Kansas Cyclist - Kansas Bicycle Guide and Reference

• Chris from Olathe is ticked off because his son was hit by a car while riding his bike to school, and the driver took off (the boy’s OK, thankfully).
• Greg French, a rider for the SKC Racing Team, was hit by a pickup while on a team training ride.
• Steve Tilford is sticking to the sheets.
• Eric Rogers is enjoying his new Dahon folding bike.
• About 80 college students built hiking and biking trails at Melvern Lake as part of a new “Kansas Corps” program that uses student volunteers to serve the state of Kansas.
• Sockrider from Lincoln, Nebraska wants drivers to stop talking on cell phones and pay attention!
• “Trail Angel” Gillian Hoggard’s home was destroyed by fire in Ordway, Colorado. Gillian opened her home for touring bicyclists on the TransAmerica Bicycle Route, and was honored with a Trail Angel award in 2006.
• Tom Ezell from Arkansas discusses why he wears a helmet.
• Voters in Maryville, Missouri approved a bond for developing a network of trails.
• Kansas City, Missouri is running a contest to name the new citywide trail system and design a logo.
• One child killed, another injured in St. Louis, Missouri after the two children were hit by an SUV and then thrown into the path of a metro bus. More from St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MyFox St. Louis.
• In Norman, Oklahoma, students from the University of Oklahoma parked their bikes in metered parking spots for a full day in an effort to raise awareness of bicycles as a viable form of transportation.

It’s hard to surpass springtime on Missouri’s Katy Trail, particularly near the historic and scenic town of Rocheport. You can enjoy beauty, and help to raise money for HIV/AIDS research and services in Mid-Missouri, on the Trail to a Cure, a ride/walk/run event that takes place on May 4th, starting at the Katy Trail State Park trailhead in Rocheport.

You can choose to ride from Rocheport to McBaine, a round-trip of 18 miles, or from Rocheport to Easley, a round-trip of 32 miles. There is also a 10K walk, a 10K run, and an 18-mile run. The starts for the various activities are staggered so that everyone gets back to the trailhead by about 2pm, where all participants can partake in a post-event celebration with their friends and family at the Les Bourgeois Winery.

The event is a fundraising benefit for two AIDS-related organizations: amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, and Rain of Central Missouri. 100% of the funds raised by participants are passed along to the beneficiaries.

amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, is one of the world’s leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to the support of AIDS research, HIV prevention, treatment education, and the advocacy of sound AIDS-related public policy.

Rain of Central Missouri is the region’s leading STD prevention resource focused on education, early detection and compassionate care facilitation. In addition to high quality education and prevention services, Rain offers compassionate case management to persons with HIV/STD and HCV in the form of counseling, physician referrals, housing, social services, nutritional planning, risk reduction counseling, and treatment adherence counseling.

The event is organized by Larry Horning, owner of the Trailside Cafe & Bike Shop, located right across the street from the trailhead in Rocheport.

Learn more: New AIDS Benefit in Missouri To Depend on Pedal Power from CampKC.com

Joplin, Missouri is planning to expand the city’s trail system this summer, adding six miles of walking and biking trails to the existing 3.5 miles of the Frisco Greenway Trail.

The city has scheduled an open house to allow residents to view plans, offer comments and ask questions about the new trails, which are being built starting in July and August. 80 percent of the cost of the trails is being paid for with federal matching grant money, while the city is supplying 20% of the funds.

The new projects include trails that extend from downtown to the east and then northwest through Landreth Park across Main Street and along the Murphy Boulevard corridor. Other trails will extend from the Frisco Greenway Trail’s west trailhead and fork to provide trails to Ewert Park downtown, and Joe Becker Stadium. A trail in the southern portion of Joplin will connect to an existing trail of the Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center and travel along the south banks of Shoal Creek.

The Missouri Bicycle Federation reports that “Joplin is becoming one of the most progressive cities in the state for having the vision to extend its trails plan to all parts of the city.”

