Quote Originally Posted by Biciclista View Post
Nice photo of you, what's up with the white ribbon?
and what do you mean no one "brought" fenders?? (LOL, mine live on my bike)
I was wondering how cyclists were faring with all the flooding up there. glad you finished with a smile!

I know what you mean about the grime, I cleaned my bike yesterday because it looked disgusting and discovered not only grime, but a slow leaking tire which might have been why the last 1/3 of my ride on Saturday was so tough. (Ya think?)
The white ribbon is reflective. I wear it for four reasons:
1. To identify me to motorists. If you're a driver, all bicyclists look pretty much the same. But if you see me with my ribbons once, and then see me again later, you'll know it's me. My theory is that connection -- "Oh, it's the same person I saw earlier!" -- changes me from Just Another Darn Bicyclist Slowing Me Down to a human being.
2. To be eye-catching and reflective when I ride in the dark.
3. To be pretty.
4. To be a wind sock so I always know which way the wind is coming from.

"Brought fenders" - This group is a fast-paced group that tends to have those race blade fenders you can snap on and off real quick. They only put those fenders on when the roads are wet. If it's really rainy, we'll all bring our rain bikes that have permanent fenders with buddy flaps. I have permanent fenders on my commuting bike, but on Lucy (the Fast Bike shown in this picture), I just use a rear race blade. Except yesterday I didn't.

We rode through a fair bit of water up there. I was unaware of the flooding until we got to a sign that said "Road closed due to flooding." We rode through anyway and some places the water was low enough to ride through; other places, we had to reroute. I can't imagine what's happening up there today with more rain!