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Archive for June, 2008

It looks like I took the brunt of the blow during the accident, that crunching sound must have been my rear end as it bounced off the car. The fine folks at BikeSource gave my bike the once over with some minor adjustments to the handlebars and to the front brakes. I’m not sure which part of me hit the brakes but it they were bent into the rim itself and the handlebars were twisted when I went over them. Other than that the bike is fine. It’s ready and waiting for me to get back on.

I did get a new helmet though. There was no head injury, but the straps were damaged and the connecting pieces were broken which will prevent the helmet from staying place on my head. There is no way in hell I’m going out there with it.

The truly troubling part was that once I explained how the bike got bent up they weren’t actually surprised. They were distressed it’d happened, but I got the impression this actually happens quite a bit. There was the overall tone of “damn, not again”. Considering the cyclists I’ve seen (including myself) are wearing almost fluorescent colors, ride as close to the edge as they can and I have yet to see anyone riding at any time you would consider “dark”, so what the devil is going on out there?

Put that cell phone down and double check what you’re doing; that side mirror to the rear hurts like the dickens!!

I got my car tuned up and needed to do the same for my bike. I picked it up Thursday and its running great; nice and smooth with the gears shifting the way they should, not skipping like it has been doing.

To really test it out and put some miles on it, I set out yesterday to try and put down 30 miles in one go. It was a good day for it and I selected some long straight roads which should give me some exercise but not be too stressing and give me heat stroke; after all it was still around 95F with typical Southern humidity.

Things were going quite swimmingly, I was feeling pretty good and the bike gliding along, then I got hit by a car.

Details are a little sketchy of the incident since I didn’t see, but rather felt it. I was riding to the far right of the road when someone swerved over and clipped me in the rear end and thigh with their side view mirror. There was a huge smacking sound, a burning sensation in my thigh and then I was flat on my back in the dirt. I was as much confused as I was scared, since I wasn’t entirely sure what just happened. With the pain throbbing in my leg I looked up and saw a gray car speeding down the road. He’s just passed me and so I had to question, “Did I just get hit by a car?”

The people jumping out of their cars and rushing over toward me confirmed it was true, I’d just been run down and the driver was still going. In a big state of disbelief over what was going on, I assessed the damage and tried to feel if I was hurt anywhere else. My Good Samaritans checked me over as well trying to see if anything was broken and if there was any blood. Through the greatest of luck the major injury was my thigh which although now turning very red and blue due to all the broken blood vessels wasn’t actually cut. No broken bones and no head injury even though I had been thrown up in the air and over the handlebars from the impact (according to witnesses).

Police and ambulance were called for while I sat there on the side of the road trying to comprehend and sort out what just happened. I wasn’t even sure what road I was actually on.

EMT’s checked me out to see if I’d hit my head or had other injuries. They checked out my leg and although they confirmed it was going to hurt like hell and leave a massive bruise that I was otherwise in pretty darn good shape. I walked around a little to see if my leg was broken and apart from the sore muscles everything seemed to be working.

I figured if I was OK, that my bike had to be mangled. It wasn’t disastrous, but the handlebars were twisted around and the front brakes were twisted and jammed into the rim. Clearly not riding that home.

The police did manage to get the side view mirror which had hit me and another part or two from the car. Not sure if they will be helpful, but they did have serial and part numbers so maybe they can figure out whom the car belongs to. Unlikely, but worth a shot.

I will have to take my bike into the shop to have it untwisted, but I managed to literally walk away and although it’ll take a few days before I can get back on the bike again, I will get back on again.

1 terabyte in a single package. Now that’s impressive.

Western Digital on Tuesday launched a new pair of its “Caviar Black” drives, available in both 750-Gbyte and 1-terabyte capacities.
The WD Caviar Black 750 GB (model WD7501AALS) and 1 TB (model WD1001FALS) hard drives will be available next week through select distributors and resellers, WD said. The MSRP for the WD Caviar Black 750 GB is $199 and the 1 TB is $249 USD. Both drives are covered by a five-year limited warranty.

Western Digital Launches Terabyte ‘Black’ Drive