Why I wear a bike helmet
Alternative title: “I have always relied on the kindness of strangers”
On Friday, I locked my bicycle to a meter when I went to Psychology. The bike fell down at some point, and I believe it may have been hit by a car, because the stem for the handlebars was a bit crooked. Nonetheless, it seemed rideable and I headed home.
When I left the bike path onto Lincoln avenue around 5:15 p.m., I had to make a sharp right turn. At that point I put enough torque on the handlebars to achieve separation between the handlebars and the rest of the bike, and started wobbling out of control, unable to stay in a single lane or even to stay up for more than minute or so. Luckily the driver behind me stopped short of running me over, and it wasn’t that bad a crash, with just minor bruising on my palms and knee. The driver pulled over ahead and came back to see that I was all right, and a young woman pedestrian retrieved the stuff that had fallen out of my basket. The bicycle itself was in multiple pieces, because the front wheel and fork fell off, and the ball bearing races did, too. The handlebars were connected to the frame by the cables, so it was a fairly awkward package that I moved to the sidewalk.
I was able to call Alice to pick me up in the van and this all turned out surprisingly well. The bike is about 15 years old, so it may be time for a new one, although I may also be able to repair it.
It’s great living in a town where: a) even in rush hour it’s not too dangerous to be oscillating out of control on a major road, and b) people tend to be helpful to those in need.
October 15th, 2003 at 3:50 am
Dear Kevin,
Now is my office hour and there is no guest. It is
nice to learn that you are fine but it is also
a little bit scarry to read through the passage.
When I was a freshman in National Taiwan University, I learned how to rike a bike and was quite exited about it (and enjoyed riding it
as fast as I could). Oneday I rode it with my full potential and saw my classmates. I suddently decided to make a ‘beautiful’ sharp U-turn(to show off, of course). I did not try it before but intuitively thought it should be very easy. Within a second after I turned the handle bar to the right, my right body was moving on the surface with my bike above it. I was lucky that I wear jeans and heavy jacket but I hurt my ankle. That accident caused me a month to recover…
Take care!!
Shiouyuan at office