Commuting…The strange. The Odd… And the FUN

[UJM]

Mambo Dave, things must definetly be different down under

[WVhillbilly]

Sounds uh, interesting Dave. I'll be back in Miami next week. Should I bring a bike?

[Phlemdog]

That kinda stuff makes me want to take a trip further south, just to see what the fuss is about.

[Boon Booni]

Had an odd event today. Merged onto the interstate, left lane rolling along at about 50 mph traffic in right two lanes is going about 35 mph, with folks stopping about 1/4 mile up ahead in the right lane. I jump in the middle eyeing the rear view for the left most lane, look up the car in front is stopped, I get on the front brake and somehow only manage to grab the lever it with the tips of my glove, not my fingers, pull and realize she's not slowing down, glance at mirror, see small hole, twitch bars, clutchless downshift, split second of lane sharing and I'm winding it up to stay ahead of the car in the left lane.

Closest one I've had in a bit.

[GodOmelet]

Originally Posted by Boon Booni

Had an odd event today. Merged onto the interstate, left lane rolling along at about 50 mph traffic in right two lanes is going about 35 mph, with folks stopping about 1/4 mile up ahead in the right lane. I jump in the middle eyeing the rear view for the left most lane, look up the car in front is stopped, I get on the front brake and somehow only manage to grab the lever it with the tips of my glove, not my fingers, pull and realize she's not slowing down, glance at mirror, see small hole, twitch bars, clutchless downshift, split second of lane sharing and I'm winding it up to stay ahead of the car in the left lane.

Closest one I've had in a bit.

That's the kind of stuff that makes me apprehensive about riding in Richmond again. I haven't ridden here for 16 years, and I wonder whether my instincts/reflexes have dulled. I am close to getting my 77 R100 out for it's first real spin (the first one was aborted by a broken clutch boss almost 2 months ago). Between the cross-streets and the cagers who I swear are worse here than anywhere else I've lived except perhaps in SLC, I'm thinkin I'll just get out of town and ride west an hour or two. Glad you are ok.

[Boon Booni]

Originally Posted by GodOmelet

That's the kind of stuff that makes me apprehensive about riding in Richmond again. I haven't ridden here for 16 years, and I wonder whether my instincts/reflexes have dulled. I am close to getting my 77 R100 out for it's first real spin (the first one was aborted by a broken clutch boss almost 2 months ago). Between the cross-streets and the cagers who I swear are worse here than anywhere else I've lived except perhaps in SLC, I'm thinkin I'll just get out of town and ride west an hour or two. Glad you are ok.

Thanks..


Richmond isn't too bad IMHO.

But definitely get out of town. Take Riverside drive from the Lee bridge out to forest Avenue, then pick up river side drive again once you cross 195 and follow it to Cherokee to Old Gun and out to Robious Road/711. That's a nice way to get to the country from Downtown..

Map

My incident was very definitely exacerbated by not having taken the time to drink my usually cup of coffee before heading out first thing in the morning. I spent too much time watching the rear view instead of decisively accelerating and jumping in an open spot when I first had the chance. If i had been on my Airhead I very well might have clipped the stopped car with a jug.

[Bill_Z]

Originally Posted by Qwik

Here they will drive in the Median for 500ft before the turn lane so they can pass the honest ones.

These people need to get flat tires from the debris in the median or go to jail for off-roading.

[ttpete]

Originally Posted by Elessar

These people need to get flat tires from the debris in the median or go to jail for off-roading.

It's a PAVED left turn lane that was being discussed, not a grassy median.

[shaddix]

Originally Posted by Elessar

These people need to get flat tires from the debris in the median or go to jail for off-roading.

[DAKEZ]

Originally Posted by Qwik

Here they will drive in the Median for 500ft before the turn lane so they can pass all the mindless sheep.

Edit

[jamz]

I came back from riding to Acadia over the weekend and helping at my mother in law's place to find that we had trapped a skunk in a live trap, which had been out by the chicken coop, for well over a year. There was never any bait in it, and it was left there more or less as a place to keep it. Anyway, Mr. Skunky was in there.

Now, it is illegal to transport live wild animals in Maine, so I gave him some tea and a biscuit and let him out to eat some of our hen's eggs. I certainly did not carefully put a towl over the trap, place the trap gently in a large trash bag, and strap it tightly onto the back of the bike. There is an area about ten miles away which has a dirt road going through it, a largish quarry, and nothing else. It's a fine place.

I absolutely did not gently start the bike with Mr. Skunky in the trap on the back, and proceed to ride through town, down the road for a while, taking the appropriate turnoffs to get to the dirt road, which would have been about a 10 minute trip at 50MPH. And I definitely did not almost immediately encounter a Maine Game Warden in one of the turnoffs on the dirt road, who amongst all of the possible law enforcement personnel that exist in Maine, would be most knowlegable about the illegality of transporting live wild animals, and the most on the lookout for such things.

