I gotta gets me one of these!

I spent a week in an embarrassing attempt to learn how to ride a unicycle. Honestly, by the time it was over, I was sick of the thing, and I had an interesting collection of bruises for my effort. Now, it turns out that I needn't have bothered.

(Image from DVICE)

This is based on the same ring laser gyro technology used in those evil Segway devices that are out to take over the world. But somehow when it's attached to a simple unicycle, all the malevolence is lost. Go figure.

According to Focus Designs, the Self Balancing Unicycle (SBU) is capable of a maximum speed of 8 mph, and a range of about 12 miles. It weighs 25 pounds. This may be a useful device for multi-mode commuters since it would be more convenient than a folding bike and the relatively low speed would make it easier to mix in with pedestrians. (I'm not certain of the legality of unicycles on the road, so I'm being hesitant here.)

The SBU should be available in November and will cost $1500. Now, if Focus Designs (ahem) wanted to send me one for long term testing, I'd wring it out thoroughly and subject it to Ed's Vertical Crush Test for months if necessary. There's no weight limit stated, so I could realize my childhood dream of joining the circus! Sure, I'd be a big, gray-haired bear on a unicycle, but at least it's a circus act. I wouldn't ride the SBU to work, though. An hour commuting back and forth at 8 mph is just too slow.

One other thing, guys, and that's the name. Lose the SBU. It sounds like some kind of disease or maybe a cop show on television. This thing needs a snappy, hipster name. Maybe "Zipster" or "Uncle Funster" or even a made up pornstar name like "Zeke Second." Think about it. I'm available for consulting - after I've had a few more cups of coffee.

At least I wouldn't end up with my foot stuck through the spokes on this one.

Owasso YMCA cycling

From the Owasso Reporter:

The YMCA Leisure Cycling Club will meet at 6:30
PM on Mondays, 6PM on Wednesdays, and 7AM
on Saturdays. The group gets together to ride nearby
routes and areas. They start and finish at the Owasso
YMCA, 8300 N Owasso Expy. Rides will be on average
20-25 miles.

There is no need to sign up, just show up.

Let's make a deal...

Here's a rhetorical question, a cheap device often used to open a discussion where the answer is already known, or at least that how I use them.

Is wearing a professional jersey the mark of a poser?

Number One Son says that doing so is a way of defining oneself as a tool. He says that about wearing a jersey from a cycling team, yet he sees nothing wrong with wearing a professional football jersey with the name and number of a current player. Most football and baseball fans seem to accept this as a normal outward sign of fandom. Remember, 'fan' is merely a short form of 'fanatic'.

Why would cycling fans be any different? In some circles, cyclists who wear team kit are sneeringly referred to as posers and worse. Are they any different from football fans? I don't think so. But it's ludicrous for a two hundred pound guy to wear the polka dot climber's jersey. At least I wouldn't do it because I climb with all the grace and elan of a cement truck with bad spark plugs.

Still, I wouldn't wear a professional jersey from a current team, but I'd certainly wear a jersey from a long defunct one. I consider that doing homage to the history and tradition of our sport. So I'd have no problem wearing that Molteni jersey I discovered at the local Goodwill store...if it fit. I have to admit, though, that those world champion stripes would look a little bit odd on a slightly overweight, middle-aged guy.

Let's make a deal.

Which brings us around to today's idea. Just like it says up at the top, let's make a deal. I'm not going to sell the Molteni jersey and frankly I doubt that Mary would look kindly on it if I were to enshrine it on the wall, so I'm thinking about using it for bartering. And I'm looking to give it to one of you in exchange. Now remember, this is an Italian size XL. I usually wear an XL, but this fits as if it were at least one size smaller. I tried it on and now I know what it feels like to be a sausage. Eventually, the seams would break if I wore it. This jersey is in excellent condition without any signs of wear. It's a synthetic fabric, not wool like the 70s original.

So here's the deal – I like shiny objects, old books, old tools, old cameras, and old bike stuff. Hmmm. It seems the dominant theme is 'old'. If you have some old junk interesting curiosities for trade, write something about them in comments, or use the email contact in my profile. Let's limit this to small stuff that won't cost much to ship, because while I'd love an antique VAR wheel truing stand, shipping one of those cast iron wonders would be prohibitive. If you have a good story to go along with your item, so much the better. If the story is wildly improbable, highly imaginative, and raises suspicions of out and out fabrication, it's better still. Be creative.

