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Lucas Brunelle: Line of Sight
Interview With a Daredevil: Lucas Brunelle
ByBill Donahue
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Do you ride like that even when you're picking up groceries?




Ever get hurt?


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how can Lucas Brunelle get hurt too, i think him was alright.. hoist crane jakarta
Wow..Real daredevil!!! meaning of memorial day
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Does anyone know if Lucas Brunelle has a web site where he post images taken from his helmet cam. I find it an unusual filming. Another question: the films are in town or just during the races?
Readers of a magazine targeted at entry-level cyclists and weekend warriors will fail to recognize Mark Brunelle as one of the most creative & hard-working athletes in America.
Why hasn't this idiot been arrested and removed from our streets already? This might discourage the growing sub-culture that emulates his behavior. Can't his videos be used as evidence in a court of law? Perhaps Bob Mionske would like to comment.
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I'm not a Messenger, but i commute all year long 35 miles a day on my Cannondales. When i read Lucas explainin the ridin fun comes from bein among cars, i thought, hey, just like i feel! The truth is i enjoy a lot more my communtings i enjoy my sunday club trainings. Cause motorists are still in bed on sundays, and that i have to ride thru almost free cars countryside. Which is magnificent around here (you saw that on TV, just behind Lance, i'm positive about that...). But the thrill is missin... To all those you posted full of hate comments, i just want to remind them we (sorry Lucas for this we, i dont have your skills) only risk our own life. And little girls who are actually killed do not need us for that...
I dunno about all this. I'm all about people doing what they want with their own lives and bodies but so much of this crap is straight up jitbag selfish. Cycling doesn't need or want this stuff and if you cared about the culture you pretend to love than you'd sort yourself. That goes for all the kook followers too - go find something else to fuck up, cycling doesn't want you. Its hard to be patient with this puerile garbage.
I was a messenger for a long time too, and Manhattan is my favorite place to ride (well, next to the Alps). Everyone's really got their chamois in a bunch over this guy. Jeez, canceling subscriptions over one article? Gimmee a break. The beautiful thing about riding in traffic is how much it is like ballet. The trick to doing it right, for everyone, is to not be a douchebag about it, not causing accidents or hitting peds, regardless of how close you cut it;- it's all timing and balance. It's a rush to be approaching a crosswalk at high speed (with peds moving in both directions)and having to predict exactly where a gap will open up the instant you get there. The only person I ever hit was a guy who jaywalked out from between two parked vans on Park avenue while engrossed in his cell phone. He's just lucky I wasn't a bus. If a rider has true skills they can ride without causing problems other than some pud getting pissed the bike passed closely. No harm, no foul. What's with all the coastie bikes in the video though? A fixed gear is MUCH more controllable in tight situations, and you can still skitch a bus if you've got mad spin. If "Fuck bike advocacy" was not tongue-in-cheek though, then fuck this guy if he's so dumb as to think BA means getting rid of all motor vehicles.
Can you believe this guy is 40 years old according to wikipedia? Yet dumb enough to claim his "style" is safe while his "movie" trailer features 3 wrecks and motorists emergency braking to avoid red light running idiots. Generation gap + midlife crisis = this
Dear Lucas Brunnelle, As a motorist, I want so say thank you for being a completely self-absorbed twat in traffic, there aren't nearly enough of those. As a cyclist, I also want to say thank you for validating society's anti-cyclist attitude and potentially increasing the amount of harassment that I receive from motorists as I go about my business in a socially respectful and law-abiding manner. As a pedestrian, I'll just say that if I see you coming at me like that, I will knock you off of your god-damned bicycle. As if I didn't get enough disrespect from motorists and snow plows... Sincerely, Fuck you.
