Annie's song

Annie has expressed her desire for a Carbon Fiber water bottle cage because hey, who doesn't want to spend $100 on a water bottle cage?

And you know what the perfect accessory is to compliment this extravagence? The new Carbon Fiber jersey from Cannondale.

Cannondale Men's and Women's Carbon Jersey

Carbon is the hot material in anything bike-related. Why not clothing? This jersey has carbon infused in the poly/nylon fabric to provide SPF 50 sun protection, an anti-microbial effect to reduce odor and higher moisture wicking ability. Plus, it's carbon.

Cost: $150!

After shelling out $100 for a water bottle cage, $150 for a jersey seems like a damn bargain!

Chicken Dance

For some reason, this little incident from Friday afternoon's commute completely escaped me until now. I was riding home through Fort Snelling state park as I always do. I rode through the parking lot for the historic Fort and got to the point where I join with the path that crosses the Highway 55 bridge.

There is a short length of sidewalk that connects the car portion to the bike trail. It's nice and wide and is bordered by about 4 feet of crushed rock on either side. There's a great big sign as you go onto the sidewalk that says "NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES BEYOND THIS POINT" From time to time I do see a truck or car parked on the side of the sidewalk, kind of half on the sidewalk itself and half on the crushed rock. But in every instance it's easy to see that the person who parked their car made every effort to pull off the sidewalk as far as possible to avoid blocking foot and bike traffic. I figure most of these cars belong to nice folks who work at the Fort. No big deal.

On Friday as I turned on to this sidewalk there was a white Ford F-150 driving down the sidewalk headed toward me. I'm not sure of the exact traffic law here, but since it's a sidewalk and there's the big "no motor vehicles" sign posted I felt fairly sure I had the right of way. I was riding Betty, and she's not exactly suited for offroad shenanigans with her 700x28 tires so I slowed down in order to give him time to pull onto the gravel so I could get by. No such luck. The driver of the truck slowed down also, but showed no indication that he was going to pull over at all. A couple feet was all I really needed, he had more than enough space. I slowed down some more, and he responded by coming to a dead stop -- completely blocking the sidewalk.

At this point it was either come to a complete stop myself or hit the gravel. I opted for the gravel. As I rode by I said, "Thanks for pulling over" somewhat sarcastically into his open passenger window. He just stared at me like I had grown a second, evil head and didn't speak a word. Once I had gone past him, he started moving forward again like nothing had happened. It was bizarre.

Sold American

Potential good news with the increase in gas prices. Bike sales are at a near record high. The US Chamber of Commerce says more bicycles have been sold than cars over the past 12 months.

However, the cynic in me says that once our refineries in the Gulf Coast are back on line most of the bikes bought because of high gas prices will be gathering dust hanging in garages across the nation. "Bicycle sales are near an all-time high with 19 million sold last year -- close to the 20 million sold during the oil embargo in the early 1970s," said Tim Blumenthal, whose association Bikes Belong is based in Boulder in the western state of Colorado.

There's a pattern here. 1973 oil embargo, people bought scads of bikes. However, once the oil embargo was over there was no huge sustained increase of people riding for utility rather than strictly for pleasure on weekends. I would guess that there is an inverse relationship between gas prices and bike sales. And since we seem to have an increase in gas prices every 5-10 years you would think that there would be a corresponding increase in people riding bikes for utility. But, seeing how Minneapolis has one of the highest percentages of bike commuters at 2.62% it doesn't seem that fuel prices have any long term effect on our habits.

That's a big reason I'm not concerned about fuel economy. There's only a finite amount of oil available. And, in my opinion the only thing that will truly make any long term difference is if we use it all. So build the H3 and the H4 and the H12. Burn it up.

Betty

It's time to introduce another bike, Bolt-on Betty.


I call her Bolt-on Betty, because if there's a bolt on attachment she's got it. Two water bottle cages? Check. Rear rack? Check. Computer? Check. And most recently aero bars. Check. It's a cluttered look, but it's more function vs. form.



