Friday, July 11, 2014

BSNYC Friday Fun Quiz!

First of all, buy a hat!


Second of all, people need to stop with the "data visualization" crap, because it doesn't work:



However, it’s also a lesson in the drawbacks of data visualization. In this case, the data is incredibly one-dimensional, and doesn’t necessarily accurately represent the best ways to get around the city. In addition to time, people take into consideration cost, what they need to carry, and what the weather conditions are.

Indeed.  Here's the "vizualizer" itself, which purports to tell you the fastest way to get around in a particular city:


Apparently, Manhattan and Brooklyn are cities unto themselves, and the rest of New York City does not exist--which you already know if you read the New York Times.  Here's Manhattan by way of example:


So what does this even mean?  You click on an address and it tells you how what the fastest way is to get...where exactly?  Here's your answer:

To make this map, we gridded up the city at the block-group level, and then computed the time using each mode of transport from the centroid of the source block group to the centroid of the destination block group using the Google Maps API.  For driving, we added a buffer time for parking and walking, and then we compared the four resulting times and colored the block-group based on the minimum.

Oh, okay, the centroid of the destination block group.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Look, forget about the map.  Here's everything you need to know about the fastest way to get around in Manhattan:

--If your trip is less than 50 blocks it's probably faster to ride.
--If your trip is between 50 and 75 blocks it's probably a toss-up.
--If your trip is over 75 blocks it's probably faster to take the subway.
--Forget driving anywhere unless you know all the parking secrets like I do.
--If your trip is less than 10 block just walk, you lazy slob.
--Bicycle travel time for one (1) block of protected bike lane is equivalent to bicycle travel time for three (3) blocks without bike lanes, or one (1) crosstown block, so factor that in accordingly;
--If it's Hot As Balls just take the subway, provided your actual subway time is at least three (3) times longer than your projected platform wait time, because that's how long it will take for the subway's air conditioning to reconstitute the lump of molten plastic you've become while waiting at the station;
--If the subway car is empty, do not get in, because it means someone took a dump on the floor.

If you're planning to visit Manhattan as a tourist this summer I recommend printing and laminating the above and carrying it with you at all times.

Here's Brooklyn:


Brooklyn is way simpler than Manhattan.  Basically, the red represents asshole drivers, and the yellow represents asshole drivers in Subarus, but if you've visited Brooklyn recently need "data visualization" to tell you that then you probably also need an interactive map to tell your ass from your elbow.  Also, a bike is faster in almost all cases, because the subways are for going to Manhattan, and there's always car traffic because of all the aforementioned assholes.

And now, I'm pleased to present you with a quiz.  As always, study the item, think, and click on your answer.  If you're right then I'm like sooo happy for you, and if you're wrong you'll see "Breakaway."

Thanks very much for reading, ride safe, and buy a hat.


--Wildcat Rock Machine





(Courtland Milloy standing neck-deep in his own bullshit.)

1) Washington Post columnist and in-house moron Courtland Milloy says cyclists are:

--Bullies
--Terrorists
--Riding past churches and hiding their twisted agenda behind Kermit the Frog
--All of the above






2) The Orange County cyclist who was assaulted by a pickup truck driver lobbing full Gatorade bottles could face charges.

--True
--False





(Remember the Square Wheels Epidemic of 2011?)

3) The Tour de France is facing a:

--Doping epidemic
--Selfie epidemic
--Theft epidemic
--Sharting epidemic






("Hmmm, pretty smooth and dry in here.  Maybe he's on to something...")

4) After a disastrous Stage 5, Bradley Wiggins said Chris Froome should "stick to riding in tunnels."

--True
--False






5) The act of engulfing cyclists and other undesirables in noxious fumes from your pickup truck is called:*

--"Rollin' Coal"
--"Fartin' Soot"
--"Smokin' Freds"
--"Havin' parents who are also close relatives"


*There are two acceptable answers to this question.







6) The H-Zontal prone recumbent features a special hole that allows you to urinate while riding.

