Merry Christmas

I thought I was through with my Christmas gifts, but after yesterday morning, turns out I needed 2 more.

The Cateye LED headlight we bought a couple months ago does a decent job of lighting the road in a 4 foot diameter circle about 20 yards ahead of the bicycle. That, along with the ailing Nite Hawk incandescent headlight filling in the gap between the front tire and the LED spot, forward travel is pretty well illuminated. But turning corners is tricky because the lights are on the handlebars, they only see what’s around the corner once the bike is actually turned.

Yesterday morning about two miles into our 6-1/4 trip to work I turned onto a street that turned out to to be covered with leaves. Because of the lighting setup I didn’t know there were leaves there until we were crossing over them. Coasting at about 10-12 miles an hour the front tire slipped out from under me. Before I could even get out the O in OH SHIT, we were down and skidding to a stop on the ground. What took the brunt of the impact was the right front pannier that was loaded with my clothes and I think that saved both of us from a rougher landing. We got up, checked for any serious damage to us or the bike, I reattached the pannier and we pedaled slowly up the street. Because we less than half way to work we opted to turn around, pedal home and then drive the car in.

The bike appears fine except for scrapes on the right pedals and the tape on the right side of the handlebars where they skidded on the pavement. The attachment hook on that right front pannier needed to be rebent back into its natural shape. The captain has some road rash on the right knee that makes wearing pants uncomfortable, a sore left thigh that probably got poked with the handlebar and a tender right wrist from hitting who knows what. The stoker got a small cut on her right leg and a fairly sore shoulder. Both probably have bruises that will materialize in a couple days.

The right knee of my tights was shredded in the fall so I had to order a set online today. I also ordered another LED headlight, but this one has a helmet light so that I can aim it around corners by looking that way so as to avoid nasty surprises like yesterday.