Louisville Loop Bike Trail

[wildbears]

Did about 30 miles today. Beautiful day here in Kentucky. Critters on the path included deer, blue tailed skink, green vine snake, king snake, several thousand grasshoppers, and several large "wolf" spiders.


Multiple Switchbacks on this climb.


Silo Park.


LImestone Gorge view from bridge.

[955i]

Thanks for the posting. Looks like fun. What kind of bike did you ride and what was the brand, etc.
TB

[wildbears]

My bike is over 30 yrs old. A Trek 970 frame (produced in 1981) with downtube friction shifters, Campy Record groupset, 13c Campy rims with 25c tires (75/90 psi). Cinelli road racing handlebars/Cinelli cork tape. 42/53 chainrings / 12/18 8 spd cassette.

The eastern section of the trail is a mixture of fairly new concrete and asphalt. The seams between the major concrete slab sections are jaring if you are not in a racing position on my bike.

Most cyclists on the trail had much larger tires and modern bikes with slanted top tubes and lower seat stays resulting in more vertical compliance.

I suspect that as the trail ages there will be more irregularities in the pavement. They have bevelled some the the pavement to bridge transitions with new concrete. There was one rim bender last year.

There are gravel and single track dirt side loops and maybe a challenging "mountain bike" loop at the Silo area.

The scenery is rural with open farm fields, woods, streams, and large rock formations. Wild flowers are in bloom now including fields of goldenrod.

There are multiple rest stops with bathrooms and bike repair stations/air pumps.

Supposedly the trail will be lengthened in the future.

[wildbears]

Did the northern part of the eastern trail yesterday. Another beautiful day. Rode the section between the two blue lines in the 2nd pic.

[955i]

Thanks for the updated info, Wild. Your Trek was made before Trek-Segafredo suspended Quinn Simmons for saying "Bye" to a Trump hater on social media, so I guess that is OK. I have two main road bikes: a 1969 Puegeot U-O8 and a 1990-1993 Team Super Corsa MX-Leader belonging to Eddy Merckx and painted in Team Telecom livery(Pink and blue and black and white) . I bought the bare frame on e-bay ten years ago and had s*** components until last Christmas when I took all my gifts and combined them into a Campy Athena group-set. Transformed the bike and made it run like it was designed to. Gravel? A Bianchi Zurigo cyclocross bike.

[wildbears]

The Trek was the second frame for use with the Campy gruppo.

The first was a San Rencho Super Record Cyclone.

I had it switched over because the San Rencho was essentially a track bike and very punishing on the road.

It came with Araya aero rims and sew-ups. Also very stiff.

I switched to Campy clincher rims and then the Trek frame.

Still punishing on rough pavement.

So the '69 Peugeot. Were you the original owner?

[955i]

My girlfriend (now, wife) bought it in 1971 from a man and his son. They had bought it from a third party. When girlfriend registered it, the police said it was stolen. The man and his son were innocent bona fide buyers, too. The original owner was never found, but the bike was like new. It is surprising "gangly" looking today with the frame tubes looking skinny. It rides like a limousine because it has curved forks and a LONG chainstay.

I raced the Peugeot in crits when I was younger and did a (one!) half-Ironman on it. I really like the old girl. She's a little pudgy, and getting up there in years, but she's French, a bit sassy, and is always ready for another dance if you are up to it!

[wildbears]

Neat back pages on the bike!

I used to race crits, road, and some TTs back in the 70's and 80's in the midwest (mainly Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky).

I just really started back into cycling this past year.

Takes a long time to reboot.

Best to stay in shape.

[wildbears]

Louisville Loop Ride-Along Video (not mine) showing the upper 2/3s of the east-side Loop Trail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG9Seu6imxc

I watched this while spinning on the Turbo Trainer.

[wildbears]

a 1990-1993 Team Super Corsa MX-Leader belonging to Eddy Merckx and painted in Team Telecom livery(Pink and blue and black and white) . I bought the bare frame on e-gay ten years ago and had s*** components until last Christmas when I took all my gifts and combined them into a Campy Athena group-set. Transformed the bike and made it run like it was designed to. Gravel?

Maybe lIke this???

[955i]

I don't really like that wheel set on this particular bike. Do you? Mine has black wheels and spokes that are a Campy house brand of some sort. Bullet proof and true, even if not particularly lightweight. Our aftermarket carbon forks are comparable.

[wildbears]

Agee about the wheels in the pic.

Also about the Campy wheels.

Trying to find your frame paint scheme I must have come across at least a dozen variations.

With and without unilateral or bilateral chainstay chrome.

And the frame looks better without the pink top tube stripe.

Had forgotten Merckx was nicknamed the Cannibal.

[955i]

Wildbears,
People ask what year it is. It is almost impossible to tell, because they were each a bit different and built over about a four-year span. Late '90 thru '94 as best I can tell. I had a Merckx "expert" tell me the only way to really tell when one was built, would be to go to the factory in Belgium. Although they have numbers stamped into the bottom bracket shell, apparently, there's little to be gained there without looking at the holy book at the factory.

[ZATO]

Beautiful...

[wildbears]

Merckx has started making all steel bikes again. Reasonably priced. Frames and complete bikes are available. I think they use stainless steel.

Non-steel bikes and frames are also available as is custom paint.

[dynajohn]

Good to here somebody else is from Louisville wildbears.

[wildbears]

We have family and visit often.

L-Ville is a great town!