Welcome to my Winter Cycling Blog

Friday, December 21, 2007

My favorite Environmental Quotes

Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites. ~William Ruckelshaus,


Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them. ~Bill Vaughn

For 200 years we've been conquering Nature. Now we're beating it to death.

Take care of the earth and she will take care of you.


Opie, you haven't finished your milk. We can't put it back in the cow, you know. ~Aunt Bee Taylor, The Andy Griffith Show

It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. ~Ansel Adams

Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values.... God made life simple. It is man who complicates it. ~Charles A. Lindbergh

We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive. ~Albert Einstein


"The superior man seeks what is right; the inferior one, what is profitable."

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Main Stream Media

I remain a minority of people who proactively ferret out information on the Internet, so if the main stream media wants to merge one brainless medium with another it doesn’t inconvenience me at a personal level. The thing that should alarm us about the trend in media consolidation is the impact on the 70% of minimally educated, politically ambivalent middle Americans who want the editorial page to tell them who to vote for, or who want the man on the TV to tell them it’s a great thing for their kid to join the army. It is the couch potatoes of America, not its political activists, who decide elections and determine the future direction of us all.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

DiNotte tail light AA pro




The Dinotte tail light is second to none! Motorists WILL give you more room when passing. I was amazed at the pattern it puts down on the road. Just the aura is attention grabbing. If you’re sick of dealing with junk do yourself a favor and buy a Dinotte tail light. I’m sure I have enough cheap-o blinkies lying around to almost pay for a Dinotte.

In my opinion, the o-rings mounting system is awesome. In less than a minute you can have it mounted on another bike. This is unlike other blinkies in which you’ll have to purchase extra mounting brackets or spend much more time moving them from bike to bike. Should an o-ring break or you need one with better tension for your mounting needs just make a trip to the local hardware store.

I also make use of it in daylight hours. During the Fall long shadows are cast from trees on to the roads. Again, the Dinotte tail light prevents you from becoming lost in the shadows. Other tail lights simply cannot put out a commanding flash in such conditions.

I don't criticize the price one bit. This is a safety device in a league of its own and well worth the expense.

Monday, November 26, 2007

What Drivers need to be told!

I'll wait till spring to post this in the Press repulsive.

Admittedly I represent a small minority here: adults who use their bicycles for transportation, specifically commuting to and from their place of business. Let’s start with a little bit of education: bicycles like other slower moving vehicles are permitted on most state and local roads as a matter of law. The only restriction is that they obey general traffic rules and if it is safe for them to do so stay to the right so as to allow faster moving vehicles to pass.

Riding a 30lb bicycle and competing for the same space with 3 to 6 thousand LB cars and trucks is no contest. We tend to stay to the right most of the time. However there are occasions when we need to occupy a little more space than the extreme right, (no political pun intended.)

In order to be seen by motorists we like to ride a good 3 feet from the edge of the curb or shoulder. Using our ears and rear view mirror when a faster vehicle is approaching to pass, we usually oblige by moving over as far right as possible. Keep in mind however; we are only obligated to do so as long as it is safe for us to do so. Situations that do not spell safe are heavy sand, broken tree limbs and debris, frozen surfaces, potholes, glass and broken pavement. Under these circumstances, we try to maintain our position until it is safe for us to move right.

Don’t make matters worse by honking or worse crowding us with 2 tons of heavy metal. 50% of the passenger cars on the road today are either SUV’ s or light trucks that further exacerbate the problem by being wider than most roads were designed for. Sometimes you will need to cross the center line in order to safely pass. If another vehicle coming in the other direction prevents that, slow down and wait until its safe to pass.

Give us the same respect you would the occasional farmer moving his tractor a few miles up the road at his max speed of 15 miles/hour or the Police officer issuing someone a ticket and the Road construction workers performing there job. We all have families to go home to!

Many of you may feel that bike riding with traffic or working near traffic is not safe. That’s surely a defensible opinion, but think a bit further, if you’ve already identified something as being a bit risky, why do you participate in making it more so via your aggressive behavior? Slow down, give all road users some room. There aren’t that many of us.

One more thing: we have allowed our entire culture, politics and economy to be driven and dominated by the automobile. While I deplore this state of affairs and in some small way am trying to demonstrate an alternative point of view I don’t think I should have to compromise my physical safety to do so.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

The Day After Black Friday

I'll start off by saying sorry about the rant yesterday if any of you where out shopping yesterday. I just love to rant and rave helps me stay in control and relives stress.

The ride in today was so unreal 15 degrees and 7 mph winds I say that's just about perfect riding temps for me.. I have my late night roads and streets back. The peace of the night ride compared to the nightmare of last night has me being thankful. Wait did say I thankful? Oh shit! I should buy some turkey and celebrate Thanksgiving Oh shit I missed that to.

Any way I'm stuck at the gym on Saturday pulling overtime. I hate working weekends, I should be out riding at this moment. Oh well I'll have to make up for it tomorrow.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Black Friday

This blog was born out of a desire, or perhaps even need to express how awed I am at the depth of human stupidity. Why? After watching holiday shoppers trample each other for $5 slippers on "Black Friday", what other conclusion can one draw?

What really pushed me over the edge was a picture of an 11-year-old girl at the front of a crowd at some Wally Mart. The image of her little face squashed against a metal gate speaks volumes both to the parents and the apes amassed behind her. In fact, Planet of the Apes is what came to mind as the local T.V. station ran a loop of these baboon like morons leaping over fallen bodies to purchase or steal dollar store junk at a Wal-Mart.

PEOPLE: This crap is on sale all the time. All this junk is made in China by little kids they don't have to pay and floods every U.S. store large and small.

A couple of months ago, Best Buy had DVD players for less than 30 bucks. A few weeks later, more than half the pile was still there. If it was 29 bucks today, some smelly, toothless, knuckle dragging Darwin award candidate would have gladly stepped on your head to get to it.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

DiNotte headlight and Dinotte taillight in action. These lights are some of the brightest bike lights on the market. Believe me you get the respect of motorist using these light. The taillight is crazy bright if you get hit from behind using this light, the motorist should be charged with attempted murder.

DiNotte Headlight output 600 lumen's

DiNotte Taillight 140 lumen's

All DiNotte Lighting Pics are from ViperZ over at http://www.bikeforums.net/


Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Winter is almost here!

The last few rides into work have been on the cold side. It's almost time to mount the nokian studded tires (160 mount and ground) they should be lighter then my old set of 294s. The bike been rebuilt and I have been getting all my cold weather gear ready.