Texas - Fixed gear cruise- sunday 12/21

This sunday in dallas-

ride leaves from the cross bridge(runs paralell with mockingbird) at white rock lake at 10am.
We'll circle the lake, ride through lakewood, up through knox-henderson, head down the katy trail, ride through the west end and downtown a bit, then back to white rock.
25 mile ride or so.....very casual 15mph pace.

Track racers need not apply.

I'll be there.

who else is in??!!

freewheels welcome?

Single speed freewheels are welcome, I guess.
Its a derailleur(sp?) free ride.

What if I don't change gears?

I'd like to, but you'll need to at least double the mileage to make it worth the drive.

double the mileage is good with me, but i think we should make it a little shorter.
i'd like to get a ride like this going every sunday.
us non-lycra clad folks need to take over white rock on sunday mornings!

us non-lycra clad folks need to take over white rock on sunday mornings!

Sharks meet the Jets!

http://slantmouth.com/articles/lost/images/westSideStory.jpg
http://course1.winona.edu/pjohnson/h140/studentsf01/westsidestory/the%20jets.jpg

What if I don't change gears?

just take all those shifters/cables/derailleurs off and you won't even be tempted!

I'm in.

I must say, the Sharks and Jets are definitely sporting some tasteful riding clothes. All that's missing is the rolled pant leg & yep, you'd have my entire wardrobe.

21 gear minimum ride this Sunday in Dallas.

ride leaves from the cross bridge(runs paralell with mockingbird) at white rock lake at 10am.

21 gear minimum ride this Sunday in Dallas.

ride leaves from the cross bridge(runs paralell with mockingbird) at white rock lake at 10am.

hehehe. I will be sure to wear my leotard.

High for sunday is supposed to be 37.
Anyone else feel like pussing out like I do?
I'm in if you guys are still in.....if not, we can certainly delay it a week- won't hurt my feelings none.

I'm out. Gotta knock out some last minute Xmas shopping.

Was just out this morning on the non-drop ride, and it was beautiful- bit breezy but shirt-sleeve & shorts weather. Hard to be believe it's to get cold that fast. (I notice the forecast also shows 15 mph wind all day). I'll be out somewhere sometime riding, though. :)

Y'all keep in mind the "Happy New Rear" ride coming up in Blue Ridge on New Year's Day.

Ride is still on for tomorrow.

I just joined this here forum, but I am most likely coming out to this tomorrow. Someone mentioned it at the Denton ride last Tuesday. I've been trying to find/meet Dallas fixed gear people for awhile, but I never see anyone else on bikes anytime I'm ever out in Dallas. Hope to meet some of you guys out there tomorrow. I ride a Le Tour with a ****ty, ****ty black rattle can job.

we will meet, ride around the lake, through lakewood, down the katy trail, into downtown, over the houston street viaduct, into oak cliff and go eat tacos at la jordan.
30 miles round trip or so........
so bring $5 and an appetite.

thanks to everyone that turned out today.
didn't see any of you 21 speed lycra boys out today at the bridge.....although i suspect one of you was out driving around in a white lexus...........

I rode out there from the house, left about 1:00 or so, 26 miles round trip. I saw a total of 4 other cyclists.

I think my car thermometer showed 25 F at 10:00 or so when y'all were riding, but it was about 35 F when I rode. Still "brisk". :)

Haha brianchester told me about your run-in with the Lexus cager. Too funny...

If you guys do this ride again next Sunday I think I'll be there for it.

That dude was just jealous of my mad trackstanding skills.


At one time he yelled "I can tell just by looking at you guys I ride bikes more than you!!!!"

And did he yell this while seated in a car???

A photo from my later circuit:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/MiscBikePhotos/3917_Proc.jpg

I also took a self-portrait but for some inexplicable reason, I look like a total goober in it, so I won't post it.

I do notice that the Road Cycling forum is missing the normal "Post your Sunday Ride" post for today.

Yeah. A guy in a 4,000lb. lexus tried to run me over today, because apparently he thought I ran a red light, when in reality all I did was get a jump on the light and zoom past him.
So, he thought it'd be cute to peel out and run up behind me as fast as he could while honking, forcing me to head into oncoming traffic to keep from being run overed by him.
He was in a hurry to get to church or to get back to his $3million house in university park, I guess.

Those guys are just starved for attention mostly. Which I'm happy to note that you provided. I can't wait until I have an excuse to bang on a moving car window.

it's like people see 4 dudes riding bikes in jeans and mess bags and assume we're rookies and/or up to no good and try to start *****.
i can't handle that.
bike rage ftw.

