BIKE: Our Dreary Flame Wars (was: more songs about buildings and food)

[Mike Dahmus]

Patrick is next. I'll get to him on Monday, since I gave him a chance to 
retract his attack, and he did not.

On 10:32 AM 4/24/2004 -0500, Mike Librik or Amy Babich wrote:
>But then another writer (that fellow with the distracting peeve about the 
>use of his last name) wrote an
>angry letter about how the first writer should have voluntarily moved 
>*further left* in the lane to
>allow right turning traffic to go through. Here is an advanced level 
>trick, and a dicey one at that,
>aimed at both improving the cyclist's safety and reducing overall stress. 
>The problem is that the
>mid-level cyclist is being abused for essentially doing the correct thing 
>(that is, not keeping too far
>right) and not attempting a more ambitious, if unproven technique.
>
>Notably, the person dispensing this advanced advice seemed to assume that 
>everyone rode the same style
>of bike he did, and had the ability to lift and drag the bike sideways 
>while stopped. On the whole it
>was not bad advice, and good food for thought for the person looking to 
>improve their driving skill, but
>it was not grounds for abusing someone who did not bike exactly as the 
>pundit did.
>
>Congratulations on making it to the end of my post. I know it would have 
>been more interesting if I
>called somebody a Hippie Faggot, or held down the caps lock key, but my 
>prose is, alas, too dry for
>that.

Mike,

You might as well have; for I found your posting just as obnoxious as if 
you actually had used that term. Well done. "the person", "distracting 
peeve", etc. has raised my blood pressure. Nice work.

The fact of the matter is that disregarding that advice (intended to help 
individual drivers who might therefore be well-disposed to cyclists in the 
future) because of the 0.01% of cyclists in this town who ride a recumbent 
bike is incredibly stupid and quite beneath you. Every mountain bike and 
every road bike can easily be moved over. Don't make Patrick's mistake and 
completely discredit your usually wise contributions with ridiculous 
bullshit like this.


Mike Dahmus
mdahmus