General Cycling Discussion - May you live in interesting times.

Many of you may have heard the curse given as the thread title. Said to be from eastern Europe where interesting times usually meant one invading army or another raping and looting across your territory. This AM the wife and I were headed out on the 101 freeway for a ride when I heard a loud thump and saw the rack with two bikes sitting in the lane behind me. Lightly toasting the tires I stopped and ran back to pull them off the road before the next vehicle came along. The following car diverted over a lane though I was clear in time. As I lugged the mass of bikes and rack back to the car the wife showed me that the two hooked straps supposed to hold the rack to the car had parted together. As I go to the car a CHP officer pulled in behind me, got out and asked, "The rack came off?" Yes. "I'll keep my lights on back here, this shoulder is narrow." Wheels in the rear seat, frames stuffed half into the truck and three bunjee cords holding the lid down. We took the next off-ramp and made it home of the surface roads.

At home I saw my rear wheel, Velocity Synergy rims, 36 14-gage Wheelsmith spokes, and all was badly bent right at the spot the rim had been welded together. Scrap. The LBS would not even give me an estimate for repair as they will have to order a new rim that can meet my needs.

Steam blown off, thanks.

Wow, that sucks - glad the bikes were ok and you didn't end up paying for someone else's body work.

Wow, that sucks - glad the bikes were ok and you didn't end up paying for someone else's body work.

+1, quoted for truth. The wheel is replaceable. Ken, you are not. Whoever you are. :D

Sorry to hear that, glad nothing more serious happened.

Ouch! glad it was only metal that got hurt.

P.S. I always heard it as "An Ancient Chinese Curse"

I always heard it as "An Ancient Chinese Curse"

Indeed coldfeet,the full quote is "May you attract the attention of powerful people, and live in interesting times."

Must have been light traffic on the 101 for it not to be instantly run over
Fortunate it didn't cause some sort of pile up


I have never trusted those trunk mounted carriers. Used one of those a handful of times, nervous everytime I did. I then installed a hitch receiver on my car and got a wheel mounted hitch carrier and have never looked back

I thought this was leading to a ticket for not properly tying down your load.

Ditto on you being okay.

Glad to hear that you're OK and that nothing worse happened? What kind of rack was it?

Indeed coldfeet, the full quote is "May you attract the attention of powerful people, and live in interesting times."
As a Chinese speaker and translator, I can assure you that this saying does not exist in Chinese.

May You Live in Interesting Times (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times)

To kill this thread the wife is replacing the car with a mini-van type vehicle which can hold our bikes, minus the wheels inside the vehicle. To protect the floor I'll pile the bikes on top of the padded bike bag I found along the road the other day.

Glad no one was hurt.

Have read a novel by Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times, a fantasy which discusses the phrase. Great book if you like fantasy/humor/satire.

Had a bike come half way off the rack a couple of years ago, very scary, was able to get to the shoulder before it fell off completely. Your experience was frightening to read, be thankful you weren't injured. The bikes can always be repaired.