Actually, I'm not. But, I did dump my bike pretty hard yesterday. I was on my way home and approaching a U-turn that I have to make after coasting down a hill. I suppose that I have developed a little game out of attempting this turn at greater and greater speeds, and if I had had a speedometer yesterday, I would be able to tell you the upper limits of that potential today.
My best guess is that I was going between 15 and 20 miles per hour through the turn when my back wheel slipped out from under me to the left. I don't remember anything between that moment and the next when I found myself skidding (skinning?) across the pavement. I stood up and checked myself out for injuries and only two were immediately noticeable. A good amount of skin on my right elbow had been promptly removed and a small chunk was missing from the palm of my left hand.
I walked the bike over to the grass near the road, reset the chain on the appropriate sprocket (it had been dislodged on impact), and rode the rest of the way home wondering if I had broken anything on the bike or myself. I did not take time to further inspect the bike as I had my bleeding arm to attend to. As I cleaned all of my wounds, I gradually discerned that I did not break any bones, maintaining my current record of perfection in that arena. However, I also discovered that I had a lot of road rash covering my right arm and a hefty bruise on the shoulder. Just in case you were wondering, topical grooved cement injuries make one look as if one has been flame-broiled.
The net result of this little incident is a very sore shoulder, sore neck, and lots of leaning to my left side in chairs. I have also learned that I am not, in fact, made of glass. I am actually rather pleased that I can still take a fall without a necessary hospital visit. Eventually, I'll take a more thorough look at the bike, but my initial prediction is that it is fine. My only concern is for the rear derailleur. It sustained some scrapes and I am hoping that the impact did not bend anything.
Showing posts with label bicycling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bicycling. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Not Increvable
Mike and Pam are arriving at Midway airport tonight so Amy is scheduled to leave straight from where she works at 6pm and pick them up. Then they might have dinner out somewhere, which means that they could potentially arrive back in our neck of the woods around 8:30-9pm. I had promised Evan to an evening of World of Warcraft tonight, so as usual, I will ride my bike to and from work in order to be home in time for the game.
Now, at 7:30am this morning, that seemed like a solid plan bound for success. But by 8am, things had taken an interesting turn. As I biked toward Gross Point Road on the path I usually take to work, I ran over something that sounded like a small rock or perhaps an acorn top as it might gets thrown from under the tire with some extra force. Unfortunately, I only made it across Gross Point Road when I began to hear a rhythmic hiss eminating from my back tire. Psht! Psht! Psht! Every time the wheel went around it was losing air. Crap. I had already come up with a course of action in case this happened, but unfortunately, it involved Amy picking me up from work which, if you remember, probably wouldn't be able to happen until at least 8:30pm.
So at that point I figured it was time to learn how to use the tools that I keep in my bag for just such an emergency. "But wait," I thought. "I put a change of clothes in my bag this morning. And to do that I had to take out my TOOLS! Argh. So, I called Jordan and left a message that I would be running about 30 minutes late because I had to walk the rest of the way to work. Only seconds after beginning my walk, I passed Ruth, a woman who attends our church, walking in the opposite direction. We greeted each other and spoke briefly but she was not able to help me out and I was on my way again.
When I arrived at work, I examined the tire more carefully and located the culprit: a nail. At that point, I asked Chris, one of my coworkers, if he had driven his car that day. I was going to ask if he'd be able to give me a lift home over lunch to get my tools and the tire pump. As it turns out, he had ridden his bike, too, so I had no luck there. But, he did have a repair kit of his own in his bag. So over lunch, he helped me try to patch the tube, but it had been punctured in multiple spots and he had just enough patches to cover all of holes. Hopefully, we'd found all the holes. Once the holes were patched, we walked the bike to a gas station to use the air pump. Nothing. The tube wouldn't hold any air at all.
So after lunch, Jordan was very cool and drove me home to get my tools and the bike pump. Once I retrieved those items, I asked Chris to help me put the new tube since I'd never done it before. So, he agreed, and the new tube is in, but it was a larger circumference than the rim, so I'm not sure if it's in correctly. I'm definitely making a trip to the bike shop this weekend to learn about the reason for the extra length on the tube and how to definitively use the tools I will no doubt have in my possession in the future.
Now, at 7:30am this morning, that seemed like a solid plan bound for success. But by 8am, things had taken an interesting turn. As I biked toward Gross Point Road on the path I usually take to work, I ran over something that sounded like a small rock or perhaps an acorn top as it might gets thrown from under the tire with some extra force. Unfortunately, I only made it across Gross Point Road when I began to hear a rhythmic hiss eminating from my back tire. Psht! Psht! Psht! Every time the wheel went around it was losing air. Crap. I had already come up with a course of action in case this happened, but unfortunately, it involved Amy picking me up from work which, if you remember, probably wouldn't be able to happen until at least 8:30pm.