Far as I'm concerned that's the modern, practical fixie rider, and the mid-life crisis dentists who road-race their pricey Colnagos during the warm season are the real posers.

i'm surprised he was even brave enough to roll his window down.
it was pretty cold out.
he probably had to turn his heater on full blast after we uh....talked some sense into him.

So many lulz

i'm really proud of all 4 of us for avoiding the assault charges we could have so easily gotten.

Well as they say ride softly and carry a big U-lock.

Strangely enough, I seem to avoid such problems.
Moral is you should be fat old men riding cruisers. :)

Very diplomatic of you, but you know we bring this **** down on ourselves. These 4 guys rode past a motorist on both sides as the light turned green. It was probably provocative in some sense.

What can you do. The young people, sheesh. In any case, the cagers are generally worse.

That dude was just a giant ******bag.

Oh, and I decided that I'm going to buy a Toys-R-Us kids helmet to show to the court to get my ticket waived. I want one with Wolverine on it. Or some superhero. They have to have them.

buy one and wear it man.
a helmet saved my life.

I actually found one in my moms garage that looks like the ones you guys were wearing today, but I still want to buy a joke one to show the court. I'll only wear a helmet for Dallas rides though. I've gotta maintain my reckless cred.

A helmet saved you on the trail or on the road.

I'm honestly curious.

Edit: and you were doing more or less than the 8mph most helmets are rated for?

Edit: sorry, Snell B90 helmets are rated for up to 12mph. Further from Wikipedia:

"This will only reduce the energy of a 30 mph or 50 km/h impact to the equivalent of 27.5 mph or 45 km/h, and even this will be compromised if the helmet fails."

So I'm curious to know how you're sure it was the helmet and not your body that protected you.

Edit: sorry, not to engage in some sort of crusade against helmets, but Wikipedia provides this further bit:

"It is important that a helmet should fit the cyclist properly – in one study 96 % were found to be incorrectly fitted. Efficacy of incorrectly fitted helmets is reckoned to be much lower; one estimate states that risk is increased almost twofold."

No offense to thehappyrobot, but in my measured opinion helmets are ****ing useless at best. Far better than helmet-wearing would be safe, skillful riding.

Edit: last, I promise. Do you think Dallas police officers' time is better spent enforcing traffic safety and bike lane clearance and traffic light compliance, or enforcing mandatory helmet laws?

Poor Ken Kifer died when a drunk driver hit him. A helmet wouldn't have saved him. In my experience, two things are true:

1. Most cyclists have never read Ken Kifer's pages on how to avoid the most frequent accidents by riding in a safe and visible manner.

2. Most cyclists believe that avoidance of injuries is the responsibility of those around them, especially motorists.

This is a stupid way to go about riding, particularly if you are the sort of person who goes to the trouble of wearing a stupid helmet.

all that being said wearing a helmet isn't that big of a deal and is apparently the law in the city of dallas. i'll be wearing one next week, if only to not get a ticket.

I hit my head just as hard as I hit my shoulder when I fell. My helmet cracked and I'm still here. My shoulder required 2 hours of surgery and 3 after months of healing time i'm still not 100%. If I hadn't had that helmet on, I'm convinced an impact like that would have surely killed me.

Not to sidetrack the thread but wikipedia is probably the most unreliable source of information in the entire virtual world. I wouldn't start selling my helmets on ebay because wikipedia doesn't think much of them.

No offense to episiarch but wikipedia is useless at best and idiotic for the most part.

Not to sidetrack the thread but wikipedia is probably the most unreliable source of information in the entire virtual world. I wouldn't start selling my helmets on ebay because wikipedia doesn't think much of them.

No offense to episiarch but wikipedia is useless at best and idiotic for the most part.
So go read the studies cited in the Wikipedia article from the National Health Service and others, yeesh. Really getting tired of this criticism of well-sourced Wikipedia articles that have plenty of original sources for skeptics to read.

I have seen the bicycle cops out at WRL with people stopped, presumably due to lack of helmets. I have also seen a lot of people riding out there without them. I rode on the Katy Trail one time, and accidentally left my helmet in the car. I met three bicycle policemen riding together, and they didn't say anything, and seems like every cyclist I saw that day was minus a helmet. So yes, there's a helmet law, but enforcement is spotty at best. I suspect riding the streets, it's a lot less enforced than right there at WRL. Anyway, I do wear a helmet out there.

As far as impressing a judge with a kid helmet- doubt that'll accomplish much. I tried some of the Walmart helmets, and they just didn't fit right (quality is actually okay, though). I bought mine at the local bike shop, think it was $27 or so. Also, if you got a ticket, read the fine print, and make sure they won't charge you extra for actually showing up.