Kansas Cyclist - Kansas Bicycle Guide and Reference

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

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 March/April edition of AAA Midwest Traveler magazine features a cover story on the Flint Hills. In “The Timeless Flint Hills”, author Sally M. Snell writes:

The Flint Hills National Scenic Byway was Kansas’ first National Scenic Byway, and it’s an especially pretty drive in the spring.

“It brings people through this area that may have never come before,” said Charley Klamm, chairman of the byway committee. “We were born and raised with the bluestem in the Flint Hills and we love it.”

He laments that sometimes visitors speed past the prairie’s true beauty.

The overlook the rolling hills, bluestem pasture, cattle grazing certain times of the year, and the wildflowers in the spring. Stop and look down. Out here it is wide open — the grass, the vistas — you can see forever,” Klamm said.

Here’s a suggestion: Ride a bike.

Cycling the Flint Hills Scenic Byway is the best way to really experience the beauty of the country. On a bike, you’re moving slowly enough to appreciate the majestic scenery and smell the wildflowers on the breeze. On a bike you can easily stop, look down, and really see the incredible diversity of the tallgrass prairie for yourself.

As Ernest Hemingway put it: “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”

The scenic byway runs for about 48 miles along highway K-177 between Council Grove in the north and Cassoday in the south, and makes a great weekend bike trip.

In addition to the Flint Hills themselves, there is plenty to do along the way, including:

• Council Grove offers a number of historic sites such as the Kaw Mission State Historic Site and Museum, Council Oak, Santa Fe Trail, Old Cowboy Jail, Post Office Oak and Museum, KATY Depot, Hays House, the Last Chance Store and Kaw Nation Heritage Park.
• The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas) is the largest remaining expanse of native tallgrass prairie in North America, an ecosystem that once covered more than 400,000 square miles.
• Cottonwood Falls features the Chase County Courthouse, the oldest working courthouse in the state of Kansas, built in 1873. It’s also home to the Roniger Museum, featuring local native American artifacts, as well as the Chase County Historical Society Museum.
• You can also find the Emma Chase Cafe, which offers a Bicyclists’ Breakfast Buffet the first Sunday of every month, in Cottonwood Falls.
• The Flint Hills Gallery in Cottonwood Falls showcases the work of Flint Hills artists Ken and Judith Mackey.
• Strong City is home to several attractions, including the Prairie Fire Inn & Spa and the Strong City Depot.

Each year about this time, DeWayne Bryan, executive director of the Pratt Health Foundation, teaches an after-school bicycle safety at Elementary schools in Pratt, a town of about 6500 people in south-central Kansas:

With helmets on and properly adjusted, a review of hand signals and rules of the road, 13 bicyclists followed their leader away from Southwest Elementary School for a one-mile ride after school on Monday.

The sessions are held twice a week through the first week of May. Bryan adjusts the length of the ride to the fitness of the students, with a goal of reaching three miles after a few sessions.

This program teaches students the rules of the road, how to use hand signals, safe riding habits, how to use a bicycle helmet, and the positive benefits of physical activity. “Tickets” are given to students who do not use proper signals on their bikes or who don’t listen to instructions.

Each student who attends at least 80 percent of the sessions gets a free bicycle helmet, and those with no more than three tickets are entered in a drawing for a new bicycle, donated my local merchants.

Since 1996, more than 300 students have participated in the Bicycle Safety & Fitness program.

“Not only does this program encourage physical activity,” Bryan said, “but hopefully, this program helps to decrease the number of head injuries by encouraging the use of helmets, decrease the number of bicycle/car accidents and encourage kids to exercise safely.”

Learn More: Pratt Health Foundation, Pratt Tribune. (Image courtesy of the Pratt Tribune.)

March 29th is the date for the 4th annual Cabin Fever Challenge, one of the first organized rides of the year. Celebrate the coming of Spring with a trip to Pottawatomie County, Kansas, and enjoy the scenic beauty of the northern Flint Hills.

The Cabin Fever Challenge offers routes of 18.5, 34.5, and 57 miles on paved, rural, low-traffic roads. The ride begins and ends at Wamego Middle School, 1701 Kaw Valley Road, in Wamego (see map). Check-in time is 7:30-8:45, with a mass start at 9:00am.

The ride has a $25 entry fee, which includes breakfast before the ride, snacks and drinks at the rest stops, and mechanical and SAG support along the route. The proceeds from the ride will help to fund the WAM-SAG-MAN Recreational Trail that will begin in Wamego and connect with Saint George and Manhattan’s Linear Trail.

There will also be a drawing for eight $15 Road ID certificates, and massage therapists will be available after the ride to soothe your sore muscles. In addition, the Pottawatomie/Wabaunsee County Safe Kids Chapter will give away free bicycle helmets from 8am to 10am (or until supplies last) at the Wamego Middle School.

For more details view the registration form, visit ecodevo.com, email brandi@ecodevo.com, or call 785-456-9776.

The March/April 2008 edition of Masters Athlete magazine features an article on last December’s Kansas City Cyclocross National Championships (Cold, dirty victory), focusing on two local cyclists:

Catherine Walberg and Steve Tilford both hail from Topeka, Kan. The two defending cyclocross national champions train together, and they both race in the 45-49 age group.

The two champions took very different approaches to victory, with Tilford leading his race wire-to-wire, and Walberg (shown on the right) only gaining her lead on the final lap, but both riders emerged victorious.

