Random Musings and Nicknacks

I know I’m in danger of turning this into a bike rant blog again, but this really got me today.

Yesterday four cyclists were hit by a car on the Trans-Canada highway in Manitoba, two were killed and the other two in the hospital. The cyclists were riding across the country to raise funds for diabetes research, and I remember seeing them on the news when they left Vancouver.

Reading the article published by the Canadian Press, just left my blood boiling though…

…Under the Highway Traffic Act, cyclists are required to ride single file, on the right-hand side of the road, Karpish said. Technically, cyclists can use the entire right lane and motorists should move into the passing lane.

“Sometimes that doesn’t happen. People don’t quite clear the lane when they made a lane change,” said [RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Line] Karpish, adding: “Common sense should prevail.” …

Although they don’t come out and say it, the tone is very clearly leaning to blaming the cyclists for being there. So let me get this straight … a car, driving a straight road, in daylight, somehow manages not to see four cyclists until he has hit all of them, and the authorities are already trying to shift the blame to the cyclists because while “technically they were obeying the law… [they should understand that nobody believes that law and if a driver mows them down its their own damn fault for riding a bicycle]“?

I expect that attitude out of the general public but find it incredibly disturbing that a police officer, who is charged with enforcing the law, is displaying it.

I’ve mentioned several times in the past that I’m seeing a significantly increased number of bikes on the road over the last few years. Two weeks ago when gas prices permanently broke $1.45/litre we definitely hit a watershed and the number of people on bikes skyrocketed.

Unfortunately there seems to be a cost to this — I’m seeing a lot of people not very comfortable on a bike, not sure where to be, not wearing any safety gear, and not well balanced. This is obviously their first time on a bike in a long time. Although I hope the trend continues and these people ride more and get more used to it, it seems to have led to another trend that I wish would stop immediately — it seems there are a lot more bike accidents on the roads now.

Just this week the news reported three accidents involving bikes on Tuesday, and Thursday morning a cyclist was killed in an intersection that I go through every day. Its a tricky one, where the cars going to the airport have to turn right and go across the bike lane to get to their spot, often not noticing a bike coming. My assumption when I heard about he accident is that is what happened — the dump truck turned right without noticing there was a cyclist beside him.

I long ago decided to deal with that intersection by leaving the bike lane before entering it and riding right down the middle of the (car) lane, so any car is forced to stay behind me and can’t cut across, and haven’t had a problem in two years — but a lot of new riders wouldn’t think about that yet.

I want to reinforce, though, it is not more dangerous out there, but it may seem so with people on bikes learning how to ride in traffic, and unfortunately doing unpredictable things themselves. Once you’ve been on a bike for long enough you get very good at identifying the sketchy situations and learning how to deal with them, but it takes experience.

Of course that’s also why its important that I do a lot of riding with Ling and Tim so I can start to teach them what I have learned over the years.

So be careful, and if you’re in a car be extra vigilant!

I have two primary bikes, the Kona, which is used in bad weather (my “rain bike”) and the Olmo which can’t even take fenders and only is used in good weather (my “summer bike”).

Earlier in the year I added up what I have replaced in 10,000 km of commuting on the Kona, and it was quite a list. Since the Olmo is now about to cross the 10,000 mark too I thought it would be interesting to do a comparison. On the Olmo I have replaced…

• 2 pair brake pads
• 4 tires
• 1 chain
• 1 cassette

That’s it! That, my friends, is what rain does to a bike.

Focused (on the menu!)
Nikon D80 + 50mm F/1.8
Exposure: Aperture Priority
Shutter Speed: 1/20 (handheld)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50mm
Flash: Off
ISO: 1600

This is such a busy time of year for us, we have Father’s Day, Ling’s Birthday, Canada Day, Punky’s Birthday, my birthday, and dad’s birthday all in a month! Mid-June to Mid-July is worse than Christmas for us!

Then this year, we have Tim’s grade 7 graduation (tomorrow) and he mentioned tonight he needed a white shirt and dark slacks (grrr…). That means there will be lots of pictures coming soon!

P.S. 1/20 exposure + F/1.8 + ISO 1600 gives you an idea of what kind of lighting we were shooting in here! Boy I love my D80.

Title
Nikon D80 + 55-200 VR
Exposure: Manual
Shutter Speed: 1/4000
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55mm
Flash: Off
ISO: 3200

Happy birthday to Ling! Happy birthday to Ling! Happy birthday dear ….

For dinner we went to the Kobe Japanese Steak house, which can only be described as performance art cooking … after you order the chef brings the raw ingredients out and cooks it in front of you.

Notice this is shot at 55 mm….

I have now set a personal record, in that I have ridden my bike to work every (working) day since the beginning of May — that works out to about 1,800 km in 35 days, and the interesting thing is, after having been in a plateau for the last year, I’m stronger and faster than I was at the start of May!

I have been noticing in the last two weeks that my split times were getting better, and that my average speeds were getting better, but wasn’t sure if I was just getting favourable winds.

Today I got the proof.
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As usual, I was on the really crowded bus back to home. I took my normal route, taking it easy. I had just picked up a 24 hours newspaper, and buried my nose in it. I was just minding my own business when a bunch of noisy teens (not saying I’m not one) adding noise to the already noisy bus. About three of them came on, I think.
I was just wondering what was the noise when I glanced at one of them, and realized he looked similar to someone I know or knew, someone distant, but I didn’t say a single thing. He looked like one of the people from the daycare I used to go to. His name was Ilia, at least the one I knew.

I was just minding my own business again when I heard a certain name. It was the exact name I had thought.
Ilia
Was it a coincidence?
I was bothered the whole time until I got off the bus. I probably will be bothered for quite a while. I wanted just really wanted to ask him if he used to go to Spare Time Daycare, or hope that he would recognize me at least. But I guess its just been to long. Either that or he’s not who I thought.
Anyways, I didn’t realize that I would see him again like this.
Not in Richmond.
I probably thought I would never see him again.

It shows life has really changed. For him and for me.

The video game sales statistics for the month of May came out today, and the numbers are quite interesting, watching what is happening to the largest entertainment industry in the US.

But this statistic just floored me

The Nintendo Wii sold 675,100 units in May, while the Nintendo DS has sold 452,600. To put that in perspective, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and Xbox 360 sold 577,600 units combined.

But it doesn’t stop there…

While Nintendo doesn’t hold the number one slot in software sales, Wii Mario Kart came in second with 787,400 units sold. Wii Fit was in third place with 686,700 units sold, and Wii Play took the fifth spot with 294,600 sold. Directly under that? Super Smash Bros. Brawl with 171,100 units sold. Guitar Hero III for the Wii took the eighth spot with 116,800 sold, and was the only version of Guitar Hero III still on the charts. The number nine and ten spots went to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness and Explorers of Time with 107,000 and 102,000 units sold, respectively.

The top two hardware sales by a landslide. Seven of the ten slot for [software] sales. Nintendo seems bored with simply being on top, and is now trying to crush the competition.

Not bad for a company that was declared dead just a few years ago (and bears a strange resemblance to another tech company that also likes to sell cool things in shiny white cases).

There is a very interesting difference between your average cyclist and your average driver that I have noticed over the years. Its a difference that I think more people in cars would do well to think about, especially given the current energy prices. I’m talking about conserving energy.

In a car you are removed from this enough that most people don’t think about it. On a bike, when the energy is being provided by your legs, you tend to think about every wasted joule.
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