On my way to July's Critical Mass I hit a Taxi on my bike. That was fun! I was on Pine headed West behind a CRV (or a RAV4 or some other smallish SUV) in the center lane when the left-most lane filled up with cars and then the CRV stopped short. I - noticing that the right-most lane was apparently empty - darted right and noticed the parked taxi. At that moment there was about half a car-length between the front of the CRV and the trunk of the taxi, I figured I'd just dart left back into traffic and then feel very nimble and traffic-savvy and self-satisfied. No such luck. Just as I pull alongside the CRV, the CRV lurches forward totally closing the gap. The curb was about 8 or 9 inches tall and so was out of the question for bunny-hopping onto the sidewalk (which was full of pedestrians and people dining at the outside cafés) at speed and on a bike ill-suited to bunny-hopping. Having nowhere else to go, I just hit the brake as hard as I could, locked my feet into a skid and plowed into the back of the taxi. The trunk lid of the taxi was actually quite soft and springy (although my helmeted noggin did smack the back window sufficiently to make a good deal of noise and startle the fare in the back seat). Like many things in life, it looked a lot worse than it was.
I was not injured, only embarrassed. To his credit, the taxi driver (and the fare!) got out and made sure that I was alright. Roughly 30 people had seen me collide with the taxi and were now asking me if I was okay. It felt like a very awkward and impromptu press conference. I assured everybody that I was okay and announced that my next show would be at 8:00pm.
The taxi was altogether unscathed.
Riding to the Critical Mass (hereafter: CM) meet-up I noticed that my bike had a distinctly different feel; more twitchy and with crazy foot-strike (when your feet hit the front wheel, in case you didn't know). Scott noticed that I wasn't altogether there and said, "you look like you maybe don't wanna ride." He was right! But I did ride with CM for a while, long enough to get up on Capitol Hill and remember that if my frame/fork were indeed bent (and they were!) that it wasn't really safe to ride (and I REALLY needed another spectacular failure whilst riding). So I went home.
That decision proved wise in a number of ways, not least of which was that I ended up missing two major incidents on CM.
I should note that CM is usually a peaceful (if raucous) demonstration and generally doesn't inspire great ire in most people. But July's CM was different. There was an incident on Capitol Hill which shocked everybody, I think. You can read about it here (Scott's blog):
http://sweetbike.org/?p=184
&
http://sweetbike.org/?p=185
The short version is that CM decided to go down a narrow, residential street (why? who knows? CM is leaderless and whoever is in front determines where CM is headed next**) where a man and his passenger were promptly "corked" (blocked from moving by people on their bikes) and after a while the man decided that he was tired of waiting for hundreds of bicycles to pass by and lurched onto the sidewalk...running down two cyclists (one of whom went to the hospital with an ankle injury). This was made worse when a group of now-infuriated cyclists chased the car for a block and managed to slash all four tires and destroy the windshield and rear window. It was massive over-reaction all 'round. Truly unfortunate.
Additionally, my friend, Jeff, said that CM went down Interlaken. For those who don't know, Interlaken is a steep and curvy stretch of road that winds through a ravine on the North East side of Capitol Hill. Part of it is regular two-way road, the rest is a run/walk/bike path. The beginning of the RWB path part is right where Interlaken and 19th Ave. intersect. The bit of 19th Ave E in question intersects with Boyer Ave at the bottom of a VERY steep hill.
19th Ave E & Boyer Ave
Some CM riders decided to go down 19th Ave instead of the RWB path. At the bottom of that hill a rider crashed at high speed and about 10(?) other riders crashed into him. Jeff said that the guy was out cold and that EMTs came and put him on a back-board and the whole shot, flopping like a rag-doll. Again, most unfortunate.
Also: This CM was Jeff's girlfriend, Cara's FIRST Critical Mass. He said that she will probably come to CM again even though he had described it beforehand as being totally harmless and safe (which it is, usually). I lol'd.
Here's Jeff at Moon Garden (Moonlight Garden?) after Slow Sunday (3rd August, 2008).
Here's Jen and myself as well.
What else...I'm gradually putting my Brinks Bike together. My wheels are pretty, but no photos yet.
Hooray for steel frames! I got Stormy Pinkness (my Redline) up to Aaron's and he stretched the top tube and down tube back into shape and bent my forks back into almost original position. I'm still getting some foot-strike, but it's MUCH better. Sorry, no photos, I didn't think that far ahead. :(
Had my frame been aluminum or carbon, I'd be screwed. Bent or dented aluminum is done-for, get another frame. Carbon, ditto. Steel really is the optimal frame material for me. Our friend, Monica, had a similar incident: colliding with a bollard on the Burke Gilman trail. Maybe I can get pictures of her bent frame for reference...
* I haven't been doing lots of things. For instance: I haven't been successfully finding a job. I haven't been participating in the Space Program. I haven't been performing three nights per week at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village. Et cetera ad nauseam.
** I have twice found myself inadvertently leading CM. Once while I was headed home! It was an unfortunately fractious CM where lots of people got dropped and I decided to ditch it altogether. A guy came up alongside me and asked where we were going. I looked over my shoulder to see about 50 people behind me. D'oh!
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