After the Big Hit...safety and getting back on the bike
12-27-23, 03:07 PM
#51
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Doesn't matter. The cagers DON'T want to smack into curbside containers or parked cars, etc. so they stay in 'the lane'. Don't make a driver have to avoid you! Make yourself fit on the road so that a driver doesn't need to be alert. They may not be. But most are. Don't overthink it. It's not legal in most places to take the lane full time. You must ride out of the main flow of traffic except for object avoidance. I don't know how so many cyclists claim to be 'taking the lane'. I personally rarely see it.
12-27-23, 05:03 PM
#53
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Wow, just wow. Upvoted and put on ignore in the same thread. My head spins. My point was not to get the thread locked by mentioning ___ or ______ or other protected groups that might upset the sensitive. I picked some examples that we might agree on and that I personally have affinity with. Not understanding how that gets anyone angry.
12-27-23, 05:14 PM
#54
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True story: I made a friend in my city when I was new here. Turns out he and his wife owned and rode a tandem like me and mine. We made a date to ride some local backroads. Since we don't drive they drove their tandem to our house and then we set off for the end of the suburb grid to the road we wanted to ride. We were leading the way and after a few minutes I couldn't see them so I circled back to find him and a driver trading expletives. I'm like WTF?? The driver tells me my friend wouldn't let him pass. I roll my eyes. Me and mine are able to ride those very streets daily, without conflict with anyone in a cage. He gets into it with someone his very first time. It's not that hard to be on good terms with the cagers. My friend is like "back me up, we're supposed to 'take the lane' ... I don't know. I just use common sense. It seems to work.
12-27-23, 05:23 PM
#55
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For me, I only have memories of what happened, and where. But I don't have flashbacks to the particular incident, like it causing sleepless nights. When 'taking the lane', the only time I was rear-ended. Was at a red light, in the dual-turn lane. While I was not injured from being knocked off my bike. The driver profusely apologized for turning my rear wheel into the shape of a taco. By paying for a new rear wheel.
12-27-23, 05:34 PM
#56
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My point was, in respect to 'taking the lane' and, how the driver mistook the turn lane, at the red light, as a thru lane.
12-28-23, 03:39 PM
#57
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The answer (for you) depends in great part on your basic worldview, the extent of your lifetime bike experience and your ability to separate your logical and emotional sides.
If you're a relatively new cyclist, this is going to be difficult since you won't have years of safe cycling to help put the crash is perspective. For my part, being something of a fatalist, and with many 10s of thousands of road miles behind me, I'm more able to look at these things as lightning strikes and move on figuring it'll likely be another forty years before it happens again.
That said, my scariest crash involved a steel deck bridge on a rainy day. That was over 50 years ago, and it took years before I had any trust at all in steel decks, and I still hate them to this day.
If you're a relatively new cyclist, this is going to be difficult since you won't have years of safe cycling to help put the crash is perspective. For my part, being something of a fatalist, and with many 10s of thousands of road miles behind me, I'm more able to look at these things as lightning strikes and move on figuring it'll likely be another forty years before it happens again.
That said, my scariest crash involved a steel deck bridge on a rainy day. That was over 50 years ago, and it took years before I had any trust at all in steel decks, and I still hate them to this day.
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FB
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An ounce of diagnosis is worth a pound of cure.
Just because I'm tired of arguing, doesn't mean you're right.
“One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions” - Adm Grace Murray Hopper - USN
WARNING, I'm from New York. Thin skinned people should maintain safe distance.
FB
Chain-L site
An ounce of diagnosis is worth a pound of cure.
Just because I'm tired of arguing, doesn't mean you're right.
“One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions” - Adm Grace Murray Hopper - USN
WARNING, I'm from New York. Thin skinned people should maintain safe distance.
12-28-23, 03:45 PM
#58
Junior Member
The answer (for you) depends in great part on your basic worldview, the extent of your lifetime bike experience and your ability to separate your logical and emotional sides.
If you're a relatively new cyclist, this is going to be difficult since you won't have years of safe cycling to help put the crash is perspective. For my part, being something of a fatalist, and with many 10s of thousands of road miles behind me, I'm more able to look at these things as lightning strikes and move on figuring it'll likely be another forty years before it happens again.
That said, my scariest crash involved a steel deck bridge on a rainy day. That was over 50 years ago, and it took years before I had any trust at all in steel decks, and I still hate them to this day.
If you're a relatively new cyclist, this is going to be difficult since you won't have years of safe cycling to help put the crash is perspective. For my part, being something of a fatalist, and with many 10s of thousands of road miles behind me, I'm more able to look at these things as lightning strikes and move on figuring it'll likely be another forty years before it happens again.
That said, my scariest crash involved a steel deck bridge on a rainy day. That was over 50 years ago, and it took years before I had any trust at all in steel decks, and I still hate them to this day.
