Along those same lines...

I was riding home from work a couple of weeks ago. A car pull out of an alley, so I slow down. The guy looks at me and says, "Nice suspenders!"

I wasn't wearing suspenders.

Haven't figured out the flashing stuff. And the person's never 'hot'. :eep! Is that a "come and get me" thing or what?

Man! Some people get all the luck!!

Another one...
Also in Chicago, I was riding to work, layered for the Windy city winter.
I was on Chicago Ave. riding towards the loop, a door swings open from a car on my left and I fly over the front of car with my bike. I was shaken but felt physically in 1 piece.
I continued on to work in the south loop. When I got there, someone asked if I was bleeding. I noticed a chest level hole in my jacket.
"Nah, I have a red t-shirt on under my layers."
upon disrobing I discovered a "stab wound" in my chest.
The car door left a gash in my chest that penetrated in between my ribs.
Because of the depth of the wound, and its proximity to my lung, the wound wasn't closed and I had to pack it with gauze for the next 2 weeks.

Wow, I had the same exact thing happen to me! It is humbling though, isn't it?

Youch! That one merit's the purple-heart!

I suppose the worst I've had to deal with is the City of Sparks's inept roadkill dept. Two skunks, one on the road and one on the side of the road, been sitting there decomposing for about 3 months. Its pretty ripe, every time I go by it. I have nearly been hit 3 times, 1 of them my fault. Had a couple of people holler at me, been honked at etc but nothing major. Guess I just need to commute more!

Ah yes, one more I forgot about. About two weeks ago, I am riding along a VERY narrow shoulder in town, and try to squeeze by a car to get up to the front of the pack at a light. I misjudged the width of the shoulder by a few inches, and fell against the side mirror of the car to my left. The mirror folded against the car (like it is supposed to??), so I got up, bent it back, and the driver just smiled and gave me a thumbs up! Guess not all drivers are nasty! I wasn't hurt, and the car wasn't either, but it made for an interesting ride in.

And now you're rich and living in a condo. I would be.

I was a Sr. in high school riding home at about 12:30 AM on a Friday night (OK, Saturday morning) after working the swing shift at a grocery store. I was about half way thorugh a 10 mile commute in a not so great part of Los Angeles. A van pulls along side and the next thing I know I am hit in the head with one of those gigantic coca cola cups from 7-11 - 32 ounces or something. I'm soaked with sugary coke and I get tunnel vision (literally) I'm so mad. I stand up on the pedals and chase after the van. The van screams off and makes the first right turn ahead which happened to be a cul-de-sac. The van was making a lefthand U turn at the end of the cul-de-sac when I caught him. I pulled up to the driver's window, reached in and pulled the driver halfway out of the window while I was still clipped in on my bike and the van was still moving! The passenger next to him had to jump over and step on the brake to stop the van. I shook him around and yelled some completely unintelligible gibberish then pushed him back in the van. As I was doing this I noticed about 5 or 6 little high schoolers like myself cowering in the back of the van. It took about an hour or so after getting home for me to settle down and only then did I really undersand how stupid I had been. I was a 5' 10" 145 lb wimp and if ANYONE else had been in that van I would have been toast! It did give me a better idea of how someone could truthfully claim temporary insanity after they've killed someone.

On a nice day after a half year of not riding due to an especially cold snowy winter it was time to get back in the saddle. A few blocks from my house this large dog, a tricolor collie, started to run beside me. He was not trying to attack, he just wanted to run beside me. That lasted about two blocks. For some reason only known to the dog, he suddenly wanted to be on the other side of me. To do so, he ran up to the front of the bike then turned knocking us both down. He yelped, got up, and then ran home. I just got a little road rash on the palm.

Three days later I was biking on a multiuse trail and passed a lady walking a large dog. Just as I was passing, the dog saw a squirrel, bolted, broke free of its leash, ran in front of me, and caused the second dog collision of the week. This time I got road rash on my other hand.

