I Am Unprepared. And Naturally Hi-Vis!

I was caught off guard by the unseasonably warm weather last week. While the morning was cool, the trip home from work was in a balmy 14 C. See, I'm not one of those who celebrates the return of Spring prematurely. I don't switch back to my summer commuter bike until there is almost zero chance of snow or ice. Mutant Winter seems downright sporty ever since I put air in her tires after running for months in deflated mode, so that's good enough for me. I feel confident that winter will take one more kick at it at least, and I hate switching back and forth.

The thing is, I have not prepared myself to ride in warmer weather clothing-wise either. My fair weather cycling shoes are MIA somewhere around the house. I have been too busy or lazy (the former if you are me and the latter if you are some external observer of me) to find them yet. So, like I said, I was caught off guard last week, which left me trying to look normal while wearing cold weather cycling boots and long socks with my cycling shorts since I didn't want to wear my cold weather pants and roast like a turkey.

It has been a while since I posted pictures of any part of myself online... if any of you sick perverted freaks have been anxiously awaiting some Rantwick Action, today is your day. Please never ever ever contact me and for the love of God seek some counselling in this matter. Here's the process I went through that warm afternoon:

click pic to enlarge

Now, one result of this sad situation was that I discovered something good. There is something about brazenly untanned, pigmentless human skin that catches the eye like almost nothing else. Since I almost never go shirtless in summer, I am that guy at the beach with a farmer (or in my case, cycling) tan whose blazing whiteness makes you wish you didn't have eyes. I am not alone in this, so in this respect I am about as Hi-Vis in the leg department as every other uber-white cyclist who is coming off the trainer, out of the basement or out of their cold weather gear and riding in shorts again. When I was taking the pictures, I thought to myself, "well at least those white socks make my legs look less terrifyingly white..."

The pictures above were taken in my office, which thank goodness has windows and receives some natural light. When I take pictures of stuff, including my limbs, I usually do some with the flash and some without. When the flash was used, those socks didn't stand a chance in the Hi-Vis category. Along with my summer cycling shoes, I have also misplaced some reflective ankle bands I usually wear, but as you can see, I have absolutely nothing to worry about:

You would think the leg hair would cut the glare a little, but no joy. Lots of cyclists shave their legs, especially the racer types. Not me. I ain't no racer, plus if things keep going the way they have started to, my legs will eventually be the only way I'll be able to enjoy the breeze blowing through my hair on a bike ride... maybe I should get some rogaine for them! I bet riding around with Chewbacca legs would feel fantastic! I would have to find my reflective ankle straps though. Hmmm. Decisions.

If you see me riding, please don't drive your car into the light. There's nothing divine going on, believe me.

R A N T W I C K

PS - Check out ChipSeal's latest post here. Then donate to help defend him using the button on this page.

Hey, Thanks! Now Do More.

Check out the donation meter at let-him-ride.com. People who have used my donate button and other donation buttons sprinkled around the web have raised just over two grand for ChipSeal's legal costs. I just wanted to thank everybody who clicked from here, and ask everybody else to do the same, because the way things are going there is every chance that the target of 5K may not be enough.

If you want the donate button code for your web site, shoot me an email.

I also wanted to re-ask everybody to keep talking, emailing and generally circulating the news of what's going on in Ennis and the county of Ellis in Texas. I mean, multiple trips to jail for riding in the lane? Huh? If this dude was some local rich guy you can bet he wouldn't be getting hauled in by the cops for riding on the road. Tell your friends. And strangers. And web geeks like me. And politicians. You get the idea.

Speaking of how things are going, let-him-ride.com was created by people who care about ChipSeal and cycling in Texas as a central place for news and information. Check it out if you get a second, link to it yourself in emails and web pages, all that good stuff.

I'll be off my soap box and on something else next time, I promise.

R A N T W I C K