Friday 5 June 2015

Just one of those days


car, dent, idiot, driver

I have since a long time now not had any time to write any reflections. Once I think of something that I want to say then I start up a draft and write some initial things but then I leave it until both I and my companies allow me to sneak in some more self created material.

Right now I have several drafts lying around but I decided to jump in with this one because I am simply mad today! I just had one of THOSE days when things simply go to hell.


As some of you might know I practically go every day to work by bicycle. This trip is around 40 minutes one way to arrive to work without being drained in sweat. This makes a high demand on my bicycle because my weight is fairly high and by the look of it my bicycle is not able to handle this. The spokes are breaking one after another and I start to be fed up with repairing it. So I need to find a solution. I also regret buying a bicycle that by the look of it is not able to handle my weight.

Anyway... yesterday I was seriously concerned regarding if I would be able to even drive the bicycle home and in the end I decided to try it and then my thought was to drive my car for a couple of days while thinking about what to do.

The bicycle ride worked out and when I drive past my car, which I always park so that I can see it every time I ride to work, had a huge dent (picture above) and a serious scratch as can be seen in the picture below.


scratch, dent, car


Of course no note was left on my car so we even have a runner from the accident. I filed a police report (they arrived within eight minutes to make all the documentation and I must say that I have only had positive experiences with the Berlin police) regarding the runner and I also asked them a little regarding insurance... How happy am I now that I stopped paying my fully comprehensive insurance for my car this January 2015? Since I considered it to be a waste of money now that it was 6 years old. Grrrr....

So bicycle and car destroyed in one and the same day. Oh, happy days! Oh, happy days? Or just one of those days?

When did you have yours?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry for your bad day.

Regarding spokes that break - my guess is that some of your spokes are not tightened enough / broken (obviously) , and this put asymmetric stress on the spokes, which then make the problem to escalate. Replace broken spokes, and then tighten all spokes. The spokes need more or less same tension - gauge tension with fingers / sound of the spoke (play like a guitar string).

Also, usually when messing with the spokes, the wheel needs to be trued (hjulet måste riktas). Check google/youtbue on how to true wheels.

/Kika

Fredrik von Oberhausen said...

Thank you!

I took a look at spokes tightening and found plenty of various methods. I especially loved an American that did most of the work by standing on the wheel and by doing so physically forcing it back on track. I kind of liked that!

So thanks of the suggestion! I will see how I will solve it... the bicycle is not even one year old so maybe I can start by complaining in the bicycle shop where I bought it...