Word to the wise: Wet rims require increased stopping distance.

You'll also notice that I'm still using down tube shifters. Old school, low maintanence. And Suntour of all things.




She's a Schwinn Premis I've owned for about 3 years now. I found her completely by accident one afternoon when I went to Twin City Outboard looking for parts for my 1949 Johnson 5 horse motor. One of the employees had this bike and another outside for sale. He was asking $75 for the Schwinn and I talked him down to $50. Since then I've added new tires, the rack, computer and aero bars. I also bought a new Specialized Body Geometry saddle and clipless pedals.



But everything else was pretty much as it was when I bought it. This is my main steed, the bike I ride to work most every day. She's been on MS150 rides and training rides, unplanned rambles across all parts of the twin cities. Betty is the bike that makes me want to ride fast.

In the air tonight

In the last year I've been taking classes at Metropolitan State University. Wait, scratch that. I've been taking classes for what feels like forever. But we moved last year, so instead of Metro State being 3 miles from my house and pretty much right on the way home, it's now about 10 miles out of the way. Being a weenie, I'd been driving my usual Light Rail stop at Ft Snelling in the morning to catch the train to work. Then in the afternoon I would take the train back to Ft Snelling, get in my car and drive to school, park, and then drive home after class. Since Ft Snelling is pretty much as close to the opposite direction from school that I can really think of, it wasn't a very efficient use of time or gas. I usually put about 30 miles on the car every school day. I thought, there's got to be a better way. So yesterday I went about finding it.

In the morning I rode my bike to Ft Snelling and took the Light Rail into work, as I do the other 4 weekdays during the kids' school year. Then, in the afternoon I took the 94D bus from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul and rode my bike the approximate 1 mile to school. It took me about half the time it usually does to do the Ft Snelling shuffle. Thus ends the boring part of the trip.

When I left school at 9:20 it was dark. Of course, I knew it would be dark so I brought my lights along. I've ridden at night before, no problem. I turned on my taillight for the first time this year and noticed from the exceptionally dim output that the taillight is in dire need of new batteries. No biggie, there's plenty of streetlights. So many in fact, that turning on the incredibly cheap $14.99 headlight was really a non-event. I pedalled from school through downtown St. Paul and headed into Harriet Island park. As I rode through the park I was amazed at how many streetlights they had along the bike/walking path. I didn't even need my crappy headlight! But all that was about to change.

Harriet Island park ends quickly and the bike path runs parallel to Water Street and the Mississippi River. And this is where things get dark. I'm talking black. Water Street is not heavily travelled. Last night I saw two cars on it. Apparantly it's an out of sight out of mind kind of street when it comes to lighting needs. And lights on the path? Forget about it. I adjusted my headlight so I could see about 5-10 feet in front of me and decided not to worry about anything further up the road, since there wasn't much I could do about it.

For some odd reason, I have a fear of the homeless at night when biking. It probably comes from biking through Swede Hollow at night when we used to live in St. Paul and I would see homeless folks. During the day they seem harmless enough, but at night they are a little more bold. So I have visions of the homeless, lying in wait beside the trail to spring out and grab me. You don't have to tell me how unlikely this is, because I know. For one thing, most of the homeless folks I see are not exactly the spry type. I'm thinking that instead of springing out, they would sort of lurch in my general direction and I could easily avoid them. And another thing, I think anybody lying in wait on a path perhaps 2 people use after sunset would give up out of sheer boredom after about half an hour.