12-28-23, 04:29 PM
#59
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Yes, but steel decks are also common on fixed span bridges all over the Northeast.
They were popular because they lower span deadweight, and make design simpler because there's no need for drainage.
If you've ever seen this
, my version goes "Chickopee Falls, ....".
They were popular because they lower span deadweight, and make design simpler because there's no need for drainage.
If you've ever seen this
__________________
FB
Chain-L site
An ounce of diagnosis is worth a pound of cure.
Just because I'm tired of arguing, doesn't mean you're right.
“One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions” - Adm Grace Murray Hopper - USN
WARNING, I'm from New York. Thin skinned people should maintain safe distance.
FB
Chain-L site
An ounce of diagnosis is worth a pound of cure.
Just because I'm tired of arguing, doesn't mean you're right.
“One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions” - Adm Grace Murray Hopper - USN
WARNING, I'm from New York. Thin skinned people should maintain safe distance.
12-28-23, 09:23 PM
#60
Junior Member
Yes, but steel decks are also common on fixed span bridges all over the Northeast.
They were popular because they lower span deadweight, and make design simpler because there's no need for drainage.
If you've ever seen this sketch, my version goes "Chickopee Falls, ....".
They were popular because they lower span deadweight, and make design simpler because there's no need for drainage.
If you've ever seen this sketch, my version goes "Chickopee Falls, ....".
12-28-23, 10:30 PM
#61
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But many of the smaller ones, ie. the Broadway Bridge at 225th street are open steel decks.
Also many smaller ones over streams and smaller rivers all over thd Northeast, like this one.
12-28-23, 10:35 PM
#62
Junior Member
No, the GW, and most of the major bridges in and near NYC have paved decks, usually concrete.
But many of the smaller ones, ie. the Broadway Bridge at 225th street are open steel decks.
Also many smaller ones over streams and smaller rivers all over the Northeast, like this one.
But many of the smaller ones, ie. the Broadway Bridge at 225th street are open steel decks.
Also many smaller ones over streams and smaller rivers all over the Northeast, like this one.
12-28-23, 10:51 PM
#63
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Side note and warning, since I mentioned the Broadway Bridge.
If you live in or visit NYC, and are headed to the Bronx, be aware that, though on a regular city street and fairly short, that bridge has massive open expansion joints with a hearty appetite for road bike wheels.
If you don't know how to ride across expansion joints, use the sidewalk.
Required reading, with good photos.
If you live in or visit NYC, and are headed to the Bronx, be aware that, though on a regular city street and fairly short, that bridge has massive open expansion joints with a hearty appetite for road bike wheels.
If you don't know how to ride across expansion joints, use the sidewalk.
Required reading, with good photos.
Last edited by FBinNY; 12-28-23 at 11:10 PM.
12-29-23, 02:14 PM
#64
Junior Member
Side note and warning, since I mentioned the Broadway Bridge.
If you live in or visit NYC, and are headed to the Bronx, be aware that, though on a regular city street and fairly short, that bridge has massive open expansion joints with a hearty appetite for road bike wheels.
If you don't know how to ride across expansion joints, use the sidewalk.
Required reading, with good photos.
If you live in or visit NYC, and are headed to the Bronx, be aware that, though on a regular city street and fairly short, that bridge has massive open expansion joints with a hearty appetite for road bike wheels.
If you don't know how to ride across expansion joints, use the sidewalk.
Required reading, with good photos.
Last edited by Chistophe516; 12-30-23 at 03:39 PM.
12-29-23, 07:17 PM
#65
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Life is all about getting back up when you fall. I try to instill this in young people all the time. If you don't know #3 on a spelling test, don't give up on #4-10. Take the 90%! Likewise, if you are playing music, and you screw up, go ahead and drop a note, or a phrase, or a line, or whatever. Just keep your wits about you and get back in.
Every single time you get hurt on a bike, it is your fault, at least in the sense that you put yourself into the situation knowing the risks. Take it as a blow to your ego that your plan didn't work. Go ahead and evaluate your new situation and learn from the incident. That might even be a realization that your riding was too risky. Just please don't just stop because you are scared.
Personally, I got injured in two crashes in my teens. One was just me and loose gravel. The other involved a car hitting me in a crosswalk between two sections of sidewalk. In each, I realized what I did that was stupid, fixed the body and the bike, and moved on as a wiser rider.
Every single time you get hurt on a bike, it is your fault, at least in the sense that you put yourself into the situation knowing the risks. Take it as a blow to your ego that your plan didn't work. Go ahead and evaluate your new situation and learn from the incident. That might even be a realization that your riding was too risky. Just please don't just stop because you are scared.
Personally, I got injured in two crashes in my teens. One was just me and loose gravel. The other involved a car hitting me in a crosswalk between two sections of sidewalk. In each, I realized what I did that was stupid, fixed the body and the bike, and moved on as a wiser rider.
