Several people have two calibrations courses set up parallel, in case of parked cars. I have one too. About half the time I go to use my Kirkham Road calibration course it has a couple of parked cars on it. When this happens I use the parallel course, which is offset eight feet toward the middle of the street. Sometimes I have to stop if somebody is encountered driving toward me, but normally vigorous hand-waving gets them to move over.

I found a new use for the calibration course a few weeks ago. The autumn leaves had fallen, and giant leaf piles were in the street awaiting the leaf sucker-upper truck. Nice to have the parallel course then.

My old cal course was on a street that had "No Parking" on one side of it. This generally prevented cars from parking there, but near one end there lived a Justice of the Peace, and people would sometimes stop, just briefly, to run in and have something notarized or get married.

The other thing I had to remember was that Friday was garbage pickup day, and the cans were often stacked in the street onto the cal course.

Back in the old days in WI, I had a friend of a friend who had laser equipment, lay out parallel calibration courses. Both were 8 ft from the curb and across the street from each other. I would ride up one side and back the other.

Bill Grass

Because repaving destroyed my former course, I recently remeasured and reestablished the 1000 foot calibration course in front of my house. I added a parallel course to it, for use when somebody parks a car in an awkward place. The main course is 1 foot from the joint between the curb apron and the asphalt pavement. The second course is 8 feet from the joint – far enough out so that the riding path clears any parked cars.

When I put in the end nails on the main course, I did not pound them all the way in. I looped the end of a 50 foot tape to the nail and moved south until I was at a point 50 feet from the nail and 8 feet from the apron joint. I put in another nail here. Then I finished pounding in the other nail.

I did this at each end of the course. As a result the second calibration course is 49.5 feet offset from the main course.

A bicycle check detected no difference between the lengths of the two courses.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Pete Riegel,