That’s true – The GEC building in Spon Street, Coventry, had a fire in the 1980s and I was going for my lunch when I looked over and saw a wisp of smoke. Before I had bought my lunch and returned – less than 5 minutes – the whole roof was ablaze and falling embers were lighting up everything below. Roof spaces are full of dry stuff that loves to burn. Because the space is well ventilated to avoid condensation there is a blowtorch effect. So a building that had survived the Coventry blitz, was burned to the ground from a simple fire.
Could have some aging electrical equipment in it, too. There was a transformer explosion a few years ago in Lexington, I was sitting in a coffee shop reviewing papers, when the lights kinda flickered and went out. Left out the back door, and the heat from the fire, 100 yards away (just checked distance with Google Maps) was the first thing I noticed, it felt like double or triple sunlight. Talked to a woman who was having her hair done directly across the street from the transformer when it blew, she said it went like a bomb.
The Kickstand is in an old railway depot. Lots of diesel fuel probably soaked into the wood over the years. It is also made of wood. Old, highly seasoned wood. Lots of the liquids in the shop are highly flammible–degreasers, lubes, etc., not to mention the rubber of the tires. And Sister Sprocket’s paints. In short, the fireball is highly believable.
Maybe worse then diesel, coal dust fron the steam era, when the tree hit the building all the coal laden dust becomes airborne. Once heard of an old abandoned grain elevator went up, burned completely to the ground before the first fire truck arrived in under a minute.
Was it streetcar or railway? I come from an old railway family; most of the men in my late mother’s family were with the old Nickleplate & Virginia Line. It looks more like a railway depot than a streetcar depot to me.
I think it’s been pretty well established that the building was an old railroad station, part of the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit system (“the Rapid”), which was designed and built by the Van Sweringen brothers in the early 1900s. To be fair, though, I believe the trains all were electric, so the point SDMSS made still stands. It’s unlikely there would have been diesel fuel or coal dust in the building, though wooden construction that old would be very dry and would burn easily even without an accelerant.
No worries. I think it’s a bit of a tomAYto/tomAHto how to define streetcar and interurban railroad from the 1913 perspective. Here’s an original 1914 Cleveland Interurban Railroad car:
Interurban systems would probably be best compared to contemporary light rail systems, which themselves are a vaguely defined hybrid of streetcar and rapid transit. Some cities called their interurban systems ‘streetcar’ lines. I think the Kickstand is based on the Coventry station house.
Just a wild guess… but since the beginning of comic. they always can’t see eye to eye on anything. I guess there must be a twist some where… or just keeping it a good tension between those two.
ACKKK!!! I come back from a weeks peaceful cycling in PEI and find this! Now, I’m on the edge of my seat AND out of nails!!! Excellent plot twist, Rick….great comic!
yah but we don’t want this story to end, silly, we want years and years of Yehuda and the Kickstand Cyclery. If that damn Garfield can live forever, anyone in comics land can!
How’s this for a prediction? The fire spreads to other buildings in the area, creating the need for lots of demolition and reconstruction. Thistle’s husband gets a job on a construction crew, and while the Kickstand is being rebuilt, Yehuda makes some money delivering lunches by bike to the construction workers and Joe sells bike parts salvaged from the fire out of the trunk of his car. Or maybe Thistle joins them with her Bakfiets to carry the parts and they start a roadside bicycle repair service.
I am baffled here. On the 18th we have a blackout due to the storm. Everyone but Sprocket left the building because it was black in there. On the 25th we have an inferno caused by “downed electrical lines”. Seems to me we cannot have it both ways.
I’m just a humble commercial electrician, but may I?
1-Brief storm-caused power outage. Such is not unheard of, at least here in Western Maryland.
2-Shaky-shaky, WUMP!
3-Power comes back on. Any number of wires could have been damaged, and could be in close proximity to any number of flammable materials. Power comes back on, the wires arc, and FAWOOM!
I think, Obi was right yesterday: it’s a dream (of Yehuda, to my opinion).
Look at that giant tree, nearly the sice of a mammouthtree, but it’s a leaf-wearing tree; don’t think, there are souch huge leafe-trees in northern U$A. And how fast that huge tree is on fire – that’s unreal.
BUT there’s onr real scene in that dream, when Thistle tells Joe that she will quit the Kikstand and is gone.
On the other hand: the real Thistle won’t be gone before the house is cleaned up after the party.
So: the last 10 cartoons are a dream of horrors Yehuda has after spoiling Sprocket’s triumph in the race.
Just as a quick count, there are at least ten species of deciduous trees on the northern tier that can reach 75 feet and more (to say nothing of artistic license).
I don’t know about Ohio, but here in Alabama there are lots of oaks that size or larger. I have one in my front yard that’s almost that big. My in-laws have a pecan tree in their back yard that’s even larger.
