Show #153 – July 27, 2013

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GUESTS: JANE GEISSE, GINNY SULLIVAN, CLIFF COLE

If you read the news at all, it’s easy to see that there’s no shortage of seemingly intractable problems in the world today. Read the news too much, and you might think there are no solutions to these problems. Ride a bike, and the world starts to look a little better, and its problems a little smaller. Listen to The Outspoken Cyclist, and discover how your fellow cyclists are taking on the world.

First up is Jane Geisse, a 60-year-old road and cyclocross racer from right here in NE Ohio. Jane has been racing for only 6 years, but has racked up an amazing set of palmares. She’s competing in the 2013 Senior Games, held in Cleveland this past week, and then it’s on to Nationals in Oregon. Proof that there is no expiration date on a motivated person!

After the news, Diane turns her attention to trains, specifically the ability to take your bike on an Amtrak train without taking it apart and boxing it up. Ginny Sullivan of Adventure Cycling and Cliff Cole of Amtrak both weigh in on the current state of efforts to make it easier to travel by train and bicycle. It turns out, slow but steady progress is being made.

And here’s a bonus tip I simply must share: Road ID has released a free smartphone app that will text up to five friends to let them know you’re headed out for a ride or run. It provides your friends with a live GPS tracking map to show your route and current location. There’s even an option that will alert them if you haven’t moved in five minutes (“dead in a ditch” as my wife likes to half-joke). Road ID calls these tracks “eCrumbs” (like a trail of bread crumbs, get it?). Besides the safety aspect, I can see this being very useful for cyclists trying to meet “on the road”. Check it out.