yikes

Nearly got doored last night coming home, by some chick throwing open her door on Lincoln right before Belmont. I ended up with a hand on the cab to my left to stay steady as I slammed on the brakes and started screaming at this lady clue-lessly stepping into the street. Really, full volume, letting her have it. Not my best moment, but I was already in a pissy mood and fuck that lady for not looking around. If the worst things that came out of it was me calling someone a cunt then so be it.

This is at the end of a long week where I'm not really feeling the bike right now. Taking the train on Monday should take care of that but really, the nearness of what happened last night was enough to put me back on the bike this morning just looking for someone to flip out on. And looking for beer on the way home tonite.

Current beer-scale: 8.9

Wow what a difference a weekend makes. It hit 50 degrees yesterday, and was in the high thirties this morning as I left. Who cares if wind made that feel closer to 25. That was a wet, warm ride in conditions that were a lot better than they have been for a while. Keep that snow melting.

Of course people commuting in cars feel the same joy, and their exuberance spills into the bike lane with little to no warning. When you know this ahead of time it's not difficult to keep an extra eye out for it, as well as all the extra bikers out.

My favorite guy this morning went to pull into the bike lane to skip a line of traffic at one of the stop signs on Wells and take a right. I braked but he saw me just as he was heading out so he stayed in his lane for a minute. Didn't use a turn signal, didn't look before he made his move, but at least he stayed in the lane until I passed. The whole thing took about 2 seconds, but it was worth noting b/c after I braked he gave me the "c'mon, let's go" hand circles that I give people that have annoyed me in traffic. If he had spent that energy putting on a blinker instead I don't think we would have had any kind of issue. Whatever. It was warm enough for me to laugh about it this morning.

Current beer-scale: 4.2

ow.

I wish I had that on video.

I've been riding to work for almost 4 years. Had a few close calls, a few minor incidents, but never anything major. Today I got doored on the way home. Flipped completely over the bars, rolled a bit and skidded to a stop on my left elbow and the back of my head. Ow.

The scary thing was I saw it coming but there was nothing I could do. The timing was just too perfect; I saw the door opening and yelled a heads up, but couldn't slow down or get left enough in time. Watched the driver turn to look at me as the right brake hood slammed into the door and over I went.

I *think* my right hand was still braking when I hit the door, and that's the only thing that really hurt. I have some scrapes and bruises, mostly on my knees and elbows but that's it. I was a little concerned my right middle finger was broken but I'm less worried by now.

The bike wasn't in the best shape. The brake hood was jacked, and the front wheel was bent enough to rub against the brake and stop. In the "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" department, REI was able to "magic" the wheel back into reasonable shape for no charge a few hours later. Hopefully that will keep for long enough for me to find a job and be able to afford a new rim.

That looks a little off to me...

I had my phone out by the time I was getting up off the pavement and dragging my bike to the sidewalk. Called the cops, asked the guy if he had insurance and told him to stay where he was. Of course he didn't have insurance, so on top of getting issued a citation for opening his door into me he also got ticketed for that. The cop on the scene was actually pretty great and made the whole thing a little more bearable.

A copy of the incident report and a court summons if I decide to follow up w/any charges

Hours later I'm still pissed though. People call getting doored a rite of passage but I could have gone without, thanks. On top of dealing with getting laid off and the stress of interviews, I'm not in the best head-space to deal with this right now (I will be sure to wear short sleeves tomorrow to show off my damage, but that's another matter).

If dooring really is a rite of passage, it makes me wonder how inevitable it really is and if there isn't anything else someone can do to make sure it doesn't happen again. I know the majority of my environment is really out of my control but the powerlessness of the situation is ulimately what bothers me. I think I handled the situation about as well as possible; made sure the cops came, had the guy cited, kept my cool, but the fact that it happened at all makes me crazy. Plus I feel I have an increased amount of pent up aggression now but a right hand that doesn't like making a fist right now so I'm just grinding my teeth.

