Redneck Abs

[josephmrtn]

Ok, this thread has taken a big change in direction and a very interesting one. The old "healthy life-style" topic. So, I'm going to take the opportunity to air one of life's little curiosities.

 

The roads are being flooded with these people riding bicycles, and one thing I have noticed was that these people are kind of like frozen in concentration, totally "zoned out". All decked out in their pretty spandex tights with their pretty aerodynamic helmets on, they ride down the road totally screwing up traffic and constantly risking their lives. They are not out there to enjoy the fresh air and scenery. They are all riding along with their eyes fixed in a glassy stare at the pavement. It looks like an activity that you could do just as well in the gym on a stationary bike without the wonderful side effect of sucking in the exhaust fumes of every car, truck or bus going by. I do exactly the same thing at the YMCA only without the engine exhaust toxins going into my lungs along with who knows what other pollutants. And, I have a TV to watch while I am doing it. So, what is the big attraction to getting out on the highway and testing the patience of motorists that are actually trying to get somewhere. Can anyone explain any of this to me?

I bike a lot and im not "zoned out" i love being out in the fresh air and working out... i cant speak for everybody tho... and i dont wear anything in that catigory LOL only piece of gear i have is a Camelback hydration pack

[Doc]

I bike a lot and im not "zoned out" i love being out in the fresh air and working out... i cant speak for everybody tho... and i dont wear anything in that catigory LOL only piece of gear i have is a Camelback hydration pack

I have to wonder just how "fresh the air is as the diesel fumes from the trucks cloud around the bikers. Even the fumes from a passenger vehicle has some mighty peculiar smells to it. I hope it is something relatively harmless like maybe the ethanol additives, but who the heck knows exactly what they are putting in gasoline these days.

 

As far as gear is concerned, you need to head down toward Canandaigua Lake several weekends during summer and watch the peacocks doing their races. They are a "pretty" lot ....lol. Mobs of them in clusters so big that you can't get around them all of them riding two and three abreast. And believe me, these guys don't look right or left, just straight ahead staring down at the pavement and breathing the fumes of anyone who happens to find a straight-away that is long enough to get by. Really, I'm just being honest ..... I don't see the point.  As I said, they are getting no better work-out than if they were on a stationary bike in their living room or the YMCA. The one big difference is that in the YMCA, you're not sucking down vehicle emissions or running the risk of being thumped out into a ditch by some frustrated motorist trying to get past the mob.

 

Now the mountain bikers are in a different category. They are still a pain in the neck when I'm trying to hunt, but at least they really are getting fresh air and other than a hunter here and there, they are bothering nobody or causing any unsafe traffic conditions.

 

Anyway, everybody has to do what they have to do, but I'm just saying that it doesn't make a bit of sense to me.

[ants]

Im all for exercise and trying to stay fit but some of these cyclists are real jerks. I have a ton of them around me. Must be a local riding club or something. If I am driving along and see one of these spandex models and they seem to be a little too far in my lane I always give a little toot on the horn and with out fail I always get a dirty look or the occasional bird. One time  this guy was peddling along, ahead of me when he suddenly gives me some secret cyclist hand signal that I guess meant he was making a u-turn. He turns in front of me so I blow the horn and he goes nuts. He throws down his bike and starts screaming at me about how he's sick of people not giving him the right of way and blah blah. I give it right back to him and here we are yelling at each other in the middle of a country road. I thought I was going to have to get physical with this little twig. What a freaking jerk. ITS A ROAD NOT A BIKE PATH!!!

[josephmrtn]

I have to wonder just how "fresh the air is as the diesel fumes from the trucks cloud around the bikers. Even the fumes from a passenger vehicle has some mighty peculiar smells to it. I hope it is something relatively harmless like maybe the ethanol additives, but who the heck knows exactly what they are putting in gasoline these days.

 

As far as gear is concerned, you need to head down toward Canandaigua Lake several weekends during summer and watch the peacocks doing their races. They are a "pretty" lot ....lol. Mobs of them in clusters so big that you can't get around them all of them riding two and three abreast. And believe me, these guys don't look right or left, just straight ahead staring down at the pavement and breathing the fumes of anyone who happens to find a straight-away that is long enough to get by. Really, I'm just being honest ..... I don't see the point.  As I said, they are getting no better work-out than if they were on a stationary bike in their living room or the YMCA. The one big difference is that in the YMCA, you're not sucking down vehicle emissions or running the risk of being thumped out into a ditch by some frustrated motorist trying to get past the mob.

 

Now the mountain bikers are in a different category. They are still a pain in the neck when I'm trying to hunt, but at least they really are getting fresh air and other than a hunter here and there, they are bothering nobody or causing any unsafe traffic conditions.

 

Anyway, everybody has to do what they have to do, but I'm just saying that it doesn't make a bit of sense to me.

there aint very many vehicles on the backcountry roads around here...

lol im sure

[fasteddie]

Bicyclists have the same rights to the road as vehicles and they are supposed to abide by the same traffic rules . Maybe folks should look in the Traffic Rules Book and refresh their minds to "hand singnals" .

