Modern Day Prophecies

Who would have thought that M*A*S*H and Calvin and Hobbes could pull off such Nostradamus-type prophecies.

Prophecy #1: From M*A*S*H "The Novocaine Mutiny" (1976)
I was watching this little gem where Frank was trying to get Hawkeye a court martial. While on the stand Frank had the most prophetic quote for our current "administration":

"Unless we each conform, unless we obey orders, unless we follow our leaders blindly there is no possible way we can remain free" - Frank Burns

I nearly fell out of my chair in laughter. Then I nearly cried because it's sadly true.

Prophecy #2: Calvin and Hobbes cartoon from April 28, 1993. This has been hanging on my office door for at least a couple years now. The price isn't *quite* $8 a gallon, but give'em time.....

Critical Mass Rides - Brilliant or Stupid?

Oh boy! A controversial post! Living in small town South Dakota, I still try to keep up and appreciate all things in the bicycle world. One thing I've struggled with since I very first read about it is Critical Mass rides.

Critical Mass (CM) rides have slowly become more confrontational. The big news of the week came from a video in New York where a cop took out one of the cyclists in a CM ride with an unnecessary show of force. IN NO WAY DO I CONDONE WHAT THE OFFICER DID so you can get off that high horse right now, but I do feel like there is more to the story. It sure seemed like THAT cop was looking for THAT particular individual. According to a NEWS ARTICLE the "The New York Police Department said the officer was placed on modified duty as a result of an investigation by Internal Affairs."





I believe that Critical Mass rides started out with the greatest of intentions. Even reading the top of their WEB PAGE sounds innocent enough:

Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists' right to the road. The idea started in San Francisco in September 1992 and quickly spread to cities all over the world. This site attempts to be the most complete guide to all Critical Mass rides around the globe.

Critical Mass has a different flavor from city to city -- there's a big variety in size, respect of traffic laws (or lack thereof), interaction with motorists, and intervention by police. So if you want to know more about Critical Mass, you'll really need to find out what your local ride is like. For those who must know more right now, here's a link to Chicago CM, which I suppose is a "typical" CM ride, if there is such a thing.

Critical Mass has no leaders, and no central organization licenses rides. In every city that has a CM ride, some locals simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized it, and thus the ride was born.

CM is an idea and an event, not an organization. You can't write to "Critical Mass" -- certainly not by writing to me.

CM is intended to be a celebration, not an opportunity to cause trouble. Those who want to try to tie up traffic as much as possible and be confrontational with motorists are missing the point. We can assert our right to the road without being rude about it. Focus on the ride, not on the cars that also happen to be on the road.

The problem I see, is that bicyclists ARE missing the point. Rides like this do not bring out the right kind of people or the right kind of attention for bicycling. By admissions of many stories I've read, it has become a rolling party, not bicycling advocacy or a share the road campaign. The tension between drivers and bicyclists are getting higher with these rides and altercations are taking place with increasing frequency. This is NOT helping the advocacy of bicycling in America. Quite the opposite, I feel it is setting back the movement. In my humble opinion, CM rides need to go away. The sooner the better.

If I haven't said it enough lately, I love rural living.

My Apologies Mr. Novak

What started out as more of a "bicycle vigilante" story of a cyclist running down a motorist who pulled a hit and run on a pedestrian, turned a little more grim today. After I threw the B.S. flag about him "not knowing" that he hit somebody (who was said to have bounced off his windshield), comes the story that he has a brain tumor.

So now I go from irate that a public figure gets away with a $50 fine for a hit and run to feeling sorry for the guy. It is possible that his vision was messed up and that he didn't notice the guy he hit. I never would wish a brain tumor on anyone. Even though I don't necessarily like your reporting, I wish you well in your recovery Mr. Novak.

Full story HERE.

Turning Five

Carson turned five yesterday and it was a long, tiring, but very fun day. It was a day that included church, party at the park, disc golf, games and swimming.

