Not complaining about the pickings, complaining that there's not much space on a bike for a girl

Tandem bro'

Pegs bro'

sounds like its time for you to buy an extra bike.
I was considering buying a womens road bike or SS just to have on hand incase.

Is he still out there? I remember seeing him (or maybe his precursor) in the 80s when I lived in Culver City.


Anyway, on Saturday I was cutting through a neighborhood, on a marked bike route, and ended up behind a line of cars. There was a tow truck with a car in tow, then another car, then me. The tow truck pulled off and parked on the left, leaving the front end of the car out in the traffic lane. The car behind me slowed, apparently not sure what the tow truck was doing. Then I realized that she was with the tow truck because she pulled over to the right curb and put it in Park. So I proceeded down the middle of the road. She was still in the car with the window rolled down, and she shouted, "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!!!" at me. Even two days later, I'm kind of

Well, I've got two bikes - or at least, had until this Saturday. Neither are very novice-friendly, though - one's a roadie with SPD-SLs, the other fixed with drops. It leads us nicely back to the original topic:

I was heading home from work this Saturday, pedaling at a decent pace in the rightmost lane when some idiot honked at me, nearly hugging my rear wheel with his bumper in the midst of a calm suburban intersection. I let him past with a flurry of profanities, but didn't think much of it. A few hundred metres later, he slowed down and moved to the right, so I took the left lane and accelerated to pass - but just when I was next to him, he took a hard left turn. Within a split-second, my bike went straight into his front wheel-well while I took flight over his hood. I managed to catch myself nicely, with my only bruises being rashed knees, elbows, shoulder - and a slashed chin. While I was landing, I prepared myself for a road-rage scenario (following a previous nasty incident), and was about to grab my bike and defend myself - but it appears he was more scared than I was.

Turns out he doesn't know I'm the rider he honked at earlier - he's just an idiot. Didn't realize a bike could go "as fast as a scooter", and just didn't look when he u-turned for a (rare) parking-spot he found. The bike seemed all right at first, so I was about to dismiss him with a "watch where you're going" when he said he's taking me to the hospital. With the adrenalin and fight-or-flight instinct, I was too rushed to realize my chin was dripping blood all over the place. He insisted we lock the bike up and that he'll drive me to the hospital. He was super-nice about it all, the whole thing probably scared him ****less, took care of me in the hospital and all.

Been recovering well since, chin stitched up and everything else only superficially damaged - until I realized the bike wasn't quite as healthy as I seem to be. I was about to leave for work and mounted the bike for the first time since the accident when I realized the chain is all loose. Now, I run a BMX chain - a heavy, sturdy beast that's not supposed to slacken up, and seemed intact when I inspected it - and I keep it tight, so I wondered what the hell happened. Well, here's what I saw so far - the force of the impact stopped the pedal pretty much on the spot with the following results:

1. Pedal/crank bent - pedal moves back'n'forth when turning
2. Chainring, spider or bottom bracket bent ("eggs" when turning, like an un-true wheel)
3. Rear wheel forced out of place - as tight as the hub was secured, the entire drive-side bolt was nearly off the (front-facing) dropouts

Quite amazed that the chain held up to all that abuse - when I retightened it, the bolts went exactly where they were last time around. Gonna take the bike to the LBS that specializes in fixed-gear conversions and see what the damages are, and what I need to replace/repair. I don't mind the injury - I was a bit foolish to pass on his left, and he was super-helpful - but he's supposed to pay for these damages. Definitely.

Wondering if the frame is alright now.

Listen, just tell the women "tagidi efshar lagaat lach ba kus o lo?" It's totally fool proof
Yup, it's still him

I don't really know what to do with myself. I didn't encounter a single idiot on my ride to work this morning. And an LBS I always pass had a commuter station set up and they aired up my tires for me. Sweet morning (but for the 20 degrees below normal part).

Oh, good idea!

EDIT: Where'd you learn that?

I'm Israeli too

This morning some chick in a jetta decided I was too slow off a green light and floored it to go around me.. then had to slow down to go over the speed hump in the middle of the street.. then tried to speed up again, then had to slow down again for another speed hump. She was next to me in the opposite side of the street for about two and a half blocks until she finally passed me.

When she eventually got around me, she immediately had to stop because a UPS truck was coming the opposite direction and the road is two narrow for both to pass, which means, I had to stop and wait too since I was stuck behind her. For the rest of that road, I was on her bumper, that is until she got stuck behind a left turner, which I was able to go around. She didn't try to pass me again after that.

LOL i love it when that happens

So, it appears the damages are more severe than I thought. What appeared to be a bent crankset is slowly turning out to be a bent rear triangle: The entire chain- and seat-stays are now at an angle to the front triangle. Luckily the bottom bracket shell is still pointing the right way - the warps are at the seatstay-seattube connection and at the chainstays, rather than the entire seat-tube and bottom bracket being bent.

What essentially appears to have happened is that the sudden halt of the cranks transmitted such a strong force through the chain, that the wheel's inertia warped the frame.

Ugh, I lost my commuter for a few days.

Maybe not Presidential hopeful, but how about some fools from the Consulate

https://www.vancouversun.com/travel/H...198/story.html

Today we have three contenders for the idiot title:

1. The woman in the car who did U-turn right in front of me, and then immediately wanted to turn right. Luckily I saw it coming and stopped, or she would have turned right into me. She saw me at the last minute and stopped too, but at that point all I could do was laugh.

2. The dude rollerblading in the (not very well paved) bike lane. And then having to rollerblade in the middle of the street because the bike lane had so many potholes. Rollerbladers are like 58% of the reason I don't take the lake front path to/from work and stick to fighting cars in the streets.

