caloso

Well, I don't know about your families, but in mine the leading causes of death seem to be heart disease, diabetes, and alcoholism. I think I'll continue to lay off the sweets and booze, and take my chances on the bike.

FormerBMX'er

You can get killed driving through multi-billion dollar tunnels here in The Bean when 2-ton ceiling panels come crashing down

patentcad

If you seriously think driving in NY City is crazy, you REALLY need to spend some time in Rome, Athens, or many other cities around the world behind the wheel. I can assure you that after a day or two in a rental car there, Manhattan will seem like a Driving Day at the Beach. Big time. American drivers (even those in NY City) are among the more sane and civilized in this world. I've driven in England, Germany, Greece, Italy, France and one or two other Euro countries. My general experience is the farther south you go (i.e. Italy, Greece) the crazier the driving gets. I think there's a large Italian/Greek macho mentality component to this, but that's just a guess.

After two weeks in Greece this summer I made an interesting observation: the drivers ARE crazy in many ways, generally speaking. But on the rural roads where I cycled 500+ miles over two weeks, they couldn't have been cooler about bicycles. That's because they constantly contend with slow moving mopeds that they have to pass - and they're MUCH more adept and skilled at this than American drivers. And far more patient about it, because they do it constantly. Two weeks, lots of miles, only FRIENDLY beeps from cars. ZERO confrontations, angry gestures, etc.

belowzero

I don't think he was clueless, as it does appear he rode bikes before. Perhaps a road race bike noobie. He was middle ages by looks and was heavy build 6'6 height. Which does not assist in the resulting physics.

ref:


Presumably so.. however if you hit a rigid enough object with decent height, head on or large enough pothole or crater in the road physics will dictate that you'll go head over bars. I've seen pros go that way - one of them was over a camera cable casing on the road, he went headfirst attached to the bike. It's unlikely in most circumstances but then again depends on the situation and angle/vector/force of impact.

It'll be sometime yet, when motorists are a lot safer consistently in regards to awareness for other smaller vehicles on the road such as motorbikes and cyclists. I think we still need to improve technology and road plans to benefit the cause.

Duke of Kent

Well if you're only putting out 300w for 4 minutes, it's no wonder you got caught.

ZurichSeattle

Read this. It will make you feel better.

https://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm

R600DuraAce

Hmmm.....yeah, I should be putting out 400w in 1 hour just like the pros and ticking 30mph. Then, I will stay away. Wait a minute, even pros putting out that kind of wattage still do get caught....... If bike racing is all that easy........

Don't get me started with wheel suckers. Me and my team mate on a break with 10sec gap. I pretty much launched him over that little hill ticking 25mph. 4 guys bridged to us and none of them wanted to work.....I guess they all expecting a free ride......or they were clueless cat4s not knowing how to ride in a break.

Hammertoe

Make me feel better??!! There are ways of dying in there I never thought of!!! Now I am really afraid!!
I don't think I will leave my house anymore.

xSandmaNx

Did you know that skydiving is statistically less dangerous than driving 10K miles a year? But you're still going to get in your car tomorrow. Why not play it safe and take a bus to go skydiving instead

DonChuwish

I'm certainly not running out to tell my life insurance carrier that I ride and race bikes. Despite what good it's done for my heart disease risk I don't think they'd hesitate to raise my rates. Tho I'm usually pretty safe in my races - it doesn't take long to get dropped and ride alone! 2 field crashes Sat morning that I missed that way.

-D

TheKillerPenguin

He shoots he scores!

R600DuraAce

That's too funny. The only thing he scores is being stuck with a frame pump through his spokes in a race. I hope he isn't one of those negative racing cat4s. Worst, wheel sucker in a breakaway.

TheKillerPenguin

A few points, DA.

1. Only 300W for 4 minutes? I think it's time for a new power dial, yours seems to be dying. OMG 300W!1!!1111 just doesn't have the same ring to it.

2. If you were only going 26mph in that break and the peloton was averaging 26.5ish for the race, there wasn't any way you were staying away, with help or without help from the guys that bridged.