I'm still riding to work tomorrow. Why? B/c fuck it, that's why. Yes that was awful. Yes, I will probably be thinking of how it felt to go flying through the air for a while. As my head was scraping across the street before I came to a stop, all I could think was "at least I have a helmet on." That's not a memory I'll lose any time soon. But all things considered I'm probably lucky with how things turned out. I made it through a crash and right now I feel pretty good. I described it to my wife as just feeling like I had played a little football yesterday. My bike isn't in perfect shape but it's still rideable. If I let today scare me off of riding tomorrow, who knows when the next bike commute will be.

So the next one will likely be tomorrow. Now for another drink. I have a feeling the adrenaline flush from earlier will make it pretty easy to sleep tonite, but a few cocktails won't hurt either.

Current beer-scale: 8.9

rethinking the plan

I love this city. In the right circumstances, when someone almost runs you over to turn against traffic and cut through a parking lot/alley combo, only to say "Hey, you should try stopping brah," there is a 100% probability that they'll end up stopped themselves by traffic when they get to whatever street they're cutting to. So I-er, you-can feel free to trail after them and play the game that's sweeping the nation, "Guess who had the right-of-way!"

And in my case, it's a chance to take care of my serious case of "Last-word-itis," where if the guy hadn't said anything and just pulled into the parking lot, I wouldn't have thought twice. But hearing him say I should stop, when I've got the right of way with the flow of traffic, and he's pulling the dick move of cutting through a parking lot anyway, then I'm following him to give him some choice words. Which took a lot less time that I thought it might, and actually got the guy into a frothing rage as I turned back around to head home. All in all, good times.

It also made me re-think my plan for showing up for dinner on my bike but sans helmet, all cool in street clothes. I'm always in street clothes anyway, but that way I don't have to carry the helmet home. Today made it clear to me that it's worth having to carry a helmet home when who knows is going to be driving out there with you. Helmet it is. And now, off to dinner.

Current beer-scale: 9.0

So yeah, I got hit by a car on the way home today. Nothing serious, I'm not hurt and there was minimal damage to the bike, but I'm pissed enough that I'll be making a stop by the nearest police station to file a complaint tomorrow. According to the officer I got transfered to after calling 311 I have 72 hours to do so but it's got to be in person. Things not being in a state of emergency, I didn't feel like it merited calling 911, but damn was I pissed.

yup, that's the guy. too bad I'm slow on the draw.

I was waiting at belmont and halsted for the light to change. There were pedestrians still in the cross as it did change, so I kept waiting. I feel this jolt, and there's an old man driving a mercedes tapping me, shrugging his shoulders. Literally tapping my bike with his car. WITH HIS FUCKING CAR! It got clear, and I was able to get away from the douche in his car. Of course, he got stopped ahead of me at clark, where I knocked on his window.

It's not a bad addition to the photo though. The yellow is nice.

Looking back, I could have handled yelling at him a little better, but fuck that guy. At one point he actually told me "there's no need to get nasty," to which I told him nasty would be me smashing stuff. Douche. Eventually he just drove away, which was pretty much what convinced me to go see some cops tomorrow. Fantastic.

One last time for emphasis.

Current beer-scale: 9.9

Here's a fun game

I know, let's play "Who has the right of way?" If I'm riding w/the flow of traffic, and you're turning against traffic, who has the right of way? If I have to lock up my brakes into a skid while you're too busy talking on your phone to notice you're about to run someone over on your way into the parking lot, who has the right of way? That's right asshole, I do!

Go fuck yourself idiot!

Current beer-scale: 7.7

POP!ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

One more point in favor of bikes in "bikes vs cars," you can't have a blowout while going 70 mph on a tollroad on a bike. I will admit that was mildly terrifying, especially considering I couldn't get over to the shoulder before it was barricaded by a work zone. So instead I got to plod along at about 5 mph for a few minutes until I could pull over. Called AAA, resigned myself to missing the ND game I was on my way to see.

