Today we had winds gusting up to 60mph (97kph). On a 30mph descent, a plastic bag came at me, as if it were shot from a cannon. In a matter of seconds it was wrapped around my smallest cog and rear derailleur, jamming the chain, and bringing my pedaling to a halt.

Fortunately, neither me nor my bike was damaged. But I still had a few angry words with the plastic bag as I tore bits of it out of my cassette.

As if drivers, pedestrians, and other cyclists weren't dangerous enough, now we have inanimate objects and forces of nature trying to kill us.

Never mess with Mother Nature, especially when she's PMSing. There is a reason for everything, and her jamming your bike chain and stopping your commute was a sign that maybe you shouldn't be riding today.

I've ridden in worse. She'll have to try harder than that to stop me.

agreed, that is the law of maximum inconvenience in action, not mother nature trying to tell you anything

Word of the day: anthropomorphism

my mother's house was destroyed in the Nashville floods last summer. Someone asked her if she thought God was trying to tell her something, and she told him that the only thing she learned was that some people are really rude.

^ haha. Forget about plastic bags, if i didn't have glasses leaves would be constantly poking my eyes out thanks to headwind.

I guess it's always something. You may be happy to know that plastic bags are apparently banned in Brownsville, TX now (from the thread I read previous to this one!). But they probably didn't ban them for you.

plastic bag of death.....johnny spaceman!!

Paris Roubaix 1988 - see the finish from ~6:16 on...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvYcZvqPUJU

"...as he struggles with the bag, he gets assistance from his team car..."

I guess I need to hire a car full of guys to follow me around.

Hahaha... "only to fall victim to the cruelest of fates" - being attacked by a plastic bag!

Don't blame Mother Nature, blame Sten Gustaf Thulin.

How ironic that a Swede invented (well, "made production-ready") the disposable plastic shopping bag, and then Ikea, also a Swedish company, starts selling its own reusable shopping bags. Kinda like Alfred Nobel wanting to make up for his invention of dynamite (heh... also Swedish...).

DC charges an extra 5 cents per plastic shopping bag, and they say the money goes towards cleaning up the Anacostia river. Not surprisingly, most of the bits of trash I see out that way are orphaned plastic bags. I've been trying to use my own reusable bags since I brought one of my sister's home from Germany. Cotton or nylon, lightweight, easily packable, strong enough for a lot of stuff.

i was expecting a situation of the bag getting stuck to your face and blinding you, i'm glad that didn't happen but it was what i was expecting haha

My wind limit is around 60 kmph. I can't imagine riding in wind of 100 kmph!

Sometimes, you just gotta look her in the eye, and ask:

Only the gusts reached 100kmph (60mph) the steady winds were less than half of that. I heard whistling sounds coming from my bike that I'd never heard before. One strong gust blew straight at me and, though I was pedaling at full force, I nearly came to a stop. The surreal quality of the whole experience felt more like a video game than real life.

Actually, I've heard of some bad crashes caused by plastic bags jamming derailleurs. Sticks are bad about that too.

Leaves are the worst because they don't actually stop you, they just get stuck in your brakes and make that "schuuhhh" sound, psychologically forcing you to stop and pick them out, or risk sticking your fingers into your wheels and clearing them on the fly.

Should have turned around and enjoyed the tailwind - then phone someone for a ride from wherever you end up!