Active Triangle

Snowmageddeon 2017 hit Raleigh today and we got a whopping 2″ of snow around our house. The roads weren’t great, but I HAD to get out of the house for a bit and go for a ride. Figured I’d take them mountain bike since the greenway would be snow covered.

It was just a nice ride. Only for in something like 8 miles, but it was great to get out of the house and put a few miles on the bike.

The other night I made one of those little mud guards to go onto my front fork because I was bored, but I wanted some sort of rear fender to keep my back side from getting sprayed with icy water and slush. I looked around the garage, and the most suitable thing I could find was an old Kenda Nevegal tire that’s had all the intermediate side-knobs cut off, and a few punctures, etc. I cut a section of it out, zip tied it to my seat, and viola, ugly rear fender that works quite well.

I had installed a Maxxis Ignitor rear tire the other day to use for the rest of the winter, and it was absolutely phenemonal in the snow. Cleaned itself, had great traction, etc, etc. I still have a WTB Weirwolf on the front, and that was a different story, too wide so it wanted to float, caked up with snow and got squirrely, so I wouldn’t recommend that at all. Should have a new Panaracer Rampage here soon to put on the front, hopefully that’ll help.

So anyways, yeah, had a great ride. Didn’t see anyone else riding, and not other tracks either.

Cyclist friends, know I love you, but this is gonna hurt.

Whenever I go online to cycling forums/subreddits/facebook groups there’s always stories of people getting run off the road by cars, or worse, someone getting killed by a driver that wasn’t paying attention. It suck ass. I frequently ride past a ghost bike for someone I never knew. I tip my visor and ride on.

Being a cyclist myself, I’m hyper aware of other cyclists while I’m driving my car. Unfortunately, this makes me shake my head at least as often as it doesn’t.

As cyclists, we have an awesome “Share the Road” campaign. In my area, there are even parts of town that have sharrows and signs that say “Bikes May Take Full Lane”. Its obvious that the advocacy of folks who are more involved than I am is working, and that’s freaking awesome.

However, as a community I think cyclists are our own worst enemy. Last weekend I was driving home from dropping off my wife’s rental bike, when two guys on road bikes approached a stoplight where I was stopped. They were in the lane, and rode past all of the stopped vehicles up to the stop line. They track standed juuuuust long enough to see that there wasn’t opposing traffic coming, and then they took off through the red light. I shook my head.

I see cyclists disobey the rules of the road all the time, and I usually just shake my head. Stopping and waiting when you’ve been carrying a good cadence for a while, or are trying to KOM some Strava segment sucks, I get it. It’s the same reason people re-route mountain bike trails around technical sections. Stopping sucks, especially when you’ve got a good flow going.

I get it, I promise I do, but it’s not helping make the roads safer for cyclists.

My other hobby is competitive handgun shooting, and I do a little blogging and podcasting about guns and gun rights advocacy. A couple years ago some mouth breathing neckbeards realized that it was legal to carry their rifles in public in certain states, so they started walking around Target and Starbucks and other places with AR-15’s slung over their shoulders in an effort to “educate the public” about their rights.

What do you think happened?

Whenever someone asked about their guns, they started blabbering on about “MAH RIGHTS!” which is an instant turn off for most folks. They were instantly tried and convicted as guilty in the court of public opinion.

The general public recoiled at the thought, the anti-gun rights crowd used this is fodder to push their agenda, and a bunch of businesses made statements telling the mouth breathing neckbeards to leave their guns at home. As the token “gun guy” at work I had to deal with co-workers asking what the deal was, and I couldn’t defend it. Sure it was legal, but they were being assholes. It’s not normal to walk around in public with an AR-15.

What I’ve found when talking to people about guns rights is that just being normal, and not being an asshole makes everything kosher. I think this should apply to cyclists too. If you really want to share the road, then SHARE the road.

Don’t be an asshole and break the law. Trust me, every time you roll a stop sign, or blow a red-light (or walk into Starbucks with a rifle) you’re being an asshole, and people notice. They’ll be less likely to give you, and the rest of the cyclists on the road, the benefit of the doubt next time, and that sucks ass.

After we bought road bikes last fall, and have been riding regularly for the last year I’ve really gotten the bug to try mountain biking again. I love mountain biking, but gave it up completely years ago becsuse my hands just couldn’t take it anymore.

Well, I talked my wife into letting me buy a mountain bike (Motobecane Fantom 29 from BikesDirect) and I’ve been out riding almost every night this week. 

Damn, I’ve missed this. Went and rode Crabtree earlier this week and it was about how I remembered it from 8 years ago, and then yesterday I hit Legend Park in Clayton for the first time ever, and it kicked my butt. 

I mean, it totally kicked my butt. Rode like 3 miles of the upper part of the trail and I was spent. 

Anyways, I’m glad to be back on the bike. Really impressed with how stiff the Maxle makes the cheap RockShox recon fork. I had issues in the past with wobbly 29er forks, but they seem to have that licked.

Really the only thing I need to change is figuring out what’s going on with my hands. I’m going to try some bigger grips, which will hopefully make me feel like I don’t need to death-grip the handlebars so much.