Ok, I never updated this thread as I had intended, but while I'm doing some related stuff, I thought I'd quickly share.
First of all, here she is in all her glory:
Oh, and the bike too! (Ha, ha. Reference to my fearless stoker, of course!)
Turned out better than I could have imagined. Spoke tensions are, as I think I said, perfect. Amazing, given it's 14 years old.
Anyway, oh how things COULD have turned out so differently....
Test Ride #2:
Riding along the lake park where a million cyclists are riding, as well as all sorts of other people recreating, playing etc. Riding in the bike lane next to a long line of cars and approaching a light-controlled intersection. Driver proceeding in a single lane of lots of traffic moving at about 15mph, fails to use a signal, or check mirrors and/or blind spot and then VERY SUDDENLY SWERVES into me to pull to the RED curb! Not a parking spot - a RED ZONE, and IN AN INTERSECTION! She's lucky I'm skilled and have good reactions. She banged into me with the side of her car; I swerved right and toward the curb. My hands weren't on the brake hoods or levers, so I thought I'd hit the parked car that WAS in the first legal (non red) parking spot past the intersection. But I quickly reached the brakes and came to a stop. Luckily, she didn't keep coming over and stopped, so the impact stopped and I ended up in front of her car and out of the way of it. Somehow I escaped injury, damage and crashing. Second test ride of an $8,000 tandem and this idiot tries to ruin my day, week, month and year!
And the clincher? "YOU WERE IN MY BLIND SPOT!" Oh man did this piss me off! (She did say sorry, but then added, "I SAID I was sorry!" This was before the lame blind spot comment.)
Then she fled the scene. I was not even done evaluating the situation when she simply pulled away.
It looks like she impacted my left calf/ leg and the left side of the stoker bar and fake lever hood. The saddle and stoker bars were twisted clockwise. The fake lever hood was actually bent outwards - perhaps from my thigh?
Ironically, I had the folding allen wrench set (for test ride adjustments), so I was able to straighten the seat post and fake lever.
Pisses me off that she was so arrogant to blame me for being in her goddamned blind spot!
But to then leave the scene?
She never asked me if I or my bike were ok.
I'm pissed at myself for not saying, "Don't you leave!"
I also should have whipped out my phone and gotten her pic and pics of her car right off the bat. Tons of people around saw it, but no one came over to offer any assistance.
Dodged a car-shaped bullet!
Time to finally get that helmet cam (and two dash cams while I'm at it!) so this ****'s documented.
So the moral of the story?
I'm using front & rear flashing lights 24/7/365. (In addition to a reflective vest (not all the time), bell and rear-view mirror. And my city bike has a 90 db horn, so I think I'm pretty much covered the bases here.)
One drive up Mt. Hamilton last year I saw how much of a good idea it is to ride during the day with flashing lights. Especially on country roads where you're going in and out of shade. Drivers may have trouble seeing you as they emerge from shade and are momentarily blinded by bright sunlight. Flashing lights will all but eliminate this potential problem.
And it might just save your ass from the dummy who pulls stupid **** like what happened to me! OMG, I still can't believe that happened.
Thanks for reading!