“Drown yourself in espresso and tears!” I’m not sure what that means, but The New York Times grabbed the comment from an unidentified Seattle blog on the subject of, yes, cars versus bicyclists. This Sunday Styles section article, sampled the rage around the country: North Carolina, New York, California, and Oregon. Stories of tension abound, but where is our Critical Mass bike riot? (Can we call it that yet, a riot? It sounds so much more important that way.) Other cities’ commuter conflicts were apparently more violent and newsworthy.As for the espresso and tears, they apparently have something to do with motorists’ resentment of elitist cyclists zooming by them in gridlock. The Times puts it this way.”There’s a whiff of class warfare in the simmering hostility, too. During morning rush, the teeth-gritting of drivers is almost audible, as superbly fit cyclists, wearing Sharpie-toned spandex and riding $3,000 bikes, cockily dart through the swampy, stolid traffic to offices with bike racks and showers.”I don’t know about you, but the only $3,000 bikes I see are on weekends, circling around Lake Washington or on the Burke-Gilman Trail. I’ve never seen a bike that fancy used for commuting, which entails potholes, constant rain in winter, regular flat tires, the treacherous SLUT tracks, and general abuse on the Seattle streets. Back when I biked to work in Manhattan, the other bicycles were all beaters like mine–worse than here. The general rule there was not to spend over $100 on a bike, since theft was so prevalent. And while Manhattan is richer than ever, the Times also recently reported that there was nowhere to lock your bike safely outside (a complaint also heard in Seattle), making the $3,000 commuter trope look rather bogus.