This deal is limited to the United States and Canada due to shipping charges. I'll pay to ship my goods. You'll pay to ship yours. Deal? My family members are prohibited from participation, as are any employees of CycleDog International – a corporation bent on global domination, various extraterrestrials, and Dr. Walter Crankset, including all his aliases.

If this turns out to be popular, I'll do it from time to time as things appear in the thrift store and local garage sales.

Five things....

(Image from Wooster Collective: five tips from public ad campaign)

I was thinking about writing a list of five things I'm proud of doing. But on reflection, I decided to make it a narrower list. So it's five things I'm proud of writing, both here on CycleDog, and in a few other places. I'm not limiting this to individual posts since there are a few themes I'm very happy to write about.

First, there's those two wonderful characters, Dr. Walter Crankset and his hometown of Broken Elbow, Oklahoma. Wally is a good-hearted guy very loosely based on a friend back in Pennsylvania. I wouldn't embarrass him by giving out his name, so it will suffice to say that they're both generous schemers with a wealth of tall tales. Broken Elbow doesn't exist any more than Lake Woebegone, of course, but it provides a suitably nutty background for Wally. Doctor Crankset is deliberately trying to provoke laughter, and I'm truly happy if you get a chuckle or two from him.

Then there are those posts that promote bicycling education. There's no better way to get people to use their bicycles than by empowering them. If you return to read CycleDog for the humor and get a dose of BikeEd along the way, well, I'm doing what I intended back when all this started. Sure, CycleDog originally began as a launch pad for ideas, a writing project that was meant to provide content to a regional newsletter. But like Topsy, it just sorta growed.

Twilight of the Demi-Gods was my revenge for being stopped by a local county sheriff's deputy for "impeding traffic". If 'demi' means reduced in size from normal, the deputy I had the misfortune of meeting was demi cubed. Humor is a way to channel and dispose of anger or frustration, and there's no denying that the encounter was frustrating. Some people are impervious to education or information contrary to their preconceptions. In this case, his boss the county sheriff was likewise impervious. You can't win 'em all, but you can convert them into convenient targets for sarcasm.

De-lousing Susan wasn't a post here on CycleDog. It was a comment on another blog. The author discovered small, white bugs on his tires. Like me, he hates bugs. He wondered what to do about the apparent infestation when I stumbled in the door. He referred to me as a 'gentleman'! Little does he know...


The first message in reply consisted of a quip, and a confession of ignorance regarding the substantive problem I face. The second, however, from another gentleman, suggested experience, and warned of pestilence. He wrote:

Those are most likely Vittoria beetles, commonly called tire ticks. The only solution is to replace every tire on every bicycle in the immediate vicinity. If you ignore them, they'll suck all the air out of your tires.

Granted, if you are, like me, still fairly naive to the nuance of bike maintenance, you might wonder, as I do, whether I'm being had. (Vittoria, of course, being a tire manufacturer.) But at the end of the day, does it matter? A) If CycleDog is so clever as to invent that on the fly ("tire ticks!?"), I deserve to be had; and B) even if he is pulling my leg, the fact remains, in whatever way, for whatever reason, and to whatever degree, one of Susan's tires plainly is infested by something, and one reasonably can assume that whatever the vile creatures are, they are more than prepared to, and certainly will given sufficient time, infest the other tires and only God knows what else.

I are a bad, bad man. And I'm perversely proud of that simple, devious reply. I truly hope he didn't end up replacing every tire in the immediate vicinity. I could blame it all on Wally, but that would be wrong.

Wally make me do it.

Finally, the fifth thing that I'm proud of is being able to bring you timely news and information about the Tulsa region. That may seem like a small thing, but when I'm able to sit in a meeting and learn more about how government works and how all of it can benefit area cyclists, there's both a responsibility and a kind of satisfaction in being able to provide that information here. I'm hardly the consummate insider with numerous ties and extensive contacts. I sit, listen, and very occasionally ask good questions.

