embedded in the pavement
#1
multimodal commuter
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: NJ, NYC, LI
Posts: 19,808
Bikes: 1940s Fothergill, 1959 Allegro Special, 1963? Claud Butler Olympic Sprint, Lambert 'Clubman', 1974 Fuji "the Ace", 1976 Holdsworth 650b conversion rando bike, 1983 Trek 720 tourer, 1984 Counterpoint Opus II, 1993 Basso Gap, 2010 Downtube 8h, and...
Mentioned: 584 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1908 Post(s)
Liked 574 Times
in
339 Posts
embedded in the pavement
Over the years, I've seen a lot of stuff embedded in the asphalt of the city streets I ride over. The variety is endless, far too long to list. But I've been particularly fascinated by bicycle parts, especially those that must have left the bicycle in disabled condition. Once I saw a derailleur pulley wheel, for example; hard to imagine that bike went a whole lot farther that day. Somewhere on Seventh Avenue I've also seen a bicycle chain; next time I see it, I'm going to try to go back and get a photo of that one.
Here's one I saw today:
Do we see one, or possibly two pieces of a Shimano front derailleur? What can we deduce from what we see here... or can we only speculate? Could a car hit bicycle on right side, hard enough to shatter the derailleur cage? Or did it just ... fall off?
Anyone else see stuff like this?
Here's one I saw today:
Do we see one, or possibly two pieces of a Shimano front derailleur? What can we deduce from what we see here... or can we only speculate? Could a car hit bicycle on right side, hard enough to shatter the derailleur cage? Or did it just ... fall off?
Anyone else see stuff like this?
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: northern California
Posts: 5,603
Bikes: Bruce Gordon BLT, Cannondale parts bike, Ecodyne recumbent trike, Counterpoint Opus 2, miyata 1000
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
Neat. The best I have seen was a dime. There is the classic story of a road crew back East that could not be bothered to remove a dead deer from the side of a road and they paved over half of the deer. The story is said to have made the National TV news.
#3
Goon
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Ypsilanti, MI
Posts: 864
Bikes: Rocky Mountain RC30, Soma Sport Fixed
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
Here in ypsilanti we have a Bike club.... thing called "Bike Ypsi" It's pretty casual, but its designed to get the non-cyclist into biking or commuting.
My girlfriends father recently started a project for the club members. Called "Bring One Back."
Pretty Dorky name, but the idea is that every time you go cycling, you pick up one thing on your route that could harm a bicycle tire. You take it to the club and then eventually they are going to make a statue out of the pieces put together.
The idea being that if enough people do it, then the roads will be nicer for cyclists.
Not a bad idea. Not sure how this applies, but the picture reminded me of it.
This club also sweeps the sides of road where cycling is popular, its kind of nice. Especially in our ****ty community.
My girlfriends father recently started a project for the club members. Called "Bring One Back."
Pretty Dorky name, but the idea is that every time you go cycling, you pick up one thing on your route that could harm a bicycle tire. You take it to the club and then eventually they are going to make a statue out of the pieces put together.
The idea being that if enough people do it, then the roads will be nicer for cyclists.
Not a bad idea. Not sure how this applies, but the picture reminded me of it.
This club also sweeps the sides of road where cycling is popular, its kind of nice. Especially in our ****ty community.
#4
Guest
Posts: n/a
Mentioned: Post(s)
Tagged: Thread(s)
Quoted: Post(s)
i started a collection of items found on the side of the road...little toys and tools and metal parts...i like the idea of picking something up each time, i am going to look on my way home today
i haven't been spotting too much lately maybe that has something to do with riding fixed rather than the singlespeed where i could coast and look at the ground more
i can't imagine paving over a dead animal...bizarre
i haven't been spotting too much lately maybe that has something to do with riding fixed rather than the singlespeed where i could coast and look at the ground more
i can't imagine paving over a dead animal...bizarre
#5
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Herndon, VA
Posts: 914
Bikes: Giant OCR C2, Kona Jake the Snake, Scattante 650-R
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 10 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 21 Times
in
7 Posts
Don't know if a deer was ever painted over, but here's a famous one:
__________________
2020 Giant Defy 2
Fuji Cross Pro
Scattante 650-R trainer bike
'06 Kona Jake the Snake
2020 Giant Defy 2
Fuji Cross Pro
Scattante 650-R trainer bike
'06 Kona Jake the Snake
#7
Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 44
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
Way out in BFE (Lonoke, AR. google earth link available on request) there is a Super 8 motel with this impression in its parking lot:
Yes that was a frog at one time, now its just an vacancy (haha). Poor little dude musta jumped for it when the concrete smoothing guy came along with his trowel or whatever.
Yes that was a frog at one time, now its just an vacancy (haha). Poor little dude musta jumped for it when the concrete smoothing guy came along with his trowel or whatever.
#10
Who farted?