If you’re interested in reading more, Steve Tilford has his own blog, and the Trek Bicycle Store of Kansas City features The Tilford Interview. CyclingUpdate.com offers an Interview with Catherine Walberg.

Congratulations, Steve and Catherine — all hail the victors!

Lose the Training Wheels is a program that teaches disabled children and adults how to ride a conventional bicycle without training wheels. The program was started by Dr. Richard Klein, who conducts 5-day training camps across the nation.

The program teaches that many people, including children with varied disabilities, can be taught to become successful bike riders — even accomplished bike riders -– without training wheels.

The program uses a series of adapted bikes to acclimate children to bicycles, starting with bicycles that use two large rollers in place of wheels, and gradually moving up to conventional bicycles with two standard wheels.

When a child is able to master riding a bicycle, the benefits become instantly evident. The child smiles, and the child wants to get onto the bike to ride around. Some of the longer-term benefits include peer inclusion, success at an age-appropriate activity, improved exercise opportunities, increased stamina, increased cognitive stimulation and decision-making, and even the ability for families to participate in a fun activity as a group.

There is an approximate 80 percent success rate of camp participants that are able to independently ride a two-wheeled bicycle by the end of the week. Children that have benefited most from the program are those that have use of all limbs, have adequate vision to see and avoid obstacles and, above all, the desire to “lose the training wheels.”

Two camps are scheduled for Kansas in 2008:

• March 17 to March 21, 2008 in Overland Park at Johnson County Community College. The contact person is David Krug (dkrug@jccc.edu), office phone 913-469-8500 x4764. (See brochure)
• May 27 to May 31, 2008 in Wichita KS. The host organization is the Independent Resource Living Center. The contact person is Matt Hampton (matt.hampton@losethetrainingwheels.org), phone 316-942-6300.

Other camps are scheduled throughout the nation. Refer to the complete schedule at losethetrainingwheels.org.

See also: Daily Peloton, San Antonio, Portland, YouTube video.

From The Hutchinson News:

The condition of a 15-year-old Hutchinson bicyclist seriously injured when he was hit by a car Thursday afternoon was upgraded Friday.

Police had not completed an accident report by late Friday, so the names of those involved were not available.

Officials at Via Christi Regional Medical Center, Wichita, where the teenager was airlifted after the 5:15 p.m. accident, listed him in good condition.

The cyclist was eastbound in the westbound lane of Fifth Avenue near Ford Street when he collided head-on with a 2002 Saturn. The car’s driver told police the sun obstructed her view, said Hutchinson Police Sgt. Eric Buller.

The car’s windshield was shattered, and the teen received head and leg injuries, Buller said. No citations have been filed.

If the report is correct, it sounds like he was riding on the wrong side of the road (against traffic rather than with traffic).

Hope he’s OK.

According to the League of American Bicyclists, Lawrence, Kansas is a bronze level Bicycle Friendly Community and “is a leader in encouraging cycling and educational efforts to improve the safety of the activity,” and “The city stands out among cities in Kansas and the Plains region for its high level of bicycle use. According to the 2000 census, 1.3 percent of Lawrence’s population regularly bikes to work—almost three times the national average.”

But what do residents think?

In a post on the Media & the Environment blog (a collective effort of students and professors at the University of Kansas), Denzyl quotes Michael Hajdu, a member of the Lawrence Bicycle Advisory Committee:

“In America, the leading cause of death is lethargy and bad dietary habits. Americans are obese and diabetic and what we should be doing is looking at healthier living. Cycling is free. All people have to do is get out their cars and start riding their bikes.”

That’s all well and good if you have a bicycle friendly city, something that Lawrence is not. Cycling along 23rd Street, the pedestrian and bicycle trails end abruptly at different intervals. It occurs along many other streets and often there just aren’t any trails at all. It’s a situation that Dr Hajdu knows all too well.

“I found that being on the (Lawrence Bicycle Advisory) committee, that we are fighting an insurmountable battle because the entire society is so entrenched in the belief that cars are the only way to get around. And the city is limited in putting any effort into changing things.”

If its citizens are this discouraged, does Lawrence’s status as a Bicycle Friendly Community really mean anything?

Other Bicycle Friendly Communities in the region include Shawnee, Kansas, South Sioux City, Nebraska, and Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins and Longmont in Colorado.

How do these compare to Lawrence?

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius has proposed a plan to allow open admission to state parks. The current daily summer fee is $4.20 per motor vehicle ($3.70 during the remainder of the year, with an annual pass also available). That fee level is half of what it was two years ago, when the state legislature reduced the fee in an effort to encourage more people to use the park system.

Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks secretary Mike Hayden said that the free entrance would bring thousands of new visitors to Kansas’ 24 state parks. Free admission, he said, “could be a great tourism promotion.”

The state parks offer 32,500 acres of land, 25,000 acres of water, and nearly 500 miles of hiking, biking, and equestrian trails.

State parks with mountain bike trails include Crawford, Cross Timbers, El Dorado, Elk City, Fall River, Fancy Creek, Hillsdale, Kanopolis, Perry, Scott, and many more.

Fortunately, the existing entrance fees only apply to motor vehicles, so bicycles already get in free, though many facilities do charge camping fees (and those would remain in place even with free entrance).

If approved by the state legislature, free admissions would begin in 2009.

Additional information: KDWP, Lawrence Journal-World, Wichita Eagle.