--True
--False





(Tim "I Like My Bikes The Way I Like My Blazers: Off The Rack" Barber riding his bicycle in traffic like a big boy.)

7) Artist and blazer enthusiast Tim Barber says that cycling in New York City is like:

--"weaving your own pattern into the street grid"
 --"an insane flying video game of chaos"
--"tonguing a maraschino cherry out of the hairy navel of God"
--"a mundane rolling video game in which you travel slightly faster than walking speed"


***Special World Cup Action-Themed Bonus Video!!!***

139 comments:

Anonymous said...

Podio

Anonymous said...

Texas scranus

Anonymous said...

green jersey

mikeweb said...

DIRK HOFMAN MOTORHOMES

Buffalo Bill said...

Holy cow batman!

ken e. said...

who's the new non-plussed bib-short guy?

crosspalms said...

hairy navel of god indeed

k-bo said...

Ten spot

Anonymous said...

Fodder

tridorkable said...

Top Ten! Happy weekend to all.

P. Bateman said...

wait, what? i can still make top 15? awesome.

did the cyclist involved in that accident not have breakz? or the ability to steer? honestly, worst job of accident avoidance ever. he was going lik 10mph. just hit the freaking breakz.

JB said...

Bib shorts Saddam?

Matt BK said...

Top 15

McFly said...

I just had a little trouble pushing out the centroid of a destination block in a Stuckeys off I 95.

JLRB said...

What? I thought for sure cooling your female genitalia by biek would have made the quiz.

Oh yea, and fuck Milloy

JLRB said...

AND

Thank you for the advice about the empty subway car - priceless!

JLRB said...

Next Book

The Secrets of Parking in Manhattan, by PSNYC

dcee604 said...

Top 20?

JB said...

"If the subway car is empty, do not get in, because it means someone took a dump on the floor."

The more you know.

Anonymous said...

I find usually that protected bike lanes take longer to travel in than the "reglar" street lanes due to the wheelchair pace you must maintain to safely get from centroid to centroid. Or the center of one hemorrhoid to the other.
Due to courtesy (don't want to fling the Cit Bikerati, touristas, and 3 abreastistas to the curb) and the bike lanes consituting an officially mixed use space OMUS. Double parking, single parking, left and right turners, dog walkers, people walkers, salmonati, edge of the curbers, and the like.

Some guy on a Motobecane 29er flew past me up the Manhattan Bridge with too much ease.
I was not fooled by his smaller than usual Lectric rear hub and ammo style battery box.
I was able to keep up barely here and there. Then we went opposite directions on Houston.

Happy Friday!!

vsk

Anonymous said...

Back in Ye Olden Dayes people were forced to think about stuff and characterize it with principles and theories and equations and whatnot. Nowadays, thanks to the luxury of computers that can handle volume, we have the option of skipping right to the data and trying to back-calculate. But if you don't do a good job selecting & parsing the data, and understanding the system and how it works, the results are usually crap. And if you DO take the trouble to do all that stuff, then you've already done most of the work of doing it the old way. So like, WHY?

babble on said...

Oh! I think I need a hat! Where can I find one?

The reference to the hairy navel of God...? Ew.

Anonymous said...

Once again I am reminded why I read your posts. I am headed to NYC next Friday and the valuable information from today will be useful.
Thank you.

1904 Cadardi said...

Roille,

Because, because, COMPUTERS!

These are people of the same generation as the med student that came up with a new way of calculating the area under a curve: he filled the area with smaller and smaller squares adding up their size as he went. Brilliant! He even got published in a journal for his "invention". Kids today. Sheesh.


Hey everybody, have a great weekend of possible bicycle cycling. May your holster remain full and any flares tossed in your direction be unlit.

boys on the hoods said...

"you probably also need an interactive map to tell your ass from your elbow." This is the kind of stuff that keeps me coming back!!

JLRB said...

Speaking f hats - the map of Brooklyn looks like a witch-nosed head wearing a pirate hat, walking on two feet

RoadQueen said...

Late to the party - top 30.

TGIF!!!!!!!

EvenEnglishMajorsCanDoMathBot9000 said...