Now, my original thought was to write about 5 things I'm proud of doing, but as I said, that would have been too broad. All five would have been about my wife and kids, all of whom I'm extremely proud of, and while that's something I could write about at length, this is supposed to be about cycling.

"Broken"

(Image from Agendanation.net)

This article appears in the latest Bicycling magazine. It's long and detailed, and may provoke some frustration and anger. The following are my thoughts on it Please feel free - as always - to add your own thoughts in comments..........Ed

Broken.......Bicycling Magazine, Jan/Feb 2008 issue

by David Darlington

“Every time we take to the open road, we entrust our lives to a safety net of legal protection and basic human decency. That system has failed.”

Darlington highlights several horrendous crashes involving cyclists and motor vehicles, and pays special attention to the aftermath. These were not 'accidents' which would imply they were unavoidable acts of God. Crashes have causation, a chain of events that, if any link were broken, would prevent the incident. Sadly, too many people die as a result of other's bad choices, whether they're impaired by alcohol or drugs, or they're distracted by something that takes their attention away from the road ahead. In writing this piece, I'm going to use 'impaired' as a catch-all covering alcohol, drugs, or anything that diverts a motorists attention from safe driving.

“...It was just an accident...hit by uninsured driver...pickup struck and killed...SUV struck her...SUV struck and killed him...died on a four-person ride when a log truck attempted to pass her single-file group on a tight turn...a freeway in Santa Cruz had a left exit and you had to cross three lines of traffic...SUV struck...just miles from their home...hit from behind in Florida...run over by an elderly man with macular degeneration...victim of a hit-and-run...driver attempting an illegal pass...”

Normally, I'd expect an article like this to follow a problem/solution format. And while there are some conclusions to be drawn, there's very little in the way of suggestions to prevent similar injuries and fatalities. Since this is a cycling magazine, the viewpoint predictably is that of cyclists. No mention is made of those cyclists who are killed or injured due to their own actions, yet this is something we should not ignore. There's something to learn from every crash. In my industry, commercial aviation, crashes are analyzed in depth to determine the cause in order to avoid a similar crash in the future. Human error is responsible for 85% of aviation accidents, and by examining these “human factors” we can gain insight into prevention. There is no doubt this approach saves lives. I believe we should investigate all transportation-related crashes with similar intensity. I've included a brief list of human factors at the end of this article along with their relationship to bicycling crashes. There's also a link to further information from the FAA.

The argument here doesn't revolve around facilities or the lack of them. Indeed, three of these people were injured or killed while riding in a bike lane or on a road shoulder, presumably safe places for cycling. Adding more bike lanes, or cycling-friendly laws like the 3 feet minimum passing clearance would have no effect on similar crashes because the motorists were distracted, drunk, or possibly drugged. The magic paint line denoting a bike lane would not have prevented these deaths, yet one of the knee-jerk reactions is a call for more facilities in order to make cyclists 'safe' rather than targeting dangerous behavior. We already have laws regarding driving under the influence, and some states have laws designed to reduce the danger associated with distracted driving. Typically, these prohibit cell phone use unless it's a hands-free unit. Yet, we're still seeing traffic deaths totaling over 40,000 per year. It seems that existing law has little effect on preventing injuries and deaths. We need another approach. We need to change behavior and expectations long before someone gets behind the wheel of a car.

I'm very tempted to propose draconian penalties for drunk, drugged, or otherwise impaired drivers. For instance, prohibit anyone convicted of a drunk driving offense from owning a vehicle – ever. Require that DMV maintain a database of offenders and compare it with motor vehicle records whenever a license is renewed or a new license plate is requested. Prohibit them from having a driver's license ever again. And back it up with asset seizure if necessary.

But while such harsh penalties have a feel-good aspect to them, I seriously doubt they'll have any immediate effect. Too many people who've had their licenses revoked simply continue driving. The chances of being caught are relatively small.

So I think we have to change perceptions and get people to value their driver's licenses more, perhaps by making them more difficult and more expensive to obtain in the first place.

Naturally, Bicycling has their own recommendations.

Take Action

Find local friends

Connect with other cyclists and your local advocacy group.

