Bicycle Austin forum

I'm glad she has the good sense to divorce him and I hope and pray he has brains enough to pay attention to a restraining order.

I agree with Lynn that most drivers are very courteous, nice folks. In fact, if you have ever been waving someone through a stop sign when they got there first and they absolutely refuse to move and insist on lettng you go first,  you could come to the conclusion that some motorists are too courteous or else they fear that all cyclists are going to do something unpredictable because sometimes cyclists do do something unpedictable (just as vehicles do-but we are more vulnerable).

The  minority of jerks out there make motorists look bad to cyclists and make us leery of motorists because we don't know which ones are jerks.  Very infrequently - honestly I can almost count on one hand the number of abusive motorists but it is very scary when it happens.

Which is why I think that if the news media actually did some public service broadcasts about how motorist should drive around cyclist (leave a three foot distance passing, etc.), as well as how cyclists should cycle, it would help immensely.  There is nothing anyone can do about the psychopaths out there that have driver's licenses, but many people who are decent human beings inadvertently endanger cyclists out of ignorance.

People like the lady that killed the cyclist up by Fredricksburg and they guy in Kansas City.  They asked him if he knew what "share the road meant?" and he said yes, but in fact he really hadn't been educated about how sharing the road means one should leave 3 feet between their vehicle and the cyclists.  It hadn't beem emphasized.

People need to be reminded too.  I'm disgusted with CBS.  I suspect some of those news broadcasters are motorists and only motorists.  We need to convert at least one of them into a cyclst.  People go for physical exams all the time.  My doctor will tell me if I need certain tests and Ron Oleveida (sp) can't do enough of those public service annoucements about medical tests, but NO ONE reminds motorists or educates motorist about how to drive safely and share the road with cyclists.

Boy, the helmet thing is going to come up over and over and be used to condemn
the victims and let guilty motorists off left and right.  One of the biggest reasons to wear a helmet is that there won't be justice without one.

The girl was "dragged under the car so I have to wonder in this instance how
much good a helmet would have done anyway.  She would have been in pretty bad shape if she wasn't in fact killed anyway. 

Also, they say because she was riding in a crosswalk which okay, there were bicycle lanes but one would expect to see people walking in a crosswalk so why should it be such a big surprise if a child in a residential neighborhood is riding a bike in a crosswalk?

They don't care about cylists.  That's the bottom line.  I think you said a mouthful when you said that they figure cylcists are like skydivers and choose to do something high risk.

They do care about motorists so why can't they see that a major nationwide media campaign educating motorists to be alert and watch for cyclists and understand the laws and so on could save some motorists from crying herself to sleep for God only knows how many nights because she realized she just took a child's life.

If they would wake up and smell the coffee and realize that their beloved motorists
will suffer too, then maybe they could at least educate them for that reason.

Thanks for all the input. I wasn't going to try slime at all because I had heard bad things about it, but apparently that it is only a problem if one goes over 80 psi.  So I went ahead and put slime in my tires and filled them to 60 psi since my tires say 35 to 80 psi on the side.

Putting slime in my tires was the cheapest, easiest thing to try right away.  I try to avoid all the obvious things like broken glass etc. in the road and on the rare occasion that I find myself accidentally running over some, stop the bike and run my gloved hand over the tires.  What usually gets me are the little, bitty, tiny little pieces of glass, burrs or thorns that I can't see to avoid and don't even know I rolled over them which hopefully the slime will be enough to seal that and keep me rolling.

I may upgrade to a tougher tire too.  I'm currently researching that.

I think you should consider growing a handlebar mustache!

The motorist's defense is going to be that she was riding on the sidewalk and motorist don't expect to see bicycles exiting the sidewalk to cross the street.

Which I agree is a lousy excuse.  Shouldn't a motorist be on the alert for pedestrians crossing the street (expecially in California where pedestrians supposedly have the right away) so what difference does it make if it is a bike or a person?  I guess a bike can move faster than a person walking.  What about joggers?  Shouldn't they expect to see joggers crossing the street?

Also, when looking at that intersection in street view, it looks like a nice quiet residential street.  One where motorists should be awake and alert and looking for children chasing balls out into the street.

Actually I think it is a well balanced article because he balanced that statement with this one:

"Many drivers speed past bicyclists as if they were pieces of debris in the road, like a strip of a truck's rubber tread lying on a highway that you try to avoid but could run over just the same."

