Travel news

[bwh]

On my way to work by bike today I was making a right turn around a roundabout when a car started to pull out to my left. I accelerated to make sure I would be in front of rather than to the right of the car since I was about to take the next exit. Then I started straightening up to take that exit (at least I think that was what I was doing) and I suddenly found myself skidding and hitting the ground. I was immediately aware that there was a car right behind me and I did not want to be under it. Thankfully the driver hadn't accelerated as much as I had thought when entering the roundabout and so had no trouble stopping behind me. So I picked myself and my bike up, dragged them to the side of a road and surveyed the damage. The bike was fine but the right sleeve of my shirt and right pocket of the trousers were shredded and the pocket was heavily stained with grease (possibly diesel fuel) which suggests an explanation for the skid. Once I arrived at work and examined my wounds I found that the skin underneath the damaged clothes was abraded but not broken. Finally my contactless entry card was apparently broken by the impact though there's no visible damage to it. Perhaps I should be thankful that I didn't fall on my left side, smashing my phone and PDA.

On a brighter note, I had another driving lesson today and made a good impression on my instructor (Roger Nutcombe, who may be familiar to many of those who learned in Cambridge). I've been practicing on my own in the work car park to get more confident with the controls and a better idea of the dimensions of the car. In the lesson I got petrol and air for one of the tyres at Milton Tesco, then drove down to West Cambridge and did some "manoeuvres" there (turning in the road, emergency stop, reversing around a corner). On the way back to work Roger just let me drive without any directions since I know the way, and he reckoned I did a good job of that and was almost ready for a test, which was a pleasant surprise since I've only had 4 lessons so far this time round (plus about 30 the last time I tried). Hmm, that doesn't seem like much for an hour. I think we wasted a lot of time queueing at the petrol station and then faffing about trying to work out what the tyre pressure should be. Never mind.

Comments

[mcnutcase.livejournal.com]

The bike accident damage sounds familiar. Pain in the bum, innit? If it was diesel, it'll stink mightily...

and... usually 30-35 PSI. S'not like my old bike, which I had to get up to 80PSI with just the hand pump (and it got very hot when you did that...)

[womble2.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought to smell the marks on the clothing, but now that I do, they do smell like diesel.

Roger said 30 psi was standard so that's what went for. There is a table of inflation pressures inside the car's fuel cap but I wasn't sure exactly which tyres are fitted. I think I'll worry about that a bit more when there's more than just two people in the car.