The tire wasn't just flat, the tread was practically off.

I have to admit AAA was great. Since I was on a freeway I was a "priority" commuter and a truck would be there within an hour. In the meantime, I was free to try and change the tire myself while I was waiting. Which I think I could have done, except for breaking the locked lugnut off the shredded tire. Whoops.

My father-in law showed up as I was trying to get the tire off. I already had the spare off, and had figured the jack out to the point where if we could get the bad tire off we'd be in great shape. I had 4 of the 5 lugnuts loose. The last one was the locked-lug, which I had already handled alright taking the spare off the back of the car. Of course, it broke almost as soon as we tried it.

AAA showed up to help, and broke it more. AAA was just a van at first, since it was called in as a flat even though I was under the impression a truck was coming. No big deal. It was actually less to wait for the truck to come than the van to show in the first place, and the we were on our way. Nothing worked on the busted lug. Pnuematic wrenches, chisels, only worked to break smaller pieces off the lock. Eventually the blowtorch came out, which honestly spooked me almost as much as the initial blowout. We were standing in a gas station parking lot, and all of a sudden behind me I hear this "whoosh" as he fires up the torch to cut the lock off. Fantastic.

But the blowtorch worked, and the bastard was off the car.
All in all, my little sidetrip only cost $50 for the labor taking the tire off. AAA covered the tow, and really the only casualty was a wasted opportunity to see ND beat Stanford. The final timeline:
9:25-blowout on 355 south near 75 st. exit

9:35-AAA called

9:40-10:20-attempted tire change

10:30-AAA shows, gives up, calls truck

10:45-IDOT truck shows up to ask if we're an accident or just flat

11:00-tow truck shows, head to 63rd & Cass

11:45-tire is finally off, spare is on, head back to 'burbs for beer & football

So basically, the slightly unsettling adventure of the morning took just about as much time as it would have to drive to South Bend. By the time I was done I didn't think I had time to make the game, so it was back to the in-laws' for some NBC.

And don't talk to me about how "the same thing could happen on a bike." I've flatted on a bike at full speed a couple of times and it's not even close to same thing. Once was even in the rain on the bike path and it wasn't anything to write home about. This was. The ride to work this morning was worlds calmer than any drive could have been. I keep leaning further and further to the no-car approach. I'm already car-lite, but that was something I would not want to experience again, thank you. So huge thumbs up to AAA, who made a terrible situation that much easier to get over. I did't miss a second of the game, even though it wasn't in person. So thank you, sincerely. AAA is awesome.

Current beer-scale: 4.3, although it's still pretty early.

Yeah, good morning to you too.

There are days when I just hate people. "Hate" may be too strong a word but there it is anyway. Days where the adrenaline rush of almost getting run over outweighs the pleasure and enjoyment of a simple bike ride into work. Again, people just don't seem to get the meaning behind a left arm stretched out coming up to an intersection. I can't even begin to imagine what this guy thought it meant today. Maybe he wanted to ask me a question about it b/c he didn't seem to grasp that I wanted to go into the left turn lane, so he should either pass me or let me go. I sped up, he matched. I braked, he seemed to think this was fun. No, it's not a game. I want to turn left fucker, and I can't do it with you staring at me open-mouthed. Move your ass.

I can only imagine how fun this is going to be once the weather turns. Which already has me gritting my teeth, after a horrible effort at finding some cross tires that would fit Frankenbike. After some effort, and much bargain hunting, I seem to have done it, but who knows. The test ride will hopefully be successful later this week.

The main problem:

Not nearly enough room to go from 25 to 32. Whoops! So time to test a smaller tire on both wheel sets. Frankenbike will be single speed eventually, but he might just stay 7-speed since that wheel worked better and is less out of true.
A few tire changes, and success! We have clearance! Well, clearance with some additional "minor" modifications.
The brake, she's gone.

