Bev:Just a note for those of you who live in the North Park area, friends of mine were mugged at gun & knife point last night (near University & Texas). They were 15 feet from their front door just stepping out to pick up somthing from the shop when a car pulled up beside them, 2 people jumped out (one with knife, one with gun), yelled "get on the ground, give my your purse", and got away with everything (wallets with addresses, house keys, car keys, Iphones, etc...) I know it probably happens fairly frequently, but it is much more a reality when it's people you know. I am very loosey goosey, lacksadazacle, never thinking that something like that would happen but it does. Stay sharp, stay aware!

jeez. i was accustomed to being ultra aware when i lived in LA but i have been pretty relaxed here in SD. guess i should start being more careful of my surroundings again. sucks.

glad you're friends are OK.

That is sad to hear. But I'm glad your friends are okay.

It sucks when spokes break. :face-crying:

I just went to Silver Sage Acupuncture after seeing Sky's suggestion (and my acupuncturist went and got pregnant and stopped practicing!!) Well, Cheryl Warnke is GREAT!! OMG, my neck feels back to normal finally! It's been jacked up for a while now, but after 2 sessions we're at about 85% improvement. My last appt right before I catch a transatlantic flight should have me all sorted out. Thanks Sky!

Found a set of bicyclist "courtesy guidelines" on the web site for a local bicycling club. Nothing out of the ordinary, but a lot of the advice makes sense, so I thought I share it here for everybody to peruse.

- Ride single file (in most cases). If you are going to ride two abreast, do so in an area where it can be done safely and without compromising other cyclists or other drivers. NEVER EVER ride more than two abreast. We all hate road-hogs when we are driving our cars, and there is simply no reason to have to take up whole non-bike lanes when riding in a peloton on city streets. Everyone has a right to the road, cars and cyclist alike. Let's not incite road rage.

- Come to a stop when the sign or light says STOP. No short-cut "fake" U-turns to avoid a light. Stop.

- When passing other cyclists, call out "on your left" when at an appropriate distance from other riders. Give them a chance to yield the road. They will comply. Just let them know that you are there.

- Never, ever, pass a cyclist on the right side. Never. Ever.

- If you are out for a training ride and need to ride at high speeds, the place NOT to do this is on shared bikeways that include roller skaters, dog walkers, and other, rookie, cyclists. We all need to get in good workouts from time to time. Choose your routes carefully.

- Wearing a Spandex club jersey does not give you the right to blow people off the road or abruptly cutting in front of a passed cyclist. Never. Ever.

- Look up from the road immediately in front of you from time to time. You'd be surprised at how much fun you will get if you are not grimacing all the time with your sole intent on speed competitions (either alone or in a peloton). You'll live longer and might afford a less experienced cyclists to enjoy their ride, too.

- Get in the habit of acknowledging other cyclists that are SHARING the road with you. If they say hello, say hello back! They might not have the fanciest, lightest, bikes or that really cool Spandex outfit, but they are your cycling brothers and sisters. Say hello - FIRST.

- If you don't like the way someone is riding near you, tell them IN A NICE WAY HOW THEY CAN IMPROVE. No barking. Never. Ever. A little education, delivered in a calm voice, goes a long way. The rookies are usually terrified being out in traffic. If you share with them the right way to ride, they will likely share this with someone else and look up to their more senior cyclists for offering good advice instead of disdaining their behavior. Sort of a Golden Rule thing, you know?

- SHARE the road, courteously, safely. Is it really that hard?

I like it. The road hog thing was nice and acknowledging that we all share the road is appreciated particularly when I'm driving out in the country to get to my barn. As the weather is getting better, we're getting more & more riders (mostly the spandex variety).

And I would like more road bike, spandex riders to reply to a friendly "hello".

<blockquote><cite> mike_ballard:</cite>Hey I wear spandex! I do generally say hello though.</blockquote>
Yes, but you're one of us now :face-smile: vs. just another spandex wearing hardcore cyclist. You even slow down for the pokey group members - thank you!

I found a mountain bike game online:
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There are a lot of vacancies right now, but the dog is going to make it harder to find something suitable. It shouldn't take too long in this market.

