Social Distancing Stage Race. Rules, Course descriptions and more.

Welcome to this years Social Distancing Stage race.  

 Yes we are serious, yes there will be prizes, there might even be some bragging rights.   No there is no entry fee.  

11 stages over the course of 5 days.   

Each stage is simply a Strava segment that must be completed ON A BICYCLE on the day that it is scheduled.    On days that multiple stages are scheduled,  the stages are close together so they could all reasonably be completed over the course of 1 ride.  

The rules of this race are junior to both the rules of the road and any and all changing guidance from the CDC or any other federal, state or local governing bodies.  In other words obey the law and ride safely.  Strava segments are on open and unsupervised roads,  by competing in this stage race you agree that your safety is your own responsibility and you absolve the event organizers of any liability for your own personal injury, death, or damage to property that may result from competing in this race.  

Results for the stage will determined by the "Todays Leaderboard" on the Strava ap.   Result will be collected sometime after sunset each day.   If you finish a segment after sunset there is a possibility that your ride will not be scored.

You must complete a minimum of 4 of the 11 stages to be counted in the final score.  Riders completing all 11 stages will be scored based on their top 10 scoring stages (i.e. lowest score will be thrown out.) Both daily and overall prizes will be awarded via sanitary drive through pickup.

Points:   Point system is roughly based on the old NORBA system for you old guys.   Roughly speaking the more people you beat the more points you get.  The higher the point value of the stage the more points you can get and the more people who ride the segment that day (even if it is by mistake)  the more points you get.   Examples will be at the bottom for those of you who really care.

Ride Requirements:  You may ride each segment as many times as you want on the day.   So if someone beats your time you can go back and try again.  Your ride must be on an bicycle without a motor,  during daylight hours, wearing a helmet, and the segment must be part of a larger ride that is at least 5 miles long.   In other words you can't drive to the segment and ride just the segment and go home.  Your total ride will be examined at the time of scoring.   Honor system in effect.  If you take more that one ride to complete all of the segments,  each ride must meet the ride requirements separately.  Because of social distancing you may ride with no more than 3 other people.  Drafting is allowed if you can do it from 6 feet away.   And as always, snot rockets remain uncool.

Already this is too complicated.   Just ride the segments below  on the days listed and we will let you know  how you did.


Opening Time Trial - Friday March 27,  2020
Stage 1 "Cherokee Extended" 3.76 miles   Point value:20
      Scope this one out if you don't know it, there are turns.   This starts on Beargrass Rd. in Cherokee park,  Links into the Scenic Loop, and finishes out Park Bountry rd.

Day 2:  A day for the climbers:  Sat March 28, 2020

Stage 2:  "Mayo Climb"  0.38miles   Point Value: 10
         This climb starts from Rose Island road and heads up Mayo

Stage 3:  "Covered Bridge- Eagle Way to Sleepy hollow"  2.61 miles, Point value: 10
      we recommend taking Locke lane from Mayo to Covered bridge, but whatever is fine.  Segment starts at Eagle Way which is close to Locke Ln and then climbs all the way to Sleepy Hollow.

Stage 4:  "Sleepy Hollow"  0.96 miles  Point Value: 10 
 This climbs from the bottom of Sleepy Hollow towards Nortons Common.

Day 3: Transition day Sun March 29, 2020

Stage 5:  "Beckley Parking-rollers-Shelbyville parking" 1.25miles  point value: 10
 Note that this is not on the Louisville Loop but parallel to it.   It starts under the interstate on Beckley Creek Parkway and then merges with Blue Heron rd up to the parking lot.

Stage 6:  "Echo Trail Southbound"   2.58 miles  Point value:15
Gillians Rd to Echo trail.  All of it.

Day 4: The Leg Tenderizer day Mon March 30, 2020

Stage 7:  "Rive Road: Indian Hills trail to Glenview Ave" 2.2 miles Point Value: 10
     Name kind of has all details except that it is supposed to be River Road

Stage 8:  "Lewis & Clark End to End   2.49 miles  Point Value: 10
       The whole bike path over the foot bridge from KY to IN

Stage 9:  "Old Salem Climb" 0.32 miles   Point Value :10
     take 2 lefts after crossing bridge and you will land on Old Salem Rd.  You will know the climb when you see it.  

Day 5:  A day for sprinters   Tues March 31, 2020

Stage 10:  "Ford Factory Sprint"  1.87 miles  point value : 15
     Basically this is Chamberlain Ln past Ford

Stage 11:  "N Osage going South" 1.77 miles  point value:10
    The last hurrah as you head back into town and perhaps to Goose Creek Cycle.   Pat yourself on the back...



