I saw a couple of accidents when out riding today The one pictured was a Shelby Mustang driven into the rear of another car by a healthy teenage boy, who in my humble opinion should have been biking instead. I bet tonight his parents would agree.
I rode to work and back, then back to the office again this evening. Today's commute and a half got me 28.4 miles.
I rode into the office, on the way home I took a spin down the Mopac, then stopped off at Sears where we were going to get some brake work done on the wife's car. Turns out they are still good. But getting cars worked on, paying for insurance, etc just ticks me off, it'd be nice to be one of those families that are totally car free. But hey, at least at my job when things get slow I don't have to walk the halls of the mall in a tire cover promoting specials.
Tonight is the first friday art walk featuring work by Kimberly Brown the cyclist/artist at Screen Ink. Go check it out starting at 7pm.
I also want to wish the best of luck to all my friends riding this weekend in the Urban Omaha Adventure Race, Norfolk's Crit Races, The Dirty Kanza 200 mile gravel race, and everyone embarking on BRAN this weekend. Have fun and ride safe!
The commute was cut short since I picked her car up making it just 17.3 miles.
Ok, maybe it's not that high quite yet. But it still wouldn't hurt to ride your bike.
Their getting the new Caseys ready to open at 56th & Superior.
This cyclist wrecked right behind me on the John Dietrich Trail this morning.
He didn't get hit by the pick-up, but it was a near miss. All three of us could have prevented the accident.
On the trail I caught up to him fast and passed him easily. He was just tooling along probably at 11 or 12 mph, I was at around 17 mph. About 100 feet after passing him I crossed the street where he wrecked and saw the pick-up pulling out of Aramark Uniform Services about a block down the street. Otherwise there was no traffic. A moment later I herd a click (his bike hitting the ground) and a thud (the cyclist) as well as the pick-up stop and door open.
The driver got out and offered a towel to the victim. I turned around to see pretty much what you see in the picture.
The cyclists didn't see the car till it was too late and slammed on the brakes and did a endo. He hit his chin on something and will need stitches. He seemed ok otherwise, his teeth were fine and so was his bike.
I gave him a band-aid. (always knew there was a reason I'd been carrieing a first-aid kit I've never needed, for 4,000 miles, I'm such a geek huh?)
I and the driver made sure he was ok and he called for a ride. I think he was pretty embarrassed.
What went wrong?
1. I didn't yell "car" back to him. In my defence he was pretty far back, but I should have made the effort.
2. The driver didn't have his lights on. It was pretty light, it happened about 6:45am, but he still should have had them on. You'd be surprised how many people don't!
3. The driver wasn't looking down the trail for cyclists.
4. The victim didn't look for traffic. Or yield at the crossing.
5. He didn't have any lights on his bike, much less a helmet.
Ultimately it was the cyclists fault, but if any of the 3 of us would have been safer it wouldn't have happened. And I'm no cycling safety expert. Especially after this post I'll probably be the next to get clocked. That's the way karma works, isn't it? But still,
Otherwise it was a rocking (but steamy) commute. I lost 6 lbs. since Sunday night. Could have something to do with that funny phobia I have about dropping a deuce anywhere but home, or it could just be the lack of TDN pie.
