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General Category >> rbent Lobby >> Thats Illegal!
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Message started by MrWizard on Aug 27^th, 2015, 10:43pm

Title: Thats Illegal!
Post by MrWizard on Aug 27^th, 2015, 10:43pm

So today I was out on renner road doing a yet another evening ride and climbed up westbound though that 8% area just a little east of Northstar/Los Rios ( where the starbucks is ) Its a pretty hard grind especially with 80 pounds of mango-bike wrapped around me so I was only making about 15mph up that climb .. Behind me for most of it was a guy in a black pickup truck. When we got up near the intersection he zoomed around to my right hand side and rolled his window down .. now usually when riding the mango this is a common occurrence .. people want to know what it is, where they can get one .. and of course how much it lighted my wallet. This time though it was a little different ..

"Is that legal?"

me "Yes, its a bicycle"

"Bull***, you are in the f----g way blocking traffic, I've already called 911"

me "Okay .. have a .. " HE drives off with a overly aggressive screech of tires ..

About 5 minutes later the Richardson PD drives past me near Shiloh .. They loop around and catch up to me as I turn southbound on Shiloh .. No traffic here .. 2 officers in the car .. they pull up and roll down the window -- (we are doing about 25 mph)

"Hey ! Everything okay?"

me "Yeah .. having a good ride"

"Okay .. good to know . nice bike .. we heard about you .. damm man you are really fast !! "

me " Thanks! I'm doing my best "

"Have a good ride .. " they drive off

Moral to this story: when introducing a strange new bike into the local ecosystem, it pays to visit the training officers of the local officaldom .. Also -- Texas still has plenty of idiots on the road.

Title: Re: Thats Illegal!
Post by Action Lad on Aug 27^th, 2015, 11:22pm

MrWizard wrote:

Moral to this story: when introducing a strange new bike into the local ecosystem, it pays to visit the training officers of the local officaldom .. Also -- Texas still has plenty of idiots on the road.

Great idea! I'll have to remember that. Problem is, you have to do it again every so often, because there is a such a revolving door of new blood coming in. They don't seem to share with each other.

Title: Re: Thats Illegal!
Post by Denman on Aug 27^th, 2015, 11:47pm

MrWizard wrote:

Also -- Texas still has plenty of idiots on the road.

Indeed. That's part of the reason we moved out of Texas.

Title: Re: Thats Illegal!
Post by mleuck on Aug 28^th, 2015, 12:09am

Denman wrote:

[quote author=MrWizard link=1440733383/0#0 date=1440733383]
Also -- Texas still has plenty of idiots on the road.

Indeed. That's part of the reason we moved out of Texas.
[/quote]

That's NO reason to move out of Texas, idiots are everywhere

Title: Re: Thats Illegal!
Post by reever on Aug 28^th, 2015, 7:45am

Wow, that was a good ending to your story. I've had more of the endings where some of the locals in the small towns around Abilene have Barney Fife on speed dial, and reported me for driving on the actual roadway!!! So Barn pulls me over and thumbs through his computerized book of laws to find out how he can catch me in some felony to satisfy Bubba, who called him. Barn- "Sez here all bicycles have to ride as far to the right of the roadway as possible." Me-"See this little line here? That separates the roadway from the shoulder. The shoulder is littered with shredded retreads and gravel." Barn-"But you have to ride over to side as far as possible and that is the shoulder." Me-"Why don't you drive on the shoulder? I'll answer that--because it is illegal to drive on the shoulder." Barn-"Well, where are your lights?" And so it goes......small town America. I'm trying to maintain a respectful attitude.....I always start out that way. My last encounter with an officer ended with me telling him BIKE LIVES MATTER!!!

Title: Re: Thats Illegal!
Post by MrWizard on Aug 28^th, 2015, 11:50am

That was mentioned to me as well by PPD .. Just check in with them "every once and a while" I've got a "letter" now with a intro and a picture of the bike. Along with references to the various codes and statutes .. I hand delivered the first one just to make contact .. I'll probably just fax updates.

Action Lad wrote:

Great idea! I'll have to remember that. Problem is, you have to do it again every so often, because there is a such a revolving door of new blood coming in. They don't seem to share with each other.

Title: Re: Thats Illegal!
Post by Denman on Aug 28^th, 2015, 7:30pm

mleuck wrote:

That's NO reason to move out of Texas, idiots are everywhere

True there are idiots everywhere. 16 years ago before I moved to Texas I had a Honda Shadow motorcycle. After a few weeks in Texas I sold it because the risk level jumped by at least ten times.

I've been hit from behind 3 times by a pickup, once by a van (in the car pool lane at that) over the last 14 years. Never been in an accident in the previous 30 years of driving. That tends to influence my observations.

We kind of went to the opposite extreme on the move; Tucson is one of the most bike friendly cities in America. Drivers tend to be quite courteous to bikes and there are far more of them on the roads here.