Can Anyone Spare Some Handlebar Tape?

 

I know. I know.

I could use new handlebar tape.

But the view always looks new on the Red Rock Loop.

Las Vegas, Invest In Bicycling Like Other Real Big League Cities

 

The Raiders NFL stadium is an enormous building and yet I arrive at the domed stadium with a simple technique -- I drive most of the way in my car with my bicycle inside, park on  quiet side street west of the stadium, remove the bike from the car and pedal about five minutes to a bike rack near the media entrance.

Las Vegas is a strange place.

It uses gimmicky tactics like hiring Elon Musk to bore tunnels around Las Vegas for Teslas to transport a person when all you to do is install a bike rack in good places and people wll bike on over.

Here's my 1980s-era Raleigh rod bike at Allegiant Stadium Thursday for the Raiders-Cardinals exhibition game.

Previous years I even locked up the Surly Pugsley!

 

Sunrise Bicycle Ride In Jungleland; Playing Springsteen's Epic Song In My Head As I Bike Red Rock Canyon

 

Before this morning's 6AM bicycle ride I watched a video of Clarence Clemons' nephew, Jake, play the saxophone solo in Jungleland, one of Bruce Springsteen's most amazing songs. Clarence died in 2011 and Jake took over for the "Big Man" in 2012 in the Wrecking Ball Tour. The video showed Jake's debut and his Jungleland solo was beautiful. He would have made Uncle Clarence proud.

The song was playing on an endless loop in my helmeted head as I bicycled along State Route 159 to the Red Rock Scenic Drive as part of my 32-mile morning trek.

I love Sunday mornings because it's the sole day of the week when the gigantic gypsum trucks are grounded and there's no rumbling trailer trucks buzzing me along SR 159. It was beautiful to see the gypsum mine entrance closed today. No trucks! Yeah!

I don't bike very fast and that works out well because it give me more time to enjoy the light illuminating the Red Rock ridge and the shadows along SR 159.

Most of the land along SR 159 is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, but there are small notches of private land like the old Bonnie Springs Ranch which was a tourist draw for its old 1880s era mining town shtick complete with gunfights and  petting zoo. It was sold to a residential developer who plan to build big homes on the site.

The Bonnie Springs sign is gone -- and that was news to me.

There are a mix of crotch rocket youngins flying on motorcycles, road cyclists who are not the most friendly folks and drivers motoring along in high-off-the-ground pickup trucks. 

I'm always saying hi to the cyclists with a "Hey now" greeting and most do not engage. There were also two runners jogging on the shoulder and runners typically say hi.

The Jnngleland song is playing over and over in my head, with the Clarence/Jake Clemons solo especially in focus in my mind.

On the Red Rock Loop Congresswoman Susie Lee comes bicycling by. She's very fit and a very strong bicyclists both on road bikes and mountain bikes. I gave her my Bicycle Man book and she recalled that as she zipped on by with a few words. She's running against a Republican fella who is a piano player.

I head on home and reach the homestead at 9 AM.

It was a lovely bike ride,

DEF CON Convention Bicyclists Pedal Red Rock Canyon And State Route 159 Outside Summerlin

 

It's Friday morning and I'm biking a 34-mile ride that includes the State Route 159 stretch from Summerlin through Red Rock Canyon outside Las Vegas.

It's a rare road ride for me. I just don't ride my bicycle around Las Vegas too much anymore because the roads here in Las Vegas/Clark County are designed for cars and not for bicyclists and walkers and way too dangerous for my taste. I find a motorist nearly hits me every time I ride for more than 30 miles around Clark County and Las Vegas.. 

Only a few months ago, Clark County had a ribbon cutting to celebrate the opening of the Red Rock Legacy Trail, a paved trail that is supposed to run from Summerlin along the State Route 159 corridor through Red Rock Canyon to State Route 160 (Blue Diamond Road). Sounds like a great idea after 20 years of planning and talking. A 20-mile trail along the busy and also dangerous SR 159 is vitally needed.

But the first phase that was celebrated a few months ago is a mere .99 of a mile and it was sad and disappointing to see a group of bicyclists ignore the new trail to stay on the road while I was bicycling Friday morning. It was a group of DEF CON convention bicyclists. For the record, I do bike on the trail and then walk my bike back to State Route 159.

