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Today I was in a rush on my way to FHE (Family Home Evening for those of you who don’t know) and quickly hoped on my bike and got going pretty fast. As I was riding I tried to change gears and discovered I couldn’t; as I was trying to figure out why I couldn’t I approached an intersection I needed to stop at. I then promptly discovered that the reason I couldn’t change gears was the same reason that I was unable to brake for the intersection: someone had cut my brakes! By dragging my feet very hard and doing a very risky turn onto a small bit of uphill I managed to stop without being hit by anything, but it was a close one.
I’m a bit freaked out now, had I realized a moment later that my brakes were cut or had I not managed to pull of my hazardous turn I would at least be sporting some serious bruises, and should I have not stopped before the intersection, I would’ve gotten hit by a car.
I guess I’m just glad I’m all right but I do find it a bit amusing that after all that worrying I did about cars, I’ve gotten hit by another bike and now, almost seriously injured by some random idiot with cable cutters.
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No, not yet. It has been pointed out to me that I may not be the only person who this happened to so I should report it. I was planning on doing it soon, but I think of it more as a public service announcment than a crime report since there's no way to track someone cutting cables.
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Hobbes, glad your okay! However, in the future, rather than hoping on your bike, you should pray. Or check the brakes first. Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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That's why I store my bike in my apartment. Of course, I have nigh on infinite more space than Hobbes does at the moment.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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so how does one check ones breaks? I ride my bike to work a lot-and someone seems to be annoyed at either my roommate or me, cause several things have already been done to our door
Posts: 3493 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Just pump them a couple times and make sure the brakes engage. In my case they didn't have any effect on the brake pads at all, so if I had checked it would've been obvious that something was amiss. *Hits head* Really this is my fault for not being careful.
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And get a really, really, really good bike lock.
Incidentally, guess where the highest rate of bike stealing occurs on my campus? That's right, at the bike racks outside the campus security office.
Posts: 2945 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Hobbes, this really upsets me. Are you SURE you can't possibly just walk to class? This is like 3 times your life has been in danger on your bike. <shudders> Alas!
Posts: 968 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Well I will be now because getting this repaired will not be easy. Seriously though, if I stop riding my bike I'm convinced I'd die at the age of 29 from cardiac arrest because it is the only thing I enjoy doing outdoors (well not really true, but for this area that's true).
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Wow, Hobbes has better self-preservation instincts than me. I probably would've been too caught up with realizing my brakes were cut to avoid The Intersection of Death. Posts: 903 | Registered: May 2003
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right, T, because I am so out to get him killed
(((Hobbesy))) this stinketh mucho. When you find out who did it, just refer them to me and my mean right hook, baby.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Yikes, Hobbes! That's pretty bad! A bike lock isn't enough, you need a full-blown force shield to keep those people's grubby hands away from your bike!
P.S. Yeah, Bob is a skater, I bet you guys didn't know! He is a pirate skater on my Xbox Posts: 1466 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Hows this for insanity. At my school, (Drexel) the head of security has any bike that isn't registered with the security office taken by security if you don't lock it up.
Thats right. If you don't register your bike, security will steal it. Frankly its criminal. I would break his god damn nose if he had my bike stolen.
Posts: 1621 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Hobbes, that sucks. I rode a bike for many years around college campuses and never had as much trouble as you have had in the last year. If I didn't know any better, I'd say someone put some crazu hoodoo on you!
In any case, if you're in Purdue...isn't that in Indiana? Isn't it, like, icy and cold there right now? How are you going to ride your bike to and from classes and work in the ice and snow, anyway?
Maybe this is a sign you should move up to a motorcycle. Or a chariot pulled by goats. Or a howda on an elephant. Jebus, anything to get you off those devil cycles. Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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My survival instincts are pretty good, but (if I could ride a bike, which I can't) I probably would have just toppled it over and gotten nasty pavement burns. I think Hobbes' way was better.
It's infuriating what people will do to hurt other people.... Posts: 1041 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Glad you made it, hobbes. My hasband used to ride a lot. One time he got cut off by an idiot towing a boat, who turned into a gas station in front of him. It tipped him over, and it seems like he said he heard the driver laughing at him as he opened his door. What he probably wouldn't have laughed about whas knowing hubby's bike left a nice 12' scratch along the side of the boat.
Other hubby bike near mishaps- hitting a deer carcass, various cow catchers, and riding over a street drain parallel to his wheels. He was on a road cycle, so that was quite a miracle.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Man, am I the only one who successfully managed to get hit by a car? Ya'll aren't trying hard enough.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Oh, hubby got hit by a car. It made him late to class, and then his instructor wouldn't believe that that was what made him late, since he obviously should be dead. Or at least limping. But he is quite a strapping young fellow.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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oh, riiiiiight this is so much better than something you would have noticed before you got on the bike.
Posts: 3956 | Registered: Jun 2001
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or, Hobbes, try a scooter. Just a regular one, not a motorized one, they're really cheap, you can fold it up and carry it with you, they're great for speeding up getting from class to class...I always ride mine around campus and save biking for things too far away to scoot (translation, more than a mile away) But a scooter would probably work pretty well for you getting between classes, and is a HECK of a lot safer
Posts: 3493 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Yeah a scooter is fine until you hit a crack in the sidwalk and go head over teakettle into the concrete. Normally stiches and tooth repair follow.
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Hobbes!!!! Just walk, bud - it's much safer! Glad you're okay!