Read more: Open house scheduled for Joplin’s trail plans from the Joplin Globe, and Joplin to build several trails throughout city from MoBikeFed

The Dirty Kanza is an ultra-distance bike race that takes place May 31st in the rugged Flint Hills. Billed as the “Ultimate Gravel Grinder,” the event starts and finishes in Emporia, and offers 200 miles of racing on blacktop, gravel, and dirt roads through remote and scenic east-central Kansas.

The event attracts ultra-endurance racers from all over the country, including (according to Emporia’s High Gear bike shop), luminaries such as former Olympian Travis Brown (inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2006), Keith Bontrager (founder of Bontrager parts, inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1994), and Cameron Chambers (2005 24-Hour National Champion).

As Guitar Ted says, “you better get your “hellos” in at the start line, ’cause these guys will be smokin’.”

Other local cyclists attempting the Dirty Kanza include Micah at Hiawatha Cyclist, Michelle at Meetzorp, and Lelan at The Life of LeLan, who also offers a great video preview of the ride.

But the big names won’t be the only stars you’re likely to see at Dirty Kanza. If you’re riding this race, and survive to the end, you’ll likely be riding well into the night. And if the sky is clear you can enjoy the waning crescent moon, and the stars in the heavens:

O wild and wondrous midnight,
There is a might in thee
To make the charmed body
Almost like spirit be,
And give it some faint glimpses
Of immortality.
James Russell Lowell, Midnight

Hal McKnight, chairman of the Oklahoma City Trails Advisory Committee, says that as more trails are built people are beginning to view them as more than just recreation. “With the warmer weather and high gas prices, we are seeing these trails used for people to get to and from work and running errands and shopping,” McKnight said.

Oklahoma City currently has more than 47 miles of bike and pedestrian trails, and the city’s Trails Master Plan, adopted in 1996, envisions 208 miles of trails, though the remaining mileage has not yet been funded.

Many of those unfunded trails would branch out from the current system through residential areas.

“The intent of the plan was also to get a network of trails that would be accessible within a couple of miles from most all developed urban neighborhoods,” Larry Ogle, assistant director of the city’s Parks Department, said. “Part of the intent of this is to not only have recreation. It does provide an alternate means of transportation.”

McKnight said he expects the pace of trails construction to pick up as more people begin to use them and see how convenient they could be with more trails through residential areas. “What we are already seeing is that the more trail expansion and improvements we have in this city, the more they are used,” McKnight said. “I think it’s catching on very quickly.”

Read more: More using city’s trail system as a way to get around town from NewsOK.com.

Cyclists in Omaha, Nebraska are celebrating the release of Omaha’s first bike route map.

The map is designed as a tool to help cyclists find routes through the city by bicycle. Although Omaha has a growing metropolitan trail system, trails don’t go everywhere, and people often must use the street system for commuting, access to trails, recreational trips, and other purposes. The bike route map is intended to compliment the Metro Area Trails map produced by the City of Omaha.

The map identifies multi-use trails and bike lanes, paved shoulders, continuous streets, survivable arterials and cautionary streets. The map is destination-based, showing points of interest in the Metro area as well as where the local bike shops are located. The new map color-codes streets based on their traffic levels, space for cyclists and other factors. The map also notes the city’s steepest hills.

The map, produced by community health group Activate Omaha, is available for free from local bike shops and Community Centers, or you can request a copy by email (send your name and mailing address to info@activateomaha.org). You can also view the map online (PDF).

Read more: New bike map may push people to ride more from the Omaha World-Herald, Omaha: New map inspires cyclists from Bike Commute Tips Blog.

Oklahoma is a great mountain biking state, but few people realize it.

So says Christian Combs, president of the Oklahoma Earthbike Fellowship, an Oklahoma mountain biking and trail-building club dedicated to the enhancement of off-road cycling.

Many people perceive Oklahoma as a relatively flat state, but it has a diverse geography and plenty of rugged terrain, particularly in the southeast corner of the state. There is no shortage of places to ride in Oklahoma.

Combs was shocked when he moved from Seattle to Oklahoma and discovered the abundance of great trails for mountain biking.

