Some notes about the Bicycle Totals area. The Front+Rear miles is a stat on the number of miles on the rear tire. I rotate my tires when I purchase a new tire. The way I do it is that if I am replacing a worn rear tire I put the brand new tire on the front and take the front tire and place it on the rear.
Well I picked up the new wheels Saturday! It was a sad way to get a new bicycle. This the the fourth bicycle I have bought in the past 20+ years and not once did I buy it because I wanted a new bicycle. The last time I bought a bicycle just to buy a bicycle was in 1989 24 years ago! That was a Trek 520. Which was stolen in 1995 when I bought a Mongoose Mountain Bike which was never really what I wanted but... Then that was hit by a car with me on it and destroyed in 2002. At which point I bought another Trek 520 which was stolen last week on June 20th. So now I bought a Surley Disc Trucker in 2013. So 1989 was the very last time I bought a bicycle just to buy a bicycle. Every Time since then my bicycle was stolen or destroyed in an accident.
Here are some pics of the new ride. It is not complete yet I am still waiting on the headlights and taillights to come from Amazon.
So the first ride is tomorrow. I have been lazy about locking the bike up at home. That will now end. Being as it is near impossible to secure it properly I will be using the small room outside that we have a freezer in. I'll be hanging it on the wall and keeping that door locked. It is amazing how much more money the bicycle cost after 11 years. Granted this is not the Trek 520 but the Trek 520 price was the same as this one. So the bicycle cost 50% more than what I paid for it in 2002. With basically no changes. Looking forward to the next 100,000 miles on this bike I only had 64,192 on the previous Trek 520 I plan on making 100,000 on this Surley.
Well since my steed was stolen I have begun the search for a new bike. It is down to three models. The Surley Disc Trucker, Charge Filter Hi Cyclocross Bike, and the GT Wheels4Life Peace Tour Commuter.
These are in order of what I want and also in price range. Sad to say but the Trek 520 lost out. Not only is the thing more expensive then all these bikes it lacks something I decided I needed on the new bicycle. that is Disc brakes.
I really like the Surley here is a picture of it.
What is shocking is that on a casual look it looks so much like the Trek 520 I had. It's color is very similar. Here is a picture of my stolen ride
So it will be hard for the casual user to that sees me to even realize I have a different bike. Of course once I get my new panniers they will not be the same. Nothing about panniers remains the same after 11 years.
As far as I am concerned once I have made my decision and I hope I get enough from the insurance company to buy the Surley!
Well my bicycle was stolen last night sometime between the hours of Midnight and 7am.
Above is my stolen bicycle. It had 64,193 miles and I spent about 4,100 hours riding it over the last 11 years. It was a good bike and it will be missed. Needless to say until I get a replacement I will not be posting to this blog for a while.
Well it happened again where I had to deal with a driver that felt they just had to pass me. Pass me in a way the broke the law. Then once in front they slow down. So I sped up and caught this person and passed them back. I was just 1 MPH over the speed limit after getting around them. I never saw them again.
One thing that really irks me is when cyclist breaks the law. I hear every cyclist complain how cars don't respect us. Cars yell at me. Cars tell me I don't belong. Well if you want respect you need to go above and beyond to earn that respect. Ask any car driver about a cyclist and this is what they will say.
They run red lights.
They run stop signs.
They pass at lights.
They don't obey any laws.
Why do they say these things?? Well lets start with the cyclist in this video. He blows off the red light. I mean When I get there it takes about 8 seconds for the light to sense me and turn green so why did he have to run the light??
Maybe he just doesn't understand how light signals work and how to trip them. After all most people think the sensors sense weight. Well they don't sense weight the most common technique is the inductive loop. An inductive loop is simply a coil of wire embedded in the road's surface. To install the loop, they lay the asphalt and then come back and cut a groove in the asphalt with a saw. The wire is placed in the groove and sealed with a rubbery compound. You can often see these big rectangular loops cut in the pavement because the compound is obvious.
Inductive loops work by detecting a change of inductance.
