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#1
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I FELL OFF MY BIKE!
Funniest crash ever.
First of all, I *never* crash. Where "never" is in the hyperbolic sense. Last time was 1989, on the Harvard Bridge, and I've told that story here before. But this one was inevitable given that I was taking a risk I already knew I shouldn't be taking. On my morning ride, I go around a 4.2 mile loop, the early part of which takes me through an apartment complex, which I like because of the chicanes and the shadows and the urban-crit feel. (The rest of the loop is desert highway and suburban major collector.) What I don't like is that the entire way through the complex is parking lot, and people will often back out, and will sometimes not see a man doing 20 mph on a bike. There are also dogs, kids, and people strolling along who step into the tarmac without looking, but at 7 a.m. not many of them. Plus there's the occasional PYT walking her pooch in her jammies, so I got that going for me. Which is fine for all of them; I'm the interloper and I knew it. And I was planning to start going around the complex, even though it means adding a new biggest hill to the loop. But here I am with a chance to finally break 50:00 for four turns on this loop, having done 50:25 just the other day and knowing I could have got there if I'd know I had the chance. And I wanted to hit that major accomplishment, then I'd be happy to change the loop. Which led to two problems. First, I could no longer gear-down and spin through the complex. I'd have to bomb it. Second, I'd be nearly hypoxic for nearly an hour. (N.B. I'm old and I've only been back on my bike for 2 months after a 12 year layoff, so no jokes about how pokey this all sounds. I happen to think this much progress in this little time is ****ing AMAZING.) So this morning I'm moving fast through the chicanes on my fourth lap, when a land-cruiser starts backing out, and I can't see his head, so I do the math and figure if he keeps backing to where that boat has to be to start moving down the way I'll have room between his nose and the pillar for the parking shade (it's an Arizona thing; parking lots build shade over the spaces). But then I realize he's not doing that. He slows his backing, and my prospective gap is gone. So I switch to his rear, where I have about 4 clear feet between bumper and curb. But he doesn't stop, and cuts that space to about two feet. I grab the brakes, and start doing gymnastics to port around him, but... ....I hit a wet spot in the road from the sprinkler overflow... I skid, make the curb, and dive over my top-tube. My feet come out of my straps (clips woulda killed me here) and I cartwheel off the bike. I land in the waterlogged grass, roll over, and watch my left leg flop onto my right. I pause, roll onto my back, then start shaking with laughter. When I get up, the stunned driver is cautiously getting out of his car, apologizing, etc., etc. I tell him no problem. No way he could have seen me. If it weren't for the wet spot I'd have made it, etc., etc. He says he did see me, but thought I was going for the nose. I say I was, but thought he was stopping. I was still laughing, but he was still kind of stunned to see this lycra-clad, sopping-wet, giggling bikie scraping grass clippings off his ass. I was unbruised, my bike was unscratched, my iPod was still playing Chris Isaak (he might have been singing "Wicked Game" just then, heh). I hadn't even dropped my water bottle nor dislodged my backwards baseball cap from my head. For a guy who never falls, I sure know how to do it with style. No harm, no foul. I shook his hand and got back on my bike and finished my 20 miles on an alternate route to get some hill training. As far as I know, he's still standing there looking at the flattened grass. --Blair "The moral of the story is: Never draw to an inside straight." |
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#2
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"Blair P. Houghton" wrote in message ... --Blair "The moral of the story is: Never draw to an inside straight." Moral of the story is: Don't go racing through parking lots. Dave |
#3
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"Raoul Duke" wrote in message ...
"Blair P. Houghton" wrote in message ... --Blair "The moral of the story is: Never draw to an inside straight." Moral of the story is: Don't go racing through parking lots. Dave And seriously, you do this with an ipod and no helmet!?!? There are some other morals to this story. |
#4
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gds wrote:
"Raoul Duke" wrote in message ... "Blair P. Houghton" wrote in message .. . --Blair "The moral of the story is: Never draw to an inside straight." Moral of the story is: Don't go racing through parking lots. Dave And seriously, you do this with an ipod and no helmet!?!? .... and no knee pads or shoulder pads or elbow pads or air bag or pillow on your butt? ;-) Really, I wouldn't race through a congested parking lot, no matter what style cap I wore. -- --------------------+ Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com, replace with cc.ysu dot edu] |
#5
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gds wrote:
Moral of the story is: Don't go racing through parking lots. And seriously, you do this with an ipod and no helmet!?!? There are some other morals to this story. I'm still trying to figure out how the helmet would've protected the iPod... (Let's all start a helmet thread on comp.sys.mac.advocacy!) -- Frederic Briere * = IS NO MO http://www.abacomsucks.com = |
#6
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"gds" wrote in message om... "Raoul Duke" wrote in message ... "Blair P. Houghton" wrote in message ... --Blair "The moral of the story is: Never draw to an inside straight." Moral of the story is: Don't go racing through parking lots. Dave And seriously, you do this with an ipod and no helmet!?!? There are some other morals to this story. Yes, like 'don't stick your finger in the socket while standing on a wet floor!' |
#7
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test
"gds" wrote in message om... "Raoul Duke" wrote in message ... "Blair P. Houghton" wrote in message ... --Blair "The moral of the story is: Never draw to an inside straight." Moral of the story is: Don't go racing through parking lots. Dave And seriously, you do this with an ipod and no helmet!?!? There are some other morals to this story. |
#8
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test Dave
And seriously, you do this with an ipod and no helmet!?!? There are some other morals to this story. |
#9
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"Frank Krygowski" wrote in message ... gds wrote: "Raoul Duke" wrote in message ... "Blair P. Houghton" wrote in message .. . --Blair "The moral of the story is: Never draw to an inside straight." Moral of the story is: Don't go racing through parking lots. Dave And seriously, you do this with an ipod and no helmet!?!? ... and no knee pads or shoulder pads or elbow pads or air bag or pillow on your butt? ;-) Really, I wouldn't race through a congested parking lot, no matter what style cap I wore. -- --------------------+ Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com, replace with cc.ysu dot edu] |
#10
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What I don't like is that the entire way through the
complex is parking lot, and people will often back out, and will sometimes not see a man doing 20 mph on a bike. It's plain silly to be doing 20mph in a parking lot. Keep your speed for when you are out on the road, not in what is a car park. Cheers, helen s --This is an invalid email address to avoid spam-- to get correct one remove fame & fortune **$om $ --Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off-- |
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