Cycling in Copenhagen

We're in Copenhagen for the Velomobile Seminar (posts to follow), but also spending a few days biking around the city. Here's where we rode on Sunday, October 18:

Bike route 338766 - powered by Bikemap

The tour took us from our hotel, the Quality Airport Hotel Dan across the island of Amanger, where the Copenhagen Airport is located, to the Vestvolden bike path, then down through the city center and back to the hotel, a 30-mile loop.

We had rented a Winther trike, which weighs almost 100 pounds but carries just about anything you might want to transport. It's meant for carrying two children; we easily brought along a picnic lunch, camera gear, rain clothing, and some tools. The trike came from Copenhagen Bike-Rental, which supports bike-building and repair projects in Africa. We had a small-wheeled folding bike with us, but for this ride on mixed surfaces, we rented a conventional three-speed bike from the hotel.

The Vestvolden bike route follows an old line of fortifications from the 1800's. When advances in warfare made them useless, the system was abandoned, and it has been turned into a park. Much of the bike route is asphalt, but there are unpaved sections, and one bridge is accessible only for 2-wheelers. The small photo shows the trike and bike in front of one of the old forts.

Fourth of July

We're just back from a 534-mile ride on a 2-trike tandem. We started in northeastern Wisconsin, up by the Michigan border, and rode with the GRABAAWR group along the Wisconsin River as far as Baraboo. At that point, we broke off and followed the 400, Elroy-Sparta, and LaCrosse River trails to LaCrosse, on the Minnesota border.

Today was the Fourth of July, and I rode a 5-trike tandem in the Edina Fourth of July Parade. Two of the other riders couldn't have participated without an option like this -- one was blind, and the other is in her 80's. The other rider carried a puppy on his lap -- not something you could do on a regular bike!

The title bar links to a video clip of several kids taking a ride after the parade.

Ice Bike Racing - 2009 version

The Minnesota Human-Powered Vehicle Association's 18th Annual Ice Bike Races drew a small enough crowd that I was able to win my class. (No other women showed up -- the only way I ever win these things.) Temperatures hovered just below zero Fahrenheit (minus 18 C), and the ice was rough. It had rained a few times early in the season, ruining the surfaces of most area lakes. Nonetheless, we had a little group of loyal ice bikers and a few spectators when we met on Medicine Lake, just west of Minneapolis. I rode a Greenspeed GTO recumbent trike this year, but the overall winning times were put in by riders on conventional 2-wheelers.

Another Route Option

We've been continuing to explore the routes across Wisconsin, using BikeMap.net as well as Wisconsin's own online maps (click the header for a link), which show even the smallest roads, with color-coding to identify the bike-friendly ones. The route in the previous post was quite direct, but it showed up in red as a high-traffic route not suitable for cycling, so we tried a different option. Here's what we came up with:

Bike route 62197 - powered by Bikemap 

It is still pretty hilly, but that may be unavoidable.

Independence Day 100-mile Ride

July 4, 2008: The Twin Cities Bicycling Club celebrates Independence Day every year with a "Watermelon Ride" in the northeastern corner of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. We live in the southwestern corner of Minneapolis and had skipped this ride in recent years to avoid driving there with our bikes. This year, we decided to ride to and from the event and make a 100-mile day of it.

The weather was perfect, with occasional clouds, temperatures in the high 70's, and a light breeze. We rode a recumbent trike tandem combining a Hase Kettwiesel on the front with a Greenspeed Anura behind. Setting a gentle pace, we finished the ride in 12 hours, including rest stops, a picnic lunch (with watermelon, of course), and an ice-cream stop on the way home.

We are trying to do more of our cycling near home, with less flying and driving to events. It's a celebration of energy-independence.

Ice Bike Racing

The Minnesota HPVA Ice Bike Races have had some bad luck with conditions over the years. This year our usual lake froze just as the first snow fell, and the ice surface was unrideable. We moved to an impromptu location on Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, using some paths that had been cleared for a pond hockey tournament the week before. Temperatures were warm -- in the 20's -- and the ice was pretty good. The bikes and trikes were, as usual, splendid!