“We don’t have the Alpine riding that people associate with mountain biking, but we have lots of valleys and rolling topography that make for some of the best mountain biking you will find. You can go an hour in any direction from Oklahoma City and find five or six quality trails,” Combs said.

Read more: State’s rolling terrain provides an abundance and variety of great trails and Oklahoma’s best mountain bike trails, from NewsOK.com.

Image courtesy of Oklahoma Earthbike Fellowship.

Columbia, Missouri is embarking on an ambitious plan to add 1000 new bicycle racks around the city over the next few years. Currently, there are just 113 spaces in the downtown district. As cycling gains in popularity in Columbia, more bicycle parking places will be needed. The lack of secure parking keeps many people from using their bikes for basic transportation.

An article in the Columbia Missourian (City hopes to add 1,000 bike racks) says:

The proposal calls for the city to purchase bicycle racks with federal money and loan them to businesses and property owners at no cost. In return, the businesses and property owners would be responsible for installation and maintenance of the racks and would be required to keep them open to the public.

Funding will come from the GetAboutColumbia project, which was established in 2006 when the city received $22 million after it was designated as one of four communities for the Federal Highway Administration’s nonmotorized transportation pilot program. The project is designed to encourage more bicycling and walking.

The program is modeled after one in Minneapolis, one of the four cities involved in the nonmotorized federal initiative. Donald Pflaum, bicycle coordinator for Minneapolis, said the program has been extremely successful.

See also: Downtown Bicycle Parking Plan (PDF) from GetAboutColumbia

The WAM-SAG-MAN Trail is a a proposed 20-mile paved multi-use recreational trail connecting the communities of Wamego, St. George, and Manhattan.

Since first conceived in 2001, organizers have been raising funs to construct the trail. So far, they’ve accumulated about $46,000, which is a ways short of the $4.2M estimate for trail construction.

Still, there’s hope of progress sooner rather than later. The trail has been submitted to the Kansas Department of Transportation for funding by a Transportation Enhancement grant, which would pay 80% of the costs.

Though building the trail is a long and difficult process, WAM-SAG-MAN Trail committee chair Diane Novak says the effort to build the trail will be worth the trouble:

She believes the trail, which will have handicap accessibility and may someday be part of an inter-state trail network, will benefit people in the area by keeping cyclists off busy roads and reducing the need for people to drive between the communities. It may also help local businesses, like bed and breakfasts, she said. Most of all, though, Novak said she hopes it will incite people to be more active.

“My goodness sakes, we’re a soft society,” she said. “We have to get out. We don’t work as hard as we used to, so we have to get out.”

More information: On the trail of a bike trail from the Manhattan Mercury, WAM-SAG-MAN Brochure, wam-sag-man.org.

The Missouri Bicycle Federation and Let’s Go KC are asking for your help in some upcoming bicycle advocacy efforts:

• Hwy 45 Bike/Ped Access: MoDOT is building a new highway through Parkville, Missouri (just north of Kansas City). Guess what? Their plans for accommodating bicycling and walking are inadequate, plus they forgot to include any funding for them. Send email to MoDOT.

• Paseo Bridge Bike/Ped Access: MoDOT is building a new quarter billion dollar bridge in the heart of Kansas City. It could provide the first safe bicycle/pedestrian crossing of the Missouri River near downtown Kansas City. Advocacy groups have been working on this for years and now it’s going to move or die forever in the next month or so. Send email to MoDOT or attend the groundbreaking ceremony and show your support for this vital link.

• Bicycling License Plate: Many other states have ‘Share the Road with Bicycles’ license plates. Why not Missouri, too? In 1 minute you can show your support. Express your interest in Missouri Bicycling License Plates.

Learn more from MoBikeFed: Hwy 45–Stop MoDOT from building another road without good bike/ped accommodations, Bicycle to the Paseo Bridge Groundbreaking April 18th

Learn more from Let’s Go KC: Paseo Bridge Groundbreaking, Take Action! - Paseo Bridge and Route 45