Why do I mention my irrational fear of the homeless? Just to give you an idea of my mindset as I rode along. There's a section along the bike path that has a chain link fence next to it, and while I was riding I heard something rattle against that fence. My active brain screamed out "Homeless attack!" and made my legs pedal faster. I actually looked over my shoulder to see if perhaps a down on his luck former Olympian was chasing me down. Nothing. I turned back toward the front and "Aaaah!" there's something right in front of me! in my headlight beam! Jesus, what is that?! As my brain calmed down I realized it was running away from me, not toward me. It was a great big racoon. I would guess a 20 pounder. And that dude was hustling to avoid getting run over. I slowed up, and he or she zipped off to the side. There was another running about 5 feet in front of his/her brother or sister who lit out for the territories at the same time. So what I had heard rattling the fence was in reality another racoon I'd startled. Nothing like a little rush of adreneline to get you the rest of the way home though.

Will I do this again? Probably. Am I glad I ordered a new headlight a couple weeks ago (which still hasn't been delivered)? You bet I am.

She blinded me, with Science!

A research team at the U of M is seeking individuals who commute by bicycle at least three times per week. Bicycle commuters are needed for a research project regarding the behavior of bicyclists in the South Minneapolis area. Participants will receive $100 after they have completed the study. Your commute route must begin south of Franklin Street and end anywhere in downtown or near the U of M campus. The study runs October 9 through October 22.

To participate, you will need to strap a small GPS unit to your bicycle and activate it as you begin and end your commute. Two or three times during the study, you will need to meet with the project team to transfer data from the GPS unit. These informal meetings should take no longer than 5 minutes, and the times and locations of the meetings are flexible. You will also need to participate in orientation and wrap-up.

To learn more, contact Reuben Collins at the University of Minnesota. Please provide your name, age, and the approximate endpoints of your commute.

rcollins@hhh.umn.edu
612-229-9388

Grundy County Auction

Yesterday I decided to head over and check out the Minneapolis Police bike auction. I'd never been and had heard you can find some great deals. But first, how to get there? I'd ridden my bike in to work so I had to figure out a bike-friendly route to south Minneapolis, a part of the cities that I'm not very familiar with.

I probably spent 1/2 an hour searching online for bike maps of Minneapolis. There's just not much out there. I have several good maps at home, but they weren't doing me a bit of good. Dave Dash is in the process of building what could be a great resource, a website called citybikemap.com which allows users to plot their own routes. But he's just barely launched it so there's not much out there yet.

After looking at what was available, I took the following route. I headed out of downtown and rode south on Portland Ave. There's a marked bike lane all the way down to right around 46th St. Once you're past the bike lane it's a little hairy for a block or two, but if you're not riding during rush hour (like I was) it's fine. Then I headed west on Minnehaha Parkway and followed that almost all the way to the auction. There were plenty of times when I had to stop, back up and turn around before I eventually found what I was looking for.

The way back home was much smoother. I was able to get right on the parkway, this time eastbound, and I felt a lot more confident about where I was headed. A mile or so in I passed an older couple on hybrid bikes. We met up again at the next light and they commented on my "lizard love" shirt (it has little cartoon lizards in every conceivable sexual position). They jumped the light change faster than I did and they were ahead again. Instead of seesawing back and forth with them I just tucked in and rode along. They were moving at a pretty decent pace, around 24 k/hr. I really enjoyed the bike path in the Minnehaha Parkway. It's decently paved, and most of it isn't a shared path with walkers/runners. It is very scenic and nicely shaded. It was a beautiful afternoon and I couldn't think of anyplace else I wanted to be. The older couple split off when we reached Hiawatha, and I joined up with my regular commuter route in Minnehaha Park. I ended up with 47 kilometers on the day, learned a new route and got to see a new part of the city. All in all a great day.

The auction? Pretty much a bust. There were some decent looking mountain bikes, but they were all too small for me. There were a couple of old school beauties that I would have been tempted to bid on too. One was an old Schwinn that still had what looked to be the original speedometer. The old analog style with a dial and mechanical odometer, similar to this. The odometer read over 9,000 miles. Not too bad for an old Schwinn. But, I'd promised my wife that I wouldn't buy anything, and there wasn't anything there that I wanted bad enough to break my promise.

