Some people….

I was riding my bike home this evening and I’m not quite sure what gets into some people.  When I first started riding between Independence and Corvallis 3 years ago, I use to get a lot of kids in their big truck honking or yelling at me on my ride — particularly in the winter when it was dark and rainy.  It’s been quite some time since that’s happened…till today.  I was coasting home this evening and a truck full of teenagers driving in the opposite lane decided that it was worth their time to slow down so that they could shout obscenities before squealing their tires and driving away.  I’ve never figured out what these types of folks get out of this — but hopefully they enjoyed it. 🙂 Then, after riding about 3 more miles, just outside of Independence, I ran over a string of barbed wire that was strung across the bike lane.  I’m not sure if was placed their purposefully (you’d be surprised how often this happens — particularly in some roads or days of club bike rides…) but I figured out what caused my flat tire yesterday.  (and I was wondering why it looked like my tire had been shredded).  Fortunately, it doesn’t look like it punctured my tire today.

[Updated Jan. 13, 2006]

Well, I’m pretty sure the barbed wire was deliberate.  I was riding in this morning and found a 6 foot long string laying across the other side of the road as well.  Hopefully this was a one-time stunt, but if I see them return, I guess I’ll have to let the good folks in the Polk county sherrif’s office know about it (the county sherrif’s and ODOT for that matter are actually really great about looking out for bikers.  I’ve had few problems on my ride, but when I’ve run into issues with debris or road tacking, these two agencies have been fantastic).

–Terry