One of the pleasures of bike riding is finding treasure in the debris along side of the road. These roadfinds may be broken down into three areas: tools; clothing; bicycles inner tubes/bike stuff; and miscellanous jetsam and flotsam.
TOOLS:
If I ever find a use for five 11mm sockets I will be
ready! You would think that a lot of tools would be found on the
streets near car repair shops, but I have not found this to be true. I
did see a great looking adjustable wrench in the middle of the road
once, but by the time I sorted out traffic and got back there it was
gone! I have two nice Vise-Grip(tm) pliers, the narrow pointy kind
(cherry condition) and miniature regular ones. The regular ones have
some real nice welding burns on them. My found 6 inch adjustable wrench
has about half the handle burned away! I would have liked to see that
happen! I have about one of every kind of screwdriver ever made, so I
have plenty of extra paintcan opening tools. I wish someone would lose
a pair of safety wire tools (I had one about twenty years ago that was
stolen (along with my entire tool box) but I am too cheap to replace
it), they are a cool looking tool.
I lost all my bike tools once, entrusted to a home-made tool bag, so I think after a few more years of riding I will be about even.
CLOTHING:
I would like to know why there is so much more women's clothing on the side of the road than men's. And we're talking lingerie here! Bras, panties, garter belts, g-strings (should "g" be capitalized?), it's all over the place! Wierd... Maybe people are driving their cars so fasssst the lighter articles of clothing are just sucked out the window!! Slow down!
BICYCLE INNER TUBES/BIKE STUFF:
Jeeze, people, pick up your trash! I saw one draped over a speed limit sign once. So klassy! We should all pledge to pick up an extra tube whenever we flat even if we don't have our team vehicle with us. And pick up all those little pieces of foil from your tube patching kit!!.
I use to get a thrill seeing all the water bottles that lay strewn on the pot-holed roads during the Rosarito To Esenada and Tecate To Ensenada rides but I never picked up. I found a nice Specialized(tm) bottle that had been in sun for a few days with carbo-drink in it. It was kind of moldy. I never lost my pump on any of those rides, but I came to a sudden stop at a stoplight once and my pump popped out and landed in the lane beside me! I'm not the only one it happened to, though. I found a nice Campy(tm) Silca(tm) pump head attached to a bunch of splinters in an intersection once. I found a Silca pump body in the garbage can at a bike shop. I put them together, voila! If I had Presta tubes maybe I could use it...
I
use to find a lot crank bolt caps. I guess people have started checking
them more often, or they all fell out. I know mine did. I lost a pedal
cap once and the bike shop sold (five dollers!) me a replacement from a
glass jar of found caps. I use red Loctite(tm) on them now..
A
found Tecate To Ensenada ride badge inspired me to go on the ride a few
years ago. Write and tell me where I found it to claim your badge.
MISCELLANOUS:
I was always seeing metal stick-things on the side of the road and wondering what they were. I asked lots of people and nobody knew, if even they had noticed them. I was reading an article on Usenet about how to make a lock pick, and it said a good source of material was street sweeper broom pieces that fall off. A ha! That's what they are!
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A good P/R move would be for a bike club to adopt a bit of road and keep it clean. Get one of those big signs and let everyone driving know whose taking care of it. If the Lions Club(tm) can do it, so can we!
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So
I was riding on Old Mission Gorge road (in the car lane) and notice a
rhythmic bumping from the rear tire. I stopped, looked down, noticed a
distinct jag/jog to the tire. So when I got home I took it off and
found that the casing inside was coming apart. I only had a thousand
miles on it, usually they last for a couple thousand or so. I decided
to put on a backup tire someone gave me, then ride up to Performance to
get another tire tomorrow after my bi-daily bike ride. I don't want to
name names, but (cough)Myrick(cough) generously gave me some used tires
that still had some tread on them to save me some money. Here's a
picture of one that was on the rim for only 24 hours. Fortunately I was
at the start of a 20 mile ride and pushed the bike home easily. Several
people were startled by the gunshot sound of the tire popping and a guy
on a bike came over to see if I needed assistance. I had to drive to
Performance to get a new tire. Horrors!
August 24, 2004 -- I want to state here and now that Seņor Myrick is a fabulous guy and a swell fellow! (Thanks for the two NEW tires and the toe clips with straps! See Mr. Myrick!
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11/13/2004 -- Decided to ride up Mt. Soledad today to see the cross as there has been so much talk about moving it or taking it down. Pretty good ride, not nearly as steep as I thought it would be. Much easier than Mt. Helix, which I went up a couple months ago for the first time since cancer lite two years ago. Camellia was right, though, she said it was going to rain, and it did. Now I have to clean all that dirt off the bike!
12/7/2004 -- I had a dream last week that I actually remember, for once! I dreamt I was riding and had a flat tire. Upon inspection it turned out the tire had been glued together, and guess what, it was a Sr. Myrick provided tire! Good thing it was only a dream!
This page was last updated on July 2009. Thanks for caring!
