"Lost Control of her Bicycle"?

[Bob]

Zoot Katz wrote:
> 20 Jun 2005 20:31:13 -0700,
> <[email protected]>, "Bob"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Brian Wax wrote:
> >> So what is the point. Are we going to discuss all possibilities including
> >> Dog repellent as the primary collision factor? Let the LEO's come out with
> >> an explanation before going off half cocked.
> >
> >Half cocked? Presumably the investigating authorities interviewed the
> >other four cyclists as well as the driver of the automobile and any
> >other witnesses. As unsatisfactory as it is, some questions simply
> >aren't able to be answered definitively. Exactly *why* the deceased
> >cyclist ended up in the opposing lane may be one of those questions.
>
> In the anecdote I related, the dog repellant explanation was
> supposition on the part of the other cyclist. He'd ridden ahead of the
> deceased having chosen to use the opportunity for a wind sprint.
>
> He had previously warned the deceased about that dog on this route. My
> friend's dad was a retired postie. He wasn't favourably disposed to
> taking **** from any dog.

That sounds reasonable enough. It also points out the uncertainties
involved in trying to determine the *exact* cause of any crash,
especially when one or more of the parties is unavailable for an
interview.

Regards,
Bob Hunt

 

[[email protected]]

Why do so many here automatically blame the motorist? You have never
seen some of the poor riding exhibited by P.O.B.'s (person on bike, not
cyclist)??
What can a motorist do should a cyclist suddenly swerve into his lane?
We will never know what happened but the end result is that the
cyclist crossed into the wrong lane.
Clearly the deceased's fault!

 

[Jim Smith]

[email protected] writes:

> Why do so many here automatically blame the motorist? You have never
> seen some of the poor riding exhibited by P.O.B.'s (person on bike, not
> cyclist)??
> What can a motorist do should a cyclist suddenly swerve into his lane?
> We will never know what happened but the end result is that the
> cyclist crossed into the wrong lane.
> Clearly the deceased's fault!

Could have been equipment failure, no? Maybe cracked bars?

 

[Rich]

[email protected] wrote:

> Why do so many here automatically blame the motorist?

Nobody here blamed the motorist.

Learn to read.

Rich

 

[[email protected]]

Regardless- SOMETHING caused the cyclist to veer into the car's lane.
It may be a product liability case, maybe not. However many here seem
to think it had to be the driver's fault when all available evidence
shows otherwise. I've seen enough bad driving and bad biking to know
that there is no clear fault w/o investigation.

 

[Zoot Katz]

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 16:03:44 -0500, <[email protected]>,
Jim Smith <[email protected]> wrote:

>Could have been equipment failure, no? Maybe cracked bars?

I keep getting images of a shifted load. Perhaps she was trying to
correct on the fly or it caused her momentary loss of control.
--
zk

 

[Mike Latondresse]

[email protected] wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> Why do so many here automatically blame the motorist? You have
> never seen some of the poor riding exhibited by P.O.B.'s (person
> on bike, not cyclist)??

No

> What can a motorist do should a cyclist suddenly swerve into his
> lane?

Get the hell out of the way.

> We will never know what happened but the end result is that the
> cyclist crossed into the wrong lane.
> Clearly the deceased's fault!
>
If "we will never know what happened", how do you reach that
conclusion

 

[Ron McKinnon]

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 22:08:19 -0400, Paul Hobson wrote:

> I've heard that above certain speeds, the wheels have a very large
> gyroscopic effects and the bike overall handles very differently. The
> friend I heard this from said 30 or 40 mph. I've never gone that fast,
> and I doubt she was unless it was a very long decent.

The section in "Bicycling Science" on the gyroscopic effect of bicycle
wheels indicates that this effect is very small for a bicycle-plus-rider.

"Jones set out to build an unridable bicycle (URB). In his URB I, he
canceled out the gyroscopic action of the front wheel by mounting near it
another similar wheel which he could rotate backwards. He found that this
made little difference to normal handling, and concluded that gyroscopic
action has little influence on bicycle stability. He did find, however,
that URB I would not travel riderless. Gyroscopic action was important
for the lightweight bicycle alone, but not for the bicycle plus rider,
when the rider was controlling the bicycle with the handlebars."

It goes on to say that the bicycle was also very hard to steer
"hands-free", and then describes a few other experiments in instability.

Ref: Frank Rowland Whitt, David Gordon Wilson, Bicycling Science, 2nd ed.,
MIT Press, 1982, ISBN 0-262-73060-X

--
Ron McKinnon rmckin
spam > [email protected] at sympatico
http://www.magma.ca/~ronmck dot ca

 

[Ron McKinnon]

On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 13:00:20 -0700, jabario wrote:
> What can a motorist do should a cyclist suddenly swerve into his lane?

Not drive a car in the first place.

--
Ron McKinnon rmckin
spam > [email protected] at sympatico
http://www.magma.ca/~ronmck dot ca

 

[max]

In article <[email protected]>,
Mike Latondresse <mikelat@no_spam_shaw.ca> wrote:

> > What can a motorist do should a cyclist suddenly swerve into his
> > lane?
>
> Get the hell out of the way.

useful advice for sufficiently small values of suddenly and swerve.

..max

 

[[email protected]]

Youve never seen the wrong way riders at night in stealth mode (dark
clothes, no lights). The dumb kids darting out into traffic. It's not
always possible to swerve. Bike crosses lane. Bik'e fault

 

[Bill Sornson]

Zoot Katz wrote:
> Tue, 21 Jun 2005 16:03:44 -0500, <[email protected]>,
> Jim Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Could have been equipment failure, no? Maybe cracked bars?
>
> I keep getting images of a shifted load. Perhaps she was trying to
> correct on the fly or it caused her momentary loss of control.

I'm guessing momentary lack of attention for any number of reasons
(including your scenario)...obstacle or pothole in road...either hit same
unprepared or over-reacted trying to avoid it...crash/boom/nastiness. Can
happen to anyone, really, but especially a relatively inexperienced rider.
(Hell, ask Neil to tell you about the friggin' pothole *I* tried to jump
rather pathetically just today. I /should/ have seen it long before I did.)

Gravity-challenged Bill

 

[Bill Sornson]

[email protected] wrote:
> Youve never seen the wrong way riders at night in stealth mode (dark
> clothes, no lights). The dumb kids darting out into traffic. It's
> not always possible to swerve. Bike crosses lane. Bik'e fault

Congratulations -- your trolling /elicited/ some anti-cager comments, but
before you posted there had been little to none (in THIS thread, at least).

BS

 

[dgk]

On 21 Jun 2005 19:07:35 -0700, [email protected] wrote:

>Youve never seen the wrong way riders at night in stealth mode (dark
>clothes, no lights). The dumb kids darting out into traffic. It's not
>always possible to swerve. Bike crosses lane. Bik'e fault

Two kids on bikes were riding along a heavily traveled secondary road
two nights ago a night. Dark clothes and no lights although one had
reflectors on the pedals that I saw. They were practically invisible.
They were riding back and forth between the left and right lanes as
they went along.