Thursday, November 25, 2004

Minutes November 23, 2005

It was classic rock night at the clubhouse. What with the new weather, there was more discussion of tunes than biking, although Hal did ride... the faithful are becoming fewer.

Sounds like there will be a Tinker Creek ride of sorts on Sunday. Contact Hal for more info.

Now that there is snow on the ground, it's time for some to begin training for the Icebike race... OK, we should all be training... but some of us are still working on training a more cerebral understanding of the race. We're visioning the action, and pain. It could take some time before that translates to the physical... I expect years for some.

And further to crashing with a helmet cam... if you haven't been to the pedalmasher site, check out the top two videos on the crash list on this page:
http://www.pedalmasher.com/html/videos.html they're pretty good, and not really huge files.
Remember to right click them and then "Save target as..." to your desktop or wherever and then view them.



Monday, November 15, 2004

www.pedalmasher.com

Chris sent this link to me the other day. A great collection of riding video created with a helmet cam. If your computer can do it, check a few out. There's a couple of dandy wipe-outs recorded. It's amazing how quickly the crash happens. I can imagine this would have been what Penner's incident might have looked like...
www.pedalmasher.com

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Minutes November 9

Not much bike discussion this eve. Unger and Jonny G spent the evening riding... even going so far as to ride to the Vimy Arena to catch a little Hummelt Hockey action. They caught some classic action, but left before the action peaked with a good collision between line-mates and fellow FGBC members Luke and Dr. Hubie. Blood was drawn on both sides. Chris managed a deep cut to the bone on the elbow that was still bleeding fairly well by the time we got to the post game meeting.

Some minor biking related excitement surfaced when Chris suggested that we all pitch in and get a helmet cam. Suggesting they could be had for as little as $150. Some quick research on the web turned up some options, although not as cheap as $15o:
the adventure cam for $235US
a Canadian dealer - $249US
If anyone has connections to a cheaper system, we should consider it... At $200+US, it may not get off the ground as quickly. Although it could be worth it... can you imagine having video of the president's crash from on his head?

Thursday, November 04, 2004

another bullet dodged

yet another fgbc cyclist dodges the car bullet...

last night, around 11:00 pm, i was cycling home from my curling game (at least there are no cars on curling sheets) on grovesnor. i was well prepared for night riding with a blinking headlight, two red blinkies on my back, and a jacket with reflective tape on the arms and body. i was cycling west on grovesnor, keeping a pretty good clip of 30+ kms per hour. i usually like cycling on this street because it is nice and wide, allowing cars to pass you with ease and because it is not a major thoroughfare. as i was speeding down grovesnor i saw a white volvo station wagon pulling up to the stop sign on my left a block ahead. as always, i put my hands on the brakes in case i needed to stop suddenly. the volvo came to a complete stop and waited, 'great' i thought, 'he sees me' and i continued at my pace, relaxed that i could continue at my present pace. just as i was about to go through the intersection (i had no stop sign) the volvo begins to pull ahead -- i grab my brakes hard and start a sideways skid, suddenly my tires grab and i flipped off my bike, hitting the ground and rolling to a stop in front of the car. i looked up to see the headlights of the volvo staring me in the face. thank god he saw me at the last minute and stopped halfway through the intersection. to say the least i was a little shaken at this point, i picked myself up and walked towards my bike, picked it up, and began to collect myself. i looked over at the car which just sat there, nothing was happening, just me standing there and staring at the car in disbelief at what had just happened. after a few moments the car inched forward with the passenger window was rolled down. a voice came out from inside the dark interior of the car, "i'm sorry... i'm sorry..., i didn't see you. i didn't see your light." what could i say, do i go off on this guy, what do i do. "at least you said you were sorry" i said to him as i walked around the back of the car with my bike. all i wanted to do was go home, thankful that i was still alive and in one piece. the volvo pulled away and i got on my bike and continued my ride home replaying the incident over and over again in my head. i got home, put my bike in the basement, took off my bike gear and went upstairs to let laura know what happened and that i was okay.

ride safe,

hal