Oooooo. A bumper sticker!

BTW, I changed lanes and passed him.

The guy behind me almost hit him.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Unfortunately this has turned into a contest. Due to those signing up today because they read the blog or were directed here. They have an agenda and are using this discussion and forum to try and advance it. Regrettably they will take no interest in any side of the arguement that's not serving their agenda. That's why they keep misquoting you and some others. As well as making exaggerated statements again serving their agenda. It is as mildly entertaining at first. Now they're just annoying.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

He's been here since '07.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

AAAAWWWW CRAP.

My apologies. Egg is no my face. I saw the "Last Login" and thought that was "registered."

You are not a troll. I will remove my post, not out of shame (I take my licks when I deserve them), but because I don't want people to read that and think that it is true.

Again, my apologies. :(

"You are both trolls. You both registered on a forum that you have no previous interest in with the specific intent of argument."

i don't think you're right. i think both these guys are very vested in cycling safety. at least one of them had a significant knowledge of this forum, and the triathlon side of the industry, already, before registering to post [edit: he was already registered, been here 8 years].

both of them come from a stridently different perspective than we are used to. if you go here you'll see a page from an org devoted to cycling safety. with classes taught to cyclists.

if you scroll past all the images in that photo gallery on the home page i think these images speak clearly about the POV of this school of thought.

what i find hard to look at are the very photos they chose to express and describe their approach.

it's not a joke, or a troll, it's a platform for bicycle safety, taking into consideration the vehicle code as it is typical of most states.

i cannot stipulate to the efficacy of this approach to safety, but it is a trajectory bender if you pay it some attention and think about it some.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

His speed was between 30-43mph going down the hill. He did this by soft pedaling and then coasting with an average HR of 123bpm. If he is going to take the lane, it's nice that he at least pedaled a bit to get his speed up closer to what the surrounding cars were doing, right? And then once he had enough momentum and the hill steepened enough, he coasted and hit a high of 43mph, 2mph under the speed limit. Does this sound excessively dangerous to anyone?

Many dead horses have been beaten here, but when you have a wide smooth, tailwind straight piece of road, and you soft pedal and coast, you end up going 43mph. And it's really not an unsafe speed for a confident, experienced rider. This guy fits that bill.

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099

No. I was wrong. Apology made.



Let the flogging begin.

I think people take issue with you speaking authoritatively on what is "safe" whether you are right or wrong. Have you considered that the cyclist is uniquely positioned to evaluate the safety of their actions, or that there might be conditions which push a cyclist into the lane that aren't apparent from your perspective in the car? I'm talking simple stuff like the crap that gets swept by cars onto shoulders, or maybe this dude rides the same route every day and knows he needs to position himself in order to not get hooked or cut off later.

That cyclist sounds like a dick, though I don't know if I'd have behaved any better. I'm not sure why you are hellbent on 'educating' him, I doubt you feel the need to do that when another car makes some mistakes.

Thanks for starting this epic thread.

There are several posters who signed up today (likely directed here from that blog post (which, if you haven't seen grossly mischaracterizes what I said here, implies I tried to run the cyclist off the road and states falsely that I dragged Helen's "though the mud") that have expressed their views. Some have implied I've said things that I didn't say and some continue to imply I tried to run the cyclist off the road.

Whareagle is not one of these guys.

I've deleted my display email address in my profile for reasons I'm sure you can guess.

The whole point of this post was to communicate to the cyclist in question and hope that he takes time to consider his actions in the future. He (and the blogger and his "friends") are not making any friends with the motorist community. It my opinion that the way to make the roads as safe as possible is that if all users (bikes and cars) see each other as friends. You don't want to run over your friends.

Some of these guys that have responded to me, blogged about me and sent me veiled threats to my email? Well I can almost understand wanting to run them over.

Thanks for this site and this forum. I'm doing my best not to go "full Duffy" here.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

There wasn't really any wind but sure, ok.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I don't know Duffy, but it seems that he has a relatively raunchy sense of humor. Funny thing is, so does the cyclist in question. And he is one of the more fun, upbeat guys we have in the area. I have a feeling that if these guys met under different circumstances, they might actually get along pretty well. It's at least possible. But one was riding outside of a road shoulder that he knows is often littered with debris and in fact he told me it was no different that morning. Duffy disagreed with his decision. I don't doubt for a second that Duffy believes the rider made a bad decision, and I also don't doubt the capacity of the rider to make reasonable decisions about where to put his 25mm tires coming down a fast descent. Because I have seen him ride in a rational and competent fashion on countless rides over thousands of miles.

But yes, it is possible that he saw Duffy's tank top and compression sleeves and went batshit crazy and started parading in the lane for no good reason whatsoever.