I can't disagree with his other statement really either. I know I have seen cyclists deliberately cycling in the wrong direction on the street, cycling at night with no lights even though it is pitch dark, speeding through red lights without the slightest hesitation  to scan properly and one could get the impression that some cyclists do consider the street their own personal stunt course.

I personally have a theory that cyclists that ride like that are not "skilled" at all or performing stunts so much as they are probably either riding fixed speeds or don't know how to use their gears properly. 

I came to that conclusion after I went cycling with a friend who had just started riding.  She was scared to ride in the street unless there was a bicycle lane which meant she cycled on the sidewalk a lot that day so I assumed she was a timid rider and was shocked to see her act so daring (and inconsiderate) when she ran two red lights and nearly mowed down a pedestrian.  Especially since she is normally a law abiding citizen and a really nice lady.

The long story is we met for lunch and she told me she had a hard time making it up some hills to get to the restaurant and barely made it. Her legs burned etc. and so on.  I asked her how many speeds she had on her bicycle and she had no idea. She thought she only had one or maybe two.  After lunch, I looked at her bike and told her it was a ten speed.  I then rode it a little and put in a gear that worked for me to go up a small hill and encouraged her to ride around that parking lot and hill where there was no traffic and play with her gears before we took off on our ride. 

She jumped on and liked the gear I had put it in for her a whole lot and was adamant about not letting me mess with the gears anymore or trying to mess with them herself. 

In retrospect, I realize she had found a gear that didn't cause her to have to mash her pedals and that with a little momentum made her think she had died and gone to heaven. 
Because when I talked to her later, she said she ran the red lights etc. because she didn't "dare lose momentum."   

It makes me wonder how many other shockingly brazen seemingly stunt-like riders have the same problem?

I encouraged her as we parted that day to go into a parking lot or low traffic hill area and ride around and play with her gears until she got the feel for them and I hope she has or will.

Not long after that I watched another rider who appeared to me to be not only extremely confident, but maybe overly confident and I got the impression that she didn't know how to use her gears really either – especially when I watched her make a green light and get carried by her momentum half way up a hill, and then get off the bike.  I caught the red  light so had to stop and wait rather than zip through like she had and then as pudgy and out of shape as I am, I shifted into a low gear and  pedaled all the way up the hill without the benefit of any momentum.  She was in much better shape than me but she didn't seem to be able to make it up that hill.

It makes me wonder how many "daredevils" out there don't really know how to use their gears and aren't in superb enough condition to ride a fixed gear properly so they pull crazy, stunt like maneuvers because if truth be known, they really just don't "dare lose their momentum"

At any rate, it made me reconsider my previous assumption that there are some jerks out there trying to make the cycling community look bad.

Hmm, Well, besides the usual (tools, tube, pump, patch kit, lights) I carry my wallet, my cell phone, my checkbook, palm pilot, street clothes on weekdays, sunglasses, usually a book or magazine in there too.  Never thought of a first aid kit.  Come to think of it, I skinned my knee on something on my bike doing a strange little dance to keep from falling over Saturday (when I suddenly and unexpectedly hit a deep pile of loose gravel on Steck) which makes me think I probably should add a little first aid kit. 

If I'm going to my decorative art class, they have paint brushes, paint, and other painting supplies in them. 

I do my grocery shopping on the way home from work on weekdays so of course frequently groceries are in my bags and insulated trunk bag.   (It's nice to see other cyclists at the H.E.B. at the Hancock center loading their pannier's with groceries)  And on weekends when I commute to and from the laundromat, my bags are filled with either dirty or clean laundry depending upon whether I am coming or going.

When I retire in a couple years, I want to do some touring so I figure I might as well load my bike up commuting and get used to carrying at least a little bit of a load in the meantime.

Meanwhile, the roadies just keep whizzing right past me just like Joe does yehuda moon.  I was waiting at a light one day last week and this "roadie" rode up and stopped to wait for the light on the right side of me.  I was going to go straight and it was obvious he was going left, but he told me not to worry because when the light changed, he would be "long gone" before I even got off to a start.  I guess my pannier bags, trunk bag, and front bag, bicycle with fenders etc. gave me away.

I too miss my bungies.  I lost them and need to replace them. I think there should be a special place in heaven for whoever invented bungies and velcro.