And The Point Of This Is....?

Fifty Shades of Grey showed us that there's no book so ridiculous and poorly-written that people won't read it.*

The past few years have shown us that there's no candidate so ignorant, petty, vulgar and just plain mean that people won't vote for him/her. 

And there are some ideas so impractical and pointless that some tech person with too much time on his hands won't work on it:

Zhihui Jun, a Huawei engineer, got the idea for the riderless bike when he was recuperating from injuries sustained in a bicycle accident.  Hmm....That sounds like designing a shoe that walks itself while waiting for your sprained ankle to heal.   

Anyway, I must pay all due respect for his talents as an engineer (He must be better at math than I could ever dream of being!) and, I suppose, his imagination.  Maybe it was a "just for fun" project.  After all, what is a bicycle without a rider?

Again, with all due respect to Mr. Jun, he isn't the first to come up with the idea.  This was spotted on an Amsterdam Street a few years ago:

I ask:  Why?

*--Aside from lines like, "I must be the color of the communist manifesto" and the number of times the author uses words like "oozes" and phrases like "my inner goddess," the book is objectionable because its depictions of BDSM are BS.   Don't ask how I know! ;-)

I Made It Home This Time

 I finished my ride yesterday.

Normally, that would hardly be worth mentioning, especially since it's one I've done many times before:  to Greenwich, Connecticut and back.

Yesterday, however, marked one year since the crash that ended the life of Arielle, my Mercian Audax Special.  It was my first Mercian, so the loss was all the more painful.

Yesterday, I mostly retraced the route I took one year earlier. I must admit that I slowed down a bit more than I needed to, and was especially wary, when I made the turn onto Bonnefoy Avenue in New Rochelle.  That is where I crashed:  about 30 kilometers from home. Instead of home, I spent the rest of that weekend in Montefiore-New Rochelle's emergency room and Westchester Medical Center's trauma unit.

I was transferred to the latter facility because of the the impact to my face and head.  There was "slight" bleeding around my brain, but that healed relatively quickly.  After a month, I was back to riding more or less the way I was before.

 

Ironically, the "dooring" incident I suffered late in October kept me off my bike for longer, and led to a slower recovery, but the accident in New Rochelle had the potential to be more serious.  Once the bleeding around my brain subsided and there were no signs of a concussion, I was able to ride without pain:  the wounds to my face, while they required stitches, looked worse than they actually were.  On the other hand, after the "dooring," I suffered deep lacerations and injuries to my right thigh muscles and knee.  

I didn't finish that ride, either.  But I made it home yesterday, from Connecticut--and made myself a sumptuous dinner of cavatelli with broccoli rabe and fresh mozzerella, and a dessert of a fresh peach and cherries.

Does Size Matter?

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I've ridden tandems only twice in my life.  I wouldn't mind riding one again, especially if it's a high-quality machine.

Or one like this:

After all, Jan Heine claims that larger-diameter wheels don't make you go faster!