3. The dude jaywalking across the street through stopped car traffic, talking on a cell phone, who didn't even look in my direction when crossing the bike lane. Had to scream "watch out!" at him.

Rollerblades still exist? I'm sorry.

Ever wonder if maybe she really did need to get home? Maybe the baby sitter called cause her child fell in the backyard and cut open their forehead? Maybe she had a lasagna in the oven and it was about to burn? Don't assume you know everything about a person. you probably ruined her day, possibly her week and for what? You could have just waited until she went inside, gotten out of your car, and wrote a polite note and left it under her window wipers

Pains me to say it as a cyclist, and feels a little hypocritical, but 'blades have no place on bike-lanes. If it's a pro 'blader, he'll be moving his arms and feet from side to side wildly, taking up the space of three bikes. If it's a novice, he'll be out of control without emergency braking abilities. They're worse than kids and untied dogs, on my danger-scale.

we need some way to play hockey in the middle of summer brah.

I agree totally. And this guy was like super tall so his stride side-to-side was really the width of an entire car. I get runners in the bike lane sometimes too, but they are easier to get around. I could have a mostly car-free commute if I took the lake front trail, but in nice weather it's so full of unaware pedestrians, runners, rollerbladers, etc. that to me it feels more dangerous and hectic than the streets. (Plus when summer really kicks into gear, all the tourists and families and stray volleyballs and such going to/from the beaches.) So it irritates me when the people I'm trying to avoid invade the streets too.

I do sound like a car driver talking about bikes though, don't I? Heh. I really think that the rollerblader going side-to-side at 5mph is different than even a slow cyclist going straight at 10mph, but yeah.

True. I guess I never see them cus I live in a small town with horrible potholes and lots of rough roads. I wish I had a story to contribute, but I've been laid up in bed for the past five days. I guess I qualify as one of "today's idiots." I've had patellar tendinitis in one knee since December, and just went to the doctor for it last week. She diagnosed me and told me not to ride my bike for a while. I went 2 days without cycling, and then decided to ride over to my friend's house to drink. Guess I got a little carried away with the gin, trying to keep up with the boys (I am a tiny female) and blacked out on my ride home. Woke up with a chipped tooth, a punctured lip, scraped/bruised chin, and worst of all- a hella ****ed up knee. I must have taken the entire impact directly on my kneecap, then tumbled and ate the pavement. I've been unable to use my leg and have been in an excrutiating amount of pain, and now I have to halt my physical therapy which means i'll be lucky if I can ride again before summer is over. The lesson: listen to your doctor, and dont ride your bike if you've got mad spins.

As far as idiots go, they seem to use all types of vehicles. I spend a good bit of time in cars, on my motorcycle, and on my bicycle. For every oblivious car that almost runs me off the road on my motorcycle, I see an idiot motorcyclist splitting lanes in traffic at 85mph while the rest of the road is going 50. For every car that drives right into the space a bicyclist is riding in, I see a bicyclist that blatantly ignores a stop sign and jets out at full speed in front of a car.

To be honest, I'm more irritated with the idiots on motorcycles and bicycles, just because they give the rest of us a bad name. I've pretty much just given up on cars, and I generally assume that every car is going to do the stupidest possible thing at any given moment.

On the topic of the Smart car, another thing a lot of folks overlook is parking. Overall length makes a huge difference, and when parking is at a premium, you really appreciate a short car. I've never driven a Smart, but I have spent a lot of time in urban environments in both long and short vehicles, and I definitely appreciate a shorter vehicle in the city.

I always give tons of room to bike riders and am patient if I can't get around them. As soon as my bike is up and running I will be on the road, so I figure it's good karma.

This happened a while ago, but thought I would share.

I was driving home from school and a woman was riding her bike in the middle of the lane, there was a rather large bike lane, and this was a pretty wide road, there was NO reason she needed to be in the car lane. She probably thought she was going fast enough to be in the lane, but she wasn't, she had traffic backed up behind her because she was going about 15-20 in a 35. I followed her for a long time, because of oncoming traffic, I couldn't pass. When there were no cars coming, I pulled all the way into the other lane to give her room and accelerated to pass. She threw her arm up, signaling a left hand turn for about half a second and swerved into my lane. She literally put her hand up to signal AS SHE WAS TURNING. I slammed on my brakes, but it was to late and she hit the side of my car.

She didn't fall off her bike, she sorta stabilized herself on my car, we both pulled over to the side, and this was our conversation.

"Ma'am are you ok?!"
"You effing a-hole! What the hell?"
"I was legal in passing there ma'am, you hit me, not the other way around. are you ok?"
"You gotta watch for bikes! You can't ju-"
"I saw you, I was trying to pass and you hit me. If you were in a car and not on a bike, you would be at fault, you can't turn without signaling first"
"I signaled! What's your name and address, i'm calling the police as soon as I get home"
"Tyler Doulgass, 1014 xxx street." (I gave her my address, but shouldn't have)
"You are screwed, my husband is a lawyer, I'm calling the police."
"Go for it."
"A-hole"
"B---h"

Then I drove away after she got my license plate number. Never got a call from police or anything.

Riding home as usual. Got my flashers on.

Just about home, turn on my street. Someone turns onto my street at the other end. They ride the middle of the road and as I am closing on them, the car swings into the other side of the road to prepare to turn into a drive way, without even noticing that I was RIGHT THERE!

This kind of thing makes me mad. You dont NEED to swing out into the other lane to make a turn into your driveway. You could LOOK instead of thinking, home stretch.

It's a good thing I was looking yet again, otherwise I would have been hit.

You have never done this.