I did not have several small heart attacks in a row, knowing that the road was maybe five miles long, badly rutted and sandy in places, and there was no exit except for the other end, had just passed a game warden while possibly reeking of fresh skunk, and to top everything off, I had forgotten my wallet at home. And it's a good thing my 94k mile, 12 year old street bike would potentially be able to handle a much faster than anticipated run down a rutted and sandy dirt road, and it's a good thing that skunks probably apparently don't mind being bounced off the top of their trap for ten minutes of rough travel. Why, if that had actually happened, it must have been like the world's worst airline turbulence.

I was not thinking to myself the whole time :"Why, so this is what off-road riding is like. It's pretty cool, I wish I had a different bike for it, and I wish I could enjoy the circumstances a bit more". I was not looking in my mirrors every ten seconds expecting a Warden F-250 to come roaring up demanding to know what I was doing and how much trouble I was in.

I never did finally get to the end of that road, thankfully and curiously unpursued, and take some random lefts and rights on the connecting roads, and never did eventually find some other remote area with an atv trail, which led to another atv trail, which led to what was one step above single track trail, where I did not stop and release Mr. Skunky, who probably would have been very glad to see the end of that journey. I hadn't told my wife that I'd be back in half an hour, only to return an hour and 15 minutes later, after riding back out the atv trails.

Pity, because that would have been a hell of a story!

[Mambo Dave]

Originally Posted by jamz

Pity, because that would have been a hell of a story!

It sure would - so my only suggestion would be... you should get into writing fiction! Because I sure would like to read a story just like that

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Pro Commuting video just came out an hour ago:

More time, more fun! (Ride to Work Day - June 18, 2012 in the UK)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=BBtBWQnO0q4

Two pics from today's riding seem to cover the strange, the Odd, And the FUN

The first pic is what I saw in the mirror while stopped at a light:



Gotta love bull horns on a PT Cruiser and a Nevada plate that says "TEXAN" That covered The strange and The Odd

The second pic covers the FUN



I finally rolled over the 10,000 mile mark for my personal riding

The left side of the pic is from May 11, 2011 which was the first time I saw the bike. I added 15 miles getting it to the shop a week or so later and I finally got it out on the road on June 10, 2011. As I've written in a few places, I've been though beautiful weather, but also through heat, cold, wind, rain, hail, thunderstorms, and just about everything else short of snow. My bike has never let me down since I got it fixed up and I think I got a pretty good deal for $1,400

I don't know how much riding I'll get to do in the next year as I have a daughter due in August, I'm moving to Utah in the next week, and I'll need to find a new job ASAP, but my bike will be my primary form of transportation and my better half actually wants me to keep it I have a feeling the miles will continue to rack up at a fairly decent rate

[Ugly]

About a year ago. On a busy two lane street in North Portland sitting at a stoplight going for an evening ride on my Versys. I'm in the left track when a little kid (in his mid-20's or so ) pulls up alongside me on a little blue pocket bike. Tennis shoes, shorts, t-shirt, no helmet and a big ass grin on his face. He must've been 6' tall with his knees sticking out as far as they were. I look over like he's crazy and he gives me a faux scowl and starts revving it up like he's looking for a race.

Yinnnnngggg yinnnng yinnng, Yiiiiiiiiiinnnnngg yinnng yinnng. Something about that grin and him looking like a skinny giant riding a tricycle had me set aside caution and my anal retentive nature as I started the revving game as well. Light turns green we were off. I took off normally expecting him to just laugh and head off his merry way, but nope, there he was alongside me in the right track. I didn’t shift at first and matched his speed, then second gear, then third. He tucked in all his giant frame could tuck and milking it for every mph. I tucked in as well matching his speed. It was a race after all.

After a couple blocks he yells the question while still wearing that shit eating grin.. “How fast?”. I flipped up my modular and yelled 37. He kept it up for another block, waved and hit the side road to cause more mayhem.

While hindsight is 20/20 considering the surroundings and traffic, there was something undeniable about the pure joy in that guys face and the knowing that sometimes it’s the little things within the daily grind that can lighten the heart.

-Ugly

[Marylander]

Originally Posted by ParrotheadJeff

I finally rolled over the 10,000 mile mark for my personal riding

Nice!

Originally Posted by ParrotheadJeff

I don't know how much riding I'll get to do in the next year as I have a daughter due in August, I'm moving to Utah in the next week, and I'll need to find a new job ASAP, but my bike will be my primary form of transportation and my better half actually wants me to keep it I have a feeling the miles will continue to rack up at a fairly decent rate

I started commuting by bike right around the time my first daughter was born. Her high school graduation is in two days. Over 300k miles have passed since. You're just getting started. ;)

Kirk