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lethargic_manEight days. That's how long I was able to keep my bike working for, before I got knocked off and put the derailleur out of kilter today.
I was cycling up Chamberlayne Road, and walking towards me along the road was a street cleaner, carrying a broom, a bin bag, and perhaps a few other things. Probably I should have given him a wider berth than I did, but I didn't want to pull out because there had been traffic coming up behind me. In retrospect I should have made the effort to check behind me if there was traffic, but I didn't, and I overtook him with only a foot between me and him—and as I did, the wind caught his bin bag, and it billowed out and caught my left handlebar (which, as I have complained beforehand is way longer than it needs to be*), and the bike went over and so did I.
* By a curious coincidence, so is the right handlebar.
Fortunately, I only suffered minor abrasions (one cost me several square centimetres of skin, but it wasn't very deep; nothing bled for more than a few seconds) and bruises (albeit that one of them has swelled up huge). My head whacked a bit against the ground, thus (though the blow was not very hard) disproving the people at the bike shop who said my helmet would no longer be good for anything in its condition. Helmets aren't guaranteed to keep their structural integrity after being hit, so I need a new one now, but I was going to get a new one anyway.
My big mistake was that I did not get the name and contact details of the person who had caused me to come off. He pleaded that he was working (though he wasn't; he was just walking along, and there's no reason he couldn't have done that for the length of the hundred-foot long block (see map linked above) on the pavement, on the other side of the railings). I got out of him that he was working for Onyx, but whilst I was checking my bike for damage he walked off and vanished. I should at that point have tracked him down, but I had a limited amount of him before a doctor's appointment, so I didn't.
Thirty seconds later, it was clear my derailleur was misadjusted (though not as badly as beforehand), so I turned around and went back, but by the time I got back, there was no sign of him, either there or on the surrounding streets.
This is annoying, because if it costs money to get my bike repaired (last time it cost £25, though that did involve more than just tweaking the derailleur), it should be Onyx paying for it, not me. But I suspect with nothing to go on other than the time, place, and a vague description of the man (middling height, thirty-something, short brown hair, Polish (?) accent), I don't stand a chance. (Comments, anyone?) There was a man on the park bench in front of me, but when I went back he said he was facing the other way, and saw nothing.
OTOH, after seeing how they bent the derailleur back last time, I think I could probably give it a go myself, as it wasn't the derailleur that they bent, but the hanger, which is just a piece of metal: nothing that can be damaged by doing it wrong. And as for the helmet, even if I had been able to get any money for its replacement, it seems morally wrong to do so when I was going to replace it myself anyway.
I was cycling up Chamberlayne Road, and walking towards me along the road was a street cleaner, carrying a broom, a bin bag, and perhaps a few other things. Probably I should have given him a wider berth than I did, but I didn't want to pull out because there had been traffic coming up behind me. In retrospect I should have made the effort to check behind me if there was traffic, but I didn't, and I overtook him with only a foot between me and him—and as I did, the wind caught his bin bag, and it billowed out and caught my left handlebar (which, as I have complained beforehand is way longer than it needs to be*), and the bike went over and so did I.
* By a curious coincidence, so is the right handlebar.
Fortunately, I only suffered minor abrasions (one cost me several square centimetres of skin, but it wasn't very deep; nothing bled for more than a few seconds) and bruises (albeit that one of them has swelled up huge). My head whacked a bit against the ground, thus (though the blow was not very hard) disproving the people at the bike shop who said my helmet would no longer be good for anything in its condition. Helmets aren't guaranteed to keep their structural integrity after being hit, so I need a new one now, but I was going to get a new one anyway.
My big mistake was that I did not get the name and contact details of the person who had caused me to come off. He pleaded that he was working (though he wasn't; he was just walking along, and there's no reason he couldn't have done that for the length of the hundred-foot long block (see map linked above) on the pavement, on the other side of the railings). I got out of him that he was working for Onyx, but whilst I was checking my bike for damage he walked off and vanished. I should at that point have tracked him down, but I had a limited amount of him before a doctor's appointment, so I didn't.
Thirty seconds later, it was clear my derailleur was misadjusted (though not as badly as beforehand), so I turned around and went back, but by the time I got back, there was no sign of him, either there or on the surrounding streets.
This is annoying, because if it costs money to get my bike repaired (last time it cost £25, though that did involve more than just tweaking the derailleur), it should be Onyx paying for it, not me. But I suspect with nothing to go on other than the time, place, and a vague description of the man (middling height, thirty-something, short brown hair, Polish (?) accent), I don't stand a chance. (Comments, anyone?) There was a man on the park bench in front of me, but when I went back he said he was facing the other way, and saw nothing.
OTOH, after seeing how they bent the derailleur back last time, I think I could probably give it a go myself, as it wasn't the derailleur that they bent, but the hanger, which is just a piece of metal: nothing that can be damaged by doing it wrong. And as for the helmet, even if I had been able to get any money for its replacement, it seems morally wrong to do so when I was going to replace it myself anyway.
