Alathea

Letter to the editor supporting biking and some of the responses in here are just HILARIOUS. Wow. Bdinger and I have to LIVE here......

Harry Stone

I would expect the same kind of responses here. It is sort of entertaining though to hear these people come up with a lot of silly excuses to hide what they really feel. I'd like to hear one of them just come out and say it just once: "Anything that costs me even one second on my way to get a triple baconator with quadruple cheese and extra large gravy fries with a supersize diet coke makes me really really mad."

Alathea

Three weeks ago I was a triple baconator (I forewent the gravy fries, though). Now im just down to a baconator-there is nothing more uncomfortable than having had a lardge lunch late in the afternoon at work and then trying to ride home. If nothing else, besides gas, its saving me about 12-18 dollars a week and untold number of calories.

Neil_B

Remind me to skip Nebraska when I ride cross country next year.

mesasone

They have a tripple baconator now? That's incredible. I tried the baconator a once or twice, it's a pretty good sandwich, I thought. Disgustingly unhealthy, but delicious none the less. I don't know about a "tripple" though.

v1k1ng1001

Tom just pwned them with some bike law knowledge.

Shinyville

It's not as bad riding here as those comments would have you think. I get the impression from a lot of the commenters that they're not people who actually work or live in Lincoln. I've only ever had one very minor incident on the roads here, though.

Those comments, and the underlying lack of understanding they demonstrate, were bothering me, though, so I emailed the police chief to see if he would be interested in addressing bikes as vehicles on his well-read and respected blog sometime soon. He replied that he'll put it on his topic list. It would be great to have a local person in a position of authority go on record regarding the laws and their practical application, and might help out the local cycling community in some small way. So we'll see.

By the way, I understand that John Maher, publisher of the Lincoln Journal Star, is a bike commuter himself. So the local paper will most likely continue to include pro-cyclist and pro-bike commuting articles, online comments by unhappy readers notwithstanding.

77midget

Great stuff. If nothing else, the current economic and social culture will hopefully bring more of an understanding of biking rights in general. I have spoken with people who used to get pissed off at bikers in the road, but after explaining the rationale for certain situations, such as car doors, right hooks, and sharp corners necessitating taking the lane, etc etc etc, they were more understanding. I almost hit a car that right hooked w/o a signal, and I stopped to talk to her. She couldnt, for her life, understand why I was so upset, since she thought that she made a legal right hand turn-when I explained that she made a right hand turn without a turn signal, and WITH BROKEN BRAKE LIGHTS, without checking for bike traffic, she almost died, and apologized profusely.

Sometimes it is just lack of knowledge, or ignorance. Also, i try to remember that car drivers and bikers are just cross-sections of our society, and thus each have a proportional amount of good people and A-holes.

Neil_B

Yes, but the NASCAR arguments are funnier.

bdinger

Sadly, for some of these, I see their reasoning. There is a great group of law abiding cycle commuters in this city, and there is a group of people transplanted straight from the SUV to the bicycle. Then there's even another who thinks that nothing stinks, and laws don't apply to them. Unfortunately the latter two groups get noticed a lot, and do some really colossally stupid stuff. So for drivers to be a little on the upset side, yeah, I'd see it. I've seen FAR too many "wrong way" cyclists, and ones who put themselves in the middle of the left lane.

As with anything, it puts a bad image on the rest of us. Just like the ******* drivers do to the nice and considerate majority.

CliftonGK1

It's the same kinds of comments that we see in the Seattle P-I when there's an "us vs. them" article, or a bicycle issue up for vote. You should have seen some of the bicycle hatred that got spewed over the most recent bike lane controversies. For being one of the more bicycle friendly cities, there have been a whole lot of "don't scratch my car when I run you over" kinds of letters in the paper.

Alathea

We really must stop meeting like this. I found one person in here that lives around the corner from me! Tom's blog is a nice addition to the police dept, I think-while he may be locked up in policy stuff a lot it allows him to be public and a little more off the cuff. We've disagreed on some things here and there, but id rather disagree than not have the opportunity at all.

When they put in a bike lane in the middle of 11th street here you should have heard them howl about it being the dumbest thing they'd ever seen. 11th street goes to DT and has parking on both sides of it, angled in-and the detractors couldn't understand why the lane couldn't be off on the right somewhere.
CAS

Shinyville

What part of town are you in? I'm in the Woods Park area, and work downtown.

We should seriously set up a social BF Lincoln ride sometime. Not this weekend, though--I'm going to take it off and get over a saddle sore. Just riding to work and back until next week (and I'm going to slap a Brooks on at least one bike before then, too).

bdinger

+1 on a BF clydes ride! I bet that the three of us, seriously, either pass or almost pass each other on a daily basis. I ride the Rock Island daily, and think Alathena does as well. That's really funny, and cool! I'm pretty booked up this weekend too, and maybe next weekend - that's still TBD.