The next day I was on the trail again when a large lab came running out of the bushes full speed ahead and plowed into me. Road rash on top of road rash hurts and it forced the question,"What am I doing, is biking really worth it?"

Needless to say, I didn't stop biking but it was strange that in 45 years of biking I have had 3 dog collisions and they were all in the same week.

Now that's just plain wierd...

I hit a dog once, but luckily I was able to put a foot down and hit the brakes at the same time and saved crashing. The dog yelped and ran off, so I think he was ok. I looked for him, but couldn't find him, so I assumed he ran home. I can't imagine hitting three!! I would be very wary of dogs after that!

These are all great stories,

Here's mine, it's funny because it's 100% due to my own stupidity.

I was riding home from a baseball game, at night, with no lights, while drunk, with no helmet... stop me when the picture becomes too clear... Anyway I wind up on my stomach in the middle of a darkend road construction site thinking "Why am I here?". I'm not very philosophical by nature so I was thinking more of my immediate predicament, not my theological/idealogical one. I get up, notice that my new leather jacket saved my arm from hamburger (cows are good, m'kay) and my ribs and arms are sore, look at my bike and noticed that my front wheel was missing a few spokes, I began laughing (drunk people are easily amused). Apparently I fliped over a stack of rebar that blended into the night. Short story long, I got back on my bike and rode 'bout 1/2 mile home on a wobbly, flat front wheel. My ol' lady didn't think it was as funny as I did, but she was sober.

I've had many run ins with cars, stuff thrown at me, people yelling. My worst commute was last January, I had to be in two places that day so I decided I would go to the second place early in the morning and get the work van from that site then go to the first place I had to be do my shift drive to the second place with said work van which I would leave at the end of my second shift and then go home on bike. So in order to do this I would have to leave at 5 AM, but hey I was pumped. I flat out, my kevlar tires were on order, my spare tube turns out to have a bad valve and I used my spare c 02 cartridge in the process. I go to tube number 2 which flats out a little down the road, its 530 AM I have to be to work at 6, its cold I dont have time to get home to get my car and I need to be at site number 2 with in 30 minutes of leaving site 1 and its 20 minutes away. I walked to work, ran home with a work van grabbed a cartidge and tube, raced home afterwork threw bike in garage and drove to work. My plan was ruined, I was pissed. I know its not as juicy as getting hit but its the worse I have had to deal with. I did get hit once though when I was 15, woman wasn't going to fast. But will never forget what she said to me "Its ok Im from Boston, this happens all the time there." Great lady Im gushing blood from my knee and Im supposed to feel better because people in Boston are old pros at running over bikes.

Flats suk

I definitely don't recommend this and I regret taking the unnecessary risk, but I understand what Soggy was talking about:

Last summer I was riding home from work when jacktool in a little p.o.s. pickup starts to ride my wheel, honking, yelling obscenities, you know the scene. When he told me to get off the road and onto the sidewalk, I asked him to pull over to the curb so that we could discuss the California Vehicle Code.

Instead, he swerved at me and took off. That made me really angry so I put it in the big ring and chased him. He was now stopped at a red light and as I closed to within 100m, I could see him see me in the rearview mirror.

"Hey! I want to talk to you! Pull over to the side of the road!"

Jacktool pickup driver must have been frightened by the sight of little ol' me, wearing a button-down shirt, tie, and khakis, bearing down on him and screaming at him to pull over. So he jumps the light and roars ahead.

Only to have to stop at the next light a few blocks up. Where I catch up to him again. This time, I pulled up to the driver's side window and said again: "Hey, pull over to the side of the road. I want to talk to you about traffic law."

The light changed again and I can see him making a couple of evasive maneuvers, going right and then left. I'm still hot so I cut across a parking lot and nearly caught him at another intersection. He blew the sign and hopped onto to a freeway on-ramp.

What a tough guy. He's all big and bad with his finger on the horn and his foot on the gas pedal. Here I am, just a state worker on a bike.