Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.CommuterRun
04-30-05, 01:52 AM
Prelude: There is a big hill on both ends of my commute. This means no matter which way I'm going I get a short warm-up, followed by a down-hill run that's almost always in the high 30's, sometimes, depending on the wind, my mood and how hard I push, up to 42+ mph. I have found that at this speed I feel like I'm spinning out in 52-12 at 120 rpm.
Friday afternoon I'm on my way home from work. At the last red light before the one at the top of the hill I’m stopped for the light, first in line, at the line, in the outside tire track, taking the lane, or so I thought. Idiot Cager squeezes in beside me. WTF? I turned and looked directly at him. I should have leaned on on his car. Wish I had thought of it. Light changes. He leaves me, of course. The next light is at the top of The Hill. >:-D <BWAAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-Haa>. The third light from where we both stopped is the one about half-way down on the down-hill run, with plenty of hill to go, after this there are no more lights. This light is red and he's stopped in line. The light turns green as I’m approaching in the bike lane, so I start winding it up, blowing past him and all but the first two of the other cars. This is the only good thing about bike lanes, but be very careful doing this. Always look way ahead in the BL to make sure it's clear and leave yourself options to bail-out of the run. At the third light I move back over into the line of cars taking the lane, here I have to start braking, no room to pass. Passed the two cars in front of me at the bottom of the hill. I. C. didn’t catch me again until we were at the free-way intersection turn-off, about 3/4s of a mile from the bottom of the hill. There's no BL here, so he has to either slow down or pass in the painted median, or both. :D
Lesson I learned: If I'm going to take the lane, take the center to keep from getting squeezed out. :mad:
Lesson he learned: Probably nothing. If I'd thought about it I should have leaned on his car since he was that close. Maybe then he'd have taken something away from it all.
And the rest of the down-hill story? Nothing really, it's just a fast, fun, curvey, run I get to do every day that I ride. :D
Friday afternoon I'm on my way home from work. At the last red light before the one at the top of the hill I’m stopped for the light, first in line, at the line, in the outside tire track, taking the lane, or so I thought. Idiot Cager squeezes in beside me. WTF? I turned and looked directly at him. I should have leaned on on his car. Wish I had thought of it. Light changes. He leaves me, of course. The next light is at the top of The Hill. >:-D <BWAAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-Haa>. The third light from where we both stopped is the one about half-way down on the down-hill run, with plenty of hill to go, after this there are no more lights. This light is red and he's stopped in line. The light turns green as I’m approaching in the bike lane, so I start winding it up, blowing past him and all but the first two of the other cars. This is the only good thing about bike lanes, but be very careful doing this. Always look way ahead in the BL to make sure it's clear and leave yourself options to bail-out of the run. At the third light I move back over into the line of cars taking the lane, here I have to start braking, no room to pass. Passed the two cars in front of me at the bottom of the hill. I. C. didn’t catch me again until we were at the free-way intersection turn-off, about 3/4s of a mile from the bottom of the hill. There's no BL here, so he has to either slow down or pass in the painted median, or both. :D
Lesson I learned: If I'm going to take the lane, take the center to keep from getting squeezed out. :mad:
Lesson he learned: Probably nothing. If I'd thought about it I should have leaned on his car since he was that close. Maybe then he'd have taken something away from it all.
And the rest of the down-hill story? Nothing really, it's just a fast, fun, curvey, run I get to do every day that I ride. :D