So... Let's say you take a coil of wire perhaps 5 feet in diameter, containing five or six loops of wire. You cut some grooves in a road and place the coil in the grooves. You attach an inductance meter to the coil and see what the inductance of the coil is. Now you park a car over the coil and check the inductance again. The inductance will be much larger because of the large steel object positioned in the loop's magnetic field. The car parked over the coil is acting like the core of the inductor, and its presence changes the inductance of the coil.
A traffic light sensor uses the loop in that same way. It constantly tests the inductance of the loop in the road, and when the inductance rises, it knows there is a something waiting! The best type is the double loop two circles that overlap in the middle. If you put your bike right over the center it has an easier time sensing you. Oh no I said get in the middle of the road!
Coming home from the dentist this morning I was able to hit 38MPH on the small down hill after I leave there. The rocking you seeing the video is not because I can't ride straight. I was pedaling trying to get the speed up high. Once I say that's good enough is smooths right out while I am coasting.
But right after that light some bozo decided he was going to lay on the horn to let me know something. I have no clue what the issue was. I am legally entitled to the road your not even in my lane so why?????
In my 30+ years of riding this is the first time I have seen this move. A car passing the cars that are passing me on a two lane road with a short left turn lane. As you can see in this video the guy is going around the people going around me.
What is not visible in this video is the havoc that is caused when he needs to merge back in to lane of traffic. It looked from my point of view that he was going to cause and accident. Since the video does not pick that up you can't enjoy what was going on.
All this to save??? Maybe 10 seconds?? Yes people are willing to cause an accident and maybe die over 10 seconds savings???
Well this morning I had three different drivers want to show me how unsafe cycling is! News flash people after 40 years of riding of various roads across the country you are not going to scare me off the road. The first one was much like the Town of Cary truck. Passing me in the same spot the same way. On my right as the lane begins? Really people do you really think is leagal and wise to pass me on the shoulder as a lane is appearing on the right?? So that as I head into the lane I am pulling into your path???
Then there was the person that so wanted to pass me. He moved out and then the truck coming the other way had to practically get off the road to avoid you? So your very scary driving is proving what? That you are a danger to others.
Then the tractor trailer driver that moved over too quickly.
Well Lets just say cars run stop signs. I get them all the time on video doing this. Today I have selected two of them to show to the world. I do get tried of people saying "Well you cyclists don't stop at stop signs" Well here is a generalization for cars. "Well you know you car drivers don't stop at stop signs" There I said it and I have the proof in this video so get off your high horse and just live with the fact that car drivers don't stop all the time.
Now for another generalized statement. You know I hear quite often about how cyclist should ride on the sidewalk and we should ride on the greenway. Well these same people just go on a greenway and then take up the whole paved road and just don't act like they are sharing it. Much like when they drive on the road. They don't want to share the place with a cyclist. You can't have your cake and eat it too people. That is why I am going back to the road where at least the law is on my side. I generally don't like greenways and I will present a video today of why I don't like greenways. In this video we see people that use the path to practice baseball stuff. Walk across without looking till they are in front of you and let a 3-4 year old just wander on the path? Now would a person let a 3-4 year play in say a parking lot? In the road? Then why on a paved greenway that carry's traffic too? Do people not see the danger they are causing me? Then there is the adults the freeze up when they are looking at you and can't decide where to go so I have to do a track stand while they decide where they are going to go. Now I love to show off and do track stands. A track stand is where you come to a complete stop with out putting down a foot you just sit on the bicycle balancing it while not moving. Anyway here is that video. Enough ranting for the day!
Now the women driver in this clip passes me on the right! What she used was a right turn lane to turn into Office Depot. It did not even go as far as the light. I guess she wanted to save time? But the funny thing was she saved no time she had to stop for the red light? So what was accomplished by doing this??? She was in such a rush that she wanted to save nothing? Where are the Police when you need them?
The cyclist you see in this video not even paying attention is running a red light on the sidewalk against traffic. I was almost hit by this guy. Just insane why should I as a cyclist have to worry about other cyclists? Don't ride on the sidewalk and don't ride on the wrong side of the road! Doing both at the same time is just plain Darwin award material. Just plain stupid riding. Imagine if I was a car? Follow the laws people!!!