Mission relatively accomplished, it was time to have some more beer and watch the Bears pull one out of the fire against the Eagles. Much better Mondays after both my teams win, so now I'm going to try and forget about the poor asshole in his car driving to his soul-crushing cubicle this morning. Ah, I feel better already. Cheers!

Current beer-scale: 5.7

on the road again

Caution: This post contains highly positive content about the University of Notre Dame.

The ironies of bringing a bike on a two-hour drive to South Bend in the hopes of saving a little time are not lost on me, but man was that a great idea. It gives whole new meaning to the bikes vs cars debate. With the bike, instead of an hour+ walk from a buddies house, it's a few minutes' ride and suddenly I'm at a tailgate. And when the game is (finally) over, hop back on and beat everyone to their cars, beat traffic out of the bend, and cruise home in time to run to Scooters. Awesome.

And it's always fun to play with the panoramic setting on the Kodak. I love this feature, maybe a little more than I should.

A perfect day for late September. I wouldn't really feel that way now if ND had gotten killed, but they didn't so I can reflect postively.

A vertical panoramic of Touchdown Jesus. I'm actually surprised at how well it turned out, seeing how I didn't think about lining up the elements in the mosaic for the two shots until I had already taken the first one and realized how dumb it was to line things up that way. Still, decent look at the library I spent a lot of time in.

The old reliable, the panoramic from the seats as I filed in. I was steady enough to hold the camera, so despite seats that get absolutely no shade until November I knew I'd be alright with enough water.
Unlike one of the guys infront of us, who immediately after coming in and trying to start some shit with the Purdue fans a few seats over, spent most of the game hunched over, hiding from the sun by putting his head in his shirt. At least he didn't puke, and at least we weren't sitting in front of him and worrying about it all day. Notice the class ring on the right hand. Truly, an inspirational example to alumni everywhere.

An action shot of Kyle Rudolph (#9) catching a 5-yard TD from Clausen. Nothing but luck on this shot, but you can see the ball on its way by the 5-yard line. I especially love the guy in the white shirt already giving the "touchdown" sign. I admit to being baffled by this offense. When they're clicking, watch out. When they're not, they make me want to puke. But they seem to go back and forth between the two for no discernable reason. I guess that's why good coaches get paid. Still, I refused to buy the wife a #7 jersey this weekend and opted for Maurice Crum Jr. instead. What the hell, she wasn't there. If I'm surprising her, I get to pick what I'm surprising her with.

All in all a great day, and thank god, b/c I get to do it all over again next Saturday, only an hour earlier thanks to the 1:30 cst start. Tremendous.

Current beer-scale: 8.5 (extremely high due to the nature of Sundays in the office and impending Sunday Night Football Bears action)

Go right ahead.

Yeah, it doesn't really matter what epithets or curses you're using, when on-coming traffic has a turn arrow and I'm going straight, I'm not gonna move. Unless your horn can magically clear traffic, that's not doing any good either. So yell until you're red-faced, have your little freak out banging the steering wheel, and fucking deal with it. But the next person that comes that close to me with their car as they gun it into on-coming traffic gets my helmet thrown through their window.

Current beer-scale: 5.5

Relax. Just b/c he's driving a hummer doesn't mean the guy is a total knob.

Okay, so he seems to be in a big hurry and almost clipped that guy turning left. You haven't caught up to him yet. Don't freak out.

Well, he might block the bike lane for a second but don't worry, he's just passing really quickly on the right.

Oh, he's decided he might not have room for his ridiculously large inferiority complex, I mean SUV. So he's stopped...right...in...front...of...me...(slamming on my own brakes as I literally almost catch up to him face-first).

Ah yes, honking his horn to get the guy who can't turn out of his way. Brilliant. Then peeling away, through the yellow turning red that I was hoping to catch as well if his dumb ass hadn't taken up the bike lane. Thanks guy. Sometimes, you can judge an idiot by his hummer.

