That’s awful! It is really sad how dangerous other people can be on trails. I once got literally tackled off my bike by a jogger who decided to just take a u-turn from the far right to the far left of the path on a whim and flat out t-boned my bike. Never looked over his shoulder at all and was wearing headphones loud enough to not hear me warning I was passing him. And it is a busy mix-used path so there’s no situation you should be crossing the path not looking. He’s lucky I was paying attention, near the end of my ride and cooling down so not going as fast and was able to brake some. Just gave me a look as I was tangled up in my bike and then ran off while I sorted myself out.
I avoid the MUP here like the plague. It’s the antithesis of enjoyable biking to me.
Nixxter sorry to here about your crash. That sucks.
I’m on Week 5 of bike-commuting the majority of the time. So far I’ve been able to do it at least three days a week, sometimes four. The round-trip is about 22 miles of rolling hills, which is a pretty good workout. I’m losing weight and toning up pretty nicely, which makes my wife happy, which in turn makes me happy, which also makes my wife happy.
I managed to hit another cyclist on a blind corner when a pedestrian made me swerve onto the left side. Got a nasty bruise from it, but given that I probably weigh twice what the poor woman I hit does, I reckon hers was worse. No damage to the bikes, just the meat.
Last week I biked in four days, and on three of them I managed to be in mid-commute when the heavens opened up. One of the days it rained so heavily that they closed one of the roads I would have usually driven to get home, which meant that biking was actually faster than driving. Not pleasant though.
Dang dude, that’s a pretty decent sized commute. Good on you. Well over 3x my commute.
Looks like I will be riding my old and trusty steed, my Cannondale CAAD9, for a few weeks, while my “new” bike gets repaired.
Update, after talking to the insurer and my bike shop, looks like what will happen is my bike will be sent out to the left coast, and the frame repaired, repainted, what not. Not a big surprise to learn that’s the way it is often handled (repair vs frame replacement), and the insurance company will only pay so much for repairs so you need to consider that option. My guys say they have used the company regularly and they do good work.
Did you exchange info with the asshat? Do you plan on trying to get any compensation out of him?
I’m curious how people view and treat bike accidents. I could see trying to take them to court or getting them to pay when damages can be in the thousands (property + health), but I can also see how proving your case would be damn near impossible.
My house is adjacent to a multi-use trail (bikes, pedestrians, and even the occasion horse). I bike it everyday as part of my commute. It amazes me how many bikers zoom down it at nearly full speed, despite signs warning bikers to slow down when near pedestrians or when going around corners. I’ve seen way too many close calls.
Man, establishing fault without a police report would be a nightmare. As for paths we had a great irony in that the biking clubs went through our fantastic parks and opened all the trails, as well as maintaining them, and shortly after the walkers started bitching about too many bikers on the trails. You’re welcome!
I resurrect this thread to pass on this public service announcement: It’s fucking cold in Virginia.
I’ve still been biking in two or three days a week, but I wussed out all this week because the morning temperatures went from the upper 30s F to the low 20s. Upper 30s or low 40s is chilly but comfortable for me – I’ll still wear biking shorts in such conditions because I am… a big, hirsute man and my legs don’t really get too cold compared to my fingers or head. But if it drops below freezing, I need to upgrade to leggings, and ten degrees below freezing is pretty chilly.
So I wimped out for the entirely of this week since the temps were just so cold, but yesterday I felt really antsy, not having gotten in a decent workout in the better part of a week. Accordingly, I set out this morning to do my 12-mile commute. As luck would have it, it was actually colder than the day before, at 19 degrees F, and… man, it just gets annoying. Getting ready is like girding yourself for battle in full plate-mail. Arctic leggings, the over-shorts with the cushion, a t-shirt, a thermal shirt, the cold-weather wetsuit-style jacket, socks, shoes, the shoe covers, winter gloves, balaclava, lower face-cover, glasses, helmet. It takes a good twenty minutes to outfit yourself, and you do almost half of it outside because it gets too hot inside.
After a few minutes the cold isn’t too bad, but the you need to face-covering to protect your nose if you’re going much faster than ten or fifteen MPH, and that causes the glasses to fog up. Plus I think I’ve determined that my gloves are not quite up to sub-freezing temperatures if they have to serve as windbreaker – time to invest in some “lobster” style over-gloves.
So… yeah, this is just me whining. And I guess seeking attention.
Don’t feel too bad, I would wuss out in those conditions. Maybe lazy out is more like it though. I like cycle commuting when it’s semi-convenient, but if I have to suit up and suit down at work to do it I’ll just take the bus. Thankfully it doesn’t get very cold here.
I am still biking in the cold. I had to buy some cold weather mittens from REI and I have a face cover. It all works great. I’m not in the least bit cold, even when I cycled to work the other day and it was 20 degrees. I plan on riding the bike all winter as long as the streets are dry. I had the bike fly out from under me last winter when I made a turn on some ice I didn’t see.