Oh, okay, the centroid of the destination block group."

If you can figure out most modern cars have front disk brakes and they do most of the stopping, you can figure this out.

If you every tried to hang a model airplane from you bedroom ceiling when you were a kid (or even after you were a kid) you remember trying to find the one spot to attach the string so the plane would hang level. That one spot is the centroid.

leroy said...

Well I bought a cap.

My dog warns I'm going to destroy the "cool factor," but I don't see how that's possible with moisture wicking material.

He explained there's a reason you don't see people wearing those caps with "Brooklyn" on the brim anymore.

I told him I still wear mine.

He responded "exactly."

Honestly, I don't follow half the stuff he says.

(Anyway, I bought an extra cap as an early birthday present for my twin brother 1500 miles away who just started riding again. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. The flames on the side will complement his tattoos. Well, most of them.)

Ride cool all!

BamaPhred said...

Working from home
Covered in cat hair
Being treated as a personal couch
Missed the blog sprint
But it is only 2.5 hrs till the weekend
So if you can't be safe, at least be sanitary!

Spokey said...

A+ today on the quiz. Makes up for the last 2 weeks of mediocre results.

Spokey said...

bama

it's the weekend so there's a century coming. Maybe even a double. Just don't Froome or Van Garderen

RoadQueen said...

I'm with P. Bateman and still scratching my head over the dude in the 'accident'. Was he making a point? Because I can think of no other way to justify him hitting that car.

Unless he was texting while riding, in which case, duh.

But yeah....brakes and steering are fun and practical things to learn how to do before riding in traffic.

Anonymous said...

After years, I'm getting a fancy cap from Walz. And they offer sizes! But my Woo-Hoo speed is closer to 35. And I ride an old steel Trek. Is there a Woo-Hoo speed for retro-riders? We are allowed to Woo Hoo, right?

dancesonpedals said...

'couldn't find his own ass using both hands and a map'


its adonola...

recumbent conspiracy theorist said...


Use Preperation C and say goodbye to those aggravating centroids.

dancesonpedals said...

a man who's tired of woo hoo is tired of life

society ntarszi

RoadQueen said...

Anon @ 2:38:

On the bike you described, any 45% downhill grade being at least 1.5 miles or longer ought to boost you into woo-hoo speed.

Gravity and all. Then you'll be in there like swimwear! :-D

ouabacher said...

Hated the song but forced to watch. How else would I know who won?

Anonymous said...

Doofus was salmoning the wrong way on a one-way street. The car he hit was signaling. The driver should have kicked his hypster ass for denting the fender

CommieCanuck said...

I think that GIF of Voekler will elicit a uncomfortable response from Babble, who is rumored* to be recovering from getting hit by a Lamborghini at the Gastown Grand Prix.

*I started this rumor.

CommieCanuck said...

Woman gets Ferrucio'd in Vancouver

Anonymous said...

I urinate while riding my surly LHT. will this harm my brooks cambium?

Spokey said...

depends. Not the light coloured one, but the darker version will bleed.

JB said...

Good point, Anon @ 2:51. He wasn't going the wrong way (yet, he's got a light), but he was about to, which likely confused the driver (it's not hard).

I saw the green light and assumed he had the right-of-way. He did, but was forced to turn either right or left.

crosspalms said...

RQ
A 1.5-mile 45% downhill grade? I might need a few more brakes. And a seatbelt to keep me from falling over the handlebars.

Anonymous said...

The left turning vehicle is always at fault! You cannot tell how fast the bike was going, and he was definitely slowing as he approached the car, but he may have been coming up the street at 20 mph, expecting to go through on the green, and then this car turns left, a little...

Of course this is a likely fictitious scenario I'm making this up, but so were PB and RQ.

Fortunately it looks like he was not hurt.

Anonymous said...

the map of Manhattan is accurate. My bike commute from my place at 100th and West End to my job at 53th and 7th is around 15 minutes at a leisurely pace. The subway, with a 4-5 minute walk on each side is at least 25 minutes, at best. 20 minutes saved a day or about three days saved over the course of a year. I will be happy for that extra time in my twilight years. Also, NYC really only consists of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens. Brooklyn doesn't count anymore as it has become some weird east coast annex of Madison Wisconsin in the past few years. And Staten Island is Staten Island.