Learn from the leaders

“Avery Stonich, marketing and communications manager for the bike Belong Coalition, suggests taking cues from other successful bike advacacy groups” like LAB, TA, and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center.

Set goals

Know the law in your area as well as community needs. Establish both short-term and long-term goals, like changing a particular law or creating a bicycling master plan.

Network

Know the local politicians and bureaucrats. Know who pulls the strings.

Be specific.

Have a narrowly defined goal in mind when speaking with the pols and bureaucrats.

Is it getting worse..an unequivocal yes and no.

Since 1995, the total number of cyclists (according to NSGA figures) has declined from 56 million to 43 million in 2005. Yet rate of cycling deaths increased from 1 per 10,800 to 1 per 7,100 over that same period. The inverse relationship between the numbers of cyclists on the roads and the number of deaths and injuries seems to indicate that as more people ride bicycles it becomes a safer activity.

One really good, really simple idea,

This is the 3-feet minimum clearance passing law that's gaining favor across the nation. It supplements the usual language about the responsibliity of an overtaking drivers to pass safely. But would it have prevented these crashes? Probably not. The problem isn't the law, whether it a 3 feet minimum pass. The problem is impaired driving, not cyclists behavior.

CONCLUSION

“Several European nations...have slashed their annual traffic-fatality figures over the past few decades, largely through “traffic calming” measures that forcibly reduce the speeds of motor vehicles.” Great Britain reduced fatalities by over a third when use of CCTV became wide spread and motorists realized their chances of being penalized for traffic infractions had greatly increased. CCTV is the big stick.

(We must) “acknowledge the fact that being inattentive at the wheel of a car is criminal”...we need to change the language we use to describe the consequences. “call them crashes,” she says. “Not accidents.”

“If the public thinks it's just those crazy people who were killed, they don't have any reason to get involved...We had to show that a bicyclist isn't just something in your way – it's somebody's dad, or dentist, or doctor.”

We have numerous laws intended to reduce traffic fatalities – the stick – but we need to change the culture for motorists – the carrot. As I said up above, one approach may be to make getting a driver's license harder and more expensive. Maybe then drivers will place a higher value on keeping their licenses. But if we can add a monetary incentive as well, the prospect of having a little more cash in their pockets could be even more effective. I'll admit that I don't have a wealth of ideas on this, but as I've said before, there's no one as smart as all of us put together. So feel free to add your ideas in comments.

Human Factors

This list was developed from the Human Factors course information in use at my place of employment. A link to the FAA's HF page is provided below.

(LINK)

Distraction is thought to be responsible for 15% of all aviation accidents and incidents. The following items on this list often aren't single issues when it comes to air crashes. They tend to overlap.

Lack of Teamwork is a failure to share goals. In cycling terms, this could be something as simple as not informing everyone on a group ride of the intended route.

Fatigue. Mental or physical exhaustion that may have a slow onset, so subtle the individual is unaware. Fatigue impacts our judgment and reaction times in much the same way as alcohol.

Lack of Resources. In aviation, this is meant to address the absence of technical support, tooling, shelter, etc, that can effect how a job is performed. For a cyclist, this may mean performing a job without the proper tools, leading to substandard quality and reliability.

Lack of Assertiveness. Be assertive when you see an unsafe condition or practice. Don't confuse being assertive with being aggressive. How many of us see another cyclist do something we know is unsafe, yet we keep quiet about it.

Stress. The acute manifestation of stress is road rage. It's more common in motorists than cyclists, but we're not immune. Fortunately, the easiest solution to stress is to simply pedal faster.

Lack of Awareness. This is not the same as lack of knowledge. Lack of awareness implies a failure to anticipate possible outcomes or consequences.

Norms are unwritten rules or behaviors, often reflected by a majority of the group. The group riding practice of yelling, “Clear!” as the whole pack rides through an intersection is an example of a norm.

Lack of Communication. As I said above, there's significant overlap in all these factors, and lack of communication is significant in almost all of them.

Complacency results from constant repetition. “We've always done it that way!” Another description for a cyclist would be habit formation. “I always run that stop sign!”

