The rare wise move from the APD

Finally the Atlanta Police department cracks down on the idiotic critical mass rides.

After years of looking the other way, Atlanta police recently cracked down on a monthly bicycle ride through the city streets that includes blocking cars and flouting traffic laws.

At least 10 officers, eight on motorcycles and two in patrol cars, followed more than 300 bicyclists through downtown Atlanta, Little Five Points and Virginia-Highland on June 27 from about 6:30 to 8 p.m. Most of the bicyclists stopped for red lights they normally would have ignored. At least two bicyclists were ticketed for disobeying traffic laws.
...
Highsmith, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech, said Critical Mass would not be the same if the bicyclists followed the rules.

"The little bit of disruptiveness and the civil disobedience is a part of raising awareness [about bicycles] in a more conspicuous way," he said.

The group wants both better infrastructure for bicycles, including bike racks and lanes, and to show drivers that they, too, can hop out of the car and onto a bike.

Now honestly, if the cyclists are lobbying for better infrastructure, how does NOT using the infrastructure that's already there help matters? Why should anyone pay for more bike lanes when the existing lanes aren't being used and the people agitating for them are as boorish as possible?

Not that many people will care about this, but it's been a pet peeve of mine for years...

Finally, a problem we can blame on the Mexicans

It's not a major problem, but from some reason they (Mexicans) bicycle approaching traffic, which is the way it's done in Mexico, but not in America. This endangers the cyclist as the amount of time between perception and action is dramatically reduced for both parties, which means that they have less time to avoid each other. It's particularly bad at night. Also the Tullock Effect is reduced as avoidance is not the clear responsibility of either party.

I saw three people doing it yesterday.

New Jersey outlaws sale of many bikes

Read this post on Asymmetrical Information. It would seem to outlaw both of quite a few bikes no matter how you read the law.

You would think that not having the wheel fly off is incentive enough to secure it properly, but if someone says "it's for the children" then it must be a good idea.

Quick tab clearing round up

• Meanest quote: they "breed like flies but die in the same way.”
• Joaquin Murietta
• The funniest thing I read on Sunday "A small group of the SOF participated in mass nudity and arson as means of protesting against materialism". Mass nudity and arson! Probably not at the same time though.
• Why the camera adds 10 pounds.
• Bikes must ride single file on Columns Drive
  

Short 2006 best of list

• Best New Movie - The Departed
• Best Book - Truth Imagined by Eric Hoffer
• Best TV Show - The Shield
  
• Best Old Movie Seen For the First Time - Tie - The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman) / The Testament of Dr Mabeuse (Fritz Lang) / The Big Sleep (Bogart/Bacall). Only The Big Sleep is in English, where as the other two are probably much better off being subtitled. All three are from the 30s and 40s.
  
• Best New Gadget - Garmin Street Pilot - I never get lost anymore
• Best New General Interest Site - DamnInteresting.com
• Best Concert - Prince - though to be honest I didn't see that many in 2006
• Best New Band discovered - Freakwater - I have no idea how I managed to not know about them until this year, they're perfect for me.
  
• Biggest physical accomplishment - Biking the entire Silver Comet Trail - 126 miles - in one day with no rest and very few stops for water and such. It did take forever
• Biggest professional accomplishment - staying in business for another year I suppose
• Biggest artistic accomplishment - successfully finishing two whole songs, and actually doing open mic nights
  

Still uploading

Pesky large files. Anyway, here is some lovely reading material for you.

• This is the strangest article you will read this week. By a lot.
• Profanity across languages- the Dutch "May you get the measles" is my favorite
• Deadweight Loss / Excess Burden - if more people understood this, the world would be improved remarkably. Short version, it's a cost to someone with no benefit to anyone.
• Human Powered Vehicles - a bike that goes over 40 miles per hour

Quick Monday rapid fire

• HomeSite meets C#
• Warlords of Afghanistan - not quite a fansite, but I think it's safe to say the internet is complete.
• Windmills on Amazon
• Google invests in Plug-in Hybrids - Cal Cars curiously unmentioned.
• Martial arts and motion capture
• The quest for 100 mpg cars - doable but not pretty
• A really cool bike steady-cam I'll probably be building soon.
• I wound up building (so to speak) this camera mount this weekend.
  

