Stacking Happy.

Sometimes it's the little things...

The new and improved number plate holder does indeed carry a secondary tube concealed nicely behind the number plate.  Since BC Bike Race doesn't do the whole "drop bag" thing (must be an entitled American concept), I want to be prepared as possible.  Yes, I coulda just strapped another tube to my bike with a Tourniquet, but I can only stand attaching so many things to my pretty bike... probably the only reason I'll never do the Tour Divide.  That and the whole 2,000+ miles of glorified gravel roads, sleep deprivation, time off work and away from home, and any inkling of desire to try it.

Speaking of BC Bike Race, my post yesterday was the catalyst of many actions.  Texts, emails, and phone calls, all from some time in the morning until later into the evening.  Things may have changed dramatically for me.  Final word will come today.

More happy?

My weight.
While I am not happy with the current gaining trend, there was an upside.  When I picked a target weight, it was based on a fat percentage.

Yes, I own a fat scale.  The Pie bought it for me years ago as a present.  Of course she thought it would be great to give me something else to anally compulse over.

I'm sure she regretted the purchase about one week later.

So anyways, I picked a weight based on a healthy (but low) percentage and saw it once in early May.  Then there was PMBAR, the Eleventy-one, TSE, and some other random riding.  Also I had been doing pull-ups since some time back in April... well actually chin-ups.  I didn't even know there was a difference.  I'd do pull-ups, but the doorway where my bar is installed does not accommodate my girthy wingspan.

So I do chin-ups.  Don't hold it against me.

I hopped on the fat scale all this time later and discovered something strange.  Some of the weight I put on is apparently not fat.  It is either muscle, scar tissue, or unrecoverable mountain mud boogers lodged deep in my sinuses.  Assuming I keep any of those things, my old target weight is no longer an option.  Score one for the home team.

Other great news?

I'm 87% packed for BC Bike Race.  Had to be.  I'm going away this weekend and running out of time fast.  Not to mention, I knew how much time I would lose standing around my bike room looking for shit.  Last night, it was the stuff sack for my Thermarest (not found, even though I know I touched it a few weeks ago).  Yesterday morning, it was my back-up spare 10speed quick link (yes, the back-up to my back-up).  It was not where it was supposed to be, but that was because it was still wisely packed away in a prototype
Fönbag with my spare cogs and links.  There went at least twenty minutes I'll never get back.

With so much to be happy about, let's take it down a notch.

This was brought to my attention yesterday:



If you don't have the patience to watch the video, basically the guy is complaining about a cyclist who uses a major artery into The City everyday... oh, and yeah, the cyclist breaks some laws in the process.

I support and fully endorse a certain type of "guerrilla commuting."  I will break laws if following said law jeopardizes my safety or if there is a better way to keep all parties interested moving towards our final destination.  I will use sidewalks for blocks at a time if that means I don't have to share the road with people doing 55 in a 45 while texting, talking, and applying enough make-up to make themselves look presentable.

Shooting the gap between cars at a red light only to put the same cars you just passed you behind you so they have to maneuver past you again?  Doing it on a daily basis?

Recipe for disaster.  Eventually you're going to piss someone off (rightfully so), and they are either going to make an asinine YouTube video, take their anger out on you, or take that anger out on another cyclist.  These are your fellow commuters.  Show them some respect.

Now, shooting the gap between cars at a light to put yourself in a safer place, get off the main artery, get safely to a crosswalk to avoid hanging it out in the left lane waiting to make a turn off of a 45MPH road, or to do something else that makes your life better without negatively affecting others?  Have at it.  I got called an asshole for it a couple weeks ago.  Whatever.

The best part about all this is that the driver is complaining about a rider on Providence Road.  Way back before people had YouTube and the ability to start online petitions to make such an activity illegal and dedicate a website to hate, your only recourse was to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.  Back in 1997 or so, someone did just that.  Who was the rider?

Me.

And I wrote back.

Back then, we had very little neighborhood connectivity, no bike lanes, and no bike racks on buses.  Things have gotten better, but to get around the Queen City using 25MPH streets is near impossible.  A creek with no way across other than a 45MPH road keeps me from staying in neighborhoods on my short commute... not to mention the neighborhood I skip due to its danger level (twice I had rocks thrown at me, others have experienced the same).

What's the point of all this?

I would love to find the white helmet rider known as Bicycle Boy... surely you've heard of him.  According to the very angry man, every one in uptown Charlotte knows about him...

Anyways, I'd love to find the guy and discuss a little etiquette and suggest some other routes I've found in the area.  I'd do this in the interest of his own safety.  He's sharing a road with some angry people.

People who get so angry that they think people who need to turn left could do the whole world a favor and make three rights.

Sometimes it's so hard to share the world with others.

Remember kids, don't be a menace.