 

3 abreast is a no-no and when traffic is approaching from the rear I believe the bikers are supposed to ride single file .

 

Doc ---- Are you trying to steal the Curmudgeon Title from me ?

[Doc]

Bicyclists have the same rights to the road as vehicles and they are supposed to abide by the same traffic rules . Maybe folks should look in the Traffic Rules Book and refresh their minds to "hand singnals" .

 

3 abreast is a no-no and when traffic is approaching from the rear I believe the bikers are supposed to ride single file .

 

Doc ---- Are you trying to steal the Curmudgeon Title from me ?

No. I guess you can't appreciate the situation until you have driven for about 6 miles or more, at whatever slow speed a bicycle goes, without any opportunity to pass. And unfortunately it happens several times each summer. They have these huge races where they basically take over the road and bring traffic to a crawl. I have watched people kind of lose it with frustration and try to pass where they really had no chance of doing so in a safe manner. Some of those have seen near misses. Also, it seems that every year I read about a few of these guys that get wiped out.

 

As far as side by side riding, I'm sure you are correct about the single file thing. Unfortunately many ignore that and apparently nobody is ever enforcing it. Also, almost as bad is the way these guys string themselves out such that there are no breaks in between. So even when there is a short passing area, they have the whole thing closed off with a constant string of bikes.

 

I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but really there should be limits as to how consecutive miles these bikes should be allowed to slow 55 MPH traffic down to 20-30 MPH or whatever it is that they are going. Nobody has a problem with a bike here and there, but when you come to one of these orchestrated "rolling road blocks", it certainly can try one's patience and create some gosh-awful hazardous driving conditions.

 

And then, as per the way this thread was going, there is a real question in my mind as to just how healthy the activity really is. I have my doubts.

[Doc]

there aint very many vehicles on the backcountry roads around here...

lol im sure

I've been pretty specific about the situations that I am talking about. If that isn't your situation, then I guess I am not talking about what you are doing.

[sits in trees]

What amazes me is that people still hit the roads to bike with all these chicks on cell phones texting about their sex lives?? It blows my mind that almost every female I see from my elevated truck is texting and driving their cars with their palms and looking down*%#@*????

[sits in trees]

Being really heavy/morbidly obese will certainly take its effect on your life span, but neither one of those chaps in the original post fit that bill, they looked like a couple of 230 pounders who could actually be in pretty good shape. In this day and age even people who are predisposed to certain life shortening diseases are living long healthy lives thanks to modern medicine and medical procedures.  And just because yer Grandpappy is 85 and plays 6 rounds of golf everyday means nothing. There's plenty of 50 year olds dying of cancer who's Grandpappy's attend their funerals. Its called life and doesn't come with any guarantee's folks...

Edited August 18, 2013 by sits in trees

[BizCT]

I know. His wife, my grandma died at 58 from breast cancer

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

[Doc]

What amazes me is that people still hit the roads to bike with all these chicks on cell phones texting about their sex lives?? It blows my mind that almost every female I see from my elevated truck is texting and driving their cars with their palms and looking down*%#@*????

It doesn't even take "texting" to result in mindless driving on the road. There's been a few times when I have had to take defensive maneuvers to avoid somebody that was just talking on their phone and were drifting into my lane, working on a head-on collision. What the heck is the matter with people. Are they that much in need of social acceptance and validation that they have to be constantly wired up? I mean, I don't really have a problem with people risking their own lives on the road, but when they start risking mine, that is a whole lot different story. All this multi-tasking on the road is so dangerous. They claim that distracted driving is as hazardous as drunk driving. Normally, I would have doubts about that statement, except for actual witnessed wacky driving by people with a phone stuffed in their ear. And I'm not even sure that hands-free phone activity is really all that much better.

[sits in trees]

I know. His wife, my grandma died at 58 from breast cancer

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

Sorry to hear that, my Grandfather died of an infection he received in a hospital at about the same age and my Grandmother carried on for about another 30 years, wearing mostly black of course...

[sits in trees]

It doesn't even take "texting" to result in mindless driving on the road. There's been a few times when I have had to take defensive maneuvers to avoid somebody that was just talking on their phone and were drifting into my lane, working on a head-on collision. What the heck is the matter with people. Are they that much in need of social acceptance and validation that they have to be constantly wired up? I mean, I don't really have a problem with people risking their own lives on the road, but when they start risking mine, that is a whole lot different story. All this multi-tasking on the road is so dangerous. They claim that distracted driving is as hazardous as drunk driving. Normally, I would have doubts about that statement, except for actual witnessed wacky driving by people with a phone stuffed in their ear. And I'm not even sure that hands-free phone activity is really all that much better.

Ya know Doc, I find myself always looking at oncoming traffic way up ahead nowadays to see what oncoming drivers actions are. You can always tell a cell phone user when that vehicle is making corrections and steering back into his lane every couple hundred feet. I witnessed some guy pull over on a tight state road to answer his cell recently putting himself and others in danger thinking he was doing the right thing by pulling over to answer his phone. There he stood 1/2 assed in his lane on a 55 mile per hour 2 lane road with people missing his mirror by inches?