Getting a dark monitor tan

I've been working for a week solid, and here I am still sitting in front of a screen. On a gorgeous day when I should be riding. Humbug.

Pale Rider in the dark shadows

My new habit of carrying the small camera everywhere with me is a good one I think. We are also entering prime cycling weather. A certain amount of wind chill is an incredible feeling.

The heart of Saturday night

Saturday I decided to go for a quick 16 mile ride before it got dark. Somehow it turned into a 35 mile trek from Avondale to Stone Mountain to the Freedom Parkway area and back in the dark. Riding at night, in the relative cool, is soothing and pleasant. Much like the other times I've ridden that late, people became abstractions and it was like having the city to myself. This ride was for much longer though. I kept the darker parts mostly in neighborhoods and the path so there was a large degree of safety.

I mapped it out, it's available here. I haven't figured out how to get the maps to display in the blog posts themselves yet. On an unrelated note, the camera on my phone is working again. The photo above is from a pedestrian bridge over Freedom Parkway.

More Silver Comet News

Paulding.com (an odd mix of local newspaper and blog) has more news. They claim the body was found approximately here.

Scary

First Michelle and Luke get their car broken into, and now this. I ride the Silver Comet at least a couple of times a month, and some other, probably more dangerous routes as well. I think the Comet is the only route where one would stay missing though. From Today's AJC

Woman missing from Silver Comet Trail
Searchers are combing the Silver Comet biking trail in Cobb County today for a missing Sandy Springs woman last seen Monday afternoon.

Two helicopters and about 100 family, friends and law enforcement officials are hunting for Jennifer Ewing, 54, who left from home in a Honda minivan with her red bike about 2 p.m. Monday to ride the trail.

The helicopters are equipped with infrared radar, a heat-seeking tool that allows searchers to see through dense woods and differentiate bodies on the ground, said Georgia State Trooper Larry Schnall.

...

Jennifer Ewing makes the outing on the 50-mile wooded path through Cobb and Paulding Counties about four days a week, said Smyrna police Sgt. Robert Harvey.

Update: Police have found a body along the trail, somewhere in Paulding Country.

Rematch with the Alabama ride

The above is actually spray-painted at the end of the Silver Comet Trail. It ends about 3 feet after this and becomes unpaved Alabama.

I decided to try the ride to the Alabama state line again on Saturday. It was brutally humid, and in the 90s, but why not? This was my last endurance goal for the summer.

I wound up making it successfully making the ride. It was 126 miles; over eight hours in the saddle. I wound up drinking 5-7 liters of water, 4 power bars and two bottles of Accellerade. It was a fun, but extremely draining ride.

I saw about 10 deer, probably over a hundred rabbits and I almost ran over a dead snake. Two days later and I'm still exhausted.

Photo Gallery here.


Sitting in Alabama, looking at Georgia


The Brushy Mountain Tunnel

Not dead

And I did make it to Alabama, just not all the way back under my own power (though I did make it back, thanks Mike and Erin!).

More details later.

15 million illegal immigrants can't be wrong

Happy Birthday America!

You're 230 today! That's 1,610 in dog years. And over 140 years without a civil war, which isn't that bad, considering.

I'm off to celebrate the day by riding to Alabama and back. If this site isn't updated by this time tommorow, would someone please look for me?

Sweet!

The Silver Comet Trail is to be completed by next May. Thank you Coca Cola!

A record of sorts

10:23 PM makes for the latest I've ever been out riding. Yes, it's quite dark.

