Trail obstacles and rudeness

Recently, and for reasons unknown, a small section of temporary fencing along the Allegheny (my morning commute) had been moved to block part of the trail. One morning, I found it moved even further over to where I was almost completely blocking the trail.
Enough.

Before

I'll move this fence myself!

*Grunt*

After

More room!

With Fall comes tailgaters.
Drunken ones.
Drunk, oblivious tailgaters who will walk BACKWARDS into the paths of cyclists while holding giant tongs and a big plate of wieners.

A 2014 response to my 311 complaint tweet told me to call 911...

I REALLY don’t want to waste the time of the police for this nonsense, but after this run in with idiots who think setting up a buffet on the trail is perfectly fine…. and nearly sending someone to the ER, I *will* call 911.

The Color Run

I was stuck commuting to work one Saturday morning, September 19th, specifically. I was also stuck deciding how to make my way through the Color Run's route which went up the River Walk and then up onto North Shore Drive.
Do I ride counter flow of all the participants? Do I go with the flow of people on the River Walk?
I decided NOT to salmon and I rode slowly with all the Color Run participants. However, up ahead I saw a color-dusting area.


I was in work clothes and not interested in getting orange dyed cornstarch all over my clothes. I rolled behind the young men who were covering the participants in this orange dust and asked them not to dust me.
"Hi, I'm going to ride behind you, not interested in getting dusted, thanks."

This jagoff sprayed the bike with the orange dust anyway. I spent valuable time and water cleaning this crap off my bike.

I wrote to the company that put on this event and I got a canned reply from the National entity, but no follow-up from the local organizers.
So, with that, I'm outing this non-charity money making bullshit for the jerks they employ to annoy and screw with the people just trying to get to work. They AREN'T a charity, they make you spend 40-$45 to participate in their walk, does any of it go to a charity? Is the money used to help anyone in need? Research to find a cure for a disease? No. this is a money-making operation. What is that all about?
You'd think all walks are centered around non-profits, right? Nope.

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On my last visit to Thick Bikes, I purchased a bike accessory to free up some handlebar real estate. Having never removed my handlebars, I was slightly apprehensive about installing it, but I forged ahead and put it on.



After installing the bar, I thought it might be a good idea to see if the bars were straight. Thankfully, I checked before I needed to ride it, because they weren't very straight.
It would have been an interesting ride.

Doomer: crooked!

New toy!

 Here's a photo of traffic at a standstill backed up trying to get into Downtown one morning this week. I stopped on the trail to take a picture of it, and smile because I wasn't stuck in it.

Neener, neener!