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Today (well, Friday, it's after 2am now) apparently wasn't my day to ride. I decided to take a little ride after work, just an hour or so, so I got the bike out of the shed, checked it over, found the chain needed adjusted. OK, no problem. Did that and rode to the gas station to fill up the bike, and when I got there, I remembered I didn't tighten the lock nuts on the chain adjusters. No problem, I had a wrench with me, so I fixed that little screw-up.
So I head east out of town into the next county. It's a pretty boring ride to the next town, or so I thought. I had a car in front tailgating a furniture truck and wandering all over the place, hanging over the yellow lines like he wanted to pass the truck, and a small SUV tailgating me. I couldn't help but think I was surrounded by idiots.
I get to the next town, and decide to take this windy road I haven't been on in years. It has at least four 90 degree or better turns, and lots of other nice turns that would make it interesting on a bike. I head up this road about a mile or so, and what do I find? They tarred and chipped the asphalt road!!! (sorry for the crappy pic, I used my phone, and it didn't focus properly)
Granted, most of the gravel was firmly stuck in one place, but there was enough loose stuff to make the bike skate around a bit, and that wasn't what I wanted on a road like this.
Well, with my fun now ruined, I decided to head home. Instead of taking the exact rout I took previously, I decided to take another road that runs parallel to the route I took into town to add at least a little excitement to my otherwise depressing ride. Well, I got more than I bargained for.
This road is only a few miles long, and mostly lined with houses, but near the mid-point of the road is a break in the houses with nothing but woods on either side. Well, the speed limit is 35, so I was doing between 35 and 40 at the time I came to this patch of trees when this good sized black bear runs out from the left side of the road just feet ahead of where I was.
I grabbed both brakes hard, locked up the back one, and bled off speed as fast as I could. The bear ran as fast as it could diagonally in the direction I as riding from the left to the right side of the road. If he (or she) had run straight across the road we could have collided for sure. I think I can be sure that we were 2 very startled critters.
I couldn't think of anything else on the ride home, and was very paranoid for the remainder of the trip. I kind of wish I could have caught that on video, that bear hauling a$$ across the road in front of me was something to see.
I can't say the trip was that bad though, I made it home in one piece, which is always a good thing.
Rich
So I head east out of town into the next county. It's a pretty boring ride to the next town, or so I thought. I had a car in front tailgating a furniture truck and wandering all over the place, hanging over the yellow lines like he wanted to pass the truck, and a small SUV tailgating me. I couldn't help but think I was surrounded by idiots.
I get to the next town, and decide to take this windy road I haven't been on in years. It has at least four 90 degree or better turns, and lots of other nice turns that would make it interesting on a bike. I head up this road about a mile or so, and what do I find? They tarred and chipped the asphalt road!!! (sorry for the crappy pic, I used my phone, and it didn't focus properly)
Granted, most of the gravel was firmly stuck in one place, but there was enough loose stuff to make the bike skate around a bit, and that wasn't what I wanted on a road like this.
Well, with my fun now ruined, I decided to head home. Instead of taking the exact rout I took previously, I decided to take another road that runs parallel to the route I took into town to add at least a little excitement to my otherwise depressing ride. Well, I got more than I bargained for.
This road is only a few miles long, and mostly lined with houses, but near the mid-point of the road is a break in the houses with nothing but woods on either side. Well, the speed limit is 35, so I was doing between 35 and 40 at the time I came to this patch of trees when this good sized black bear runs out from the left side of the road just feet ahead of where I was.
I grabbed both brakes hard, locked up the back one, and bled off speed as fast as I could. The bear ran as fast as it could diagonally in the direction I as riding from the left to the right side of the road. If he (or she) had run straight across the road we could have collided for sure. I think I can be sure that we were 2 very startled critters.
I couldn't think of anything else on the ride home, and was very paranoid for the remainder of the trip. I kind of wish I could have caught that on video, that bear hauling a$$ across the road in front of me was something to see.
I can't say the trip was that bad though, I made it home in one piece, which is always a good thing.
Rich
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