So at that point I figured it was time to learn how to use the tools that I keep in my bag for just such an emergency. "But wait," I thought. "I put a change of clothes in my bag this morning. And to do that I had to take out my TOOLS! Argh. So, I called Jordan and left a message that I would be running about 30 minutes late because I had to walk the rest of the way to work. Only seconds after beginning my walk, I passed Ruth, a woman who attends our church, walking in the opposite direction. We greeted each other and spoke briefly but she was not able to help me out and I was on my way again.
When I arrived at work, I examined the tire more carefully and located the culprit: a nail. At that point, I asked Chris, one of my coworkers, if he had driven his car that day. I was going to ask if he'd be able to give me a lift home over lunch to get my tools and the tire pump. As it turns out, he had ridden his bike, too, so I had no luck there. But, he did have a repair kit of his own in his bag. So over lunch, he helped me try to patch the tube, but it had been punctured in multiple spots and he had just enough patches to cover all of holes. Hopefully, we'd found all the holes. Once the holes were patched, we walked the bike to a gas station to use the air pump. Nothing. The tube wouldn't hold any air at all.
So after lunch, Jordan was very cool and drove me home to get my tools and the bike pump. Once I retrieved those items, I asked Chris to help me put the new tube since I'd never done it before. So, he agreed, and the new tube is in, but it was a larger circumference than the rim, so I'm not sure if it's in correctly. I'm definitely making a trip to the bike shop this weekend to learn about the reason for the extra length on the tube and how to definitively use the tools I will no doubt have in my possession in the future.
Friday, September 24, 2004
You're Going To Kill Somebody!
I have been commuting to work by bicycle for a total of three weeks now and if there were such a thing, I probably would have earned my first merit badge. On Wednesday morning, I was pedalling to work on Lincoln Ave approaching the 'Y' intersection where Lincoln becomes Main street to the left or remains Lincoln and enters downtown Skokie to the right. Because my path to work takes me through Skokie on Lincoln Ave., there is no need for me to signal any lane changes or turns because I stay in the right lane. So, I was riding, as I always did, as close to the right side of the road as possible and going an average speed for a bicycle, probably between 10 and 15mph.
Suddenly, there was some commotion behind me as a larger vehicle that I could not see sounded a long, angry blast on its horn and revved its engine as if another vehicle had pulled in front of it too quickly. As this happened I thought, "Boy, someone must have done something really dangerous at the last minute while approaching this intersection!" or something to that effect. As I continued through the right fork of the 'Y' intersection on Lincoln, a large white pickup truck which looked to be a very large model of Dodge Ram sped past me as the driver spouted expletives at the unseen offender. I won't repeat exactly what the driver was yelling despite the fact that it was loud enough to hear perfectly, but it went something like this: "Coitus you, you sexual intercourse-having anal sphincter! You're going to kill somebody!"
As I couldn't see the crime that had just been perpetrated, I continued to pedal forward albeit a bit more slowly just in case the driver behind him decided to follow suit and chase him a bit. However, after a couple of minutes, no other cars passed me and I realized that the driver of the truck had been screaming at the top of his lungs at me! My mind quickly retraced my last few actions and I couldn't think of one thing that I had done differently than I had on any of my other commutes. Of all the drivers that had ever passed me at that intersection, none had ever had such a large issue with my presence. They were able to pass me safely and with plenty of room to their left but without all of the angry cursing.
Now, I hadn't stopped riding in order to attempt to guess what crime I had just committed against this upstanding lump of stinking citizenry, so I inevitably caught up with him at a traffic light further down the road. As I pulled up behind him, I could see him glaring at me in his right sideview mirror, still fuming and spouting expletives at me in the same vein as what I have previously reported. He was really getting into his long string of elaborate curses against me, my family, and all that I had ever produced on this earth (or at least I assume that those were the subjects of his verbal barbs becuase at this point, most of it was unintelligible). So, just to show that I held no hard feelings against him, that I would never in a million years wish to severly cripple him with an aluminum baseball bat or shred his genitals with a Garden Weasel, I summoned the biggest goofy smile I could muster and I waved at him. This incensed him even further and his face began to contort with rage as he spat what must have been the granddaddy of all insults at me. I was quite disappointed because I only wish I could have heard what it was.
