Serious.

When I lived in SoCal we had to have our vehicles "Smog Inspected" every two years. We'd get a certificate, but there was no such thing as a fine for an expired cert. If you failed to get it inspected, or the cert was expired, you couldn't get or renew your registration at the DMV.

Where I live now there is nothing like that.

I know you are in NY, so I was wondering what hoops you guys have to jump through.

And $140.00 speeding tickets.

Where I live now, a "No Seatbelt" violation is ten bucks. 25 minutes away in Washington it's $200.00 IIRC. Even for a passenger. Yikes.

Inspection stickers are an east coast thing. Possibly only upper east coast. I remember them in Virginia and NJ, but not in NC.

In Seattle, $102 for riding bicycle without a helmet.

every 12 months you have to bring your car to a state certified inspection station (generally your mechanic) for them to approve that its in (safe)working order and that it passes an emissions test. $35

every 1/2 years you also have to register your vehicle with the DMV, for me thats another $20.25

my car needs **** that costs more than the car is worth in order for it to pass inspection, so i havent renewed it (i was supposed to renew it in Dec. lol). on the hunt for a replacement vehicle now

It is an interesting racket where you have to take your car in for an inspection every year. They put a sticker on your windshield with the month hole-punched out. The sticker is color coded for the year so cops can easily see if you have a sticker that is more than a year out of date. If they set up a checkpoint for drunk driving on new year's or something they always look for that as well and they occasionally set up checkpoints to look specifically for it. The inspection is done completely with a computer (in addition to checking whether your lights work) so it basically gives business to people who've invested in an inspection machine and the manufacturers of inspection machines. I'm not at all convinced that it improves either the safety of the cars or reduces pollution.

Adults have to wear helmets? Here and in CA only under 18 kids are required.

mechanics only make $2 on the inspection too, the stickers cost $32 from the state.

Gotcha. At least in CA they have a sliding scale for repair costs vs vehicle value. It was pretty fair too. IIRC if repairs reached $300.00 they waived it an passed you, even if your car was literally blowing smoke.


Racket is the right word. It's all about revenue generation.

In CA DMV registration fees were based on the price of the vehicle. 2%. So a guy with a 50K Benz or SUV paid $1,000.00 a year to register his vehicle, while the guy with the 15 year old Carolla paid $20.00. Seems fair, right, since the Benz uses more highway???

In March here in Texas they did away with inspection stickers, and now you can't renew your vehicle registration w/o getting the inspection done first. Instead of a sticker they give you a report that you have to take with you to the DMV along with proof of insurance to get a renewal sticker that goes on the winshield on cars and the rear license plate on motorcycles. Fortunately, they also send the report electronically to the state DOT so you can do the renewal online, although it does take about a week to get the sticker and they won't let you renew online if your registration has already expired.

Today I cranked out 50 miles and ~4000ft in climbing in 97f temps.

I do have a car but it resides about an hour away at my brothers place. Probably used it about 6 times in the last year.


Jeezus

In Texas you can renew and show proof within twenty days to have the ticket dismissed. Can't be more than 60 days expired.

yeah i could do the same here but it has the same prerequisites, since its 7 months overdue, and im not gonna pay ~$1000 for repairs to get a $153 ticket dismissed ill just pay it and not use the car till i find a replacement.

i aint bout that warrant life over some simple ****.

Couple weeks ago I got nailed for an expired plate, which they served as a parking ticket. Since when is that a parking violation?? Especially sucked cause I had the renewal sticker but was waiting to mount it on the plate the next time I was gonna drive the car (dammit).

BUT the semi-literate meter maid screwed up the ticket, notated the state as "ZZ" and totally missed the plate number. Checked the online payment system and it said "no such ticket." WIN!

protip : if your ticket has grammatical errors or a lists your vehicle as the wrong color, it typically can be dismissed

The same thing happened to a guy I work with today. Apparently, it really is a parking violation now.

Road my new bike with the plastic pedals and tennis shoes. Stopped at a park to eat my PBJ, some roady was about to stroke out at the sight of this, I wanted to take a picture of his facial expression. He did not see the humor in that....

Carlsbad GP cat 3: 11th/something

I need to work on my nerve and positioning during the final lap - I've been out of the game too much this year. I've got enough sprinting in my legs to be competitive, I just need to race more! Next season.

Fun race, raining, but warm. People were cautious into the corners, even on the final laps. People weren't being sketchy and dive bombing corners in the rain, instead working to get good position on the straights going into them - much appreciated. I felt safe.

Despite this, a buddy of mine Juan crashed right in front of me after corner 1, rear wheel just slipped out. He and I stopped together; his torso was about 12" from my front wheel; I was certain that I was going to run him over and crash myself. He slid so far though in the rain - like 20+ feet! We came to a stop together, and they let a few of us (including him) take a free lap afterward. He ended up placing 1 ahead of me, so he was clearly OK.

Tonite I went to the track tonight, first time all year. I raced with the B+ guys.

10lap + win and out: 4th

I got caught with my head in my ass and missed a group of three that went OTF and took laps one and two for 1st and 2nd. I went to sprint for third, totally could have passed him, but missed by a few tire lengths. I blame my low gearing (50/15) - I had more muscle to accelarate when I jumped out of the saddle, but I was already spun out. I could have gotten a lot more momentum before I sat down and spun it out. Damnit!

10lap point a lap: 0 points.

Not a whole lot to say here. My stomach was a little upset after that last race (those short races are ****ing fast!) so I just kinda spun it in, and felt a lot better after.

25lap points, sprints every 5:

Not sure where I ended up as I left right after, but if I didn't win I got 2nd or 3rd at worst. I was involved in every sprint but didn't win any of them - instead I got two 2nds (including the last lap) and a bunch of 3rds and 4ths. Halfway through, I noticed most other riders were breathing heavier than me after the sprints, and needed more recovery. On the 2nd to last sprint, I dropped into the pole lane immediately after the sprint, got low and just cranked for a bit. 1 lap later I turn around and there is one rider with me and a big gap, great. We traded 1/2 lap pulls till the last sprint, during which he won by a smidgen.

All in all, a fun time. I feel like track can be a lot of fun, but i've been discouraged this year because I feel like it is a big time investment for relatively little riding time. Doing an interval training ride on Fiesta Island is a much more time efficient workout, and my biggest goal is my road Cat 2 right now. Still, it's a lot of fun, and can be useful for sharpening up your high end game, both physically and mentally. Maybe next year I'll make it a point to go once/4-week training cycle.

since taking a look at my ride last weekend and my initial experiment in zone training it seems like it takes about a minute for my HR to drop 20-30 bpm

ive also recorded my resting HR as low as 45 in the morning

from what i read this is pretty good. this makes me happy.

Today I am super itchy from sunburn. It's making me miserable. Grrrrrrr

dude that is the worstttt. then you put lotion on so youre not so dessicated and its like someone put bugs made of acid on your skin

That is very good. Low resting heart rate is usually a good indicator of how fit you are, but it needs to have a reference point. It is useful to compare it to what it was before.

It is also a good indicator of overtraining. if it is higher than usual when you wake up, you are probably a bit baked and should consider just doing light recovery ride that day.

before i started bikes a few years ago resting HR was 80. i should take my BP now to see what that is, it was always a perfect 120/80

didnt know that about that part with it being higher when i wake up, good to know! easy to notice too since i have a little phone app that tracks my sleep and gets my pulse when i wake up every morning