Short answer to the question posed by the headline, two syllables with the second syllable vowel sound a schwa (ə) or fran’ səs. Since Francis/es has expressed no gender, or much of any personality traits aside from a tendency to go in a different direction than expected at startup, I will not assign gender to it. I mean I know it’s a truck, made for carrying loads, but I detect no masculine tendencies nor feminine ones either for that matter. Sure Gigi was like a 9YO girl who swore like a sailor, and Blue was like an eager puppy, and Stratus was like Eeyore except not as talkative, but each of those bikes was either old or abandoned or both. Francis/es is for all intents and purposes a brand new bike and hasn’t had the time to develop a personality yet. There’s no “magic” there yet aside from the stubborness.
On another front, I’m having a small problem with the interior diagonal for the passenger compartment of the Sprint T. To get maximum torsional stiffness I need to run the diagonal from the top of the rear hoop to the bottom of the front hoop or vice-versa. Since the front-to-back diagonal will have to run through the side of the body to get to the base of the rear hoop that only leaves the rear-to-front as a viable alternative. And even that has its difficulties, because that diagonal would have to meet the bottom of the front hoop just to the left of my left foot in this picture:
And as you can see, it’s already pretty crowded there.
Up first, we finally have a clear picture of the jihadist squirrel that suicide attacked a CA cyclist. Cyclist recalls being ‘torpedoed’ by squirrel I would say that fork definitively passed the “squirrel test”.
Still in CA we get a Ted Rogers report on a red-light running cyclist. Alleged red light running cyclist killed in San Diego; first bicycling death in city this year and Cyclist killed in Midway District collision As Ted reported local cyclists say the signal does not detect the presence of a cyclist and does not change when one is there, which kind of conditions cyclists to run that particular light in particular and traffic signals in general. Intersection protocols to avoid or reduce damages, and get the infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent.
Moving up the coast a tiny bit (by TX standards). Cyclist seriously injured in crash with car on PCH in Long Beach Not much to go on with this one, I think because that new passing law makes hitting a cyclist from behind an automatic ticket and if the ticket isn’t acknowledged publically there will be outrage from cyclists and drivers. But since there was no intersection given it is pretty much certain that this was a hit-from-behind wreck. Protocols to avoid or reduce damages, and get that infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent.
Still in CA but in the northern half of the state. Police: Napa cyclist hit by pickup, seriously injured Looking at the Street View of the scene we see a T intersection with 6½ lanes and no sensor in the bike lane to trigger the signal. This configuration all but demands that cyclists run the red when there is no motor vehicle traffic to trigger the signal unless that camera can detect a bike in the bike lane (if you move on step closer to the intersection than the link I picked you can see the camera). Depending on the cycle time for the light a cyclist could leave on the green and still be in the intersection when the light phase turned green for the other direction. Not knowing the timing of the light phases I can’t say precisely what happened here, but I do know that getting that infrastructure “up to Dutch” would prevent future wrecks.
Two guys riding one bike in GA are hit, one dead, one injured. Bicyclist hit and killed by car in DeKalb County Note that this is a secondary wreck induced by bad infrastructure after the actual cyclist lost control of the bike in limited visibility. The only way to avoid this wreck was to not have the first wreck that caused the cyclist to go onto the road in front of the weapon vehicle. The way to prevent a future wreck is to get that infrastructure “up to Dutch” so that a bicycle wreck doesn’t turn into a car wreck.
Breakthrough in a FL hit-and-run. Possible vehicle in cyclist hit-and-run recovered This was a hit-from-behind of a cyclist riding in the bike lane. I hope they throw the entire law library at this fool because what happened was in front of dozens of witnesses.
More on a MI wreck. Police identify bicyclist killed in early morning crash as Hudsonville man, 54 Cyclist now definitively was lighted beyond legal minimums when hit from behind by a literrally blind driver (oncoming headlights!). Not much the cyclist could have done to avoid this one as the wreck took place just before a merge from 3 lanes in each direction to 2 and a cyclist would need to be where he was hit to prevent motor vehicles from forcing him off the road. Still would require Dutch-quality infrastructure to prevent.
A wreck in far West Canuckistan. Cyclist injured in collision with car on Island Highway Still trying to figure this one out. They were both at fault? How does that happen?Get that infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent.
More on the bike/ped wreck in West Canuckistan. Cyclist’s speed not a factor in Stanley Park crash that killed Chinese tourist Outside witnesses have come forward with statements that the pedestrian stepped out right in front of the cyclist leaving no time to react or avoid the wreck.
This is a scary wreck in Oz. Dashcam video: Young girl cyclist in head-on holiday park crash with car (but gets up and walks away) This demonstrates what getting infrastructure “up to Dutch” looks like in a wreck. In the Netherlands this would be exactly the same as it is in the video, shared space with an extremely low motor vehicle speed limit, and you see the outcome. Nothing! the kid gets up and walks away from the wreck unharmed except for needing a change of pants and underwear.
Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Automakers build in deadly distractions; CD15’s Buscaino multi-modals his way to work
Infrastructure! news from CA. Injured midtown resident challenges Sacramento law allowing sidewalk cycling I actually see this as a positive for cycling if this suit is allowed to continue, as cyclists would then be allowed to sue for the state allowing cars to take over the streets and roads without designing the infrastructure for all users.
A little whimsical infrastructure from West Canuckistan. Vancouver to remove mysterious unicycle markings on bike lanes Turns out unicycles are already legal in Canuckstani bike lanes, no additional signage needed.
Are you still paranoid when they really are out to get you? Cyclists: Motorists See You as Moving Targets The scary thing is a cyclist will get passed by hundreds of cars during a long trip, if only 0.01% of them have socio- or psycopathic drivers that could mean you’re life is in peril 2 or 3 times a day.
And those were all the bicycle-related links I could find for today. I have some on-deck for tomorrow…
Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet
Witch on a Bicycle 
Let’s assume that 0.01% of motorists ARE sociopaths. Most of those have targets they’d prefer to whack other than cyclists. Most of the rest are sane enough not to try to whack a cyclist in front of witnesses (like other motorists). Those factors improve the odds a LOT – until you are out on that lonely country road, in the dark, and Freddy Motorist conmes up behind…
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Unfortunately that sociopath estimate is way low, by about 4 digital orders of magnitude. Psychopaths are about 0.1%, with the less deadly but still hazardous sociopaths are about 10%. But still 0.1% is one out of 1000 times you get passed, and as many times as a cyclist get passed in a trip, with longer trips taking in larger populations and increasing the possibility that at least one will have a “hate-on” for cyclists…
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