So who is this Stam anyway?

Twice in three months...

It was a nice rainy day here on Wednesday and I was biking on back up the (sort of) main street here, moving at a fair clip.

Then some guy in a medium-sized car decided to stick his nose a little further out of a side street than one would have expected.

I took a look at how far out he was...

...incidentally noting that I was pointed around about at his front wheel. Swerving out of his way was Not An Option.

Brakes, brakes, who's got the brakes? I did...but when I put them on, my bike didn't even slow noticably. (Water + Brakes = NoStopRealFast.) Which left me with the time to conclude that I was going to hit the car and had nothing to do but say "ouch."

I didn't really even get the time to do that, because the next thing I knew I was lying on my left shoulder on the guy's bonnet while my helmet bounced (not too hard) off it.

Sitting up and sliding off it, I found myself to be reasonably intact (Thank G-d above for that.) with nothing whatsoever broken or even overly hurting. My bike was off to the side (further in the street) having bounced there after the impact.
I took a glance at the car's wheel (where I'd hit) and, noting no damage, picked up my bike in one hand. "Sorry, mate!" I said to the guy in the car (Through a closed window? Or was it open? I can't recall right now.) before moving over to the curb to see what was left of me, the bike and assorted other inventory items.

I got asked a couple of times by people around, "You alright, mate?" I assured them that I was indeed feeling fine, coming up with the most brilliant comment of, "Don't ya just love water in the brakes?" as I began to sort out that my handlebars were definitely twisted, but nothing that I didn't think I could fix.

I straightened them out easily and then got back on the bike, planning to head off to collect my brother from school and then go do the shopping. But something seemed--kinda odd. The front wheel was closer to the frame than it should have been...

It wasn't until quite a bit later, having parked it and gone shopping with my brother, that I got a good look at it. The point where the frame meets the neck was almost completely snapped off.

Wow...I'd hit the car hard enough to total my second bike in three months!

(The first one I don't think I blogged, but I was on a BMX track and went over a jump with not quite enough speed to land right on the landing hump. My back wheel caught it square on and I went down with my bike. The rear wheel was buckled beyond repair, so I picked up a secondhand bike (the one totalled Wednesday) for A$35.)

Anyway, all that said and done--I didn't come off totally unhurt. My left shoulder just took almost 24 hours to register that it was either bruised, strained or (more likely) both and was not happy about carrying much of anything.

But I spent yesterday pulling apart the two back wheels (the 5-gear from the snapped bike and the 6-gear from the buckled back wheel) and ended up with a decently-working wheel for my original bike.

She lives again! :D

Posted by adam at September 20, 2004 04:37 AM