So, I tagged a Suburban today. It's about time somebody fought back. Blew off the local crit and went for a long mountain ride instead with a couple of friends. We're descending Lee Hill and I gaining on the target. He's giving me some ambiguous signals. The turn signal is on, but he's also pumping his brakes ( it's an old rust bucket Suburban) and I have no idea what he's doing. He's drifting into the lefthand lane ,so I assume he's pulling off to the left. In hindsight I now understand that he's setting up for a righthand turn into an uphill driveway. My descision to pass on the right is flawed. Too late, I brake for all I'm worth and it's not happening. Fortunately, I instinctively aim for the softest spot on the softest SUV in all of Boulder County. There's a very loud bang, the driver yells WTF! but there's surprisingly little pain. My friends tell me there was big bounce, but some how I end up walking off the bike, and standing in the road saying to the driver, "sorry about that". He's pretty cool and asks me if I'm ok. I say yeah, but how's your truck? I think I dented it. Now I'm looking at it and I see that there's no way I've decreased it's value. He walks around back and looks at my impression and decides that it's not an issue and we're both on our way. So I ride home with a twisted handle bar and blood running down my shin. Later that day I'm lucky enough to be standing in Excel Sports buying yet another Ritchey WCS, Classic bend, 42 cm, OS diameter handlebar.
So, I tagged a Suburban today. It's about time somebody fought back. Blew off the local crit and went for a long mountain ride instead with a couple of friends. We're descending Lee Hill and I gaining on the target. He's giving me some ambiguous signals. The turn signal is on, but he's also pumping his brakes ( it's an old rust bucket Suburban) and I have no idea what he's doing. He's drifting into the lefthand lane ,so I assume he's pulling off to the left. In hindsight I now understand that he's setting up for a righthand turn into an uphill driveway. My descision to pass on the right is flawed.
Bret: don't DO that!
As an endorser of LIVEDRUNK, I remind you that gin can help you get through the next few days.
-- Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/ "I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos
There are two types of cyclists - one type brags about his bike crashes and scraps like a war battle and war wounds. The other type of cyclists looks at road rash as an indication that this person is a danger to be around. Bret, you sound like a beginer rider. Hopefully you don't do to many local hilly road races as well as the local crits..
Bret said:
So, I tagged a Suburban today. It's about time somebody fought back. Blew off the local crit and went for a long mountain ride instead with a couple of friends. We're descending Lee Hill and I gaining on the target. He's giving me some ambiguous signals. The turn signal is on, but he's also pumping his brakes ( it's an old rust bucket Suburban) and I have no idea what he's doing. He's drifting into the lefthand lane ,so I assume he's pulling off to the left. In hindsight I now understand that he's setting up for a righthand turn into an uphill driveway. My descision to pass on the right is flawed. Too late, I brake for all I'm worth and it's not happening. Fortunately, I instinctively aim for the softest spot on the softest SUV in all of Boulder County. There's a very loud bang, the driver yells WTF! but there's surprisingly little pain. My friends tell me there was big bounce, but some how I end up walking off the bike, and standing in the road saying to the driver, "sorry about that". He's pretty cool and asks me if I'm ok. I say yeah, but how's your truck? I think I dented it. Now I'm looking at it and I see that there's no way I've decreased it's value. He walks around back and looks at my impression and decides that it's not an issue and we're both on our way. So I ride home with a twisted handle bar and blood running down my shin. Later that day I'm lucky enough to be standing in Excel Sports buying yet another Ritchey WCS, Classic bend, 42 cm, OS diameter handlebar.
So, I tagged a Suburban today. It's about time somebody fought back. Blew off the local crit and went for a long mountain ride instead with a couple of friends. We're descending Lee Hill and I gaining on the target. He's giving me some ambiguous signals. The turn signal is on, but he's also pumping his brakes ( it's an old rust bucket Suburban) and I have no idea what he's doing. He's drifting into the lefthand lane ,so I assume he's pulling off to the left. In hindsight I now understand that he's setting up for a righthand turn into an uphill driveway. My descision to pass on the right is flawed.
Bret: don't DO that!
As an endorser of LIVEDRUNK, I remind you that gin can help you get through the next few days.
Thanks for the advice Ryan, but the 12 oz pain relief is working just fine.
There are two types of cyclists - one type brags about his bike crashes and scraps like a war battle and war wounds. The other type of cyclists looks at road rash as an indication that this person is a danger to be around. Bret, you sound like a beginer rider. Hopefully you don't do to many local hilly road races as well as the local crits..