---

This morning I rode in to work wearing a tie. And for the twentieth time today, I don't have a job interview. I just felt like it. I was biker at the ends (shoes and helmet) but business in the middle. On Highway 13 I caught up to a guy who was decked out in full bike trim. Shorts, jersey, gloves, the works. I passed him handily wearing my slacks, shirt and tie. Didn't seem to bother him, being passed by a foppish dandy as he sped up and caught me. I dropped my pace and we rode together for a few miles. He seemed like a nice guy. That's what I like about biking. I'm an introvert by nature, and don't do well at small talk. But put me in the saddle and I'll chit-chat with anyone.

Devil in disguise

Who says owning a Hummer makes you socially and environmentally reprehensible?


From your good friends at Hummer bikes

If you're going to San Francisco...

We are too! We'll be going toward the end of October, MEA weekend for you Minnesotans. It will be me, the wife and another couple. This will be the first time the four of us have travelled together, so it should be a very interesting experience. We have all been discussing what we would like to do while we are out there. I've composed a list of typically tourist-y things (visit Alcatraz, ride a streetcar, etc.), but the one I'm most excited about is renting a bike and riding it across the Golden Gate bridge.

The idea hadn't even occurred to me on my own. I was googling San Fran, looking for interesting things to do and found several bike rental outfits. For about $50 (give or take) you can get outfitted with a bike and a map and turned loose in the city. The basic route is to get out of Fisherman's Wharf and cross the Golden Gate into Sausalito. Once there you can either continue into Tiburon or just stay put in Sausalito. Either way, a ferry ride back across the bay is included. It sounds just awesome.

If anybody has any experience with San Fran biking, let me know! I'd also be interested in any cool San Fran things that I'm not likely to find on the Official San Fran website.

Round and Round

The city has been promising/threatening to sealcoat our street for over a month now. As a biker, sealcoating is a hideous process to live through. They cover the street with sticky, smelly tar and then pour tons of tiny rocks on top. Most of the rocks don't stick to the tar, so it's like living on a gravel road for weeks. We get a flyer in our mailbox every week proclaming that this is the week they're going to do it. Never mind that we told you last week was the week. We're serious now. I'm sure the people who deliver those flyers were starting to be ashamed of what they did for a living.

But anyway, they finally made good on said threat and sealcoated the street on Friday. I left for work on Friday morning and they had only done half of the street, so I was able to ride out of the neighborhood on good pavement. I was going the wrong way on the wrong side of the street to do it, but what the hell. Friday afternoon I just walked my bike up the hill.

So of course, Friday night both the kids want to ride their bikes. Trying to avoid the horror of watching them fall repeatedly into the gravel I talked them into walking our bikes up the hill and riding on the paths in the park. Great idea in theory. But, by the time they pushed their bikes all that way they didn't have much interest in riding them. So they played at the playground while I rode Chuck up and down the path. We finally left when we realized several things:
1. It was getting dark. The most obvious of the items.
2. We hadn't eaten dinner. Becoming more obvious by the minute.
3. We hadn't let Mom know we were leaving. Not obvious, but once realized it was impossible to ignore.

Saturday I trimmed the heck out of the willow trees in the front yard and piled the trailer high with branches. To make things easier, I left the trailer hooked up and parked the whole rig in the front yard. My wife took our van to go for a walk (don't say it) and daughter E wanted to ride bikes again. Since we had the whole driveway and garage at our disposal, we rode in circles or sometimes figure 8s for over an hour Saturday evening.

So, a fair amount of time on the bike this weekend, but no miles to speak of. But, if my mental figuring is correct I passed my mileage goal for the year on Friday.

Jive talkin'

Wow. The UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) is the governing body for professional cycling, and they are normally very much on the side of drug testing and rarely take the side of the athletes. Which makes their recent press comments about the 1999 TdF urine samples even more powerful. They get in the face of not only L'Equipe, but also WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). Here are a few choice nuggets:

``How could this be done without the riders' consent?'' the UCI said.

