About 5 months ago, I told the City of Mt. Vernon and the Mayor, Bud Norris, in a very professional, well written letter, that the very busy boulevard College Way is dangerous for cyclists, while there is a bike path that is a gorgeous green bike haven parallel to it, in fact, a short cut. I asked for a sign west bound pointing to the path to guide cyclists onto the path. Any bicycle tourists coming in from the South or East would end up on College Way and they would have no way of knowing that there is a bike path that leads directly to town. It is a strip full of commercial entities and not that appealing. I gave several good, solid reasons why a sign was desperately needed, and mentioned that there is a sign Eastbound that points to the last bit of the path (leading nowhere) but this sign would be seen only by someone LEAVING town, not arriving. It is the most stupid place for a sign. I explained how a bicycle tourist first arriving Westbound would wind up at I-5 and conclude that Mt. Vernon is a shit hole and keep riding, unless guided to the bike path which would lead the cyclist into the better part of the city, where they would be charmed.
The little City of Mt. Vernon has a small quaint down town with a lot of law offices, trinket shops, and a nice coop – in fact, the food coop is the best thing about the city. The surrounding sprawl is a blight. I lived there for about 9 months and was never yelled at or shoved around by drivers more in my life. I was going to do an interview of a retarded guy that rides around with a radio, an antenna, and a safety vest and call it: “Mt. Vernon’s other cyclist” but that would have been too scathing. There are many weekend cyclists there, with road bikes and kits, but literally only a handful who choose to ride as primary transportation.
There are no bicycle racks at most of the businesses, including the DSHS building where the poorest of the poor go to get benefits, yet there are heavy duty bike racks along the path where no one would lock up a bike. The city spent money on those racks but not on guidance to get people to the path.
I stated three times during various communications (including him returning my call) the mayor that TWO signs were needed – but especially one on College Way, and WEST BOUND – I made this clear. You can see the bike path entrance from Riverside but not from College Way. Some months later I was emailed and told that one of the signs would be installed “for me” on Riverside, but the one on College Way would need to be brought up at the next committee meeting in a couple of months because it was forgotten.
Mt. Vernon claims it is America’s most live-able city. I lived on the wrong side of the city, surrounded by noise and pollution. I had to cross College Way every day – it is a very busy boulevard.
One thing is for sure – the City of Mt. Vernon could give a rat’s ass about its cyclists. I was paid lip service by the mayor about how he values recreation and exercise and I stated that bicycles for me, and a growing number, are main transportation. I told him the sign isn’t for me, but for the betterment of the community. Three or more people told me it was weeks before they even knew there was a bike path! A sign getting people off of the busy road and onto the path could save a life, I stated.
After waiting about 8 weeks to hear back about my sign request and then finding out that the sign that I had put the most emphasis on would not be put up, I wrote an angry letter back to the mayor. Since that day, I have not heard back from him. All communication with these insular, petty people has to be organic sugar coated or you are ignored.
Mt. Vernon, Washington – this cyclist has left your regressive city and hopes to never return. I tried to do one thing to make it a better, more welcome place, and truly – it should not be like pulling teeth to get one fucking sign up. I put a lot of effort and patience into this activism. I was professional and nice as long as I could be, but it got me nowhere. My honey did not work, so I got out the vinegar.
If you care to support my cause for a sign SPECIFICALLY on WEST BOUND COLLEGE WAY write to this guy. Hugs and free sunshine enema kits to all! Have a puppy kisses and laughter filled day!! :-) :-)
…by the way, senor trout…several hours out on the road today @ 98 to 105 degrees…yep…coldest summer in 30 years out here but today, well not so much…
…drank more & sprayed myself with more water than i’ve done in years, which also meant i hadda stop a few times to fill those bottles but it was good to be out riding…
…right now, i’m toasted as a mofo…no complaints…
Yeah, BGW and other Hades dwellers…I figured out years ago that it’s a hot ride when yer breath yer exhaling feels cool on yer face….and it’s 98.6 degrees. I’ve found that I can’t tell my breath is cooler ’til it’s bout 102 degrees.
And then there’s the cicadas and turkey vultures.
Gets lonely out there.
‘Course the first Great White you crack open upon getting done with the ride tastes better than the south end of a north bound Salma Hayek…..
…kgt…i had to literally douse my bibs several times over just for the cooling effect of wet lycra & even that hot breeze…
…supposed to drop over the next coupla days but who can complain after all the cool summer fog we’ve had out here..
