commuterDude (muttered elsewhere on the Internets):
My daily scan of regional Craiglist feed, looking for touring/rando frames, came across advert from a college town which begins with "need to sell bike for gas money..." Um, dude...why don't you sell the CAR for bike spares, and ride it???
The man has a point. It feels like March outside right now. We've had perhaps two days that actually felt like winter this season.
I'm still alive. No, I haven't ridden more than a handful of times in the past month. It's complicated. I wish I could take 'dude's advice. Having a wife that practically lives in a hospital and/or requires constant care at the drop of a hat (up to and including zipping home over the lunch break a few times per week) is putting a serious damper on bike commuting. Like I said, the weather's been perfect for it. Grumble.
But hey! I got to meet A Midnight Rider face to face over some coffee 2 weeks ago.
Click the links. I don't have a lot to add here, other than to say that I generally ride my bike about where a car's right wheel normally sits in the lane, or 18-24" out from the gutter seam or fog line most of the time. I rarely have any problems riding here, and in the past few years of riding like this, I can count on one hand the number of times it's actually resulting in someone honking at me from behind in anger.
For some reason, one of my posts attracts a TON of spam in Japanese -- at least one attempted post per day. I ran a few of them through Google Translate just for giggles. Every single one that I bothered to translate mentions love. Bizarre.
Fritz at Cyclelicio.us shows us another commuter challenge, wherein a couple of cyclists (one wearing a helmet cam) beat a chartered helicopter across town. I can't help but wonder why none of these challenges ever put people on motorcycles. Oh, wait. They'd win. Oh well. It' good publicity for bicycles.
Dave is apparently back in the saddle after his circumstances became quite favorable for bike commuting. He picked a hell of a time to get back on board, but hey... Welcome back!
Drew Carey is donating up to $1M to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. $1 for every follower he gets via Twitter through the end of the year. This initially started as a $25,000 bid on Drew Olanoff's @Drew twitter handle and has quickly exploded. Cancer is everywhere, and I believe that LAF is a worthy cause on its own, not just because its founder is a world-renowned cyclist.
In May, I went to hang out with some friends and new acquaintances at Arthur Bryant's for lunch. Jolie and Kurt cornered me and interviewed me guerrilla web-2.0 style without giving me any prep time. It was cool, though.
So, here's what happens when people interview me without trying to talk about injuries, road rage or the dangers of bicycle commuting. I've ranted about this kind of thing before. It was also completely un-edited and un-slanted. Despite my "uhm" every 3 words, this was one of the more pleasant interviews I've had.
This is Death Valley. A high of 93°F and no humidity to speak of.
This is Kansas City. A high of 94°F and humidity by the truckload.
A quick look at the 4:00 PM stats shows that the heat index was well into the three digits across the metro, peaking at 110 at the KC International Airport.
Several of my friends think I'm insane riding in this. Heat can be dangerous. If you pay attention to your body and you're prepared for it, it's not too big of a deal. I covered some more tips for Surviving Summer over at Bike Commuters. It's an addendum to my original Beating the Heat article.
What are you doing this summer to make riding more comfortable?
The former local bicycle commuter known as Limited Warren T has a new site up with daily quick bicycle news updates. He's using a sweeper/intro that I made for a tech podcast that never got off the ground. Give it a listen!
Dave. Well, I did not run into him. He rode past and I chased him down to check out his sweet new Dew Drop, which was used today on its maiden commute. Nice to catch up with you again. That's a sweet ride!
These fine sites sent plenty of people my way this month. Thanks for linking to me, and let me return the favor (in alphabetical order by URL). There are lots of familiar ... ehhrm faces? in the crowd!
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