The Lounge of Terrestrial Wheelmen

[SportWagon]

Incident report I up, if anyone cares. Formatting is fucked (original submission had paragraphs).

https://streetshk.crowdmap.com/mobile/reports/view/71

From your description, he started in the lane to the left of you, and made the right turn, is that correct? And that was deemed by the police to be legal according to the lane markings? I.e. his lane was a (presumably not explicitly marked) "straight-through or right turn lane" beside (to the left of) the right-turn only lane which you used? Is that the situation, or do I misunderstand?

The Toyota Alphard is a luxury MPV (minivan) produced by the Japanese automaker Toyota since 2002.

[G'day Mate]

Bugger, it appears to be that time of the year again for Australian cyclists ...

[Yw-slayer]

From your description, he started in the lane to the left of you, and made the right turn, is that correct? And that was deemed by the police to be legal according to the lane markings? I.e. his lane was a (presumably not explicitly marked) "straight-through or right turn lane" beside (to the left of) the right-turn only lane which you used? Is that the situation, or do I misunderstand?

The Toyota Alphard is a luxury MPV (minivan) produced by the Japanese automaker Toyota since 2002.

Yes, he did. Apparently he can turn right from the left-hand lane. That, I think, made it worse since I was ahead of him AND turning right in the right-hand lane - so why charge ahead and try to cut me off unless you're being a dick and want me to "get out of the way" (notably, there is a set of traffic lights about 30m down the road, he could have overtaken me on the straight, and I'm 100% sure I would have been faster than him anyway down the rest of the street anyway, assuming he was going where I wanted to go)?

There are loads of Alphards here. They are huge, ugly, and usually driven by dickheads.

[G'day Mate]

Playing around with my new camera and software and stuff ... after nearly having a silly accident ...

[George]

Nice bike path! Can't believe how well lit it is. As great as the trails I use are, they're dark once the sun goes down.

I have a plan for my El Taco Rear Wheelio MTB that I'll let you guys in on if it works out. It's apparent I'm not going to find a wheel for it on CL and I'm not so sure I love that particular bike enough to spend big bucks on it.

The Allez is dirty from all the rain but continues to be so much fun. I love the drop bars and brifters more and more. I'm felt strong and healthy this morning and took a long (to me) uphill stretch on the big ring in front instead of the middle this morning, while on same cog in the back as usual for that road. My back soreness comes and goes but is mostly gone. I seem to be stalled in the weight loss department but all my pants are loose in the waist and my wife called me "skinny" yesterday. Pretty soon I'll have to start wearing jodphurs to contain my massive quads!

I'm off work today at 4:00 PM and am going to take the long way home - I figure at least an hour-long ride is very doable and I'll still be home earlier than usual.

Here's a blurry shot of the bike with lights front and back and my purse...uh, I mean European carryall on the handlebars, waiting out some hard rain in a parking garage near my office:



Hard to tell on a silver/grey bike, but it's filthy night now.



Why can't I stop thinking about this bike? It's SO cheap and it's nearby.

Bianchi hybrid/comfort bike - $70



The MTB I bought right after college had brake levers and shifters like this. I still can't remember what ever happened to that bike, but I remember that SIS stood for Shimano Indexed Shifting.

[overpowered]

One of us.

One of us.

One of us.

[George]

Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment. Cycling is providing me a lot of enjoyment in an otherwise dull and work-filled life, as I know we all have.

I came downstairs after work this afternoon and strapped on my lights, purse...uh, I mean handlebar bag, shoved my water bottle in place, unlocked the bike, put on gloves, sunglasses, helmet, and started to wheel the bike out of the cage with visions of droping teh hamar on the mountain bike guys with khakis and plaid shirts and no helmets. There are always a few of those before I get out of the business park area.

Flat tire in the rear.

Did a pretty fair job of putting on a new tube if I do say so myself. Sure, I got really dirty, but when done I walked back up eight flights of stairs and stashed the old tube in my desk drawer and then washed up before the ride home. I'll make a clothing run this weekend and bring the tube home and patch it at my convenience. I have a couple other NOS tubes that my buddy gave me with the Allez and will replace the one in my under-seat bag before I leave the house again. Vintage rubber, baby!

(yeah, I know...)

This was the first time I got to use the Topeak Road Morph G pump. While I do not like that its proprietary mounting bracket takes over bottle mounts rather than sharing, it worked really well and I was glad to have a gauge. I run 115 psi and that's not something I think I can squeeze-feel to see if they're good enough like MTB knobbies.

You guys might remember my story about the hidden sidewalk behind the shopping center. This afternoon I saw a roadie decked out in full kit, which I believe is the correct term, using "my" shortcut. I'm not saying anything negative about his attire, but when I see guys with matching shirts and shorts I figure they are serious roadies and not Joe Commuter like me with my platform pedals. I feel a little less like a trespasser to see I'm not the only guy on a bike who sneaks through there.

[George]

9:35 PM. Friday night.

Took some garbage and recycling out to the bins in the garage.

Bent down and pinched the rear tire to feel the self-satisfaction of having fixed something.

It's squishy. Half flat.

So goeth my bicycle education.

[G'day Mate]

Did you remember to remove the thorn?

[overpowered]

Yeah. When you've got a flat you have to inspect the tire casing and make sure that there is no thorn or broken glass shard embedded. I generally run my fingers along the entire surface of the inside of the tire, looking for thorns.

You also have to be careful not to pinch the tube when re-seating the tire. It's easy to pinch the tube. Sometimes that means that the tire won't inflate. Sometimes it inflates but then has a slow leak.