You've got this entirely wrong. There are actually more than two types of cyclists. I haven't caused a crash in a road race since 1983 when I really was a beginner. The last time I got caught up in a crash in a road race was over ten years ago. It's cyclocross and mountain biking where I do all the damage. I've had three serious injuries in the last five years but I haven't "bragged" about them here. Here's the most recent one:
"Mark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
There are two types of cyclists - one type brags about his bike crashes and scraps like a war battle and war wounds. The other type of cyclists looks at road rash as an indication that this person is a danger to be around. Bret, you sound like a beginer rider. Hopefully you don't do to many local hilly road races as well as the local crits..
<snip original post for top poster> Bret wrote:
Mark you remind me of the guy who is always [censored] at the start of a cat 4 crit about how everyone should hold their line and and don't blah, blah blah... The expert still riding as a cat 4 telling everyone else how to ride. Stop mothering everyone.
"Pippen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
"Mark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
There are two types of cyclists - one type brags about his bike crashes and scraps like a war battle and war wounds. The other type of cyclists looks at road rash as an indication that this person is a danger to be around. Bret, you sound like a beginer rider. Hopefully you don't do to many local hilly road races as well as the local crits..
<snip original post for top poster> Bret wrote:
Mark you remind me of the guy who is always [censored] at the start of a cat 4 crit about how everyone should hold their line and and don't blah, blah blah... The expert still riding as a cat 4 telling everyone else how to ride. Stop mothering everyone.
-p
should not have left that "Bret wrote:" in there. That was all me...
There are two types of cyclists - one type brags about his bike crashes and scraps like a war battle and war wounds. The other type of cyclists looks at road rash as an indication that this person is a danger to be around. Bret, you sound like a beginer rider. Hopefully you don't do to many local hilly road races as well as the local crits..
If you don't crash you're not trying hard enough. Dutch proverb
You've got this entirely wrong. There are actually more than two types of cyclists. I haven't caused a crash in a road race since 1983 when I really was a beginner.
That may be Bret but you made a rank amateur mistake. Think about this while you're hurting - you might just as easily have been killed.
WHY did you feel the need to pass someone when their actions were still questionable?
On the Sierra Century, Saturday, apparently someone was trying to pass another guy on the downhill and like all FREDS was trying to pass really close to show what a great and brave bike handler he was. He touched a wheel, wobbled into the other lane as a car came along. RIP.
Acting like an ass on a bicycle quite luckily doesn't prove fatal 99.999% of the time. But I'd just as soon we never saw that remaining thousanth of a percent.
WHY did you feel the need to pass someone when their actions were still questionable?
I didn't really describe the situation adequately. There were two mistakes involved. I misunderstood the driver's intentions and I miscalculated the braking distance. I didn't really intend to over commit, but I did. My speed was down to ~15 mph from 55 mph when I hit the truck which is why it wasn't more serious. Since I didn't hit my head, I'm convinced that my helmet saved my life.
"Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
Bret wrote:
On the Sierra Century, Saturday, apparently someone was trying to pass another guy on the downhill and like all FREDS was trying to pass really close to show what a great and brave bike handler he was. He touched a wheel, wobbled into the other lane as a car came along. RIP.
How do you know that he was trying to show what a great and brave bike handler he was?
"Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
Bret wrote:
On the Sierra Century, Saturday, apparently someone was trying to pass another guy on the downhill and like all FREDS was trying to pass really close to show what a great and brave bike handler he was. He touched a wheel, wobbled into the other lane as a car came along. RIP.
How do you know that he was trying to show what a great and brave bike handler he was?
I was in no way trying to imply what Frank was feeling. I was pointing out that passing a vehicle whose actions are curious is a bad really idea.
We already have had one poster here permanently injured in a somewhat similar crash. I don't know if either case could have been prevented by closer attention and care but it is possiblity.
Every time I attend Centuries these days I see a large and increasing number of whacko riders who pass within scant inches of my bar ends. While I'm generally going to look before I change my course, there's always the possibility that I'll hit something and be thrown over enough to touch. So from the very start, pretending that you're in a paceline with people whom you don't know is a bad idea but doing it around people whose skill levels are questionable is even dumber.
What does it take for people to use common sense when they're on the road. Bicycle accidents are rare enough but let's make them unusual.
WHY did you feel the need to pass someone when their actions were still questionable?
I didn't really describe the situation adequately. There were two mistakes involved. I misunderstood the driver's intentions and I miscalculated the braking distance. I didn't really intend to over commit, but I did. My speed was down to ~15 mph from 55 mph when I hit the truck which is why it wasn't more serious. Since I didn't hit my head, I'm convinced that my helmet saved my life.
It's easy enough to misjudge stopping distances on a bike since most of us gain our judgement from cars which stop about twice as rapidly. Maybe I'm a bit oversensitive since I've been seeing quite a few stories about dead cyclists lately.