How the points really work:
Winner gets full points.
Second Place get three points less than first.
Third place gets 2 points less than second
Each rider after this gets 1 point less than the person before until all points are awarded.
If there are enough riders to exhaust all the points each subsequent rider will not only get a point but give a point to each rider who beat him.   This the more riders,  the more points the winner gets.

Example:    10 point race with 7 riders

Place         Points
1st              10
2nd             7
3rd              5
4th              4
5th              3
6th              2
7th              1


If 2 more riders finish the points would change as follows

Place         Points

1st              12

2nd             9

3rd              7

4th              6

5th              5

6th              4

7th              3

8th              2

9th              1

Specialized Eliminating Womens models

For those of you paying attention,  there has been a gradual movement in the bike industry moving away from men and women specific bikes and products to unisex products.   In the 2020 model year we are seeing Specialized finally put a nail in the coffin of the gender split and all but eliminate their line of women's bikes. 

To understand what is going on with the shift lets take a look back at the history of gender specific bikes.  I wasn't around in the early 1900's so I don't have any pictures that I have the rights to,  but if you look back pretty much as far as you care to you can see that almost as long as bikes have been made there have been women's bikes with the top tubes dropping drastically lower than the men's versions.  This is what we think of as a traditional woman's bike.   This low top tube allowed woman to ride bikes without the frame of the bike pushing their dresses up to inappropriate levels.

As we reached the mid- late 1900's our cultures across the world began to shift and it was more common so see women out and about in pants, shorts and even Spandex.   Despite the fact that less and less women ride in dresses the drop bar remained as a tradition, but two other shifts began to occur.   First men, especially older men found that getting off and on the women's bikes was much easier,  and those who had long ago learned so swallow their pride hopped on bright pink women's bikes and rode off into the sunset.

The industry took note,  and by the early 2000's manufacturers had started to produce "Step-thru" bikes with more neutral colors marketed at casual riders both men and women.  While most consumers still considered these to be "women's" bikes but the shift had started.

Meanwhile on the high end the big manufactures were producing women's specific bikes without the drop bar.   "Compact Geometries" dropped the top tube from the traditional men's parallel to the ground top tubes, so men's and women's top tubes met somewhere in the middle.  Most large manufactures had (and still have) a men's and women's version of their bikes.  The women's versions are typically geared towards petite women and are often not even made in larger sizes.  Usually these models are the same as the men's with the exception of color, saddle and handlebar width.  But on the very high end there are subtle geometry differences based on the idea that the average woman has proportionally longer femurs etc. etc. etc.

Meanwhile at Goose Creek Cycle and bike shops around the world we have gotten better and better at fitting people to their specific bike,   and have spent a lot of time convincing women that it really is okay to ride a men's bike if it feels and fits better.  

At long last the crew at Specialized, being the data junkies that they are,  have looked at the data from 10's  of thousands of bike fits and realized what many of us have kind of understood for a long time.  People are all really different and have different body types.    So with most of the measurements that matter for fit, leg length, arm length, torso length etc,  If you pick two random people of the same height, you will have measurable differences but those differences are not significantly linked to gender.  You will just have to fit them to bikes based on the body they have.

But wait!  Men and women are actually different!!

Ok you got us there are real differences between men's and women's bodies but they are isolated to specific areas.  So yes saddle women's and men's specific saddles and clothing will remain.  And if you look closely and model lines even if the bikes are not men's and women's specific you will see some nods to the fact that the bikes are designed for both.  The biggest example is this.  Because women are on average shorter than men, and women on average have wider sit bones than men,  you will see wider saddles speced on some of the smaller bikes.  This allows the bikes to fit more people more closely and allows bike shop staff to swap saddles around between bikes to fit customers more closely without having to stock as wide a range of aftermarket saddles. 

So welcome to the new age of bike fitting where we are fitting you as an individual and letting you have the experience you want without having to be bothered in the back of your mind if the bike you really like was designed for the other gender. 

Converting a Hardtail to Full suspension

Hi all.   Wanted to start off by saying this was a joke.   It was designed to allow me to ride a bike to failure and document the process.  What we created was actually functional.   We never rode it to complete failure because the other components on the bike were so bad that they failed before the frame did.  

Either way... WE DO NOT ACTUALLY RECOMEND THIS!   Following this procedure can lead to injury or even death.   But we had a lot of fun risking our lives. 

Anyway the concepts was based on the old soft tails which basically used the natural flex of the chain stays and put a bumper or small shock into the seat stays which allowed a small amount of movement in the rear triangle.    We used a little more movement and a lot less bumper and this was the result.    Hope you enjoy.

Grand opening, rides, parties etc etc

Ok,   so this has gotten confusing what with the KYMBA fundraiser,  rain and all the things that are messing with our plans.   At any rate here is what the Goose Creek Cycle schedule looks like for the next couple weeks.

