Bicycle Ambulance

Caution: loose surface + hairpin ahead, originally uploaded by scott_clark.

Gravel. Mmm Mmm. If only there were killer pot holes too!

sand videos, originally uploaded by scott_clark.

Scott Clark on Flickr posted some shots of a cross race that had two interesting alternatives to mud that I liked (I mean ideally cross races should be rainy, muddy, perhaps icey, and generally awful, but baring that, alteratives need to be found. racing on grass is not super exciting to watch) . I can think of a few more: log piles, rock gardens. Got any other ideas?

bicycle design is hosting a design competition. a good one. one to design a better human powered commuting machine. so, be it a commuter bike, freakcumbant, or trike…it’s probably gonna have wheels and pedals, and is definitely gonna have a person on or in it. or under it. or next to it. my point is this is wide open. a great opportunity to share some good ideas, ask some good questions, and possibly find some opportunities to make commuting better.

there are some legitimate judges, and if you’re not james–a legitimate prize.

strictly speaking, CAD isn’t required. do it.

who’s in?  who’s got a plan?

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so we had a super good turn out for the scramble.  dave got points for driving the furthest to get here.  phil got points for riding a bike that would give a cory townie a run for its money (crappynesswise).  way to many people showed up on fixed gears and kicked ass on them.  joe, jay, john (sort of) jason and phil were all punished the roads with their insanity.  there were, if i recall, 9 flats, 4 of which happened to Rob and two of which happened to Damien.  Is that right?  Or were there more?  We made it home before blinky lights were needed, but not by too much.

Dave took pictures, which he hasnt posted on Flickr yet, so did John (same thing) but Joe has some up here.

I hope everyone had as good of a time as I did, pain aside.  That said, I rode the next day and felt 90 percent OK.

I want to not feel OK next time.  I want to be groveling on the side of the road.  To that end, I propose a mega monster ride for october.  That gives you almost two months to lay off the sauce and ride a bunch.  We could split the ride over two days, but where’s the suffering in that proposal?

I’m thinking sort of an expanded dirty sugar ferry ride, to include much more dirt and plenty of more excuses to get flats.  there would be no singletrack, but just alot of farm roads and potholes.  120 miles.  It’s totally doable.  We’d have to start early, and we’d definately end after dark.

here’s a link to the proposed ride route.  

Go ahead and call me crazy.  There will mad amounts of dirt.  Or you will be mad about the amount of dirt.  Check it against the dirt road database.  There is more dirt than pavement, almost. I’d say at least 40 solid miles of dirt.  Let’s say October 26th for now.   Image from last year’s Ferry Ride here.

Maybe someone knows someone’s yard we can sleep in down that way.

DavidByrne.com – Art – Bike Racks

Watch for bikes – Baltimore Spokes

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