Cycling Stupidity, Part Two (The Log of Doom)
Where I live there is an industrial estate at the edge of town, connected via a series of major motorways linking into it. Due to the nature of where I live, and the endless labyrinthine housing estates that melt into each other tied with roundabouts and confusing road networks, I can actually zip through said housing estates on mountain bike and get home as quick as, if not quicker than someone in a car.

My mountain bike is kitted out to the max, Cat Eye lighting set ups (RC-230, HL EL520 as “side lights”, TL LD1100, and bar end mirrors with a flashing light on my ruck sack), with my ruck sack containing my lunch and work gear. I look like a mad long haired Scandinavian back packing cyclist getting to and from work (I currently don’t drive, and taxi fares even one way cost an arm and a leg).

Annoyingly, the council are shite at their job of cleaning up. Including gritting of roads. Driving through my town is like driving through a town where the roads are made of Perspex due to a chronic lack of gritters, as noted a couple of weeks ago. This also includes clearing the footpaths that lead out of the estate of debris, in this story chunks of wood and twigs shed by trees in high winds at the time.

I exit work one winter afternoon, all lighting fully armed and charged. As they drive like idiots on the estate (which is why fold away bar end mirrors are a must), and I choose a footpath to exit the estate that is badly maintained, just to avoid the roads and keep out of the way.



I zip past a couple walking some form of Alsatian or Siberian Husky wolf type of dog, and they duly walk out of my way.

Next thing, all I hear is…..SPANG!

And my mountain bike suddenly stopping, while I catapulted forward across the ground, as if I was Superman but flying just an inch above the ground. And then, I stopped some several feet away from my mountain bike. The couple help me, and inform me that they warned me off a large block of stone, but I could not hear them. Miraculously, I didn’t break any limbs or kill myself. Or, scrape any of my clothing, including my Berghaus coat (hey, I ain’t a Chav! It’s for cycling purposes only to keep the elements out! D’ya hear?). All I had was a shredded finger that pissed blood down my hand, and I felt stiff. Had a buggered back, and felt generally sore for a week (went the doctors the following day to check checked out).

However, the following damage was done:



The mountain bike managed to clear the obstacle, but the back wheel didn’t and folded beneath me sending me flying. Annoyingly, the wheel was several weeks old only (and a quick release one too, for ease of repair in a hurry). Obviously, it was beyond repair.

Now, what I find fucking ironic was that fucking couple. It was nice of them to come to my aid as they also drove me back home with the mountain bike in the back of a works van this guy owned and made sure I was ok, but in a unique twist of irony they lured me into the fucking obstruction! Now, I know I have a fully equipped lighting rig on the mountain but it was STILL far too dark to see the obstruction on the path. You would THINK that they would have kept to the RIGHT, hence blocking the obstruction and bearing in mind I may not have heard them. Oh no…

I have broken my arm and not made a mess of my bike when I was a teenager, but never fucked a bike up like this and walked away from it. It still makes me shiver thinking about what could have happened, and I had nightmare flashbacks of falling off the bike for a couple of months.

I later find out the obstruction was a chunk of log, which we in work christened the "Log of Doom" (see first pic with pathway, on the right hand side on the grass. That was the culprit).

Nice.
(Panteneman Isn't entirely sure why he bothered on, Tue 17 Feb 2009, 21:03, 3 replies)

Well,
short of sprinting after you waving their arms, how could they have stopped you? Not everyone would have the presence of mind to make sure they walked in such a way that cyclists would be diverted around the obstacle, and as they said, you didn't hear them when they warned you about it.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Tue 17 Feb 2009, 21:17, closed)

When you put it that way...
Not a lot.

At least they where charitable to help me out after the fall. They could have just left me there.

It was jolly nice of them for the bloke to bring me back in his work van with my bike back to my front door.
(Panteneman Isn't entirely sure why he bothered on, Tue 17 Feb 2009, 21:45, closed)

I've had a similar experience, but woke up in hospital (no helmet, it was the 80s)
so if I'm walking past a brick or something on the pavement I'll move it out of the way.
( M3rx likes the Asian ladies, Wed 18 Feb 2009, 10:13, closed)