On our first day of the trip we were heading west on I-70, going through some of the canyon lands of Utah and observed an odd thing. Out of nowhere, in the middle of nowhere, at the crest of a long climb, there was a cyclist. On a road bike, the full roadie outfit, no luggage or bags, and just hammering away. I thought, WOW, this guy is nuts to be out here alone. It was about 1:00 pm and touching just under 90 degrees. Then I thought this could be cool if you had a couple of friends to do it with. I was now a couple of miles down the road and there were two more, same shorts and jersey as the first guy, no bags and a pretty good pace. Looking ahead, tall son saw another single rider. As we passed same thing and we figured this must be a local club ride only there was nothing that resembled local. Up a head we saw a van with a major load of bikes on the roof and a rear rack and I said “I bet this was all part of a tour company”. I was partially correct; it was a tour company with mountain bikes from a company that did tours back in Moab. All in all we passed about 10 of the roadies. Watching them ride a good pace, especially at the front, I thought this really would be cool. Traveling down the interstate going to exciting places, cool. I did see a couple of good swerves with all the crap in the emergency stopping lane they were riding in. Bottles, trash and nasty chunks of blown out semi tires. Then an actual crossed my mind again, no bags, how many flats have they had or what are they using for tires. All and all it was pretty darn cool even though they were spread out over about 7 miles.
Since this was a boy’s road trip and Mom doesn’t like Vegas the boys wanted to spend a few nights there. One of the impressive things in Vegas, to me anyway, is the Metro Police Department bike unit. Now the casinos have their security, also dressed in Yellow shirts and black shorts and some, a lot, are also on bikes. But Metro is impressive. It caught my interest since I started a PD bike unit in the early 90’s and I attempt to talk to a couple of the guys every trip I make to Sin City. They travel in a minimum of pairs, spread a lot of good PR by taking endless silly photos for the tourists and are very, very visible. For those of you that may not have taken the drive to the 24 hr never sleep city, you would be amazed at the amount of people and wonder, recession? I’m not talking at rush hour; I’m talking about 3:00 am. The strip is so backed up it is easier to attempt to walk it rather than drive or take the monorail, bus or cab. On occasion you can see a swarm, 4-6 members of the bike unit, crossing 8 lanes of traffic going against the traffic at 2 -3 times the speed of the “moving” traffic. The grace and precision is that of the water show at the Bellagio and should be seen by all. They jump the center medians, the curbs; avoid the crowds all without a hesitation or mishap. They are as cool as the roadies in the middle of nowhere.
We did take a kind of a ride one morning on the beach in Ventura California. The Tall Son wanted to ride in a two person surrey and we attempted to stay up with the little guy on a recumbent trike. It was fun but made us wish we would have brought our bikes.
The Ventura Performance Cycle was closed down and the space was empty. We did not see any other shops during the trip. I was really expecting them to be more visible.Did you hear about the LA Mayor? Typical politician, bike friendly roads didn’t mean squat until, while riding downtown last month, he was hit by a cab that pulled out in front of him. He fractured his shoulder. Local cyclists did not even know he rode, but now sharing the road is a priority, funny how that works eh?
Till Next Post
Ride Fast, Ride Safe, But Ride
“G”
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