Entries Tagged 'Bicycling' ↓

Mostly…..

So I entered into a race called Wonderkat yesterday. Aside from a headache I felt amazing. So in an uncharacteristic move for me I popped an Advil and got prepped to raced.

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I was first off the line and carried the pace for the first half mile or so, but was soon forced to drop back and let several people in front of me who actually knew the way we needed to go. I was one of the first three people to the two check points I made it to. Even though I entered the Sopo parking lot on a sprint and off my brakes and over shot my mark. Unfortunately between the Freedom park stop and the High Museum, I don’t what happened. I am confident I had a had a seizure, passed, out and crashed my bicycle. Several people including the checkpoint worker told me they the heard sirens when I spoke to them later on that night. Unfortunately I have no clue when I went down or how long I was out for, but I was unconscious long enough for them to get me to the hospital and get an I.V. in.

When I woke up, I took stock of my situation, I was in a strange hospital……Again. I at least had my wallet and my cell phone, but I didn’t have my glasses. Looking around I could think of several better places to be. Lots of the people on the beds where wearing blue faces masks and so were several nurses. Considering that not everyone was wearing a mask the problem must have still been endemic, but still fairly infectious. So I made sure I could still walk, got up. And then read my name on the wall chart to see where I fell in the triage rotation. When I saw it was fairly fair down I pulled the I.V. and then walked out.

Looking at myself I saw was bleeding from both legs, my shoulder, and face. The large blood stain running down the front of my jersey came from mouth where I split my lip. Placing a few phone calls I was able to track down my bicycle and my glasses. Just the matter of riding the Marta a few miles and the walking a few more miles to pick them up.

Well happy birthday to me. Looks like a few days off my bike while I rest this time.

My uncle chose fairly late in the day to tell me he didn’t have anything for me to do so I essentially had a free day for a change. I believe this ruins my weekend plans. But I really shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I had felt cooped up lately and wanted to get out, several people had done little for my patience, and this would  be my first time to get out and actually ride my bike hard in several weeks. So I made it a point to try and enjoy myself.

The highlights included the fact I now have a new useless skill. I got called out over the fact I had never ever bother learning how to do “leg over the bar” skids. Which is odd, because I had taught one of the people at the shop I hang out at how to do them. My usual excuse was the fact I ride with bullhorns on my bike, but that wasn’t enough to get me by tonight. So I finally got up and pulled out a few. After learning you are pretty much guaranteed to get your pants leg caught between the bars and your hands if you are wearing wide leg jeans. I revised my strategy and got pretty decent at them fairly quickly. Only later on to hear,“isn’t that hard with bullhorns?” I also proved the fact I can sorta ride in a backwards circle. I just don’t because it is a bicycle and it goes forward.

I also got to watch a bunch of what I am hoping were drunk cyclist play “Lean on me” in a studio. If they were not drunk, they may have been the back up band. But they are good cyclist, and they did call to check up me while I was in the hospital. I left after getting a phone call from Ben,“ we are in the fountain in Woodruff park!” There is a reason I hang out with him.

And on my way home after splitting up with everyone, I fell down a flight stairs I didn’t see while riding my bicycle.The killing part is that everyone else was drinking and I was sober. The take off wasn’t so bad, but the landing sorta screwed my ankle up.

It is one to wake up, not recognize the ceiling, and then look over and see a cute girl wrapped around your arm. It is completely different to wake up, not recognize the ceiling and have a blood pressure cuff wrapped around your arm……again.

I was on my fixed gear chasing one of my co-workers home from work when I had another seizure while riding and passed out. I am not sure how long I was out for or what happened really, but when I regained consciousness I was surrounded by EMT’s and firefighters…….again

The firefighters kept my bicycle due to the fact there was no space in the ambulance for it so I have to go pick it up at some point soon. While filling out paperwork on the side of the ride I had to explain.
“Yes, I ride with no brakes.”
“Yes, it stops.”

Actually, one of the coolest parts when I answered the phone while en-route to the hospital and it was one of the local bike messengers calling to see if I was ok because he had already heard what happened.

After three hours in the hospital I got the same thing I always get.
“You seem fine, give us money, go home.”
I didn’t pay, but I did leave.

News of what happened got back to family fairly quickly. Several of my family members want me to give up cycling until my medical issues are sorted out. Considering that it has been 8-9 months at this point with no resolution, and I value what little personal freedom I have. I didn’t take the request all that well. I am more than a little depressed right now and I have had a very long day.

Really, should the kid with the seizure disorder have front row at shows two days in a row?

While standing outside of Starbar in Little Five Points trying to figure out how to lock up my unicycle. I realized that in that more or less in the past two days I seen no less than seven smaller indie bands play, and while some of them put on some really great acts. Some of them just killed off what few brain cells I had left. The act from tonight with the motorcycle helmets and dueling drummers were jaw dropping.[newline]

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It also dawned on me, I have eaten lunch with two of the bands I have seen. Cooked and feed the homeless with members from two others bands. That I have managed to offend the members of one band, and fix the bicycles of some guys who are in a band I have never even heard of. All in all, not a band way to end my week.

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Now if i could just find that girl with the cowbell.

Over at an Atlanta cycling based web forum. Faster Mustache. There was an interesting point/counter point discussion on the Critical Mass that occurred Friday. I spoke with my dad who witnessed the San Fran Critical Mass the same day. He spoke of the herd mentality, and how these things can go either really well. or really badly.