Yeah, my plan is to continue my three-out-of-five bike commuting schedule; I just had to force myself to take this first plunge. It usually doesn’t get this cold this early here – waking up sub-freezing isn’t a typical thing until January or so.
I’d also like to get in as many rides as I can before the snow comes. All the dire “Storm Team 7” style reports say that this winter is supposed to be worse than last winter… which was a pretty bad one, snow-wise. I won’t be riding on snow or when the road shoulders are shrunken due to plow-off.
But I’m definitely getting the better gloves.
Man I miss being able to ride to work. Last year before I moved (and this had been the case for a few years) I was biking to work 3-4 times a week. Man I loved it. It was about 15 miles each way, which took me about an hour all said, less if I caught the lights right. Now I’m about 24 miles via the most direct route, which is a major tollway. It’d probably be 2 hours each way if I took the safest route, and that has a bit too much span on 45+ MPH roads.
Get good mittens. Your thumb can do the bike work you need it to do and the mittens let the rest of your fingers share body heat. You can also get those chemical heat pads and put them in the mittens to keep your fingers warm. Costco has 30 pairs for $12.
I got a good pair of biking gloves but at 20 degrees they didn’t work well. My fingers got agonizingly cold. Some of that is probably circulation issues due to age and a dissolute lifestyle, but wow did that cold get painful! The thermal mittens are much, much better.
I’d actually recommend a different tack, but this is my own preference, but I double glove it. I use a thin pair of athletic gloves, like Under Armor, and wear them under a pair of insulated leather ones. The inner glove works for warmth mostly, but the leather glove provides moisture barrier and wind breaking. Same mix I use for skiing and winter running.
Yeah, I think the double-glove route is the one I’ll go. Sounds like something to put one my holiday wish-list.
Today is going to be in the low-70s, with a cold front moving in tonight and snow on Wednesday. Today would have been a spectacular day to bike in, but I broke a spoke on the way home Friday and I was too lazy to take it in to be fixed over the weekend. Hopefully I can commute in tomorrow.
Checking back in to answer questions posed.
I did not get the other guy’s information. As soon as I started pressing him he rode off, and by the time I figured out I should pursue him, I couldn’t catch up to him (rather, didn’t find him). I was very angry and considering following him to his house to get his information, so, probably best I didn’t do so.
However, if it ever happens again (mind, I’ve been biking a good many years, and this is the worst accident I’ve had), I plan on being a lot nicer but also much more insistent on getting the person’s information. It’s not so much the financial aspects (at least, this time, I was insured, and other than the deductible the bike has now been repaired and literally is as good as new). But, people should be held accountable for stupid decision making so they have a chance of learning.
I was so angry at the time that it came close to being a physical confrontation after the crash. That lessened the possibility of holding the guy responsible (in his mind, while he admitted he caused the crash in front of witnesses, he probably justified riding off since “that guy was being an asshole” (he was just as nasty)).
The insurance company did ask if I got his information. When I asked them if they pursue litigation or what not in this situation (if they have the contact information) they said no, not usually.
But, if I did have the guy’s contact information I could have followed up and let him know about the damage he did to my bike (and me, my shoulder is still sore) and the inconvenience of having the bike I love be unavailable to me at the end of a great cycling summer and fall. I got it back in time to put a couple hundred miles on it (and will go out again when weather permits in Chicago).
Who knows, maybe if I had been in contact enough with him later I could have turned a bad situation into one where we could ride together instead of having terrible feelings about the whole frikkin’ episode!
While it may inspire rage in traditional cyclists, I figured I’d ask if folks had looked into electric bikes at all. Specifically, this bike from Faraday.
Quite a pricey ride at $3500, but has a very nice look to it, and doesn’t just look like a bike with a motor strapped onto it. Personally, I like the idea of a bike that can go 20 mph without much effort, as I think I’d end up using it more just for running around town.
It is quite elegant looking!
My understanding is that fancy looking, gimmicky bikes like that absolutely do not warrant the cost. I mean, hell, $3500? You could buy literally any old-school style cruiser you wanted, an electric kit AND have a LBS install it for less than that. I dunno, maybe I’m just biased because Bike Snob NYC shits all over these things constantly.
Anyway, at $3500 I would pretty much buy whatever road bike I wanted and still have money to spare.
Yeah, you definitely don’t buy one of these because it’s cheap. But then again, there are lots of other electric bikes which are way cheaper than the Faraday.
The Faraday is, from what I’ve seen, generally a very high quality piece of machinery. The parts are very nice, and really wouldn’t be cheap even for regular bikes. Adding an electric kit onto a road bike isn’t gonna result in something as nice as the Faraday, which really does look quite slick.
Like I said though, for certain areas, being able to go 20 mph, uphill, without really exerting yourself is a nice feature… it means you can use this thing to get to work in the morning, and not have to worry about showering when you get there.