Biking Indy

So my trip to the Indiana Brewer's Cup, it seemed obvious I should bring my bike. For one, judging a homebrew competition involves taking on a lot of calories, it's good to get some activity in to mitigate that. For another, nobody is pulling over my Surly Long Haul Trucker to see if I'm blowing hot, and while judging isn't about consumption, awards ceremonies and such most assuredly are.

Plus, I erroneously thought, initially, that because the Brewers' Cup is part of the Indiana State Fair that I'd be getting in and out of the fairgrounds during a full blown State Fair. Trying to move a car in and out through 50,000 Hoosiers was bound to be more of a hassle than biking right up to the door.

Anyway, there turned out to be other good reasons. Indy is a fun town, I wish I could have hung out a few more days, ridden around checking out more of it. And it's flat. Really, really flat.

Hoosiers are also, as far as I can tell, ridiculously courteous. At ever intersection of the Monon trail and streets, it's posted for the trail traffic to stop. Yet almost universally, cars approach the trail, even when you've already freaking stopped, and they come to a halt and waive you through. I mean, they insist, even when you try to waive them through since they actually have the right of way.

There's lots of bike shares downtown, and lots of pedal pubs. I know of one in Kansas City, a metro area roughly the same size. I saw four or five on Saturday afternoon when I went for a ride between the end of judging and the start of the reception and awards ceremony.

I spotted this ghost bike on the trail. Strange one, it's hard to see anything anywhere near the ghost bike where there's much of a hazard, helmet or not. The plaque on the bike says to wear a helmet, and I'm sure someone named Dave died there, ghost bikes don't just happen. I guess this reinforces my helmet theory: I always say I don't wear the helmet for when I collide with a truck going 50 miles per hour, you're toast in that scenario no matter what you wear. A helmet keeps minor slipsy fallsy things minor.

Helmets are also super handy for mounting lights and mohawks.

Anyway, if you don't get to Indy with a bike, they've got lots of bike share bikes downtown, and given how flat the town is, even a total pig is pretty easy riding.