The Land of Speed

Indianapolis, Indiana.

by

Jake Hansen

My trip to Indianapolis, Indiana was big.

For the first time in my life I motorpaced full speed on the wheel of a motorcycle driven by John's coach Ken Nowakowski (see him and Rahsann Bahati at 3:22 min in here) on the Major Taylor Velodrome.

It's a big wide concrete outdoor velodrome that is much smoother

than Alpenrose.

Although the streets are 6 lanes wide and don't have bike lanes there are some people here who can really ride their bikes.

The Marian College Cycling Team has been the Division 1 National Champions for the last 15 years or so. It should come as no surprise then that the Major Taylor Velodrome (where they practice daily) is a stone's throw across the street from their campus. Nowakowski built them to a Collegiate dynasty over the last ten years.

Almost everyone on the team is as fast as Steven Beardsley, and it is rather intimidating to be hanging out on the infield.

Easily I traveled around this giant flat metropolis on my bike a lot. I made it to Joe's Cycles where I got espresso, and talked about the frames that Joe had just started making.

I rode the length of the Monon Greenway Trail which went due North all the way through Carmel for around 20 miles.

At the Baptist Church, that is home to the North Township, I delivered a letter and b.i.k.e. proposal to two pastors in hopes that someday we can continue our great programming in Indianapolis with a house in close proximity to the velodrome.

I traveled through some of the poorest neighborhoods of Indianapolis where houses are For Sale for a few thousand dollars, no money down. People seem like they are waiting for something cool like b.i.k.e. to come along.