Call me a sap, but I found this tale of a motorist-cyclist encounter reassuring, especially considering that it’s Monday, when evil tidings abound. Thanks to Bruce M., for the tip.
Month: August 2010
Share which roads?
Once again we take our sermon from the Book of Comments, chapter 36, verse 49, “Yea, though we ride through the Valley of Death, etc., et al., and so on and so forth.”
The discussion about Reed Bates and his two-wheeled run-in with Texas law enforcement touches on a topic that affects me since I caught the bug of bicycle touring.
My recent reconnaissance of south-central Colorado highways gave me a bad case of The Fear — getting to some of the places I’d like to visit via bicycle would require me to share long stretches of skinny highway with wide vehicles, many of them traveling well above the posted speed limit of (usually) 65 mph.
I can ride these roads — I’m just not certain it’s smart. And while I’m trying to find suitable workarounds, they’re few and far between, our roads having been designed and constructed with infernal combustion in mind.
As a teen-ager I could and did cycle on Academy Boulevard here in Bibleburg. Today, better you should stay at home and shoot yourself in the head; it’s a cleaner, less agonizing death. And there are other roads I once cycled but now avoid because the auto traffic is too heavy, or there’s no shoulder, or what shoulder there is looks like Fort Cartoon has been using it for artillery practice.
This kind of self-segregation irks me, but I want to enjoy my rides, and finish them upright instead of in the back of an ambulance (or a hearse).
“What is to be done?” asked Lenin. I don’t care to battle The Man for my two-wheeled share of Academy, Marksheffel, Union, Circle, Powers or any of the other major thoroughfares in Bibleburg. But I would like a nice, wide slice of westbound Highways 24 and 50, both of which are gateways to some pretty attractive country.
Seems to me, then, that in the absence of an endless supply of ammo, we need sharpshooters who pick their targets carefully and nail them with the first round.
Bullish on stocks
As the last U.S. “combat brigade” leaves Iraq — some 50,000 other gun-totin’ troops remain, among them elements of Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team — let’s take note of some other good news.
Remember Capt. Michael Clauer, the Army Reserve soldier who lost his $300,000 home over an $800 debt while stationed in Iraq? He’s getting it back, thanks in part to a Mother Jones story.
As MoJo’s Nick Baumann notes: “If folks from the homeowners association had bothered to knock on May Clauer’s door, they might have avoided all this — the legal fees, the negative press attention, and the (surely large) settlement costs. But they didn’t, and they paid the price. Fred Rogers would be ashamed.”
A swift kick in the wallet pocket is too good for these swine. How about a little time in the stocks, too? If the debts pile up and their houses get seized and sold while they’re hanging around in the town square, well, perhaps they can find new homes somewhere — say, in the Army, in Afghanistan.
Intelligent design
Lots of good thoughts in comments about the larval T-shirt/jersey design. Thanks to one and all. I think Jon P. hits the nail on the head when he suggests starting with a cheap T-shirt and taking time to dial in the pricey jersey.
The Mad Dog Media-Dogs at Large Velo jersey never did sell worth a damn through VeloGear, and neither did my Bog Trotters cyclo-cross jersey, so I’m wary of getting stuck with a closet full of these things.
I also need to come up with some amusing “sponsors” to put on the sleeves, pockets, collar and elsewhere, and I don’t feel the need to rush, especially since the DogHaus needs a new roof and insurance is unlikely to pay.
So, yeah — T-shirt first. I’ll have a final design and cost locked down by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, I spent part of the last two days riding the bike, which is a lot more fun than playing with Photoshop. Both times I rode northeast on Highway 24, yesterday on the Soma with fully loaded panniers as a sort of shakedown cruise for that eventual tour, and today aboard Old Faithful, the DBR ti’. Forty miles with panniers and 50 without. Guess which was easier.
Highway 24 is about the closest thing you can find to a flat ride in these parts. It used to be the Sunday group ride, back in the early Nineties, and while the traffic has certainly grown exponentially, the shoulders remain wide enough for a double paceline (or a single fat bastard).
The only hairy moments involve a few pucker-pass bridges, a la Highway 115. I don’t care what Satchel Paige said about not looking back — you hit one of these bad boys with an 18-wheeler in the oncoming lane, you want to take a quick squint over one shoulder to see if another 18-wheeler is gaining on you.
The math is simple: 1 pucker-pass bridge + 2 18-wheelers + 1 fat bastard = 1 closed-casket funeral.
More fun with Photoshop
Here’s another take on the whole New Wheeled Order thing. Amazing what a casually employed guy with a digital camera and Photoshop Elements can do when he’s supposed to be working for a living.
I don’t have a faux Cyrillic font on the MacBox, so I went with Cracked, which has a nice punkish look to it. Kinda reminds me of “12 Monkeys” for some reason. Oook ook ook.
Meanwhile, fuhgeddaboud the mean streets — seems a guy isn’t even safe on the damn’ bike path any more here in Bibleburg. How’d you like to be cycling along and look up from the trail to see an SUV and a station wagon falling out of the sky? That’d get your heart rate up, a’ight.
• Late update: OK, I’ve done a few more mockups and a little light research and I’m thinking I can do T-shirts with the design at right for about $20 apiece (local artisan, old pal). The big design would go on the back, with a smaller badge-size logo over the left hooter up front.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that a small run of jerseys (15-24) will cost us in the $80-per-item range if I go with Voler, which did both versions of the Fat Guy jersey and my own Mad Dog Media kit. Stepping up to 25-49 takes it down to $75 apiece, and 50-99 gets us into the $61-per-jersey range.
I’ll post mockups of both jersey and shirt tomorrow after I’ve fiddled with them a bit more.
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