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Cycling log - random events in the day of a cyclist II

Just back from my longest ride yet.

50.3 miles, 3hrs 11, 1725ft, 15.8mph average.
Quite happy just to have done it, could’ve done without the five miles or so of Suffolk ‘road dressing’. Had to stop five times to remove gravel from the brakes.
 
windhoek said:
I'm not a member of any cycling organisation but I'm sure his insurance provider will pay up - given the choice of writing me a cheque or having a claims company pursue compensation should be a no-brainer. Interestingly it's Direct Line, who provides car insurance for me so that might make things easier. I don't know. But what I do know is where previous collisions have been the driver's fault completely and my bike and body have taken a hit, this is the first time I've really thought to myself I got away with that one. The guy, who was driving a big white SUV, came off the motorway exit ramp and plum sent my flying right into the ground. My head hit the ground hard, but as you can probably tell just from the fact that I'm still here typing, I was wearing a helmet; I reckon a serious brain injury and time off work have resulted, or worse, if I hadn't been wearing a helmet.

Compared to two weeks in hospital and two years out of work, I think I got very lucky indeed!
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Get a quote for full repair of bike to pre accident condition plus your wrecked helmet and gear. Give this to his insurers, assuming you have no injuries. They will probably ignore you so you can pursue this yourself or let a claim company rob the insurers blind. Any injuries, get thee to a solicitor and start a claim. Don't hold your breath, my claim took 4.5 years to resolve. Yes, it was for a lot of money, but given that the driver was prosecuted and banned within 6 months a delay over a year is excessive. They spent 4 years withholding the money I was due in the hope that I might die or otherwise lose interest. This is why I have no sympathy whatever for insurers and in any claim situation I will have no compunction when it comes to suing their ass for every last cent that I am due.
 
A mate of mine was nearly killed, 2 years off work & only just back riding .

He received a letter from the police saying that they thought education was more important than prosecution in this case so sent the errant driver on an ‘awareness course’.

She did a lot of crying & talked about her trauma etc. Makes me physically sick just thinking about it.

When my friend was in hospital post accident, copper came round to inform his wife of accident & asked if he was wearing high-viz at the time.

A staggering level of insensitivity from the boys in blue.
 
Man, that's tough. The two previous times I've had to report a collision to the police both officers were quite sympathetic and supportive. I didn't chat much with the police on Friday beyond specific details as I was in an ambulance at the time along with two ambulance operatives so it was a bit busy to allow an extended conversation. I didn't mind because though the situation was absolutely clear with no wriggle room whatsoever about how my bike came to be under the front of the car concerned.

The comment about hi-vis is hard to fathom. I mean, that's the sort of comment that suggests blame upon the victim, like he was asking for it. They used to do that with women who wore short skirts and revealing blousing...
 
windhoek said:
Man, that's tough. The two previous times I've had to report a collision to the police both officers were quite sympathetic and supportive. I didn't chat much with the police on Friday beyond specific details as I was in an ambulance at the time along with two ambulance operatives so it was a bit busy to allow an extended conversation. I didn't mind because though the situation was absolutely clear with no wriggle room whatsoever about how my bike came to be under the front of the car concerned.

The comment about hi-vis is hard to fathom. I mean, that's the sort of comment that suggests blame upon the victim, like he was asking for it. They used to do that with women who wore short skirts and revealing blousing...
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The ‘high viz’ comments are always unfortunate. It just shows how ingrained certain attitudes are.

I have been riding with him today & his left leg is permanently misshapen.
 
I'm one for hi-vis as well, even though it's no guarantee of not being hit. I once bought one of those silver coloured hi-vis cycling jackets but they're pants. They are reflective, but hi-vis yellow, with or without reflective parts, is better.
 
Woodface said:
A mate of mine was nearly killed, 2 years off work & only just back riding .

He received a letter from the police saying that they thought education was more important than prosecution in this case so sent the errant driver on an ‘awareness course’.

She did a lot of crying & talked about her trauma etc. Makes me physically sick just thinking about it.

When my friend was in hospital post accident, copper came round to inform his wife of accident & asked if he was wearing high-viz at the time.

A staggering level of insensitivity from the boys in blue.
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It's usually "was he wearing a helmet" that gets asked first, like that even matters or makes any difference in such a serious accident. Pathetic really.
 
Anyway on a plus note, I managed to finally finish off a bike project that was on-going due to parcels being delayed.

It's a 531 Gazelle (not a Champion Mondial unfortunately) that I picked up locally, I robbed the very nice Campag Record brakes off it for my other nice bike project (they're way out of place on the Gazelle, no idea why they were on it) and then fitted a load of spare Shimano 600/Ultegra bits that I've had for a while now just kicking around. Excuse the bar tape, it was going cheap at Planet X and seeing as it will live indoors and not get seen I couldn't resist a 50p bargain.



Dropped it in the turbo to test everything is set up nice and it ran smooth as silk, couldn't resist giving it a blast on Zwift seeing as I was on it and it is amazing what a few days rest does for you. I managed to knock 1m 45s off my KOM time for the Volcano, which isn't bad considering it's only about a 10 minute climb. I was over 330w for a good portion of it, felt really good, 19.4mph average with two 10 minute climbs is good going for me.



Looking forward to finishing the other proper bike now and getting out on the road.
 
Tony Lockhart said:
Just back from my longest ride yet.

50.3 miles, 3hrs 11, 1725ft, 15.8mph average.
Quite happy just to have done it, could’ve done without the five miles or so of Suffolk ‘road dressing’. Had to stop five times to remove gravel from the brakes.
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Well done that man. I did 52 in that strong wind last weekend and I was faster than today! 51 today and a bit of a slog. But I don’t suit the warm weather. The last ten miles were a real drag. At 40 miles I was at 15.2 but came home at 14.7 . That’s not great. 2100 feet climbed though. I blame the warm .
 
