Where's my stick?

Saturday, June 25, 2011 17:48:40

Crap, I literally forgot about writing until after midnight last night…so two today.

First up: Bikes.

I love my bike. I’ve got a 1986 Schwinn Paramount, still mostly Dura-Ace, that I got from a friend during his divorce, back in ’91. I had the rear drop-out opened up to 135mm to accept the 8-,9-,and 10-gear clusters that were invented long after this frame was built. Mostly as a precaution for the Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride in 2000, five-hundred-some-odd miles from Fairbanks to Anchorage, in mid-August. Just about every road condition imaginable except ice…oh, wait, there was Tuesday. Anyway, for those who know bikes or that ride, those are my bona fides, and they’re solid.

Oh, and I just got back from a tune-up MTB ride off Mandeville Canyon a couple hours ago.

That said, those quals given, here’s why I’m writing: I’m ready to start walking around with a stick, just to stick through the wheels of cyclists in traffic. I am just fed up with the bad name ten percent of the cyclists on the road give the rest of us, including me. This was in the LA Times ‘Letters’ this morning:

Rules of the road
Re "Cyclists voice concerns after crash," June 20

The Times ought to print the rules of the road for cyclists. It seems that no one knows that almost all of the rules for driving a car also apply to cyclists.

I almost hit a cyclist the other day at a four-way stop sign. When I started to drive through, a bike came speeding by without stopping. I followed him and spoke with him. He was insulted and said that I didn't know the law: that people on bicycles don't have to obey stop signs. He was serious!

Francis Williams
Venice

Meanwhile, today, on my MTB ride, two guys were bombing back down as I was coming up, the second riding a flat. He had no equipment at all. No spare tube, no patch kit, no pump, no tire levers…nothing. Did I mention neither of them had helmets on? He asked if I had a patch kit, and I waited for 15 minutes through their futile attempt to repair the damage. Couldn’t wait the five minutes the glue recommended to make sure the patch stuck. So it didn’t. Ah well, live and learn. Shit, who am I kidding? They won’t learn. My tax dollars will pay for their head injuries…but that’s another day.

As I drove to get a burger after, a young couple on two beach cruisers took the lane in front of my line of traffic, by riding side by side. Again, no helmets, flipflops, her dress threatening to lock up her rear wheel, dump her into him, and both under the wheels of the car following too close. Fine.

Finally past them, I hear the whine of a single-stroke engine coming behind me. Probably one of the currently-trendy motorized cruisers, about as filthy a polluting vehicle as there is on the road today. Where the hell is it, getting louder, coming behind…ah, that’s why it’s not in my mirrors. It’s coming down the damned sidewalk next to me, then drops off the curb-cut at the light, and veers across into the left-hand turn lane, where the rider sits as I drive straight through the intersection. Will the two cops in the LAPD cruiser coming the other way, who saw this maneuver, do anything about it?

Are you kidding? It’s the weekend, it’s near the beach, and there is no honor in picking on bicyclists Besides, any good biker can outmaneuver a cruiser, and outrun a cop on foot. So this is probably a hopeless goal, before it even begins, of integrating bicycles into modern traffic.

I don’t believe that doctor should have driven around two bikers on Mandeville Canyon (a road I know) and then slammed on his brakes, sending one over his car and the other through his rear window. His licenses (driving and medical) were yanked and he's serving a couple years in prison. Well-deserved. And the drunk chick who was the driver in the letter to the editor listed earlier certainly has whatever they throw at her coming, and then some.

But what about all the fuck-ups on bicycles?

Most of them, again as exemplified by the rider in that letter, have no idea what the rules are. Most of the cops don’t either. Hell, I’m often infuriated by the fuzziness of the rules, necessitated somewhat by the fact that anyone is allowed to ride a bike, while you have to be at least 16 years old, and pass written and driving tests, to take a car out on the same road that any clown on a bike can zoom across.

Next piece’ll be a few of the ideas I’ve got on this subject. Analyst, remember.

805 ~ Saturday, June 25, 2011 22:09:15 (had to walk a friend’s dog)