The ride home yesterday resulted in a few curse words uttered under my breath. And some, not so under my breath! It had nothing to do with the cars though, and everything to do with equipment failure.

The road I ride has been getting worse all winter. Potholes the size of cantaloupes, I kid you not. They seem to grow every week! And the worst part is, the city can't fix them until the snow is gone. My rack bag is attached with four strips of velcro, which due to "velcro fatigue" and all those potholes causes the velcro strips to loosen over the length of my ride. Often I arrive finding that at least two straps have come off. Well yesterday, I finally found out what happens when all four come off: bad things.

While navigating a particularily bone-rattling section, three of the straps (I assume) came apart, swinging the bag to ose side of my rear wheel. The bag was then sucked into the space between my rear wheel and the rack supports, tearing free the last velcro strap and permanently lodging the bag against the spokes.

Now, this is one time when I'm really glad I ride a trike. If I'd been on two wheels, I would have been flat on my butt in the middle of the road with a bus bearing down on me like a tiger on a rabbit. On three wheels, it just felt like I'd thrown an anchor out the back, though I'm sure there's one spot on my rear tire that's a little more bald than the rest! After realizing I was stuck in the street and not going anywhere, I quickly hoised the trike onto the sidewalk and proceeded to dislodge the rather crumpled-looking rack bag. It took some effort, too. Fortunately, nothing seemed to be bent or damaged.

Needless to say, I am now in search of a new bag, or at least a way to repair the one I have.



Oh, and the city still hasn't cleared the side streets of snow, lazy asses..... grrr.....