When Good Rides Turn Ugly

Today was a beautiful day- almost cloudless. I had an excellent commute to work, and saw more bikes out at 6am than any other morning. Ever. I had a very fast ride with dry roads and a little push from some road bikers that were breathing down my neck. At least one of them figured out I was riding fixed and made some trackstand comment at a light I felt obligated to stop for.

After work, I was really into my ride back to Minneapolis with temperatures in the mid 70s, no clouds, and seemingly no wind. I decided to try a different route and headed up Grand to Summit, rather than following Shepard Road. Shepard is quite depressing. While Summit has more lights, I probably made better time overall. My legs had that nice springy feel to them, even uphill, rather than that sometimes dead, its been a long day at work feeling. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

On my commute home, my friend who had been building a fixed gear bike phoned me to ask a few questions. I told him I'd stop over to help. Rather than riding directly home, I rode around the lakes (bumped into a teammate heading to a shop ride and then two friends- I always like bumping into people I know- it might be the small-town boy that is still in me) and hooked up with the Greenway to end up at his house. He had a few glitches to sort out. He was trying to hook up a front brake, but he didn't have any stops for the housing. While he ran to the LBS, I shortened his chain by a half link- noticing that the shop had given him a 1/8" chain for his 3/32" drive train. Oh well... it won't be pretty, but it will work. The half link did the trick for his rather short dropouts, and the brake was finally installed. I helped him wrap his bars and discovered a type of tape with no adhesive backing- not that I'd want to buy it, but it might come in useful for his stem, which is not a front loader. This Serfas tape would be easy to rewrap.

Anyway, it was getting a bit late and we headed out on his inaugural ride. He was a bit all over the place as he rode, trying to clip in, which made me nervous, but he eventually had stopping and starting down- which is probably the hardest part of riding fixed. I warned him about pedal scrape, toe overlap, and a few other unique hazards of fixed as we rode to my house. Arriving home, I noticed people were starting to arrive for my wife's book club, so I said a hasty goodbye so I could quickly make myself more presentable. He left to return home.

Moments after I was out of the shower my cell phone rang. It was a strange number. I thought it might be work related, but it was my friend phoning to report he had hit a pedestrian and needed to go to the hospital. He was calling to see if I would pick up his bike. The accident occurred about six blocks from home.

As I drove to meet him, I couldn't find him. Then I saw the two police cars, the fire truck, and the ambulance. Apparently when the call came in to dispatch, "bike hits pedestrian" was interpreted to mean "motorcycle accident." My friend was sitting on the curb, being attended to. The EMTs thought he might have a dislocated shoulder. I packed up his bike in my car and offered to take him to the hospital, where he also worked. I didn't want to ask too many questions about what happened with the police there, so I waited until we were on our way.

Apparently two children walked out mid-block on a long descending street. They froze when they saw the bike, and my friend hit one and went over the bars. His shoulder and back hurt, and his helmet was cracked. His handlebars were bent, but that was the only damage to the bike. Somehow, my friend insinuated that he would have been able to avoid the accident if he were riding a geared bike. I tried to tell him that he would have actually been riding faster, since he could coast down the hill. It really doesn't matter anyway, since he was riding fixed. At least the accident wasn't his fault. I also heard the kids' father was very apologetic.

I drove him home to unload his bike. He changed clothes so he wouldn't have to wait hours in his bike gear. We then went to the hospital and I dropped him off at the ER- where the security guards, who apparently knew him, gave him a hard time.

I hope he doesn't spend too much time off his bike. I also hope this experience doesn't sour him toward riding fixed. Accidents are accidents- no matter what type of bike is involved. Looking at the bright side, my wife was hosting her book club tonight, and had encouraged me to find something to do away from home.