NewVA Moves

Getting Ready for Bike Month

As you may have noticed from the website, Clean Commute Day will be held on May 16 this year.  Within the next day or two I expect to have the Clean Commute Day website available, but by way of preview I wanted to mention Bike to Work Day and the Bike to Work Routes that will be a centerpiece of the CCD effort this year.

Working with the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club and others, we've created a series of routes that criss-cross the valley centered on Downtown Roanoke.  We've been test-riding the routes to make sure we've worked out any tricky parts, and yesterday was my morning to test my assigned route:  Floodwaters, going from Garden City to Downtown.

First of all, I hadn't touched my bike in over a year.  One of the tires had rotted and the tubes needed to be changed.  There was some other minor maintenance to be completed as well, none of which I was very good at and none of which I had the proper tools for.  After several hours of struggling with tires, overinflating (and rupturing) a brand-new tube, getting covered in grease, and becoming very frustrated, I can attest to the benefit of having a professional spend a little time with your bike before you get on it for the first time.  It was also a good thing I spent as much time with it as I did - I found a number of potential safety issues that I would not have otherwise noticed.

I eventually did get the bike in ridable condition and took it downt the Roanoke River Greenway to Garden City.  The ride would have been a pleasant one if it weren't for the wind, against which I was riding pretty much the whole time.  It made for a chilly ride.  I will enjoy the route much more in a couple of weeks when winter has finally released its grip and we're in full-fledged spring mode.