Month: August 2008

Posted on

Florida Food and More from Jan Norris

Long-time Palm Beach Post Food Editor Jan Norris retired on August 12 and wasted no time in going right back to work.

She was up until the wee hours of the morning creating a blog that anyone who is interested in food, Florida facts and fun stuff will love to read. I happened to wake up at 3:30 in the morning and decided to see what was happening with the various hot spots in the tropics.

This email from her was waiting:

Man, it’s a lot of work — all those crazy links.
But: I even linked to Harry Belafonte on YouTube — in a piece about ackee!! And posted my own photos. So, I’m gettin’ there.
Will start doing recipes tomorrow and maybe cookbook reviews if I get back in time.
Will work in your bike site tomorrow when I talk about old days at Lake Okeechobee and fish fries, etc.
goin to bed now, however.
and matt — i don’t give a flying fig *if *Google is 24/7. Norris isn’t.

The next thing I knew, it was 4:30 in the morning.

There’s nothing cyclists like better than food. Jan’s site is going to be a great place to hang out.

Just don’t go there in the middle of the night.

Posted on

Lost on Your Bike Tour? Ask a Cow for Directions

While we prefer the high-tech approach to bicycle touring, others still prefer to take off for parts unknown with just a compass, map and a wool cycling jersey.

For those who insist on cycling without a GPS (and 11 pounds of batteries), we have great new research to report: cows point north.

Researchers scoured Google Earth for images of cows standing around being cows. After looking at 8,510 cattle in 308 pastures around the world, they concluded that cows do indeed tend to align themselves north/south. Big-brained scientists say it is because of the the Earth’s magnetic field and that deer display the same tendencies.

Boy Scout Handbook

When I was a Boy Scout, we learned all about moss growing on the north side of trees but science hadn’t progressed far enough to know about cows. This could save lives!

Unless, of course, you live in South Florida. We aren’t known for having a preponderance of cows or a lot of moss.

How to Find Your Way in Florida

If you bike far enough in any direction, you’ll come across water and clues as to where you are.

  • South: If you hit water and find Cubans or Hatians crawling onto the beach, you have found South.
  • East: If you hit water after having evaded a rent-a-cop security guard and are standing in the shade of a 20-story condominium, you have found East.
  • West: If you hit water, find no one under the age of 70 and there is no nightlife but plenty of early-bird dinners, you’re on West’s doorstep.
  • North: If you never hit water, you went North.

—Matt

Posted on

Toronto Bike Thief Steals Nearly 3,000 Bikes

Does This Man Have Your Bike?

Coach Cane with City Coach tipped us off to this bike thief out of Toronto. If you have a New York Times login you can read their story about Igor Kenk for details.Igor Kent Mug Shot / Did this Toronto Bike Thief Get Your Bike?

In short, the guy was found with 2,865 bikes in his possession. Since his arrest, bike thefts in the area of Toronto where Kenk lived are down 20%. The good news is that nearly 500 of the bikes have been returned to their owners. The rest, however, are still available for public viewing for potential recovery.

The number of bikes he had boggles the mind. I have never been in a bike shop with 300 bikes on display. This guy had ten times that number. He could ride a bike a day for the next seven years and never ride the same bike twice. That’s almost as many bikes as (PBBT regular) Keefer has in his stable.

What was he going to do with the bikes?

No one seems to know.

In addition to the bikes, Kenk was also found with a bunch of drugs. He may have some mental problems. Others think he was stocking up on bikes so he could sell them once scrap metal prices rose again.

Interestingly enough, Kent had rented storage space all over town for the bikes. Nothing I have read thus far tells where he was getting the cash to cover the rent.

—Matt

Posted on

Cyclists Slam into Driver with Road Rage

If you’re a regular bike blog reader, I’m sure you have already seen this story about a doctor who cut off a cyclist and then slammed on his brakes so the bikers went through his back window.

I’d love to believe the bikers. I’m not so sure, however.

Bike Crunch in Boulder, Colorado

Earlier this year, I caught a crunch out of the corner of my eye and whipped my head around in time to see a biker go down and the car stop. I grabbed my camera so I could take pictures of the accident and get a picture of the license plate in case the driver tried to run.

The biker was coming down a hill outside Boulder, Colorado. The car was doing less than 20 miles an hour and slowing to make a left turn into the parking lot. The cyclist was going too fast — nearly twice as fast as the car. He didn’t realize the car was turning and went to pass. He misjudged distance and intent. The cyclist crunched into the driver’s bumper.

To his credit, the driver stopped. To his credit, the biker admitted he was at fault for the accident.

If the cyclist hadn’t fessed-up, well, there were enough of us in the parking lot ready to blame the driver and beat him senseless before the cops arrived. (It was Boulder, after all. The biker is always right.) The biker did the right thing.

But, what if he hadn’t?

What if the biker said the driver had been ticked-off, unable to pass the biker on a narrow mountain road? What if the biker had said the driver had tried to run him off the road then slammed on his brakes in front of the bike? Road rage. Damn cars.

Would we have believed the biker? I probably would have.

Busted Wheel and Trip to the Hospital

The front, carbon fiber wheel was toast. I’d be surprised if the front fork didn’t need replacement.

We drove the cyclist back to his apartment — five or so miles away — and his friend took him to the hospital. He didn’t think he had any broken bones but was worried about soft-tissue damage. He looked okay on the mountain given the fall but by the time he was back to his apartment he wasn’t feeling well at all.

We joked as to if his repairs or the bike’s repairs would be more expensive.

In the Land of Critical Mass

Cyclists are becoming more militant and organized. Would I run my bike into the back of a jerk’s car if I could get some cash, sympathy and the local government to install more bike lanes? Probably not.

Would I immediately believe every cyclist that is involved with a car? Probably not.

Before I start jabbing spokes under the fingernails of drivers, I’m going to make sure I know all the facts and a court of law has made a ruling. Until then, I’ll just give everyone a bit more space.

—Matt

Posted on

Adam Survives 2008 Loggerhead Triathlon

Adam riding the bike portion of the Loggerhead TriathlonYoungest son Adam and his co-worker, Scott Maulsby, have been talking up entering the Loggerhead Triathlon – 3/8-mile swim / 13-mile bike / 3.1-mile run – for weeks. Adam had been a runner for some time and had lived in our pool when he was a little kid. He started biking several months ago and stepped up to a better bike just recently.

I gotta be honest

His family, particularly his older brother, didn’t rate his chances all that high. We figured he could bike OK; he could run OK; he could swim sort of OK, we just weren’t sure he could do them all at once.

Scott Maulsby rides Loggerhead TriathlonSwimming was the first leg. He thought it would take him 45 minutes to do the 3/8 mile. (We don’t know if that counted the time to recover the body.) In fact, he finished the swim portion in 11 minutes and 10 seconds.

His mother and I opted to skip the swimming part and catch him during the biking phase. Because he was way ahead of schedule, he was on his second turnaround when he and Scott buzzed by us.

We had enough time to drive up to where the running portion was making the turn off A1A onto the road leading to Dubois Park. We hit a police roadblock where a very friendly policeman told us we could pull our car into a parking lot right across from the watering station. It couldn’t have been any more convenient.

Right on schedule, Scott and Adam passed by looking only a little worse for the wear.

Here is where you can find all the results.
For more pictures, navigate here. They are mostly unedited.

This is the guy who really deserves recognition.

He’s got on a race number, but I don’t know if he pushed the kids the whole way. I’d loved to have seen him on the biking and swimming legs.