Photos of My Twisted bike
On Friday, 20 Aug, 2004, a tad before midnight, I was quietly
minding my own business, riding to catch the last train of the
night. I was about 50m from Parliament station, and had about 5
minutes to spare. I was coming up to a red light, and a car tried
to merge into my lane. I warned them. They abused me. I past them,
and sat at the lights. They were directly behind me, first car at
the lights. They started creeping forward, all the while, the
creep in the back seat of the car was shouting at me through his
open window. They nudged me. They continued. They knocked me off
my bike. I got up, realising these idiots were wanting some blood,
and tried to hurry off. The wheels wouldn't rotate. The moron in
the back seat now got out of the car that was now "parked" in the
middle of a busy intersection (Victoria and Nicholson) with a steering
wheel lock, and came at me. I held my bike up in defense,
thinking he would have a slightly harder time getting the club
through to me past the bike. I didn't count on one of the other 3
who were now out of the car, coming from the side around my
defenses. He hit me on the head with something quite hard - no
idea what it was. My helmet took the blow, but I still went down
-- still concious though. Once down, the others pummelled into me.
A bunch of witnesses ran up - a couple of pedestrians who were
originally across the road. A car driver who was in the car behind
the culprits (after actually parking his car safely). They got
back in their car, and drove off, in a great rate of knots, almost
hitting one taxi and some other car who were in the process of
negotiating the roadblock they helpfully set up.
I made careful note of the number plate, but not the
description of the 4 thugs. I quickly got out a peice of paper and
pen, wrote it down, then found out the witnesses also had the
number. Damn. None of us got a description of the perps.
The witnesses called the police, and I sat at the station for
an hour or two, giving my statement. I certainly missed that last
train, didn't I? And that's when I found out the car was
stolen. With no description, the best we could do was get the
police to drive around town a bit, and see if they could find the
(now probably ditched) stolen car, and do a search. I find out
tonight (Mon 23rd) that they have a watch on the car, but not much
is good.
Anyway, the helmet took the blows well (I have now have my life
possibly saved twice, thanks to it - but this time it definitely
needs to be replaced), and all I ended up with was a bit lip and
mouth, where I chomped down rather hard (and it damn well hurts to
eat and talk - just like after getting wisdom teeth removed). And
a grazed ear.
Most of the car's force went into pushing my bike sideways,
after being disipated by the deraillers. They only did minor
damage to the wheel itself (spokes and the trueness of the
wheels), but enough that it can't be used again
Previous description on ASR of that
helmet which saved me once before. Post
to ASR asking what Simon the BOFH, and
Spike Bike
would do. A post to ARK complaining about my newlified
lack of velocipede. And my journal
article for the day.
Now compare these to Alex's bike, which
was smashed up by some morons in a 4WD turning in front of him. I
don't quite know why I hate cars (and their drivers) so much. Do
you?
Anyways, the photos:
The helmet
that took the blows. Note 1 large chunk going.
More large
chunks, and a fracture
From the
inside - several fractures going all the way through
Twisted
derailleur. Note the bent spoke going through the derailleur?
The bike
lined up straight. Note the crooked seat and handlebars? The seat
*cannot* be adjusted by hand without loosening the bolts first -
that was quite solidly fixed. Note also how bent the derailleurs
are, too. And then, I just noticed, you can even see the bent
wheel. I guess I won't be riding on that again?
That'd bent
*way* in the wrong direction. Note also the spoke, still.
More fuzzy
bent spoke.
And ditto
Back home....
Other photos
- Tim Connors
Last modified: Wed Sep 8 19:28:55 EST 2004
The helmet
that took the blows. Note 1 large chunk going.
More large
chunks, and a fracture
From the
inside - several fractures going all the way through
Twisted
derailleur. Note the bent spoke going through the derailleur?
The bike
lined up straight. Note the crooked seat and handlebars? The seat
*cannot* be adjusted by hand without loosening the bolts first -
that was quite solidly fixed. Note also how bent the derailleurs
are, too. And then, I just noticed, you can even see the bent
wheel. I guess I won't be riding on that again?
That'd bent
*way* in the wrong direction. Note also the spoke, still.
More fuzzy
bent spoke.
And ditto