Lack of Knowledge is the failure to have the training, information, or ability necessary to complete a task.

A winter jersey idea...

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd like a winter cycling jersey that makes me look like this guy. All that foam would be plenty warm, but it would probably need some ventilation. Maybe a vertical row of surgical sutures down the front?

(Image from Seattlest)

There's ample precedent for such a jersey, of course. Just remember Super Mario at the prologue for the Giro. Cippolini was fined for wearing this skin suit and he didn't do well in the time trial, but more importantly he got his photo and his sponsor's logos on the front pages. Wearing this in Oklahoma might get me arrested.

(Image from The Daily Peleton)

Now, Mario had the actual musculature to complement the skin suit. I'm not exactly quite as buffed. In fact, I better resemble Patrick O'Grady's Old Guy Who Gets Fat In Winter.

(Image from Amazon.com with links to O'Grady's book)

I was thinking about writing something about the holiday eating season, but in truth, I've been slowly gaining weight all summer, fifteen pounds in total. It's tempting to blame it all on others, especially She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed and her understudy, Number One Daughter, but when I'm being honest I have to admit it's my own lack of will power. Instead of eating what I need, I eat what I want, and that's a bad habit. It's also a tough habit to break.

So don't think I'm being anti-social when I turn down the double-fudge, ultra chocolate brownies your wife made just for our shop dinner. It's one on my rare exhibitions of will power.

On-line driver's test

36 Million Licensed Americans Unfit To Drive According To GMAC Insurance Study

Failure Rates Double in 3rd Annual GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test

GMAC insurance is offering an on-line driver's test. Notice that according to the chart, one in four drivers would be C students, and that only 2 states scores were in the green. However, the spread reveals something even more interesting since the highest was only 81.9% and the lowest was at 70%. That seems to indicate that ALL the drivers missed at least 18% of the answers. That's pathetic.

There are no questions regarding cyclists. One deals with pedestrians, and another with school buses - which is almost a pedestrian-related question. This could be a reflection of the statistics regarding cyclist and pedestrian deaths, and since fatalities among cyclists are relatively low, they're not going to be included in a 20 question quiz.

I scored 95% - not that I'm bragging about it - because the one question I missed had to do with a practice that is legal, but it something I greatly dislike doing. I won't tell you what it is here in the main text, but I'll include it in comments so it won't be a spoiler.



From the press release:

ST. LOUIS, MO. (May 24, 2007) – Results from the 2007 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test indicate that one in six drivers on the road - roughly 36 million licensed Americans - would not pass their written DMV exam if taken today. The third annual survey by GMAC Insurance gauges driver knowledge of the rules of the road by testing licensed Americans on actual questions from state DMV license exams.

(Link to full text)

WKRP in Cincinnatti

Image from DVDTOWN.COM. Les Nessman (standing) and Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP in CINCINNATI.

There was an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati in which a severe thunderstorm spawned tornadoes across the state of Ohio. Les Nessman, the station newscaster, was asked if he had an emergency announcement warning the area of the threat. “No,” he replied, “but I do have one in case we're invaded by the communist Chinese!”

“OK, use that. But every where it says 'Chinese' substitute 'tornado'.”

The resulting announcement was bizarre, to say the least, as Les warned the listeners about the “godless tornadoes” roaring into the area. So I've done something similar, substituting...well...you'll figure it out.

The following is satire, I think:

I respect automobile drivers. I even drive myself from time to time, but there's no excuse for some of the behavior I've witnessed recently, particularly the wanton disregard of traffic lights and the speed limit.

I pay my taxes just like everyone else, and I expect our government to use those tax monies wisely. I object to the use of those monies to provide facilities for those who break the law with impunity by running red lights, speeding on our streets, scattering pedestrians, and imperiling everyone else on the road. The actions of these drivers are a stain on the whole of the driving public. I watched an intersection one afternoon as cars and trucks rolled through the stop sign one after the other. The only ones who stopped did so because there was cross traffic. Even a police car blithely rolled through without stopping.

Many of these people regard speed limit signs as mere suggestions or even a challenge. They routinely drive at 5 or 10 miles per hour over the limit, the 'fast' speeders stacking up behind the 'slow' speeders in the passing lane, forming a conga line of lawbreakers.

