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I dumped the bike on Saturday. Nothing serious, just a few scrapes and bruises, but it was really strange because I was joking around about taking a spill only minutes earlier, seriously.

The whole thing was over before I had time to think about it, but as I remember it, I was coming down a slight hill and about to make a left turn down a side street. I tightened the back brake a little to slow down and immediately sensed that nothing was happening. I tightened more and suddenly the back tire was locked up and there was this strange scraping sound. I later realized that the exact time I hit the brake was the instant the tire was passing over a crushed water bottle, which explained the scraping sound. Anyway, with my back tire suddenly on an ice-like surface, I felt the entire back half of the bike start to swing out to the right. I was also slowing down with the front brake, but because I was still moving at a good clip (downhill), I actually had enough time to counter steer, basically creating a jackknifed tractor trailer situation barreling down Henry Street. I had almost stopped, and was nearly completely sideways when the bottle suddenly dislodged itself, immediately imbuing the rear tire with all its lost traction, and dumping me over the side and on to the pavement.

Aside from a pain in my right hand that has gotten better since yesterday, I’m completely okay.

And the rest of the day was quite enjoyable! Liz and Anton and I (and Gypsy) all went on a nice biking tour of the LES and East Village. I got to show off my no-look camera skills as I snapped a few shots in mid-ride. Anton is riding the green Schwinn, Liz is on the pink Tweety-mobile with Gypsy perched precariously in the basket up front. By the middle of the afternoon, she calmed down about riding in the basket (probably because Chihuahuas stare death in the face and laugh on a daily basis).

After lunch at Schiller’s (which my spill directly preceded), we went up on the Williamsburg Bridge and then down to the park directly below, where we found a small pond’s worth of water collecting in one of the gathering places (you can tell by the street lamps that you’re supposed to be able to walk there, then back down into the top edge of Chinatown and back to the LES for some more lounging.

Days like this, when you get nothing real done, but spend a lot of time doing things that seem like they’re productive are the best. It’s like relaxing without getting that guilty feeling that you could have been doing something better with your time.

I also enjoyed biking with other people. Greg and I bike together sometimes too, which I like, but it’s always great to bring more people into the fold. I think I’m going to start going to sanctioned rides, things like the Moonlight Ride or maybe another Critical Mass ride (depends on how many arrests there were last month).

Anywho, sleepy time. Gotta get up for my ride into work tomorrow. Yeehaw!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 12:49 am and is filed under Bumblings, Idiot, People I Know, Photog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.