You pretty much echoed what I said, Vanessa. Road conditions can change from day-to-day, e.g. erosion and seismic activity, and other factors, such as what I experienced today on my solo ride. I was riding south on Fremont Blvd and local utility crews
did a crap job filling in the square hole they had cut in the bike lane, which turned the raised repaired asphalt into a launch ramp for my bike. I had to bunny-hop over it. Strava says that I have ridden this rode 108 times. Each time it was in some way
different from the time before. The message therefore is: “assume nothing”, “expect anything”, “be prepared for everything”. Which does not mean riding in a state of paranoia. It means riding in a cautious heightened state of alertness at all times, IMHO.
Nevertheless, I reiterate, some roads are much less likely to turn from acceptable to life-threatening from one day to the next. The roads that we rode on the Tuesday “moderate” ride were not amongst those roads. That’s the only point that I was trying
to make politely in my response to Julie’s thoughtful email.
Nick
On May 31, 2018, at 1:50 PM, Vanessa McDonnell <
vanessa@...> wrote:
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Just my 2 cents to the conversation. Road conditions change constantly and there’s really little way for cyclists (riders or leaders) to keep up to date with all the pot holes. Paying close attention to the road ahead and watching your speed, especially
on unfamiliar roads, are your best bets for staying safe. Posting to the FFBC group to warn others is icing on the cake. Thanks Julie.
V.
P.s.
As an example of how quickly things change, I rode Skyline a few weeks ago and it was fine modulo the usual potholes at the end of Skyline.
On May 31, 2018, at 4:13 PM, Yahoo-Julie via Groups.Io <
jmgilson1@...> wrote:
Nick - we need more ride leaders! Love to have you volunteer ☺️
Ride leaders select or create the routes so that’s the best way to make sure you, as part of FFBC group, get to ride what you’d like to ride!!
it’s hard to be prescient about every road we ride - as you noted, California roads in general are in far worse shape than any non-California roads.
I wish we could transport outside California each week to ride!
Julie
Good call sending out this email, Julie! My life definitely flashed before my eyes more than once on Tuesday, and my front wheel had to be retrued after that ride, so that’s not exactly my definition of a “fun ride”. I suggest we should be a bit more
selective when choosing our routes in the future. Our #1 priority should always be to stay upright when we ride. I think that the big guy upstairs was looking after us all on Tuesday, but we shouldn’t push our luck. Broken bones don’t heal so quick at our
age! 😉
Cheers,
Nick
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On May 31, 2018, at 5:55 AM, Yahoo-Julie via Groups.Io <
jmgilson1@...> wrote:
All - just a heads up that the Tuesday ride group noted significant pot holes on the southbound direction at the descent to the stoplight of Skyline and Joaquin Miller. This is the stoplight at which one makes a left turn to go to Redwood Road.
Fortunately we were riding northbound but the holes were large enough we all noted them. While they were circled with white paint, possibly to mark for repair, I doubt a descending bicyclist would see them in sufficient time to avoid as they are in the
shade.
Northbound had holes also in shaded sections but not as extensive and we were ascending so more time to react. Most of us still hit a few though. Luckily no mishaps.
Be careful out there.
Julie