The century

Saturday I biked a Century (100 miles), which was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

The middle 16 miles are on a highway, and not a trail. That puts you in the direct sun and very rough blacktop from Rockmart to Cedartown, which makes for a draining adventure. I also ran out of water for 30 miles, which was horrible. But, I did finish in a little under 7 hours, albeit in the dark, with an average speed of 14.7 miles and heart rate of 140 bpm. It was the first time in a long time where my legs have ached during the ride.

Yay me

I biked a hundred miles and didn't die, though this was the toughest ride I've ever done. More details later.

Where the sidewalk didn't end

Today, for no particular reason I decide to set a new cycling record. I decided to ride to the end of the paved area of the Silver Comet, which their website assured me existed. It gives the impression that the end is in the 37 mile area. My previous record was 60 miles.

Much to my surprise, the paved area did not end at 37 miles, which is a little beyond Rockmart. It keeps on going in fine order, I assume to the Alabama border, which will be a ride for another day. I make it out to the 40 mile mark before I realize how late it's getting.

I prefer using the die in place method of setting distance records; it's going out a long way in one direction and then back.

I wound up going a little over 80 miles, averaging 15.2 miles an hour, with an average heart rate of 151, which is surprisingly high for a ride that lasted over five hours. I have the heart rate monitor set to mute, but if you go far enough over into your maximum, which I did when I came across a sharp hill at mile 38, it beeps at you.

I spent the last 20 minutes or so in darkness as I underestimated the daylight. The forest canopy does a good job of eliminating ambient sunlight.

On the whole, it was a pleasant and scenic ride. The one exception was when I ran out of water for a 20 mile period and that brought all of the symptoms of fatigue very quickly. Once I got some more (at around mile 11 on the way back) I felt much better.

Below are some photos I took with the camera phone on the ride.

A very large factory that seems to make concrete forms. It's somewhere around mile 12.


More of the above.


I have no idea what road this is.

A very long and chilly tunnel. I need to take some more fiddler photos here.


This one wasn't on the ride, but I did see it yesterday and found it funny.

First ride on the new bike

So, I'm not feeling sore or congested anymore, so I take the new Fuji out for a spin. It felt good. For anyone curious, I went 33.5 miles at 14 miles an hour, with an average heart rate of 140. The handlebars are going to take some getting used to, as is the braking, but on the whole, the road bike is a pleasant change from the hybrid.

Wacky twists of fate

So I get the new road bike, and I'm too sore to ride and have too much insomnia to sleep. Lo, the irony. The bike is cool though.

Yet another new record

I went 60 miles on the Silver Comet with Mike this afternoon. Didn't feel too bad either.

The last man on earth

Having biked the past three days in a row, I had planned to take today off, but late this afternoon I felt full of energy and decided to go. Being a true American, I decided to push myself into breaking a personal record. I went to the end of Conyers and back and then to the other side of Avondale and back, which is a bit over 54 miles; a new record for me.

I rode the last hour in total darkness due to my late start . Happily that part was mostly on the bike path, with very little on the open road, so it was relatively safe.

As I was riding in the deserted darkness, the air cooled (down to sixty degrees), the number of cars declined and the wind blowing over the helmet created a dull roar. The perceptible environment gradually faded away. Coolness numbed the skin, wind dulled hearing, and the darkness removed much of the visual realm. I developed an overwhelming of isolation. There were no people out, very few cars, and no active signs of the human hand. All I could think of was that I was the last man on earth.

It was a gripping and powerful feeling I've never felt before.

Funny sight of the week

Sadly, I don't have photos, but on my ride yesterday I saw the Avondale PD pull over a group of bikers who turned right on red where it was not allowed. He used the lights and the loudspeaker and everything.

Photos from the long ride

I'm a bit tired after my little 53 miler yesterday. The above photo is from somewhere along a little-used side road near Stone Mountain/



The above is the castle of Oakhurst (near Decatur). The below is some stenciled graffiti I saw underneath a railroad bridge in Decatur.

