Beep beep!

Look at the photo at right. I almost felt like doing this to a cyclist today in Manhattan. As a bike commuter, my reaction - and near physical reaction - surprised me. It also helped me understand why some motorists get frustrated with cyclists. It DID NOT help me understand people (like the guy convicted in LA for trying to kill two cyclists) who seem to have it in for virtually every cyclist, stereotyping them all as rule-breaking hedonists bent on taking over the world, or something similarly irrational.

So, back to the scene of the near-crime. I was standing at the intersection waiting for the light to turn so I could cross the street. A cab had stopped a few feet to my left, some three feet off the curb, to take on a fare. A woman was loading her child into the right rear passenger seat, so the door was open. Along came a bike messenger who was trying to ride between the cab and the curb. He screamed at the woman, "beep, beep" and when he got along side her, he put one foot on the ground, leaned over her shoulder and screamed "I said beep, beep, you f*****n' hebe."

I watched the idiot - delayed all of 2 seconds - get back in the saddle and ride on. A man, possibly the woman's husband, came around the back of the cab from putting something in the back of it, and glared at the cyclist. A moment after the cyclist had passed me, I had one of those epiphanies, like when you think of a good come back to something somebody has told you...only it's minutes, hours or days later and the opportunity has slipped by like a beautiful woman exiting the subway car.

I felt like I wanted to knock the guy off the bike and see him suffer just a little. I wanted to make him stop and think about what he had done, all because he was pissed off that someone had delayed him on his journey by an amount equivalent to the time it takes him to scratch his balls. Although such an action on my part would have been more rational than his tirade, I didn't respond with anger against anger. My mother raised me not to do such things.

What he did remind of me of is the way too many drivers - not all, just too many - seem to treat most cyclists (regardless of whether they are obeying the laws or not) as being less than human, who don't deserve to be on the road, or sometimes even live. I have seen cyclists do some stupid things before and risk their own lives, but I've never seen one try to intentionally injure or endanger the lives of another human being. Conversely, from the saddle of my bike, I routinely see motorists guilty of that very thing.

It's almost impossible for a cyclist to kill someone by running into them on their bikes. The rider almost always gets the worst of it. For a driver, all it takes is a flick of the wrist on the steering wheel or a moment of inattentiveness. We've all got to find a better way to get along.

Ride safe. Drive safe.

Profitable Ride

On Thursday morning's ride through Central Park, I decided to cut short my ride because of a nagging pain in my hip and wound up making $20.

I took a right somewhere in the 70s to get back to Central Park West and get to work, after a little hip pain persuaded me to shorten my ride into to work. As I approached the intersection while still in the park, I spotted the tell-tale signs of a film crew: a large truck, lots of people with headsets on carrying clipboards, and even more sitting around doing nothing much at all. Two people in bright green T-shirts jogged toward me and I heard a guy yell, "Get the guy on the bike." Normally, that kind of greeting might encourage me to turn around and speed away. Somehow, I could tell they meant no physical harm. The two green Ts started jogging along side me and asked if I wanted what sounded like a cashew bar. Turns out it is a Kashi bar. I said sure, I'll take free food and thanked them.

Moments later, a pretty woman in black (headset: check; clipboard: check) stopped me and asked if I wanted to be in a commercial in exchange for $20. I asked what I had to do, checking my watch as I did. She said "you just did it." I signed a waiver, she gave me a twenty and I was on my way in a couple minutes. Not a bad way to make $20. Not sure if I'll be in their commercial or not. It was a quickie, all of 8 seconds. Can't say the bar was all that good. I'll stick with my Clif bars.

"New" Madone

I've gone from one classic frame to another, due to a pain in the neck. After riding the Merckx I bought in the summer a few times, I had a raging neck ache that lasted more than a month from being stretched out too much on the bike. It was actually a 57cm frame, rather than a 56 as advertised that is the largest frame I can handle. 54cm is ideal for me, as an average-height dude of 5'10". So, I found a 54cm 2006 Trek Madone frame and fork on eBay for the same price I paid for the '91 Merckx Corsa Extra frame and fork. Both frames were same ones pros used to race the pro races, but the Madone is probably 7 lbs lighter. Man does it feel like it, too.

Yesterday's ride up to Nyack was fantastic. Sometimes it feels like I'm floating over the pavement. Amazing. When I got off the bike I felt like I'd just gone a few miles instead of 50. Just sold the Merckx back on eBay for almost what I paid for it, so no significant loss there. Planning on keeping this bike for a long time.