Ironically

The day after a guy in California is convicted for stopping short and injuring 2 cyclists, a guy in New Berlin clips my hand and then stops short in front of me while swerving toward me and the side of the road. Thankfully I wasn't going 30mph down a hill and there was a ditch for me to ride into. I'm not saying this incident is comparable to the California incident, other than this guy is every bit the menace Dr. Thompson was, I just got lucky. Hopefully there will be consequenses to dissuade him from using his car to force others off the road again.

540hvs from Bikesafer on Vimeo.

GUILTY!

I've been pretty busy lately and I've neglected the blog. A lot has happened since my last post, I won my first cx race, had a less than stellar race, and enjoyed a great halloween party, (thanks Gus), among other things. But I had to post about this.

Physician convicted in cycling case

Ex-Doc Found Guilty of Assaulting Cyclists

http://www.nbclosangeles.com
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com
http://www.google.com/hostednews
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc

Maybe, just maybe, this will teach other like minded criminals to think twice before using their vehicles as weapons.
Hopefully the fact that the judge ordered him held until sentencing means he plans on giving him some substantial prison time.

In one of the stories about the verdict they mention that the doctor claimed they were riding 3 abreast. How can 2 cyclists ride 3 abreast? Maybe that's one of the reasons the jury called BS on his defense.

Another Sunny Sheboygan

It seems like every Sheboygan WORS race I've ever done it's been a great sunny fall day. It was a little cool but that's what fall in Wisconsin is all about.
Speaking of fall, I took too many of them in this race. I was battling for second in age group when a bad line put me on the "Sheboygan slickrock".

Then on the last lap a phantom root grabbed my wheel and cost me 3rd place, but 4th in age 23rd overall in Sport is a good way to end the MTB season. Johnny G. decided to test the waters in Comp. Sport distance is still good for me for now. I'm actually looking forward to the shorter race distance of the cross season.

The Hardest Half Hour

Lapham Peak Cross from Bikesafer on Vimeo.

It's cyclcross season again, and that means suffering. I think it's the hardest thirty or forty minutes (depending on category and race organizer) in cycling. It is fun though when you get a good course set up. Lapham isn't my favorite course, but it's good practice for the rest of the season.

You Say Tomato...

I say bike lanes. What? Fall is a great time to ride not just to see leaves change color but for the fall colors in the foods you find and the different places you find to ride. Cyclocross brought us to the Madison area.

USGP Cross from Bikesafer on Vimeo.

Produce brought us to the Captiol square. Mrs. Bikesafer and I rode around Madison after a stop at their farmers market for some heirloom tomatoes to go with our fresh basil from the garden, 18 year old balsamic, olive oil and fresh mozzerella.

What an interesting place to ride. Bike paths all over the place, and bike lanes on almost every busy street. Not just bike lanes, we have those in Milwaukee too, but in Madison most of them are clear of debris and potholes, and more importantly DOORS. Almost every bike lane in MKE is unrideable because of the proximity to the door zone.
We also rode in our first ever protected and contra-flow bike lane on University ave. It was a good ride.

Madison Bike Lane from Bikesafer on Vimeo.

But with fall not only the leaves seem to change. The drivers are starting to get cranky. I got an earful yesterday from Mr. SUV, who passed into oncoming traffic to get to the stop sign a few seconds ahead of me only to wait there to bitch at me about "us guys", (cyclists) getting out of control.


I also learned that in SUV land, cyclists aren't allowed to use the roads. As he drove off, the wife or mistress or whatever yelled "you gotta be safe". Yes I agree, and how safe is it to pass (anyone) if you have to go into oncoming traffic?

Bing Bang Boom

Really it was more like clang, clang, snap. That was the sound of my second Fat Tire 40 disappearing in an explosion of suspension parts. Mikes tandem has taken a beating lately.

After we destroyed his cassette with some bad shifting at Ore to Shore, we thought we got our share of mechanicals out of the way for a while.

It was still a great weekend, because one of the reasons I mountain bike is to hang out with my MTB friends. So we had a great weekend in a beautiful log house full of friends. There's always next year for the race result I was hoping for.

On the way home I got a warning for not having my registration sticker properly displayed. I have no problem being pulled over for it, but it seemed ridiculous to me to give me a written warning since I had the registration AND the sticker with me in the car and planned on sticking it on the plate at the next stop. I started to think as I wasted 20 minutes waiting for the warning, about how many times I've had evidence of drivers clearly running stop signs or running me off the road when law enforcement wouldn't even contact the offending driver. I understand this was a different agency, but I get a written warning for not having my sticker properly displayed while many reckless drivers drive away with impunity. It seems like those priorities are a little screwed up.

Squishy

squishy from Bikesafer on Vimeo.

It's been a bad stretch of rides lately. 3 flats on the last 4 road rides. 2 flats in the Ore to Shore and one on the ride back to the hotel from the race, then last night on the tandem with Mike, that squishy feeling came twice and we didn't have another tube. Well we did but it was a road tube. So we limped home on a squishy road tube in a mtb tire after one patch job. Change tubes again and back out for a nice night ride by the lake. On the way back some lady in a van came about 3 inches from giving us a serious dooring. Let's hope that covers the flats and the near doorings for a while.

Bikesafer

Jeff