Murphy's Law and Cyclists

So, Tuesday afternoon I went for a nice ride out 14th to Saltillo, then SW 12th and north to Pioneers Park. On the way home I took the path, and then had to merge with traffic to cross highway 2 because of the new traffic configuration at Van Dorn and highway 2 (the sidewalk on the south side of the intersection running east and west is no longer there).

As I head down Van Dorn and then up the hill towards the light at 13th street, it occurred to me that there are certain laws that govern our actions and behaviors as cyclists, some of which happened to take effect that day. To wit:

1) If you are going uphill, and approaching a light, the light will turn red most of the time.

2) The heavier the traffic around you, and the steeper the hill, the more probable it is that the light will turn red.

3) The light will not turn red until you have almost reached the intersection, causing you to stop suddenly with no chance to shift down to an easier gear.

4) Your ability to clip in on the first attempt after a red light is inversely related to the amount of traffic, the steepness of the hill, and the ridiculously high gear you were forced to stop in.

There are others unrelated to my situation yesterday, such as:

1) A slow motion fall when you are learning to ride in clipless pedals will happen when the most people are around to see you.

Etc.

Can you guys come up with some other good ones?

SILO.....isn't that a call girls name?

Share the road...spread the discontent

Another week, another cycling vs. driving bashing in the LJS.
Nothing like advancing the cyclist/motorist distain for each other like a scathing letter to the editor calling out all motorist with insults that references gas-guzzling SUV's and frequent trips to Mickey D's. Top it off with tagging any and all motorists with ruining the planet by selling their souls to the Middle East and chances are you irked nearly everyone who read the editorial and got behind the wheel to drive into work today.

It's the never-ending battle between cyclists and motorists -- the Ying and the Yang -- only the "Ying" outweighs the "Yang" by a few thousand pounds and is much more deadly of a weapon.

I'm not anti-car/SUV/truck, whatever. I just believe bikes are underutilized. Few people even think of using a bike to get around for certain things. A perfect example: we used a babysitter over the weekend -- he lives less than a mile away. Instead of hopping on a bike to come over and get back home, a member of his family drove him over and picked him up.

People don't think of using the bike -- it's not a part of our culture like it seems to be in Europe. Maybe when gas reaches $5 or even $6 per gallon we'll start to see the cultural shift.

There will always be contention between two-wheeled folk and four-wheeled folk. I know one thing: insults and general negative stereotypes is not the way to bring the two camps closer.

Wednesday Night No-Crash Ride

In light of Nicol's post on the teamFIRE blog, the crash on last week's hammerfest ride, and with the numbers who have been showing up lately on the Wed. night ride (many new people as well), I decided to give a little speech before this week's ride. I just asked people to call out anything that might cause them to swerve or brake, and mentioned that last week signals were not getting to the back of the group - it seemed well received and I would say that everybody was very conscious of calling out road debris on the ride.

It was necessary, because we went out to Bennett and then through the Roca rollers, and the shoulder on highway 2 is a mess. It was a good ride, with lots of people there (not the 30+ that were there last week, but maybe about 20) - couldn't convince anybody to stop for margaritas afterwards, though. I thought I had Jace, Adrian, and Katie C. talked into it, but they bailed at the last second. Bummed me out, 'cause that was the last Wednesday ride for me before school starts. Oh, well.

Anybody riding the 8 am Saturday ride this week?

Saturday Ride to Cortland

Windy. Hot. Humid.

We took off at 8:30 (because Nicol wanted to leave a little later so she could sleep in). Kevin, Gravy, and Katie (who came because Nicol asked her to on the Wednesday night ride) were all there, and we headed out to Cortland.

Wait a second, if you pull back on the perspective, is that Nicol over there to the right riding the giant wheel bike? I think it is! She did make the ride!!

(Click on the pic to see Nicol riding the giant bike)

Don't forget to wear your helmet at all times, Nicol :)


Sorry for the awful photochopping job, but I was tired.

Branched Oak Ride

Friday morning I went on a ride out to Branched Oak with Scott, one of my musician friends who has recently taken up riding bikes and wants to learn about riding on the road.

He is used to mostly riding on the Mopac trail, so wind and hills (and although not too windy, there were plenty of hills), are a little new to him, as is going for longer rides. We started out at Pawnee Lake and rode out to Branched Oak, taking a lap around the lake before heading back. The hills were tough for him, but he did a good job staying within himself.

For a midmorning ride, I was surprised at the amount of wildlife we saw - a fawn and a doe early in the ride, then a big buck on the west side of Branched Oak. We also came across this family of turkeys - one of them had crossed the road in front of us - the rest of them stayed on the other side. The lone turkey made her displeasure known (loudly) at being separated from the rest of the family.

It was a nice morning, and a good 27 mile recovery ride for me. I tend to push myself pretty hard on most of the rides I go on, and this was a fun way to force myself to go a little easier.

Saturday ride -- be there.

When? Saturday 8:30 a.m.
What? road bike (duh)
Where? Wilderness Perk -- then to Cortland/Hallam (40 miles)
Who? you
Why? because we like you -- yes, you.