It’s generally assumed that the bicycle is in the slow lane with respect to the motorized road users, but there are some exceptions.
I should start by saying that I will chase anything. In my youth I would chase any rider that passed me, from normal looking cyclists to racers. Nowadays, in my twilight years, I realize chasing anything faster than a grandma on a Huffy is probably futile, but the thrill of the chase remains.
So, there are still some slow moving vehicles that I can take a pass at.
I was riding to work the other day when I saw a street sweeper (a rare sight in Carlisle). I can take him, I thought. So I turned up the horsepower, but he was heading up the hill on Curve street, and he was getting away. After the hill, I had him in my sights by the cranberry bogs, I was closing fast, was getting ready to sweep past him, planning my backward sneering glance a la Lance Armstrong when I realized that he had stopped to turn around. What a chicken, robbing me of the sweetness of victory.
The mail delivery vans are usually an easy target, assuming a reasonable mailbox density. The beauty of these is that since they do all their business on the curb side I don’t have to worry about being doored as I sweep by them and make a breakaway.
Similar deal with garbage trucks. Now that we have recycle as well, that slows them down giving me a competitive advantage. When I see a house with three trash cans and miscellaneous flotsam and jetsam to be collected, I know I’ve got it made.
School buses are my nemesis. Seems like they are out there at all times of the day. When I went into work in the wee hours they were there. Now that I go in later they’re still there. Ditto with the afternoon. So, my ear is finely tuned to the sound they make, and the spurs me into sprint mode, lest I be caught behind one.
UPS trucks are more of a challenge. Unlike their kindred mail and garbage trucks, they don’t stop at every house, so even though I can occasionally get off the front of one, they can usually chase me down.
I think I could give a golf cart a good run for its money. I’ve encountered them from time to time but generally when they were crossing the road, like the chicken, to get to the other side, and I wasn’t motivated enough to start chasing them down the fairway.
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