And for everyone's information, MY claim to fame is being hit by motor vehicles. Mine! All Mine! And I don't even have to try!
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote: So, the general consensus seems to be that he needs some sort of large bubble?
Actually, I liked this idea better.
quote: Or a chariot pulled by goats.
Glad to hear you're okay! You should set up a web cam near your bike (in a bush or something) and set up a 24-hour online watch. And then if you don't catch anyone you can sell the footage to the school to use as proof that no one ever vandalizes anything.
Posts: 981 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Took me a sec to realize we were talking about a bicycle and not a motorcycle here... too many morons calling the latter a "bike" these days.
So Hobbes, someone cut all four cables on your bike? Front and rear brakes and front and rear derailers (gear shifts)? That would render all brakes and gear shifts inoperable, and would be by far the most uncoordinated method of sabotage. It indicates maximum vandalism and minimum hostile intent. The perpetrator meant to do damage to the bike, not you in particular.
If the intention was to hurt the rider the smart thing to do would be to cut the rear brake only, and even then leaving one or two strands of the cable intact but "scored" (damaged by a cutting tool). This would give working brakes under most circumstances - the bike would appear at casual glance to be perfectly fine. However, if you were to suddenly apply significant pressure to the brakes, the rear cable would snap, releasing the rear calipers. With only the front brakes applied a particularly ungraceful launch over the handlebars would ensue. Given the likelihood of the brakes failing in an emergency situation (since the harder you squeeze the more likely the cable is to break) the odds of significant personal harm is better.
The point is that in your case Hobbes, the damage would seem to indicate the intent was entirely random and not particularly malicious. There are much smarter methods of sabotage if that's the intent. While the oxygen-thief who did this should certainly be apprehended and flogged with a wet doberman, they weren't actually trying to get anyone killed.
Oh, and if anyone out there uses this post as a template for sabotaging a bicycle I hope you spend a significant portion of your life in a correctional facility with a roomate who is twice your size, half your intelligence, and extraordinarily amorous.
Hobbes, your reflexes in the situation were spot-on. Very impressive you pulled it off without a scratch.
A good habit to get into is pulling your brakes taut each time you get on to ride. I grab both levers full-on, then rock the bike slightly up onto the front and then rear tires, making sure they've got good grip. The most obvious reason is to make sure they work. The reason I got into the habit was because most bicycle calipers are self-centering, and you bike will always be getting bumped into on a public rack. You'll end up dragging one of your brake pads a lot of the time if you don't pull them once to re-center the calipers.
Better pad life, better overall brake performance, and of course better safety.
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Omg Hobbes, tbat was mean of them. I haven't been on a bike in a while now. Then again I don't go anywhere. Scooters are so cool. Did you find out who did it yet?
quote: cow catchers
What's a cow catcher, besides the obvious meaning?
Posts: 4628 | Registered: Jul 2002
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BannaOJ, that's why you learn to pay attention! (and wear a helmet) I ride mine over really cracked sidewalks without injury, by watching the cracks, and if I do happen to hit one because I wasn't paying attention-I step off before the scooter takes me with it
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That's true Rabbit, but if it were a malicious attack designed to cause injury to his person it was done remarkably poorly.
If the perpetrator were the "jock-type" (ie more brawn than brains), sabotage would not likely be his choice of opening attack. The direct route is much more their style.
If they were the "nerd-type" (more brains than brawn) they would not have, at the very least, cut the shifter cables. You leave the gears intact so the target can build as much speed as possible.
So if this were a malicious attack they were very stupid because they cut the shifter cables, and very cowardly because they avoided a direct confrontation. So we're looking for someone who's genetic code does not naturally select, as they have neither the brawn nor the brains required to enhance survival odds.
Of course this isn't to say that such individuals aren't well-protected by our nurturing society, but they are hardly worthy advesaries.
No, the evidence indicates this was most likely a crime perpetrated by the giggling moron vandalist archetype. The other most likely option is someone with a vendetta who's intention was to cause damage to property not person. But that's less likely because if the intent was property damage there would almost certainly have been a lot more damage - tires, seat, paint, etc.
My guess is the intent just to be a vandal and to disable the bike - totally random. Check the chain - it may have been damaged in a failed attempt to cut it. (Though simple cutters would do nothing more than scratch a chain, the links on those are nearly indestructable.)
That's not to say this guy doesn't deserve everything the law can throw at him. Not intending to cause a situation where someone can get killed is no excuse. Hobbe's skill as a rider is what stood between this guy and a manslaughter/attempted manslaughter charge. Definitely file a report Hobbe's - guys like that need to be stopped no matter how mischevious or retarded they might be.
It's just that the actions were too imprecise, too stupid to suggest that it was a targeted attack intended to do bodily harm. Sure, not everyone would think of the plan I described before, but anyone who'd thought it through for a moment wouldn't have cut the shifters. Most riders shift gears rather often, producing too much risk of the rider discovering the problem before personal safety was compromised.
Posts: 55 | Registered: Nov 2003
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a cow catcher is the slanted wedge on the front of a train, so that if it happens to run into any cows those cows are thrown off the tracks or at the very least caught on the cow catcher, and don't foul the wheels, derailing the train.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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By dragging my feet very hard and doing a very risky turn onto a small bit of uphill I managed to stop without being hit by anything, but it was a close one.![[Laugh]](graemlins/laugh.gif)
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Wow. Hobbes, I'm glad you're okay!
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As a bike enthusiast, you have my full sympathy.![[Group Hug]](graemlins/grouphug.gif)
