In Which Slips Don’t Lead to a Fall

Corner of C Avenue and Blair's Ferry. I made it up the hill! Looking west as I wait for light that will let me continue south. Some of those tracks are mine.

The back wheel of my bicycle slipped to the right, and the whole thing started to topple.

I’ve been here before, and it was not a happy place. About six years ago, I took a bad fall on ice while riding home from work. A different bicycle had slipped in that case, and the accident was so fast I had no time for reaction or thought, but suddenly found myself landed heard on my right knee, which was sore for months. (Ironically, we visited my son and daughter-in-law in Seattle that spring break, my fall had been in January, and I was hobbling around on a still very sore knee in that hilly city when my son invited me to ride RAGBRAI for the first time. I said yes, and don’t regret it, but it was a gusty move that sore season).

Luckily, this morning the spill was different. For the earlier fall, I had been in the middle of a block on a hybrid bike, and I was probably going way too fast—maybe only 9 mph, which is slow on a bike, but too fast on ice.

This morning, I was on a mountain bike—lower to the ground to begin with. Wider tyres, for one thing, and for the other I was deliberately moving very, very slowly. I had just left home and turned onto C Avenue, and I think the turn, slow as it was, was a factor in the spill.

So the great accident of 2018 turned into me standing over a partly toppled bicycle, not me suddenly on the ground with a crushed knee joint. Because I had just turned north on the sidewalk on C Avenue, and I was still close to home, I did consider going home and driving today.

I arrive at the top of another hill--a less icy one, thank you MMU Facilities. Shadow of a biker Wednesday morning on the Rohde Family Plaza.

The Fancy Beast in the bike rack at Warde Hall.

I'm not the only biker. But I bet Dr. Cross stayed warmer than me!

 But, no. I was physically fine, and I figured the spot I was on would be the worst pavement I would have on the whole ride—if I ascended the hill, I would come to a better places. Plus, I was gambling that the afternoon ride would be much better, since I knew it was to be a sunny, if cool, day.

Well, I was both wrong and right. I under estimated how much of the sidewalk would be a thin layer of snow covering and concealing ice—in fact, the first mile or so of my morning commute, until I left the sidewalk for the bike lane on C Avenue, was like that. Going slightly downhill to Collins Road, I stopped peddling and put my feet down and bike-skied down the hill so I could use both feet and brakes to arrest the bike’s momentum.

But, I am happy to report, I had no more slips. And I’m glad I did ride today. The afternoon was, for this time of year, gorgeous. I left work after 4, so the sun was ready to go down, and I headed to Cedar Lake on the Cedar River Trail. As I expected, the sunset was gorgeous there, and I shot some images before I passed one biker stopped by the trail.

“Everything OK?” I asked.

“Sure,” he said. “I just stopped to take a picture of the sunset. It’s so beautiful!”

Sun setting at Cedar Lake, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2018.

And it was. I had already snapped a few myself, and stopped again after chatting with him, only to be passed by the other biker. Later, at the other end of the lake, he had stopped again, and I shot the sunset with him in the foreground.

It only got to 30 or so today, but sunshine will clear thin ice from pavement at that temperature, and that’s what happened today.

I am not even sure about Thursday. It will get colder, but not too cold to ride a bicycle. But will the pavement be clear enough to chance the hybrid bike? Maybe, although I do feel some sense of loyalty to The Fancy Beast after today’s not-so-bad fall. It was a good day to have wide tyres!

The lake and the other biker as light fades.