Mar-elendili

I too have another bike accident to report. On the way to school (by bike), I found a small coin on the road. Not much, but it was still worth the stop. As no car was around, I could stop and pick it up safely. With the coin in my pocket, I went the whole way to school and nearly forgot about the coin. After school, me and another friend who also biked her way to school went to pick up our bicycles. When we started, I remembered the story about the coin and dug into my pocket to show it to her. It would have been fine if our handlebars hadn't touched. I guess my bike got out of its way as I was showing the thing. As soon as the two bikes touched each other, my front wheel started to oscillate rapidly and although I had the strange feeling I was controlling it, I had absolutely no control at all. Finally, I fell on my left side, right in the middle of the road. Fortunately, there was no car at that very moment, but the place I had fallen on had a very low visibility, right after a little hill. Had a car come along, it would probably have overrun me. And my elbow hurt for about one year after that... Now it's all right, but I have learned many things : Don't be too proud of your gains, a greater loss isn't far away... Don't be too confident about your skills, you never know when you might lose control. When the wheel starts oscillating, be prepared to fall on the safe side of the road!

Most of my bike memories are in the time when I was going to school with it, everyday, under any weather. One day I was invited to a friend's to spend the night at her place. I put my things into a small sports bag and tied it to the carrier. To climb up there, I had no problem at all. But the next day when I rode back down, I suddenly heard a noise. I thought I had maybe lost the plate or whatever so I pushed the brakes rather brutally and went to a stop in a loud squeaky noise. What really happend is that with the speed, the (old :-() rubber band that tied my bag to the carrier lost its grip and was positively getting entangled in the rear wheel. I had stopped just in time before the bike would have stopped anyway... and even more brutally! I was really lucky that time. What I have learned that day is this : - When the rubber band gets a wee bit old and flappy, change it immediately. - Always pay attention to the slightest noise and stop if you have a doubt. Maybe not a lifesaver, but it could have hurt very badly.

Guess what? Testing...