Hitching A Ride

 I have a confession: In my youth, I grabbed onto cars, buses and trucks while pedaling Manhattan streets. 

So, I can’t be too judgmental of 31 similarly jejune cyclists who took similar rides in Italy.  I’m even a bit sympathetic toward them: They hitched themselves while climbing the Stelvio Pass.

Going up Stelvio ain’t easy. I know:  I did it—on a bike laden with full panniers and a handlebar bag.

But they were disciplined for their rides. On the other hand, I sometimes got tips for mine.

By now, you’ve figured out that those riders in Italy were in a race. I wasn’t-except, perhaps against some lawyer’s, business owner’s or other professional’s deadline.  You might say that I was aiding and abetting another kind of race:  the Rat Race.

The riders in Italy, on the other hand, were in one of the most prominent contests for young racers:  the Under-23 Giro d’Italia, which ends today—a couple of days after the seasons and, possibly, careers of those riders.

I have to admit: when I heard there was “cheating in a bike race,” I was surprised and a bit relieved that it didn’t have to do with drugs.

Bike Patrols Return to Tiffin

 

In 2010, US cities had recently begun, or would begin, bicycle patrols. That year, Tiffin, an Ohio city near Toledo, paused theirs. I cannot find a reason why, but Officer Cadin Emshoff may have hinted at one. A patrol person on a bike is more approachable to community members on sunny days.  But when it rains, not so much. On rainy days, he doesn’t ride. ‘“Done it once, not so fun, don’t think I’ll be doing it any time soon,” he explained.

Ironically, inclement weather is one reason why the bike patrol—which started in 1998–is re-starting. Recent storms have closed roads—to motor vehicles.  Bicycles can, however, navigate many of those obstacles.

The usual reasons also are part of program’s revival: crowd control at events like the Fourth of July parade, access to parks, paths and other places inaccessible to cars and the aforementioned community relations.

In another irony, Emshoff is one of the two officers who will patrol on two wheels. Chris Perry will be the other. Their mounts will be the same two bikes that compromised the patrol’s fleet twenty-five years ago. Pauly acknowledged that the bikes are “old” but “we have babied those suckers.” 

Bike Parking on a Small, Picturesque Street”

Some people complain that spouses, kids and other loved ones were “never home” because of their busy schedules.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck.  Jobs and schools went virtual.  Within weeks, those same people were going crazy because those same spouses, kids and other loved ones were “always home.”

I think those families might include residents on a “small picturesque” street in North London.  Some have taken to Twitter and a local newspaper to complain about “unsightly and unnecessary” bike hangars that are “always empty.”

Then—you guessed it—someone ranted and railed against cyclists using those bike parking pods.

That led someone to quip, “I expect the residents of the small, picturesque street all to have small, picturesque cars that are wholly in keeping with the urban environment as it was originally built.”

To which yet another wag proposed making the bike parking docks more aesthetically compatible with the small, picturesque cars on the small, picturesque street.