It [the UCI] also asked WADA to say if it allowed the results to be disseminated, which UCI says is a ``breach of WADA's anti-doping code.''

``We have substantial concerns about the impact of this matter on the integrity of the overall drug testing regime of the Olympic movement, and in particular the questions it raises over the trustworthiness of some of the sports and political authorities active in the anti-doping fight,'' the UCI said.

``We deplore the fact that the long-established and entrenched confidentiality principle could be violated in such a flagrant way without any respect for fair play and the rider's privacy,'' it said.

UCI singled out WADA president Dick Pound for making ``public statements about the likely guilt of an athlete on the basis of a newspaper article and without all the facts being known.''

It also criticized the article in L'Equipe as ``targeting a particular athlete.''

Here's a link to the complete story.

I think I have a problem

Last night I spent an hour in the garage, detailing a tricycle. I'm talking about steel wool, bike polish, goo remover, the whole 9 yards. The only thing I didn't do was use that spray on tire cleaner, but that's because I didn't have any. But it's a nice trike, one of those retro Radio Flyer ones. And it looks pretty all cleaned up! Clearly, I need a girlfriend.

Of course, my bike is still filthy.


All shined up and ready to ride.

Living and riding in 3/4 time

It's official, summer's over. At least, as far as my bike commute goes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not done commuting. It just means that I have to go to my abbreviated schedule. During the summer I can drop my kids off at daycare at 7, ride in to downtown, shower at the YMCA and still be to work by 8:30 or so. But, now that school is in session the bus doesn't pick them up until 8:15. I'm not willing to slide my entire schedule back a full hour and 15 minutes because I wouldn't get home until their bedtime. So, I'll get them on the bus and then ride to Ft. Snelling and catch the Light Rail in the morning. This gets me to work at 9:00, and I'm not stinky after the 7 km ride. Then I'll ride the entire route home.

Today, my boss told us all to leave early so I took off at 4. I wanted to ride someplace I hadn't ridden before and get some additional miles under my belt. I rode on West River Road to Franklin, then crossed over to East River Road and followed it to Summit. I rode Summit all the way to the Ramsey hill, which I'm glad I was going down instead of up! Once I got on 7th Street, I knew I had to get off of 7th Street as soon as possible because traffic was hairy. So I took a right onto Smith and climbed up the high bridge across the river. I was glad I'd been soft pedaling and enjoying the scenery to that point, otherwise the climb might have killed me. But I felt very strong all the way up. Which is good, because I had to keep climbing through Cherokee Park and onto Highway 13. By the way, 13 is under construction right now just south/west of the park so I wouldn't recommend that route any time soon. I flew into Lilydale and took the Lilydale trail (more long, drawn out climbing) all the way to my regular route at Sibley Memorial Highway.

A total of 40km on the day and a beautiful ride. Even more beautiful because I didn't plan it, but it just came together naturally and spontaneously. And other than the construction on 13, I never had any problems. Happy Labor Day weekend!

Everybody, meet Chuck

This is, oxymoronically, my newest bike and my oldest bike.


I stopped by the neighbors' house this weekend because they were having a moving sale. They didn't have much out yet, but this bike was leaning against the side of their garage. I asked if they were planning on selling it and the neighbor said yes.



It's a Montgomery Wards Hawthorne. I don't know the exact age, but I'm guessing 50's or 60's vintage. It's a single speed with a coaster brake. Note the conspicuous lack of any cables, brake or shifter.



Dig those built in reflectors. This pic is kind of a weird angle, but there's a reflector on the head tube and one on either side of the fork.



Not only Chromage, but Superchromix as well! It sounds something out of DC Comics where two brothers that were exposed to gamma rays and one turned into a SuperHero and the other into a SuperVillan (The Adventures of SuperChromix and his archrival, Chromage!)



Sweet logo.



The neighbor asked for $5. I checked my wallet and only had $2. It was, in his words, "Good enough." Which was good enough for me. I've been referring to the bike as Chuck, named after Charles Shaw Wine's affectionate nickname, Two Buck Chuck.

