Pinellas County Vamp Rides

Vamp
v. To advance; to travel [Obs.] [1913 Webster] (foreign roads on our bikes)
v. to concoct; to invent; make up (new routes to travel on)
v. 3: act seductively (so as to coerce Pinellas County riders to ride their bikes past the county line)

In an effort to help convince Pinellas County riders to cross the county line on their bikes, here are a few possible route suggestions. If you have a suggestion for a great place to ride to by bike, please tell me so I can add it to the list. This information was put together due to a number of people expressing interest in longer group rides. These could be just a few people or larger groups. They could be day rides or multi-day rides.

Points of interest along the way or as a destination are highly desired. Give us a good reason to go somewhere to enjoy both the ride and the destination. Google maps has a habit of changing the specified routes so there may be some discrepancies between what I indicated and what you see.

Because of the problem with google maps, these routes are gradually being moving to GPX route files which require you to load them into come sort of mapping program such as the Viking GPS data editor or directly into your Garmin, etc. also.

You may have noticed the ride reports stopped after May 4, 2018. That is because I had been experiencing violent vehicular assaults on 476 between Nobleton and Bushnell and a couple of other places. A guy who lived right off of 476 would see me, get in his pickup and start making close runs at me to try to force me off of the road while screaming and honking his horn. I mentioned this to Paul Rozelle, a Pinellas County prosecuting attorney, who ran the brevets I went to. I had long thought he was a decent person and a cycling advocate, so I told him about those and the big increase in police assaults against cyclists (including a hit and run) but his curious reply started awakening me to the person he really is. He told me in a very flippant way that 'those things come and go'. I decided to stop going on his brevets.

A little over a year later, I had gone down to St Pete to ride with a few friends on one of the SPBC daily rides. I was running sweep on a marked Share Road, with an undersized 10'7" lane with a 30" shoulder, which, by Florida law at the time provides for cyclists to take the entire lane, riding two up. A motorcycle cop came up behind us on his speaker and started screaming at us to get in the 'bike lane'.

One line of us was already riding on the shoulder (which often has debris which had caused some devastating and very costly injuries in the past) and there was nowhere for us to go so the cop became violent, screaming over and over. I finally gently and calmly said "Sir, there is no bike lane on this road". He first told me to shut up that I was doing nothing wrong, that he was talking to the riders in front of me but then pulled behind me, hit lights and siren and pulled me over.

I thought this might be a good opportunity to explain the law in a civil way to him but instead, he screamed at me "Who gets to say if this is a bike lane or not? You or me?" in a literally murderous rage. I realized then that he knew the law and was intentionally committing crimes and endangering the riders so I shut up and only answered questions which he constantly replied to by screaming at me, calling me a liar and threatening me. I remained civil as possible, actually expecting him to kill me at any moment (several friends I used to ride with in TX were murdered by cops simply because they were riding safely and legally on public roads). I found out later that he had pulled a gun on a young lady earlier that morning because she tried to explain the law to him, so my concern was completely justified. He knowingly and criminally ticketed me and I managed to get away without getting murdered by him.

I called Paul, explained the situation and my fears and he said not to worry, I had done nothing wrong and that he would make sure that law was upheld. I decided to trust him and follow his advice, which was a mistake that almost killed me several times, has left me disabled and unable to walk unassisted and with various long-term injuries because every time I attempted to obtain legal assistance, "law enforcement" officers would retaliate by attacking again. I was assaulted six times, my wife three and our new 'black' neighbors once (in a 'kill two birds with one stone' fake swatting). Also, one of the two lawyers I hired I am quite certain was threatened into not defending me and the other appears to have been working for the criminal cop gangs as he took my money and then sabotaged my defense.

One evening, as my wife and I were leaving in her minivan, cops surrounded her car, she rolled the window down slightly to ask why and one of the cops pushed his arm in the van, unlocked the doors and another cop opened my door, told me to get out and empty my pockets. As I pulled my hands out of my pockets, at least four of them jumped me and started repeatedly shoving my arms up and way of their sockets to the point where I could feel fluid filling my shoulder sockets as they were being torn out of place. This went on for so long that neighbors started coming out of their houses to see why I was crying out in intense pain so the cops told me to shut up and started smashing my head into the van, causing multiple concussions. One cop was holding my wife in the car so she couldn't see everything and she thought they had murdered me when I went silent.

