Have safely arrived in Everett, Wa, set up in a room, assembled the bike, and taken a 2 hour spin around. Fortunately, the machine did not become disassembled as a result of my ineptitude, so me and the bike are ready (sort of). The weather is glorious, the air crystalline, and the views gorgeous. Foolishly I failed to bring a camera on the shake down but will try to do better. The group is large and seems to be very experienced; many/most of the riders seem to have gone across country one or more times, there is much excited buzzing in the air, and there are many beautiful and well used bikes. There is a riders meeting in about an hour where we will be briefed on this and that. Tomorrow we will be off at 6:30 for distant parts. I await developments.
A different, but related topic: bike safety. Was on the W.Cola ride on Thurs. on which there were two crashes, both a result of what could be called rider error. The first was a simple matter of someone running up on the wheel of the person in front just before the crest of a hill, a common but predictable danger point. The second was far more serious and demonstrates the truth of the maxim that in a contest of strength between a bike and a car, the car ALWAYS wins. Someone foolishly ran a light on Platt Springs Road thinking, evidently that could make across before the car hit him. He was wrong! The bike and the car tried to avoid one another but ultimately couldn't with the rider glancing down the left side of the car before flipping over it. Mercifully, despite badly marring the car and totally wrecking the bike, the rider was up and around and seemingly OK. AMAZING! There are a variety of lessons in this story not least of which is DON'T RUN TRAFFIC LIGHTS!!!!!!! Be safe out there my friends.
Off to the rider meeting. More anon.
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