Amazing

Interesting ride home. This one section was extremely busy with cars. I have a right turn lane having cars passing me on the right. And cars are moving over and passing on the left. So I have cars on both sides. Then I get to the end of the right turn lane and they have cement divider to prevent turns. Well one car decides I am not going to wait and drives on the other side of the cement divider going the wrong way. Right behind that one is a truck that just lays on the horn to I guess scare me off the road? That is not going to work with me not after doing this for 40+ years. Just an amazing section. Other things happened on this ride but not  really video showing worth.

Tuesday Morning

Well I saw this car run a stop sign this morning. So I figured what the heck lets post the runner. This car did not even slow down or do a rolling stop. It looked to me like they just drove right thru it. This road has no outlet the only car coming from that direction is comming from a person that lives down that road. So they can't say  I did not know there was a stop sign there. No excuses!! People will always say cyclists never stop well here is the proof that cars also don't stop. It is very simple there are a large number of people that don't feel the need to follow the laws it is not limited to cyclists but drivers of motorized vehicles have the same issue. I bet this person rides a bike and does the same dumb thing!

Thursday Morning

Well I had 2 deer and a fawn come into the video on my ride into work. It is a busier street then I normally ride but when I am behind schedule I use it. I much prefer to go the longer way which uses less traveled streets. After all I am out there to enjoy the ride to work. But anyway onto the video. As I am passing the Post Office in Morrisville NC on 54 I suddenly spot a deer coming out and then the fawn. the fawn decided it was not safe I don't know if it as me that spooked it or not. We will never know but it turned once it was on the pavement and lost it's footing and went down. For a brief period I thought it had enough speed that it was going to slide right into me but it did not.

I still wonder if when it was back on its feet did it continue across the road? Also what did the other two deer do did they stop and wait? All these questions I have with no answers. I need a rear facing camera to see what is going on behind me!

The video:

Monday

Well Well Well lookie here! I caught one of those occasions when a car runs a stop sign. Cars run stops signs all the time. I bet he even runs them if he rides a bicycle. But I bet if I did the same thing he would let me know how illegal it is to run a stop sign like that.

This was not even close to stopping. This was most blatant running of a stop sign ever!

You be the judge do you think this was a legal stop? Just watch the video!

Wednesday July 24th

Well riding home tonight and as I am crossing the road and heading down it. I hear SURLY! Someone in a car recognized the brand of bicycle I am riding. I hadn't had the kind of reaction to any bicycle I have ever owned. It just goes to show that Surly is a brand that when you like it you really like it. From the decals to the disc brakes on it. Everything on it screams Surly. For the past 6 years or so I have been attracted to the Surly brand simply because they are one of the few companies that make a really good Touring style bicycle. I just bought this bicycle about a month ago after my wonderful Trek 520 was stolen. I was pleasantly surprised to find a dealer of the Surly brand in Raleigh NC by the name of All Star Bike Shop. Which if you are ever in a bicycle buying mood I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to buy a bicycle. I was an easy sell but they were still able to tell me things about the bike I was not aware of so they know what they sell. As always when buying a bicycle you want a shop that will listen to what you needs are and then shows you what you are looking for not some other bicycle that is not what you need. Hear that Performance Bike? I do not recommend buying a bicycle at Performance Bike simply because when you say you are daily commuter and need fenders and racks then they take you to a carbon fiber frame bicycle and those tiny small brakes that keep you from having fenders! No eyelets for racks or fenders. You just have to shake your head in wonder and move on. Well here is the clip. If you listen carefully you can hear SURLY! being yelled after I am moving.

Way too close

I was on my way home riding in the road and staying away from a work van/truck while this SUV makes a turn and just heads straight at me. This driver fully intended to hit me. I mean it was less the two inches from me when passing me! I mean I was already there. It was basically a single lane and this SUV just plows right on thru even though I was already there.

Just plain insane. This is why I have a video camera to prove who did what.

Wednesday

This what happens when people talk about a right hook when riding. It is when a person driving a car gets next to you and then turns right across your path. I mean what was this person thinking. Oh there is a cyclist next to me but I DON'T CARE I AM TURNING ANYWAY!

I will give credit that they did hear me yell and did not complete the turn. But I should not have to YELL to make you realize there is a living person that you are about to hit.

Wow

I was heading home from work tonight going the short way. It is amazing how many people will just do stupid things along this route. In the clip I show you someone who decides he wants to pass me. He goes almost completely into the other lane. Which under normal circumstances I would appreciate. But I really don't think a person should do this on a two lane road with cars coming the other way. I thought there was going to be an accident and I was going to be collateral damage! The car going the other way I think actually left the road to avoid the collision. People amaze me daily!

Google Street View!

 Yes after 278 Days google street view of me riding my bicycle to work has been posted! I have checked everyday for 278 days payoff finally.

It was getting to the point I even doubted it took place!

The link to the map

Well now what am I going to look for on google?

Back on the road

My first day of riding after replacing my stolen bicycle and I catch a cyclist running a red light! This type of activity should be ticketed. This is against the law. Why do cyclists feel they are above the law? I will never know why this thought process takes place. These people drive cars and they would not even think about doing this type of blatant law breaking as in this video. Most car drivers break laws we all know this they blow off red lights when they have just changed, they are pink after all right? They tend to not stop at stop signs. They even make turns into oncoming traffic lanes. But this one was just so bad. It wasn't even close to green. The left turning light was red by the time he went thru the red light. You can't talk your way out of this.

The Video

New Ride

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.

Finding a new ride

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!

My bicycle was stolen!

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.

Driver passes me too close then slows down

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.

Here is the video

Cyclist runs red light

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!


The video of the red light runner

Tuesday fun on the bike

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?????

Anyway here is the video enjoy!

Wow a car passing the cars passing me!

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???

It always amazes me what people will do....

Anyway he is the video clip

Three people that thought they would let me know cycling is dangerous

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 enjoy the video it is below of all three.

Cars Running Stop Signs/Dislike Greenways(MUPS)

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!

Illegal pas on the right!

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?