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Yay - new Gaby posted without issue! so click on Gaby Book 15 ~ Friends ~ Chapter *32* A Time For Giving to read the next action filled epsipode from the Rheinland.
In other news;
More Gaby is with my editor, with a determined effort I will get out part four, book 21 on Sunday - fingers crossed!
I've been busy on the bike again, a couple of metric century rides and crossing of Yorkshires iconic Tour de France climb of the Col de Holme Moss! Sounds like fun and it was mostly except for the near death experience a few miles later - I suffered what I believe motorised 2 wheelers call an extreme tank slapper, not sure how I avoided becoming tarmac jam but I did which is al that matters. It certainly had the blood pumping and I really needed something stronger than the tea when I stopped at the café five minutes later - but Yorkshire tea is quite revitalising and the sheer weight of my lunch calmed my frayed nerves!
Its almost Weihnachtsmarkt time - i'll start visiting the local gastronomic delights in the next few days - oh and testing that they've got the Gluhwein right too!
Well more on Sunday from Nena and hopefully Gaby too
Ciao
Mads
Comments
Tank Slappers
Maddy,
I have experienced a couple of really bad tank slappers over the years and I am always a bit shaken. After each incident I’ve wondered how I could have possibly have kept the bike up.
So, I really can sympathize. But, I can bet that you’re going to keep on riding despite such palpable scares.
I am glad you kept the shiny side up.
WS
Tank Slappers
Had one on the A23 in Sussex when the front tyre blew out. I was doing .... well over the 70mph limit (110mph approx).
Thankfully this was in the days before all those steel or concrete barriers between the carriageways.
I stayed upright thanks to the ditch in the middle.
That was 1973. Not had one since some 300K miles and much touching wood later.
Well done Maddy for not coming a cropper. Slappers (tank ones...) are not nice at any time.
They are effing scary.
Tank Slappers
Maddy,
I have experienced a couple of really bad tank slappers over the years and I am always a bit shaken. After each incident I’ve wondered how I could have possibly have kept the bike up.
So, I really can sympathize. But, I can bet that you’re going to keep on riding despite such palpable scares.
I am glad you kept the shiny side up.
WS
Glad you lived to tell unscathed!
I'd not only be looking for chassis causes, but also effects, as the steering and frame could have been stressed - almost as much as your heart. My friend's 550 used to weave at speed, we blamed the handlebar fairing. Thankful that I've never had such a pant filler as that.
Cheers for the new words too :)
"Reach for the sun."
Didn't something like that happen to Gaby too?
It was in England maybe several books into the series. Not the only time she tangled with a vehicle but it was her first.
I am so looking forward to when the complete book is published. Thank you.
the
Cuckney crash was a car pulling out of a junction which was loosely based on an incident that really happened to a clubmate at the same place - I came down from the start to find him unmoving on the road, we thought he was dead but he escaped with nothing more than a lot of bruising - his bike was wrecked.
As you have no doubt guessed by now, cyclists are a hardy lot, getting up to continue with injuries the rest of the population would want immediate hospitalisation for. Done it myself more than once including a ten mile ride home with a broken knee cap, finishing training rides after losing lumps of leg and arm..... I don't make anything up where Gaby's riding is concerned!
Apparently cycling can extend your life - providing you actually survive the riding! If I was a cat (bit of a stretch as i'm not exactly a fan after a childhood incident) i'd be down to about four lives by now - oh the tales I could tell, run away bikes, tangles in races, lucky escapes with traffic - do you know, I could probably fill a book! Lol.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Re: Tales I could tell
I used to ride bicycles regularly as a child and adult, until about eleven years ago (my last bike was stolen at that time).
By the age of 21, I'd been hit by cars while on a bike about 25 times. None resulted in serious injuries, just scrapes, bruises and bruised bones.
The stupidest was a guy coming out of a side road onto a crossroad. The idiot knew it was raining, thus that visibility would be poorer, the cross road had right of way as it was a minor highway, yet he didn't even bother to look as I crossed in front of him and he rammed my bike.
I ended up going over the handlebars and found myself sprawled on the road about fifteen feet from the now smashed bicycle.
Then there was the guy here in Toronto who was parked at the side of the road on a fairly busy downtown street. He didn't bother to check the driver's side rear mirror or he would have seen me; nope, he just opened the door and I went flying over the top of the door. Not fun.
I do understand just how bashed up one can get when riding a bicycle. I guess I'm lucky that I never ended up with serious injuries.
"Provided you actually survive the riding" is a very apt description. Many drivers here could care less about cyclists or pedestrians.
Hmmm. I would actually like to get another bicycle at some point, I just don't have the cash for it right now. It's a good way to exercise.