…just wonderin’…you got a line on some salma hayek (either end) i can buy in on ???…
I think LJ has pioneered the first DC chatroom.
I think we should see how long we can keep this going without any reference to whatever the post was originally about…
What was your first mountain bike? Mine was a Haro Intense with LX (1989?). Stuffed it into a curb one night and killed the fork. Put a Koski fork on it, which at the time they sold as unpainted.
BGW, I gotta call your errant use of ellipses out. Please stop, it’s out of hand.
SR Explorer…1986.
It was 2 sizes too small, and I worked all summer sandblasting redwood in 100+ degree heat for $2 an hour to get it. Every bike since then has been a dream.
First full suspension: GT Rts 1. POS, but it was sexy.
I like a forum where we talk about bikes and beer. Seems appropriate on this site.
After the Haro, I had a Mongoose aluminum with that weird triangular top tube. Full first gen XTR, with the RS Mag 21.
First FS was the Mongoose/AMP with the double downtubes and that funky AMP fork. Blew the stock dampers on a regular basis. It got so bad I had to have 3 sets for the fork. One on, One in transit, and one getting repaired. If I wasn’t sponsored by them, that fork would have made a quick exit to the trash heap.
There’s a guy who rides a RTS-1 around campus… I can’t believe it’s still going.
First bike: Specialized Hard Rock I got second-hand growing up in DGO. I rode it the rest of the way into the ground.
Fanboy moment: first time I rode clipless pedals, I fell over on the trail. Who came up and spent 20 minutes helping me extract my shoe and tighten my cleat?
Ned Overend.
Rode high as a kite for the rest of the day.
First suspension bike: SC Blur. Sold it after 1 season. Hated it. Got a Kona Explosif and haven’t looked back.
1st bike: 1988 Schwinn Impact…Suntour below-the-bar shifters…full-rigid chromoly steel. Had it powdercoated neon green before I took it to college for some damn reason. Then I went to a Scorpio aluminum frame with a Rock Shox Mag 21, followed by a Kona Kilauea, which I still have as a full-rigid (nice circle of life, eh?) 42 x 16 singlespeed.
jefe – I always loved that Mongoose/AMP.
A real POS Zebrakenko 1981? Must have weighed 45 lbs! 2nd mountain bike – Nishiki Colorado 1986? Mountain bikes were a novelty in Wisconsin at that time because everyone that was racing rode cyclocross bikes.
sfb, I really liked the frame. It rode really nice. Some people thought it was flexy, but I didn’t notice it too much. Once I got one of the Rissie air (maybe it was a Stratos…I actually ended up having three generations of those frames. B2, B3, and B4) air shock on it, all I had to do was change the bushings out once a year. The fork was a deathtrap. Aside from the dampers blowing continually, it had some weird handling quirks because of the path the wheel took. The trail changed depending on where it was in the travel. I think I was not asked back on the regional team because of a public rant I had about the fork…
First MTB; 1989 Rocky Mountain Fusion. It’s been courier’d, raced, toured over the Rockies and the Alps, and it’s still going. albeit it’s relegated to singlespeed go-to-tavern bike.
I see alot of references to equipment I’ve had. The RS Mag21 with the seven dial settings for stiction from ‘too much stiction’, to ‘virtual stiction lockout’ and all the way to ‘is this thing broken?’
That bike was my “everything” ride until it was replaced with a Mantis Profloater with an AMP F3 mid nineties. Still have the Mantis & AMP but it hangs on a wall with a damaged dropout from a stick getting caught in the derailleur. (broken hearted. big fan of replaceable hangers now) Anybody got a Mantis swingarm hangin’ around?
Sommerfilesby, where those the suntour shifters shaped like a ‘Y’? I’ve got a set of those but have never used them. Wondered if they were any good..
