The past couple of weeks haven’t been good for my bike. Last Wednesday I was riding home from work in a downpour and had a little accident. A few blocks away from my house railroad tracks cross the road at a diagonal — if you look closely at this picture you can see them. I learned the hard way that you should never, ever cross wet railroad tracks at anything other than an absolute perpendicular. You can probably guess what happened: My front tire slipped, so my bike decided to follow the tracks’ course. I, being bound by the laws of physics, continued to move in a straight line. I think I landed about five feet away from my bike. Fortunately, there were no cars right behind me, so I checked for broken bones (none — just a few scrapes and bruises), fixed the chain on my bike and rode the last few blocks home, uphill in the rain. I have to admit I cried a tiny bit.
The next day, a pickup truck came flying out of a driveway as I was riding past and clipped my rear wheel. I kind of bounced a little bit, but I stayed up so I just kept riding. I didn’t think at the time that any damage had been done.
And then there was yesterday. On my way home from work, I noticed my rear wheel felt really wobbly, so I got off to take a look. The tire was completely flat and all of the spokes were super loose. I had to get the wheel completely retensioned and replace the tire. My poor little bike. I hope it’s done having bad things happen to it for a long while.
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