After my constant pestering and of course my gift with strings attached, Brian has got his review of the 53x11 The Early Break up on his site. Basically, B comes comes down to the same conclusion as I though he does a bit of a better job with the whole "knowing what he's talking about" thing.
Thanks B.
I've managed to start riding my bike to the metro here in Greenbelt lately; something I've struggled to find the motivation to do at times in the past year and a half. Basically my excuses are as follows:
1. I sweat pretty easily and it sucks to go to work all sweaty and nasty.
2. Which bike??? I'm not about to leave the nice road bike or one of my Mt rigs at the metro all day. The cross rig (finally dialed into the righ working gear works for that now).
3. Pedals. I don't own a single set of flats. WTF? So, I either ride my speedplays or spd's with regular shoes or bring an extra set of shoes to change when I get there.
4. It's cold.
5. I'm lazy.
So, lately I've been riding the speedplays while wearing my hiking shoes and just dealing with everything as I go. Finally this weekend I switched out the pedals for the spd's and just wore the old mtb cleats to work. They're black so I guess I don't look like that big of a dork. It works, I'm learning to use my clothing more dynamically to help keep me warm and cool myself off during the brief 2.5 mile ride (ie zipping and unzipping the zipper) and I generally reward myself with a mug of hot joe to sip during the long metro ride in. (Shhhh, don't tell nobody).
Where I was going with this story back from the beginning of this novel was that this morning I had a ridiculous encounter with a driver coming out of my neighborhood. I was riding down the road when a women pulled out from the left turning into my lane. She basically turned out right into me, not just ahead, not just behind but directly into the side of me while I rode. She didn't do in a fashion that really left me a comfortable space beside the curb as I've had cars do before and really it seemed like she didn't even see me.
I basically stopped and let her just go then caught up with her at the stop sign just ahead which she rolled through to make her right turn, effectively cutting me off as I made my right into the bike lane. After this one I accelerated and was going to bang on her window to yell at her, or at least make her aware I was there but she suddenly accelerated as if she knew I was trying to catch her. B*tch!
So we get down to the next light and she's stopped behind someone waiting for the light to change. I pull up beside her and stop next her her passenger side window. She's staring directly ahead not acknowldging me at all until I tap on the window and she looks startled and opens the window. At first I thought she was ignoring me on purpose; I was standing directly in her window staring at her yet she had no clue. I told her what she did and she apologized and said she had no idea and of course thanked me for letting her know...
Wow, just amazing how clueless a person can be. I'm glad I ride defensively and expect people to do stupid stuff most of the time. People are dumb.
No comments:
Post a Comment