…this post was originally about ‘a sign’…
…i’d suggest that the evolution of that original intent which was modified by the author himself, the acceptance or lack thereof relating to the style the author chose to utilize as reviewed through the compilation of comments & then the ultimate direction taken due to those comments is a clear sign for anyone w/ their nose to the ground…
…nothing has been lost…it’s still about ‘a sign’…
…just sayin’…
…@dirty…because you were polite enough to say please, i’ll try to maintain the teetery balance by simply suggesting that you not lose a lotta sleep over my use of the ellipti…had my computer modified, whereas when you hit your “period” key, you get a ‘period’ but when i hit mine, i get an ellipsis…
…peace…
Kark – I don’t remember what they looked like…only that they came out right before Shimano came up with Rapidfire. Diff was SunTour shifted only with the thumb, Shimano used the finger/thumb combo. I know they worked well until one day I just smashed the shifter pod for the front derailleur with my knee. From then on, I was running a 1 x 7. :)
…eric, donnie & dave…the koski brothers…
…the koski family have a well respected cycling legacy here in marin that should never be forgotten…the family, mom n’ dad owned the “cove bicycle shop” which had the brothers all involved w/ bikes as kids so it was a natural evolution into the early mtb biz for the guys…
…eric rode road bikes w/ us back in the early ’70’s & attended the original ‘velo club tamalpais’ meetings although i’m not sure if he was ever officially a member…
…somewhere about ’78, eric & donny designed the original ‘trailmaster bike’ of which prob’ly under 40 were ever built…had they found a more reliable & prolific frame builder, the ‘koski’ name might have been, along with their bank accounts, much bigger…
…that koski fork you mentioned, el jefe, came out around ’85-ish…
…anyway…apropos of early mtb history…
That ellipses shit is seriously annoying to anyone who actually reads things with any regularity. Ellipses have their place in our grammar, but that place is not a replacement for capital letters and periods. It’s just laziness and it is causing your writing to be less read in a similar way as LJ’s tone causes his writing to be less read.
I do miss that Colnago Super I bought in 1982. 64 cm, all campy record, Regina 5 speed freewheel, 14×21.
E
First bike is tough. I was a bike maniac as a kid but I was born a “poor black child” so all my earliest bikes were what ever we built up ourselves.
Fast forward 35+ years and my first was a Cannondale M400.
My late bro gave it to me in exchange for painting his bathroom. Perfect excuse for him to go out and buy a new ride. And for us to ride together.
We spent the next 2 years riding around this local lake.
Still go there now and then to bring those last days back.
This post started bad and ended good. Funny how that works.
@E
Eh.
That’s just his style of writing. Tad unusual but bgw lays down some good words so it’s worth it in the end.
Sorry guys, I’ll take some of the blame for hijacking the thread with my Merckx vs. Mt. Goat poll. I grew weary of the vitriol so I threw a sabot into the works.
It went well. Hee Hee.
KgT
KgT. ‘credit’ not ‘blame’. The distraction was like a gust of clean fresh air in a smoke choked basement booze can.
…[kills self]
…does WAL*MART count?…
In that case, Redline Monocog.
Joe-
Hells yeah, Wal-mart counts. They
are shitty bikes, but they are frequently all that is available to many young’uns. If you get the fever while owning one of those, you really got the fever.
Plus, they make us bike mechanics rich.
First bike? That was some junkyard 20″ Schwinn with a springer fork. First new bike was a Huffy BMX. I wanted a Mongoose, but my grandparents bought it for me and I rode the shit out of it. First bike I bought myself was a Kuwahara 20″ that I saved up for. Raced a couple of years of BMX on that. The whole jumping thing kept me from going very far in BMX.
…sheesh…i can laugh about it when i’m awake but dreaming about riding my first mtb has me waking up in a cold sweat…
…i’ve mentioned this before but g-fish & his partner seekay were given one of these: http://www.firstflightbikes.com/1981_Murray_Baja.htm that’s right, a “murray baja”…now compared with what they were building at the time, this bike was a total joke…
…what a’ ya do with a good joke ???…that’s right, share it with a friend & i was that friend…
…to quote el jefe talking about his ‘huffy bmx’, “i rode the shit out of it”…if you had one of the original “mountainbikes” you had a damn good chance of being outridden both uphill & down by the guy on the “baja”…
…i couldn’t afford anything more so my ego made sure ya knew one thing, “it’s not about the bike”…
…but hey, ya gotta start somewhere…
hello my little jar… i want your lid to remain on. be a good little jarhead. eschew you.
Hey, LittleJars’ post was meritorious from any angle. We all want change for our fellow riders sake. BUT, when cyclists are spitting bytes at each other in a rage on this site I get confused and a little bummed. Spirited discourse is one thing, but we must unite against the evil dinosaur suckers surrounding us.
Fuck you ignorant hateful drivers. We cyclists are your neighbors, teachers, doctors, lovers, and grocers.
See us, know us. We won’t give up!
KgT