First off I love the variety in the cycle culture found in this city.
I just moved here to atl recently, and I have been on my bike every day. Talking to people, riding with people, and visiting bike shops. One thing I have learned is a lot of people have a generally different cycling/more aggressive style than I am used to seeing in other parts of the country. At first when everyone I met had a, “I have been hit by a car,” story I thought it was only drivers, but after a little observation I learned it was just as much our fault as cyclist as theirs as drivers.

The Atlanta CM was an interesting experience for me. I have ridden in cm’s in several different cities and countries. And have gone so far as help organize one, but this was easily one of the largest I have been involved in. Of course when you have this any people on bikes in a herd you have issues. I tried to do my part to do what I could when I could to help cars that were lost in the pack make it to a safe exit point, but with communication being at a premium it proved difficult. Plus the fact I didn’t know any of the other riders it also proved to only make it more difficult. Only while blocking intersections was I able to learn who to talk to to help things flow a little more smoothly. While CM’s don’t have a leader there are those who provide a sort of back bone and structure. I thought while riding some of the side streets that this mass was going great, but once we got to Ponce de leon. It did become painfully obvious why a lot of cyclist say they can’t ride down Ponce alone. And I was able to see just how a large Mass can be harmful to the cyclist/driver interaction in a city. The angry reaction from drivers at the intersection near the Majestic was a perfect example considering the fact we blocked traffic for nearly seven minutes or about 3-4 traffic light cycles.

I noted from several people that this one was a lot more spread out than than usual as well. But watching some of the cyclist involved it would have made me uncomfortable to ride a lot closer to some of them given their skill level. After announcing in a clear loud voice, “On your left,” several people didn’t look or check their blind spots.

Though riding is healthy for the human psyche it cannot cure all ills. All riders carry some weight of diseased spirit. Still, better we ride than vegetate.

A few members of the Atlanta Sedition Orchestra invited me to ride this months Critical Mass with them on Friday. Not being one to turn down a chance to act silly in traffic I gladly accepted and rode with them.
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They warned me before hand that the Atlanta mass was a lot bigger than any of the others I had ridden before, but even being told that did little to prepare me for a park that was just bursting at the seams with bicycles.
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As I took a moment to let it all sink in, someone asked me. “You aren’t from around here are you?”
“Nope.”

Apparently it was obvious that I was not used to seeing that much random bike culture in one place. Fortunately I am already familiar with what goes down at a Critial mass just not exactly on this sort of scale. I am sure there were over 200 people in attendance. Before the mass got started someone who watched me ride up asked me to give them a wuick course on “Power sliding for dummies” according to them I make it look easy. I felt honored almost.

Then the mass got underway. There is something about a tidal wave of bike several city blocks long thats just amazing. It was a wonderful thing to be a part of.
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I got commissioned to make a [tag]messenger[/tag] [tag]bag[/tag] next month for an upcoming Earth day raffle!

To make it even more interesting I was also given full creative control.

I also have the idea for my next personal bag out in my head which means I may be giving one of my bags away soon.

It will probably be the Star bag
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I really want to attend this.
Their statement

This ride, on behalf of the Atlanta Percent for Art Coalition, intends to bring more awareness of local public art to our allies, the urban cyclist. If you see the value of bike friendly and culturally vibrant public spaces, you will enjoy this ride.
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Riders will meet in East Atlanta at the workshop of the SOPO Bike Collective. We will work our way west to downtown and end at Eyedrum Art + Music Gallery in the Old Fourth Ward. North and South boundaries of the route are Highland Ave. and Memorial Dr. A complete map will be made available in print and online April 6th.
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The ride will last 1 1/2 hours and we will cover 10 miles with some steep hills. All riders should wear a helmet. Expect a casually paced, fun and informative ride.

After I said goodbye to my mom I met up with Marcus who was headed to South Carolina for a swing dance workshop and we hit the road for Atlanta. I have been looking forward to making this move for some time and was really excited about the entire prospect. My uncle originally wanted me to wait till Tuesday before I headed out to Atlanta, but instead I decided to ride out early and spend the weekend couch surfing with several people.

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The plan has worked out pretty well so far. Friday night Marcus, Ben the couch surfer I was staying with, and I went to the A3C independent hip hop festival. I got to see Del the Funky Homo-sapien as well as the Juice Crew.
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Plus this as the first time I was ever at a place you could get a hair cut, your belly button pierced, and new shoes while drinking. The culture and environment was like so completely different than what I used to. It was a lot to take in at once, but I ended up having an awesome time.
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The next morning was an early start. After Marcus left town, Ben and I got our agenda sorted for the day. It started with a little cycling around and site seeing before heading over to Freedom park to take part in International Pillow Fight day. I think it was pretty funny to see random people go walking or cycling down the street carrying pillows in the middle of the day. We got there to find a big circle of people hanging out in the park with pillows and cushions just waiting. Someone pointed out there were more cameras there than people. I could only assume this would be on lots of blogs the next day.
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Needless to say I had a blast.

I left from there to put in to some volunteer time at Sopo and fix a couple of bikes before heading off to dinner.
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I saw where I got listed as a sponsor for the Tres Cafe Alley Cat. On the Birmingham Bicycling company Website. that was pretty cool.