Yet another new record

I went 53 miles, and returned in total darkness. Happily no wrecks though. From Avondale to Stone Mountain to Lithonia to Decatur to Oakhurst to Avondale to my house. Some interesting photos to come, it was a pleasantly introspective ride as well.

April is Ground Awareness Month

After I first started biking I had exactly one minor fall in 18 months. In the past three weeks, I've had two fairly serious (multiple places of bleeding and bruising) falls.

This one was more my fault than the last one: I had stopped at what I thought was a four way stop, but it turned out to be a two way stop. Oddly enough, the woman who almost hit me (which caused my sudden braking which caused the fall) had stopped at an area where there was no stop sign.

The two photos are the opposite ends of my trip today.

A causal dumping ground

Say you've got a bunch of garbage to get rid of; why not just throw it on the side of the bike path! Some people have no class. There is an old video game behind all of the above trash.

The long ride

Yesterday, for no particular reason, I decided to go on a long bike ride. I originally wanted to just see where Ponce de Leon Road ended, but the countryside was so pleasant and the roads to bikeable that I decided to set a personal record. I wound up going 25 miles out to Conyers on a very pleasant day. My total mileage was 50.5 miles, in about three and a half hours. Surprisingly I'm not that tired today.

On the way to Conyers, I passed through Lithonia, which contains a store containing some form of Christian/Voodoo items (from what I could tell). The images below are of the front window of the store.

My first half century

I rode from my house to Conyers today (and back). It wound up being over 50 miles, which is a new record for me. I'm exhausted; it was fun though. More details later.

30 miles

I decide to wreak my lonerism on the Georgia road system today and wind up going 30 miles; a personal best for the year. I also cracked 35 miles an hour on one downhill portion of the trek.

I rode to Stone Mountain and from there to Gwinnett county (Norcross I think) on Mountain Industrial, which changes names to Jimmy Carter Boulevard at some point.

I do NOT reccomend that particular route. Once you pass through Tucker the traffic gets quite scary in terms of both drivers and the actual roadway. I was the only biker I saw in the Gwinnett country portion of the journey.

The top picture was where I turned, it was some exit off of I-85. The low picture is sort of Easter-y I suppose.

Blood and guts edition

Yesterday I decide to go on a lovely bike ride. I go a bit further than I normally do, and on the way back I almost run over a cutting knife placed edge up on the bike path. I would presume it was placed there deliberately.

I pick up the knife and take it to the Clarkston police station, which was only about 100 yards away. I hand it to the cop (yes, I did walk up to a cop while holding a knife. He seemed cool with it.), tell him the story and he thanks me for doing it. All was good.

Then, while passing a jogger on the path, I misjudge the amount of room I have to work with by about half an inch and greet the ground at 15 miles an hour, landing knee, shoulder and head. Happily I was wearing a helmet at the time, otherwise I would have had to go to the hospital. I wound up having bad road rash on my leg, some shoulder bruising some minor neck pain/stiffness.

I took some photos of the blood and what not, but they turned out really blurry and I'm not going to post them.

That was my day.

Ouch

So, I finally fell off the bike. I forgot I was clipped in after I came to a stop and wound up jamming my arm a bit. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

Feeling the Burn

Today Mark, Emily and I rode at little over 30 miles in the 90 plus heat. While it was a good and needed ride it was very taxing on the system and produced a very dramatic sunburn (happily only on my arms).

The Wrist



The Elbow

Unexpected to see

I came across this odd site yesterday while biking on my usual route. I don't remember seeing any of this before, either the dumpster or the garbage, thought I think there is usually more underbrush in this area. Behind the wheelchair was a poster for Terminator 2, which came out in the early 90s.

A most amusing conversation

Searching Far And Wide For Cycling Companion

It all sounds so innocent doesn't' it? Somehow a conversation about adjectives in classified ads goes from helpful advice to personal threats to 9-11 conspiracy theories in a mere 19 posts. HT: The Agitator