I strenuously object to paying for facilities set aside for the exclusive use of these people who are bent on terrorizing the rest of the population. Don't they know that their gasoline money goes to countries advocating violence against good, honest Americans? In effect, those lawless motorists are in league with terrorists, using their vehicles to mow down fellow Americans, and giving their money to those who would destroy us.

It's time to put a stop to all of that. Do it for the children orphaned by these reckless drivers. I'm not implying that all motorists are a danger to themselves and others, but the law abiding ones are few and far between. If their lawlessness continues, I see no reason to extend respect or consideration for any of them. I see no reason to spend my tax dollars to build wider, smoother roads so they can kill people more efficiently – and not be late for work. Frankly, until they begin to behave as responsible adults and obey the traffic laws, they don't deserve better roads. They'll only drive faster, anyway, and the new roads will be just as congested as the old ones.

If we want safer streets, we need safer drivers. A first step would be to forbid the use of any cellular telephone while driving. Likewise, we could reduce the incidence of distracted driving by removing all radios and cup holders. Eating or smoking in a motor vehicle while it's in motion should be outlawed as well. Motorists will still manage to crash, however, so we can make crashes more survivable by requiring the use of 5 point seat belts and mandatory crash helmets.

Any fool can get a drivers license and usually does. It's time we made the process of getting a license far more difficult and costly. A drivers license costs LESS than a hunting license, but apparently it too is a license to kill.

I look forward to a day when we'll be able to convert highway medians into parks where our children can play without fear of being dismembered by a runaway truck or a drunken motorist. I hope to see major intersections converted into baseball diamonds where children can play whiffle ball without being reduced to a puddle of bloody, ground meat with a few teeth sticking out, next to a broken pair of glasses and a torn sneaker.

"As God is my witness, I swear I thought turkeys could fly!"

I just had to say that!...............Ed

Photos and advice wanted...

(Image of armored Canon EOS 20D from RentKamera.No)

Brian Potter and I are doing a commuting presentation for the Tulsa Bicycle Club sometime after the first of the year. I'm looking for photos of commuting cyclists, their bikes and equipment, and all the other paraphernalia that gets attached to bikes and riders in order to make their commutes safer, more comfortable, and more enjoyable. In my case, that means an obligatory shot of the Melitta coffee maker stuffed into the top of a stainless steel water bottle.

I've already gone fishing through bicycle commuting photos on Flickr, and I've collected many showing ordinary people on bikes. Of course, I couldn't pass up a few of the very stylish images from Copenhagen Cycle Chic, nor some from Cycle-licious.

Since I want to make this relevant to local cyclists, I need photos of local cyclists. This is a good excuse to get out with a camera in my hands. We're going into Tulsa later today, so I'll be sure to take some pictures.

Now to the advice portion - I talked with Patrick Fox about using a helmet cam to show off some of the trails and cycling opportunities around the Tulsa area. I know NOTHING about helmet cams, so I'm asking all of you for advice regarding what to look for in a good one. Type slowly and use small words.

I had this dream, see...

Dream Machine?

I've been off the bike for the last couple of weeks. First, there was some persistent knee pain and a saddle sore that just refused to heal. I tried various balms and potions on the sore, but eventually I came around to considering a drill press, the Pace machine at work, or even the nuclear option. The Pace soldering/desoldering station was really attractive, since it has a grinding attachment and thermal tweezers in addition to the usual soldering accoutrements. I gave some thought to the potential for traumatizing my co-workers by heating the tweezers, dropping my trousers, and....well...never mind.

Then shiftlessness set in. I was overwhelmed with simple, cussed laziness. Driving the car was just too easy, though I have to admit that the saddle sore made me sit kinda funny, with one cheek slightly elevated. This put a strain on my neck, shoulders, and back, so they hurt too. Fun, fun.

One morning, I stood on the bathroom scale for the first time in a long time. After it stopped spinning, a process that seemed to take minutes, I was appalled to see that I'd gained a LOT of weight! More dummy me, continuing eating like a horse without getting any exercise.

So is it any wonder I dreamed of bicycling?

