The Collision
On Sunday morning, I was riding on my Merida MTB to the airport and was nearing Vidyanagar on an open stretch of the road. It was a little sunny and dusty: so, I had my head my down and was distracted, since there was little to no traffic on the side of the road.
Keeping in mind aerodynamics and intent on maintaining speed, I did not look up to see a stopped truck on the shoulder of the road. I slammed into the back of the truck at about 25 kmph. Fortunately, the sturdy front wheel took most of the impact, but my chest hit the handle bar hard and I got a few bruises.
It took me a minute or two to recover my breadth. Of course, the truck guys and a few others came out to see what happened and I am sure they were wondering why did this nutcase slam into the truck when the road was relatively empty.
I made a small dent in the pickup truck and was expecting some harassment. Strangely enough, the truck guys drove off in a hurry as soon as I was up on my feet.
I would like to know if sun glasses or a helmet with a visor are popular. I don't see too many riders with sun glasses. Anyway, I got a ride back home without any further damage.
Here is a picture of the bent front wheel.
December 2011
I gave the bent wheel a few days after the accident to Pedals & Wheels in Malleshwaram. Sachin said that it would take a week to 10 days to get the wheel fixed. He advised against trying to bend the wheel back in shape since the rim is made of an alloy and would crack.
After about 2 months of phone calls and visits to shop, Sachin finally gave up trying to get the spokes from the original wheel to fit into a new Mavic rim. So, he swapped the wheel with the another wheel (except for the tyres).
All in all, it was a frustrating experience trying to get what seemed like a relatively uncomplicated repair problem fixed.
--Manu Konchady
Here is a picture of the bent front wheel.
December 2011
I gave the bent wheel a few days after the accident to Pedals & Wheels in Malleshwaram. Sachin said that it would take a week to 10 days to get the wheel fixed. He advised against trying to bend the wheel back in shape since the rim is made of an alloy and would crack.
After about 2 months of phone calls and visits to shop, Sachin finally gave up trying to get the spokes from the original wheel to fit into a new Mavic rim. So, he swapped the wheel with the another wheel (except for the tyres).
All in all, it was a frustrating experience trying to get what seemed like a relatively uncomplicated repair problem fixed.
--Manu Konchady
Manu,
ReplyDeleteSounds quite funny, i agree with you, once it happened to me on returning from Mysore road on my road bike, it was on the climb, auto was coming from opp direction, luckily i saw it last few seconds in a great way saved myself. Nice write up.