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,287
Bikes: '06 K2 Zed 3.0, '09 Novara Buzz V
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
#11
Trans-Urban Velocommando
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Lenexa, KS
Posts: 2,400
Bikes: 06 Trek 1200 - 98 DB Outlook - 99 DB Sorrento
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
Not sure what the deal was with that one lone skate. Looked to have been there for quite a while. There is a skating rink just off the MUP about 3 miles north of where I found that.
#13
Señior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Michigan
Posts: 13,749
Bikes: Windsor Fens, Giant Seek 0 (2014, Alfine 8 + discs)
Mentioned: 13 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 446 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 8 Times
in
7 Posts
On Monday I passed, circled back, and picked up a gimongous spike that was in the tire track in my lane near a construction site. It was about a 14" long nail, like a pole barn spike. I circled back, stopped by the side of the road, and while I was waiting for traffic to clear, 5 cars hit it. It jumped every time, it was just a matter of time until it went into someone's tire, and that could have taken out ANY tire.
__________________
Work: the 8 hours that separates bike rides.
Work: the 8 hours that separates bike rides.
#14
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 319
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
I know of a AA battery embedded into a back-country byway I found on tour once. I'll have to take a picture of it if I find it again.
#15
rebmeM roineS
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Metro Indy, IN
Posts: 16,216
Bikes: Bacchetta Giro A20, RANS V-Rex, RANS Screamer
Mentioned: 15 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 653 Post(s)
Liked 347 Times
in
226 Posts
Don't know that they were a threat to bike tires, but 20+ years ago when I was a daily commuter in Atlanta, I would commonly see smashed, empty model airplane glue tubes on the streets in some neighborhoods. Musta been lots of kids in the 'hood putting model planes and cars together.
#16
multimodal commuter
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: NJ, NYC, LI
Posts: 19,808
Bikes: 1940s Fothergill, 1959 Allegro Special, 1963? Claud Butler Olympic Sprint, Lambert 'Clubman', 1974 Fuji "the Ace", 1976 Holdsworth 650b conversion rando bike, 1983 Trek 720 tourer, 1984 Counterpoint Opus II, 1993 Basso Gap, 2010 Downtube 8h, and...
Mentioned: 584 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1908 Post(s)
Liked 574 Times
in
339 Posts
I found that chain I mentioned!
This one is in the middle of 7th Ave, maybe around 36th St, Manhattan.
This one is in the middle of 7th Ave, maybe around 36th St, Manhattan.
Last edited by rhm; 10-22-08 at 12:26 PM.
#17
Biker, Lover, Fighter
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: CA
Posts: 414
Bikes: My own hand built frames
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
I've seen bird's partially embedded in tar, and then had the joy of watching the exposed part decompose as I rode the same route over time. Sorry, no pictures.
#20
dia por dia
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: San Diego
Posts: 300
Bikes: hand built fixie, Lightspeed Sienna D/A
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
Tijuana has great road kill. And, they don't remove the dead. You can watch the progression of decomposition over a period of time. There's a dead dog I have been tracking on the Via Rapida for about three or four weeks. It started out as fresh kill. After a couple of days, the body bloated up, and then it split open. It smelled horrible, and there were flies and maggots, etc. Over the past two weeks it has deflated, and now it is pretty much an empty shell. Looks sort of like a deflated football with hair.
#21
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Columbus, OH
Posts: 11,375
Bikes: '08 Surly Cross-Check, 2011 Redline Conquest Pro, 2012 Spesh FSR Comp EVO, 2015 Trek Domane 6.2 disc
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 5 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 7 Times
in
6 Posts
Not embedded in the pavement, but I did ride past a field with a whole truckload of 'shrooms (yes, those kind) growing in it. Probably enough to fill both my bucket panniers. I've seen lots of them around in the past couple weeks, but this was by-far the largest single patch I've seen.
#22
Not safe for work
Tijuana has great road kill. And, they don't remove the dead. You can watch the progression of decomposition over a period of time. There's a dead dog I have been tracking on the Via Rapida for about three or four weeks. It started out as fresh kill. After a couple of days, the body bloated up, and then it split open. It smelled horrible, and there were flies and maggots, etc. Over the past two weeks it has deflated, and now it is pretty much an empty shell. Looks sort of like a deflated football with hair.
#23
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Detroit
Posts: 61
Bikes: kona smoke, POS Heinz 57
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
#25
Raving looney
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
Posts: 2,482
Bikes: 70s Leader Precision w/Shimano 600 (road), IRO Rob Roy (Fixed)
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
Wow, interesting that this thread shows up now... Only last night did I see a key embedded into the road - something I'd never seen before and thought was pretty odd/interesting.
I've not really seen bike parts that I can recall, but there's plenty of crap like beer caps around.
I've not really seen bike parts that I can recall, but there's plenty of crap like beer caps around.