Anonymous said...

Sorry duder that hat is somewhat lame. where can I start... the color way is all wrong, the esoteric "46" has meaning to only us dorks who read this blog, and I'm frankly not sure that is something any of us should want to advertise. Also, the BSNYC logo should be replaced by the more handsome Rip torn mugshot. Other than that, it sucks. Start over.

RoadQueen said...

crosspalms @ 3:05,

I never said that it was a good idea, or that one would walk away.

I just said that it would get you up to woo-hoo speed. :)

(I honestly do not recommend hill bombing a mile and a half 45% downhill grade - what are you guys, nuts?!) ;)

Anonymous said...

"45% downhill grade"

Has anyone seen one of these? I have't, except for the grass covered SIDE slope coming off the road.

Spokey said...

here's an alternate woo-hoo speed for geriatrics and retro riders. 15.5 mph for those over 60. 20 mph for woo-hoo-hoo speed. Same goes for bikes (sans pumps, panniers, etc) over 30lbs.

Crabon riders need not apply.

3-speed internal hub JC Higgins riders auto qualify regardless of age or biek weight.

Dooth said...

The one time I commuted by bike from my neck of the hoods (near Wildcat ) it was due to the blackout of 2003. I was working in Soho. The trip took about an hour. Would've been faster, but I crashed into a distracted centroid.

Anonymous said...

I'm taking an alternate route from Manhattan to Brooklyn July 20th via the East River. I'll be trying to avoid distracted centroids.

grog said...

Great Lobster does NOT have a hairy navel.
RIDE NICE
FUNK WIZZ
MORE BABE

crosspalms said...

RQ
When I was a kid I actually tried to ride down what was near a 45% grade, the embankment next to railroad tracks that were near our house. Got a few feet before I sailed over the bars and felt the bike land on top of me. Interesting experience. Don't need to do it again. (I wasn't hurt, but I was certainly enlightened.)

crosspalms said...

JLRB
so the original Brooklyners will understand: een heks-nosed hoofd dragen een piraat hoed, het lopen op twee voeten

RoadQueen said...

Anon @ 3:28,

There are quite a few in these parts. They have signs at the tops of the hills to warn truckers and everything.

crosspalms, I'm guilty of trying the same stunt down the side of an old bank barn bank. Same thing - not seriously hurt, but enlightened. Those banana seats hurt like a mother when they get sassy.

dancesonpedals said...

verrazano peers at the map, looks at the shore, back at the map, then asks the first mate,...

'stat an island?


ceeksfi seven

recumbent conspiracy theorist said...

According to my calculations a 45% grade spanning a horizontal distance of 1.5 miles equates to a vertical change in elevation of 3564.000 feet.

At that angle I am confident Whoo-Hoo Speed would be attainable even in a shopping cart.


babble on said...

Commie.
Well at least one of us saw it coming. And for once, I wasn't the one in the van with flashing lights! She got off lucky: The half Froome.

I figured Frooming counts as something akin to a half-babble. The physiotherapist was all sunshine and light yesterday, raving over my incredible recovery, my unbelievable range of motion. Lol! Range of motion is the very nature of connective tissue issues, but I'll take a speedy recovery any day. I read somewhere that a disproportionate number of athletes express this mutation.

I am taking a last minute trip across the Rockies next week, only this time I won't be doing it on two wheels.

Anonymous said...

Seems like a ripoff that a 100% grade is only at a 45º angle.

Anonymous said...

Babs - silver lining to that connective tissue thing ay, churfle-churfle?

babble on said...

Right? There's always something, isn't there? :D

JB said...

45% grade = 45 feet of drop per 100 horizontal feet; or about a 2:1 slope (horizontal:vertical). 2:1 slopes are difficult to walk up and I wouldn't advise building your house atop one.

JB said...

