From: randy@megatek.com (Randy Davis)
Subject: Re: Idiot bicycle races on non-closed courses (was Re: ignore  -  test)
Reply-To: randy@megatek.com
Organization: Megatek Corporation, San Diego, California
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 17:25:37 GMT

In article <1992Oct12.232739.23488@microunity.com> ericm@microunity.com (Eric Murray) writes:
|[I wrote]
|>  Just *whose* idea is it to hold bicycle races on public roads, especially
|>considering how dangerous it is for the bicyclists on the roads they were
|>on (north San Diego County roads, in this instance).
|
|Dangerous because of testosterone-crazed ZX11 riders, no doubt.

  No, actually NOT, numb-nuts...  I was doing about 30 mph, came around a blind
corner, and found 5 (count-em, FIVE) bicyclists across BOTH lanes of traffic.
I suppose I COULD have popped a wheelie and blazed in-between the two that had
left the most space between them (about two feet), yet I didn't think that
would be very nice...  Nor am I much up for court costs...

  This was on a very narrow road in the middle of the mountains.  Since I was
going fairly slow, I had no problems dropping to the indicated 15-20 mph that
they were traveling on the 40 mph speed limit road - California mountain roads
often have some good speed limits...  In fact, I was INTENTIONALLY traveling
slow enough to stop for a complete road blockage should I encounter one - but
to encounter one from fellow two-wheelers really made me wonder about their
supposed intelligence, or lack thereof.  If it helps you visualize the
situation better, Eric, I even got a FRIENDLY wave from more than one of the
cyclists when I tried to carefully pick my way through the pack (at least,
from those that looked to be in better shape - the others were just
concentrating on pedalling).

|Have some fuckin' tolerance, will you?  The road's not your

  Only if you learn how to read...   While you are at it, please try to learn
how to deal with that stereotype you seem to have..  Steve Kennison (and three
others, yet Steve posts here once or twice a year) was also along on this
ride - ask him if you doubt how I conducted myself.  Is there some *reason*
you think I am some "testosterone-crazed ZX11 rider"?  If not, then you might
as well keep your erroneous opinions to yourself...

|personal playground, there's other people with different hobbies
|than you.  Deal with it, or you lose the right to complain when they
|try to take away _your_ hobby.

  You really ARE an idiot, aren't you, Eric?  If you would read my posting a
little better, you might notice that I wasn't so much complaining about having
to slow down for them, rather, I was concerned about the cars I had already
seen on the road (locals, I assume, who knew the road by driving it every day)
taking it a bit faster than I was and running over the more stupid bicyclists.
The sad thing is that the car driver would have had to deal with the police
and probable litigation, even though it would not have been his/her fault, in
my opinion.

  I was not suggesting legislating *anything*, if you will pull your head out
and read my posting again.  This is DESPITE the fact that a number of the
bicyclists were being VERY inconsiderate and unsafe to other drivers sharing
the road with them - namely, ME and a pickup truck that was trying, with even
less success since the pickup driver, unlike many of the bicyclists, seemed
to have a healthy respect for the double-yellow on blind curves.  The really
dumb moves by the bicyclists included cutting *right* in front of us even
though we were obviously there (one nearly clipped my front wheel by cutting
across to find the best line on the curve, at all of 25 mph, probably).  Not
all of the bicyclists were so stupid, but we encounted at least ten that
were riding as if THEY owned the road, and looked like they were about ready
to find out the hard way that they didn't.  I would not have had too much
sympathy for the one that almost clipped me...

|>  No markers, etc...
|
|It probably wasn't a race then- most likely a centry ride.

  That's an excuse?  If they are on the road, I expect them to follow the
same rules *I* have to follow, or deal with the consequences.  If they were
going to ride as they did, they NEEDED to close the road to public traffic,
yet it wasn't.  It would have only taken one car driving at the speed limit
coming from the other direction to take out about three of them in one shot
that decided to take a "faster" line by crossing the double yellow on a blind
curve.  *I* don't want to be the one to teach them the error of their ways
despite the one that almost volunteered me, but a number of them were no-doubt
going to eventually learn the hard way that they were being real stupid,
then some innocent motorist is going to have to deal with paying for the
stupidity of the bicyclist riding on the wrong side of the road on a blind
corner.

|Most races (and all races put on by good promoters) have vounteers
|stationed at the road junctions, or at least signs, to warn motor vehicles
|that there's a bike race goin' on.

  There was no warning, as I clearly said.  No jam car or bike, nobody
stationed at a corner, etc, yet each of the bicyclists had a number on,
which led me to beleive it was some kind of race.  If I was traveling at
an unsafe or even illegal speed, I would have had no room to talk, true.
Yet, I wasn't, and this is not the first instance I've seen of supposedly
organized bicycle events that weren't organized worth shit.

|Eric Murray   ericm@microunity.com   Ride fast, die young, wear black leather.

  Oh... Good advice, Eric...  Either you are a hypocrite, or all that is meant
as sarcasm?  To overuse a phrase, "Get a life, Eric"...  Just because *you*
ride like an inconsiderate idiot doesn't mean that *I* do, even if I do have
a faster motorcycle.

Randy Davis                            Email: randy@megatek.com
ZX-11 #00072 Pilot                            megatek!randy@uunet.uu.net
DoD #0013                                     ucsd!megatek!randy