Saturday 26 May 2007

Devon Dust Up Warmup


First, here's a style of bike I don't already have. Sweet!


It's been a few months since I've been putting in real "Bakke Miles", so despite racing this weekend I rode Friday night, Saturday on what turned to be a "fairly brisk" ride with Geoff Clark and Mike Mckee (and Pat Doyle eventually). My judgement told me not to ride as hard as they wanted to, so I just dropped off on hills and such. Nice day, finally the weather is respectable.

On the motorists vs. cyclists front, we actually had a 2 stopped car altercation on Lower Springbank. Mr. F250 buzzed us, so Mckee's finger went up. He stopped for to give us some words of encouragement from the car. As he passed us the second time speeding off, he came waay too close for my liking. I decided my full water bottle would make a nice sound off his door at the highest velocity I could muster. This time he stopped, got out, walked back really tough, then it dawned on him that the three of us didn't look so frail when he was on the outside of the 4 tons of steel. Some other yahoo who was in the oncoming lane stopped, reversed back to us, and joined the ruckus. He said he'd seen us "all over the road". Interesting since he was coming toward us and had just seen us over the rise of the hill. He was told to shut the fuck up in short order. Mr. F250 actually said "what do you guys expect me to do, slow down from 80 to 40?" I quickly opined that if his biggest problem in life is the inability to use 10 seconds of his Saturday morning for my safety and that of others we'd have a pretty big problem on our hands, pronto.

I'm sort of losing my patience with this kind of stuff. Cycling is an earth friendly, healthy, and inconspicuous hobby. Not like the motorheads out in Bragg with their Harleys and crotch rockets that you can hear for kilometers away when they decide the whole world needs to feel their acceleration. Cycling is benign. These all end with the vehicle driving off, and us riding away, hopefully with a full set of teeth and no blood. But I certainly can see it unfolding otherwise, this goofball couldn't understand one on one aggression in a fair setting, although his truck buzzes are the unfairest of one on one aggression.

Anyway, dropped by Bow later on to a) get my BB on the Strong replaced, seems like I've mashed the bearings already, and b) pick up a 4 bike hitch rack that supports by wheels rather than top tubes (ie. better carbon frame compatibility... especially since both my carbon frames are square tubed).

The train is leaving the station at 6am tomorrow for the drive to Devon, giddyup!




4 comments:

  1. I like the idea of fuel prices continuing to rise to 'expensive' amounts. It won't effect the mileage on my commuter bike. Bring it on I say! I want a $1.50 a litre before summer's over. I want those loser drivers out there to suffer!! burn baby burn.
    ha ha haaa!!!

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  2. There are two things which have made me want to buy bear spray in all my years of outdoor activities: a particular dog I met after 180km somewhere between Millarville and Bragg Creek and jackasses like the one you describe...

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  3. I agree, but really, McKee is not that big of a jackass. We all know who the real jackass was on that ride....

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  4. It's really regrettable that these incidents are becoming more and more common, and that we've essentially lost our riding privileges in Springbank.

    I'm with Dallas - bring on the $2.00 per litre gas and see how cocky those SUV-laden Springbankers become. I'm willing to pay whatever's required on my grocery and utility bills just to see those assholes suffer.

    That you guys stood up to the truck-driving mouthbreather....good for you! I wish the opportunity would come around more often.

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