Anon @ 3:13: The left-hand turning car appears to be coming out of a one-way street, so while possibly not having the right of way, he would not expect the bike to come straight at him. He would expect the bike to turn left or right, likely avoiding the collision.

Snobby, go check out that intersection this weekend.

Spokey said...

RCT

assuming my isn't total rotted from last nights libations, a 45% grade over a 1.5 mile horizontal would be a 1.5 mile vertical. Tis the nature of 45s

if you meant 1.5 mile on the hypotenuse, I get a 5600 horizontal or vertical

Anonymous said...

Spokey: Professor of Black Math

JB said...

Spokey, you're thinking about a 45 degree grade.

Spokey said...

roille

back in the day we had plenty of 45 degree hills. But with the wussies today, we had to strip mine them all down to little rollers and still the little bastards insist on 11 cog cassettes.

Spokey said...

jb

yes

Spokey said...

that's what you get for letting someone with a history degree post

recumbent conspiracy theorist said...

Grade Percent Incline And Downgrade Calculator Bottom calulator.

So I can't really take credit for the number crunching but I think they are correct. I'm not really a highly intelligent recumbent pilot I just play one on the internet.

TWC said...

Playing "breakaway" in the background while watching Voeckler animated gif ist voonderbah!

Anonymous said...

No it's correct, I checked that shit with my nerdulator. Slope is rise over run. 1 ft rise in 10 feet of run (horizontally) is a 1/10 a.k.a. 10% grade, which actually would be white-knucklingly steep for truckers and probably you can't find a federal highway with a grade that steep. (I've seen 7% though.)

Mr. Incredulous said...

Ahem, four point five percent. 4.5 Percent. Four and a half percent. One half percent less than five.

More than enough slope over 1.5 miles to elicit a Whoo Hoo, although maybe not enough for a Whoo Hoo Hoo.

A 45% slope? C'mon!

JB said...

Worst bike ever? Just an abomination.

Anonymous said...

Not to show the fuck off but...

Ignoring friction, the acceleration due to gravity along the grade ends up being proportional to the percentage of the grade, due to vector mechanics. So for example on a 1% grade, "g" along the grade is 0.098 m/s2 or 0.32 ft/s2. Therefore you would reach woo-hoo-hoo speed (67.47 feet/sec) in approximately

210 seconds on a 1% grade
30 seconds on a 7% grade
5 seconds on a 45% grade
2 seconds in freefall

Anonymous said...

Assuming you started from 0 mph and didn't pedal.

Anonymous said...

And didn't peddle. And didn't wear jewluhry.

Scott said...

Anonymous 2:51 is right. The cyclist in the video accident could not legally go straight, because the street he is continuing into is a one way flowing opposite his direction of travel. He should have turned either right or left, and had he done so would not have been hit. Doofus.

McFly said...

46 degrees = 46 mph you tards. Its math not horseshoes.

1904 Cadardi said...

Roille,

Show off.

Went up a 20% grade in the Fondle. That sucked.

Went down a 12% grade with a tail wind. So far past whoo-hoo-hoo speed I was actively trying to not think about what happens if I crashed.

TerminalVelocityBot9000 said...

You will not reach WhooHoo in 210 seconds on a 1% down grade on a bicycle if you don't pedal, unless you are some place with no air. (Air drag is not the same thing as as the ignored friction.)

Anonymous said...

Air drag is caused by and covered under, friction.

Spokey said...

roille

right again. sage of the commentariat

let's see his sprint to the century though

TerminalVelocityBot9000 said...

"Air drag is caused by and covered under, friction."

Not correct. Most of the energy lost from air drag is pushing the air out of the way, an small portion is actual fraction of the air molecules moving over the surface of the moving object.

Spokey said...

I knew those space shuttle heat shields were fake

Spokey said...

glad I didn't order them for me panny-yers

Confused said...

Zinn says to pedal to avoid Death Wobble, but if I pedal I won't attain Woo Hoo? What Da'fuck I do? Wanna get Whoo Hoo!

