Expect the unexpected

In article <[email hidden]>,

(MikeYankee) said:

... suddently
and without warning another BIKE shot out from the cemetery gate and
crossed my
lane in order to turn left... it was a black touring bike with panniers, and
the rider was dressed in dark clothing with a black helmet... he did not stop
or slow to look for oncoming traffic... I was going 22 mph and did not have
time to react... missed his rear wheel (and a grisly T-bone crash) by maybe
two
feet...

Maybe it was a ghost cyclist, and had you collided you would
have just rode through his ectoplasm ;-)

Anyhow, this has the makings of a comic book [anti(?)] hero.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

MikeYankee said:

What's interesting about this is that it was a totally unexpected mode of
danger. Not a drunk, not a deer, not a dog, not a log or a pothole, not a
driver without turn signals -- none of the risks I'm normally mindful of.

One can not be mindful of every possible danger. My BIL recently pulled to
a stop and had the road collapse beneath his wheels. At least one person
has been hit by a meteor.

I'm not sure a stealth mode idiot cyclists are thing that one should not be
mindful of. They are in the majority around here after dark, so I would
expect them at dusk too. OTOH, having one pop out of a graveyard (or having
anything else living pop out of a graveyard) isn't what I would expect.
Having something dead pop out of a graveyard isn't something I would expect,
but at least it's something I could explain.

Honest, occifer, it was a ghost. It had no legs, just two wheels like a
bicycle, and was as black as black can be. As fast as it appeared, it
disappeared. It made no noise, except some heavy breathing. Pared the skiss
out of me.

No, occifer, I haven't been alking any drinkahol.

Austin

"Tom Keats" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

(MikeYankee) said:

... suddently
and without warning another BIKE shot out from the cemetery gate and
crossed my
lane in order to turn left... it was a black touring bike with panniers,

and

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the rider was dressed in dark clothing with a black helmet... he did not

stop

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

or slow to look for oncoming traffic... I was going 22 mph and did not

have

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

time to react... missed his rear wheel (and a grisly T-bone crash) by

maybe

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

two
feet...

Maybe it was a ghost cyclist, and had you collided you would
have just rode through his ectoplasm ;-)

Anyhow, this has the makings of a comic book [anti(?)] hero.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Certainly this would have been better than a T-bone crash ... but there'd
still be all that slime to deal with. Yuk.

Bob C.

"MikeYankee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I used up one of my nine lives last evening... riding home from a

dinnertime

Quoted message said:

spin on my fixie... a few miles to go, but still bright twilight (7:30 pm
EDT)... passing a rural cemetery with big stone walls on my right...

suddently

Quoted message said:

and without warning another BIKE shot out from the cemetery gate and

crossed my

Quoted message said:

lane in order to turn left... it was a black touring bike with panniers,

and

Quoted message said:

the rider was dressed in dark clothing with a black helmet... he did not

stop

Quoted message said:

or slow to look for oncoming traffic... I was going 22 mph and did not

have

Quoted message said:

time to react... missed his rear wheel (and a grisly T-bone crash) by

maybe two

Quoted message said:

feet... this scared the living [censored] out of me... only the need to get home
before dark kept me from chasing this senseless [censored] down for a

"friendly"

Quoted message said:

conversation.

What's interesting about this is that it was a totally unexpected mode of
danger. Not a drunk, not a deer, not a dog, not a log or a pothole, not a
driver without turn signals -- none of the risks I'm normally mindful of.

Just felt like sharing this.

Mike Yankee

(Address is munged to thwart spammers.
To reply, delete everything after "com".)

I often wonder how different all those cycling statistics would look if you
eliminated all the bonehead things that happen because of wrong-way Wilburs,
people who ride with dark clothing and no lights at night (seems to be a
death related to that here locally at least every three months), kids flying
out of driveways/alleys and into traffic without looking, etc. I suspect
those kind of things seriously skew most statistics to the point that they
practically don't apply to more serious-type cyclists.

Bob C.
Having said that, I've been hit by cars twice when I wasn't doing ANY of
those boneheaded things.

MikeYankee said:

I used up one of my nine lives last evening... riding home from a
dinnertime spin on my fixie... a few miles to go, but still bright
twilight (7:30 pm EDT)... passing a rural cemetery with big stone
walls on my right... suddently and without warning another BIKE shot
out from the cemetery gate and crossed my lane in order to turn
left... it was a black touring bike with panniers, and the rider was
dressed in dark clothing with a black helmet... he did not stop or
slow to look for oncoming traffic... I was going 22 mph and did not
have time to react... missed his rear wheel (and a grisly T-bone
crash) by maybe two feet... this scared the living [censored] out of me...

An encounter with The Grim Rider?

Bill "after all, he *did* have a 'sickle' " S.

psycholist said:

people who ride with dark clothing and no lights at night (seems to be a
death related to that here locally at least every three months), kids
flying out of driveways/alleys and into traffic without looking, etc.

Thanatos?

Quoted message said:

Bob C.
Having said that, I've been hit by cars twice when I wasn't doing ANY of
those boneheaded things.

I've been hit twice, too. Both, a long time ago. One, my fault. But
I've also been hit twice in my car, so certainly wasn't riding without
lights wearing black.

I recently saw someone like that. Swear to God, black clothes, no lights,
after dark, and, of course, riding the wrong way. But you know, someone
here would call for a murder conviction against the poor dumb motorist who
runs him down.

John, if you're still reading this thread, see you at T-town.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | It is a scientifically proven fact that a mid life crisis can
_`\(,_ | only be cured by something racy and Italian. Bianchis and
(_)/ (_) | Colnagos are a lot cheaper than Maserattis and Ferraris. --
Glenn Davies