The tires hold air (though they really should be replaced), everything that's supposed to move moves, and everything that's not supposed to move doesn't move (with the exception of the cracked support in the seat). And it's fun as all get out to ride.

Hydrate me big daddy, 8 to the bar

Our kids were sicker than sick dogs a few weeks ago. Really high fevers, in the 104 degree range. While this makes them really easy to care for since they just lay there in a heap, it's also pretty scary. We talked to the doctor about fluids and he recommended plain old Gatorade. "Not pedialyte?" we asked. Nope. Turns out pedialyte has done a fine marketing job, but Gatorade works just as well for a lot less money. So we bought some Gatorade and forced the kids to drink about half of the bottle.

One day after my commute I decided to finish off the rest. I don't usually drink energy drinks or anything other than water because after a long ride that stuff makes my stomach upset. But man if this didn't hit the spot. So then I had the dilemma: Should I buy more? While it's cheaper than pedialyte, it runs about a buck a quart minimum for the powdered stuff, even more for the liquid. That's more than a gallon of gas!

So, I did what any tight, web savvy biker would do. I checked out my friend, the interweb. There's plenty of recipes for homebrew Gatorade out there, but nothing that sounded really really easy. Sunday I made a trip to the store. Here's the concoction I ended up going with:
Country Time Pre-Sweetened Lemonade Mix
Morton Lite Salt
Net investment, about $6.

I mixed up two quarts of Country Time and added 3/4 a teaspoon of the lite salt. I got the lite because it's basically already pre-mixed with salt and potassium, both of which were in the recipes I found online. It tastes pretty much like gatorade and it couldn't be easier to whip up. The lemonade already has a built in measurer for it's mix, and then just one quick dash of the lite salt. Nice.

To Joe's defense

My letter sparked a reaction!

Joe did not break the law

[Velocipete]'s Aug. 21 letter ("Which bikers have to obey laws, Joe?"), chastises Joe Souchery for saying he drove through a red traffic light while on his motorcycle may have been misdirected and uninformed. Saunders seems to be taken aback at Joe's comment and points out what he views as some hypocrisy. I did not see Joe's mention of his riding through red traffic signals, so some of this is pure assumption on my part.

Minnesota Statute 169.06 subd. 9 allows for an affirmative defense to a citation for failing to obey a traffic control device by the rider of a motorcycle in situations where the person has: brought the motorcycle to a complete stop, the signal shows red for an unreasonable period of time, the signal has appeared to have failed in detecting the motorcycle's presence (and therefore not cycled the signal) and the motorcycle proceeds so as not constitute a hazard to other traffic.

Unfortunately, there are too many people that have erroneous views of what is and is not legal on Minnesota's roads.

So, folks, be well informed before you are well heard.

SGT. DON MAROSE

St. Paul

The writer is a drug recognition expert for the Minnesota State Patrol.

And the response generated a response of my own!

I would like to thank Sgt. Don Marose for clarifying the law that allows Joe Soucheray and other bikers to bypass a red light. Due to the weight of cycles and the technical limitation of metered traffic signals, this seems fair and reasonable. I assume all bicyclists should be able to utilize this affirmative defense, since by law "Every person operating a bicycle shall have all of the rights and duties applicable to the driver of any other vehicle" (Minnesota Statute Section 169.222, Subdivision 1).

Craptacular week

Don't let the title deceive you, I've actually had a pretty good week. I got to go sailing Monday and Wednesday, the last two nights of this year's sailing class. Wednesday afternoon I took off work and headed out to the lake early. Jim, another instructor, had the same idea and arrived at the boathouse about 10 minutes after I did, so we took out a couple of Sunfish and rode the 15 mph winds like crazy. It was a complete blast.