As the light turned green, we began to move again while he continued to curse at me, so I held my arms up, both in a curled position like a body builder, doing my best to tell him with primitive sign language that he was the strongest, most powerful man that I had ever made fun of. He sped down the road and out of sight at blinding speed, probably running over any small furry animals or elderly people that happened to have the audacity to try to slow him down. Indeed, "You're going to kill somebody!", screamed the man driving well above the speed limit in his two-ton pickup truck while hurling obscenities at the man riding the 30 pound bicycle.
Suddenly, there was some commotion behind me as a larger vehicle that I could not see sounded a long, angry blast on its horn and revved its engine as if another vehicle had pulled in front of it too quickly. As this happened I thought, "Boy, someone must have done something really dangerous at the last minute while approaching this intersection!" or something to that effect. As I continued through the right fork of the 'Y' intersection on Lincoln, a large white pickup truck which looked to be a very large model of Dodge Ram sped past me as the driver spouted expletives at the unseen offender. I won't repeat exactly what the driver was yelling despite the fact that it was loud enough to hear perfectly, but it went something like this: "Coitus you, you sexual intercourse-having anal sphincter! You're going to kill somebody!"
As I couldn't see the crime that had just been perpetrated, I continued to pedal forward albeit a bit more slowly just in case the driver behind him decided to follow suit and chase him a bit. However, after a couple of minutes, no other cars passed me and I realized that the driver of the truck had been screaming at the top of his lungs at me! My mind quickly retraced my last few actions and I couldn't think of one thing that I had done differently than I had on any of my other commutes. Of all the drivers that had ever passed me at that intersection, none had ever had such a large issue with my presence. They were able to pass me safely and with plenty of room to their left but without all of the angry cursing.
Now, I hadn't stopped riding in order to attempt to guess what crime I had just committed against this upstanding lump of stinking citizenry, so I inevitably caught up with him at a traffic light further down the road. As I pulled up behind him, I could see him glaring at me in his right sideview mirror, still fuming and spouting expletives at me in the same vein as what I have previously reported. He was really getting into his long string of elaborate curses against me, my family, and all that I had ever produced on this earth (or at least I assume that those were the subjects of his verbal barbs becuase at this point, most of it was unintelligible). So, just to show that I held no hard feelings against him, that I would never in a million years wish to severly cripple him with an aluminum baseball bat or shred his genitals with a Garden Weasel, I summoned the biggest goofy smile I could muster and I waved at him. This incensed him even further and his face began to contort with rage as he spat what must have been the granddaddy of all insults at me. I was quite disappointed because I only wish I could have heard what it was.
As the light turned green, we began to move again while he continued to curse at me, so I held my arms up, both in a curled position like a body builder, doing my best to tell him with primitive sign language that he was the strongest, most powerful man that I had ever made fun of. He sped down the road and out of sight at blinding speed, probably running over any small furry animals or elderly people that happened to have the audacity to try to slow him down. Indeed, "You're going to kill somebody!", screamed the man driving well above the speed limit in his two-ton pickup truck while hurling obscenities at the man riding the 30 pound bicycle.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
New Sid on the Block
Amy and I got a cat last week from the Tree House. He's a light orange tabby and his name is Sid. He's not very shy but he frightens easily, a possible result of being a stray for most if not all of his life. Now that he's warmed up to his new home for a while, he's very playful. He loves his "feathers on a stick" toy.
We also bought a couple of bicycles last Saturday at the bike shop I mentioned previously. It was raining when we bought them so we had to wait until Sunday to go for a ride. But when we finally got the chance, the weather was beautiful which made for a fantastic ride of about 14 miles round trip. There's an entrance to the North Branch Trail not far from our house so we headed north until we arbitrarily decided to turn around to return home.
Part of Amy's family will be arriving for a visit in the next couple of weeks followed immediately by a visit from Kristin, one of Amy's friends from undergraduate school. I guess we'll have to start picking up the pace again in terms of getting the house cleaned up. Ever since my parents left, it has returned to state of mild disaster.
Currently listening to: Mission Giant, Skunk Funk (Costellation Skunk) remix by New Zero
We also bought a couple of bicycles last Saturday at the bike shop I mentioned previously. It was raining when we bought them so we had to wait until Sunday to go for a ride. But when we finally got the chance, the weather was beautiful which made for a fantastic ride of about 14 miles round trip. There's an entrance to the North Branch Trail not far from our house so we headed north until we arbitrarily decided to turn around to return home.
Part of Amy's family will be arriving for a visit in the next couple of weeks followed immediately by a visit from Kristin, one of Amy's friends from undergraduate school. I guess we'll have to start picking up the pace again in terms of getting the house cleaned up. Ever since my parents left, it has returned to state of mild disaster.
Currently listening to: Mission Giant, Skunk Funk (Costellation Skunk) remix by New Zero
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