I only went through about 1 litre of water, together with two Snickers bars and three SIS Gel sachets. And then a nice choccy milk when I got home. Next Sunday is much warmer, so I might have to set out an hour or so earlier.
 
Just back from 10 days' cycle / camping from home (Pays de la Loire) into Brittany and back. Our first trip like this for a couple of years but great to get back to loaded cycling. We do around 50 miles / 80km a day and it is of course slower then unloaded and there is something very satisfying about it. First 3 days was into a stiff westerly headwind - not ideal particularly as we're not really cycling fit at the moment.... Anyway a good mix of roads, and rail-trails and canals which are all excellent. Camped in Gouarec right next to the Canal de Nantes a Brest for a few days and returned via le Mont St Michel - around 350 miles total, for a lovely gem of a trip.

IMG_5517 by Ian123_running, on Flickr
 
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I'm just back from my local police station as I wanted to find out how the police officers dealt with the matter the other day - I was busy getting treated in an ambulance when they were speaking with the guy and I forgot to ask. Anyway, it turns out, to borrow F1 parlance, they've chalked it up as a racing incident with no further action required. My back wheel is a squiggle, I couldn't move for 30-60 seconds and I'm sore here, there and where the sun don't shine, and the two officers decided it's just one of those things.

Apparently, I can call Police Scotland on 101 and request a call back from one of the officers so he can explain how that decision was reached, but I'm not sure I want to as it's unlikely to change things. I do need compensation though for damage to my bike so I need to make sure I get that process started.
 
windhoek said:
I'm just back from my local police station as I wanted to find out how the police officers dealt with the matter the other day - I was busy getting treated in an ambulance when they were speaking with the guy and I forgot to ask. Anyway, it turns out, to borrow F1 parlance, they've chalked it up as a racing incident with no further action required. My back wheel is a squiggle, I couldn't move for 30-60 seconds and I'm sore here, there and where the sun don't shine, and the two officers decided it's just one of those things.

Apparently, I can call Police Scotland on 101 and request a call back from one of the officers so he can explain how that decision was reached, but I'm not sure I want to as it's unlikely to change things. I do need compensation though for damage to my bike so I need to make sure I get that process started.
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They are basically treating it as if two cars collided. This is nonsense really but the police are really not arsed about such things.
 
windhoek said:
I'm just back from my local police station as I wanted to find out how the police officers dealt with the matter the other day - I was busy getting treated in an ambulance when they were speaking with the guy and I forgot to ask. Anyway, it turns out, to borrow F1 parlance, they've chalked it up as a racing incident with no further action required. My back wheel is a squiggle, I couldn't move for 30-60 seconds and I'm sore here, there and where the sun don't shine, and the two officers decided it's just one of those things.

Apparently, I can call Police Scotland on 101 and request a call back from one of the officers so he can explain how that decision was reached, but I'm not sure I want to as it's unlikely to change things. I do need compensation though for damage to my bike so I need to make sure I get that process started.
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That’s crazy Derek. It’s at least careless driving resulting in injury in addition to damage to your ‘vehicle’. I assume you’ll need to get a bike mechanic to take a thorough look over the bike and appraise all the damage? There’s one huge junction in Glasgow I swore I’d never cycle through, or indeed take the dual carriageway into it- Crow Road into Anniesland Cross. A few weeks ago while roads were still quieter, I did just that but since then Ive seen three multiple vehicle crashes due to idiotic driving, including one with damage to the cars that must have involved speeds well over the 30mph limit- right-off levels of damage.
 
I think the fact that the guy was straight-up and didn't disappear helped the police decide that verbal encouragement to be more careful in future would suffice. I've now spoken with his insurance provider and they'll be back in touch tomorrow once they've had a chat with the guy. It should be a no-brainer that I get some sort of compensation but you never know.

@TheDecameron

Yeah, the junction at Crow Road can be mental. If everyone plays nice and sticks to the rules you can get from one side to the next just fine. But it does feel risky as no-one seems to know which lane they need to be in to get through it and so all sorts of chaos ensues, often at speed as you say as it's a fairly open junction with room to give it some welly.

The roundabout at Seaward Street is always busy and with a motorway off-ramp on one side, the potential for high-speed contact is always there. I never feel safe going through it until I can see for sure that no cars are coming off the motorway and I'm safely out the other side.
 
Regarding hi vis I’ve noticed that the fashion among the racers over here is to dress all in black and let the blinky lights do the work. I prefer the approach of bright colors and blinky lights, plus black is really hot in the sun.
 
Fell off the bike yesterday - motorist decided he coud turn quicker than I could get o the corner where I had ROW. He was right, too, but probably wasn't thinking that involved me losing control and throwing myself to the ground. Unfortunately part of that were the those clip things, couldn't get my legs out in time so opted for the shoulder to ankle grazing. Motorist didn't stop, and of other witnesses there appeared to be none.
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Anyhow, on the plus side it has convinced me to go back to normal pedals.
 
Touching a large piece of wood as I say this, but I've honestly never had any trouble when on the bike. I put it down to having done so much driving that I can spot the clowns/dodgy manoeuvres with plenty of time to avoid any near misses.

That's not to say that you absolutely don't need eyes in your arse and be permanently on guard, because you do, especially when doing something taxing like cycling where your concentration can lapse. Also best to have routes in mind that avoid the twat trap road junctions, I think a lot of people new to cycling (not here, in general) tend to ride where they drive because they know the roads, where as they'd be much better off finding the quiet routes.
 
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