Playin' Dodgems

[RoadRaven]

Still spewing here... two incidents in one week of the same type of driving involving me and my family.

My partner, 2 of my sons, and the neighbours boy are out for a training ride last week, and a car feels she can "hop" in between the cyclists (the boys) and then overtake the leading cyclist (my partner), on a blind corner and giving him no room to move... the car was centimetres away from him and he nearly came off

(We know her, she lives up the road... and if my partner doesn't "have a word" then I will)

Then, on Saturday during my race, I have fallen off the bunch by about two bike lengths as I go round a corner (cornering at speed is a weakness of mine) and a car who has played dodgems with us for the best part of a kilometre around two other corners and over a bridge decides that she can do it again - this time without indicating her intentions, as we go round the corner.

Yes I went off the road and into the lumpy stuff - and on my beautiful new bike. By the time I got back on the tarseal and back up to speed they bunch had 200m on me... I chased them at 38km per hour, but they were in a bunch and they kept pulling away slowly - after 5km of chasing them they had increased the gap to 400metres and I sat up and waited for another group behind me to catch me so I could work with them.

Thats when the anger hit me - first, my tyres could have blown as I hit the uneven tar... then realisation that I could have come off and my new bike I had owned less than a fortnight could have been scratched - or worse! damaged!

Finally, I also realised I could have gone under her wheels and left my kids motherless... thats when I got really angry.

And the question that is asked so many times on this forum - why to drivers do such stupid things when over the course of their journey they may save 10 seconds from their decision to pass unsafely?

[kiwi girl]

New bike - do tell - did you go for the EMC2 in the end?

[RoadRaven]

kiwi!!!

kiwi!!!!!

YES!!!
And she is beautiful, just beautiful... better than my Giant TCR... my Giant we will set up as a true TT only bike with bar-end shifters and a tri-spoke wheel.

But this lovely EMC2 Femetape... oh, she fits me as if she were custom built... the bars and shifters are so very comfortable - no more reaching and squeezing with my fingertips to brake... the cranks are shorter like my Giant ... the Scorpio I have been training and road-racing on has longer cranks. Having a compact chain set is taking me a while to get used to, but I spin like Lance (well, it feels like it) up hills!!!

Every female who wants to race on the road should be subsidised into owning one of these...

My partner said The Hub (local shop) was going to get one in and maybe we should go look... then he said, there's one in but maybe he'll measure it up first to make sure it would fit me ok... then he came and picked me up from work one day and guess what was sitting in the back of the van???

He decided, because I had had a rough couple of months with sick parents and a few "run-ins" with my boss that I should have it now - thats what credit cards are for, right?

I am so lucky, I feel so spoilt and special

And it is true what they say about EMCs... I feel so safe and secure going downhill and round corners... it is a stiff bike, but absolutely sweet... I don't want to ride anything else in a road race situation, and when this one starts to get old, it will be just my training bike, and I will get another EMC...

[purplegolden]

Hi

don't know if it is of any help, but if you get their number, you can report them to the police. At least you can do that in Oz. But you do need to go into the station and fill in the form.