Blue is back in the garage somewhat the worse for wear, and the Feed

First the good news, Blue is sitting next to Francis/es in the garage and is in repairable condition. Now the bad news, he was not well cared for while he was away. He is missing the kitty litter bucket panniers I built, and also the taillight I added. Apparently whoever removed the panniers just ripped the brackets apart which had the side effect of also removing the taillight that was bolted to the back pannier bracket. The headlight still had the NiMH cells I had in it when Blue was stolen which means those cells haven’t been charged since 08/2013. I have them in the charger now and the charger indicates the cells are in at least halfway decent condition, so we will see what condition the light is in after the cells come up to charge. The tires are flat, so I will probably need to get new tubes. The worst things are the seat cover, shifters, and rear derailler. I’m pretty sure the rear derailler was ruined after the police got the bike because it was left without putting the wheels back on after the officer had to remove them for transporting Blue to the evidence locker. The rest of it is because I’m pretty sure Blue got left outside and uncovered most of the time after he was stolen. So, the repair list so far is two shifters and a rear derailler, seat cover, probably a new chain and rear cluster (they were on the verge when Blue was stolen), tubes and maybe tires, and a new taillight and NiMH batteries for it. I will also need to get a battery for the computer and repair the mounts for the speed and cadence sensors. Lots of work to do. Lots of parts to buy.

Up first, more on the doored cyclist in Oz. Cyclists ride in memory of Italian killed in Sydney Road dooring incident and Riders pay respect to Alberto Paulon, killed in Brunswick dooring I don’t get the reduction of the speed limit to 40 km/hr because the speed limit was already reduced to 40 kph for the time period the cyclist was killed (daylight). The speed of passing traffic had nothing to do with the wreck, what caused the wreck was allowing parked cars to place the advisory bike lane (the dashed line made the lane advisory i.e. be aware there might be bikes present) completely inside the door zone. What made the wreck fatal was the size of the vehicle which was traveling at between 20 and 25 MPH when it hit the cyclist. The cyclist barely hit the ground when he was hit by the truck, meaning the truck driver had no time to react to the cyclist falling in front of him, and unless the speed limit was reduced to 10 km/hr (6 MPH) there was no way for any driver to react to the cyclist. Remove the parking and the danger goes away. This is almost 100% an infrastructure problem caused by over-allowing for cars.

Also a semi-big story is a cyclist killed in Canuckistan. City will see its 16th ghost bike in 8 years and Family of Edmonton cyclist killed still waiting for answers

FL is starting to realize that they are killing cyclists, and their [$DEITY]-awful infrastructure has a lot to do with it, that and their really crappy driving. Florida bike crashes: 7 things that may shock you The handlebar camera and rear-facing camera video was very unnerving, particularly when you realize how much further away the wide angle lens makes close passes look.

East Canuckistan fines a driver a small amount for being at fault in a fatal bike wreck. Driver fined in death of cyclist I don’t know exactly how much the driver was fined because the article was behind a paywall. But from the first sentence I knew the driver was at fault in the wreck.

They caught another suspect in the knife murder of a teen cyclist in Jolly Olde. Fourth arrest over cyclist Alan Cartwright’s murder

And can you believe this? John Oliver Created a Summer Blockbuster to Make You Care About Our Infrastructure “If anything exciting happens, we’ve done it wrong.” This is critical to cyclists as they even mentioned in the video, where a cyclist dies because of a pothole that tossed him off the bike.

This just in, the old batteries in the headlight took a charge and the headlight works, Yay! XD

And I’m outta links again, see you on Sunday.

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I’m so glad I quit hitting my head against that wall, and the Feed

I got a link in today’s Feed about the lack of credible action against a child-killer driver, that made me remember why I quit covering bike wrecks. I’ll put that link in the body of the post later. Also today Mrs. the Poet bought the plane ticket to go meddle in her birth family’s affairs (almost $100 cheaper than the bus!), and I bought more parts for the Sprint T, to wit the steering wheel and the support structure for the windshield. I bought those because I need the steering wheel to mock up the steering column, and I need the support structure to mock up the windshield. I got the 30° layback posts because using that and a set of wind wings leads to much less turbulence in the cockpit compared to the vertical mount. Also you notice I didn’t say anything about Mrs. the Poet’s meddling? That’s because I like closing both eyes when I sleep. 😉

Up first is Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: BOLO alert for El Segundo hit-and-run driver; Brit bike benefit-to-cost ratios off the charts

That link that brought back so many bad memories. Driver Kills 3-Year-Old In Queens, DMV Voids His Tickets If you aren’t like me and already inured to senseless violence and deaths, don’t click on the video. You’ll want to gut the driver and strangle him with his own intestines. More on the concept of not hitting pedestrians at DeBlasio’s official FB page. Vision Zero

Still in NY but Upstate, we get Infrastructure! news. SENECA STREET’S NEW BIKE LANES tl;dr The lanes are OK as far as they go, but getting to them is downright scary.

How to be a bike advocate in the ‘Burbs. Three Regional Advocacy Structures to Win Better Biking and Walking in the ‘Burbs Note that WoaB is none of those while we advocate for better bicycle infrastructure in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell.

How can a cyclist reduce his carbon footprint even more? This Solar-Powered Electric Bike May Be Even Greener Than A Regular Bicycle Basically the only way to have a smaller carbon footprint as a cyclist is to grow all your own food, and only wear natural fibers from locally-grown sources. I guess you could also wear leather from locally-slaughtered cattle if you really wanted to.

A Tesla outruns a SUV with 66 more HP by 0.3 in the ¹/₄ mile. Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG Pitted Against A Tesla Model S Notice the Benz has a tiny advantage at the light, but the Tesla is several car lengths ahead at half-track. That’s the effect of torque in the short run, also a motor controller that adjusts power out to just what the tires can hold traction with so the car accelerates as fast as conditions will allow.

And that’s all I got today.

Billed @€0.02,