Spokey said...

time to step up.

where the hell is renshaw

Anonymous said...

Let's go Spokey. Watching the tour.

Anonymous said...

still here.
WIWM, you in the neighborhood?

wishiwasmerckx said...

Riding fourth wheel,just behind Sagan.

Don't go too early or you'll peter out before the finish line.

That's what she said, anyways.

Dave said...

All very enjoyable abstruse this evening. When I factor in the coriolis effect and divide by the square of the hypotenuse, and taking into account how unusually close the moon is due to shave the earth, it all causes the magic 8-ball to say: Have Another Beer. Because Friday.

Dave said...

Enjoyableeee abstruse.

BamaPhred said...

Been unplugging the header pipes

Anonymous said...

100? 101? I'm saying air drag can be thought of as friction, if one is not being nitpicky. But yes, displacing a pound or two of air takes some special effort. Go ahead and change "friction" to "friction and air drag" in your version.

Anonymous said...

Nonplussed.

BamaPhred said...

Needs an air spear

Spokey said...

congrats roille

balls for 200?

Anonymous said...

Congrats, Rollie.
Went outside to take the dog out. Missed the finish. See you at 150.

Strongest Man In The World said...

Vancouver has the steepest grade city street in the world. I'm not sure what it's name is but it's on the South side of False Creek. I can ride UP it because I'm the Strongest Man In The World but in winter they have to block it off when it's icy or it snows because we also have the most stupid drivers in the world who think they can go down it in thier cars.

Anonymous said...

You post these scenes of bike accidents and it always seems to be the bike riders fault, which confuses me. You supposed to be on the bike rider's side.

Itchy Scranus said...

Are your hands clean?

alpaca lips said...

Actually, the component of gravity acting parallel to the hill is proportional to the sine of the angle the hill makes with the horizontal. The percent grade is the tangent of the angle. These are almost the same, since the angles are always pretty small.

I can actually out-Zinn Zinn when I want to. I just don't feel like it most of the time. Because how you store your wheels over the winter makes not a single damn bit of difference to anything.

dancesonpedals said...

NASH BAR
BIBS HORTS

driving my daughter to

WARPT TOUR

tomorrow

please stay out of the
MOSH PIT

BikeSnobNYC said...

Anonymous 9:15pm,

I'm on the smarter party's side. Often the cyclist but not always.

--Wildcat Rock Machine

Unknown said...

nice blog keep it up
http://www.ittestonline.co.in

Angry Beaver in Miramichi said...

Shouldn't the correct answer to #5 be "Voting Republican".

Chicken Fingerloo said...

Tommy Ramone RIP

Spokey said...

beav

the Reps put in all the bike lanes around here.

Come to think of it, I think that is true in snobbietown too. Or had mikey gone indie by that point?

And let's think now. Yes, Dems were leaders in trying to get rid of Bike Lanes near Prospect Park.


Now I'm sure someone else can post almost the complete opposite situation. Which only shows that party bigotry doesn't help anyone. Policy debate might.

Anonymous said...

Ordered my hat.
Snob has extra spending money for the mall this weekend.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Wildcat:
History of New York question for you. Crosspalms got me thinking with his Dutch the other day.....
Was Broadway once the Old Indian Road, the Indian Trail, Bloomingdale Road or Post Road? Just wondering.

wishiwasmerckx said...

A tip of the chapeau to Blel Kadri, who was able to overcome the misfortune of being named Blel to win a stage of the Tour de France.

Anonymous said...

To Scott, JB and Anonymous at 2:51

That particular street has a bike lane on each side, one going up the wrong way of car traffic (it's my hometown). You know, one of those stupid forced salmoning bike lane. Which means it was completely legal for the cyclist to continue straight.

Just saying.

BamaPhred said...

The Ramones are dead, and I'm not feeling so good myself.

Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do and no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated

Hot as balls, where's that polar vortex.

Spokey said...

Not sure but I think Queenie got the vortex. she's probably riding horses and bikes. Whoopin' it up at woo-hoo speeds w/o breaking a sweat.

