The 2nd Annual NSFW Ride Announcement.

Date: Wednesday 4/20/11

Location: Intersection of the Billy Wolff Trail & Rock Island Trail on the North end of the Zoo.

Time: 9am

Not Sorry (for) Forgetting Work

Put in now to take April 20 off as a vacation day. Celebrate spring on a ride around Lincoln with like-minded friends. Spend the workday riding while your co-workers toil away. Meet at 9am, ride is held on city trails. 40 miles long, ride for part of the day or the whole thing. 12-14 mph average speed. Last year's NSFW Ride was a ball!

Here is the map for this year's ride.

Ride starts and ends at the intersection of the Rock Island Trail and Billy Wolfe Trail on the North Side of the Zoo at 27th & Capital Parkway.

Several Lincoln bike shops will have free refreshments, giveaways, discounts and prizes for NSFW riders! Including Joyride, Bike Pedalers, The Bike Rack, Cycle Works, & Monkey Wrench Cycles.

The route will feature stops at these shops giving riders a chance to refuel, visit, shop, register for prizes, and use bathrooms or have mechanics make adjustments.

The NSFW Ride will be a fun chance to meet other cyclist, check out new bikes and biking gear, as well as a great way to get in some miles while everyone else is stuck at work. No fee to ride, but bring lunch money, lunch will be at your choice of Havelock restaurants.

Cool!

This morning the grass in the park was covered with frost. This afternoon I noticed the new bike bridge has been installed on the John Dietrich at Holders Street to connect to the Antelope Valley Trail. They were installing rear today so the concrete can be poured for the bridge surface. Having these trails connect is going to be so cool!

The Buffalo Hustle.

I rode to work and back today. And tonight was the Buffalo Hustle. We met at 7:30 at Van Dorn park and the race began at 8pm. There were 3 check points that could be done in any order, they were: The live buffalo in Pioneers Park, The Rock Island train crash site on the Jamaica North Trail and The stone drinking fountain on the east side of the zoo. The finish was at O'rourke's downtown. There were challenges at each checkpoint including a gunnysack race, hackysack and dressing up.

Quite a few of us began by going to Pioneers Park, from there Tim & I took Coddington to W. Denton Rd, then carried our bikes down the side of the overpass down to the Jamaica North Trail and went South on that to the crash site.

After that we went East across the tracks and onto the Rock Island Trail then North to the zoo and from there we hurried downtown for the finish. Everyone got prizes. Tim and I went through the 16.8 mile race together and I came in 10th out of 21, my average speed was 16.1mph. As always, it was a great race! Today's total miles = 45.2 And that puts September in the books with a total of 772.29 miles.

Flint Hills Nature Trail Ottawa East past Rantoul Kansas.

Rex told me to try the Flint Hills Nature Trail when I was looking for a place to ride the Austro-Diamler this morning.

I hit the trail at first light this morning and couldn't believe how sweet this old rail line turned multi-use path is! The trail is really wide with trees and wildflowers lining both sides. The sunrise was amazing and with cool temps and no wind it made this mornings ride one I'll always remember.

The trail runs into Rantoul featuring the Soft Rock Cafe open Friday nights 4-8, Saturday 7am-8pm and Sunday 7am-3pm. After Rantoul you'll see an airplane graveyard. Followed by a couple old road graders retired to the shelter belt along the path begging to be photographed. This section of the Flint Hills trail is a must see if you ever get into East Central Kansas! Click here to see the DirtBum's write-up on the same stretch. Today's miles = 23.64

Poor parking, Shana and Anjelica on the bike path, and black squirrels in Lincoln.

Just a few sights from today's work commute. Today's miles = 19.9

I'm SO disappointed.

This is the stone picnic shelter at the intersection of the Rock Island and Billy Wolff trails on the North side of the zoo.

Their turning it into a storage unit for the parks department. They'll keep tools and such for the Sunken Gardens and Rose Garden in it. It'll save them trips back to the shop when they need something, but that shelter was always a good meeting place for cyclists to meet for group rides.

I rode my loaner Surly Cross Check from Bike Pedalers to work and back today and got 20.0 miles.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

A path of destruction.

Along the bike path on this mornings commute I was disappointed to see this home burned and family displaced. The fire department had it under control but was still on the scene.

