robertorolfo

You guys are starting to scare me, but only because I recognize these same tendencies in myself.

What's the zip? Maybe we should all invest. If enough of us get a place, we can swing the mayoral race and eventually change the town's name to BikeForumville. It starts to roll of the tongue after a few attempts...

52telecaster

61603, you can buy a terrific brick bungalow a block over.

robertorolfo

Woah, what's the catch? I put that zip into zillow and quite a few nice looking places came up for less than what I pay each year in rent.

52telecaster

its a small town 100,000+ . the city has gotten a bad rep because the school district is considered sub-par by some and your neighbors might be something other than lily white. honestly its a great place to live. i can ride to anything i need and i dont have to have a huge income to get along. the libraries and parks are terrific and there are private schools if you are worried about the public ones( which really arent bad at all). just be hyper aware that you may have to put up with a neighbor that doesnt look like you!!!! personally i am glad this area has enough idiots afraid to live next to me. i couldnt afford my house otherwise.

btw sarah my gf walks the dog at night and never has any issues.

robertorolfo

Sounds good to me. My current neighbors don't look like me either.

What I do care about, however, is how cold it gets in the winter. You aren't too far from Chicago...

52telecaster

you're my kinda neighbor. Had 2 days of -14 and a few almost as bad. I stop riding at 0 degrees and that made me miss less than 10 days of commuting. It's not really that bad, and with global warming it will be beachfront property in no time.

Korina

Wait, when did 100,000 become a small town?? Humboldt's county seat and largest city is 28,000. My town is 14,500 plus about 6,000 university students. I'm not sure the entire county reaches 100,000.

Also, you share a town with Sherlock Peoria! Sweet!

52telecaster

never heard of sherlock peoria. cool beans.
it seems small when we go to chicago or st louis. and really small when we hit new york or london.

actually the surrounding area is fairly large. 3-4 small towns around us.

Amitoj

Yayyyy! Yesterday finally someone said something to me during my commute, and even though it wasn't about socks (I WAS wearing nice ones, btw) it still made me happy.
Near the end of my commute, a young chap in a car slowed down and said, "Nice bike!" I yelled thanks and gave him a thumbs up.

Bikewolf

I love the social aspect of biking.

Someone, having to wait like ages while a car was making a maneuvre, said to me with a smile: “BMW: full option, except driving backwards.” Yeah, it was painful to watch.

MartinGerhard

hah,I still remember the first time I meet my wife when Iwas young .At that time ,I like riding very much and always riding outside .One day ,the road is crowded so I can't control myself well ,so I have some problem about my bike .When this happend ,a beautiful girl come to me and give me some help ,I feel the girl maybe have something happened with me .um~.......She become my life

Papa Tom

While on an overnight ride in Mystic, CT this past week, I was preparing to make a left turn across a busy road into my hotel. As always, I merged into the left lane, only to see that there was no space for me to slink my way to the front of the line of cars waiting for the light to turn green. Despite what some believe, I have always found that making myself visible by going to the front is safer for me and everybody around me. From there,I can clearly communicate where I am going and can even direct cars around me. Most importantly, I can set the pace for the whole line of cars to make the turn, rather than try to go from standing still to automobile speed in one second just to keep up with the car in front of me and not slow down the car behind me.

Anyway, it turns out the left turn arrow doesn't operate at the hour I was traveling, so when the light turned green, it turned solid green, and not only did all the cars in the left turn lane want to moto ahead, all the cars in the oncoming lane did, too. So after two cars ahead of me made the left turn, there I was, stuck in this chaotic intersection with my fully-loaded panniers and my soaked-to-the-skin t-shirt, waiting for a break to make my turn, while cars behind me leaned on their horns and drivers in oncoming traffic swerved unnecessarily to avoid me. Needless to say, this whole situation ended up with a guy yelling out of a passing car "Stupid f-ing jerk!"

The truth is, he was right. I should have just taken the crosswalk a few feet away and crossed this turnpike like a pedestrian. I know it would be wrong and that the way I attempted to make the turn was correct, but it would have been a lot safer for me and the drivers around me would have known exactly what to expect. Sometimes you have to compromise.

Bottom line: This is the first time in 50+ years of riding that I remember someone yelling a derogatory remark at me for the way I was riding. I've had kids and rednecks holler stupid stuff for fun, but this really cut...because "stupid f-ing jerk" really fit the situation this time!

toast3d

As I was pedaling down a country road with no shoulder, a guy on a motorcycle was coming from the opposite direction. I waved. He responded by pointing his arm out, directing me to move onto the gravel at the side of the road.

This really opened my eyes. Motorists don't care or understand, and they have contempt for cyclists.

I actually got friendly with someone who had influence on the local cycling infrastructure, only to find out that not only did he not ride bikes, and not only did he not understand cycling and cyclists, but that he in fact hated them. I repeat that this guy was a major influencer on cycling infrastructure in the area. I might add that the area I am talking about is famous for being bike friendly. I will say no more, because on a personal level, I did like the guy.

noglider 

I got a nice laugh this weekend. I stopped at a red light in front of a busy crosswalk. A guy about to cross may have expected me to proceed, and he yelled out, "Come on Lance, let's go" with a smile on his face.

Bassmanbob

While commuting, I've had two encounters. The first one was a group of twenty-somethings who told me they thought my bike was cool. I had just gotten it and loved the compliment.

The other was when I got caught in a really bad downpour. Fortunately, there was no lightening, but it was coming down like buckets. So I'm stopped at a traffic light, and this guy pulls up before making his right on red, rolls down his window and says, "It looks like you picked the wrong day to bike to work." I smiled and replied, "It's a beautiful day to bike to work!" We both enjoyed a laugh, and he drove away.

gear64

Yeah that kills me. There's a MUP i ride pretty regularly as part of larger route. It's relatively newly rehabbed, it's wide ,it's under used. almost zero pedestrians. Still i see roadies in the adjacent road. The road is very old, very narrow, no shoulder, and 40 mph speed limit. As a teen this was regular drag strip. Don't know if it still has that rep, but no one is any where near 40. 60 is more likely, with last minute swerving around potholes.