Lucas's style of riding is impossible to communicate accurately to the public. If you research any 'daredevil' who pulls of seemingly impossible and reckless feats you will learn there is a method behind the madness. The danger is mostly a myth. Alleycat races happen in cities all over the world every weekend and bike messengers ride like this every day for a living. Injuries are extremely rare. Almost every fatality and bad cycling accident in NYC is caused by an inattentive driver and an inexperienced cyclist. The driver is usually at fault but a rider like Lucas would never get hit by an inattentive driver. In my opinion the videos make it look a lot more dangerous than it really is. This is nearly impossible to understand unless you are able to ride at the same level which very few people are able too (or want to). A skilled urban rider's interference with traffic and pedestrians is extremely limited. If you are crossing the street Lucas will pass by you like a gust of wind. You won't even notice his presence until he's passed you and already a block away. A good rider can cross the length of Manhattan without causing a single car to hit the brakes or swerve out his way. Each interaction lasts a few brief moments at most. In this way it is infinitely less annoying and dangerous to traffic than a cyclists who hasn't developed these skills and is uncomfortable amongst cars and pedestrians. If you want an example of this ride down the west side bike path in NYC on a summer weekend. There is carnage everywhere from casual cyclists mowing down pedestrians. The reason Lucas's style of riding can be performed safely in a dense urban area is that 1.a cyclist can move much faster than traffic 2. a cyclist is more maneuverable than traffic. Because of this a hierarchy is developed where the more fragile (the cyclist) is choosing the line. When Lucas comes into an intersection at full speed he has already sized up where each car is, each pedestrian is, and how he can travel safely through. The traffic and pedestrians are passed without ever being in danger. What Lucas is trying to communicate with the Bike Advocacy quote is that in a city it is both safe and fun to ride in traffic at a rate that is faster than the traffic. Bike advocacy, bike lanes, etc are amazing for 95% of all casual cyclists but for those who feel comfortable riding in traffic it is much safer in traffic because you make the decisions not the 3000lb machine. The hate is entertaining to read because there is no real understanding of his riding style or what these videos are showing. Agreed if most people tried to ride like this there would be problems and if you tried to ride like this in the midwest you would get smoked by an SUV in no time. Some of the most amazing rides of my life have been with Lucas. Not once have we pissed anyone off or suffered any accidents.
Are you fucking retarded!? Do you think that all of the motorists honking their horns in Lucas's trailer aren't pissed at the assholes cutting them off by running red lights? You might be less in the way when skitching, but you're a lot more in the way when you cut off cross traffic that has the right of way. And do you think that the pedestrians that get passed at 15-20 mph mere inches from their faces aren't pissed off? If not, then you should get off of your bike and walk for a while. Just because an activity can be done safely, doesn't mean that it isn't insanely rude. I mean, I can flop my dick around in public safely, but it'll definitely piss a few people off. As far as the no accidents remark goes, there are no less than three bicycle crashes in Lucas's "Line of Sight" trailer, all from cyclists laying the bike down to avoid hitting a car as the cyclist runs a red light. Fucking idiots.
wow! bicycling mag getting angry!! i just thought you only cared about shaving cream, spandex and carbon water bottle cages!! it must kill you every time a kid in jeans burns by you on a track bike. get back on the trainer, cat 4 road season is coming. maybe this is the year you loss that pot belly!! thank you lucas, life's to short to worry what other people think of you
Fuck bike advocacy. - Lucas Brunelle, on the occasion that no one even mentioned bike advocacy.
cause u people who said he's a selfish sod, putting others at risk so he can get off, are totally correct. But you can also ignore him as statistically insignificant. Or because he will eventually be an insignificant statistic. Then again you can ignore him because he's an ass, i mean, he has to find his friends to ride with by sucking up to ... bike messengers! LOL, youtube bike messengers, what a lopsided lot of toothless dorks! Out of how ever many there are, what, thousands?, maybe a dozen are worth spit, but not much spit. It also occurs that you can ignore him and find waaayyyy better riding footage from just about -anybody- who has a GoPro, haha again youtube is your friend Lucas, hey great movie!!.... 6 years ago! lol You can choose to ignore him because there is nothing wrong with offending bicycle advocates or roadies or anyone else, but c'mon, a spoiled rich kid pretty much just offends themselves running around town holding up a mirror in front of them, licking his own lips and what. To add to that list you can ignore him because he failed the online douchebag test. He came here and made comments on his own jackassery. I don't want to end the list, it could go on and on, skitching is lazy and for tools etc etc, but if this were a top ten list I'd say - AND NUMBER ONE, THE TOP REASON TO IGNORE THIS TOOL, SURVEY SAYS! BECAUSE HE HATES THAT MOST OF ALL!!! LOL
Why is Bicycling magazine giving any attention to this guy? Do they think it makes them hip or edgy? Best thing to do is just ignore him, and this attention-monger eventually will just fade into obscurity. If I actually paid for my subsciption I would be canceling it now due to this nonsense, but instead will be writing to the League of American Bicyclists to suggest that they re-evaluate any marketing or advertisement agreements they have in place. Lucas, if you want people to take you seriously please move your activities to a controlled environment, just like any other sport, and stop putting the lives and safety of random bystanders at risk. You seem to think that you have some magical ability to avoid crashes, which you don't. The only reason you are still alive is that all of the people around you are remarkably on the ball in reaction to your stunts, and are not operating their vehicles with nearly as much abandon as you. If everyone on the streets stooped to your level of irresponsibility you would be a pancake within 15 minutes. If a bus, swerving to avoid you as you cut across its path, ran over and killed a young mother, would you feel responsible? Would you comfort her family, feed and clothe her children? Would you explain to them about your "heightened sense of awareness" and the thrill you get bombing through traffic?