Current beer-scale: 6.7

Well crap. That's the last time I talk about how much of a douche I am on Sunday mornings. I almost got hit twice on the way home, both times by people who sped up to turn directly in front of me instead of pausing for a second for me to get by. The first guy practically plowed me into the garage door of his condo in his haste to get into his driveway. No signal, no brakes, just next to me and then trying to turn right directly in front of me. Fan-fucking-tastic. I'd say it was about 3 inches between my front tire and his right rear door before I braked and turned into his driveway with him, where I could suggest he might have an easier time seeing with his head out of his ass.

Fortunately, the adrenaline rush from almost getting killed made the next guy trying to turn left onto clark from the other direction easier to take. That guy just got a shout to make sure he noticed me flipping him off as I slammed on the brakes again. In both cases, if I had been driving there would have been major, major accidents. But since I was on a bike I was inconsequential enough to ignore as people went about their business.

So if you noticed someone biking west on belmont on Sunday afternoon, shaking his head and cursing even more than usual, now you know why.

Current beer-scale: 9.4

Critical mass? Not my cup of obnoxious, hipster tea.

I will never understand the logic of convincing people "bikes are fun" by pissing everyone else not on a bike off. Maybe that's my lack of cyclist attitude and more of my commuter showing, but taking up a lane of traffic riding five-across while people are trying to get to wrigley just seems dumb to me. How is there not a political agenda when you're purposely slowing everyone else down just to prove how awesome it is to bike and how sweet your ride is. Yes, biking is great. Bikers, sometimes not so much.

Current beer-scale: 7.0 & falling

Happy Bike to Work Day everybody!

No, that's alright. I wasn't really turning left there anyway. I just like to ride with my arm out like that b/c I can pretend I'm a fucking plane. I'm not signaling. So just peel away from that stop-sign bmw guy, and go ahead and roll through your's lady on her cell. What's the harm in seeing how close you can actually get to running someone over.

Go fuck yourselves traffic.

So I almost got run over last night on the way home, but there's already plenty of blogs out there about the Chicago biking scene and people complaining about drivers who evidently think they're the only people on the road. I don't have the longest commute, so it's usually pretty uneventful except for the 2-3 times a month there's a close call. And while I don't want to hash over each and every ride I have, the adrenaline rush of nearly getting run into makes last night stand out a little.

Basically, someone turning left was getting passed on the right just as I was coming up the stop sign where the action was happening. No blinker, and it's not like they were going anywhere either; they were passing to get to a four-way stop. Only I was practically at the passenger side window slowing down to stop when she went right. I stuck my left hand out to brace myself off her window, and used that to give me some help moving to the right fast enough to stay out from under her. My wedding ring made a nice cracking noise as it hit the window. Thankfully, no one was parked on the street that close to the stop sign, and there was room for me to go right instead of slamming into another car.

How did I know the driver was a she? Because she rolled down her window to call me a dick while she rolled through the stop sign. Classy.

If I was a little more awake this morning I would probably be banging out some venom-filled tirade about drivers vs bikers but it's all been said before. And I realize there are some pretty awful bikers out there as well, that cause just as many problems as the lousy drivers. Entitled speed-freaks that want drivers to give them the rules of the road they expect, but then don't follow any themselves aren't going to solve any problems between cars and bikes.

Being a bike commuter has made me a better driver when I do have to drive somewhere. I like to think I look around more and make sure there aren't vehicles of any kind where I want to go and I'm willing to give bikers room to get around in. If I see a biker while I'm giving my wife a ride to work or something I'm usually jealous, but I'll still make sure I'm not in their lane.

At some point you've just gotta let it go. My wife and I have been talking a lot about karma lately; whether we really believed in it and if we had any stored up to make some upcoming life decisions go our way or not. Or at least make the decision-making a little easier. It's definetely easier to see karma as some kind grand scale measuring out everyone's actions than seeing people act like selfish pricks without repercussions, but I'm not always sure that's how things work. Let's hope so.