Ride for Saturday, 13 January
Rode downtown to go to the Farmer's Market and back. Muppet of the day was encountered when I was riding back, just after the Cogswell Street intersection by the Commons; I noticed a maroon car slowly roll up from North Park Street and stop in a hesitant fashion, which made me somewhat suspicious. As I rode past him he decided to jackrabbit out and try to pass me on the inside, I swerved off to the left as I was anticipating this manoeuvre anyway and he stopped. I had to stop to get my bike lined back up (bearing in mind I was carrying around 25 pounds of groceries in the front panniers), the driver leaned out of his window and shouted, "hey, what are you doing!"; the conversation carried on as follows:
Me: "I was riding through, didn't you see me?"
MOTD: "Yeah, didn't you see me?"
Me: "Yes, but seeing as I had right of way you were supposed to yield to me."
MOTD: "No I'm not, I had priority!"
Me: "If you look behind you there you can see the yield sign and the markings on the road, that means you have to yield to oncoming traffic."
MOTD: "Yeah, whatever, I'm sorry, OK, drive on."
Me: "Do you realise that if you hit me I'd probably be going to hospital because of you, and you'd only have some minor damage to your car?"
MOTD: "I said I'm sorry, what more do you want?"
Me: "I'd like you to give way when you don't have priority and to look before you drive out in such a dangerous fashion."
MOTD: "Yeah, OK, I will."
Me: "Riiiiight."
With that, I carried on, since didn't really expect to get much back from my time investment there. Maybe next time he might yield at a yield sign, though...
After I got home I had to go to the post office to pick up my latest parcel from Probikekit. Just for kicks I stripped off all the excess weight from my bike - lights, batteries, rack trunk, everything I could quickly remove. I was surprised by two things; firstly, just how fast the bike was, and secondly, how wobbly the steering felt - without all the weight at the front to counterbalance any of my input the front wheel was wobbling quite a bit before I got the hang of it...
Winter seems to have started, it's currently snowing with 5cm predicted for tonight, and a winter storm watch on for tomorrow evening with up to 15cm of snow and ice pellets forecast. Wednesday is now predicted to have a low of -20C, which should be interesting...
Distance logged: 24.850km
Time: 87:25
Average speed: 17.1km/hr
Max speed: 55 km/hr
Temperature: 4C-5C
Cumulative distance: 323.163km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.08
Monthly distance: 323.163km
Monthly cost per km: $0.08
Me: "I was riding through, didn't you see me?"
MOTD: "Yeah, didn't you see me?"
Me: "Yes, but seeing as I had right of way you were supposed to yield to me."
MOTD: "No I'm not, I had priority!"
Me: "If you look behind you there you can see the yield sign and the markings on the road, that means you have to yield to oncoming traffic."
MOTD: "Yeah, whatever, I'm sorry, OK, drive on."
Me: "Do you realise that if you hit me I'd probably be going to hospital because of you, and you'd only have some minor damage to your car?"
MOTD: "I said I'm sorry, what more do you want?"
Me: "I'd like you to give way when you don't have priority and to look before you drive out in such a dangerous fashion."
MOTD: "Yeah, OK, I will."
Me: "Riiiiight."
With that, I carried on, since didn't really expect to get much back from my time investment there. Maybe next time he might yield at a yield sign, though...
After I got home I had to go to the post office to pick up my latest parcel from Probikekit. Just for kicks I stripped off all the excess weight from my bike - lights, batteries, rack trunk, everything I could quickly remove. I was surprised by two things; firstly, just how fast the bike was, and secondly, how wobbly the steering felt - without all the weight at the front to counterbalance any of my input the front wheel was wobbling quite a bit before I got the hang of it...
Winter seems to have started, it's currently snowing with 5cm predicted for tonight, and a winter storm watch on for tomorrow evening with up to 15cm of snow and ice pellets forecast. Wednesday is now predicted to have a low of -20C, which should be interesting...
Distance logged: 24.850km
Time: 87:25
Average speed: 17.1km/hr
Max speed: 55 km/hr
Temperature: 4C-5C
Cumulative distance: 323.163km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.08
Monthly distance: 323.163km
Monthly cost per km: $0.08
posted by steve at 1/14/2007 09:10:00 pm
3 Comments:
You tell him!
Biking today through to Friday in town should be fun.
I might finally have to get my winter tires on my bike
Winter tyres would not be a bad idea... I'm guessing that the high of +4 tomorrow with the rain followed by an overnight of -17 is going to end up with chunky rutted ice, which is going to absolutely suck to ride on. I hope the ploughs keep the roads nice and clear before then!
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