Asian lady in a white Landcruiser versus white male on a road bike. . . Guess who won? Equal and opposite reactions aside, I am feeling pretty damn lucky to have ridden away from this one. I, attempting to go through a crosswalk(with a green walking dude) she, making a right hand turn on a red light. I never actually made eye contact with her, but she was stopped for about 5seconds at the red light before I decided that she must see me. It turns out I was wrong, no sooner had I moved in front of her, smack! She pulled the very safe, heavy on the throttle, then look where you are going manuever. I heard the engine rev, thought "oh shit" then proceeded to fly through the air while rotating 180 degrees clockwise. Tool's Jambi blaring on the ipod as I smacked asphalt, I finally understood why maynard yells like he does when he sings. Long story short, a cop showed up, wrote her a ticket, asked if I was OK, info was exchanged, I am fine, hopefully my bike is as well. Might need a new front wheel( a zipp maybe) maybe a new frame (cervelo P3 carbon) we shall see.
Always assume that they are trying to kill you. This is the first time in a while I gave a cager the benefit of the doubt. . . a lot of good that did me.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
a new season, new goals
Autumn: a time for reflection, introspection, and setting the stage for new goals.
It's time to start thinking about what kind of riding we all want to do next season. Maybe there are some scores to settle with ourselves -- goals we didn't quite get, for one reason or another. Maybe it had to do with lack of consistency. Maybe the goals themselves required a bit more than we anticipated. So what of this year? Will things open up, allowing us to do all the riding we didn't get in last year? Or will it be worse? What kinds of trade-offs are we going to have to make?
This is something I've thought about a lot, and I'd like to use this forum to make a couple of pretty big announcements.
First, I'd like to make an attempt on the world's hour record. My aim is, in one hour, to ride for two hours. This will be longer than anyone has ever ridden in one hour. It'll take some pretty precise training and probably a serious overhaul of my work ethic, but I think it's something I can accomplish if I set my mind to it. Some serious sacrifices will have to be made -- I'll have to clear my schedule of all the little, unnecessary clutter -- and I hope that I have the support of my loved ones and fans in this pursuit. Without recent advances in technology this would not even be possible for me. I'll have to use my heart rate monitor AND my stopwatch. A power meter would be a very useful tool, but in this endeavor a tachyon emitter might actually be more appropriate.
Depending on my success with the hour record, I might just set my sights on the 24-hour record, too. Who knows what's possible there? Maybe I can ride for 36 hours! The edge of the universe -- and of time -- is the limit!
And secondly, I'm going to do a serious overhaul of my freestyle riding. Freestyle, especially aerial maneuvers, have always been the most exciting and beautiful action on bicycles and in other realms. Find me someone who is not thrilled and amazed at watching Johnny Mosely or Toby Dawson, V-Dub or Cam McCaul. So it is my intention to complete a forward- and backward-flip simultaneously. Again, serious mental and physical training is going to be required for this. I anticipate that the crux of this accomplishment will be occupying two spin states simultaneously. As a boson this IS a theoretically feasible maneuver, but energetically it will be unstable, to say the least. I recognize fully the potential dangers, and I just ask that my fans and especially my loved ones keep themselves safe, and not worry about me.
For both these undertakings I've consulted experts at the Stanford Linear Accelarator and the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. The consensus is that I have a lot of work to do.
Well, that's it. I'd love to hear everyone's response to this, but especially I'd like to hear what everyone else's riding goals are for the upcoming season. How are you spending the winter? When are you going to start laying the groundwork to acheive these goals?
It's time to start thinking about what kind of riding we all want to do next season. Maybe there are some scores to settle with ourselves -- goals we didn't quite get, for one reason or another. Maybe it had to do with lack of consistency. Maybe the goals themselves required a bit more than we anticipated. So what of this year? Will things open up, allowing us to do all the riding we didn't get in last year? Or will it be worse? What kinds of trade-offs are we going to have to make?
This is something I've thought about a lot, and I'd like to use this forum to make a couple of pretty big announcements.
First, I'd like to make an attempt on the world's hour record. My aim is, in one hour, to ride for two hours. This will be longer than anyone has ever ridden in one hour. It'll take some pretty precise training and probably a serious overhaul of my work ethic, but I think it's something I can accomplish if I set my mind to it. Some serious sacrifices will have to be made -- I'll have to clear my schedule of all the little, unnecessary clutter -- and I hope that I have the support of my loved ones and fans in this pursuit. Without recent advances in technology this would not even be possible for me. I'll have to use my heart rate monitor AND my stopwatch. A power meter would be a very useful tool, but in this endeavor a tachyon emitter might actually be more appropriate.
Depending on my success with the hour record, I might just set my sights on the 24-hour record, too. Who knows what's possible there? Maybe I can ride for 36 hours! The edge of the universe -- and of time -- is the limit!
And secondly, I'm going to do a serious overhaul of my freestyle riding. Freestyle, especially aerial maneuvers, have always been the most exciting and beautiful action on bicycles and in other realms. Find me someone who is not thrilled and amazed at watching Johnny Mosely or Toby Dawson, V-Dub or Cam McCaul. So it is my intention to complete a forward- and backward-flip simultaneously. Again, serious mental and physical training is going to be required for this. I anticipate that the crux of this accomplishment will be occupying two spin states simultaneously. As a boson this IS a theoretically feasible maneuver, but energetically it will be unstable, to say the least. I recognize fully the potential dangers, and I just ask that my fans and especially my loved ones keep themselves safe, and not worry about me.
For both these undertakings I've consulted experts at the Stanford Linear Accelarator and the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. The consensus is that I have a lot of work to do.
Well, that's it. I'd love to hear everyone's response to this, but especially I'd like to hear what everyone else's riding goals are for the upcoming season. How are you spending the winter? When are you going to start laying the groundwork to acheive these goals?
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