smontanaro
06-13-2016, 11:34 AM
Prompted by @veloo's realtor sign encounter, I have my own close call to report from yesterday's ride.
I was riding in a mostly residential area with no sidewalks, grass running right up to the pavement, and rural mailboxes out by the road. Somebody had planted one of those orange steel rods used to mark fire hydrants during snow season, either as a marker for his driveway or his mailbox. I was moving in and out of shade, it was in shade and I was wearing shades, so completely missed the fact that it was leaning over \ into the roadway. I caught it with my right fork blade, and through some miracle it didn't go through my wheel, but turned to point forward, between the wheel and the fork blade. I, of course, completely froze. I didn't apply my brakes, nothing. I don't know where it was located in relationship to my brakes. In retrospect, braking might have been just as bad as not braking. After a moment (quarter second? two seconds? felt like an eternity), I guess a spoke caught the pole and shot it out in front of the bike. In a split second I went from being a knight charging along holding his jousting spear to Lloyd Bridges just having shot his spear gun at a bad guy. It clattered around relatively harmlessly on the pavement in front of me, and I managed to steer around it.
It was only a few seconds later that I realized, "Oh crap, that would have been the end(o) of me if it had crossed my front wheel."
I was riding in a mostly residential area with no sidewalks, grass running right up to the pavement, and rural mailboxes out by the road. Somebody had planted one of those orange steel rods used to mark fire hydrants during snow season, either as a marker for his driveway or his mailbox. I was moving in and out of shade, it was in shade and I was wearing shades, so completely missed the fact that it was leaning over \ into the roadway. I caught it with my right fork blade, and through some miracle it didn't go through my wheel, but turned to point forward, between the wheel and the fork blade. I, of course, completely froze. I didn't apply my brakes, nothing. I don't know where it was located in relationship to my brakes. In retrospect, braking might have been just as bad as not braking. After a moment (quarter second? two seconds? felt like an eternity), I guess a spoke caught the pole and shot it out in front of the bike. In a split second I went from being a knight charging along holding his jousting spear to Lloyd Bridges just having shot his spear gun at a bad guy. It clattered around relatively harmlessly on the pavement in front of me, and I managed to steer around it.
It was only a few seconds later that I realized, "Oh crap, that would have been the end(o) of me if it had crossed my front wheel."