This crazy woman just comes up along side me. She knows I'm there but then well she is going to go right at the corner and she is the type of driver that is going to go right to the edge of the road to turn. It does not matter that a cyclist is there. Just push my butt off the road! Then lets pretend no one is there and never look at me? You can see that I end up on the grating for the storm drain.
I had three incidents. Two of them commercial vehicles. One was just a car. Two of them never even fully pass me before they stop. The car driver in the first incident does not like to hear anything because he/she lays on the horn after I speak my mind.
The second incident in the video is a Town vehicle. This amazingly smart person passes me on the right as the lane begins to emerge on the right. I was lucky that I looked back and saw what he was doing otherwise it would have been an even worse start to the day.
The last one is a landscape truck from Yard-nique. Two of the trucks manage to pass me but the last one pushes me out of the lane and then stops because they are at a line of cars basically the other landscape trucks. Then when I confront the driver he tells me to basically get off the road and on the shoulder. Funny thing is there is no shoulder there there is a right turn only lane. Not very observant.
But the good news is I reported both commercial drivers to the company's. One being the Town of Cary. I have had incidents before so I know the person in charge's email address. And he at least seemed to be concerned about this incident. You know what they say? A picture is worth a thousand words? Video is worth millions. The other Yard-Nique the owner called me back and was very upset with the incident involving his driver. He says he is also a cyclist and understands my frustration. He says that driver will be disciplined what ever that means. His drivers attitude was you don't belong on the road and when I told him I was videoing the ride and would show his boss the video he just laughed as if I wouldn't do that.
In this video you will see a cyclist pass me going the other way. I am going the long way out so that I can take a certain road. There is no way to get to said road legally if I don't go this way. This cyclist is going to circumvent the problem by jumping a large paved shoulder! This is not legal nor right. Cyclists are always complaining that cars don't respect them. Well this is just an example of way cars don't respect you! Don't take liberty's just because you are small. Now what would happen if a car did the exact same thing??? If a Police Officer saw it do you think they would get a ticket? Damn straight so the cyclist that does it should get ticketed if they do it.
There was no room for this bus and I to share this lane. He should have known that but what ever the driver was thinking it was not about my safety. Of course you expect a professional to know better but commercial bus drivers are only marginally better then school bus drivers. Any way I had to hit the brakes to keep the bus from crunching me. Needless to say I have fired off a complaint to the bus company. Usually they reply back. I have offered the video to them and hopefully they will take me up on it and I said they should show it to the bus driver and ask them how they would have felt with a large object almost hitting them.
Cars/SUVs have no respect for you as a cyclist. In this video you can see this car blow off the stop sign cross the road and then come all the way into the bike lane while I had to brake hard to keep from hitting her. What the heck do people think or rather the problem is people do not think. They have no concept of how fast I am really moving and since it is a nice large vehicle they will be gone before I get there. Once again you were wrong. I was there at the same time and you almost took me out! All this rushing and she as only going one block! ONE BLOCK!!!
Now I have been amazed at what drivers of cars will do to a cyclist in their need to keep going at all costs. They can't possibly be delayed for anything even on a side street. But I had a bunch of cars go around a garbage truck this morning. In order to go around this garbage truck they had to drive on the wrong side of the road. So none of them thought anything was wrong with driving towards me. But the last one really was intent on hitting me. I had to move out of the travel lane or risk being hit head on! I just wish hope that the time she saved by not waiting was worth it to her!
I haven't posted in a while all the crazies seem to be staying home. So with daylight savings in effect both my rides are in day light! This hasn't happened in over two years! I was working strictly second shift up to 4 months ago. I switched to days just after the clocks flipped to standard time. So it was like nothing changed! Well here is a full video with music sped up 32x to make just about 2 hours of riding only last a little over 3 minutes. Enjoy the music.
Well I almost hit an albino squirrel on the bike. Squirrels has done this to me before. I once had one run between my wheels at 18MPH. But this is the first time I have seen an Albino one! To be honest I never saw it till it was in front of the bike. It reminded me of a guinea pig when it first jumped out since I was not looking for it. I was like what the heck was that? When I turned around he was sitting on the grass where he started.