On the campus of the college I attended in Mississippi there was an oak that makes the tree in this strip look small. It was beside the road to the campus lake (or rather, the road curved around it). When the campus was being built, the workers tried to clear a fairly straight road through the woods to the lake by using a bulldozer to push over any trees that were in the way. But when they got to that oak, the bulldozer’s treads just starting digging trenches in the ground and the tree didn’t budge an inch. So they built the road around the tree.
Oh No!!!
But I am sure he will come out as the hero!
Maybe… although on Sprocket’s shoulders.
As the Internet once said: “The Simpsons did it.”
Or he’ll come out as this…http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=20090628
Perhaps Sister Sprocket will warm to Yehuda after he drags her from a flaming building (pun intended!)
Which pun do you intend? The ‘warming’ of Sister Sprocket’s affection or the ‘drag’ happening in a ‘flaming building’?
It would have worked had he said “after he drags her from a smoking building.” What with her pipe and whatnot.
I expect at least 2 weeks of drama from this.
Excellent plot twist.
Not only is this the best bike comic, it may be one of the best comics period.
Well done!
come on rick, I’m almost out of nails here >.<
Toenails?
Looks like they’re going to regret insulating the shop with gasoline soaked rags and propane tanks.
I mean, really, in the time it takes a motivated cycling hippie to run 50 yards or so, the place goes from a couple of sparks to a raging inferno?
To be fair, most of that’s the tree burning…
Actually this is pretty accurate. Fires do spread that fast. All that stuff you see in the movies is quite unrealistic.
That’s true – The GEC building in Spon Street, Coventry, had a fire in the 1980s and I was going for my lunch when I looked over and saw a wisp of smoke. Before I had bought my lunch and returned – less than 5 minutes – the whole roof was ablaze and falling embers were lighting up everything below. Roof spaces are full of dry stuff that loves to burn. Because the space is well ventilated to avoid condensation there is a blowtorch effect.
So a building that had survived the Coventry blitz, was burned to the ground from a simple fire.
Could have some aging electrical equipment in it, too. There was a transformer explosion a few years ago in Lexington, I was sitting in a coffee shop reviewing papers, when the lights kinda flickered and went out. Left out the back door, and the heat from the fire, 100 yards away (just checked distance with Google Maps) was the first thing I noticed, it felt like double or triple sunlight. Talked to a woman who was having her hair done directly across the street from the transformer when it blew, she said it went like a bomb.
The Kickstand is in an old railway depot. Lots of diesel fuel probably soaked into the wood over the years. It is also made of wood. Old, highly seasoned wood. Lots of the liquids in the shop are highly flammible–degreasers, lubes, etc., not to mention the rubber of the tires. And Sister Sprocket’s paints. In short, the fireball is highly believable.
Isn’t that an old stretcar line?
Maybe worse then diesel, coal dust fron the steam era, when the tree hit the building all the coal laden dust becomes airborne. Once heard of an old abandoned grain elevator went up, burned completely to the ground before the first fire truck arrived in under a minute.
Most American streetcar lines, even from the late 19th century, were exclusively electric.
Was it streetcar or railway? I come from an old railway family; most of the men in my late mother’s family were with the old Nickleplate & Virginia Line. It looks more like a railway depot than a streetcar depot to me.
I think it’s been pretty well established that the building was an old railroad station, part of the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit system (“the Rapid”), which was designed and built by the Van Sweringen brothers in the early 1900s. To be fair, though, I believe the trains all were electric, so the point SDMSS made still stands. It’s unlikely there would have been diesel fuel or coal dust in the building, though wooden construction that old would be very dry and would burn easily even without an accelerant.
No worries. I think it’s a bit of a tomAYto/tomAHto how to define streetcar and interurban railroad from the 1913 perspective. Here’s an original 1914 Cleveland Interurban Railroad car:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sofafort/2907562518/
…which was the type used
Interurban systems would probably be best compared to contemporary light rail systems, which themselves are a vaguely defined hybrid of streetcar and rapid transit. Some cities called their interurban systems ‘streetcar’ lines. I think the Kickstand is based on the Coventry station house.
@WV Tenor – I got an unexpected laugh when I first read “paints” in your post as “pants”.
You should also take into account all the chain lubricant and beer…
Beer has way too much water content to be flammable (especially American beer.)
I knew it…. they two have something going on….
You have something against saving another person’s life without additional motivation?
-Stinko
C’mon Stinko – igGi is clearly referring to something going on between Yehuda and Sprocket! Why don’t you just go down with your ship?
Love for fellow people despite their faults?
Hmmm..
Humility lies in people in the worst of times?
Actually, for once I’m with Stinko on this – why should Yehuda trying to save someone’s life equate to “oo he fancies her!”?
I’d try and save your mum’s life in a fire…
: P
Just a wild guess… but since the beginning of comic. they always can’t see eye to eye on anything. I guess there must be a twist some where… or just keeping it a good tension between those two.