3. When people bridge to a break, it requires a pretty hefty effort. Cut em some slack and let em suck some wheel for a minute or two while they recover instead of expecting them to pull right away. You weren't off the front for that long, so by the time you guys were caught they probably had just recovered.

4. They coulda just been covering for teammates in the peloton or trying to pull the peloton back to you

R600DuraAce

Wait a minute, were you just sitting in the pack and not even contesting for the field sprint in the end???? If you want to move out of the cat4, do some work at the front. Race aggressively. Judging about your size, I am even smaller than you, you won't make it as a "sprinter" unless the road is pointing up. Guys racing aggressively will get stronger. Pack fills and wheel suckers??? They will have their place, not sure where.

mirona

i think sitting on the couch all the time is more dangerous than road cycling. and this is coming from someone who just ran headfirst into an suv while going 35mph because it 'violated my right of way.'

TheKillerPenguin

Their place is talking smack on the internet and wondering why their 400W of raw power just isn't getting the job done. I'll be in the 3's by the end of the season, you'll continue to be ranked near the bottom of the 4's in the state.

I was honest about why I didn't contest the final sprint, I felt too sketchy to do it safely. My suggestion is you pull yourself out of dream land and start evaluating yourself honestly. The only one you're fooling is yourself.

-Erik (9th ranked Cat4 in the US)

R600DuraAce

The 3s??? Sure. Yeah, good luck to you. Just watch those frame pumps when you decide to suck wheels in a breakaway or talking smack about pack fills.

knary

I ride with a charity group as a mentor. Yesterday one of our team members during our ride was struck by an a-hole redneck driving a truck towing a trailer. They threw some kind of liquid on her and, I believe, unintentionally hit her with the trailer (if the driver turned to laugh and watch what his passenger was doing, the vehicle would tend to drift in that direction). They, as you'd guess, sped away from the incident. Her right arm was badly broken in multiple spots. She will have a long road to recovery. The police may have caught those involved.

I'm heading out the door for a ride.

belowzero

They should be legally prosecuted and charged with the right witnesses they could be charged with attempted manslaughter. That sort of behaviour barging a body with the weight of a utility truck is worse than a batter weapon. These incidents should not be seen lightly upon - disgusting

galen_52657

the good thing about riding bikes, as opposed to writing on an Internet site about riding bikes, is that the act of actually riding a bike competently takes a fair amount of skill and technique which usually weeds out the *******.... unlike writing on an Internet site.

euroford

as you so thoroughly demonstrate.


















aww common, somebody had to say it

Velo Vol 

Thanks for the link.

Does it define "Pedalcyclist" somewhere? Obviously riding on a busy road with 40+ MPH traffic is a lot more dangerous than cruising down the MUT @ 12 MPH.

I wonder what mileage assumption they use to calculate the "One Year Odds"?

oilman_15106

OP you need to fill in some details of this event? Went over the bars when a car pulled in front or what?

I have a frame in my garage that a guy died while riding. Heart attack, doa before he hit the ground. This does not make bicycling more dangerous than any other activity. The frame owner might just as well died playing tennis or whatever.

Duke of Kent

My 20 minute power is over 310w. My weight is 65kg.

If you were directing those comments at me, I went off the front in my last 4s race, solo, and put half a lap into the field in a crit. Three guys then bridged up to me. We lapped the field. I got 3rd.

R600DuraAce

Not bad. I was referring to the aspiring cat3 Penguin with his "national ranking." Judging from how he raced this past Sat and his sense of race aggressiveness, and reading some of his race exploits, he does not know how to attack. I doubt that he knows how to ride in a breakaway. How can anyone be a 3 and not knowing how to attack or if they ever attack in a fast race at all??? Wondering why he was racing with us NYC locals? Maybe he wanted to get some "easy" upgrade points???? Maybe he is waiting for the field sprint but he is too scare to contest for one. Or he is waiting for that magical hill in which he can outclimb everybody......