For those who missed it, you missed something special, a great way to start 2010.
Leaving from Sulpher, IN at 10.30. Store stop in English (hopefully). Significant gravel and climbing, as map shows. Feel free to contact me at mysurly69 at yahoo dot com.
I’ll be posting pics later, but for those sick and/or busy folks who couldn’t quite make it, you missed a heck of a ride today. Only two of us were able to answer the bell, me and Jeff (from the epic IN mud ride). With some creative mapping late in the ride, we did 52m instead of 60, but those were well-earned miles with the conditions today: cold, fog, rain, drizzle, gravel, climbing, more fog. I must encourage all local cyclists to take in the charms of Hardy Creek Rd. coming out of Bedford, Trimble Co. That was as good and fun a stretch of riding as I’ve done personally. “Car up!”.
Kavenaugh Rd. MT #1
Along Pattons Creek rd.
Kidwell Pike MT#2
Wise's Landing along the Ohio R.
Bedford, my place up employment for 4 years
At least for me, the best story of the day was while we we descending Hardy Creek Rd. and I posed to Jeff the question why the “road” existed; who would use it? To my surprise- shock!- around the next bend I see a small silver pick-up coming up the hill. He rolled his window down and say “Hi” and moved on, coon dog box in the back bed. Even better, it had some type of title (coon dog box) of “cur”, which is a word for dog in Shakespearean English. Who would have known that they’re so erudite along Hardy Creek?
Carmon Creek Rd., MT #4, tricky one here