This .99 of  mile trail also dead ends and there's no temporary trail of 30 feet or so to hook back into SR 159. That's Clark County and Las Vegas for you. It's a minor point. But the bar of design and bicycle amenities are just so low here in Vegas.

The DEF CON bicyclists were having a good time following SR 159 to the Red Rock overlook parking lot that's situated before the Red Rock loop exit on 159.

Tip of the helmet to Bruce, who once bicycled from Virginia to Las Vegas to attend the DEF CON event.in a previous year and organized the DEF CON bicyclist ride.

 

Hopefully the Red Rock Legacy Trail will be extended beyond the ,99 of a mile. Work is supposed to continue o extending the trail in 2027. So we shall see. Bicyclists are not exactly a high priority in the Las Vegas area.

Love Lovell Canyon On Extreme Heat Warning Days In Las Vegas

 

Lovell Canyon is a mere ten minutes away.

But the cooler temperature off State Route 160 outside Mountain Springs meant all the difference that made a road ride a great late-day bicycling experience.

The U.S. Forest road is technically paved, but it is in a choppy, bumpy condition.

There are hardly any drivers and cars, however, so it's a great bicycle time without the motorists.

It's the cool foothills sanctuary of the Spring Mountains and there are dirt primal camp sites.

There are signs posted that say there are 14-day maximum stays and no "residential" stays that last more than two weeks.

Nearly five miles off SR 160 the US Forest road goes downhill bigtime after the stretch of gradual climbing.

There's another four miles of climbing before the paved road ends.

The road turns left and become a dirt surface with more camp sites and a hiking trail network.

Keep rolling, my friends.

We have a protected bicycle lane sighting in Clark County (Las Vegas is still trying to build its first)

 

Finally, a protected bicycle lane in Clark County and Las Vegas.

The Vegas area is way behind the rest of the country when it comes to bicycle trails, protected lanes and bike infrastructure.

But great to see Clark County finally building a protected bike lane along Starr Avenue from Las Vegas Boulevard to Bermuda Road. It's only about two miles or so but you have to start somewhere.

Clark County, thanks to county commissioners Muchael Naft and Justin Jones, is building legit bicycle infrastructure after years of neglect. The protected bike lanes are in Naft's district, while Jones worked to get great bike lanes on Fort Apache Road in the southwest valley and a bike tunnel under Charleston Blvd. along the 215 bike trail.

The city of Las Vegas needs a bicycle champion on its city council. But no council members have stepped up to build bike infrastructure and as a result the city is at the 28th percentile out of more than 2,000 cities for its dismal bicycle network. The city mayor is clueless about bicycling and never talks about road safety. Sad situation.

Speak Out and Speak Up If You Want Local Government To Improve Bicycle Safety In Las Vegas

 

There are not too many lengthy paved trails around Las Vegas and Clark County but there is the 215 Beltway Trail, a ribbon of pavement that runs next to sections of the suburban highway that encircles the metro Las Vegas area.

A popular segment of the 215 Trail is in the western sprawling suburb of Summerlin, where the trail crosses busy Charleston Boulevard near the Red Rock hotel-casino. The problem is the trail crossing is neither a bridge nor a tunnel and crossing Charleston at grade is a dangerous endeavor because there are many motorists driving onto and off the 215 at ramps and turning right at red lights right into walkers and bicyclists who have the right-of-way to cross the road (after a lengthy wait).

I joined bicyclists Jen Hanks and Jared Fisher for a Channel 8 news report on this problem in December 2020. You can see the story here.  

That's why it's heartening to see construction of a 215 Trail tunnel going on now at Charleston. For a video look at the construction, click here.

Clark County is doing the work even though the city of Las Vegas is on the north side of Charleston. Kudos to Clark County Commission Justin Jones for spearheading this road safety project. Clark County Commission Chairman Michael Naft is also a strong proponent of safe roads for bicyclists and walkers. Sadly, the city of Las Vegas has no city council members championing this public safety issue and Mayor Shelley Berkley is a bit clueless on the topic.

Naturally, it's always best for trail crossings to be build safely when the trail is built. This tunnel (or bridges like the ones at the Town Center and Far Hills Ave. exits) should have been built as part of the trail when it opened. The crossings at Flamingo and Sahara are at grade and rather dangerous.

It will take a while for Clark County and the city of Las Vegas to catch up in the bicycle infrastructure category to other cities across the U.S. The national People For Bikes organization out of Colorado put Las Vegas at the 28th percentile of more than 3,000 cities when it comes to bike network resources. That's mighty sad and dismal.