Woah this is Drama. I’m trying to figure out who we’ve harmed and killed? Nobody at all. Accidents are NOT caused by cyclists who enjoy and are aware of their environment. You can’t ignore me because you’re seeing a lot more of this riding style – safe and fast! Don’t fault Bicycling for this article. I’ve trained emergency personnel and saved lives. BTW that's a Boston Police truck I'm skitching on.
"I’ve trained emergency personnel and saved lives." So what you're saying is: "I've done good things and helped people, so I have license to endanger and annoy people when I ride." So when some driver gets freaked out by your "safe and fast" riding style and gets in a car wreck or injures a pedestrian, who are you going to blame?
No Lucas, the way to bike safely is to remain visible, attentive, and predictable, not erratically and with little margin for error. I teach bike safety as well, to both children and adults, and I tell my students that it is good to be assertive, claim your space on the road and don't let anyone bully you around, but it is bad to be aggressive, stealing the right of way from other road users and pedestrians, and unnecessarily escalating situations just for a little extra speed and an adrenaline rush. I have been biking this way every day, rain or shine, for eight years, and have yet to be involved in a single collision. How many collisions have you been involved in? The point I was trying to make was even if you had superhuman abilities and reflexes, and could foresee and avoid all potential collisions, you still can not control how the road users around you are going to react to your unexpected and unpredictable moves, and any collateral damage that might occur. Perhaps a move you made did cause someone to crash, but how would you know as you are already on to the next block and only concentrating on the traffic ahead of you? I like to bike fast too, but I do it 50 miles outside of town on a country highway where there are a lot fewer variables, not in an urban center. Where you are going is no more important than where any other road user is going, and to put yourself before others is just selfish and rude. I would be satisfied if you were just trying to make the argument that you bike that way because you put your own convenience before others' safety, and do it just for the adrenaline rush, but to say that your style of biking is safer and more responsible is delusional, frankly. If you have some hard evidence to back it up I would love to see that, as opposed to the hearsay and anecdotes that you have made so far in response to all the comments on this story. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the wild west days of biking are ending, and many cities in the US are moving toward a more European model where planners are taking the needs of cyclists into account and starting to build more facilities that work and promote safety for the average person, and not for thrill jockeys that treat their vehicles like an extension of their own ego.
