Re: Disc brake maintenance tips

Catrike Ryder <Soloman@old.bikers.org> writes:

On Fri, 28 Jun 2024 08:56:03 +0700, John B. <slocombjb@gmail.com>
wrote:
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On Thu, 27 Jun 2024 04:14:38 -0400, Catrike Ryder
<Soloman@old.bikers.org> wrote:
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On Wed, 26 Jun 2024 23:51:38 -0400, Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
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On 6/26/2024 9:27 PM, John B. wrote:

 
What's missing from this discussion is "what killed the kid on the
sidewalk?" An elephant stepped on him? He fell asleep and rode over a
lane, marker? ?

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The boy in question was riding on a downtown sidewalk, on the south side
of the street, heading west. That meant he was riding opposite the
direction of the motorists in the adjacent traffic lane.
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Speed limit is 25 mph. Traffic was heavy, as it usually is at that
location. A woman was attempting to drive out of a parking lot (having
left an ice cream store, I believe) to head east. She was looking to her
left for a gap in traffic. When she saw a gap, the hit the accelerator,
pulling out to her right. But at that moment, the boy (about 10 years
old) was in the process of riding by her car. She ran him over and
killed him.
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He was coming from a direction that was unexpected, something few
motorists ever check. If the boy had been walking, he'd have been
slower, so she'd have had more time to notice him; and he may have been
able to jump out of the way if she didn't notice him.

>
Below is another example of a bicyclist failing to notice that the
driver was preparing to dart out in front of him. It would have been
clear as a bell for anyone who'd been paying attention.  It could just
as easily happened to someone walking or runnning.
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To paraphrase what I've seen people on this forum say, bicycle
infrastructure doesn't gaurantee bicyclists safety.
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Trusting that others are going to be watching out for you is a
mistake.
>

This same hazard applies to "innovative" bi-directional bike lanes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k6-AI_X1qE
That facility recorded over ten times the rate of car-bike crashes that
existed before it was installed.

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Probably because it began being used by bicyclists.

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All of which seems to emphasize my rule,"Don't get hit"
Using the example above, you are riding down the sidewalk and you come
up to a driveway  with a car, nose out apparently trying to drive onto
the road,  don't you watch closely what that car is going to do?

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I sure do. Apparently that guy didn't.
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Apparently not as Tom, the other day described, a car driving out onto
a road and said "apparent he didn't see me".

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I assume drivers don't see me unless I see them looking straight at
me. Even then I'm not inclined to trust them.

I have seen drivers people apparently looking straight at me --
sometimes the picture somehow just does not develop, and off they go as
if I were not there.  Spooky.  I do not put much faith in "eye contact";
eyes are non-contact organs.

On the other hand, if a driver is waiting at a red light, I generally *do*
trust that he will not suddenly accelerate into the intersection.  He
*could*, but anticipating that in every case would really suck the fun out
of using the roads.

Given that I have never seen a car bent and battered on the curb with
the driver laying there waiting for the ambulance while the bicycle
rides down the street with a tiny dent in his fender it seems pretty
obvious who should be looking out for who.
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And this isn't really a new and innovative idea either. Every country
boy knows that if you plan to cross a field where a bull is pastured
you keep your eye on what the bull is doing.
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