Right now:  LaGrange fully open,   Westpost Rd location soft open with short staff, and short hours
Tues Feb 20:    First shipment of Specialized bikes set to arrive (let the building commence)
Sat  Feb 24:  KYMBA fundraiser  (this was going to be our grand opening but we didn't want to    conflict with these guys so we gave them a bike instead and moved our opening)
Sun Feb25:  1 PM easy no drop 25mi road ride from Wesport rd location followed by first peek at fully open shop
Mon Feb 26:   First day of fully open Westport Rd location open 10-7
Sat Feb 3:  Afternoon-early evening Grand Opening Party Ride and Party full details to follow
Sunday Feb 4:    1pm Shop ride 25-30mi road

Westport Road Location is now "Openish"

Hey all it has been a little slower getting the new shop open than I expected,  but I am officially changing the new Westport Road Shop status from "coming soonish" to "openish".  


Am I going to be blown away by how awesome it is?    Probably not,  but if you are close enough to the Goose Creek Gang to have ended up here,  you will get it.   We still have a lot of inventory to bring in and still a bit of work to do on the building,  but we are plugging away at it and making progress every day.   So while we are not doing any major advertising campaigns,  we are slowly getting the word out to our existing customers and friends.  


What will I find at the new shop?


Service area up and running -  We have our service area set up and ready for use and have done the first few repairs.  So although we are a little sparse on in stock service parts I am still confidant that we can get about 90% of repairs done within 24 hours.



Bikes-   There are about 10 bikes on the floor right now, so not a great selection but we still have the ability to pull bikes from the other shop or grab them from a local warehouse.  So as a deal until March,  I will give 10% off any bike I can't get in and built within 72 hours. 



Stuff -  Stuff is rolling in quickly,   You would be surprised as how many service parts there are that don't even make it to the floor,  they just live in the basement until we need them.   Its rolling in and  you will find new stuff every day.



When is the Grand Opening?    - Not 100% sure,  but we are hoping sometime early to mid March we will have a Grand Opening for the Westport Rd. store in conjunction with the 10 year aniversary of the original La Grange  Store.


Is the La Grange Store going to remain open?


YES.   This is not a move it is an expansion.  The LaGrange store is open and with the help of Kyle actually looks better and runs more efficiently than it ever has before. 



Where is the new shop located?



10210 Westport Rd
louisville, Ky 40241
Just inside the Gene Snydor, across from Home Depot


So to all of you who have been with us all these years.  Thank you so much for sticking with us.  This is the next step in what has been a wild ride,  and we are excited to have you with us.

Skateboarding in La Grange

Let me preface this by saying that people in general are highly annoying,  and also easily annoyed.   This makes it a wonder that we are able to be around each other at all.  We hate bikes who slow us down when we are in our cars,  we hate cars that honk at us when we are on our bikes.  We hate when kids haul their basketball goal out into the middle of the road. Unless they are our kids,  then we hate people who drive too fast in the neighborhood.  Any event that causes a backup in traffic is just really annoying and should be held elsewhere,  unless we are attending the event,  and then we are just mad at the other drivers going to the event because if they knew how to drive in the first place everything would be fine.

Which brings me to skateboarders here in La Grange,  but no one likes them anyway,  because they are all punk kids,  high on drugs,  and out generally to cause trouble...  Unless they are your kids.

So lets take a step back and look for a second.  I won't deny that there are some people out there who are just jerks,  but the vast majority of people who annoy us on a day to day basis are just people going about their lives.  There are truly some bad drivers out there,  but most of the stupid stuff you see is just a moment of inattention or small mistake from someone who is otherwise a good driver.  Admit it,  you have spaced out and gotten confused about who's turn it is to go at a four way stop before too.   While we are at it,  I will bet when you were a kid you did at least 6 things that you are not real proud of today.

Which again brings me to our skateboarders.  And this time lets look a little closer and see more than just punks who haven't figured out how to properly wear pants yet. 

Where do skateboarders come from?  If you go to almost every 10 year old kids house you will find an array of sports related toys.  These range from Nerf Footballs, to bikes, skateboards, baseball bats and gloves,  plastic bowling pins,   whatever.   If you take his video game away for long enough,  he will actually play with this stuff, and given enough time he will start to develop favorites.  What sports a will gravitate to is influenced by any number of things.  They are influenced by parents, peers, siblings, natural abilities, availability of equipment and probably a few other things I'm missing.  I won't break all these down for you because if you stop to think about them, you will probably be able to figure them out by yourself.

I will point out though that there are a small handful of sports that are dominated by young athletes, usually because the sport is so hard on the body that by the time you turn 20 you are pretty much done.  Skateboarding may be second only to women's gymnastics in this regard.   This means that by the time a skateboarder enters the "adult world" and has kids and a full time job,  they have left their skateboarding for behind.    I can count on one hand the number of parents that I know who skateboard with their kids.   All of them are in the skateboard industry in some manner.

