Spadex brings out the best (in everyone else)

Most days I wear some cheap wicking shirt that I get from Target. But
I have a few bright jerseys that I've picked up cheap from the Five
Boro Bike Tour or some bike festival. I notice that when I wear the
bright clothes, I get passed a whole lot more than when I wear my
plain clothes.

Now, I don't have the most expensive bike on the planet, and I average
around 11 mph on my 15 mile commute. But when I wear those jerseys,
folks on the cheapest department store mountain bikes, with knobby
tires of course, seem to think that it's a big challenge to pass me.
So they do. It isn't really much of a challenge but it is funny.

On Jul 17, 9:17*am, dgk wrote:
Most days I wear some cheap wicking shirt that I get from Target. But
I have a few bright jerseys that I've picked up cheap from the Five
Boro Bike Tour or some bike festival. I notice that when I wear the
bright clothes, I get passed a whole lot more than when I wear my
plain clothes.

Now, I don't have the most expensive bike on the planet, and I average
around 11 mph on my 15 mile commute. But when I wear those jerseys,
folks on the cheapest department store mountain bikes, with knobby
tires of course, seem to think that it's a big challenge to pass me.
So they do. It isn't really much of a challenge but it is funny.

I average 13-15mph on my commute, and though rarely passed by BSTs, I
do find that the lycra clad roadies will do whatever necessary to get
in front of me. Especially those on tri-bikes. Once I’m spotted the
water bottles go away, the tri riders disregard the drinking from the
water bottle, the hands go to the drops and away they go. The comical
part is that once they’ve gotten far enough ahead of me that a bend in
the road will keep visual separation, we tend to be going the same
speed. On lengthy straights, I’ll see them at the same distance for
the majority of the ride, until one of us turns off.

I must admit in my high school BMX racing days we found it fun to use
the roadies as a carrot. We’d be cruising to wherever, and as soon as
a pace line passed us we’d spin our legs silly to keep up for as long
as we could. We figured it was good exercise/training, and the
roadies seemed to get a kick out of kids on BMX bikes keeping up with
them for a while. While no doubt they could shift a few gears and
ditch us, for the most part they’d just continue at their intended
pace (often around the max speed of our BMX bikes) and see how long we
could keep up. Words of encouragement and kind parting words when we
finally fell off were rather common.

Whn I was living in SoCal I comuted on a beat-up looking (but
mechanically sound) Schwinn Sierra "Stiffy" MTB. I wore my work clothes
(no place to change at work), pant legs held out of the works withwith
velcro straps.

I would averaged about 14 -15 MPH over the seven mile route, and one day
this roadie, al decked out in a skin suit and riding what looked like a
TdF time trial bike decided to draft me.

After about five miles, which included two overpasses he finally pulls
along side at a stop light and comments that I should get intoi racing
if "I could hold that pace on that machine".

Funny thing is, he sounded genuinly impressed!

- -
Compliments of:
"Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

If you want to E-mail me use:
ChrisZCorner "at" webtv "dot" net

My website:
http://geocities.com/czcorner

On Jul 17, 8:17 am, dgk wrote:
Most days I wear some cheap wicking shirt that I get from Target. But
I have a few bright jerseys that I've picked up cheap from the Five
Boro Bike Tour or some bike festival. I notice that when I wear the
bright clothes, I get passed a whole lot more than when I wear my
plain clothes.

Now, I don't have the most expensive bike on the planet, and I average
around 11 mph on my 15 mile commute. But when I wear those jerseys,
folks on the cheapest department store mountain bikes, with knobby
tires of course, seem to think that it's a big challenge to pass me.
So they do. It isn't really much of a challenge but it is funny.

To the you the truth real bikers with the expenisve bikes and the
expensive clothes and gear do not give respect to the humble bikes who
do not care so much about cycling gear. So that is part of the reason
www.bikingthings.com

In article ,
dgk wrote:

Most days I wear some cheap wicking shirt that I get from Target. But
I have a few bright jerseys that I've picked up cheap from the Five
Boro Bike Tour or some bike festival. I notice that when I wear the
bright clothes, I get passed a whole lot more than when I wear my
plain clothes.

Now, I don't have the most expensive bike on the planet, and I average
around 11 mph on my 15 mile commute. But when I wear those jerseys,
folks on the cheapest department store mountain bikes, with knobby
tires of course, seem to think that it's a big challenge to pass me.
So they do. It isn't really much of a challenge but it is funny.

i've noticed that i get passed a lot more in the blind
corner/restricted viz/unsafe-to-pass zones near the Geneva sanitary
plant and the woods between St. Charles and Geneva when i'm on my road
bike (commuting my usu. route). If you've ridden the fox river trail,
you know exactly where i mean, i'm sure.

It's gotten bad enough in a couple of spots that i now hold my hand out
in the SLOWING/STOPPING signal. Pretty much, if those are the only
places someone can pass, they don't have any business passing. It's
like aggressively passing someone in the grocery store parking lot:
possible but imprudent. These are lessons i had to learn, too...

These guys must be blowing out their guts to hang with me until we get
to the places where i slow down. I'm sure they feel a great sense of
accomplishment, not unlike that felt by the Neon driver who cuts in
front of a Porsche in stop and go traffic. It's fine except for the
peds and dog walkers they hazard.