Bicycling Las Vegas: Even Waiting At A Red Light In Summerlin 'burbs Can Be Costly

 

I was waiting on my bicycle in a bike lane on Alta Drive at a red light at the Durango intersection when I felt a rush of air on my right shoulder.

A driver in a Honda SUV making a right turn missed me by a matter of a few inches and nearly clipped me while making a right turn at the red light from Alta to Durango. I hate that drivers can make right turns on red lights. Most never come to a full stop -- like this moron who almost hit me.

The driver of a small convertible in the traffic lane to my left who was also stopped at the red light, saw the SUV nearly hit me, rolled down his front passenger window and uttered, "Unbelievable."

It was Saturday morning in Las Vegas and I had left my home across from the BLM Red Rock National Conservation lands near State Route 160 at 5:15 AM to bike at a time when there would be limited car drivers on the road.

I figured a Saturday morning in my-July in the Las Vegas area would be a safer time to bike because I figured there would be less car traffic.

It's a 50-mile route that I have named, "The Big Rectangle," because I bike east to the Strip, turn left and head to the Las Vegas downtown, make a another left on Alta Drive to head west to Summerlin and then bike on State Route 159 through Red Rock Canyon to my home near SR 160.

But this is Las Vegas. So many people drive recklessly around here -- like the guy driving this Honda SUV.

During my Big Rectangle ride, I biked the Strip around 6:30 AM and it was all quiet.

Funny how biking the Strip was uneventful at 6:30 while waiting at a red light at the Alta-Durango intersection in a bike lane nearly ended with a car driver hitting me.

Along the Strip I stopped at the A's stadium construction site at the Reno Ave. side street.

The A's are building a $2 billion domed MLB stadium where the Tropicana hotel-casino used to stand. The owner of the former Tropicana, Bally's Corporation, said it wants to build a hotel tower, entertainment and restaurants around the A's stadium but nothing outside the ballpark is currently being built.

 

It did not take long to bike north on the Strip to downtown Vegas.

I take a lane and wave the few car drivers on the Strip around me, pointing to the open traffic lane on my left.

When I reach downtown, I turn left on Alta and start biking west and slowly climbing back to Summerlin. I then take the 215 trail for a mile to Charleston Blvd. and continue west on State Route 159 through Red Rock Canyon.

I hop on the .99 of a mile trail that runs along SR 159 at the new Sky Vista traffic light. The .99 of a mile trail is phase one of a Red Rock Legacy trail that supposedly is being built through the entire Red Rock canyon corridor along SR 159. It's depressing to bike on this lovely paved trail for .99 of a mile and then see it end at the hill. The trail is to be continued one day. Clark County says construction will restart in 2027.

Click here  for my video of this trail.

I stopped at the Red Rock visitors center where the volunteers inside at the info desk are way tired of my comments about bicycling along SR 159. They've heard me too many times -- the speeders, the lack of any Nevada state trooper patrols and the crotch rocket guys illegally passing cars at their 80-100 mph speeds.

Maybe one day that .99 of a mile trail will extend to the Red Rock drive entrance, the loop exit and eventually State Route 160. 

I just don't know whether I will live to see a finished Red Rock trail but the trail extension is in the plans.

Bicyclists Who Devoted Their Lives To Making Streets Safer Killed While Bicycling in Chicago In June, In Boston Today

 

They loved bicycling and lived bicycle lives.

Their names are Riley O'Neil, who worked on bicycle safety issues for the City of Chicago's Department of Transportation, and Louisa Gag, a Boston Transportation Department planner who worked on road planning designed to stop car drivers from striking bicyclists and pedestrians.

Both were killed while bicycling in their home towns where they tried to make roads safer for bicyclists.    

On June 5, the 35-year-old O'Neil was killed while bicycling in the Chicago area where he was doored by a motorist and then mortally wounded by a truck driver who struck O'Neil in the road.  

Today July 9, more tragic news struck when the 36-year-old Gag was killed while bicycling in the Boston area at 8:19 AM.  

These bicyclist deaths are brutally heartbreaking and upsetting to hear. These were people trying to make a difference in making roads safer for bicyclists.

Also last month, University of California at Irvine climate and earth science professor Francois Primeau, 60, was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Santa Ana in Orange County, California June 19.

