A Bicyclist's Reason For Making His Bed

I make my bed every day and make sure my apartment is tidy and organized.

Here's why.

If a motorist kills me while I'm bicycling, I don't want my sister Debbie -- my designated person to contact in case of emergency -- to come in and see a messy place.

For me, that's life living and bicycling in the U.S,

The truth is that even with my risk management smarts, all my light-my-bike-up-like-a-Christmas tree illuminations and hundreds of thousands of road bicycling miles, a careless, distracted or uneducated motorist can end my life in a mere heartbeat.

I think about my mortality every time I leave my home on a bicycle.

Like tonight, when I prepared to ride my single-speed beefy-tired Surly Pugsley, with fat tires the width of those on many motorcycles.

I planned to bike down Alta Drive to downtown, a drop of elevation of more than 1,000 feet and then ride back home, returning to near the 215 beltway.

It was cold biking down the big hill 10 miles to downtown. I wore three long-sleeve shirts, a large bike jersey and a reflector vest, plus tights and gloves. As I flew down the hill hitting speeds of 20-25 mph on the single-speed steel beast, I could hardly feel any tension in my pedal stroke.


*   *   *

As I was bicycling back home from downtown, a woman drove a car onto a sidewalk near the Paris hotel on the Strip and killed one person and injured 36 others. There's a possibility that the driver intentionally drove her car on the sidewalk to try and harm pedestrians. Terrorism was ruled out.

Just today, I heard that a bicyclist hit by a motorist in Henderson in early October has succumbed to her injuries and has died this month. The bicyclist, Cara Cox, was the ninth bicyclist to be killed by a motorist in the Las Vegas area in 2015.

I don't understand how we as a nation and a city can accept so much carnage on our streets without a come-to-God epiphany that we need to drastically revamp the education process by which we allow people to get behind the wheel of a car.

With all this carnage and deaths on the roads, people wonder why I ride a bicycle so much.

Bicycling is like breathing. I need to do it.

*  *  *

On the way home, I caught up with another night-time bicyclist, a bike commuter who works at SLS on the Strip.

Tad bikes 10,000 miles a year, and never drives. He's not allowed to. He said he's technically blind and can't get a driver's license.

But he's fine at biking, and pedals his 25-30 mile roundtrip for his job from Summerlin to SLS and back.

Tad enjoyed checking out the fattie with red and white lights rimming both wheels.

We chatted all the way up Alta Drive, swapping bicycle stories. He even worked for Sheldon Adelson at the Venetian, where Tad performed as an Italian-theme singer at conventions and on the gondolas.

It was around 9 p.m. when I got home.

And my bed, made and perfect, was just like I left it.

Another Bicyclist Dies In The Las Vegas Area

Another bicyclist in the Las Vegas area has died.

This time, a woman name Cara Cox who was riding her bicycle in Henderson in early October has succumbed to her injuries after she was in a coma.

A 74-year-old female driver had struck Cara. Here's the news report on Cara being hit.

Cara is now the ninth bicyclist to be killed by a motorist in the Las Vegas area in 2015.

About a month before Cara was struck, about 500 bicyclists met in Summerlin to hold a rally to spotlight the problem of motorists striking and killing bicyclists.

Every bicyclist I know can share a story about a motorist endangering their safety.

I never met Cara, but we bicyclists know that in many cases it could have easily been one of us struck and killed by a motorist.

For the life of me, I can't understand how society accepts killed bicyclists as just a part of the regular carnage out there on the roads.

It sickens me and I think about my mortality every time I start pedaling.

Pugsley and The Pupfish

The Pugsley's fat tires make for such a unique ride that I find myself pedaling it more and more.

It's a ride that makes you feel like you're floating on air.

And it's great for off-road biking on dirt roads like the ones at the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

It's a watery refuge in the middle of the Mohave Desert outside Death Valley near Pahrump.

It has a Devils Hole where a pupfish is clinging to existence with a mere 100-200 swimming around.

Here's some background on this unique pupfish.

Light of Day

The Pugsley before dawn today.

Remember -- lights on to stay alive.

Riding the Pugsley on the Famed Red Rock Scenic Loop

Last week, the Pugsley chewed up the snow at 9,000 feet on Mount Charleston. Today. I pedaled the Pugsley from my home to the top of the Red Rock Canyon scenic loop, climbing more than 1,500 feet to reach the 4,771 feet at the peak of the scenic drive.

Before today, I never took the single-speed, steel fattie Pugsley beast around the loop because of the steep hills and the Pugsley's lone gear,

But today I was charged up to ride the Pugsley around the hilly loop after talking with the beautiful Beth of Lakeland, who biked her away around the loop with a heavy hybrid when she visited last year. (Beth is a bicycle tour business owner and her BeFly Bike Tours can be seen here.)

So, off I went. Here is finally reach Mile 4

In fact, Mile 2 and Mile 4 have nasty steep grades, but the ride was easier than I anticipated. The single speed did the job and I reached the overlook fairly well.

Let's Walk The Loop

Bicycling is wonderful.

But walking is even slower and I see things I even miss on a bicycle.

So I walked the 13-mile Red Rock scenic drive plus the two miles on SR 159 to complete the loop.

There were lots of bicyclists on the Loop.

Roadrunner, if he catches you you're through!

Love the Big Red Stripe.

Following a trail off the drive.

Coming to the end soon here.

Pugsley, Take Me Away

It's worth the premium rent I pay every month to be in position to leave my front door and pedal the Surly Pugsley to here.

There's lot of construction sprawl west of my home, and the Summerlin development is moving up the mountain to the Red Rock National Conservation Area.

You can see the Vegas valley and the Strip some 1,500 to 2,000 feet below.

It's amazing how much the developers have paved Far Hills Avenue so far. Here's the latest.

I have to bike further to escape the Summerlin sprawl.

I like seeing the Strip from this vantage point.