ktrsd: Capital City Cyclists, other bike clubs, help you get around on two wheels

By Joe Ritchie

Commuter Choices week was a great time for cycling in Tallahassee. There has been so much media exposure that you’d think cyclists all of a sudden are mainstream.

Of course, I could have done without one local newscast’s juxtaposition of a piece on the FSU student who is getting back on his bike after being run over by a motorist with a feature on Commuter Choices Week. I’m not sure that reminding viewers about how easy it is to get whacked in traffic in Tallahassee is the best advertisement for getting out of the car and onto the saddle for that morning commute.
But Commuter Choices Week seemed to get a lot of positive media coverage, and there have been other articles and TV news features. One station even did a nice story on my own Livestrong Challenge ride, which takes place in Austin about a day after this column goes to press. (I’ll still accept contributions up to my Oct. 8 ride and even afterward at www.livestrongchallenge.org/06TX/joeritchie.)
In preparing for my first century in over 30 years, one of the best moves I made was to join the main local cycling club, Capital City Cyclists. I’ve been so busy preparing for my ride that I haven’t had time to get all of the benefits of my new membership, but I have participated in a couple of group rides now and the CCC ride maps are awesome!

More important, the club – like others across the country – is a great resource and advocate for all kinds of cyclists. In Tallahassee, club members lobby for safety issues wherever they are addressed and provide valuable input for local planners and other government officials who decide where to put traffic signals and bike lanes. The club also has an informative weekly electronic newsletter informing members of many great rides and social events.

I recommend visiting www.cccyclists.org and joining, which you can do online. Membership is $15 for individuals and $20 for families, and well worth it. Another thing I like is that I can easily plug into other affiliated clubs of the League of American Bicyclists. I travel a lot and I recently took my bike along when I attended a professional conference in Indianapolis. The affiliated Central Indiana Bicycling Association, like CCC, had some great online maps, and I took a couple of nice rides in Indianapolis that I never would have found on my own.
There are other great online resources for cyclists. While searching for tips on preparing for a century, I stumbled across a cool regular podcast called the Fredcast. You can locate it on the iTunes directory, or at www.thefredcast.com. You’ll know you’re at the right place when you hear the show host say, “My name is David, and I’m a Fred.” It’s a great cycling show, and two early episodes were dedicated to century preparation. After I do my century, I’ll do a column about being a (slightly) older person getting ready for a century – assuming I survive mine.
And I might even tell you what a Fred is.