Zeggelaar

I've been riding in Korea for more than a year now. On Tuesday everning I was riding through the rice paddies on a quiet farming road and saw a truck coming my way. Knowing the tunnel vision of most Korean drivers I safely pulled close to the edge and went very slowly expecting the driver not to see me. )My usual style is usually ripping wildly through these amazing little roads at top speed.) Well, the ****head really didn't see me at all. He merely heard the crunching of my bike and my yells as he sideswiped me. Luckily for me my leg was merely scraped but my shoe was destroyed, back wheel mangled and frame bent. This was just enough to put me off the bike in the middle of a reasonably successful racing season. But insurance moves fast over here. The bike will be fixed with new and better parts (at full MSRP) by my LBS with whom I have a very close relationship. My leg just hurts enough that the doctor said no exercise for a whole week. (HAHAHA) Luckily they have good trainers at the health club.
Point: I was lucky and I truly believe in not expecting any driver to see a bike. 1 hit out of many close calls is lucky for me.

anthonaut

Definately lucky it was your bike and not you that was hit. Gotta love insurance

chis51hd

Next time around, YOU drive the truck, and let him ride a bike.

[bEn]

Your very lucky! Without insurance you wouldn't have much luck.

khuon

Glad to see you came out relatively unscathed and that insurance will cover everything. Was the truck driver given a citation or did you not report this to the police? When I was on South Korea, traffic seemed pretty dense and crazy. I think I only saw one or two people in Seoul actually on a bike although I did see a few bikelanes. I saw quite a few more people on bikes in Suwon but then again, the traffic there didn't seem as bad.

BTW, I'm moving this thread to Advocacy & Safety.

Bikepacker67

Well, there's your problem!

If these Koreans really have "tunnel vision" you should be putting yourself out in the middle of the road as they approach - so that they CAN'T miss seeing you.

Gus Riley

Your incident reminds me of one of my own while stationed down south at Kunsan.

We were involved in a pretty good sized crit (85 riders!). The race was through the streets of Kunsan AB. Roads were supposed to be closed for the duration of the event. Well, the race started fine, it was fast because it was a short crit type race of only 10KM...more like a drag race...but fun as all could be. We're flying along and out of nowhere "Odishi" pulls out in front of the leaders (I was fourth back)...Four of us pass him on his left...as you put it, his driver's tunnel vision impaired his sight and his thinking that there may be something odd happening on base (a usual thing to most Korean Nationals working on a US air base), without a signal, he makes a quick left turn! Number five racer in our group center-punches his van! I was close enough to hear the collision. I pulled over to check on the rider and he was a good friend of mine. He rides a Litespeed Vortex. He was fine, the bike suffered some damage to its Campy Record Ergo shifters. Odishi had a good sized dent in his van, that he was going to have to explain to his boss.

Chad and I lost the race, of course...but another lessoned was learned by both of us (again)...always expect the unexpected while riding in Korea.

I’m quite jealous of you getting to ride in Korea. I put in over 3,000 miles in a year and absolutely loved it! Those rice paddy roads (farm roads) are wonderful! There were a solid 13 riders in our little group, we ventured out 40-60 miles from Kunsan every weekend. The people in many places we discovered probably hadn’t seen Americans since the Korean War! We surprised many of the villagers with the sudden appearance of our pace lines through their villages. The children enjoyed slapping our hands as we went by; the young women (and older women) all seemed to have overdosed on lycra! But the men always frowned at us, with looks on their faces like we should all get a job, we have too much time on our hands!

Someday maybe I’ll get to visit again.

Roughstuff

Eek! I hope you are ok. I did a tour of south Korea in 1995 for several weeks when I was reassigned form Kunsan AFB to Iwakuni in Japan, riding my bike the whole way. I loved Korea, and found the Koreans to be wonderful folks, if also crazy drivers.

AS you know in Korea they fertilize rice paddies with their own excrement. I figured when in Rome do like the romans, so one time when i had an especially bad case of diarrhea while riding late in the evening, I hopped over into the local paddy and, well, ya know!

I thought i heard a fish jump in the water nearby. (Many paddies have tilapia when flooded). Then again closer! It was some lady up on her balcony throwing small stones. She was pretty damn good...just my luck, targeted by the Nolan Ryan of Korea! She never hit me though...i ran back to my bike (not easy in a flooded paddy) and high tailed out of there.

They push the envelope, so do I.

roughstuff

Bikepacker67

Now THAT is hilarious!

I hope you had time to properly clean your nether regions.... I can't imagine pedalling miles and miles with a host of clingons.

womble

Would it be worth getting an Air Zound?

James H Haury

Romulans would be preferable.Even ferengie!

Gus Riley

On one of our rides I hit a good sized bump and one of my water bottles bounced off the bike and rolled into a rice paddy field...That bottle is still there!

This is me riding on one of those rice paddy roads.