On 2017-07-10 19:09, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, July 10, 2017 at 12:26:05 PM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-10 10:54, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/10/2017 1:24 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-09 11:32, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/9/2017 10:44 AM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-08 15:59, jbeattie wrote:


When was the last time you were hurt on a bike? Were you
hit by a car?


No but that is because I am primarily using a mountain
bike, the way it was meant to be used. The reason I got
hurt a lot as a kid was that I used a regular bicycle on
motocross tracks without wearing any protective gear.

Other people's accidents did not always involved a direct
collision but many were caused by evasive action because of
car drivers (often truck drivers).

Maybe we should do a little survey of posters to this
discussion group. What was your last on-road bike-related
injury? Was it because you were hit by a car? Was it
because you were taking evasive action to avoid being hit by
a car? Or what was the cause?

I suppose if people prefer, they could give counts of all
their bike injury incidents instead of just the last one.

I don't have much to contribute. Since 1972: I slid out on
gravel at about 5 mph creeping down a very steep, short hill
on a city street. I scraped my knee. And the front forks of
our custom tandem snapped off on a bumpy road at about 10 mph
or less. I banged up my shoulder. So that's one crash with
the most common cause, which is the road surface; and one
crash by a relatively rare cause, component failure.

My wife's on road crashes are also two. She was on the back
of the tandem when it crashed, but she wasn't injured, just
shaken up. And many years ago, on a club ride, someone
slammed on their brakes unnecessarily in front of her. She
avoided that person as she stopped, but another rider ran
into her from behind and knocked her down. Again, no injury,
just a fall. We were about 20 miles into an 80 mile ride,
which we all finished.

More detail on the final crash above: The person who caused
the chain reaction crash had slammed on the brakes because
they were afraid of a passing truck. But none of the others
(including me, leading the ride) braked because of the truck.
It just wasn't necessary at all. So that crash was actually
caused not by the truck, but by timidity.


No, it was caused by reckless cyclist behavior. Every
respectable teacher in driver's ed teaches their students to
keep an adequate distance from the vehicle up front. One
Mississippi, two Mississippi. Simple. Failing to do so will one
day result in a crash like you described. It doesn't have to be
timidity. It could be as simple as an animal running into the
road.

You're deflecting again.

Tell us about your recent injuries, Joerg. Tell us about their
causes. Restrict it to on-road if you like. I'm saying most bike
injuries are minor and do not involve cars. You're claiming
something else. What's your experience?


Depends on what you call "recent". I had a 15+ year cycling hiatus
on account of lacking cycle path infrastructure. When that got
better I started riding again in 2013. No road injuries since then
but several evasive actions required because of motorists.

No f****** way! You were off your bike for 15 years because of lack
of "cycle path infrastructure"? Incroyable. I rode to work or school
most every day for decades without so much as a whiff of cycle path
infrastructure.


We had a few nasty accidents and cyclist fatalities in our neighborhood.
That was enough. Except for hardcore training riders you rarely saw
cyclists. Then they started putting in bike paths and bike lanes and,
predictably, that substantially changed things. Also for me. It's that
simple.

The same way I never walk to the store (well, now I ride) even though in
Europe we did that all the time. Hardly anyone else does either. Because
it is a 45mph thoroughfare, no sidewalk and often not even a shoulder.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/