Another way to say this is there is not typically a huge amount of parental support for skateboarders.   I am not implying that skateboarders are neglected by their parents,  although that may be the case in some circumstances, I am just pointing out that this is a sport that is picked up, practiced and perfected on their own time.   It is a stark contrast to team sports where parents are typically bringing the kids to a specific field/court/gym at a specific time and usually watching the competition.  There are no coaches in skateboarding.

If you put ten kids in a downtown area with no parents or adults around,  8 of them will do something stupid.

(totally made up statistic,  I admit that)

Everyone with me so far?   Here is where I am going to lose you.

I would argue that if you take those same 10 kids and involve them with a sport like skateboarding where they are trying to perfect as physical skill,  the stupid things they do will tend more towards pushing the limits of their sport, and less toward drugs and petty crime.

Providing a public place (like a skatepark)  and or simply not banishing them from every spot which lends itself to skateboarding,  keeps this group closer to where people are.   The closer they are to people the more likely they are not to do things that could get them in trouble.

What I have seen in the last few years that I have been working with our local skateboarders is that they have pockets of support for what they do,  and broad resistance to what they do.   I have had grown adults tell me they are scared because young teenagers are hanging out around their work skateboarding (seriously 13-15 year old kids who are actually quite nice if you talk to them).   I have seen police officers run kids off from skating in the street but then not be quite sure if it is legal for them to skate in the street or not.  (locally there is a debate if they are "skateboards"  which are legal in the street as long as they yield to motor vehicles, or "Toy Vehicles" which are not legal in the street except in crosswalks,  upon last check it hasn't been tested in the courts so there is no president).   And for liability reasons they are run off from most private property like parking lots. For safety reasons they are run off of public property like sidewalks and parks.

What I see for the most part is a sport which has had to insert itself into places where it is not wanted.   Only at the really high end (think X-games)  is it really accepted.   We all want to watch it on TV but we don't want them in our back yard.    It is one of the few sports where there is next to no development program but somehow the talent emerges.

Imagine what would happen if we supported these kids.

Am I suggesting that we spend millions of dollars building skate parks,  and let them skate all over our personal property and in our buildings?  No.   There are legitimate reasons that they can't skate everywhere all the time.   What I am asking is that when you see them, take a closer look.   If we treat them all like they are bad kids,   the good kids will start to drop off because they don't like being considered bad,  or worse may start to conform to the image we created for them. 

On the other hand,  I have seen a lot of positive growth when Church groups,  parents,  and even sometimes older kids, help create and steer the younger kids to places where they can skate, be welcomed and develop their skills.

So sorry for the round about way of getting there,  but if you want to ignore all the rambling,  I guess what I am saying is that seeing a young kid do a" kick-flip off a three stair" is a heck of a lot more impressive than watching him play X-box,  so we ought to encourage rather than discourage him.

And yes,  THANK YOU to the City of LaGrange for not closing the park,  I know my kids are happy to be able to skate for a while before they come to work,  and I know a lot of other kids feel the same way. 

Fat Bike Rentals at Goose Creek (can deliver to Louisville)

Hey all,  it is Fat bike season so we have added a couple of Fat Bikes to our rental fleet.  If you have ever wondered what the fat bike thing is all about this is a good way to try it without having to commit to a purchase. 

KHS 4seasons 500 just in from a ride.

Here at Goose Creek we really love fat bikes this time of year for a number of reasons.

#1  Fat bikes are always fun to ride so this time of year is no different.

#2 As the temperatures drop mountain biking in general becomes a better idea because the woods will offer some shelter from the wind,  and slower speeds with more effort keep you warmer.

#3 Help preserve the trails.   In the winter most of the plants are dormant or dead which means they are not sucking up the water like they do in the summer.   This means the trails stay wet and muddy more than they do in the summer.   On the other side of this coin,  when the temperatures drop enough all this water freezes and you can again ride the trails without doing damage.    Fat bikes give you a wider range of ride time because they float over snowy trails,   have better traction on wet leaves,  and do less damage to the trail if you do hit that occasional section of mud.

#4   The off season is all about maintaining fitness and avoiding burnout.  Trainers can get deadly boring,  a fat bike is a great way to keep interest up with a fun new toy that doesn't break the bank.

This year we will be renting KHS 4 seasons fat bikes.  Give us a little warning and we can have one ready for you. 

Rental rates are offered on a daily, weekly, or mothly rate.

1 day - picked up and returned within one business day $35 (add time for $10/day)
1 week -  $65 (additional weeks may be added for $20/week)