Greetings from Pueblo

Don’t you just love it when you get tire after tire after tire that hits a flat?  Well, nobody can say I’m just using m bike to hold down the post I lock it to.  Put on another tire and had another experience unchaining then chaining it down again.  That’s always fun.

Oblivious texters hurt as they walk, even skate - Behavior- msnbc.com

Just take a look at that guy on the bicycle and ask yourself if you’ve ever done anything that foolish. I have my own faults in terms of biking, but I’ve never whipped out a blackberry for a little texting on the road. Keep your head where it belongs.

NYPD Bruise - July 29, 2008

First off, the cop says that he (Long) drove his bike into Pogan. From what I can see the bike is going around Mr. Pogan (trust me, he won’t be an officer after this one) not into him. And if it is into the line of the cop, it’s largely because the cop moved himself into that position.

Secondly, Mr. Pogan states that he fell to the ground. Look at that video again. I can’t see where the officer even landed on the ground for a short time. And if he was concerned about this man putting others into danger, why did he push him towards a bus stop?

cbs2_critical_mass_police_assault_080728a

Now this one clearly looks like the police were the instigators, not Critical Mass.  It doesn’t justify what happened on the other coast, but that is straight out wrong.  And the fact that cop was only reassigned to duties and not fired is beyond me.  Maybe they need to wait for due process, which is fine.  But you cannot have somebody out there who does that enforcing the law on the streets  The cop moved into the line of the bicyclist, not the other way around.  Check yourself.

Local News | Critical Mass riders injure driver in Capitol Hill altercation | Seattle Times Newspaper

In my previous entry I talked about the bad side of law enforcement. Now we’re going to talk about the other side acting badly, and this is example one front and center. I’ve never heard about who Critical Mass is but if this is the sort of stunt that they’re going to pull do us all a favor and just drive your car to work. Share the road means just that: share the road. Don’t hog the whole thing and don’t go around slashing tires to make sure “the driver doesn’t get away”

And that has to be my favorite part of the whole article. Who appointed you as law enforcement? Take a picture with a digital camera. That way if he does flee the police can track him down and you haven’t just committed vandalism and associated bicyclists with it.

That’s only one part of the story, but I’d think that CM would have issued a press release by now if they weren’t part of this crap.

Metro: Cyclists run afoul of law in Larimer County | county, cyclists, larimer : Gazette.com

A lawman stopped two visitors on a quiet county road and warned them their behavior wouldn’t be tolerated. Their transgression: riding their two-wheeled steeds side by side instead of falling into single file when an automobile approached.

“Don’t let the sun set on your behind in my county,” is how the cyclists heard the deputy’s warning.

Or maybe he said, “If you stay in Dodge, be prepared to follow the rules or suffer the consequences,” as the sheriff later would say.

At the best, it’s a very bad analogy (what the hell does Dodge have to do with anything?). At the worst, it’s slightly racist, as the first phrase was often used in the Deep South.

And as far as enforcing the statute, you can enforce it all you want it’s up to the judge to determine what the law really means. And I don’t know how you’ll simply slip into single file when bicyclists ride with the flow of traffic in the United States. Meaning that the would not have all that much time to determine when and if the car was approaching.

If they’re on a one lane or two lane road where two bikes would push a car off road that’s one thing, but in that case I really wouldn’t be riding my bike parallel at all.

I don’t know how I got up there in the first place, but thankfully I’ve lost those three pounds and hopefully they won’t be back with reinforcements.

I talked to another biker at work who confirmed that thinner tires would make me faster.  Now I just need to find some.  I don’t know if I will be able to get them that cheaply, but I definitely want to increase my speed.   Right now I’m at 28 minutes  If I could get it down to 20 minutes that would be a definite goal and would probably help to start burning some calories.

I was thinking about getting an odometer, but with bike thefts being what they are I really don’t want to attract more attention than I do already.  My bike isn’t that expensive but I have put my money into it and I’ll be damned if I want somebody to steal that one.

One of those days where everything feels fucked over and screwed over.  It’s one of those days where you think that nobody gives a damn and this is what reaching out has gotten me and on and on and on.  I need something to pour that negative energy into and biking feels like just the thing to do.  Actually, writing also feels like the thing to do and I’ll do some of that as well later on.  But this is a biking site not a writing site at this point so we’ll do some biking.

Weather doesn’t look like the best but as they say there is no bad weather only bad clothing.  My bike tires are still up which is good; that’s another thing I’m probably going to have to shell out cash on next week if that tube doesn’t come in.  And if any of you have any tips on how to keep that valve straight I would love to hear them.

CTV Toronto- Police find another stash of bikes in theft probe - CTV News, Shows and Sports — Canadian Television

I don’t know if the Toronto police are readers of my blog, but apparently they did take a look at his inventory and boy did they find a lot. They found 1500 more stolen bicycles as well as drugs. Yeah, I know it’s a shocker that thieves would be into mind-altering substances, but they got them.

globeandmail.com: Bicycle shop owner arrested on theft charges

In the case of the Bike Clinic, reports said Mr. Kenk was arrested Wednesday evening near his store after undercover police allegedly watched him direct an accomplice, wielding bolt-cutters, to cut the locks off a pair of bicycles chained up close by.

The value of a stolen bike has little bearing on whether its theft gets reported, Det. Straver said.

And if that was bad enough.

And with so many bikes unregistered, lately there’s been a fresh twist, Det. Straver said: More and more thieves and/or their customers are registering stolen bikes.

“They’re getting smarter and they figure, ‘This is my way to lay claim to it.’ So we say to people, ‘Register your bike before the thief does.’ ”