For anyone wondering about what Josh is talking about (because at this point, everyone knows who Josh is!), he's referring to a girl who has almost the same set up as I do. She's got a black Soma and when Marcus at Yojimbo's originally ordered the first set of coloured Phils (pink), he had three.

One set went to Molly, one to me. When I came to pick my wheels up, I saw hers there and saw that she had gone the same route, but with bladed spokes on the front and a Fusion rim. In any case, a week or two later, Marcus remembered to tell me that the girl that set of wheels was built for, had the same black Soma frame as mine.

Many friends and many of the DCC have thought that they saw my bike outside of places or riding around, but was Molly.

As for the accident, mine was in March when my face and head met a grated metal bridge and with the help of many on the forums (my gratitude runs deep), I recovered well.

As for the gaps on the bridge -- this has been a long standing issue. The metal bridges have been a cause of concern for years now. Kathy Schubert who's very active with the Chicago Bike Federation and Critical Mass (she helped organize the Critical Mass in March that was dedicated as a fundraiser and an awareness ride for the metal bridges in my name) years ago did a faceplant on the Wells street bridge.

She DID start a movement and a few years later got the City of Chicago to plate over a bike lane on the Wells Street bridge and only on the Wells Street bridge. You may also want to see the Boub case.

The City of Chicago's stance on this is that it takes a lot of money and effort to figure out (or rather, no one wants to spend the money or time) to produce the extra counterweight for balancing the bridge now that you've plated or filled in the concrete holes on the bridge. Since the bridges do come up often for ships and boats on the river, they didn't want to do this.

Kathy Schubert kept as it and started a postcard awareness program. The City knows that this happens on the bridges to cyclists and doesn't want to take responsbility in the same way that you're considered a vehicle (aka "car") and thus anything that happens to you on the bridge is the same as a car -- you don't get any special rights and you abide by the rules of the road that way. It is "your" risk. By giving you special rights over the bridges, they claim responsibility and thus if something happens, they'd have to be responsible.

They do no want to be.

I do not know Molly personally but I am sad to hear this. I know my bridges intimately these days and which ones have grates that travel against the tire or with the tire and I avoid and take the sidewalk out of an odd paranoia since.

I hope she's better and that it was nowhere as serious as mine was.

If anyone does indeed know her (and I feel like I should for some reason, after all the sightings and bike twin-ness), please let me know.