Tuesday

The connection here is that I was out on the bike path for my routine 15 miler tonight and I couldn't help but start fingering the on-coming riders (and a couple who passed me) by their appropriate Greek letter.

Obviously, the Alpha bikers are those young-guns decked out in their brightly colored, Lycra-tight-fitting team "kits", riding their racing machines. And looking very important. To themselves.

The Beta boys are modestly less-intense, maybe a little older, still well-appointed in dress and equipment, almost always alone. Trying to hold on.

Moving a little further down the scale, you have the Theta's and Kappa's, college boys on hybrids or mountain bikes. No helmet. Cruising along at a good clip. Not as many of these guys.

Sigma's really don't merit a rating. They have old, beat-up, up-right bikes with beefy tires. They wear baseball caps. The "missus" may be right behind them in similar attire. Not pretty.

I'm an Omega. Because there isn't a lower letter.

Somewhere in the middle of this system you get the Mom's and Dad's out there with their kids. Their only problem is crowd control when the little ones are trying to ride their own bikes. One of my recommendations to future parents who want to take their kids out for a ride is to get a child trailer to pull rather than a seat on the back of the bike. Having been in as many accidents as I have been in, I have the personal experience to say that the safety of the trailer is light years ahead of the chances we took with our kids with the bike seat. We were very lucky. Except for 3 in the well-documented Mercy Park crash.

Another area of biking observation is tattoos. Or more accurately, the lack of tattoos among bikers. Unlike the traditional "manly" sports, the girly men of cycling are not big into body art. Now motorized bikers do do tattoos. I think they may have set the standards for the bballers and football players that have memorialized in their epidermis every significant event or person in their lives.

These images are a little out of preferred balance, but it's late and I"m out of patience.

4 started a Summer internship at Channel 6 today. We'll be anxious for the "inside scoop" on our local media celebrities.

Looks like some FFF in Rochester this weekend for 1's marathon. Hope the weather cooperates.

More tomorrow.

BCOT