IT was this http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=20100918 . made me rethink their complex relationship… haha.
I stick with what I said yesterday. Sprocket gets resentful as she feels she owes Yehuda, and this gnaws at her….
yeah! that was definitely a kiss
Yes, I think he realised that.
Go Captain S!
“I’ll save you, Sprocket! Oh, wait…. you wouldn’t put out at the party. Never mind. Burn, baby Burn!”
I always think such things before deciding whether or not to lend assistance to someone…
Sad
Never thought I’d agree with CaptainStinko.
spoiler: YEHUDA DIES
ACKKK!!! I come back from a weeks peaceful cycling in PEI and find this! Now, I’m on the edge of my seat AND out of nails!!! Excellent plot twist, Rick….great comic!
I prefer stories that end “And they lived happily everafter.”
yah but we don’t want this story to end, silly, we want years and years of Yehuda and the Kickstand Cyclery. If that damn Garfield can live forever, anyone in comics land can!
Yow! This is pretty dang exciting!
The food at this burn clinic is terrible!
And the portions are small.
Yeah and everything is overcooked!
This where he loses his arm?
I got up, started up my computer and the first thing I had to do is check this and… oh no!!!
Rick has done too good of a job of making these characters seem so real.
Kids, I you are reading this, don’t run into burning buildings.
What I suspected: A new comic is born. Yehuda Moon, Super Hero. What super powers will he possess?
The Walz Cap of Fire Retardation protects the wearer from head to toe.
Well, wool has a higher ignition temperature than synthetics, so Yehuda has that going for him. You’d think Sprocket’s habit would also be wool.
Keep Joe back. He’d burn for decades like a tire dump.
Wet wool, he has been standing in the rain, would protect him some.
Perhaps he’ll become…
Bicycle Repair Man!
Look A Spanner!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U01xasUtlvw You mean THIS one?
Yup….
He’ll be fine, he’s been soaked in the rain. :O Though he’s probably full of beer..
what about the shop?
where will they go?
Stay turned to see Sister Sproket carry Yehuda through the flames to safety.
Toast.
How’s this for a prediction? The fire spreads to other buildings in the area, creating the need for lots of demolition and reconstruction. Thistle’s husband gets a job on a construction crew, and while the Kickstand is being rebuilt, Yehuda makes some money delivering lunches by bike to the construction workers and Joe sells bike parts salvaged from the fire out of the trunk of his car. Or maybe Thistle joins them with her Bakfiets to carry the parts and they start a roadside bicycle repair service.
Just kidding.
I am baffled here. On the 18th we have a blackout due to the storm. Everyone but Sprocket left the building because it was black in there. On the 25th we have an inferno caused by “downed electrical lines”. Seems to me we cannot have it both ways.
I’m just a humble commercial electrician, but may I?
1-Brief storm-caused power outage. Such is not unheard of, at least here in Western Maryland.
2-Shaky-shaky, WUMP!
3-Power comes back on. Any number of wires could have been damaged, and could be in close proximity to any number of flammable materials. Power comes back on, the wires arc, and FAWOOM!
Clear enough?
I’ve seen the power go off and on half a dozen times within 20 minutes during storms, so this seems quite realistic to me.
I think, Obi was right yesterday: it’s a dream (of Yehuda, to my opinion).
Look at that giant tree, nearly the sice of a mammouthtree, but it’s a leaf-wearing tree; don’t think, there are souch huge leafe-trees in northern U$A. And how fast that huge tree is on fire – that’s unreal.
BUT there’s onr real scene in that dream, when Thistle tells Joe that she will quit the Kikstand and is gone.
On the other hand: the real Thistle won’t be gone before the house is cleaned up after the party.
So: the last 10 cartoons are a dream of horrors Yehuda has after spoiling Sprocket’s triumph in the race.
Just as a quick count, there are at least ten species of deciduous trees on the northern tier that can reach 75 feet and more (to say nothing of artistic license).
I don’t know about Ohio, but here in Alabama there are lots of oaks that size or larger. I have one in my front yard that’s almost that big. My in-laws have a pecan tree in their back yard that’s even larger.
On the campus of the college I attended in Mississippi there was an oak that makes the tree in this strip look small. It was beside the road to the campus lake (or rather, the road curved around it). When the campus was being built, the workers tried to clear a fairly straight road through the woods to the lake by using a bulldozer to push over any trees that were in the way. But when they got to that oak, the bulldozer’s treads just starting digging trenches in the ground and the tree didn’t budge an inch. So they built the road around the tree.
OK, I see: “Everything Is Big In America” (West Side Story?)
it could be a dream, but i think it’s just a cartoon
RFeal persons have real dreams and toon characters have toon dreams
We follow thw toon-dream-of-horrors of the toon-character Yehuda.