Fall off your bicycle and get hurt? Will you quit?

I don't know where I'd have expected to find this piece, but it wouldn't have been the NY Times. Here it is nevertheless. I didn't quit riding after I broke my leg in '08, but I quit riding small-wheeled bicycles...and I quit suiting up like a racing cyclist for several months. And I did "cast about" for a reason why I fell.

Provocative reading....

Walking Dead not scary enough?

If men and women smashing zombie heads with pickaxes isn't frightening enough, read this. You will never order online with the old confidence again. "I just wanted some designer glasses, officer...."

Update, 12/7/10:  Borker's been arrested!

Great stylish piece from The Faster Times

Terrific back-East style subdued rant about anti-cyclists. Enjoy!

45-year-old Masters racer from MI suspended for EPO

As reported in VeloNews, this undistinguished Masters class racer used EPO to boost him from 17th to 16th place, it seems. Click on the link to view his results. This blogger, another undistinguished Masters racer, used to have coffee with his pancakes on raceday mornings. One guilty secret after another, huh?

From the Times: Making coffee....

As caffeination goes upscale....here's a wry piece about missing the simple old days.

From Bikeradar.com: Drivers typically at fault in cycling collisions...maybe

I'd say this research (from Australia) tallies with my experience, but if you provide cyclists with helmet cams, do they ride differently? Is the science flawed? Some people say that if you merely provide helmets, people ride differently....

Ted King's blog in VeloNews: car wars in strife-torn Napa County

I admire Ted King for his riding and for his efforts at sharing his thoughts and experiences on the VN site. I'm not sure this particular post is my favorite; I think it could have been presented differently and perhaps more effectively, but Ted probably doesn't love everything I write - if he's ever read anything I've written.

I'd always heard that the scenic routes in NorCal's Napa and Sonoma Counties were over-cycled by none-too-courteous outta-towners. King's thoughts support that theory.

Anti bikelane backlash in NYC

Here's the link. Sorry I haven't been posting....

All of a sudden....so much religion

Here, from Big Questions Online, is a look at why, when only a few years ago this seemed like a secular nation, we are confronted with religion on every side. This piece makes no comment on the individual religions, only on the dramatic, seemingly recent renaissance....

From Mother Jones: Detroit

I was a kid in Flint, Michigan. My dad and mom had lived in Detroit since the Great Depression so my father's formative years were spent there. We moved when I was still in grade school, but if you asked me where I'm from, I suppose I'd say Michigan.

This terrific but unspeakably sad piece focuses at first on the accidental shooting of a young girl in a crummy Detroit neighborhood, then expands to scan the awful sadness that hangs over the city.

Los Angeles on $100/day - by bike!

Here's the NY Times Frugal Traveler joyously touring America's most auto-oriented city - by bike. You could easily do the same trip based on this article...and it sounds like big fun! Take the shuttle from LAX, rent your hybrid bike here....

Hipsters vs "real" motorcyclists - from Hell for Leather dot com

Not only do I feel sure you'll enjoy this piece, I'm confident you know both of these guys. See if I'm not right....

A fine blog site from England

David S sent me a link to a particular post on this fellow's blog site, In the Saddle. I surfed around and found that the posts were generally interesting and always well written. I like this guy's style. See what you think....

City cycling point-counterpoint

Here, from the St Edwards University (Austin) online paper, are opposing student viewpoints about why Austin cyclists do the things they do. Typically, I can line up alongside one writer or the other. Here? Harder.

Something about this doesn't seem fair....

Friend Khal, who is on top of this cycling advocacy thing, forwarded this link from New Mexico. The accident happened in Vail, just up Highway 70 from here in Denver. Maybe I'm wrong and just don't get it, but this seems outrageous to me. I feel sorry for the dude who got hit...and I feel sorry for the rest of us, who have to look at this mess and try to find truth, justice and the American way....

Sorry I haven't been posting. I worked at a polling place last Tuesday, a 13-hour day, and I'm still recovering.