It saddens me to know these bicyclists were killed while living lives devoted to making our roads and planet a better place.

Could Not Find Bike Racks At Bellagio, So Railing In Parking Garage Will Have To Do

 

Reaching the Bellagio by bicycle is hardly a cakewalk because it calls for biking o the Strip and turning into the Bellagio and then biking on a narrow road to the self park parking garage.

As usual with the hotels on the Strip, I could not find a bicycle rack so I locked up the bike on out-of-sight railing on the first level that connects to the casino floor level.

I was at the Bellagio to visit with a good South Florida friend who is in the sports business industry and participating in the SEICON III event on sports entertainment innovation this week.

Naturally, I popped in to the conservatory.

Looks like the Bellagio is a fan of the A's, which uses the elephant as a part of its branding.

How About Connecting The End Of .99 Mile Trail To State Route 159 Outside Summerlin As Temporary Move

 

I know Ron the Red Rock Loop toll collector quite well.

I check in with Ron at his window whenever I bike the Red Rock Scenic Drive and today Ron made a great point about the end of the .99 of a mile trail outside Summerlin along State Route 159.

"Why didn't they just connect the end of the trail to 159 with a spur trail,?" Ron asked me. "When they continue the trail they can just remove the temporary spur."

Ol' Ron read my mind.

I've been trying to figure that out, too.

The "spur" that Ron described is actually maybe only 40 or 50 feet or from the .99 of a mile trail to 159. It's kind of sad the first phase of the 17-mile Red Rock Legacy Trail is a mere .99 of a mile when the trail was supposed to go six miles down 159 to the Red Rock Loop exit in Phase 1.

But money being tight (for bicycle and pedestrian projects, I guess), Phase 1 funds could only .99 of a mile of paved trail from outside Summerlin to the first State Route 159 hill.

Here's a video of the start of the trail that I biked this morning as part of my 33-mile "Triangle" bike route, a newly-amended and shorter version of my 50-mile "Big Rectangle" bike ride. 

It's a good thing the contractor, Las Vegas Paving, installed the "Pavement Ends" sign because it's so hard to figure out the pavement ends.

It's at that point, after .99 of a mile, that I simply walk my bicycle the 40 feet or so from the .99 of  mile trail to the shoulder of State Route 159 to continue my trek home through Red Rock Canyon.

You have to wonder why there's no money to continue Phase 1 when the F1 car race tells us it brings in $1 billion a year in spending and the Raiders/Allegiant Stadium says they bring in $1 billion a year in spending and the LVCVA chief Steve Hill says the Super Bowl brings in $1 billion a year in spending. It seems $1 billion a year or per event is the default spending number used by the sports boosters in town.

F1 is all about using our PUBLIC roads for its Las Vegas Grand Prix, so how about F1 pay to build a real regional paved trail network so that Las Vegas can improve its 28 percentile ranking when it comes to Vegas ranked in bicycle networks. National bicycle advocacy group People For Bikes said Las Vegas ranked 2,171th out of 3,019 cities when it comes to its bicycle network. That's accurate because both Clark County and the City of Las Vegas have some bicycle infrastructure like bike lanes and a few paved trail here and there, but because the connectivity of the bike infrastructure is so awful Las Vegas ranks so low for its bicycle network system.

About two miles to the east on 159.Charleston Blvd., thank goodness Clark County is building a 215 beltway trail tunnel underneath busy Charleston because bicyclists and walkers have been trying to dodge car drivers and traffic when crossing Charleston at grade. The drivers are turning onto and off the 215 beltway ramps and often turning into crossing bicyclists who have the right of the way at the time.

Here's a video showing the tunnel construction during my bicycle ride this morning.

I don't understand why Las Vegas and Clark County just don't build infrastructure right the first time. Like, who would design a 215 trail crossing that not a trail bridge or a tunnel? Now, Clark County went back and did it right.

I have been complaining to the city and county about dangerous at-grade crossing for years. Kudos to Channel 8 in 2020 for doing a story on this horribly-designed trail crossing, which is in Clark County on one side and the city of Las Vegas on the other side.

I can't wait to bike in this tunnel to get from one side of Charleston to the other. I will be at this tunnel ribbon-cutting for sure!

 

Lovell Canyon: Summer Relief Outside Las Vegas

 

Lovell Canyon gives you a taste of the Spring Mountains without launching into the big trip up the Kyle or Lee Canyon Roads.

