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Let Rick Ride!! Rick Oberle is being outlawed from DALMAC 2008. It seems that last year he was allegedly illegally flying his flag and now justice must be served. What did he do? In consideration of his fellow riders and the safety of the pack, he always flew his flag in his back pocket. After all, the rules only said the flag had to be unfurled and on the bike. It was! Pulling into Morely-Stanwood among the earlier finishers, the ride leader asked him where his flag was. He pulled it out of his pocket and showed him. The leader went apoplectic! He ran for the rule book and realized that the law had not been broken. Perhaps the spirit was bent, but the law was intact. Rick tried to explain the reasons that a flag-in-the-pocket is safer than a flag on a sharp stick. He pointed out all the other riders in the pack that had flag sticks at saddle height amounting to nothing but a hazard to everyone in the pack, especially the rider directly behind whose eye was likely to be impaled in the event of a crash. Who is Rick Oberle anyhow? First, he's been a TCBA member since 1989 and was the DALMAC Committee for the five years as the designer of the DALMAC data system. Rick and bikes go back to the 60s when he got his first English Racer. He rode that on the 1971 TOSRV. He then got into racing and rode team races (the ultimate test in bike handling) in Kenosha and Northbrook and rode criteriums throughout the Midwest with the best the USA had to offer. He rode in the National Championships in 1973 (track) and 1975 (road). Rick knows how to ride! Why is it that he has ridden almost TWENTY DALMACS? He was one of the founders of the Kal-Haven Trail and was successful in getting a large grant from the DALMAC Fund in 1985. In gratitude and out of curiosity of what this event really was, he signed up to ride. He's been back (almost) every year since and centers his summer around it. Rick is the same guy who ran the League of Michigan Bicyclists after Lucinda Means' untimely passing two years ago. He also is one of the originators of the Detroit Free Press Michigander and the Kal-Haven Trailblazer. Tell DALMAC to let Rick Ride!! What about this "NEW" flag rule? The first
"new" thing in the rule book is that flags have to be unfurled and
over the rider's head. It doesn't say what kind of flag, how big, how
high, or anything else. it doesn't even say it has to have a pole, ie a
sharp stick. There will probably be a lot of smart@$$s (people
with minds like Rick's) who will tape some little thing up on their helmet and
call it good. If DALMAC is going to have a serious rule about flags and
safety, they really should have some guidelines. Heck. they don't even
offer a flag anymore! Be sure to look at the DALMAC Discussion Board to
see a guy on a butt-scraper recumbent whose flag is perfectly within the
rules of the ride. Unfortunately, it's only about 3 feet off the
ground. What good is that???
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The scene of the crime!