The cops never told me a legal reason for this attack on us but said "This should teach you cyclists to quit riding on the streets". I told them to contact Paul but they just laughed, bragging that it wasn't a legal arrest and said "We often do this as a favor for our buddies". I again asked them to contact Paul and they said we don't need to, reiterating the 'favor' line for him. I thought this was strange and decided I just misunderstood them.

I was taken to jail (and hours later was falsely charged with multiple felonies) where those same cops started sexually assaulting me until a jailer entered the room and stopped them. More stuff that I won't go into, but even though it was known I had been violently beat up, no medical assistance was provided.

I hired a lawer who told me to leave the state, for my own safety, and she would handle it. It turned out that the head injuries caused some sort of brain injury that destabilised me and I kept blacking out, getting dizzy, falling and injuring myself, breaking several bones and almost falling to my death once, until I realized I could no longer walk unassisted.

That first lawyer suddenly refused to continue, clearly in great fear, so I contacted quite a few others and was told through various accounts that basically, "law enforcement" in Pinellas County is a criminal gang and go after anyone who stands up to them. Bike lawyers refused to take the case, saying "I don't do traffic tickets anymore", with one finally explaining that the judge refuses to acknowledge the law and was aiding and abetting the cop assaults and wrongful ticketing "to get cyclists off of her roads".

It wasn't for another year until my doctor discovered the cause of my mental damage and was able to start medication that keeps the damage somewhat under control, so I wasn't really able to comprehend what the lawyers were trying to tell me. Basically, every time I tried to get a legal defense, the cops retaliated and the situations made it clear to me that the judge (or Paul) was likely ordering most of those crimes, especially in light of her violent attitude towards me in court and what my lawyer described as "inappropriate" actions against me in court (i.e. crimes) such that she should have been removed from my case.

Throughout this I kept wondering where Paul was and why he wasn't doing what he said he would do so I contacted him. He called me "despicable" and told me to never contact him again. Now he knows full well that I did nothing wrong, that every single statement in court records about me was a lie and that I was a perfect gentleman in all of this so on hearing his words, I realized that he most likely really had ordered the "favor" that those cops claimed he had. Him having my wife assaulted crossed the line for me.

Conclusion:

These violent, criminal assaults directly cost my family over $50,000, not including medical bills and moving expenses. Through repeated assaults and threats of continued action, we were forced to sell our house and move, and then move again, completely out of the area and near our families and friends. Since they had already assaulted my wife twice, I suggested it not safe for her to be with me anymore due to those threats of continued attacks on me and she reluctantly agreed.

Thoughts:

Paul never made good on his word to make sure the law was upheld so whether or not he actually ordered that long list of violent hate crime felonies against me, my wife, neighbors, lawyer and the law itself, he certainly isn't a person to be trusted, especially around cyclists. He certainly lied to me and he lied about me - to me. He chose to defend his perverted, criminal cop buddies instead of the law. Later, other riders who used to do his brevets who I talked with also recounted issues they had with Paul. Paul, his judge and buddies are truly the despicable ones in all of this.

St Pete Bike Club (SPBC):

When the criminal cop first pulled me over, the SPBC riders just put their heads down and rode away and did nothing at all, even though I was gently and civilly defending them. You can see them riding away as fast as they could in the video I took. They never lifted a finger to help or defend me. They never warned me or any of my friends that the cops had been assaulting the rides. Even though the same cop committed scores of felonies against cyclists in just the two weeks after this happened, they still falsely claimed that "We have no problems with the cops". I later was told by an honorable and trustworthy friend that the St Pete bike club riders told him they had supported and defended the long list of hate crimes against us because I ride a bike that is a tiny bit different than what most of them ride. Truly pathetic, lying, cowardly people who I thought were friends and who I had always gone out of my way to assist and be friendly to, even though, in retrospect, only a few had ever returned those actions towards us.

One lesson in this is - just don't ride with people who aren't true trustworty and loyal friends. I have had cops commit felonies against me every 3-5 years of my adult life; purely and simply out of hateful bigotry because I don't travel in a car and not once have they been held accountable. The only way to protect ourselves against these violent criminals is to stick together, support and defend each other. And make sure Paul Rozelle isn't anywhere around. You really don't want violent, criminal perverts near decent, law-abiding people.