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099

"I also don't doubt the capacity of the rider to make reasonable decisions about where to put his 25mm tires coming down a fast descent"

=> 25mm tires

this ought to be good for another couple of hundred posts.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

He mentioned a tailwind, not saying it was a hurricane or anything. I dunno, I wasn't there. Though in the morning it's pretty common to see an offshore flow (east to west), which flips to an onshore flow (west to east) later in the day.

If you can better discern slight to moderate winds from your vehicle while traveling 55mph, then something akin to a superpower. A relatively modest superpower, but a superpower nonetheless. Most would say that a cyclist can feel the wind better than a driver in a truck can. I would say the same goes as for road hazards that may or may not have been present in the shoulder of the road. But if you have eagle vision and were scanning the shoulder of the road as you passed in the #2 lane and could see everything present there, then that's pretty impressive as well.

Maybe should add /pink.

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099

Traffic is traffic, right? :-)

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099

"Traffic is traffic, right? :-)"

yes, you get it. i think i'm ready to make you a moderator.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

But does he wear a trucker hat and/or a cycling hat? If he does where a cycling hat, does he wear only while cycling or to the preride espresso stop or post ride ale? Only to switch to the said trucker hat when the ale is finished? Does his bar tape, seat and tire color scheme match? All black? Or None of the above. Is his two wheeled steed currently more valuable than his car? How about shaved legs. It is perfectly fine to not have shaved legs, as long as you can kick the ass of any shorn legged individual that would dare mock your fur. These among many are the rules that cyclist must truly abide by. These rules do not apply to triathletes of course, but if you are both, the rules must be followed while on a road bike.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

I'm telling you that if I'm on a jury this guy's family is getting nothing. . . .going downhill doing 43 on a highway is assumption of risk. . . .I notice you didn't actually address my question. . . .Which is safer? Riding on the shoulder at a slower speed or in the lane during rush hour so he can brag to all the boys that he did 43 on his morning ride?

Where I live cyclists are seen and avoided because they aren't riding on 4 lane highways in rush hour. Look if you want to go to mattresses saying the rider was doing the safest thing go right ahead, but the majority of society will disagree with you.

At the stop light when I rolled down my window I didn't notice any wind. The ocean (where i could see it) had some texture that looked like "morning sickness" (a term we surfers use for the weird south east swirly wind). I know that there are many pockets and micro climates in along there due to mountains, canyons and the ocean. When I stopped for gas at the 76 a couple miles down there was no wind at all there. Maybe there was a wind that totally overpowered any possibility of him going slower, but I don't think so.

My distance vision is fine but I do use mild reading glasses. I noticed no real hazards on the shoulder. On my way back I stopped and snapped a photo and then drove down to the Chevron station and posted the photo here. The entire shoulder (at that time in the afternoon) was very clean. Surprisingly clean actually.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Haha. No way. While some have referred to me as "El Presidente," I tend to describe myself to the community here as our club's "Chief Unpaid Intern." Because we are a 501(c)(3) and in addition to supporting cycling events for our members, we run a race team, curate local rides, raise money for local charities, engage with and promote our sponsors and all that is a LOT of work.

But if you or Duffy or anyone else are in the LA area and would like to do a group ride, including even perhaps a ride that includes the incredibly divisive and admittedly challenging road** that we affectionately refer to as "PCH" in these here parts, by all means let me know and we can make that or beer happen. On me.

** PCH really is a tough use case. Is it a highway? OK sure, I guess so, but do you know many highways where cars will stop in the #1 lane to parallel park? Happens all the time on PCH. The road has a wide shoulder in parts, and none in others. People pop out from behind cars with no warning, sometimes carrying longboards that swing out into the road. Just last week, we had an unleashed dog come up from the beach and make its way into the path of an oncoming group of cyclists. There are a lot of strong opinions on how to properly ride PCH. I've heard them all and understand most of them. Really, as cyclists we all need to be pulling for the driverless car as that will be the real solution to these issues and our kids in 20 years, if they see this thread, will wonder what the hell we were all talking about. No /pink on that one.

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099

You keep saying he mentioned this and he mentioned that. Why isn't he here speaking for himself?

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Not everyone is interested in engaging in these types of debates on Internet forums. He didn't avail himself of this forum, he was brought into it. I don't think he owes anyone an obligation to sign up for Slowtwitch and wade into this quagmire. We are all willing participants in this debate - he is not. I can tell you one thing - he is not nearly as heated up over this as most of us seem to be. He didn't like the interaction on PCH, he acted accordingly (whether right or wrong or somewhere in the middle, keep the posts coming), but I think he just chalked it up to an unfortunate incident out on the road, headed home to his wife, got to work at his job, and pretty much didn't think a whole lot more of the situation until I asked him what happened. And probably hasn't given it much thought since then (I haven't talked to him since yesterday morning).

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099

Then what you say is hearsay regarding the details of the matter. I don't know you, I do know who duffy is. So I trust him. If the guy isn't willing to step up, stop referring to what he said. Stick to facts you can prove.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden