Helmets in the snow.

Bill Baka said:

It was far more fun to stay in the house and watch the cars slide by.

Yep. In front of our fraternity house was a road going downhill and it
curved to the right. (It still is, but past tense as I'm long gone.) So
when cars put on the brakes in the snow they go straight, and hit head on
with the cars coming up the hill.

Don <www.donwiss.com> (e-mail link at home page bottom).

On Wed, 31 May 2006 15:52:39 -0400, Don Wiss <donwiss@no_spam.com>

Quoted message said:

Bill Baka said:

It was far more fun to stay in the house and watch the cars slide by.

Yep. In front of our fraternity house was a road going downhill and it
curved to the right. (It still is, but past tense as I'm long gone.) So
when cars put on the brakes in the snow they go straight, and hit head on
with the cars coming up the hill.

Back in the early '80s, just after I moved to Houston, we had an
unusually cold winter that brought one of those once-a-decade snow
storms to this otherwise mostly-iceless city. I was working at a car
dealer in those days, and the showroom faced one end of a freeway
overpass. Watching the cars sliding down the hill in various states
of lack of control was the most entertaining way that we had spent an
afternoon in a very long time. It was rare to see a car that wasn't
sideways as it came off the bridge. Some of that was due to the fact
that front wheel drive was still not the dominant drivetrain design in
the overall consumer fleet yet, and much of the rest was attributable
to the fact that most of the drivers had little or no experience with
an icy road anyway.

Oddly enough, I had a car with snow tires. I had brought them with me
from Miami. But that's another story.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
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Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Bill Baka said:

Just one for the record, I did fall and bang my head pretty good in
sixth grade, as did a fair number of other boys that day. There was
about a 20 foot patch of sheet ice and we would run and try to slide the
whole thing without falling. Needless to say some of us did and earned
nice big knots on the back of our head where a helmet would have been.
Try walking across a sleeted street in Chicago and you will know that
there are times you may want a helmet just to walk.
It was far more fun to stay in the house and watch the cars slide by.
Bill Baka

Chicago - fun is riding behind someone on Lakeshore Path and watching
them hit the hundred-yard sheet ice caused by spray from the lake.

Then realizing you're screwed if you don't stop soon.

Collin O'Neill said:

Bill Baka said:

Just one for the record, I did fall and bang my head pretty good in
sixth grade, as did a fair number of other boys that day. There was
about a 20 foot patch of sheet ice and we would run and try to slide the
whole thing without falling. Needless to say some of us did and earned
nice big knots on the back of our head where a helmet would have been.
Try walking across a sleeted street in Chicago and you will know that
there are times you may want a helmet just to walk.
It was far more fun to stay in the house and watch the cars slide by.
Bill Baka

Chicago - fun is riding behind someone on Lakeshore Path and watching
them hit the hundred-yard sheet ice caused by spray from the lake.

Then realizing you're screwed if you don't stop soon.

The sound of silence as the wheels roll over the ice is the first sign
of impending doom! Thinking to yourself optimistically, "please, no
camber changes!"

Joseph

Quoted message said:

Collin O'Neill said:

Bill Baka said:

Just one for the record, I did fall and bang my head pretty good in
sixth grade, as did a fair number of other boys that day. There was
about a 20 foot patch of sheet ice and we would run and try to slide the
whole thing without falling. Needless to say some of us did and earned
nice big knots on the back of our head where a helmet would have been.
Try walking across a sleeted street in Chicago and you will know that
there are times you may want a helmet just to walk.
It was far more fun to stay in the house and watch the cars slide by.
Bill Baka

Chicago - fun is riding behind someone on Lakeshore Path and watching
them hit the hundred-yard sheet ice caused by spray from the lake.

Then realizing you're screwed if you don't stop soon.

The sound of silence as the wheels roll over the ice is the first sign
of impending doom! Thinking to yourself optimistically, "please, no
camber changes!"

Joseph

At least I lived there long enough to learn that there are days when you
just shouldn't even think about riding a bike, much less even getting
into a car. I took the 'El on those days when I had to be in town.
12 years old, 25 cent ticket, go anywhere in Chicago on the 'El, circa
1962. The lake was always interesting in the winter, being fresh water
and freezable, which I did see once. It looked like a mini ocen full of
mini icebergs.
Bill (missing Chicago now) Baka

Quoted message said:

Collin O'Neill said:

Bill Baka said:

Just one for the record, I did fall and bang my head pretty good in
sixth grade, as did a fair number of other boys that day. There was
about a 20 foot patch of sheet ice and we would run and try to slide the
whole thing without falling. Needless to say some of us did and earned
nice big knots on the back of our head where a helmet would have been.
Try walking across a sleeted street in Chicago and you will know that
there are times you may want a helmet just to walk.
It was far more fun to stay in the house and watch the cars slide by.
Bill Baka

Chicago - fun is riding behind someone on Lakeshore Path and watching
them hit the hundred-yard sheet ice caused by spray from the lake.

Then realizing you're screwed if you don't stop soon.

The sound of silence as the wheels roll over the ice is the first sign
of impending doom! Thinking to yourself optimistically, "please, no
camber changes!"

I know the feeling.

Good studded winter tires make a huge difference. 🙂
With them it seems safer to ride than to walk in an ice storm.
John Kane, Kingston ON Canada