Be cautious out there people. Try to balance your possible gains with your probable losses.
Of course when I was racing I never went for the final sprint because of the crazies. So I've already demonstrated a strong survival instinct. It's OK to have that killer urge but don't exercise it on the road where your losses can be so much greater than your gains.
There are two types of cyclists - one type brags about his bike crashes and scraps like a war battle and war wounds. The other type of cyclists looks at road rash as an indication that this person is a danger to be around. Bret, you sound like a beginer rider. Hopefully you don't do to many local hilly road races as well as the local crits..
You've got this entirely wrong. There are actually more than two types of cyclists. I haven't caused a crash in a road race since 1983 when I really was a beginner. The last time I got caught up in a crash in a road race was over ten years ago. It's cyclocross and mountain biking where I do all the damage. I've had three serious injuries in the last five years but I haven't "bragged" about them here. Here's the most recent one:
The only thing worse than bragging about winning masters' fatties races would be to brag about crashing in masters' fatties 'cross races. Thank goodness you have the decency not to do either!
Glad to hear you're okay. I was wondering why I didn't see your name in the results for Saturday's race, or see you at the start line on Sunday.
The only thing worse than bragging about winning masters' fatties races would be to brag about crashing in masters' fatties 'cross races. Thank goodness you have the decency not to do either!
Glad to hear you're okay. I was wondering why I didn't see your name in the results for Saturday's race, or see you at the start line on Sunday.
Hi Scott,
I didn't race Saturday because I had a terrible allergy attack going on and was sore from my two (very boring) mountain bike crashes last Wednesday. Gary, Pete and I rode up South St. Vrain to Ward instead. They both had a good view of my incident with the Suburban.
The only thing worse than bragging about winning masters' fatties races would be to brag about crashing in masters' fatties 'cross races. Thank goodness you have the decency not to do either!
Glad to hear you're okay. I was wondering why I didn't see your name in the results for Saturday's race, or see you at the start line on Sunday.
Hi Scott,
I didn't race Saturday because I had a terrible allergy attack going on and was sore from my two (very boring) mountain bike crashes last Wednesday. Gary, Pete and I rode up South St. Vrain to Ward instead. They both had a good view of my incident with the Suburban.
Bret
Two mountain bike crashes??? Three crashes in the space of 4 days??? What has gotten into you?
The only thing worse than bragging about winning masters' fatties races would be to brag about crashing in masters' fatties 'cross races. Thank goodness you have the decency not to do either!
Glad to hear you're okay. I was wondering why I didn't see your name in the results for Saturday's race, or see you at the start line on Sunday.
Hi Scott,
I didn't race Saturday because I had a terrible allergy attack going on and was sore from my two (very boring) mountain bike crashes last Wednesday. Gary, Pete and I rode up South St. Vrain to Ward instead. They both had a good view of my incident with the Suburban.
Bret
Two mountain bike crashes??? Three crashes in the space of 4 days??? What has gotten into you?
There's something going around at work. Four of us (including Bill) have crashed bikes in the last two weeks. Then again, maybe it's because I'm riding with Gary.
So, I tagged a Suburban today. It's about time somebody fought back. Blew off the local crit and went for a long mountain ride instead with a couple of friends. We're descending Lee Hill and I gaining on the target. He's giving me some ambiguous signals. The turn signal is on, but he's also pumping his brakes ( it's an old rust bucket Suburban) and I have no idea what he's doing. He's drifting into the lefthand lane ,so I assume he's pulling off to the left. In hindsight I now understand that he's setting up for a righthand turn into an uphill driveway. My descision to pass on the right is flawed. Too late, I brake for all I'm worth and it's not happening. Fortunately, I instinctively aim for the softest spot on the softest SUV in all of Boulder County. There's a very loud bang, the driver yells WTF! but there's surprisingly little pain. My friends tell me there was big bounce, but some how I end up walking off the bike, and standing in the road saying to the driver, "sorry about that". He's pretty cool and asks me if I'm ok. I say yeah, but how's your truck? I think I dented it. Now I'm looking at it and I see that there's no way I've decreased it's value. He walks around back and looks at my impression and decides that it's not an issue and we're both on our way. So I ride home with a twisted handle bar and blood running down my shin. Later that day I'm lucky enough to be standing in Excel Sports buying yet another Ritchey WCS, Classic bend, 42 cm, OS diameter handlebar.
Bret
When I first read your post, I mis-read it and thought you'd hit a Subaru, not a Suburban. Considering the preponderance of Subies in the Boulder area, it's an understandable mistake.
I once walked away from a crash with a Suburban, too. In my case, I definitely decreased the value of the truck, as it wasn't that old and I put a serious dent in the right front wheel well.