I dreamed that I was riding in the Tour de France. And true to form, I was way off the back somewhere behind the vehicle caravan. I can't even win in my dreams! What does that say? A following vehicle was a mile or two behind me, following stragglers even slower than I was. I had to reach an airport to catch a flight to Oklahoma City, where that day's stage would end. But I was so slow that I missed the flight. It left without me. The only other aircraft was an old Cessna 4-seater that a mechanic was working on as I arrived. It obviously wasn't going anywhere.

The airport manager walked up and told me that I could still reach OKC. "We'll drive you there!" he said proudly. His car was an old Simca that was in worse shape than the Cessna. How we were to drive to OKC from France was never mentioned.

It was 4AM when I awoke. The dream was so preposterous that I sat in the dark chuckling about it.

At 5AM, I was up getting ready for work. I rolled the Bianchi out of the garage and pushed off down the hill. It was like meeting an old friend I hadn't seen in some time. We spun along happily with the help of a cold but friendly tailwind, and we didn't speak of the Tour.

The DARPA Challenge

(Image from Tom's Games)

Wired has a defense-related blog called Danger Room. I've been following the lead up to the DARPA challenge, a contest pitting robotic vehicles against each other on a real world road course. The DoD has an interest in this, because if they're able to develop robotic vehicles that can operate unassisted, they do not need vulnerable humans behind the wheel and exposed to IEDs.

But as we all know, cutting edge technology trickles down into civilian applications. How would you feel about sharing the road with a robotic bus or delivery truck? I haven't seen anything about how these systems react to pedestrians or cyclists, and I certainly wouldn't want to be the cyclist who tests whether it can reliably detect and avoid us.

But rest assured, if the costs come down as they always do, these systems will be used to get rid of those pesky humans (and their unions) who operate trucks and buses.

Excerpts follow.



Urban Challenge Bots Ready to Race on Saturday

By Michael Belfiore

...The robot cars--all stock vehicles outfitted with laser range finders, cameras and other sensors, and crammed full of computers--will line up on the starting line early tomorrow morning, and take off at 8:00 a.m. on perhaps the strangest auto race ever.

The cars will all have to obey a 30-mile-per-hour speed limit, will have to stop at intersections, signal their turns, and obey all California traffic laws. And absolutely no one will be driving--not by remote control, and certainly not in the driver's seats.

Along with the robots will be 50 brave souls wearing crash helmets and driving Ford Tauruses to provide circulating traffic for the robots, whose purpose is to test the technologies for fully autonomous vehicles. The Pentagon wants robots to drive convoys in Iraq.

...For complete race coverage, keep your browser pointed right here at the Danger Room. Also look for DARPA's webcast at http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/.

The next hipster trend?

(Rivendell image from Country Bicycle)

So I'm cruising about, looking for interesting tidbits of information, when I stumble across this: Bike Snob Chicago.

Is this going to be a franchise like McDonalds or CSI? OK, OK, we all know that imitation is a sincere form of flattery, but are 2 or more bike snobs really necessary or desirable? BikeSnobNYC is funny because it's original and witty. Clones are considerably less so.

Let's see, when the television producers decide that we desperately need CSI:Duluth, they'll try to ram it down our throats. I don't think the world wants or needs BikeSnobSapulpa.

...but I'll still put it on my list in Bloglines. It's a compulsion.

BikeSnobNYC revealed!!!

Yes, the latest issue of Bicycling has photos and an interview with BikeSnobNYC.

He's posed ala Boy George in his 'pensive gaucho' phase, a strikingly sensitive yet manly photo that includes stunning use of color coordination between his attire and his oh-so-chic fixed gear bike. Everything that isn't NYC formal (black) is that other color - white.

Really. He should post a photo of the bike on fixed gear gallery so he can lampoon it.

But seriously - my congratulations for appearing in Bicycling! Trust me, the rest of us only mildly talented writers are seething with envy!

Il Vecchio

(CycleDog Photo)

Italian food and cycling? Pasta and Bianchi? They're natural partners!

