Friday morning is usually a time for a chilled out ride with the Vikings Club crew, cruising around the streets of Canberra before finding ourselves back at the ANU for the obligatory coffee stop before work.
Normally these rides go off without a hitch, but for me the Friday just gone was anything but smooth.
Prior to the bunch heading off I warned everyone about a rather large pothole that had formed on the road that goes past where I work. This is the sort of pothole that would bring you out in the Northern Atlantic Ocean (see here) if you were to fall in it!
Of course, as Murphy would have it, I did fall in it! It was not pretty and it sounded even worse. Importantly I stayed upright, my bike kept moving forward and the expletives didn't need too much censoring. And whilst it seemed that I may have punctured (no), or bent my rim (no that's not it either), the final diagnoses was that the brake cable had managed to come dislodged in the housing and jammed the brake on. This, unfortunately, was not rectified until the Super Soigny came to my rescue, bearing my lunch, at the coffee shop. There are some parts of Canberra that just aren't fun with only a front brake.
The rule of 3 applies to most things in cycling- punctures, crashes, dnf's, wins (well I'm not sure about the last two). Friday's set of 3 was people in cars trying to kill me. First was the crazy man trying to over take the bunch when we were about to turn and then there were 2 others in the space of 500m as I was getting to work. Obviously these were no more than near misses 'cause I am hear telling you about it. It is amazing how defensively you will ride after the first near miss of the day and how that increases after number 2. On guard everyone!
What actually made these things from the morning seem totally irrelevant occurred to me on my ride home after work. Despite the adventure into the pothole, I was still upright and even more importantly I had the company of a fellow Viking for the ride back to the coffee shop. I am sorry that the bunch got away M Larkin but thanks for cruising back in with me. Avoiding being hit is always a plus (I have been up close and personal with a car and there are still scars) but it might also have raised the awareness of the people in the cars about bikes. (The first guy maybe not so much, but you never know).
As I cruised home late in the afternoon of an early spring day, I was reminded that being able to get out on a bike is one of the most enjoyable things that you can do. And that, my friends, is probably the greatest reason why cyclists endure so much.
Normally these rides go off without a hitch, but for me the Friday just gone was anything but smooth.
Prior to the bunch heading off I warned everyone about a rather large pothole that had formed on the road that goes past where I work. This is the sort of pothole that would bring you out in the Northern Atlantic Ocean (see here) if you were to fall in it!
Of course, as Murphy would have it, I did fall in it! It was not pretty and it sounded even worse. Importantly I stayed upright, my bike kept moving forward and the expletives didn't need too much censoring. And whilst it seemed that I may have punctured (no), or bent my rim (no that's not it either), the final diagnoses was that the brake cable had managed to come dislodged in the housing and jammed the brake on. This, unfortunately, was not rectified until the Super Soigny came to my rescue, bearing my lunch, at the coffee shop. There are some parts of Canberra that just aren't fun with only a front brake.
As far as I was concerned at the time, the hole I was in might have been this big!
The rule of 3 applies to most things in cycling- punctures, crashes, dnf's, wins (well I'm not sure about the last two). Friday's set of 3 was people in cars trying to kill me. First was the crazy man trying to over take the bunch when we were about to turn and then there were 2 others in the space of 500m as I was getting to work. Obviously these were no more than near misses 'cause I am hear telling you about it. It is amazing how defensively you will ride after the first near miss of the day and how that increases after number 2. On guard everyone!
What actually made these things from the morning seem totally irrelevant occurred to me on my ride home after work. Despite the adventure into the pothole, I was still upright and even more importantly I had the company of a fellow Viking for the ride back to the coffee shop. I am sorry that the bunch got away M Larkin but thanks for cruising back in with me. Avoiding being hit is always a plus (I have been up close and personal with a car and there are still scars) but it might also have raised the awareness of the people in the cars about bikes. (The first guy maybe not so much, but you never know).
As I cruised home late in the afternoon of an early spring day, I was reminded that being able to get out on a bike is one of the most enjoyable things that you can do. And that, my friends, is probably the greatest reason why cyclists endure so much.
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