[DollyCali]

I had a friend killed in Akron/Cleveland area last year. He was left in the street to die like an animal .. and the few times I have hit an animal, I try to see if I can help/save it.

. He was a skilled cyclist & travelled the world (even yukky FRance) without a prior incident.

Every time we cyclists go out on the roads we know this might happen. But for me this is better than a cancer ward etc.

NOW I really am going to get out & bike it is supposed to snow here tonight !

[olorin]

I am sorry to hear about your friend. None of my friends who are cyclists have been killed - but more than a couple broken bones as a result of inattentive drivers - mostly due to the dreaded right turn right in front of you.

[DollyCali]

Re: the biking latex etc (fitted ) garments.

I can tell you these MEN are MEN and most of we women find them VERY attractive in their biking clothes..When I first started serious biking I swore I would NEVER wear those "tacky looking things"... women's clothing is about same..

Well, it has been one of the many times I have eaten my words. NOw I have fattened the bankrolls of Nashbar etc..

Biking is fun folks.. but so are movies, kayaking, skiing, reading..

and ESPECIALLY FREEPING !!!

[DollyCali]

All "I's" on you..

Thanks

:)

[bicycle thug]

RE #437 - I am saddened to hear about your friend.

Life is ferociously short, and many of us ride because we want to be out and as close to the real world as possible. To pass things in a way that let's us absorb them, see hear and smell the details.

I like riding back form Florence and to feel the 'back to the barn syndrome' hit at around milepost 45 and to feel myself quicken the pace more then I though I could.

To ride up from the thick atmosphere of a Western Oregon valley of tall thick trees to the colder, thin air of the spindly, smaller trees by lava beds and mountains and then to sail back down into the pregnant and humid warmth racing the water of the MacKenzie River heading into the home stretch.

He died while living life as fully as possible. I saw this happen before in a bike race without travelling road closure when a cyclist was hit by oncoming traffic. It was something I never will forget seeing.

Some of my friends have been hurt in recent years and have hung up their bikes. Russell Morton, coop member of Burley design, best local racer in the mid seventies, race promotor for many years of the Tour Willamette.

Robert Craft, (Crafty Craft) one of the smartest and most creative racers I ever met. He runs one of the Paul's Bike Shops in town.

I am very glad they lived. Seeing hurt and near death makes you really appreciate life all that much more.

Your friend lives on in the memories of you and his friends and family, especially when they remember what they shared with him when they do what they did with him.