On New Rides, Upgrades and Accidents

I don't think there are too many people at this point who are not already well aware of the fact that on Monday, March 16, I was riding to work, for the first time in 2009 on Erin (that's the Roubaix for anyone not keeping track of these things). My plan was to take Dundas street from Greenwood over to River (there is a bike lane most of that way) and then go down River to Queen and finally across Queen to the office at Bay. Well at Dundas and Jones there was a red light, so I slowed right down to a crawl so I would not need to unclip, I rolled towards the light and it turned green as I came to within about three car lengths from the intersection. I did a quick scan, none of the cars had a right turn signal on, the first car went, as I started hammering, the second car a big dodge pickup, started weaving right, in horror I rechecked, no right turn signal, but he was turning alright. I screamed and slammed into the side of the truck making sure to lean into the truck so I would not fall. I continued to holler the driver aborted the turn and zoomed off, making the right turn at the next light, Pape.

Here is my list, had I been able to catch a licence plate and a look at the driver:

1. Fleeing the scene of an accident - 7 points
   
2. Careless driving - 6 points
   
3. Failing to yield right of way - 3 points
4. Improper right turn - 2 points

Total demerit points: 18 (source: Ontariotraffictickets.com). If a driver gets nine points they must appear for an interview to justify why they ought to be allowed to continue to drive, if they get 15 points their licence is suspended for 30 days, any additional points and the licence is suspended for six months. Given that the driver of that pickup nearly killed me, I think that our system of punishing reckless driving is really far too lenient.

Now that particular incident was never reported, what is there to report? Some dick is driving a dodge pickup and nearly killed a cyclist. (And in other news the World is round!) But many accidents were reported to the police, and Brent Smith of The Toronto Star put the accidents on a map. Here is a map detailing all the reported bike accidents in Toronto in 2008. I like the comment: Informally, though, accidents seem to cluster where bike lanes aren’t, and vice versa. Exceptions seem to be the College bike lane and a stretch of the Dundas St. E. bike lane west of Pape, where there is nearly one accident per block. Except my little incident was East of Pape, one block East of Pape.

Enough on the bad driving.

Back in February I bought a new saddle for Erin. It is a Specialized Toupe black with red accents. Then at the bike show I bought new tyres that seem to collect glass fragments faster than a blue box. But here are some pictures.




You can see in the above two images that I still have the training tyre on Erin. Below are the new 290 TPI Vittoria tyres.




Then this past Friday (March 27) there was a phone call from a bike store. My Transition was ready for pickup. (My wallet is not ready though.) Saturday morning I had to work in the office but Saturday afternoon my dad was kind enough to drive me to the store. So fully loaded with the new saddle bag, water bottles (and cages), dressed like I meant it, I went to the store and got my ride. And for those of you who might be wondering that bike has two speeds, HOLY #*@&! SHES FAST!!! and EVEN #$*@*! FASTER!! I just cannot go slow on her, its just not possible.

Anyway here are the pictures.








I still need a name of the new bike, the rules are, must begin with a vowel, and since her lines are femine must be a lady's name.

One of these days I am going to get busted for speeding, on a bike!