Hey, This Looks Different!

We switched to WordPress. All the articles we’ve published since 2001 are still there — they’re just organized a little differently in few categories so they are easier to browse. The change will make it easier to keep the site updated and the newsletter published each week, and the new design loads faster on mobile devices, which has grown to make up 50 percent of the traffic to the site! There are still few small issues we are working out, but we are methodically fixing them all.

If you are a Premium Member, your membership is still valid and the same as before. We are using a different system to track memberships, so it will require a quick and easy password reset for your account when we turn on the new membership system and import the existing members. We have delayed turning it on until after the newsletter went out, because we thought it would be confusing to send you a password reset request with no explanation. Stay tuned for that.

This week’s Bike of the Week is related to Stan Purdum’s recent article, Living to Ride Another Day. I usually ride very early in the morning here in Dallas, at around 5:15 a.m. I ride with front and rear lights and reflective clothing, and I actually feel much safer in the dark than I do during the day. A good bicycle headlight is equal to a car headlight, so you are very visible when you ride in the dark.

So what’s with the broken frame and bent cranks? It isn’t my bike. It’s a friend of mine who often rides with me early in the morning, who will remain unnamed for now. Last week, he went out for a spin during a lunch break. A driver “didn’t see” my friend on the bike and drove right into him at a low speed as the car driver rolled through his stop sign and started to accelerate.

My friend had no stop sign and the right of way. He was also running a flashing daytime headlight and a rear flashing taillight. He did everything right, and he still got hit.

He landed on his head, but was wearing a helmet and fortunately was able to jump right back to his feet. He did not suffer a concussion. (Helmets work!)

The driver admitted fault, and insurance is working everything out to reimburse him. Clearly, it could have been much worse.

Only about a month ago, a different friend and I decided to skip out on a group ride in Austin one Saturday morning and rode by ourselves instead. When we got back later that morning, we heard that someone on that group ride had been killed while changing a flat tire. He was completely off the road in the grass, when two cars collided in an unrelated accident and crashed into him.

These two accidents have really gotten me thinking about the dangers of riding on the road. It doesn’t feel nearly as abstract when someone you know is involved in an accident.

Do you worry about cars?

That’s our question of the week, by the way.

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