Tuesday, January 13, 2009

I TRIPLE-dog-dare ya!

Flick: Are you kidding? Stick my tongue to that stupid pole? That's dumb! Schwartz: That's 'cause you know it'll stick! Flick: You're full of it! Schwartz: Oh yeah? Flick: Yeah! Schwartz: Well I double-DOG-dare ya! Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] NOW it was serious. A double-dog-dare. What else was there but a "triple dare ya"? And then, the coup de grace of all dares, the sinister triple-dog-dare. Schwartz: I TRIPLE-dog-dare ya! Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] Schwartz created a slight breach of etiquette by skipping the triple dare and going right for the throat!
A Christmas Story (1983)

So it's gonna get wicked cold! Cold as in, it hasn't been this cold for years cold!
Some might suggest that you should stay off your bike..to which you reply... Are you crazy? I have to ride... it's in my blood. I love winter here in New England, I'm, I'm...OK so it's my only way around I have to ride and it really sucks! But I'm gonna do it anyway! As they say down south, get 'er done...

Alrighty then...well dress warm...really warm! But remember this, everything moves slower in the cold. I think I remember something about Absolute Zero from long ago school days. Winter in Boston, on a bicycle, it takes hardy souls to ride in such conditions. Hey, but you are one of them...you refuse to let sub zero temperatures and or wind chills, snow or slush to slow your cycling down. Kinda like winter surfing on the New Hampshire coast! Only not as wet, for the most part.

Please remember a couple of things among which are...You are going to be a even bigger surprise than usual to drivers that will "see" you even less. And your having extra everythings on, will have a hard time seeing and hearing, not to mention with the snow conditions in the streets it will be dicey 24/7.

It is in weather like this that the grease in your head set and bottom crank can get stiff plus even the cables can be sticky. Tires get low, hydraulic brake lines can become very brittle. Storing you bike outside might become necessary because a warm surface allows for melting/condensation etc. to get into places that, when you return to outdoors, will freeze fast and solid. Needing to check your brakes often, before you need them and because it clears any snow off the rims. Oh for joy! Sounds like real fun!

But despite all this, it is your McMurdo Station attitude that make it the ultimate BIKE ME statement!

Ride safe and stay warm!





4 comments:

Charlotte said...

I got peer pressured into leaving the bike at home and taking the bus. Ugh, never again. I had to wait, standing still, in that wind for longer than my ride would have taken (even slowly), then packed like a sardine on the bus. No thanks.

Shawsheen said...

I never liked sardines either!

Snowmobile/ski accessories...practical & stylish :)

Jon said...

Y'know, we don't actually say, "Get'r done," down south. Larry the Cable Guy is from Nebraska, and is simply perpetuating the Beverly Hillbillies-type crap that drives me nuts.

We're not "all" Cletus the Slackjawed Yokel.

Anonymous said...

People still try it:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28678112/?GT1=43001