Cycling in Sydney Australia
Steel is real.
This morning I was happy to be riding on a steel frame.
Cruising straight down Enmore Rd at around 40km/h on my newish Fuji Touring, I saw ahead of me near the Enmore Theatre a car on the other side of the road, stationary, indicating to turn right. When I was about 20m from the intersection at which the car was was waiting, it decided to turn across me. I applied my brakes but there was nothing to stop me piling in to the side of the car.
I was left standing upright in the middle of the road, shocked. The only part of my body that made contact with the car was the knuckle of my right middle finger. My front fork took basically all the impact, twisting and buckling so that my front wheel was perpendicular to the frame. I'm hoping that the fork is the only part that is going to need replacing, it is getting checked at Cheeky now.
I wonder if I would have been so lucky if the frame was made of another material - I suspect not.
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Comment by Bill Parker on June 22, 2011 at 1:14pm -
Rob must be made of steal as well as the fuji, glad you are not hurt. Did you have civilised discussion with the driver.
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Comment by Rob Berry on June 22, 2011 at 1:24pm -
Yes, she was only just a little less shocked than me. Details have been exchanged, she will be paying for the damage.
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Comment by rococoabean on June 22, 2011 at 1:35pm -
So glad to hear you're OK, Rob; brickbats to the driver who has hopefully learned sthg now about Watching and Waiting!
I had a similar incident a few weeks ago (http://www.sydneycyclist.com/forum/topics/bicycle-meets-salvador-dali) - my great learning from that is if stuff like this can happen at low speed, do I even want to think about what a high-speed collision is like? - and have likewise found myself wondering whether my steel frame helped absorb the impact.
Likewise the driver paid for the damage in my case and admitted on the spot that it was his fault (SMIDSY). A lucky day for you!!
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Comment by Michael O'Reilly on June 22, 2011 at 1:49pm -
Yeah get it checked.
I hit a car in identical fashion a few years ago (again, driver appeared to be waiting for me, then tried to beat me through the intersection ... she later alternated between saying "I didn't think you were going so fast" and "I didn't see you"). Steel frame wasn't much chop thereafter though .... of course it was that lighter Columbia stuff.
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Comment by Rob Berry on June 22, 2011 at 2:04pm
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There was definitely nothing like that kind of visible damage to the frame, but obviously much better to be safe then sorry. If it is just the forks that need to get replaced it will only be a matter of a $200-$300, which should mean a minimum of drama. I just want to be riding again ASAP and don't want a protracted insurance issue.
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Comment by Fiona Berry on June 22, 2011 at 3:03pm
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any news from Cheeky on the damage? I got you a present, by the way.
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Comment by baa baa on June 22, 2011 at 3:07pm -
Bad news for the bike.Good news no bark off.
The fuji is not "newish" but new so anything unseen (like crushed headset bearings) should be easy for cheeky to spot. Hope you are back in the saddle soon
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Comment by Rob Berry on June 22, 2011 at 3:13pm
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@ Fiona - I like presents. I'm just going to do a little more work to make up for the time I wasn't in the office this morning and then head up to see what they think.
@ Baa Baa - well, it is a month and a half old, which means it has probably done about 800km. Not brand new, but yeah, new enough!
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Comment by Kylie on June 22, 2011 at 3:26pm -
Glad you're ok mate. Scares me that she was "only just a little less shocked than (you)" - one would hope she didn't see you at all and would therefore be very shocked. Or is that just it, she saw you and decided to make a run for it? Grrr.
Not sure about steel saving you though. It might be stronger than other materials but that just means it transferred more force to the rest of the frame (and you). Still, glad you are ok!
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Comment by Si on June 23, 2011 at 11:36am -
Bad luck. Good to see you are ok though. Make sure you get it thoroughly checked out. I was riding around for ~ a month with a frame like this:
There was electrical tape - to hold the cadence wire in place, covering the crack. Scary.
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