Recent Rides Completed :

Multi-day Rides this year!

We are planning on doing some multi-day rides this year. I've done a number of 2 and 3-day out and back (mostly) rides the past few years starting in Pinellas County, including Ormond Beach, Melrose, Gainesville, Inverness, Dunnellon, Weeki Wachee, Mt. Dora, Titusville, Cocoa Beach, Sebring, . I've ridden to Tallahasee and back from Gainesville and to there from Pinellas County mostly along Hwy 98. I've ridden most of Hwy 90 in Florida several times (I think my favorite road) and all over central Florida on trips and brevets.

Where do you want to go?

These can be leisurely rides or fast rides. I'll do either! Pick somewhere you want to go and we'll try to ride there and back. We usually do credit card trips these days so if you want to camp, just don't expect all of us to.

Note that google maps is no longer following the routes laid out in the following urls so most are likely incorrect. I will likely provide links to gpx track files in the future so you will need something to view them with.

Lunch Rides!

Day Rides!

Multi-day Rides!

Brevets!

Brevets are a randonneuring event and a great way to accomplish distance rides and meet new riding friends. These are events where the riders follow an indicated course through a series of controls or check points at their own pace (mostly) that must be documented to indicate the proper completion of the course. Typical brevet lengths are 100k, 200k, 300, 400, 600, 1000k and 1200k.

I know of two RUSA supported Randonneuring groups that run brevets in the Central Florida area:

The Central Florida Randonneurs typically start their brevets out of Tavares, FL and always put on a great event. Tavares is just north of some of the best hills in Florida and CFR usually makes a point of including some of them in the shorter routes, at least. I usually ride the 200k up to Tavares the day before the event and ride back the day after.

The Gainesville Cycling Club has their Brevet Series each year. They have really good routes for 200k, 300k, 400k and 600k brevets. The 600k I rode went up into Georgia, back down almost to Tallahassee and back to Gainesville. I've also ridden up to Gainesville, ridden a 200k brevet the next day, then rode back the third day. Anyone interested? Anyone interested in starting a brevet series around here?

Need Info!

I've ridden from Titusville through St Cloud, Lakeland, Plant City, Tampa to Clearwater. Are there any points of interest worth riding to somewhere along that way? I've ridden from Clearwater to Gainesville and from Clearwater to Tallahassee and on through northern Florida (rode from Central Texas to the east coast, down through Clearwater and then back to Texas). Anyone interested in something up that way?

Thoughts

We spent almost two months the fall of 2014 (and again the summer of 2015 via a more northerly route) wandering by minivan with our bikes inside from Pinellas County to Portland, Oregon, down the Pacific Coast then through eastern California, Nevada, Arizona, back to Florida. We rode our bikes almost every day at least 30-40 miles on roads and trails as were fairly easy to travel on. West of the Natchez Trace heading northwest, ridable open roads were very few and far between until we reached eastern Oregon. Even in Oregon, roads were far less rideable than most places in central and northern Florida. Though the roads were typically not very amenable to cycling, the drivers tended to be far better and safer. Even in Portland, Oregon, the city streets are not great for cyclists but they ride them anyway and in huge numbers. Basically it appears to me that they have simply forced their way onto public roads and made drivers respect them through their numbers. We never once saw a single cycle peloton anywhere during the trip. Riders rode alone or in small numbers. Portland in 2015, with the huge influx of people moving to Portland and bringing their road rage behaviors with them, there were more problems riding in the area. The problem is apparently becoming a big issue for Portland riders as I read several magazine and newspaper articles published in the couple of weeks we were there regarding the conflicts, hits and deaths by drivers.

Riding back through the Florida Panhandle along Hwy 90 was simply fabulous. It's been about 6 years since I've travelled Hwy 90 and it was just as enjoyable as I remembered.

In my opinion, by far, Florida has the best backroads for travelling by bicycle anywere I've been in the USA. If we want drivers to learn how to deal with cyclists, maybe the answer is just to get out on the roads and ride them often and in numbers.

E-mail: stp-rides(at)goathill(dot)org

Oct 21, 2021