Posted on 09/28/2015 10:13:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The California Highway Patrol is trying to find the person who dumped hundreds of nails and tacks on a road near Woodside thats popular among cyclists.
Officers said Monday that there were so many nails left on Kings Mountain Road that clean-up crews were forced to sweep the lanes to get them out of the way.
Cyclists are usually drawn to the road for its views and 1,500-foot climb to Skyline Boulevard. "This is one of my favorite hill climbs," Michael Shorts said.
But riders, who are now being warned to pay close attention to the sidewalks, are afraid they are being targeted. "Its really frightening to be honest," Grace Chuchla said.
Chuchla and her teammates on the Stanford cycling team have seen pictures on Facebook that show dozens of nails that were scattered near the summit on Kings Mountain Road and Skyline Boulevard.
"Youre on a 20 lb. bike with a 23-millimeter wide tire," she said. "If it hits a tack, and your tire blows, youre going to hit the pavement and its going to hurt."
CHP officers said that two weeks ago about 20 riders had to replace their tires after rolling over nails. No one was injured and investigators are asking for help to find the person responsible.
"Think about your own kids riding a cycle ... and getting a concussion or worse," Ken Doub said.
Many cyclists and drivers suspect that whoever is behind these incidents doesnt want to share the country road.
"Im sure some of the neighbors dont like all the traffic," Maoz Friedman said. "It sucks they would go that far to discourage people from coming up." A cyclist team is raising money to offer a reward for information that could lead to an arrest. So far, theyve raised about $5,000 for their cause.
Another sign of America turning into a third world country!
Cyclists are by and large a-holes.
They tried to intimidate a car a while back. The car hit the brakes and they cyclists smacked into the car.
If the following vehicle were a car it would have been the follower who would have been cited. But the DRIVER was persecuted.
The worse for cyclists, the better for everyone else.
From past threads on Free Republic, there are Spandex/Cyclist haters here that might be suspects, from the things they posted.
>>”Youre on a 20 lb. bike with a 23-millimeter wide tire,” she said. “If it hits a tack, and your tire blows, youre going to hit the pavement and its going to hurt.”
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Maybe you should think about that the next time you surround a car and DARE it to smack you as you deserve!
>>From past threads on Free Republic, there are Spandex/Cyclist haters here that might be suspects, from the things they posted.
<<
Perhaps if cyclists weren’t such d-bags by and large this would not be a problem.
Cyclists are mostly the transportation versions of “vegans.”
As someone who has ridden and driven on that road countless times, anyone wanting to do harm to cyclists would not drop nails at the summit, but rather further down the hill at one of the countless hairpins. If this was intentional, it was a warning. Further, as someone who has commuted by bicycle for a few years and by car most of my life, it is the a-holes on 2-wheels that annoy me the most, not because there are not a-holes in cars, but because a few jerks make ALL cyclists look bad. Follow the damn rules and be respectful. Where cars need to ‘make room’ for cyclists, cyclists should really ride the middle of the lane at the same speed as motor vehicles, or choose another route. Stick to roads with bike lanes or wide shoulders, unclip at stop signs, yield right-of-way to cars when required to do so, and for crying out loud, don’t do stupid stuff like ride against traffic in a bike lane or (even worse) on the sidewalk. I almost flattened a cyclist a few months ago that was riding the wrong direction in a bike lane across an overpass and through a blind merge... freakin’ death wish, and he had the gall to flip me the bird for holding my arms up in a ‘what the hell’ gesture. Drivers just chill and know that there are cyclists that “get it” and don’t presume to have the right of way under all circumstances.
Completely agree that cyclists are d-bags.
And I used to commute to work by bike (Bethesda to DC). It was 13 miles one way, too far to run.
Most of my fellow cyclists-commuters were self-entitled leftwing men or sweaty lesbians.
A postal clerk who hates bicyclists? Do you have a drivers license? If I was in your state I would lobby the legislature to pull your driving privileges immediately. And make you WALK for the rest of your life. You’ve got no damned business behind the wheel of a two-ton motor vehicle with the kind of admitted irrational hatred you have for bicyclists who by law you are required to share the road with. You are an accident waiting to happen.
Yup. Transportation vegans.
I have a great view from my apartment of these new bike lanes our genius city is putting in.
They still don’t use them, go the wrong way, run lights and signs, and I still hear frequent honking.
Oh, might I add, sacrificing multiple driving lanes for these bike lanes.
Increasing congestion. Smart!
I would lie to know just how and what middle aged white men in spandex are doing out at 10 am riding a bike? Do these people have jobs?
I can’t stand the tour de france wanna bees in my neighborhood who blow through stop signs and traffic lights in groups of 20-30 every weekend. They don’t obey traffic laws and dare people to stop them.
My dad lives up in the foothills and had a run in with a biker on the two lane road leading to his house. Biker wouldn’t move out of the middle of the lane so my dad moved over and passed him. Biker pounded on his trunk and threw his water bottle at him. You MFers know who you are and know why everyone hates you. Irrational hatred my ass. You people are the biggest douches in public.
People who drive cars are by and large a-holes.
A car tried to pass a bike a while back to make a right hand turn. The cyclist who was strapped into his pedals couldn’t get enough momentum to free his feet, but the idiot behind the wheel kept squeezing him over to the curb. Both eventually stopped and the cyclist was able to brace against the side of the car.
If the idiot behind the wheel would have been paying attention she might have realized the cyclist’s speed prevented her from making a safe turn. So she made an unsafe turn that also incidentally violated California law on positioning for, and completing a turn.
And I know this is true because I was riding the bike.
Selfish time thieves should pay the same registration and insyrance fees as car owners if the insist on riding children’s playthings on the street.
But when I get on a road I really try to be careful as I fully realize that in a collision between me and a car, I am going to lose.
But then I am riding in Thailand, a 3rd world country were bicycling is sometimes the only means of transportation fir some people.
Two days ago while riding along a waterway I had to stop and slowly work around the buffalo blocking the trail.
Why are you going to hit the pavement? I drove a Harley through Spearfish Canyon with a flat front tire. It wasn't an enjoyable trip, by any means, but I didn't dump the bike. There is no reason why someone on a bicycle would necessarily wreck over a flat. We rode on flats as kids as a matter of course.
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