Advice to potential bike runner-downers - running away doesn't work so well when you have distinctive vanity plates...idiot.

Got a photo line up to go to this afternoon.

Ruined a red label Fiamme...that really got me mad. Third rim I've lost in the past month.

This guy managed to trade an apology and a $100 rim for a felony hit and run. Quick thinking!

was his vanity plate "DUMA$$" ?
Glad you're ok, hit him with everything you've got.

That is outrageous, I hope you're ok (though don't validate or confirm that =) ), please keep us updated!

Glad you are (apparently) okay! Now hobble down to the police station and nail his ass to the wall!

Funny, I was out for a 30 mile ride last night and had two incidents:

- Someone buzzed close to me and hit an air horn (like at sporting events) right next to me.
- Someone slowed down and shouted a "get the f*ck off the road"-type rant.

I e-mailed and called the county Sherriff's office this morning asking how they would like me to report these incidents. I have times, locations, plates, and make/model/color. Sucks for them when people ride with smartphones you can type a lot of info into.

Oh, edit...glad you're ok OP...let us know what happens. His insurance company especially will like it. You have a police report, get an arrest, then go for the pain and suffering, his...make it as painful for the jerkoff as possible.

The most recent incident I had was I passed through an intersection Tuesday. A Mazda Miata was two or three cars back from the front of the line on the cross street waiting at a red light, with the top down. There were two guys in it and one of them yelled "F*GGOT!" at me. I couldn't help but smile at the irony, since I always think of Miatas as kind of a chick car.

I think they arrested him last night, or something. He ran me down in Atherton, and lives in Los Altos, which are two of the richest zips in the country. Not sure how they test for driving skills in those zips... The car behind him saw the whole thing, chased him for a couple miles trying to get him to stop.

Learned a lesson - I drive EXTREMELY defensively. Didn't do me a lot of good.

He was turning left across my right of way.

I'm lucky living here - there are bikes all over, so people are used to them. Only high school students yell occasionally.

The definition of Irony !

I'm glad you are ok and that you might get him for it. Justice!

A buddy of mine has one. We always give him hell over it.

When there is a flight situation, the guy running usually has a reason to run, prior stuff, lapsed lic., no lic, too many points on their record...

Happy to read you are functional enough to advise, but sometimes later things get sore and or stiff, for me day two is always the true test.

the miata discussion reminds me of this:

Maybe they were out cruising, and were asking your preference in a loud and abrasive manner?,,,,BD

All this Miata talk makes me kind of uncomfortable, as no one I know who is gay drives one, they all drive bicycles. Could we change it to jews or catholics or asians or something...oh wait, let's keep it on topic:

I wasn't wearing a helmet!

Glad you're OK. Remember, the adjuster didn't cause the accident, and sugar there works a lot better than vinegar....

If it had a matching wheel, go ahead and ask for the set, and offer to give them the "salvage." They don't want it, but by offering it, you're much more likely to get a matched set and have a spare. They'll probably ask for recpts or estimates, so find a shop, have them look it up in the books, and write something up. A hassle, but still the easiest situation.

Since it's a bike part, not a complete bike, depreciation likely won't apply. (Prop Dmg statutes call for the used value, not the new value, if it's complete). The fact that it's a hit & run (felony if with an injury) would go a long way towards getting treated more than fairly on the wheel. The other guy will be interested in getting the felony out of the way, but his insurer just wants to treat you fairly, and the state regulates how they value your bike/wheel, etc.

If you're injured, get good credible treatment, and things should go OK. If not, don't be "injured" out of spite or for financial opportunity. It makes all rates go up and gets you into the index database, and will show up if you ever get into another one. If there was a police report, you'll start to get a flurry of attorney letters convincing you that you are injured, and chiropractor solicitations. Funny how they can diagnose you from the police report. The injury attorneys and chiros only made about 10x what the health carriers in CA made last year, combined.

Can you tell I used to work fraud? I'm a pushover, though, when it comes to bike claims. I try to imagine what if it happened to one of my bikes, and go from there.

Yep, an apology and getting you a new wheel + labor should have been forthcoming. Now, this guy will dump his asinine act onto his insurer to deal with, then complain when his rates go up.

Doohickie, I'm surprised - I ride all kinds of back roads over in Collin county and I've never had an incident like that - I have been passed pretty close, but that's about it.

To the OP, let us know how it works out. I'll never understand why it seems that some people just get stupider behind the wheel.

Since it's a vintage Record/Fiamme wheelset, I don't know that I will have any luck getting it paid for. It would have been easier all around if the guy had just stopped.

Man, that stinks. I'd start looking on Ebay and elsewhere, present what it takes to replace it, or close, even t get the set rebuilt.

Is the hub still intact?

Yea, but I was kinda wondering if I should be riding on it. It's a wheel I built up a couple month's ago, so there's some big money (by my standards) invested in it.

I don't know that aluminum can take that kind of shock and not want to crack some day.

in another century, when i was by myself out on a country road, some yahoos in a pickup came by me real slow and proceeded to fire a blank gun at me. only, for about 4 or 5 heart crushing seconds, i didn't know it was a blank gun, and i dropped myself off my bike and into the weeds belly down in self defense. i heard their maniacal laughter as they slowly cruised away...

I'd rather have pretty-boys stopped at red lights propositioning me than get passed close. (Or is that really the same thing? )

Sciencemonster -

I don't know how you can taco a wheel and not have the forks/stays deformed to some extent as well. (A car bent my crank and twisted my main tubes more than an inch but the wheels were still good!). If you have not ridden the bike since then and verified it yourself, it is very likely you ought to be looking for full replacement value on the whole bike - not just a rim.

PS- glad it was just the bike and not your head!

Dave Moulton had an excellent post on his blog a couple of years ago that shed some interesting light on sharing the road. He compared a cyclist to a stray dog. I think there was an actual example of an angry motorist running a cyclist off the road and moments later slowed to a crawl waiting for stray dog to be clear of danger before safely passing. The simple fact is, despite felony arrests, laws, bike routes, etc. there is no way we're ever going to change the attitudes of this relatively small group of motorists. It is unavoidable that when we ride on country roads, which we like to do, we are going to encounter drivers that are impatient, intolerant or just plain imbecile. On these roads I always ride on the right third of the lane; never on the shoulder unless it's wide enough to allow for bike traffic free of debris, etc. Yeah, I get yelled at, honked at, flipped off, and a number of other things, but it a.) forces motorists who might not otherwise be paying attention to see me; and b.) forces the impatient driver to wait for a safe place to pass and leaves me enough room to dodge the inevitable buzzing or clipping when they do.

As for the Miata...

The rim is bent, not a taco's wheel.

Wow, that really sucks. Glad you're not seriously injured. How fast were you going and how fast was he going? Did you hit the side of his car or the front?