10.10.08
Catching Up With Cycle Chic, Who Has Admittedly Dropped the Ball Lately
Well, well well, I know I have not been blogging as much as I should have lately, but mitigating circumstances have made it so that posting regularly has become somewhat harder. I’d rather not get into it, but let’s just say that not only have I changed jobs so that I am not in front of the computer as much anymore, but I have been chillin’ in spots that don’t even have an internet connection. Can you believe it? There are still spots here in the city that I can’t pick up a wireless signal!! Needless to say, Murphy’s diabolical cousin is fucking with me. But, however much he fucks with me, how good do I look in this picture?!?! (Yes, Cycle Chic is very modest too.)
And fucking with me his is!! I just got some new ink last week–a super awesome dragon reaching into flames on my right forearm. Well I got it on Monday night. Tuesday night, I’m riding out in Williamsburg down McGuiness and this huge flatbed truck rolls in front of me on the road and takes up most of the space of the lane so that I can’t pass it stopped at the light. I spot a driveway on the sidewalk (to the right of course) and I think that I’ll roll up on the sidewalk and pull up in front of the truck. So I roll pretty fast up to the driveway and–it is also wet outside after the rain mind you–and I couldn’t see in the nighttime darkness that the bottom of the driveway didn’t slope level with the street. In fact, there was a three inch lip!! So I roll up, catch my wheel on the lip and slide both tires along the lip and then fall over and skidded both my elbow and knee!! The elbow I JUST got the ink on the night before!! So I immediately stand up, look at my elbow (which was gross) and my knee (which was even more gross) and did what every little kid that falls does. I look up, drop my head back, open my mouth and start bawling. I cried all the way over the Pulaski Bridge and to the nearest gas station and had my friend pick me up.
Now the friend that picked me up happens to be the very same friend I mentioned in the last post who drank, rode, fell and hurt himself. Well here is a picture of his helmet after the fall:
Now if you follow this blog, you know that I have repeatedly said that wearing helmets is important. Now look at the crack in that helmet. If he wasn’t wearing one, that crack could have been in his head. What more can I say people? WEAR YOUR HELMETS, or else they’ll be cleaning brains up off the street more often here in the Big Apple. Now I can’t wait for the space age suits of the future that stick to the body like a second skin and protect against skin scrapes when you go sliding along pavement at about fifteen to twenty miles per hour…
Anyway, going back to tattoos, I still am considering getting this kind of tatt on one of my legs:
You see, lately, after having the stitches from the accident, scrapes from falls and cutting my lower legs on various parts of my own bike, I have come to realise that my once perfect legs are no more. Really, I had perfect legs before I got this deep into cycling and now I have ruined them with the scars. Well…that and getting older. My skin just doesn’t look the same anymore. Hell, I used to get cuts on my legs before but I was young–the skin would heal right in front of my eyes. Now I brush up against my cat and BAM!! Looks like I went head to head with shark skin. I was told however that this stuff Mederma is great for taking care of scars. I have to get my hands on some as soon as these last two heal up fully and run the whole gamut on my skin. But I digress.
Also, the Tour de Bronx is coming up not this Sunday but the following. I’m registered and will be riding!! I’m looking forward to it and of course I will have my camera at the ready and will be taking pictures to post here. Also I will be looking for all kinds of biking information for posting so I will do my best to have a great read after the ride….
grant said,
October 31, 2008 at 2:15 am
do it
How to Get Six Pack Fast said,
April 15, 2009 at 4:43 pm
This topic is quite trendy on the Internet right now. What do you pay attention to while choosing what to write about?
Olly said,
May 5, 2009 at 11:51 am
If you get it on “one of” your legs
make it the drive side!
oil tattoos don happen naturally on the NDS surely?
i considered it, then had a tumble which caused the big ring of the bike to chew its way all the way up my calf, resulting in a LOT of blood, 26 stitches and one AWESOME scar ;D
tis the best chain tat ive seen though, really like it
Saxo said,
July 21, 2009 at 8:32 pm
A helmet that cracks is a helmet that has failed. Meaning it offered little or no protection. It should be sent back to the manufacturer with a letter of complaint at once.
Helmets are not designed to crack, they are designed to absorb and compress the filling.
Helmets are only designed to protect the head from non-life threatening injuries in solo accidents under 20 km/h. They are not designed to save lives or protect from brain injury.
Actually, there are many scientific studies that show that helmets increase your chance of brain injury, neck injury and even your chance of being involved in an accident.
Wear one if you like, but please don’t tell people that helmets will prevent “brains being spilled” and all that nonsense. There is no conclusive scientific evidence anywhere in the world for these hysterical claims.
I’m just an industrial designer who used to design bicycle helmets and I’m quite frustrated by all these false claims about what helmets are designed to do.
Administrator said,
July 22, 2009 at 4:26 am
First I’d like to say thanks for reading!! Without readers, this blog would be no fun…
I believe that helmets are supposed to protect under 20km/h, however those are just the touring or hobby helmets. There are also high speed racing helmets as well as off roading and mountain biking helmets. They are all different, as they all protect for different speeds and different rides. As with any consumer product, there are cheap ones and there are better, more expensive ones.
I’m not sure if I believe the claim that helmets cause brain injury because if they did, there wouldn’t be a law to put them on children. And from what I have seen, as I stated in my previous post about helmets, I saw first hand someone lying in the road with her head split open, who didn’t have a helmet on. I have seen riders with helmets fall all the time in the city and they hit their heads, myself included, and get up to tell the story. I can only report on first hand experience.
All in all, isn’t it better to be over protected rather than unprotected?
cyclechicny.net Blog » Blog Archive » I Couldn’t Resist!!! said,
July 25, 2009 at 7:19 pm
[...] of days ago, I received a comment from a reader named Saxo who commented about bicycle helmets on this post I wrote earlier. He happens to be a proponent of not wearing bicycle helmets. If you click on the [...]
muhittin said,
October 7, 2009 at 12:27 pm
very nice tattoo thansk