My favorite memory of the whole day was when Marissa planned a scavenger hunt for Carson after church, mainly because there was no way she was going to wait until the party to give him his present.

I believe it was about the third clue in, and Marissa read this clue to Carson: "Twinkle twinkle little star, you'll find the next clue under the C-A-R. Carson do you know what C-A-R spells?" Carson quite loudly and confidently yelled: "SANDWICH!!"

Tagged

Tagged
Unlike Happy Rider, I ignored the "Fat Cyclist" plea of tagging everybody who reads his blog. But then Happy Rider called me out. To which I say: May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits.

If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be? I'm still partial to Giant bikes as they are all I know as our local dealer is a Giant Rep. I'd have to go with the Giant TCR Advanced Team at a mere $6000 msrp.

Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not? Do I have a Giant TCR Advanced Team? NO. But I do have a Giant TCR0 that I love very much and has done me very well for nearly 20,000 miles now. Right now I am not working towards a new road bike. I am more concerned with getting my kids through school right now!

If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why? If I lived there, I would choose the Spearfish Canyon/Terry Peak/Deadwood/Mt. Roosevelt loop. I love riding that loop when I'm in the Black Hills. Fifty mile loop with some decent climbs for this flat lander. BUT, I'd get bored riding the same thing over and over. It's just not me.

What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride to to do for the rest of her / his life? Exactly. Variety is the spice of life!

Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrow-minded? I ride both with a preference towards road riding. I do like getting on some single track and trails occasionally, and like taking off on some offshoot gravel roads here and there.

Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent. I have, because it was there and offered to me. If my back ever gets to the point where riding an upright is too painful, I'd consider getting one. My wife has mentioned the possibility of purchasing a tandem recumbent someday. You know that eventually she'll win. She always does.

Have you ever raced a triathlon? Yes, back in the late 80's and I think my last one was possibly 1990. Nothing big and I was more of a runner back then than anything else.

Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why? I could easily do without ice cream. It's not a major desire of mine. Doesn't mean I don't like some now and then, but I can live without it.

What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it. What is my favorite thing about cycling? The peacefulness of being on the country roads and the freedom of not having to drive places. I also love getting others involved in bicycling. There is something about the inner peace I receive when I encourage somebody to ride.

You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do? Pray that I'm on a downhill and see what the bear has in the tank. After I survive I stop and clean my shorts.

Now, tag three biking bloggers. List them below.
Ride Vermillion
Cycling Cathy
Bald N Surly
If anybody else wants to play...consider yourself tagged as well.

Bicyclist Runs Down Driver Guilty of Hitting a Pedestrian

Of course the plot thickens politically when it's a right-wing political reporter. How do you NOT KNOW you hit somebody? Oh wait, he's familiar with politics. I can see it now: "I do not recollect hitting that pedestrian".

Single Bike Rack on the Cheap

I did a quick Google search on making your own bike rack and I found THIS easy to build rack out of PVC pipe. Grand total was probably about $10 of material. If you are in a bigger city, I'm sure you will probably do it cheaper.

Materials you will need:

1 - 10' 3/4" Schedule 40 PVC Pipe
6 - 3/4" Tees
6 - 3/4" Elbows

Cut the PVC into the following:
2 - Wheel Upright Pieces - 22 3/4"
2 - Wheel base Pieces - 12 1/2"
4 - Base Pieces - 7"
5 - Small Splice Pieces - 1 1/4"

You will need PVC Glue to glue it together. I had some leftover floor patch cement that I mixed up and put in the base elements to weigh it down more. I tested the tandem on it before the cement and it didn't have enough weight to keep it upright. After the cement it's a solid unit.

I tried to extend this out to be a longer unit to hold more bikes, but it would take a few extra stabilizers to make it sturdy. I was mainly interested in the single anyway and I must say that it is a pretty awesome little stand. I would highly recommend the cement fill for the bottom weight though.