Pythagoras is to blame!!
If he was still alive, he'd be a little over 2000 years old. But, on Saturday, he caused me to have a "big off" from my bike. Well, it was either him, my maths teacher or a lack of coffee :)
We wanted to be at Chadstone by 8.30am to line up for the Aldi specials (technology, not food). I was a little late even after skipping breakfast and coffee. As I came around the southern side of the shopping centre, the carpark had been closed overnight and was completely empty. My target was diagonally across the carpark. So rather than follow the normal roads (the blue lines above - safe and not really very far) - my brain said "x equals the square root of a squared plus b squared" (It's always doing things like that!!)
Basically, that's Pythagoras's theorem. So I tracked directly along the hypotenuse of my imaginary triangle. Smooth concrete, no cars, slightly downhill, probably dreaming of something, when *suddenly* I noticed a kerb!! I hit it hard. At 45 degrees. My front tyre exploded as it turned quickly to the right throwing my off the left hand side of the bike.
I landed on my left shoulder/back with a thud and accompanying scraping of metal. I heard someone "groan". It was me!! It hurt. 4 people arrived to help me back to my feet and pick up some pieces.
The damage:
1) Me. Pretty sure I have broken ribs on my left side. The pain is worse 2 days later. Fortunately, I didn't land on my right shoulder/side. Also, lost some skin from my left knee.
2) Clothing. My favourite jacket is no longer waterproof - it has a series of small holes caused by sliding along the concrete..
3) Bike (Obviously, this list is not in priority order). Destroyed front tyre, tube and rim. Some extra bare metal.
4) Cathy. She went out and bought n+1 bike locks. She can lock all my current bikes AND a new one!!
We wanted to be at Chadstone by 8.30am to line up for the Aldi specials (technology, not food). I was a little late even after skipping breakfast and coffee. As I came around the southern side of the shopping centre, the carpark had been closed overnight and was completely empty. My target was diagonally across the carpark. So rather than follow the normal roads (the blue lines above - safe and not really very far) - my brain said "x equals the square root of a squared plus b squared" (It's always doing things like that!!)
Basically, that's Pythagoras's theorem. So I tracked directly along the hypotenuse of my imaginary triangle. Smooth concrete, no cars, slightly downhill, probably dreaming of something, when *suddenly* I noticed a kerb!! I hit it hard. At 45 degrees. My front tyre exploded as it turned quickly to the right throwing my off the left hand side of the bike.
I landed on my left shoulder/back with a thud and accompanying scraping of metal. I heard someone "groan". It was me!! It hurt. 4 people arrived to help me back to my feet and pick up some pieces.
The damage:
1) Me. Pretty sure I have broken ribs on my left side. The pain is worse 2 days later. Fortunately, I didn't land on my right shoulder/side. Also, lost some skin from my left knee.
2) Clothing. My favourite jacket is no longer waterproof - it has a series of small holes caused by sliding along the concrete..
3) Bike (Obviously, this list is not in priority order). Destroyed front tyre, tube and rim. Some extra bare metal.
4) Cathy. She went out and bought n+1 bike locks. She can lock all my current bikes AND a new one!!
posted by David at 4:20 PM
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