Perhaps one rider's riding style does contribute to a bad image of bikers in the minds of motorists. But why does one rider have the responsibility to upkeep some image for the benefit of others? When you attack the aggressive rider, all you're really doing is making an accommodation for drivers who are not used to the idea that not all cyclists will be have the same way and, moreover, that not all cyclists present the same level of danger or risk when the cyclist attempts any maneuver outside the designated bike lane (which plenty of drivers ignore anyway). I suggest the burden should be on the driver, whose best option is simply to give up on being mad and recognize that bikers who actually interact with traffic and assert themselves on the road are an emerging norm. The aggressive rider owes you nothing and has no responsibility for you as a non-aggressive rider. And if he owes you nothing, it makes no sense to say he's being selfish, as if taking something that belonged to you in the first place (i.e. the image of a tame cyclist). To the person who worried about drivers' emotional states if the driver kills a biker. First, most drivers will simply shrug and say "he did it to himself." Second, even though as a cyclist I don't want to do things that endanger any driver's emotional well-being, I simply find it hard to be overly concerned about it. DRIVERS are constantly making decisions right in front of me that reflect their lack of concern about not just my emotional well-being, but my death. So, sorry, but I simply don't care, nor is there any substantial reason to care, about this issue. I'm a former messenger. I worked in Chicago for two years. I can attest personally to one fact LB asserts. Smart skilled riders stay out of the way of traffic in the first place, far more effectively than normal commuters. Example, a smart rider who simply takes the main lane and keeps up with traffic is less an obtrusion to traffic than a rider who mopes along in the bike lane, causing drivers to have to go around or pass while giving lots of clearance. When I was working, I almost never got honked at because I generally stayed out of the way, as most other messengers did as well. I got into some accidents due to my own fault, but I got into far more trouble b/c of drivers and pedestrians failing to pay attention and making bad choices. Moreover, I'm pretty sure my accident rate (number of accidents over number of hours riding in traffic) is far below that of the average, well-mannered commuter. Why? B/c I learned to assert myself and protect my space. Racing alleycats is just a more energetic form of the same type of thing.
Who are you, the Queen of England? "When one has shat one's self one knows it because one's panties smell dreadful!" Fist you say that dangerous behaviour benefits others, which is crap, traffic systems work best with predictability, not chaos, hence superior safety records in cities with enforced traffic regulation, despite greater density and higher speeds than the bedlam of low traffic enforcement. You are just wrong about that. Also, youtube is your friend you won't have to look hard to find footage of you and your idiot friends causing hard braking in vehicles with the right of way. And what about that dead douche in Chicago? The driver of the suburban did in fact suffer as a result of killing that boy in the alleycat, despite being totally not at fault. You are a liar justifying being a douche by lying. Your example is crapped on a pile of crap, why would anyone in a separate lane be delaying traffic, huh Einstein? The guy keeping up with traffic does not delay anyone, neither does the guy in a bike lane. It's pretty clear you only care about yourself, like Lucas, so just own up to being a douche, an indefensible douche making 3rd grade rationalizations to themselves and others.
Ddevil, that “dead douche in Chicago” as you so call him is the only fatality ever in alleycat racing and he was actually not a messenger. Heck the police don’t even know what an alleycat is because rules of an alleycat or so strict as to not harm anyone else. If you think traffic is predictable you haven’t really ridden. Interesting you mention Einstein, his quotes are some of my fav.
Traffic systems do work best with predictability, I agree. But one of the most predictable things about traffic is that drivers will make mistakes, fail to signal, cut in front of you, not check blind spots, run red lights, open doors in your path,etc. By asserting yourself you take control of the situation and are less at risk of all of that. Also, you're right not all the time do cyclists in the bike lane block traffic. Sorry, but I was mostly thinking about times when traffic is heaviest and there are a ton of bike commuters, as there are here in Chicago. There are hoards of them, they stack up at intersections,etc. I'm not saying everyone should ride aggressively. Most who try, shouldn't, because they do it badly. I'm just saying that you're freaking out about something you don't know enough about when you get so incredibly pissy and upset about riders who DO know what they're doing. I'm not advocating chaos by any means. "It's pretty clear you only care about yourself . . . ." Don't be so foolish.
I'm not sure how to react to this guy. I ride in the city everyday. I take chances that might be considered by some 'reckless', but not to the point I'm going to piss off a driver. Side note, it's easier for them to pull out a gun!! I enjoy a thrill in my riding, but not at the expense of others. That's just selfish. Ride for fun, give yourself that 'rush', but not harm anyone, including yourself.
The riders you see in my videos get into less accidents and anger fewer motorists than any other riders on the streets. The riders you see on club rides physically attack me from time to time (which is a fun upper body workout) because they’re so offended by my riding and wish they could ride the way we do. 99% of accidents are NOT caused by us cyclists who enjoy and are aware of our surroundings. The public is mad at cyclists who don’t know how to ride in and with traffic and are in the way of traffic because they obey outdated laws and things that group ride “leaders” tell them. Also most riders in America just aren’t fast enough for the streets.