CRASH! Today's report

[Aggie_Ama]

What is KOP?

Knee over pedal? Most bike fitters measure this angle. Not all, but it is a popular method.

We did 50.23 miles today on a route we made up out of several we do all the time. Funny how combining roads differently makes them feel new again! I went to hard up a killer climb (headwind kept me from realizing how much my core temp was rising) and spent a several minutes on the ground pouring water on myself. There were two guys working on a fence looking at DH and me like a bunch of fools. I seriously thought my heart was trying to go through my throat!! My eyes starting tunneling (much like my occular migraines) and my hearing sounded like I was under water. It was scary!! I got my temp down and everything got back to normal. Needless to say I didn't have as much energy as I would have liked for the back 40 miles.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Sandra,
As you know, I use Powergrip straps too. My tip for you in this instance is this- From a stop at an intersection, when I am ready to go, I put ONE foot in my strap and push off on that foot and I just put my other foot any old way on the other pedal and get going. Once I am PAST the intersection and UP TO SPEED, I then flip the other pedal over and put my second foot in the strap. I don't put my second foot in the straps until I am cruising along with no more interference.
Also. I don't take both feet out of the straps when I stop. I take out the foot that's going to step down on the ground and I then lift off the saddle and forward onto that foot that's planting on the ground, while braking, all in one motion. That way, there is no way I am caught still in the saddle and able to tip over when I am stopped. By the time I am stopping I am already forward off the saddle with my foot coming down onto the ground.

[invsblwmn]

Yesterday when I was riding through a construction zone cattle shoot in a 25mph zone, going 26mph, a lady in a car zoomed up next to me, slowed and shouted "YOU'RE RIDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!" I had to respond, "YOU'RE SPEEDING IN A CONSTRUCTION ZONE!" She had to stop at a red light, rolled up her window and in my ignorant mood I passed her and pulled in front of her and waited for the light to change.
When it turned green, I took off in the middle of the lane and was right behind a big truck going 25mph. The lady was right on my butt, I deserved it.

Well, I hit a bad crack in the road, I heard a LOUD BANG and my back tire was wobbling like crazy and locked up. I pulled to a median, looked at my tires, and they were both fine. BUT my salad and granola that WERE bungeed to my rack were missing along with the bungee.

The bungee was wrapped in the chain and drive train of my bike. The salad and granola were being windshield wipered off the lady's windshield who had been riding on my tail. I cut the bungee out of my chain and laughed the rest of the way to work. Lucky day, maybe anger management is a good idea?

[lph]

*snort* I wish I had a salad-and-granola catapult to use at times like that!

[Mr. Bloom]

The lady was right on my butt, I deserved it.

On the serious site, nothing you did deserved a potential death sentence from that woman...

On a lighter note, I would have done exactly what you did to her, but I wouldn't have been skilled enough to do the rabbit food catapult

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Invisible woman,
You are very lucky your bike didn't go down when you blew that tire and you didn't get run over by the tailgating car. I don't think I'd want to be riding between a big blind truck and a bully driver that was angry at me.

[Tuckervill]

Her tire didn't blow. Just the bungee got caught in everything.

Reminds me of the story dh often refers to that happened to him as a teenager. He was riding in a car with a friend and some other car was being inconsiderate. Having just gone through McDonalds, the friend got ticked off enough at the other driver that he threw his chicken sandwich out the window and it landed on the other driver's windshield.

Now when we're the victim in similar circumstances, we just wish aloud that we had a chicken sandwich handy. "Where's my chicken sandwich?"

Karen

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Her tire didn't blow. Just the bungee got caught in everything.

Ok, so...
You are very lucky your bike didn't go down when your bungee cord got wrapped up in your chain and you didn't get run over by the tailgating car. I don't think I'd want to be riding between a big blind truck and a bully driver that was angry at me.

Reminds me of the story dh often refers to that happened to him as a teenager. He was riding in a car with a friend and some other car was being inconsiderate. Having just gone through McDonalds, the friend got ticked off enough at the other driver that he threw his chicken sandwich out the window and it landed on the other driver's windshield.
Now when we're the victim in similar circumstances, we just wish aloud that we had a chicken sandwich handy. "Where's my chicken sandwich?"
Karen

There was a recent series of photos taken by a bystander on some bike forum... it wound up in the newspaper even I think- a guy in a parked car took a bite out of his fast food burger, didn't like it and tossed it out his car window into the road right in front of a woman who was bicycling by. (not "at" her however). She got mad about his littering, and got off her bike and picked up the messy burger and tossed it back into his front seat.
He blew his stack and got out of his car, grabbed her bike and threw it on the ground and started stomping on it. She then blew her stack and attacked him, he punched back and it became a whole fistfight where passersby had to tear them apart and hold them til the police came. Pretty nasty stuff. If he was a nut who had a gun in his glove compartment maybe he would have shot her! In any case her wheel was trashed. Be careful where you throw that sandwich- is it really worth it?

[invsblwmn]

The tire didn't blow, the salad and granola bags popped when the bungee got in the chain. I thought it was the tire, but it was the bags. Thank goodness and I know I was lucky. And I ALWAYS keep my leatherman tool, a tire, and changing kit with me. Got that bungee out in a jiffy, while I was giggling.

[invsblwmn]

Also, LPH, ironically the bungee incident is what saved my road bike, my metal child. That bungee had done just as you had described, become part of the hub. I did have a leatherman tool with me (I tend to be over prepared for most things) and it all came out pretty easily in about 5 minutes. What I did NOT know was that a spoke had been affected. After a couple of weeks of riding to work, a wobble developed and I noticed that my wheel had cracked from the pressure on the spoke from the bungee. I took the dang thing to the shop on 9-25 and had to ride my old Specialized Rock Hopper with heavily studded tires on 9-26. It is a VERY slow ride, but on a day when you are going to get hit by an SUV and have your life change in ways you cannot imagine, going fast does not do much to help. That poor specialized is still in police custody and bent in half. I want to get over there and get my components off of it, but it is still protected until court. A couple of my hospital buddies had to do a side deal with the cops to get my keys, cell phone and credit card off the bike. Who would have known that a little grumpy lady who needed a rabbit food shower would be protecting me from certain death? Trippy!