Yes I know I’m Old School

But I would rather be Old School than No Class.

Where is all this leading, well my bike gloves finally fell to pieces right before Father’s Day so I was given a small amount of cash to purchase new ones. all I could find were these spandex backed things that while they are comfortable and all just lack the, wait I’ll remember, je ne se quois, of crochet back bike gloves. And I’m losing my checkerboard tan lines with these things. And truth be told that’s half the reason I wear bike gloves, the other half being I like keeping the skin on my palms if the front tire washes out and I go pavement surfing. I ride recumbent, I don’t need fancy padded bike gloves to keep my hands from hurting.

My favorites, the ones that just fell to pieces, were a set of Planet Bike gloves with a Kevlar reinforced palm that really did the job keeping the skin intact the one time I went pavement surfing with them. I got up and my hands were fine and you could hardly even tell I had been sliding on my palms. They make a cosmetically similar glove, but it lacks the Kevlar palm of my favorites. Generally a pair of gloves will last 2 years, but I think these lasted 3 because of the limited amount of riding I did when the Stratus blew up in 2007. That is another blog post entirely.

So, Planet Bike or any bike glove manufacturer, I still need a pair of Old School crochet back gloves with a heavy leather (or Kevlar reinforced) palm and minimal padding. Color is of minimal concern, just no World Champion stripes, I haven’t earned them and around here they can be misinterpreted and get a guy beaten up. There are already enough homophobes that think I’m gay just because I ride a “funny” bike, I don’t need rainbow stripes to confirm it in their eyes.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Something ate the Feed

I opened up the Feed reports this morning and found only 4 articles that were actually about bicycles, out of only 6 articles in the Feed. That is about normal for the signal-to-noise ratio of the Feed, but with such a small Feed to begin with…

A SoCal rider gets hurt really bad after being hit with a car. North County bicyclist hit by car, seriously injured It’s too early in the reporting cycle to know how the wreck happened, I expect more in the Feed tomorrow.

An update on the rider hit in Madison WI. Police: Witness Says Bicyclist Didn’t Stop In Fatal Crash Rolled a stop sign into oncoming traffic. You have to get a good look to make sure you are not going to get hit before you roll a stop sign. There are actually a few stop signs that were installed correctly as devices to force you to take a look to see if it is safe to cross the intersection. Most are not like that, they are used to prevent drivers from speeding through congested areas by forcing frequent stops (traffic calming). Those ruin the usefulness of stop signs when and where they are actually called for.

The annual bike race in Sand Springs is dedicated to the riders killed by the drunken waste of skin that walks like a woman. Sand Springs Bicycling Race Honors Fallen Cyclists The race has been in existence for 3 years now, this edition will be dedicated to the memory of the fallen cyclists. The founder of the race was the guy that lived through the wreck.

What was a group ice cream ride last year is a charity ride this year. Scoops 4 Stephanie bicycle tour I love ice cream rides. They’re one of the “treats” of being a cyclist, well that and eating everything in sight and still losing weight. 😉

And that’s the whole shebang.

Billed @$.02, Opus