[Gil Hale]

I gave up on a six pack abs, moved right on to 12 pack abs!

 

I had an insulated keg instead of a 6 pack, at least until this past April.  I went on a serious diet in preparation for my first foray into hunting in the upcoming coyote season.  I have lost 50 pounds so far, and want to drop another 15 - 20.  So the keg is gone, but no 6 pack yet.  More working at the exercise routine.

 

[shawnhu]

Im all for exercise and trying to stay fit but some of these cyclists are real jerks. I have a ton of them around me. Must be a local riding club or something. If I am driving along and see one of these spandex models and they seem to be a little too far in my lane I always give a little toot on the horn and with out fail I always get a dirty look or the occasional bird. One time this guy was peddling along, ahead of me when he suddenly gives me some secret cyclist hand signal that I guess meant he was making a u-turn. He turns in front of me so I blow the horn and he goes nuts. He throws down his bike and starts screaming at me about how he's sick of people not giving him the right of way and blah blah. I give it right back to him and here we are yelling at each other in the middle of a country road. I thought I was going to have to get physical with this little twig. What a freaking jerk. ITS A ROAD NOT A BIKE PATH!!!

I don't think any type of motorist or cyclist has the right of way when doing a U Turn, what a twit. I hope he dented one of his wheels when he threw down his bike.

[shawnhu]

Bicyclists have the same rights to the road as vehicles and they are supposed to abide by the same traffic rules . Maybe folks should look in the Traffic Rules Book and refresh their minds to "hand singnals" .

3 abreast is a no-no and when traffic is approaching from the rear I believe the bikers are supposed to ride single file .

Doc ---- Are you trying to steal the Curmudgeon Title from me ?

Didn't know there was a hand signal for U Turns.

[shawnhu]

What amazes me is that people still hit the roads to bike with all these chicks on cell phones texting about their sex lives?? It blows my mind that almost every female I see from my elevated truck is texting and driving their cars with their palms and looking down*%#@*????

Could you also see their cleavage from your elevated truck? What color underwear?

[Elmo]

It's on thing to share the road with them if they're following proper etiquette. I don't mind that. It's another when they don't follow any of the traffic rules and then expect you to comply to them.

Edited August 25, 2013 by Elmo

[Doc]

Ya know Doc, I find myself always looking at oncoming traffic way up ahead nowadays to see what oncoming drivers actions are. You can always tell a cell phone user when that vehicle is making corrections and steering back into his lane every couple hundred feet. I witnessed some guy pull over on a tight state road to answer his cell recently putting himself and others in danger thinking he was doing the right thing by pulling over to answer his phone. There he stood 1/2 assed in his lane on a 55 mile per hour 2 lane road with people missing his mirror by inches?

Defensive driving has taken on a new meaning since people decided that they have to be constantly wired up for communications. How important do people really think they are that they feel like they must be constantly available.

 

No, you don't have to have amazing powers of observation to spot these idiots coming. The only question is whether they are texting or drunk. Why the cops can't seem to spot these guys is beyond me. Anytime I am on the road for 15 to 20 minutes, I can see at least 3 and maybe 4 people blatantly using a cellphone while they are driving along. And that is without even trying. The enforcement has become such a joke that people don't even try to fake it or hide it anymore.

 

Regarding the law that they pull over to the side of the road to answer their phone is another source of aggravation for me. This sudden braking and whipping almost off the side of the road is another disruption in traffic that often becomes life-threatening. I have the perfect solution to all this nonsense ...... when you get behind the wheel, turn the damn phone off!  let your voice-mail take the call if you really believe it is so important.

[gfdeputy2]

 

Seriously though, hunting does seem to attract some lard ass people. It's the only outdoor pastime that sells as many XXXL garments as it does the normal sizes.

NO KIDDING

 Funny I alway have a hard time finding Small - Med  but always find XXL-XXXL

[ants]

Unreal ! ...Thursday I was in Ocean City MD. We were driving down the strip and there was a couple on one of those big scooters. The type that isn't quite a motor cycle. They were ahead of us in the right hand lane signaling to turn right at the next intersection. Out of nowhere I see this bicyclist  go haling a$$ past us on the right. Just before the scooter starts to turn right Mr. "share the road" tried to pass it on the right, at the intersection. The guy driving the scooter sees the bike on his right, just as he is turning and hits the brake, pulls left, right, left right again and dumps the scooter on the right side. He lands on top of the girl, who was riding on the back, the scooter lands on both of them and of course the goof on the bike never fell but he did stop. We stopped a little ways up and I see the  bicyclist standing there with his hands out to his side as if to say to the scooter people "whats wrong with you?" Before I could even start walking over, people were helping the couple to there feet, and two guys were getting right in spandex boys face. These people are a menace 

[BizCT]

Unreal ! ...Thursday I was in Ocean City MD.

 

Did you go to Seacrets? Awesome place.

[ants]

The whole place is awesome and I hit a bunch of spots. I don't think I hit Seacrets. Spent a lot of time at "the tap house" outside bar, since it was right across the street. Wish I was 25 again..