Text 2594, 85 rader
Skriven 2008-02-17 13:17:00 av BOB GEARHART (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av GLEN JAMIESON
Ärende: BICYCLES  80216
=======================
 Glen Jamieson said to Bob Gearhart at 02-16-08  12:40
 Subject: BICYCLES  80216<Glen Jamieson>

 GJ> As I have told my sons when they ride bikes or motorcycles, once you
 GJ> get on one, you don the cloak of invisibility, as far as many
 GJ> motorists are concerned.
 
 BG> Yes, Good advice.  I've been riding bikes for sixty five years now
 BG> and have been on the wrong end of a car bumper several times.  When I
 BG> worked I rode to and from every day.  Coming home once I had a
 BG> terrible day.  Stopped at the ice cream shop and got my double dip. 
 BG> Went get back on my skinny tired bike and dropped my ice-cream.  Back
 BG> in the ice-cream  store and the girl saw what had happened so she gave
 BG> me another one free of charge.  That one made it to the other side of
 BG> a divided highway.  As I was crossing the other lane a fellow driving
 BG> his car and rushing to beat the oncoming traffic didn't bother
 BG> looking where he was going and I bounced off his hood as he whipped
 BG> around the corner.   He was of course all upset, but not so much as I
 BG> was for my new ice-cream was splattered over his windshield.  He asked
 BG> if there was anything he could do.  I told him to open his trunk to
 BG> put my bike in and take me home, but before we go, you owe me an
 BG> ice-cream. The girl behind the counter laughed at me when I said no
 BG> freebie this time, he pays.  :-)

 GJ> A great story.  You were very forebearing - and tough!  Just as well
 GJ> it didn't put you off bikes forever.

 I couldn't be too angry as it was as much my fault as his.  Had I used
 a bit of smarts I would have crossed the intersection on the same side
 of the cut through as the oncoming traffic.   Had I done that I would
 not have been in his path as he sped through trying to beat the traffic.

 I love biking, but then I like to go where few others have gone.  And
 so far as being harmed on a bike, I've done much more serious damage
 to myself through my own foolishness than I could reasonably blame on
 others.

 The best biking news around here is now the city busses have installed
 bike racks on the front of the buss.  That opens up a whole new world
 without driving the car.  :-)
 
 GJ> from service vehicles and buses, bicycles are the only transport
 GJ> allowed. Many visitors bring their own bikes on the ferry, or hire them

 That sounds like Mackinac Island.   Or as we like to refer to it, fudge
 city.  Horse drawn or bikes only.  Except in the winter when the snow
 machines drive over from the mainland on the ice.   The time from when
 the ferry's stop and hard freezeup is the only Florida time for bar
 owners now with snow machines.  Riding the 2 1/2 miles across the Upper
 Lake Huron from Saint Ignace to get snockered in the island bars, is now
 some sort of rite of manhood passage for those folks who prefer to sit
 on motors to get about.  On the island, they even have a horse drawn
 street sweeper, which I found rather neat.

 GJ> on arrival.  There are some good surfing beaches, and some bikes have
 GJ> special racks to carry surf boards, either longitudinally alongside
 GJ> the rider or near vertically behind.  I would think that the latter
 GJ> would be very affected by wind.
 
 BG> That is one trick I wouldn't try.   I might figure out something with
 BG> a roller skate for one end of a trailer arrangement though.

 GJ> I didn't see the bikes loaded, but just standing, waiting.  From the
 GJ> look of the racks, riding would not be difficult in windless
 GJ> conditions.  In any case, with no private cars, there were not many
 GJ> alternative ways of getting surf boards to the good beaches.

 Maybe a roller bearing arrangement at the bottom of the board holder to
 enable twisting it to form a sort of sail.. :-)  Maybe we should start a
 company now with all these great ideas and get rich in Southern
 California.   I get the Hawaiian branch office of course.
 
 GJ> There are quite a few Morton Bay fig trees on the island, and at
 GJ> times, when the fruit is ripe it drops and ferments on the ground.  The
 GJ> quokkas love it, but it makes them drunk and careless, so when cycling
 GJ> in the evenings, drunken quokkas on the road are a hazard.
 
 Hum, are quokkas large enough to cook.  They would be already pickled.

 Bob


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