On Any Given Tuesday

By Charles Sowell  

JUNE 23, 2011 1:55 p.m. (0)

In Greenville’s bike riding community tradition means a lot but getting to run a stop sign is gravy for the regular Tuesday night riders at Donaldson Center.

Donaldson – better known today as the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center (SCTAC) – is the granddaddy in a rich and diverse sporting heritage that dates back at least 25 years in Greenville.

“This is the one place where everybody knows they can hook up for a great ride on Tuesdays,” said Steve Baker, the event organizer for the Greenville Spinners and director of bike racing for Hincapie Sports.

“It is where I go to get a great workout because I know on any given Tuesday night some of the fastest racers in the Upstate will be there.”

Much about the origins of the Tuesday night rides have been lost, Baker said.

“I do know it’s been going on for about 25 years and still draws 200 to 300 riders every week.”

Baker describes the Donaldson rides as both athletic and social.

“Everybody (in the biking community) knows about it and they make time in their schedule to be there.”

More advanced riders run on a course that whips around the rolling terrain of Donaldson and lets them zip through that course’s only stop sign under the watchful eyes of a Greenville County deputy sheriff.

There are also easier, and slower, rides available for all levels of riders, Baker said.

If Donaldson is the Daytona 500 of the local biking community then riders in the city of Greenville who use their bikes to commute and for trail riding partake of a more sedate state of affairs.

“Things slow down for bike riders,” said Andrew Meeker, a planner with the city of Greenville and self-confessed bicycle fanatic. “When you’re riding on the Swamp Rabbit nature seems to leap out at you. You actually see the heron wading in the river; birds’ singing is something you can hear. It doesn’t all whiz by like it does for people in a car.

“When you use your bike to get to work you can say ‘hi’ to a neighbor.”

Greenville is riding a bike craze that has seen the number of bike riders skyrocket and their associated economic impact increase exponentially.

“And it has gone to prove that if you build it, they will come,” said Meeker.

Since the city launched its bike infrastructure program in 2005 the numbers of bike riders has skyrocketed, Meeker said, and it is reflected most obviously in the number of bike shops operating in the Greenville area and in the associated economic impact.

Randy McDougal, owner of Carolina Triathlon on South Main Street, said his business has increased ten fold since they opened in 2003.

“Mostly, for us, the growth seems to be fueled by baby boomers,” he said.

Figures from the most recent city study of bicycling show there were two shops in Greenville in 2005, today there are eight; 60 percent of those shops have sales exceeding $500,000 a year and more than 37 percent have sales in the $1.5 million to $ 2 million range.

All of the shops polled attributed their sales increase to programs to build bicycle-friendly infrastructure.

There are no hard figures available for bike ridership in Greenville, although the city is doing a survey and should have some results this year. According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation approximately 57 million people, 27.3 percent of the population age 16 or older rode a bicycle at least once during the summer of 2002.

Many here agree the much of the credit for surging bike usage centers around two factors – the Swamp Rabbit Trail and a rising level of comfort that riding on the streets of Greenville is increasingly safe.

City Councilwoman Amy Ryberg Doyle is passionate about the city’s bike lane program and sees it as the natural outgrowth of the Safe Streets Initiative adopted by council in recent years.

“You’re not going to have bike ridership unless people feel comfortable doing it on city streets,” she said. “And you’re not going to have pedestrian traffic unless people feel safe on the sidewalks.”

She cited the road diet program that pared East North Street from a four-lane major traffic artery down to a two-lane road with bike lanes and a central turn lane.

The bike lanes give a cushion to pedestrian traffic that encourages walking. “Nobody wants to walk right beside a busy four-lane highway,” she said.

And, says Ryberg Doyle, bikes are helping bring families closer together.

“Not long ago my husband and I were able to take our twin eight-year-old girls and ride our bikes from home (in the North Main area) over to the Swamp Rabbit trail,” she said. “From there we rode all the way to Travelers Rest and back.

“It was a wonderful family experience and the girls slept like 10 or 12 hours after we were done.”

Bike riders seem to follow a natural sort of progression, said Ric Ramos, manager of The Great Escape bicycle shop in Greenville.

“We have people come in and buy a basic bike, then come back in six months to a year and upgrade,” he said. “It’s the sort of sport that grows on people. Most of our riders start out on something like the Swamp Rabbit Trail, get the feel for it, and want to branch out.”

From the runs at Donaldson riders often graduate to cross country road biking, Ramos said.

“To me road bike riding is the most difficult of all the forms of the sport,” Ramos said. “You have to deal with distance, terrain, and always be aware of traffic.”

Hundreds of riders regularly make the cross country ride from Furman University, through Travelers Rest and on to Saluda, N.C., following old U.S. 25 past Poinsett Reservoir.

“That’s a good 50 to 60 mile trip,” Ramos said. “It gives you a great workout and takes you through some spectacular scenery.”

Meeker said he loves the Saluda road trips and makes the ride often.

“Different people have different things they like about a trip like that. Some like the long downhill coming back. I, personally, love the challenge of the climb.”