It's almost as if by making one's self visible one is inviting cagers to buzz one. If they don't see you, they can't take aim! Reading the venomous posts that followed the U-T article on freeway motorcyclists, which strangely included several attacks on bicyclists as well, I was surprised by the vehement "four wheels good, two wheels bad" sentiment out there.

Last week riding through Kensington westbound on Adams Ave. a woman talking on a cell phone drove out from an intersection directly in front of me, violating my right of way and causing me to take evasive action. She was stopped at the I-15 signal and as I filtered forward past her on the right I pointed my left index finger at her without saying a word. She was still yakking on the phone and gesticulating with one hand. As I rode west on Adams toward 35th St. I heard a car engine revving up behind me. As she passed me she performed the all-too-familiar sleight to the right with the steering wheel and jerked the car toward me as if to threaten me, missing me by a few inches. I yelled "Hey!" and she gave me the one finger salute from the driver window.

When she moved into the left turn lane and turned on 35th I thought "What the hell!" and took off after her. She led me on a merry chase toward City Heights and began to pull desperate and risky maneuvers when she realised she wasn't losing me, running stop signs and red lights and cutting other drivers off, eliciting an impromptu recital of horns and shouts. This went on for maybe four or five minutes before I made the wrong move trying to anticipate her next turn and lost her.
Hope she enjoyed the adrenaline, elevated pulse and blood pressure as much as I did!

If motorists drive erratically, as described by Ray333, don't bother calling the SDPD switchboard: Instead, call 9-1-1 and report a suspected DUI - this might as well be the reason for erratic driving as anything else.

I yell out the plate. Tends to get attention to them as well. It also helps remember it. If they were on their phone, they may as well have been drunk. Though at least drunks are paying more attention to the road.

National Train Day is coming - May 8th. It was a lot of fun last year, I went to Los Angeles via Amtrak. They had numerous exhibits including opening the closed sections of Union Station. I plan to go this year again. Their website is:
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yay!!

"Having failed to sell the Hummer brand off to a Chinese car manufacturer, GM is shutting it down. This car was like the high-fructose corn syrup of automobiles, something that concentrated everything bad about motoring until it underwent a phase-change and somehow became an object of desire. "

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/24/rip-hummer.html

I think we needed big SUV's for a while. The lessons learned from the debacle will hopefully be kept for a long time.

Fittingly, I found this road kill in the bike lane on Harbor Drive while riding my Long Haul Trucker.

Oh, without a doubt! On days I don't ride in, I'm lethargic and foul tempered at times. Paradoxically, the challenges of the daily bike commute relax me. I have long periods of extended meditation-like reverie punctuated by moments of sheer terror. It reminds me that I'm still alive!

Velo Cult:whats with it raining every weekend this year?

It is indeed an outrage!

Suppressing....urge...to...strangle....all...who...complain...about...rain...in...SoCal...
:face-devil-grin:

I have been humbled by Thom's desire to strangle me. I recanted my earlier statement and registered for one of the last minute starting spaces in the Medio Corsa of the Gran Fondo. It's time to HTFU and break out the rain gear!

Anyone riding with over half flat tires (who say, after an offer to pump 'I like it this way'), and people riding MTB's in the street spining crazy low gears and moving about .000003 miles per hour......cause me to pause and wonder deeply....

Just sayin'...

...I loooove street art. One of my favorite sites is the Wooster Collective:

This site is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world.

On the subject of self supported touring and utility cycling...

weather forecast says we have about 9 days without rain! still not enough to dry out the trails but it's nice dry out a bit.

im up to about 3700 friends on facebook and its kind of funny hearing San Diegan's complain about wind. it's probably the same for Thom and rain i suppose. growing up in "the valley" (San Fernando Valley, LA) it was windy quite often and the winds in my neighborhood would be 70 to 100mph gusts on a regular basis. it also rained much much harder, got much hotter and got much colder there. i know LA is only 2 hours away so it's hard to imagine it's much different than here but it really is. night and day different as far as weather goes. never thought i would say this but of the extreme weather systems in LA i miss the wind the most. dry hot wind. here in SD we get wind what, maybe 2 times a year? in the 9 years i've lived here i can only count maybe 5 days of actual wind and only one of those days was anything near what i grew up with. if you remember the day about 5 years ago it was when thousands of trees fell over in SD.