Ride Report 2/14/10

23.3 miles in 1:53

Today is nice, not quite cloudy and not quite sunny, but nothing compared to yesterday's sunny low 70s. I am albuterol-less, so I'm breathing hard right out of the gate, but I'm happy that I got my new MP3 clip on holder so I can wear t-shirts while I ride. Yes, I said t-shirts. That's how I roll.

I'm disappointed to see that the GI Joe show signs on 58th St have been taken down. Apparently, it was a yesterday only event.

Yesterday on the bike path, I saw a father on a mountain bike towing his (helmetless) 4-5 year old son on a little BMX with a rope. He had the gall to tell his son "Careful, buddy" when his son drifted toward the oncoming lane. Apparently his son's safety wasn't worth buying a $50 tagalong bike on craigslist.

Today was a repeat of random stupidity. A group of young adults on bikes included an asshat disastrously running his (of course) pit bull next to his bike. The dog was a) scared to death of the bike and was doing his best to run as far away as possible from the bike, b) running on the wrong side of the bike (on the left, into oncoming traffic instead of on the right, protected by the owner's bike), c) being run on a collar instead of a harness and miraculously hadn't pulled out of the collar yet, d) being run on far too long a leash (I run my dogs on a 1.5' traffic lead, which doesn't allow them to build enough momentum to pull me over), and e) held only by the owner's hand (this is a big debate due to safety concerns, but I feel much safer with the dog connected to the frame of the bike or at least to my waist, closer to my center of gravity and again not as likely to pull me off balance).

The coup du jour happens as I am leaving the Guy West bridge on the way home and somehow an idiot driving a scooter on the bike path turns onto the bridge! I'm not sure how he even got onto the bike path in the first place, but my dismayed look makes an oncoming pedestrian turn to see what I'm looking at.