The craptacular part concerns biking. The Miyata is still half disassembled in the garage, and I'm having a hard time finding time to work on it (see sailing twice a week for explanation). I've only ridden once this week, and it was the second half of the commute I started last Tuesday. I was going to ride today, but last night I tripped on one of the concrete pilings in the water while we were loading boats. I lost my balance, fell backward and about 175 pounds of Sunfish landed on my knee. It got scraped pretty well and swelled like mad. It didn't hurt much last night, but it's feeling stiff today. I took two Aleve this morningand the pain has been decent, but no sense pushing it. The kids are gone for the weekend and I have tomorrow off, so I'm hoping to get a long ride in one of these next few days.

Ride, interrupted

It's been a quiet week in, oh wait, nevermind.

But honestly, it has been a quiet week for me. I last rode to work on Tuesday, forgetting that I was going to my folk's house for dinner afterward. So I hitched a ride there with the wife and kids and left my bike in the underground parking garage. Wednesday was sailing class so no biking then. I brought my bike stuff on Thursday but for some reason I don't recall I didn't ride home. I had a vacation day on Friday, out of town wedding, visit to friends and drywalling over the weekend. So the end result is that it's Monday and my bike's still in the basement, unridden.

I did manage to get some tinkering in on the Miyata over the weekend. I got a new shifting mechanism on eBay and installed that last night. I managed to completely mangle the old foam handlebar grip, which needed to be replaced anyway. It was patched up with black electrical tape when I bought it, so every time I ride the bike it leaves a sticky residue on my hands. I didn't care for this, which is why I didn't spend a lot of time being careful with the grip. I ran out of time, so I didn't get the shifter adjusted properly, but it's hooked up. I also managed to mangle the brake cable, so I'm going to be buying another of those too. If it isn't one thing, it's another.

Oh, and the Pioneer Press printed my letter to the editor on Sunday!

Mayor of Hypocrite-ville?

I realize I'm a little late to the party, but Joe Soucheray's column about Lance Armstrong really stuck in my craw. But I couldn't figure out what was bugging me about it (besides the obvious) until tonight.

Joe's a motorcycle head. And I remember him writing about the woes of riding a motorcycle that's not heavy enough to trigger the traffic light sensors. It may have been last summer, as he's been talking about nothing but scooters this summer. But my (increasingly faulty) memory said that he was having a problem with a left turn light on Highway 36 somewhere out in the Oakdale area. So, I wrote the following letter to the editor. Hopefully I was vague enough, yet specific enough to make somebody go look in the archives.

I read Joe Soucheray's July 27th column about Lance Armstrong where Joe refers to the "hordes of uniformed bicycle riders who ignore the traffic laws because they are in training to become the next Lance Armstrong and cannot be bothered with trivial matters such as red lights."

I distinctly recall reading in one of Joe's not so recent columns that he had taken it upon himself to go through the red lights while riding his motorcycle. The reason behind this is that his bike does not have enough weight to trigger the traffic sensor and cause the light to change. Perhaps in his next column Joe can outline exactly which situations it's OK to disregard traffic laws in, because this honest bicycle rider is honestly confused.

I'm sure it can't be *that* hard

I had a good ride on Friday, 42 km on the regular commute route, Minnehaha Blvd in the morning and then River Road in the evening. Not much to say other than it was nice to get back on the bike after the last two weeks. The kids have been sick so I've been taking time off to stay with them, and between that and sailing it's cut into my riding.

One of my favorite movies is The Princess Bride. And one of my favorite parts is when Vizzini, believing he's tricked the Man in Black, says "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The first is never get involved in a land war in Asia. The second, only slightly less well known, is this: never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line! Ha ha ha ha ha ha -- (he stops abrubtly and falls over, dead)"

Why do I bring this up? Because it's obvious that Vizzini has never disassembled a Shimano STI shifter mechanism. Clearly this blunder belongs high on the list of classic blunders. How do I know, you ask? Well, currently there is a pile of STI parts on the floor of my garage. Right now, that land war in Asia is looking kind of promising, compared to the task that lies ahead.