--
This signature can be appended to your outgoing mesages. Many people include in
their signatures contact information, and perhaps a joke or quotation.

max of the Fox Valley wrote:
In article ,
dgk wrote:

Most days I wear some cheap wicking shirt that I get from Target. But
I have a few bright jerseys that I've picked up cheap from the Five
Boro Bike Tour or some bike festival. I notice that when I wear the
bright clothes, I get passed a whole lot more than when I wear my
plain clothes.

Now, I don't have the most expensive bike on the planet, and I average
around 11 mph on my 15 mile commute. But when I wear those jerseys,
folks on the cheapest department store mountain bikes, with knobby
tires of course, seem to think that it's a big challenge to pass me.
So they do. It isn't really much of a challenge but it is funny.

i've noticed that i get passed a lot more in the blind
corner/restricted viz/unsafe-to-pass zones near the Geneva sanitary
plant and the woods between St. Charles and Geneva when i'm on my road
bike (commuting my usu. route). If you've ridden the fox river trail,
you know exactly where i mean, i'm sure.

From the southern FRT crossing of Route 25 to the old Hillquist
Excavating site?

It's gotten bad enough in a couple of spots that i now hold my hand out
in the SLOWING/STOPPING signal. Pretty much, if those are the only
places someone can pass, they don't have any business passing. It's
like aggressively passing someone in the grocery store parking lot:
possible but imprudent. These are lessons i had to learn, too...

These guys must be blowing out their guts to hang with me until we get
to the places where i slow down. I'm sure they feel a great sense of
accomplishment, not unlike that felt by the Neon driver who cuts in
front of a Porsche in stop and go traffic. It's fine except for the
peds and dog walkers they hazard.

Maybe they will wipe out on the goose poop near Funway.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
"People who had no mercy will find none." - Anon.

In article ,
max writes:
In article ,
dgk wrote:

Most days I wear some cheap wicking shirt that I get from Target. But
I have a few bright jerseys that I've picked up cheap from the Five
Boro Bike Tour or some bike festival. I notice that when I wear the
bright clothes, I get passed a whole lot more than when I wear my
plain clothes.

Now, I don't have the most expensive bike on the planet, and I average
around 11 mph on my 15 mile commute. But when I wear those jerseys,
folks on the cheapest department store mountain bikes, with knobby
tires of course, seem to think that it's a big challenge to pass me.
So they do. It isn't really much of a challenge but it is funny.

i've noticed that i get passed a lot more in the blind
corner/restricted viz/unsafe-to-pass zones near the Geneva sanitary
plant and the woods between St. Charles and Geneva when i'm on my road
bike (commuting my usu. route). If you've ridden the fox river trail,
you know exactly where i mean, i'm sure.

It's gotten bad enough in a couple of spots that i now hold my hand out
in the SLOWING/STOPPING signal. Pretty much, if those are the only
places someone can pass, they don't have any business passing. It's
like aggressively passing someone in the grocery store parking lot:
possible but imprudent. These are lessons i had to learn, too...

These guys must be blowing out their guts to hang with me until we get
to the places where i slow down. I'm sure they feel a great sense of
accomplishment, not unlike that felt by the Neon driver who cuts in
front of a Porsche in stop and go traffic. It's fine except for the
peds and dog walkers they hazard.

I think a lot of your experience (which I sorta share)
has to do with high gasoline prices, and people trying
to save bux by riding instead, creating an increased but
mis/mal/uninformed ridership. I intuit many of 'em
approach the endeavour with an: "If I can drive a car,
I can ride a bike" attitude. Except they don't drive
as well as they think they do. And I suspect at least
some of 'em are acting out their drivers' misconceptions
of how so-called "scofflaw cyclists" get around.

I've recently been passed on the right (by riders
in the door zone I'm avoiding) a number of times,
and sometimes I've seen some near-miss car door
openings, giving me some cringing/wincing moments
of quick prayers that nobody gets hurt.

I like that there's increased/new ridership, and I
don't mind at all if anyone passes me safely. But
I fear some know-it-alls are gonna have to rethink
their misconceptions -- the hard way.

Frankly, I'm worried that as more car drivers take to
bicycles without really understanding urban riding,
there's gonna be more injuries, thereby making cycling
look more dangerous than it should be.

As for being passed by competitive-spirited up-comers,
that's just a thing that always happens. People have
a reptilian brain impulse that, when they see a bicycle
up ahead of them, we've gotta get ahead of that bicycle
that's ahead of us. We've just gotta. Gotta be faster,
and thereby "better."

The faster you can go, the better the rider you are,
right? :-) :-) :-)

Especially when you can bust the hearts of the guys
who pass you, on the upgrades. While you're towing
a trailer full of stuff, and seated, while they're
struggling en danseuse, and the fading rearward
Doppler effect of the loud clicks of their indexed
shifting indicates their frustrated attempts to catch up.

On upgrades it's better to be a lightweight person on
a heavy bike, than a heavyweight person on a light bike.

The reverse is (sort of) true on the flats.

Galileo could've had a field day if bicycles existed
in his time.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca