When it rains it pours. ( Long post)

[Manuel Acosta]

Riding without my Rivendell is meh but doable. Trying to make the best
of the sad situation by riding with old college road bike (carbon
fork, no spoke wheels, no fender mounts. Grant already scold at my
clipless shoes.) and with good old friends. Weird December with no
rain, but I'm not complaining. Good rides so far, got to ride the
Rivendell HQ to meet with a buddy of mine, ran into Erik from Cosmic
Country( Pictures are amazing by the way. check him out.
http://bikenoir.blogspot.com/) who just recently got back from a
overnight trip at Mt.Diablo. Got to see my buddy Will's hanky panky
new bike. Old MB-2 that he got sandblasted and clear coated. Beautiful
bike, super functional huge thanks to Vince and everyone at Rivendell
for helping him out. His bike turned out really well and he seems
really happy about now he just needs to get it dirty, hopefully we can
get a camping trip in soon.

Pictures prove that Will's bike exist:
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxv1zpH

My other good buddy Duy coming up from LA brought up his Rambouillet
(by far one of my favorite names for a bike). His bike doesn't see a
lot of dirt in LA so when he comes up we try to get it as dirty as
possible. We take the dirt trail up from Lake Chabot to Skyline Road
and ride through West Ridge. Funny looking stares from both ends of
the spectrum from Mountain bikers and Road bikers(Riding non-lycra
clothing on a nice dirt trail with a carbon fork road bike). But not
from Changing Gears Head Mechanic Barry! Ran into this guy with his
well weathered stuntjumper right at the end of West ridge. I was lucky
enough to ride with Barry on a couple rides and this guy rides
everywhere and everything. Truly inspired by what he does at Changing
Gears.

Today
Riding down Fernside Street in Alameda with my good friend Duy. Nice
chill day deserved a nice chill ride especially after riding through
the Berkeley hills the other day. We come up to the Eastshore street
stop sign. I stop but don't put my foot down (trackstand to keep up)
look left, no traffic and right at the motorcycle cop parked on East
Shore street and I roll through the intersection WITH the car directly
across the street from me. Motorcycle cop pulls me over for rolling
through a stop sign because I didn't put my foot down. I try to
contest but he tells me to save the talking for the judge if I want to
contest the ticket. Venting I know. Even worse case is that Duy gets a
ticket too! Bah. It's a way to start the day.

Pictures proved that it happened:
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxvzoXM

Meh. Despite the ticket so far so good with the Christmas break.
Looking forward for more rides. Still looking for my bike. But after
this ticket I feel like I might never find it again. I've come to
terms with that. Before school starts I WILL be stopping by RHQ to
test ride some bikes. Hoping for a Holiday Miracle on my stolen bike
or at least not another ticket before the New Years.
This will be one of my last post for a while. So I wish everyone here
on the forum happy holidays, happy riding, happy times.

-Manny "Don't get another ticket before the New Years" Acosta

[Justin August]

Manny-
What size Bleriot did you ride?

_J

[Joe Bernard]

He had a 49cm. Not a common Bleriot (if there is such a thing).

[Montclair BobbyB]

That cop obviously had an axe to grind, if that's what he considers
important to preserving public safety... shake it off, Manny... better
times ahead.

Speaking of motorcycles (at the risk of being chastised), I just gave
myself an early Christmas gift...a classic a 1997 BMW R60/7(first
motorcycle) in mint condition. I only say this because although I've
never had ANY desire to ride motorcycles, strangely enough, getting
hooked into the Riv culture has somehow made me want to own a classic
motorcycle to take on long, back-road journeys... Is that off-the-
wall?... or have any of you gotten the same urge as a result of being
out there on your bike, seeing beautiful cruising bikes (BSAs,
Triumphs, BMWs, etc...) gracefully sneak by you down some lonely
road? Don't worry, this will never replace my bike jones; hopefully
only enhance it.

Merry Christmas to all...

Peace,
BB

On Dec 22, 12:34 am, Manuel Acosta <manueljohnaco...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

> Riding without my Rivendell is meh but doable. Trying to make the best
> of the sad situation by riding with old college road bike (carbon
> fork, no spoke wheels, no fender mounts. Grant already scold at my
> clipless shoes.) and with good old friends. Weird December with no
> rain, but I'm not complaining. Good rides so far, got to ride the
> Rivendell HQ to meet with a buddy of mine, ran into  Erik from Cosmic

> Country( Pictures are amazing by the way. check him out.http://bikenoir.blogspot.com/) who just recently got back from a

[jimD]

Manny,

Very sorry to hear about the theft of your bike.

Your students' theory that it was an alien abduction seems about right.
Even if it were a person they are pretty much alien (or maybe alienated?) as they seem to have had a bike
but whet ahead and exchanged that for yours.

Also the cop 'rolling stop' incident is just sorta sad.
Must be not much fun having work like that.

So if it's true that the wheel of karma grinds slow but it grinds fine, there will be dues to be paid
somewhere down the road.

I guessing the new year will bring you better fortune.

Cheers,
JimD

[Montclair BobbyB]

Correction... that's a 1977 (not 1997) R60/7... (hopefully limiting
the degree of chastization???)

On Dec 23, 10:44 am, Montclair BobbyB <montclairbob...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> > -Manny "Don't get another ticket before the New Years" Acosta- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -