I Love Loop Frames

I'm stopped at a red light, right foot on raised right pedal. The light changes and traffic starts to move. I push slightly with my left foot while pushing down with the right, lifting myself into the saddle. Suddenly the car in front of me swerves to the right and stops in my path. I twist the handlebars sharply to my right to avoid his bumper.
I am always amazed at how fast thoughts race through my mind. Urk! Uh oh. Going over!! (**anticipated pain**) Get your foot down....and then I am standing on both feet on the sidewalk. I drag Eselin up after me and breathe a sigh of relief. My left foot on the then raised left pedal has just followed the rest of me through the frame.
Having experienced similar events on a diamond frame, I know that had I been riding a similar bike this afternoon I would have fallen and, at best, had road rash. I'm so glad there will be no scrubbing of wounds with antiseptic today.

Have You Lost A Bike in Winnpeg?

I found this article in today's Winnipeg Free Press. It is nice to see people get involved. It is even better to see people get involved and not get hurt.
His shop is not too far from where I work. If I ever buy any jewellery, I should buy it from him.

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
He rescued bike, seeks owner
Man chased down brazen thief, wants Peugeot to go home
By: Gabrielle Giroday 8/06/2010 1:00 AM |


Marty Halprin holds the post, from which the bike was stolen, showing it’s still easily removed. (PHIL.HOSSACK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

IT'S a Cinderella story complete with a knight in a pickup truck, except Marty Halprin isn't looking for the owner of a lost shoe.
Instead, the jewelry store owner is looking for the Winnipeg woman with the key that fits the lock on a turquoise Peugeot bike he rescued from a thief Friday morning.
The Celia's Jewellery owner was in his truck at the corner of Smith Street and York Avenue about 11 a.m. when he saw a man about 30 years old knock over a steel pole on the north side of York. The thief then dragged away a 10-speed bike that had been chained to the pole.
That's when Halprin pulled up alongside.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," said Halprin, 59, an avid biker who's cycled for over four decades and isn't shy about calling himself a rabble-rouser.
The man dropped the bike and took off on foot after Halprin gestured he was going to get out his truck.
"I guess he didn't want to get involved with me and he was having trouble with the bike, so he just left," he said.
Halprin then put the bike in the back of his truck and took it home for safekeeping.
"Whoever (the bike owner) is obviously had to walk home from wherever she worked. I'd sure like to meet her, find her, and give her her bike back."
The Peugeot's about 20 to 25 years old and still has a cable locking its front wheel and frame together. Its fender was twisted like "spaghetti" after the attempted theft.
"He just figured that (he had) every right to take this bike," he said.
He's confident he'll know he has the rightful owner when he finds the woman whose key fits into the lock.
A sign Halprin put near the intersection with his name and number -- as well as information about the theft -- has so far gone unanswered.
Halprin said he's shocked the thief tried such a brazen theft in the middle of busy downtown, and that people nearby didn't intervene.
"I know how sick it feels to go to where your bike was and it's gone," he said. "It's a sick feeling."
gabriellegiroday@freepress.mb.ca

The Price of Distraction

A young woman riding on Portage Avenue near Polo Park was hit by a car yesterday afternoon.

Witnesses say she was rode out from a side street infront of a car travelling in the curb lane. Bad enough she didn't check for cars, she was apparently listening to something with earbuds in both ears.

She has apparently suffered some lacerations to her head and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she had spinal cord injuries as well. I hope I am wrong and that she is fine.

I was thinking of this as I rode to work this morning and the thought made me shudder. I hate all that noise so close to my brain, and the thought of anything like that interfering with traffic noises is frightening. "Don't young people know better," I thought to myself? Then one of my co-workers (who turned 57 on Tuesday) rode up beside me, and guess what he had in his ears?

I am occasionally a little too judgemental about 'young' people.

Pretty but Reckless

The young woman on the pretty bike I mentioned yesterday rode by again today. She was waiting again at the lights where I saw her yesterday.
And at the end of the day, I saw her again. I was about to cross this same intersection to where Eselin was locked to a post but had stopped when the light turned red. She came zipping up on the sidewalk behind me and darted through the red light, making dismissive gestures to those motorists who honked. I would have thought that even if she was gave little consideration to the integrity of her own skin, she would not want to scratch the paint on her bike.
(~sigh~) Cyclists like that give us all a bad name.

My Angel was Watching

Early this morning I was on the sidewalk of a busy street waiting for the light to change so I could walk across with Eselin. I pushed the 'walk' button and a car stopped almost immediately. I glanced at it, wondering why it had stopped so suddenly, when I noticed the light had indeed changed.

My confusion saved me. A car went roaring by, accelerating, in an failed attempt to beat the red. All I heard was the howl of the engine as the driver sped off into the darkness. Had I stepped off the curb when I noticed the walk indicator, even tho' it was at least five seconds after the signal had changed, I would have been killed. I wonder if the driver of that speeding, red-light running car would have even noticed.