It's over the Potosi Mountain peak on State Route 160 at the small town of Mountain Springs and about three miles down the big hill and there's the turn for Lovell Canyon.

I live out here near Blue Diamond, so it's only ten minutes down the road to park, unload a bicycle and start bicycling up the nine-mile U.S. Forest Service road where people can camp out for a maximum 14 days in a row.

It's a lovely setting with lots of green color shades and rolling landscape

It's a great escape in the summer.

Trying to bicycle Las Vegas, the outlier city of the United States

 

I have lived all around the U.S.

There was metro New York City, then South Florida and off to Denver. Then back to South Florida before moving to Seattle and then a path that found me eventually in Tampa before arriving here in Las Vegas in 2012.

It's taken 14 years to 2026 for me to finally accept that things like planning and road safety in Las Vegas and Clark County (the local government that oversees the Strip) are just different from everywhere else. And when I say different, I mean the standards are lower amid a loosey-goosey approach to doing things around here.

My perspective comes from my perch on a bicycle.

I love bicycling. It's the ultimate form of transportation. It gives you the ability to soak in details of life all around you while also going just fast enough to reach your destination in a reasonable time.

I see the Las Vegas METRO police "DUI stings" and enforcement numbers, but I rarely see police officers patrolling Las Vegas area roads.

I live outside the village of Blue Diamond off State Route 159, which is a state road. But the only time I see a state trooper on Sr 159 is when there's a bad crash. Like a few Sundays ago when I motorcyclist crashed. I saw a makeshift memorial with a cross, alcohol bottles and other items at the site of the crash off SR 159 near Blue Diamond.

Today, there was a back up of 18-wheelers and trailers at the gypsum mine entrance a half-mile from Blue Diamond. Some of the 18-wheelers took up part of the SR 159 travel lane, which is not exactly a safe move.

Speeding, illegal passing and general reckless driving are common on SR 159. Mix in the 18-wheeler gypsum mine and plant traffic, the casual speeders and the guys on crotch rockets zooning 100 mph and you have a nice brew of road chaos -- especially on the weekends.

I used to bike all over metro Vegas.

No more.

People drive dangerously and recklessly. There are no regional paved trails except for the trail along the 215 beltway -- and those trail crossings are awful with cars entering and coming off the 215 beltway, endangering trail bicyclists who have the right-of-way when crossing road like Flamingo, Sahara and Charleston. Kudos to County Commissioner Justin Jones for pushing for the trail tunnel being built underneath Charleston so that bicyclists will not have to face the dangers of trying to cross Charleston at the grade level.

I cover lots of news in the Strip corridor. to avoid traffic and parking problems, I often drive with my 1980s Raleigh beater bike to a mile or two from the trip, park on a quiet side street and take out the Raleigh to reach my destination. For example, only two weeks ago I biked to the A's stadium construction site for a tour. Here's the Raleigh at the site:

Many of the hotels on the Strip lack bike racks for the public, with Fontainebleau Las Vegas among the worst businesses I have encountered for bicyclists. They refused to allow me to lock my bike on bike racks used by employees.

I good shoutout to T-Mobile Arena, built with bike racks right outside the New York New York parking garage near the ticket windows off the plaza.

But most of the Strip corridor is horribly planned for bicycles. The Las Vegas Convention Center has no bike racks in front of its newly renovated main convention hall and there's a small bike rack for three bicycles at the $1 billion West Hall convention hidden away behind the building next to the truck bay.

The Las Vegas Reid Airport also has crappy bike racks at the Terminal 1 parking garage. The metal racks are the slotted types -- way out of date and difficult to use to lock your bike frame to. This is Las Vegas, which ranked 2,171th out of more than 3,000 cities in bicycle networks, according to a 2026 People For Bike city rankings report.

Metro Las Vegas does have some nice scenic places to ride a bicycle -- the River Mountains Trail Loop in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, the city of Henderson and Boulder; the Red Rock Scenic Drive and Valley of Fire State Park.

But the city of Las Vegas and Clark County don't control those bike places.

The local governments can make it so much more safer for bicyclists -- and walkers -- but building roads to move cars as fast as possible and not for bike safety is the priority in this town. There's a lot of lip service and talking. But let's see the paved trails and protected bike lanes in the work centers -- not just in the affluent development of Summerlin.