Saturday Ride?

First of all, happy Thanksgiving to all!  Is anybody interested in doing a ride on the Jamaica trail early Saturday afternoon?  Gotta work off all that good food.  Weather is supposed to be in the mid 50s and sunny.

Pic Post

I haven't done a picture post for a while, so I thought I'd post a few pics.

Night rides have taken over this time of year - here is the group from last Thursday's ride out to Roca tavern:

On Sunday I rode out to Pioneers park to watch the cyclocross races - always fun to watch, especially when friends are out there suffering :)

Here are a couple of LoupGarou:



Here are some of Tom H.:



I tried to get a pic of Monsignor, but he was too fast and I just got him going by:


The crowd watching seemed to be having their usual good time, from the little girl banging on the bike frame to cheer riders up Hooligan Hill, to the impromptu bbq and the traveling tunes supplied by CVO and cc-rider, everybody enjoyed the weather and the race.

Post Ride chat

Tweed anyone?

This looks interesting...

I'm bettin' Gravy has a closet full o' tweed.

Thursday Night Ride

Adrian has posted that there will be another Thursday night ride - meeting at 6:00 p.m. at the bench at 27th and highway 2.  The ride will be to Roca Tavern and back.  The last two Thursday night rides have been a blast, and it should be pretty nice - if a little cool - this Thursday as well.

Bob Marley + morning commute = Goodness

Never mind the fact I got buzzed on my neighborhood street by a shiny red Chevy Impala. That dude was an ass.

Bob Marley mellowed me, though.

October in November

It sure feels like we had November in October this year, and now we're getting the payoff by having October in November. For once, I had some time free on a nice day, and was able to take the road bike out for a spin to Bluestem. It was a bit breezy, but nice - I can tell that I've been riding the Jamaica trail more than the road lately, as hills and wind felt like a bit of a challenge.

The other challenge came halfway through the ride when I lost my right contact riding near Sprague. The rest of the ride looked like this:

So, if you're out riding the road that runs from Sprague up to highway 77, and you happen to see a contact lens, that's mine.

Brush with Greatness, part 2

Last winter, my wife and I ate breakfast in Chicago at a table next to this guy - who was in Dumb and Dumber and was also featured on a recent episode of The Office. Last Saturday, my son ran into Joba Chamberlain and shook his hand at the NU-OU game, and before the game, my wife and I saw this guy driving around the Haymarket:


Five points goes to the first person who guesses who this was.

Night Rider

No, not that Knight Rider.

Warmer, but still not quite.

I am referring to cycling at night - a newer experience for me since I just got the Surly this summer. There have been lots of rides home on the road bike from the summer post ride gatherings - but those rides were on well-lit streets for the most part. Riding at night on the Jamaica trail is completely different, especially when the ride starts and ends in the dark. A couple of weeks ago on the Monday night cross ride, I ran into da Term and Nicol out by Roca, and along with Greg, we rode back together in increasing darkness.

Last night, Adrian, Byekin, Ho Fo Sho, Da Term (who ran into us by accident, and had to leave us at 14th street 'cause we were too slow), and I headed out in the darkness to dodge the deer on the way to the Roca Tavern. Great weather, and a great ride with lots of laughs. I will definitely have to get a better light if I want to keep doing this, though - a light more like this:


instead of this:

Doctor convicted of assaulting cyclists

Have you been following this story?  This is remarkably similar to the incident that happened to Kew, Jace, Adrian, Aaron G., Kelly B., and I on the last day of TDN in 2007.  In that incident, a pickup driver buzzed Kew and I on Roca Road, and then drove around and cut off the other four guys, slamming on his brakes when he got in front of them.  Fortunately, no crashing in that incident, unlike this one:

From velonews:

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury on Monday found Dr. Christopher Thomas Thompson guilty of assaulting cyclists by abruptly stopping his car in front of them on a hilly Los Angeles County road last year. 

Thompson, a former emergency room doctor, was found guilty of six felonies and one misdemeanor and could face as much as five years in prison. 

He was remanded and ordered held without bail until sentencing. He was handcuffed in the courtroom after the verdict was read.

Thompson was accused of assault with a deadly weapon, reckless driving causing specified bodily injury, battery with serious bodily injury and mayhem. The most serious charges stem from a July 4, 2008, incident on Mandeville Canyon Road, the road where Thompson lives, where he was accused of abruptly stopping his car in front of two cyclists. Other charges relate to a similar incident on the same road that did not result in injuries.

In the July 4 incident, the two cyclists hit the rear of Thompson's car; one slammed through the rear window, the other catapulted over the car into the road. In the earlier incident, the cyclists said they narrowly avoided hitting the rear of Thompson's car.

I am hopeful that this will set a national precedent for how these situations are handled in the court system.