I never had Italian food in a restaurant until I was in my twenties. Mom made her own spaghetti sauce, and while it was good, it wasn't the same as going into some hole-in-the-wall Italian place with all the usual cliches – checkered table cloths, a candle stub in an empty chianti bottle, and a hand painted map of Italy on the wall. The main focus was the food, and I loved it immediately.

Owasso has the usual assortment of pizza places. We have a couple of franchised Italian restaurants too. But there's only one of mom-and-pop variety, and that's Il Vecchio.

The menu offers various salads, spaghetti, lasagna, and several variations of panini. That may not seem to be extensive, but there are half a dozen types of lasagna, with comparable variety in the other menu categories. Trust me, you'll find something you like. We've eaten there several times. Given my weakness for Italian food, we'll eat there often. They make their own pasta and sauces. Everything is fresh.

For lunch this afternoon, Lyndsay had a grilled chicken panini and I had bruschetta with an artichoke and spinach dip. This is actually listed as an appetizer, but I made a meal of it. Lyndsay's panini was too much for her to finish, so she brought half of it home. Honestly, you could split a panini between two people with this appetizer and have a sumptuous lunch. I'll keep that in mind for the next time, although Lyndsay sampled the dip, made a face, and said, “Ugh! Spinach!” She still eats like a kid.

Since CycleDog is primarily about cycling, I have to point out that if you're contemplating a ride through Owasso with a stop at Il Vecchio for lunch, there are no convenient places to lock a bicycle outside as you can see from the photo above. But if you like Italian food, give it a try.

What to do with cyclists...

Here's another of those "I ride a bicycle too, but...." posts. The assumption behind this one is that we're out on the roads strictly for exercise and recreation. It not as if we actually have to go somewhere like work or school or something as 'important' as any motorist's destination. Nope, we're clogging the roads and slowing traffic because we're arrogant and rude. We're fetishists who break every traffic rule and every fashion rule. Who knew? Well, I didn't but then again, I didn't know that fashion had rules - and I wouldn't care anyway. Plaids with stripes? No problem!

(Yawn)

So the 'solution' is to get all of us onto indoor trainers, pedaling furiously like a bunch of hamsters in Lycra. Then the roads will be uncongested. Motorists will be released from their cyclist imposed bondage and be free to travel unimpeded at sub-orbital velocities. All will be well and good with the Earth, and a veritable motoring utopia will descend upon us. Well...except for all those other motorists clogging up the roads. Maybe they can be persuaded or dragooned into sitting in front of a television playing Gran Turismo over and over. Then driving will be nirvana. Except for all those buses and large trucks. Maybe we can restrict them to only operating at night, say, between midnight and 5AM. Yeah, that would do it! But then there's all those pedestrians to consider too. Hell, just round them up and put them in camps.

See, there is an amicable solution to every problem, provided you're the one doing the solving.

http://ivo.co.za/2007/09/09/what-to-do-with-cyclists/

What to do with cyclists

Finally, here’s a way to get cyclists off our roads:

With the Ergo Bike Premium 8i from Germany’s Daum Electronics, riders from around the world compete against each other over virtual versions of some of the sport’s storied race courses.

Let them race in cyberspace! Brilliant. Now why didn’t I think of that?

Before I get flamed or threatened or hacked, I should point out that I come from a cycling country. I own a bicycle, and I grew up cycling everywhere. I agree that cyclists aren’t adequately catered for on our roads, and motorists aren’t sufficiently attentive to cyclists. The likelihood of Johannesburg getting decent cycling infrastructure any time soon is remote, which is a shame.

That said, I once dared to complain about the arrogance with which cyclists take over our roads and shut down our cities for their own amusement. My rant was sarcastically caustic, and some idiot thought it would be a good idea to forward the e-mail to every cycling forum in the country.

...Now, finally, technology offers a way in which cyclists can indulge their fetish in the privacy of their own homes or gardens. They won’t have to put their lives at risk and spew filth at motorists for every tragic accident. They won’t have to break half the traffic laws and every fashion rule in the book. They won’t have to trample the rights of tax-paying citizens of the cities whose roads they hijack for their own amusement. They get to cycle wherever and whenever they want. And the rest of us will be spared their testosterone-fuelled aggression and sanctimonious condescension.

See? There’s an amicable solution to every problem.