Or rather, you guys are welcome to join, but tomorrow I'm starting pedaling at 0500 again, I think. Nobody likes getting up that early, including me

Shinyville

I'd be willing to do a 5AM ride the weekend after this one...I usually head out for an hour or two on Saturday and Sunday mornings around 6, so it wouldn't be a super-huge adjustment.

bdinger

Hey, that works. I'll start a thread when I know my wife's schedule for next weekend, and maybe a couple of us can get together for a "coffee ride" or something!

Also - side note - cool to see you picked up that Miyata from craigslist! I was going to email the guy, but got threatened because I already have a touring bike

Alathea

I'm game, but I don't know about a 30. I do a pretty short commute right now about 5.5 in and then back from work, so 10 mi. split by 8 hours. Right now I go from Tierra to RI, then RI along S 14th.

Shinyville

My actual commute is super short, about 8-12 minutes if I go straight there (depending on the bike and my pace that day). So I sometimes mix is up and go ride around in the Near South neighborhood on my way. If I go straight there, the only part of the trail I use daily is just where Billy Wolff crosses J st to downtown (and that whole section was completely removed a couple of months ago as part of Antelope Valley contruction). That's actually been good for me, mixing it up and looking at other parts of the neighborhoods around here, riding further, leaving earlier and putting in more miles, stopping for coffee downtown before work, etc. Or I just go in early and leave early and put in even more miles!



But yes, a short ride would be fine--whatever mileage you'd like, Alathea. I don't really keep track of how far I go, I just tool around and look at stuff, look for the occasional hill and the occasional sprint, whatever.

The Miyata is pretty sweet! The guys at MW downtown said that it's more or less a comparable frame to the LHT, and the components aren't as nice as new stuff but sweet and well-maintained for what they are, so that's cool. For 100 bucks invested so far, I'll be able to put on a Brooks and a front rack and still have a super cheap bike that rides like a $1000+ bike. Can't beat that, really! I slapped some Olympic Gold bar tape on it that's close to matching the gold Miyata logo. I didn't do a perfect job, but not bad for my first try. I'm not very mechanically inclined at all, unless we're talking about repairing electric guitars

bdinger

Naa, I don't think 30 would be a good idea. A nice relaxed 10 miler ending up somewhere with high doses of caffeine, OTOH, would be perfect!

Alathea

Sounds like quite a find!
I'm game for anything, just keep in mind that I have little Idea what my cruising speed would be for a duration-there are lots of little dips in the RI that let me cruise. I do the 5ish miles in about 30 minutes in the morning before eating, so that puts me at around 10-11 miles an hour. I'm putting the speedo on this weekend so Ill have a better gage of what I actually ride instead of just relying on my memory and MapMyRide skills.

Alathea

Boingggggg!

Shinyville

A Saturday AM that somehow ended up at Cultiva Coffee on South St and 14th or so would be absolutely awesome for me--I'm a huge coffee fan, and that's seriously the best coffee I've ever had. Locally roasted, certified organic, etc. I haven't had anything else since Jon moved back to Lincoln and started roasting.

Shinyville

I don't even have a spedometer. I think my legs are in pretty decent shape from hauling heavy bikes with IGHs around for the last three years every day, so I've noticed my speed on the Miyata this week seems to be...well, fast! I can keep up with downtown traffic speeds for four or five blocks, anyway, and that's something new.

But speed doesn't matter. No drop ride, man, for sure. And I've never ridden with a "pack" before, so I wouldn't want to go super fast wheel-to-wheel, anyway.

I've been thinking about doing the Sunday cruiserbike/social ride that leaves from Re-cycled on 28th and South around 4PM, but I'm always busy by that time of day. Early mornings seem to work best, but the rest of the weekend morning rides I know of are serious cyclists that really haul. So I just ride around with another musician friend of mine at lowish/mediumish speeds and sight-see, and then work on recording for a few hours until late morning.

bdinger

This sounds perfect to me, honestly. I'd like to find a group to ride with where I'm forced to relax and take it easy, I personally believe heavily in "no drop" on group rides, even if I occasionally forget and attack hills . But really, that sounds perfect, I've been wanting to check out Cultiva for a long time and adding in a nice relaxing ride to boot? It's a plan.

Anyway I'm generally free Saturday and Sunday mornings. I like to be home by 9 or 10 so I don't miss the time with the kiddos, so I'm an early riser. I'd be game for a nice, slow paced, relaxing ride around town and some coffee. Turns out I'm free this Sunday, and most likely next Sat/Sun. Let me know when you guys are free, and we can start a post for a route - maybe get one or two others in on the fun!

Stujoe

Yep, it is the minority of yahoos that get noticed. I see it myself. In the last week while in my car, I have seen a biker going the wrong way on a busy street shoulder and another blowing through stop signs in a neighborhood - not just slow and goes but right through them. On my way home today, I saw someone riding the yellow stripe with no indication of why. I assume they were eventually going to turn left but they were a disaster waiting to happen.

Around here I am lucky in that, almost exclusively, the drivers are courteous and not anti-cyclist. No honking, no throwing stuff, no ignoring you at stop signs, etc. With the problems I am seeing now, I am afraid that may change.