Sunday, August 28, 2005

Woohoo!!!

My sincere thanks goes out to whoever "fixed" the best corners in wilderness park. I just rode through there today and was stoked to see that the straight line had been eliminated.

To the dude that built the bypass: please learn how to take corners. If you need help, I believe www.bicycling.com can help you out with some bike handling tips.

... good conditions at the park today. Got some good 'cross training in.
:-}
mg

12 comments:

John Lefler, Jr. said...

You can thank MW, B-Diddy, Wolfman and Hansen. I was there, too.

cvo said...

nice, thanks guys

MG said...

awesome. thanks again for getting that taken care of. i know the intent of that guy was in the right place, but we need a return trail to be built -- we don't need to make the existing trail easier.

have a great day!
mg

John Lefler, Jr. said...

A return trail would be a great idea...could that be an off-season project? Have the FOWP met with the Parks & Rec folks about this?

MG said...

we haven't met with the parks&rec folks yet, but i'd like to schedule a meeting with dave allder to discuss.

the only thing i could see them coming back to us with is the maintenance issue. it would mean another segment of trail for them to mow, unless we agreed to handle it as a group (perhaps as a collaborative between FOWP and THOR?).

i've just been too busy to work on it these past couple of weeks. i just finished up a couple of articles i was freelancing, so i will have more time coming up to meet with dave and see if we can do it as a fall/winter project (once the foliage is on the decrease out there).

i appreciate your support of this lefler. i think it'll make the park much safer, especially if we can implement a directional flow of traffic through signeage (that could be changed to reverse traffic, perhaps).

word,
mg

John Lefler, Jr. said...

I am afraid it will take only one major head-on collision with sustained injuries to put a clamp down on riding in the park...it's something we should definitely keep on the front burner.

MG said...

yep. i agree completely.

thanks again john!
mg

MG said...

no shit mw -- i can't believe it. very disappointing...
mg

sda said...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TX_BICYCLIST_KILLED_TXOL-?SITE=TXELP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

sda said...

Bicyclist dies in rare head-on crash

By DAVID KOENIG
Associated Press Writer

PLANO, Texas (AP) -- A 52-year-old bicyclist was killed and another seriously injured when they collided head-on on a street frequently used for training and races.

Local cycling enthusiasts were puzzled by the rare head-on accident, which occurred Sunday on a lightly traveled public road.

Both men were wearing helmets, but it wasn't clear how fast they were going, Plano police said.

Michael Mahoney, 52, of Allen, died Sunday at Medical Center of Plano. Jordan Muller, 37, of Richardson, remained in the intensive care unit at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas on Tuesday.



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Police spokesman Carl Duke said no charges were filed and the department was treating it as an accident. But he said the case would be referred to the grand jury because a rider died.

Mahoney and Muller were riding in opposite directions on a loop that is used for races each Tuesday evening during the summer and on other days by riders training for the races. Duke said Mahoney was going counterclockwise and Muller clockwise.

The races are always run clockwise, and other riders say most cyclists who train there also go clockwise, but few were ready to blame Mahoney.

"You're still supposed to ride on your side of the road. The bikes were both smack in the middle of the road," said Laura Alton, a Richardson cyclist who has raced the course and said she came upon the scene about an hour after the crash.

The area is popular with racers because few vehicles use the public streets in an undeveloped industrial area.

"You don't think you're going to run into anything," Alton said.

"It's just odd, a strange accident," said Justin Jackson, who works at Richardson Bike Mart and has also raced on the course. "They probably both had their heads down and were really cooking" - perhaps close to 30 mph.

Jackson speculated that the riders may have tried to evade each other but swerved into each other's path.

The accident happened as Muller was completing a long straightaway and Mahoney was coming around a 90-degree turn and on a slight downhill grade. Duke said no one else witnessed the crash.

Muller's family declined to discuss the accident. Muller, a sales vice president at the Garland sales office for a chemical company, suffered a broken thumb, broken arm, broken jaw and other injuries, said his boss, Steve Stephens.

Friends said Mahoney worked at J.C. Penney Co. and was training for the Hotter 'N Hell Hundred race in Wichita Falls later this month. He and his wife have two adult children. A funeral was scheduled for Friday in Allen.

The weekly races in Plano were expected to go on as scheduled Tuesday night. There was talk on Internet forums of starting each race with a silent noncompetitive lap to honor the crash victims.

,..............................
thats what i meant to do with that last post. not in a park, but shit, thats pretty scarey.

stoopid roadies.

~daverill

mw said...

that is scary. the sound my skull made against schlakes was bad enough for me.

MG said...

yeah, they may be stupid roadies, but that scenario plays itself out in wilderness more often than any of us would like to admit. not with fatal consequences, but perhaps we've just been super lucky. two of my own helmets have met their demise at wilderness (from head-on encounters) to-date (in 15 years of riding there).

let's be careful out there!
mg