On the way home I came across the demolition of the Holdrege street overpass. This is near the junction of the John Dietrich and Antelope Valley Trails and I am hoping when they rebuild the overpass they'll include a bike path across it.

It's a sign of the times.

New signs have gone in on the new Antelope Valley Trails on the east side of the downtown area showing that the park is closed from 11pm to 5am. Will this drive the sleeping bums out from under the bridges? The few that regularly spend the night down there have never bothered me and one even makes a point of smiling and telling me 'good morning' as I ride by going to work. Late this afternoon we went for a lap around Holmes Lake too.

Today's miles = 23.3

Finally, a LBS on my commute route.

For those of us riding the Billy Wolff trail West of 70th we haven't had a local bike shop along the trail since Bike Pedalers moved from 33rd & B to Pine Lake Rd.

And the John Dietrich hasn't had a shop as long as I know of.

Bike Pedalers and Scheels has the South Point Trail covered.

The Bike Rack takes care of those on the Hwy 2 Trail and the Rock Island Trail users.

Joyride handles cyclist on the Rock Island as well as those riding the Old Cheney Trail.

Cycle Works South store is there for anyone on the 70th St Trail and East side of the Billy Wolff Trail.

Cycle Works 27th & Vine store is handy for Mopac cyclist.

Well, now, Monkey Wrench Cycles has moved 7 blocks East, and is now just 2 blocks West of the Antelope Valley Trail at 19th & Q! They have doubled their space and are situated perfectly for UNL bikers, downtown cyclist, and Antelope Valley Trail users.

This is an exciting move for MWC and their new digs are already set up and ready for shoppers and bikers needing service work. Stop in and check out the new MWC shop and say "hi".

The new Antelope Valley Trail connects Lincoln's trails and has become a hub for cyclists riding from one part of the city to another. MWC is now positioned to be a handy stop for commuters to grab essentials or have quick repairs done.

I decided to sit out today's Nacho Ride. On the commute to work and back I got in 20.6 miles for the day.

I'm going nowhere in particular.

I went for an afternoon spin around town and put on 24.4 miles for the day and that ushers July out with a total of 804.0 miles.

A St. construction sends cyclist on a detour around the zoo.

Trail users are now being directed around the zoo and through Antelope park as they start to tear out and rebuild A St. Get your bike out and take a spin down there to see the work for yourself. Today's miles on the work commute = 19.7

The next must have bike was spotted on the path today!

Post your fixie on Craigslist. You heard it here first. The next big trend in urban cycling is dawning!

Are you ready for this? It's the Stationary bike!!! Go through grandmothers basement, hit the garage sales, do what you have to and get yourself some street cred by being the first on your block to be rocking a stationary bike.

Mark my word, it's the next big thing!

A little circle tour to see what's happening.

The clouds parted after a couple of hours and I set out again in search of a few more miles. I got on the 84th St trail and took it to the Mopac then down to the Haymarket before taking the Billy Wolff back home. It turned into a nice day for a spin and I'm hopping you got your bike out today too.

Nacho Ride - you'll love it!

A fun crowd took the leisurely ride from Lincoln to Eagle tonight on the Nacho Ride. It was a great opportunity to chat with friends and a fun way to unwind after work.

Today's commute and Nacho Ride added up to 48.4 miles.

Biking with Brent.

I met up tonight with Brent for the first time this year for a spin. We started at Holmes Lake, took the Billy Wolfe to Wal-Mart on Hwy 2, then the 84th St. Trail to South St before returning and finishing with a lap around Holmes Lake to check out the walkers, those fishing and other bikers.

Tonight's ride added on another 16.6 miles bringing today's total to 36.3 miles.

Ride to Cortland, LPD bike auction & commute.

Dan, Shane & I took a morning spin down Hwy 77 to Cortland for breakfast. We were disappointed to find the cafe closed. As you can see they were feeling so famished CRAP (Cortland Rescue And Patrol) had to radio for assistance to keep them pedaling.

We then took the Homestead Trail back to Lincoln. I then split off to ride to the LPD abandoned and seized property auction to check out the bikes on the block. I didn't see any that I needed today so I continued down the trail to the office to get a bit of work done before riding home.

The heat & humidity were crazy and we even got rained on a little at times. I made it home with 71.0 miles for the day.