What, we're abbreviating already?

TOTH: bike blessings at noon

TOTH: MN State Legislature for allocating $2 million for the Cedar Ave bridge -- can I hear three cheers, please, "Hip, hip, Bridge Club! Hip, hip, Bridge Club! Hip, hip, Bridge Club!"

Tip of the Hat: The guy in the red car who waved me across Cedar Lake Parkway on the Kenilworth trail while I was biking home even though he had the right of way.

Wag of the Finger: The guy in the gold car behind him who almost plowed into me and a cyclist crossing from the other direction because he couldn't wait 30 seconds. He pulled into the left lane and accelerated around the red car giving the finger to everyone behind him as he zoomed off to attend to what must've been VERY important business. Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK.

I'd wag my finger at the first guy and shake my fist at the second.

I disagree. I pass that intersection twice daily, along
with Belt Line, Wooddale, and Blake (all four lanes).

Most drivers don't stop, but the ones that do are
yielding their right-of-way to you. So be nice and
take it. Otherwise you're sitting there forever
waving each other on...

Regarding the second driver, that shit freaks me
out. What an asshole.

WOTF: at the lady who ran her stop sign on w 24th and sent me flying over her car.

TOTH: to the lady for stopping and not yelling at me like it was my fault.

HUGE WOTF: to the lady who got out of her kidnapper van to yell at me and tell me that i need to obey the rules of the road if I want to stay on the road. Then proceeded to follow me home honking, screaming at me, and trying to hit me with her door as i tried to bike home with a bent fork.

License plates? Insurance information?

I'd file a police report against kidnapper van
lady if she was really attacking you with her
car door...

Oh, yeah, glad to hear you're not seriously injured.

I traded insurance info with the lady who hit me. The kidnapper van lady was a new experience. I moved her from Portland, OR to find that this city is full of aggressive drivers, so I just ignore them. She will get whats coming to her in the end.

Welcome to Mpls, Kurohata! I don't know how long you've been in town, but there aren't as many asshat motorists as it may seem at first. I find the vast majority of motorists are tolerable, a notable amount are friendly and curteous, and only a few are jerks on some kind of twisted mission to mess with bikers.

I'm really sorry to hear that your bike is messed up; I really hope the lady's insurance takes care of you properly. Definitely get it to a bike shop pronto ("as-is", ideally) and get a formal estimate of the cost to repair or replace everything that was damaged in the crash. I would recommend Freewheel Bike on the west bank because they are very detail-oriented and will make sure everything is noted that should be.

The crazy lady in the van is another story altogether; I would definitely have gotten the plates and description and called it in. The cops likely (and unfortunately) would have not done anything, but at least it is reported for the statistics that are tracked.

To keep it on topic:

TOTH:
The MnDOT crew busy cleaning up the long-accumulated debris and huge sand piles (and lots of broken glass fragments) on the sidepath of the Mendota Bridge yesterday morning as I passed through on the way to work.

TOTH: To pretty much every driver I encountered today. Almost all of them let me go first even though they had the right of way. Maybe it is because the weather is almost happy. Kinda like this

wag of my finger to the hillbilly driving his big man truck that I pulled up alongside of at the intersection of Summit and Lexington going west. The light is about to turn green and so he starts revving his engine for some reason (to scare me? prove to me that yes, his truck was big?). Of course I inevitably caught up with him two lights later, just as the light was turning red. He didn't seem too happy to see me so he ran the red. The lady in the van behind him was just as flabbergasted as me.

I will disagree here due to the legal fact that if a driver in the right lane waves you through and a driver in the left lane chooses not to stop by giving up their right of way and hits you, you will be at fault, not them.

I agree that they should have to yield to us, but being dead does not make it right.

Whoa! I don't want to hijack this thread!


Tip 'o the hat to: Me! I corrected the poor adjustment on my co-worker's son's new Huffy mountain bike. The brakes now work and it shifts smoothly both front and back.

Impotent Shake of the Fist to: Huffy! No wonder people make fun of your bikes for being total shit! I spent an hour on the brakes because they were so sloppy and flimsy. What total junk!

Oddly, though, the mild steel, plain-bushed slant parallelogram RD will probably shift better than anything Campy or Simplex from the 60's -- until it gets sloppy. Hopefully he will out-grow it first.

Tip 'o the hat: trucker who flashed his lights and let me do a left turn at franklin and cromwell, which was really nice, since there was a long line of cars behind him, and behind me.

Wag of the Finger: flying bug which flew into my mouth as I was saying thanks.