Spokey said...

new record

It took six shots on the last post before robot agreed that I wasn't a brethren.

two shots so far on this one

Dave said...

Just took a very pleasant ride, so far out in the boondocks that the majority of the many pickups you see were actually purchased for work of some kind. South from New Milford. Pa. on Rt 11, ten miles on mostly decent shoulders with no lights, very little traffic, almost no intersections, nearly level, no real scenery, just trees and some wetlands. No rolling coal, but one microcephalic in a cheezey muscle car volunteered to help perpetuate rural stereotypes by yelling FUCK out his window as he passed me. Just par for the course.
A beautiful day. And New Milford, tiny as it is, has a little bike shop.

Dave said...

Ramones all dead? Must pay tribute:

I DON'T LIKE
CIRCUS GEEKS
I DON'T LIKE
JESUS FREAKS
I DON'T CARE 'BOUT POVERTY
ALL I CARE ABOUT IS ME

AND I'M AGAINST IT!
I'M AGAINST IT!
I'M AGAINST IT!

Anonymous said...

Dave, he yelled FUCk out of sexual frustration, but he's too closeted to admit it to himself.

Anonymous said...

Angry beaver at 8:10: You are a fucking idiot.

Spokey at 9:10: 3 cheers for you...less politics and blind party zombies like beaver and more honest discourse..

Mad Hatter said...

Just listening to my favorate band, Men Without Hats... I fookin'n HATE hats!

Bongus said...

Have you seen Robin Thicke in his earliest try to get rid of any wife?

look for Thicke "when I get you alone"

Piss

JLRB said...

bully bullshit

alpaca lips said...

Went on the big local charity ride yesterday and actually exceeded "Fred Woo-Hoo Speed" on one of the downhills. But somehow I restrained myself from, uh, vocalizing.

JB said...

But what's the terminal Fred velocity?

If you drop a Fred, on a Speshulised, in the drops, off a cliff, facing down; then what is the maximum speed (i.e., speed at which force due to air drag equals acceleration due to gravity)?

Spokey said...

JB

is that with or without an air spear

1904 Cadardi said...

JB,

I'm working on your calculation and have an aerodymanical question. A Fred-in-the-drops is about the same height as a Cat 4 on the hoods, right?

McFly said...

A Frenchman? In yellow? On Bastille Day? At least he has a cool name. Gallopin.

Unknown said...

thought you might be interested....
http://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/bik/4539349082.html

leroy said...

Dear Mr. JB --

My dog volunteered that his years of riding with me make it easy to calculate the point at which I achieve terminal velocity or zero acceleration.

It's a simple formula, expressed thusly:

If S = my Specialized, and
PL = pace line, and
AT = attack,

then the point at which I achieve zero acceleration can be expressed as

S•PL•AT.

It's tough to argue math with someone who doesn't have to take off his shoes to count past ten.

And anyway I proved his theory for about 125 miles this weekend.

Anonymous said...

I consulted the Mr. Know-It-All Oracle and Fred terminal velocity is about 120 mph.
That assumes Fred tumbles wildly out of control on the descent. If he was tucked in the aero position, he may achieve over 200 mph.

Blog Drafter said...

Since Fred weight is invariably somewhat north of 175 pounds (the mythical cutoff weight separating "Birds" from Freds) any calculation regarding TFV (Terminal Fred Velocity) must include a factor of *175 or *17.5 or *1.75 (depending on the equation being used) to be valid, IMHO.

Anonymous said...

Leroy, COWeekend, 11:51.

leroy said...

My dog also advises that terminal velocity is simply "Woo-Hoo" speed spelled backwards: "Ooh-Oow."

Anonymous said...

A Frenchman opens the day wearing the yellow on Bastille day, then ignominiously get dropped out of the back, on Bastille day. So much for the Gallopin' Gallopin

Anonymous said...

Further to Friday's comments section( which was a collective Hoot), actual Fred Terminal Speed is inconsequential…what matters is that the Fred is Terminal, and will not come back to harass me and my fellow cyclists enjoying today's nice Rails To Trails™ riding experience.